We last checked in on the Northwest Territory in Episode 376. When the native Americans defeated an army under the command of Arthur St. Clair that had been sent to quash Indian resistance. St. Clair’s defeat at the Battle of the Wabash in 1791 came a year after the army led by General Harmar had been defeated in 1790.
The US government was insistent on settling the territory north of the Ohio River. It needed those lands to keep promises to veterans of the Revolutionary War, and as revenue to pay off its war debts. The Native tribes who lived there were just as determined to stop the settlements.
Glaize Convention
Following their victory over St. Clair’s army, the Indians hoped to capitalize on their military victory by forming a larger confederation that could unite to keep the Americans at bay. They sent messengers to contact tribes from New York to what is today Mississippi calling on tribes to send delegates to a Grand Council to organize a defense.
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| The Battle of Fallen Timbers |
The British still occupied Fort Detroit, which was supposed to be abandoned as part of the peace treaty ending the Revolution. But they did not. Detroit became a central point for British organization of Indians throughout the Northwest Territory.
In the fall of 1792, delegates from at least 30 tribes met at the Glaize to discuss organization and strategy. Also present was Alexander McKee, the British Indian agent from Detroit. The British were there as observers and also to provide provisions, but the strategy discussions were up to the tribal delegates.
Among the delegates were several leaders from the Iroquois Confederation. The Iroquois had traditionally demanded all negotiating authority with the colonists on behalf of the tribes. Following the Revolution though, the Iroquois Confederation had been devastated and divided. It no longer had the power to force its will on other tribes. Further, it had many deals with the Americans that gave up a great deal of Indian territories in hopes of saving the Iroquois tribal lands in upstate New York. As a result, many of the other tribes resented the Iroquois delegates and did not trust them.
One Iroquois delegate, a Seneca leader named Red Jacket, brought with him a peace proposal from President Washington. This proposal confirmed the borders that had been agreed to at the Treaty of Fort Harmar back in 1789. It gave the Americans control of about two-thirds of the southern and eastern parts of what is today Ohio.
The problem with this treaty is that most of the tribes present had rejected it. A few chiefs who had agreed to the treaty did not have the authority to do so. The US, however, considered the treaty borders to be binding, although Washington offered additional financial compensation to any tribes who felt wronged by the treaty.
Most of the delegates rejected the proposal out of hand. Shawnee representatives also revealed papers, captured at St. Clair’s defeat, showing that the US intended to build forts far beyond the borders set at Fort Harmar and the US goal of forcing all warriors to become farm laborers.
The Shawnee, Miami and Delaware all insisted that the Ohio River must remain the final and permanent boundary. This denied the Americans access to any land in what is today the State of Ohio. It would mean towns already built there would have to be removed. Several delegates from Canada, including Joseph Brandt, suggested maybe there could be some compromise between all the land the Americans demanded and complete control of Ohio, but the hardliners rejected any compromise.
The British advisors present encouraged that the Council take the position that the Ohio River should remain the border, but that further negotiations with the US could take place, with the British acting as mediators.
The Council ended with the agreement that they would fight for the Ohio River as the border, but that they would also agree to a meeting with US officials to discuss the matter the following spring. In the meantime, they would cease hostile activity against frontier settlements in the disputed territory. A prerequisite for any discussion with the Americans, however, had to be an agreement that they would accept the Ohio River as the border.
Anthony Wayne’s Legion
As the Indians prepared to contest control of Ohio, so did the US. As I mentioned back in Episode 377, President Washington appointed General Mad Anthony Wayne to take command of a newly enlarged army, dubbed the Legion on the United States. Wayne received this appointment in the spring of 1792, shortly after word arrived of St. Claire’s defeat at the Battle of the Wabash.
Most of Wayne’s battlefield experience came against British regulars and loyalists during the Revolutionary War. He did, however, lead a pitched battle against Creek warriors in Georgia near the end of the Revolution. Wayne had also lived on the frontier for most of his life. He understood Indian warfare.
Wayne spent two years building and training his legion to go to battle in Ohio. He was not going to go into battle with raw troops. He wanted soldiers who knew what they were doing. He arrived at Fort Pitt in the summer of 1792 with only a few dozen recruits. Wayne began training and holding mock battles. Over time more recruits arrived from across the country. By late November he had about 1900 men. He was authorized to have an army of 5000, but low pay and the difficult and dangerous life of a regular soldier kept enlistments from coming anywhere near this goal.
At first, he established Fort Fayette, near Pittsburgh, but by November, he moved his army about 22 miles down the Ohio River to an area he dubbed Legionville. He wanted to get his men away from civilians and the vices of whiskey and women that Pittsburgh offered. Waye was not a puritan, he often offered whiskey as a reward for various contests, but the civilian temptations were too much of a distraction.
The Legion trained for Indian warfare. This included open order drill to fight in forests and heavy use of the bayonet, which Wayne believed could defeat the tomahawks and rifles that they expected to face.
In the spring of 1793, after spending the winter at Legionville, the legion moved deep into Ohio territory to Fort Washington, which is modern day Cincinnati. Wayne established a new camp near the fort which he called “Hobson’s Choice” because it was the only good high ground in the area. The soldiers continued to drill every day, holding mock battles on Sundays. Training here focused on coordinating infantry, riflement, dragoons and artillery to work together, also getting the men to respond to drum and bugle signals.
Peace Commission
While the army continued to prepare, President Washington sent a peace commission to meet with the tribes. The commission consisted of Secretary of War Henry Knox, former Virginia Governor Beverley Randolph, and Timothy Pickering who was, at the time, serving as Postmaster General. The commission met in upper Canada, with Lieutenant Governor John Grave Simcoe serving as host and ensuring the protection of the commission.
The Commission arrived in May, 1793. They had to wait for months while messengers distributed the call to bring Indian representatives to the table. Simcoe deliberately delayed the process, having the Indians meet with British agents to advise them that the Americans were not offering acceptable terms.
Simcoe was also awaiting word from London. Governor Dorchester was returning to Canada with new instructions. Simcoe did not want any deal struck before promises of British military support for the Indians might arrive. In the meantime, Simcoe treated the commissioners to every hospitality, even inviting them to a celebration of the king’s birthday.
When word arrived that the US legion had moved to Fort Washington, present day Cincinnati, the Indians took this as an aggression. Simcoe warned the commission not to use military escorts to supply outposts at Fort Hamilton and Fort Jefferson or that aggression would end the talks before they began. Knox sent word to Wayne to stay put, but also said the army should be ready to move the moment the talks failed. Wayne, however, ignored the orders, believing that sending supply trains without protection deep in Indian territory would be inviting disaster.
The Indians met at a village near the commissioners where they tried to develop a unified response before meeting with the commissioners. Iroquois leader Joseph Brant once again tried to broker a new border, giving up some lands north of the Ohio River, but not as much as the Americans wanted. The other chiefs, much like they had at the Grand Council the year before, rejected this idea. They would settle for nothing but the Ohio River as the border.
The Commissioners, tired of waiting, borrowed a small schooner, the Dunmore, hoping to sail across Lake Erie to Detroit. Thanks to bad winds, they ended up landing on the southern coast of Lake Erie. They eventually met up with several of the Indian delegations, including Brant. The Indians were upset that Wayne was setting up massive supplies at the forward outposts. These supplies were far more than the garrisons would need, so it was clearly preparation for an American invasion. Once again, Knox wrote to Wayne telling him to back off. Once again, Wayne refused, writing back to say he had orders to plan for an attack and these preparations were necessary to fulfill those orders.
Perhaps before getting Wayne’s response, the Commissioners assured the Indian delegates that Wayne had orders to pull back and would be doing so soon. They laid out their proposal, requiring the Indians to give up the two-thirds of Ohio, as agreed at Fort Harmar years earlier. In order to compensate tribes who had refused to agree to that treaty, the US promised an upfront payment of $50,000 plus another $10,000 per year in ongoing payments.
Talks continued for a few days, but neither side seemed to be giving in on any important issue. Finally, at the end of July. The Indian delegates asked the commissioners directly whether they were authorized under any circumstances to set the Ohio River boundary under any circumstances. The Commissioners said no, they had no authorization to do that. About two weeks later, made clear that they would not abide by any treaties signed since 1783. From their point of view, they had already given up the entire eastern seaboard to the Americans. They were drawing the line at the Ohio River and would not permit the Americans to go any further.
Their final response said, “we desire you to consider Brothers that our only demand is the peaceable possession of a small part of our once great Country. Look back and view the lands from whence we have been driven to this spot, we can retreat no further, because the country behind hardly affords food for its present inhabitants. And we have therefore resolved, to leave our bones in this small space, to which we are now confined."
With that, the conference came to an end. On August 23, Knox sent a coded message to Wayne that talks had ended. This was authorization to begin the military campaign.
The Army Advances
Wayne received Knox’s message in September. He moved the Legion north in October, closer to the Native centers of power. They built fort Greeneville, named in honor of Nathaniel Greene, about 85 miles south of the Glaize, where the Indians had held their grand council a year earlier. In addition to building the fort, drills continued all winter.
Nearly two months later, on Christmas Day, 1793 the army moved another 20 miles north to the site of St. Clair’s defeat. They built Fort Recovery on the site.
Wayne had been authorized to raise a legion of over 5000 soldiers. But by the end of 1793, his army was only around 2000 men. To compensate, Congress authorized him to raise a militia auxiliary of up to 1500 Kentuckians. The communities of Kentucky had been hit hard by Indian attacks. Leading this auxiliary force was Charles Scott, an experienced major general during the Revolutionary War. After the war, Scott had settled in Kentucky on over 20,000 acres of land granted to him for his military service.
Like most settlers, Scott had regular run-ins with Indian raiding parties. He had watched Indians scalp and kill his son while he was standing across the Ohio River. In the early 1790’s he had helped to raise fighting units to assist the army in the Northwest territory. Scott had led a force of Kentucky volunteers during the Harmar Campaign in 1790. Indians killed another of his sons in that campaign. In 1791, Scott led the Blackberry campaign into Ohio territory, designed to distract Indians away from St. Clair’s expedition. In 1792, Scot led another campaign across the Ohio River designed to ensure that the Indians understood that St. Clair’s defeat did not mean settlers were unwilling to continue the fight.
Scott began organizing for the next campaign and to coordinate with Wayne’s legion in the summer of 1793. Over 1000 mounted volunteers reached Fort Hamilton that fall. When it became clear that not military actions would take place until the following summer, most of the Kentucky volunteers simply went home again.
In July 1794, the Kentuckians mustered again, even while the Peace Commission continued to meet in Detroit. They reached Fort Greeneville on July 25, and joined up with the Legion by the beginning of August. The joint forces established Fort Adams, pushing even further into Indian Territory.
With this 2000 strong legion and about 1500 mounted Kentucky volunteers, Wayne had an army of about 3500 men. On August 3, a tree fell on his tent, nearly killing Wayne. Although badly injured, he continued to lead his army, although he could not mount a horse without help.
A few days later, on August 8, the army reached the Glaize, the site of the Indian’s Grand Council and a major Indian population center. The locals had fled. The army established Fort Defiance on the ground. Wayne was essentially daring the Indians to take it back.
Indian Strategy
During this advance into their territory, the tribal leaders were not just sitting around and watching. In the spring of 1794, they convinced the British to establish Fort Miamis near present day Toledo, Ohio, in order to operate as a forward base of support for the warriors.
The leadership among the Indians could not agree on a strategy. The Miami war chief Little Turtle, who had commanded forces at St. Clair’s defeat, wanted to avoid a direct assault. He suggested continually raiding supply convoys, which would eventually starve out the string of forts and force the Americans to withdraw. Little Turtle knew that Wayne, who the Indians had dubbed “Black Snake” was an active leader who would be hard to defeat in battle. He also may have supported suggestions of allowing the Americans to attack Fort Miamis, thus sparking a direct war between Britain and the US.
Many of the warriors, however, wanted a more aggressive plan. They rallied around the Shawnee Chief Blue Jacket. There have been stories that Blue Jacket was actually a white man who had been captured and adopted by the tribe as a child. But this claim seems to be disputed. He was raised as a Shawnee.
However Blue Jacket did marry two white women. He had built an estate at the Glaize, where he farmed and owned slaves who helped to manage his plantation. The source of his wealth was primarily operating as a middleman between Canadian merchants and Indian hunters selling furs. Ironically, Blue Jacket usually wore a red jacket, a British officers coat.
Blue Jacket accused Little Turtle of cowardice for refusing to attack the Legion. Little Turtle refused to lead warriors into a losing battle. He turned over command to Blue Jacket. Little Turtle would fight alongside the warriors, but refused to lead them into what he regarded as a disaster.
Fort Recovery
On June 30, 1794, Blue Jacket led an army of about 1500 warriors against Fort Recovery, built on the site of St. Claire’s defeat. Unaware of the imminent attack, a supply convoy of nearly 150 soldiers left the fort in the morning, having dropped off supplies.
The Indians ambushed the convoy, killing many of the soldiers, including the commander, Major William McMahon. Fort commander Captain Alexander Gibson sent a contingent of 20 men from the fort to provide covering fire so the survivors of the convoy could retreat back to the fort.
The Indians tried to pursue the retreating convoy members but were shot down by defenders behind the fort walls. The Indians withdrew, only to regroup for a night attack on the fort. Defenders repelled the attack, and also repelled a third attack the following morning.
According to some reports, British soldiers were with the Indians, but did not participate in the actual battle. During the attack, they were searching to dig up buried cannons that St. Claire’s Army had hidden after that army’s defeat. The garrison suffered about 100 casualties, with an estimated 150 casualties among the Indians. The main fallout from the battle was that the Shawnee accused other tribes of cowardice in refusing to join the assault on the fort. As a result, many of those warriors, particularly the Lake Indians from Canada, simply packed up and left.
Battle of Fallen Timbers
A week after the battle, Wayne was still moving forward, establishing Fort Defiance on August 8. A week after that, the Legion began marching further north toward the British Fort Miamis. On August 18th, they built Fort Deposit just a few miles from Fort Miamis. The purpose of Fort Deposit was literally to deposit their supplies and equipment so that the army could go into battle.
Two days later, August 20th, the army began marching forward again. They entered an area where a tornado had recently knocked down most of the trees. As a battalion of Kentucky scouts entered the area, a line of Indians opened fire from behind the fallen trees. The Indians then rose up and charged the scouts. The Kentuckians who were not killed fled in retreat. An advance guard of infantry provided covering fire to slow down the Indian’s pursuit.
Wayne, expecting an attack somewhere, immediately deployed his lines. General James Wilkinson commanded the right wing of the Legion. Colonel John Hamtrack commanded the left wing.
Wayne had given his commanders stranding orders to meet any Indian attacks with a bayonet charge. That is what happened. The Indians were used to Americans firing at them from lines, so the bayonet charged unnerved many of them, forcing an Indian retreat. The legion then brought up artillery to support the infantry, and used the cavalry to run down and kill retreating warriors.
The entire battle only lasted only 60-80 minutes. The retreating Indians fled back to Fort Miamis, only to find the gates locked. The British Commander, Major William Campbell ordered the gates closed. Britain was neutral in this fight and he would not provide harbor for fleeing combatants. Campbell knew that doing so would probably result in an American attack on his fort. The Indians continued their retreat back toward Lake Erie.
Following the battle, General Wayne personally rode up to the walls of Fort Miamis, practically daring the British garrison to fire on him. The British withheld fire. The Americans set about burning all of the Indian villages and British storehouses around the fort but did not attack the fort directly.
After destroying whatever they wanted, the Americans withdrew back to Fort Defiance. Casualties were relatively light, about 150 killed or wounded among the Americans. Wayne reported finding about 40 Indian corpses, with an unknown number of dead or wounded carried off by their comrades.
The result, however, was that the US Army had defeated the Indians and was in control of the Ohio territory.
Next week, Congress adds an eleventh amendment to the Constitution
- - -
Next Episode 390 The Eleventh Amendment (coming soon)
Previous Episode 388 The Age of Reason
June 10, 2026 Round Table Book: The Banker Who Made America: Thomas Willing and the Rise of the American Financial Aristocracy, 1731-1821, by Richard Vague - Go to https://bookshop.org/shop/ARP. Find the book in my bookshop and use the code ARP15 to save 15% off the price.
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Further Reading
Websites
The Battle of Fallen Timbers” American Heritage, Vol. 9, Issue 4, June 1958: https://www.americanheritage.com/battle-fallen-timbers
The Battle of Fallen Timbers, 20 August 1794: https://armyhistory.org/the-battle-of-fallen-timbers-20-august-1794
Historical Overview of the Fallen Timbers Battlefield and Fort Miamis: https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/historical-overview-of-fallen-timbers-battlefield-and-fort-miamis.htm
General Wayne’s Report to War Department about the Battle of Fallen Timbers, Aug. 28, 1794: https://wardepartmentpapers.org/document/47769
VIDEO: The Battle of Fallen Timbers: https://www.c-span.org/clip/interview/the-battle-of-fallen-timbers/4824869
The Battle of the Wabash and the Battle of Fort Recovery: Mapping the Battlefield Landscape: https://www.bsu.edu/-/media/www/departmentalcontent/aal/aalpdfs/abpp%20composite%20map%20document%20final.pdf
Treaty of Greeneville (full text): https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/greenvil.asp
Blair, Bryce D. The Battle of Fallen Timbers and the Treaty of Fort Greeneville, Univ. of Toledo [Master’s Thesis] 2005: https://etd.ohiolink.edu/acprod/odb_etd/ws/send_file/send?accession=toledo1125440393&disposition=inline
Kent, Charles A., and A. M. “The Treaty of Greenville. August 3, 1795.” Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society (1908-1984), vol. 10, no. 4, 1918, pp. 568–84. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/40190685
Nelson, Paul David. “‘Mad’ Anthony Wayne and the Kentuckians of the 1790s.” The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society, vol. 84, no. 1, 1986, pp. 1–17. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/23381138
Quaife, M. M. “General James Wilkinson’s Narrative of the Fallen Timbers Campaign.” The Mississippi Valley Historical Review, vol. 16, no. 1, 1929, pp. 81–90. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/1898529
Robb, H. L. “‘Mad Anthony’ Wayne’s Campaign Against the Indians in Ohio 1792-1794.” The Military Engineer, vol. 13, no. 72, 1921, pp. 474–77. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/44605454
Rusche, Timothy M. “Treachery Within The United States Army.” Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies, vol. 65, no. 4, 1998, pp. 478–91. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/27774142
Seelinger, Matthew J. “‘Mad’ Anthony’s Finest Hour: The Battle of Fallen Timbers.” On Point, vol. 8, no. 3, 2002, pp. 11–1. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/44610171
Tucker, Patrick M.. “From Fallen Timbers to the British Evacuation of Detroit, 1794-1796: The Roman Catholic Priest Who Was a British Agent.” Michigan Historical Review, vol. 37, no. 1, 2011, pp. 40–76. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.5342/michhistrevi.37.1.0041
Free eBooks
(from archive.org unless noted)
Little Turtle, Chief of the Miami, Public Library of Fort Wayne and Allen County, 1954.
Gunckel, John E. Early History of the Maumee Valley, Toledo: Henry M. Schmit: 1913.
Smith, Dwight L. From Greene Ville to Fallen Timbers: A Journal of the Wayne Campaign, July 28-September 14, 1794, Indianapolis, Indiana Historical Society, 1952.
Spears, John R. Anthony Wayne, New York: D. Appleton and Co. 1903.
Young, Calvin M. Little Turtle (Me-she-kin-no-quah): The Great Chief of the Miami Indian Nation, Public Library of Fort Wayne and Allen County, 1917 (1956 reprint).
Books Worth Buying
(links to Amazon.com unless otherwise noted)*
Carter, Harvey L. The Life and Times of Little Turtle: First Sagamore of the Wabash, Univ. of Ill. Press, 1986.
Eckert, Allen W. Blue Jacket: War Chief of the Shawnees, Landfall Press, 1983.
Gaff, Alan D. Bayonets in the Wilderness: Anthony Wayne’s Legion in the Old Northwest, Univ. of Oklahoma Press, 2004.
Hogeland, William Autumn of the Black Snake: The Creation of the U.S. Army and the Invasion That Opened the West, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2017.
Hurt, R. Douglas The Ohio Frontier: Crucible of the Old Northwest, 1720–1830, Indiana Univ. Press, 1996. (Chapter on fallen Timbers available on JSTOR).
Nelson, Paul D. Anthony Wayne: Soldier of the Early Republic, Indiana Univ. Press, 1985.
Stockwell, Mary Unlikely General: "Mad" Anthony Wayne and the Battle for America, Yale Univ. Press 2018.
Sugden, John Blue Jacket: Warrior of the Shawnees, Univ. of Nebraska Press, 2000.
Sword, Wiley President Washington's Indian War : the struggle for the Old Northwest, 1790-1795, Univ. of Oklahoma Press, 1985.
Westrick, Dave, The Battle of Fallen Timbers, The History Press, 2025.
* As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
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