Tecumseh, Part Four: More Flames on the Frontier as the North-West War Continues
Across the Medicine Line: Tales From the 49th Parallel.
The articles in ‘Across the Medicine Line’ are written in hopes of learning more about how North America came to be. How our peoples lived, ate, drank, travelled, loved, fought and thought during the time between the discovery, founding and solidification of our long partnership and our current society. We believe that learning these stories can further strengthen the many ties that bind our two nations and better understand – or even heal! -- the divisions that still separate us.
by Clifton Bertram
So far, we have tracked Tecumseh’s evolution from a Shawnee child born beneath a shooting star into a fully fledged Panther clan warrior of the kiskopo sept. Being raised in an era of non-stop warfare and encroachment from white settlers honed his prodigious natural talents, forging him into a natural leader. Not only was he prominent among his people, but he was poised to inspire an entire pan-indigenous coalition to make a sort of last stand against the land hunger of the Americans.
Our last chapter left the First Nations people of the Ohio Valley and surrounding regions at something of a high point. The North-West Indian Confederacy, originally drawn together by the Mohawk warrior Joseph Brant, was triumphant, having just won a monumental battle at the Wabash River against the forces of the young United States in the years following the Revolutionary War.
The North-West Confederacy had been promised British support, but beyond a few advisors, London’s anti-war factions – still ascendant in the wake of the revolution – provided little. And despite the success of the Battle of Wabash, the North-West Indian War was far from over, with three more years of grinding warfare ahead.
A Vulnerable Nation
With the utter destruction of St. Clair’s army on the Wabash in 1791, the fledgling United States was at its most vulnerable: the frontier was exposed to the frequent raiding parties of the North-West Confederacy; to the north, the British in Canada were far from friendly and occupied a disputed frontier overlapping the U.S. North-West Territory in Michigan and northern Ohio; in the west lurked the Spanish, who had been granted the Louisiana Territory at the closure of the French and Indian War, and was now back in control of Florida, too.
While armed conflicts with the Spanish were rare, they made extensive use of trade warfare and espionage, including bribing senior American military and political figures to commit treason. Skirmishes continued between the French and the British, breaking into open warfare upon the outbreak of the French Revolution, and their armed disputes – especially at sea – made American merchant and naval aspirations complicated. We’ll come back to this later.
A Vulnerable Infant Nation. The new United States was surrounded by threats and left without an army after the Battle of the Wabash.
Despite their long-standing distaste for a standing army, under the circumstances, the U.S. Congress acknowledged the folly of relying primarily on militia and recognized the need for professional standing troops. In his book Defending a New Nation 1783-1811, author John R. Maas writes:
“With the advice of Washington, Knox, and Revolutionary War veteran Baron Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben, Congress created the Legion of the United States, with an authorized strength of 5,190 men, to be organized into four sublegions. Each sublegion included a troop of dragoons, a company of artillery, two battalions of infantry, and one battalion of riflemen. These sublegions would be well suited for wilderness warfare against the Indians and could fight independently of each other. The costs projected for the maintenance of this force was over $1 million, a huge sum for the day.”
With each sub-legion led by a brigadier general, the units are a structural predecessor of modern U.S. Brigade Combat Teams (2011 to 2017), which constituted the basic army deployable combat unit. The main concept was that each sub-legion would contain all of the elements necessary to sustain independent operations. In addition to combat units like infantry and cavalry, combat support elements like fire support (artillery) and intelligence were organic to each sub-legion. Each sub-legion even had its own combat service support personnel charged with providig capabilities like medical, transport, maintenance and engineering.
To generate fighting spirit and esprit de corps, each sub-legion was equipped with a separate uniform in a different colour: black and white for the 1st Sub-Legion, red and white for the 2nd Sub-Legion, black and yellow for the 3rd Sub-Legion and green and white for the 4th Sub-Legion.
Uniforms of the Legion of the United States. These Battle of Fallen Timbers re-enactors are shown in 1994 dressed in the livery worn by the Legion. Left-over Legion uniforms were used to equip the first U.S. Marines when they were formed in 1798.
Mad Anthony Wayne – Architect of the First National Army
Overall, the legion was headed by Major-General Anthony Wayne, a hero of the Revolutionary War and a veteran of the Continental Army’s invasion of Quebec in 1775. He received his nickname “Mad Anthony” Wayne after leading an especially audacious bayonet charge of 800 Continentals against 6,000 veteran British forces in 1779 at the Battle of Stony Point in New York. When inspecting his troops, he passed by them with a marked limp from a British musket ball in his leg – a souvenir of his participation in the pivotal Battle of Yorktown.
President Washington ordered Wayne to “to spare no expense in powder and ball to make these men soldiers”. To that end, he allocated an astonishing sum to rebuild the shattered army, fully 83% of the 1792 federal budget. Wayne responded by patiently building a professional fighting force from the ground up. He established basic training facilities at Legionville, near Fort Pitt (today’s Pittsburgh), and worked to instil esprit de corps through rigid discipline balanced by attention to soldier’s pay, rations (including generous rum, wine and whiskey) and leadership. Major John Brooke, writing in Anthony Wayne: His Campaign Against the Indians of the Northwest, tells us:
“They were almost in the heart of the Indian country, cut off from communication with the outside world, and surrounded by crafty and treacherous foes. Wayne shared the hardships and privations of his men, and personally saw that discipline and instruction were kept up. The sentinel on post might know when to expect the conventional visit from the officer of the day, but he never knew at what hour he might see the form of the commander-in-chief emerge from the wintry gloom."
Whiskey for my Men! This requisition for whiskey – often used to reward troops who performed well in training – bears the signature of General Anthony Wayne’s aide-de-camp, William Henry Harrison.
The training was just as intense as was the discipline. Regina Morrow Riley writes in Legionville Then and Now (Beaver County History Milestones Volume 21, No. 2, Summer 1996):
“Ten hours a day, the infantry marched, wheeled and drilled. Wayne was specially fond of the bayonet and many were the hour that the men charged unseen targets at the double-quick…marksmanship was stressed, with rewards given to the best shots. The rifle battalions, who carried the Pennsylvania Long-rifle, forfeited their reward whenever they were beaten by the infantry, who carried smoothbore weapons. Captain Robert Mis Campbell was put in charge of the dragoons (cavalry) and built a training field…Campbell's dragoons were taught to fight from horseback, dismounted and to ride like the wind. They were taught to rely on the heavy saber and to jump obstacles at a gallop. The artillerymen were taught the essential elements of ballistics. They fired their Howitzers day-and-night, until their officers felt they were proficient.”
Legionville Training Site. Artist’s conception of the first formal training site for the U.S. Army, 1792. Here, General Anthony Wayne honed his men into a professional fighting force.
During this time in Legionville, Wayne experimented with musket designs in hopes of increasing his troops’ rate of fire. It seems clear that this spirit of innovation was a logical continuation of Wayne’s interest in the development of light infantry tactics first exhibited when he served as the commander of the Continental Army’s Corps of Light Infantry. That corps had seen significant success during the Revolutionary War at the Battle of Stony Point in 1779.
In The U.S. Army Military Review (May-June 2021), Timothy C. Hemmis tells us about Wayne’s technical improvements:
“He moved the touch hole so the mechanism would self-prime, which meant that ‘the eye of the soldier will therefore be constantly upon his Enemy, and he can pursue & load in full trot without danger of losing any part of his powder.’ The new design allowed the soldier to just bite the paper cartridge and not have to prime his firearm. Wayne's redesigns allowed for a quicker reload, and he wanted his troops to practice these maneuvers. Wayne insisted that ‘this is a maneuvre that must be practiced by the Light troops—it will accustom them to the report of their own Muskets, so as not to be alarmed at their own fire—and with the aid of a powerful and well appointed Cavalry (shou'd the Indians prefer the Hatchet to the olive branch) I trust, will produce a Conviction, not only to the savages but to the World, that the U S of America are not to be insulted with impunity.’”
According to The American Society of Arms Collectors Bulletin 125:44-48 (Wayne’s Improved Muskets by Mark G. Rentschler):
“…almost 100 muskets could have been altered in this fashion by the artificers that accompanied the army in Pittsburgh,” equipping as many as four companies with faster reloading muskets. Rentschler speculates that troops so equipped amounted to a new type of light infantry; a company of which was assigned to each sub-legion. He believes they had the specific mission of providing additional firepower to supplement the Legion’s elite rifle companies. Equipped with Pennsylvania long rifles, they rifle companies achieved incomparable range and accuracy, but they were slower to reload than muskets. Augmenting their precision with rapid-fire musket volleys made for a more balanced and newly lethal base of fire.
While training was ongoing, Wayne recruited Rufus Putnam, another Revolutionary War veteran, to lead one of his sub-legions. Putnam, in turn, contacted William Wells, with whom he had previously worked during hostage negotiations. Putnam convinced Wells – who readers may remember from last chapter was Blue Jacket’s son-in-law and the leader of the confederacy sharpshooters at Wabash – to join the army as a spy, reporting on the discussions being held in the indigenous councils, and to lead the intelligence troop and scouts.
Meanwhile, Back in Tennessee
While Wayne was rebuilding the army, Tecumseh and Cheeseekau were back in Tennessee, raiding Cumberland frontier settlements. Dragging Canoe, leader of the Chickamauga Cherokee had died in March, but not until he had finalized an alliance with the Spanish Governor Francisco Luis Héctor de Carondelet, who provided the Tennessee warriors with horses, arms and provisions. Before his passing, Dragging Canoe also named his successor, a Cherokee named Kunokeski, or Young Tassel (who also went by the anglicized name of John Watts). Young Tassel looked to Cheeseekau as a fellow leader, valued for his experience as a warrior.
Together, they vowed to continue Dragging Canoe’s ‘Dark and Bloody’ path of resistance. At dusk on Sunday, September 30, 1792, Young Tassel and almost 300 warriors approached the fortified stockade of Buchanan's Station, near today’s Nashville. Among the war band were Chickamauga, Cherokee led by Little Owl, Creek warriors under Chief Talotiskee and 30 Shawnee from Running Water, including Cheeseekau and Tecumseh.
Shortly after midnight – perhaps alerted by disturbed livestock – the assailants were detected by one of the sentries, John McCrory, who fired a volley, killing a Shawnee. While waves of Cherokee, Creek and Shawnee attacked the blockhouse, 15 sharpshooters inside the stockade were aided by Buchanan’s pregnant wife, Sarah. The Nashville Historical Newsletter tells us:
“Aided by other women, she reportedly molded and carried additional ammunition to the riflemen, supplied them with distilled spirits, insisted that they make every shot count, and cheered them on. For her courageous acts that night, she would become known as “the greatest heroine of the West.”
The battle is said to have finally ended “because of the ineptitude of an inebriated Irishman in the station. Not realizing he had overloaded the Buchanans’ old blunderbuss, Jimmy O’Connor produced a stupendous boom. The Indians, terrified of cannon fire, withdrew.”
While none of the defenders in the fortified station died, the toll among the attackers was high. White Owl’s Son – Dragging Canoe’s brother – was slain. Young Tassel, Dragging Canoe’s chosen successor, was severely wounded. And the Shawnee killed in the opening of the attack by John McCrory?
It was Matthew Runningwater, also known as the Shawnee Chief Cheeseekau.
Tecumseh had lost another important mentor, and probably witnessed his death at close quarters.
Forward-Deploying the Legion
Back in the north in the Ohio Territory, early in 1793, diplomatic efforts with the North-West Confederacy continued. Major-General Anthony Wayne marched his men some 464 miles from their Legionville training camp (near today’s Pittsburgh) to Fort Washington (today’s Cincinnati). There, he spent the year in continued training, gathering provisions and constructing additional forts and roads. He maintained the rigorous routine and discipline he had established during basic training, as Samuel Pennypacker wrote in the Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography (Volume 32, No. 3) in 1908:
“Breakfast at eight o’clock, dine at one; meat shall be boiled and soup made of it…a good old soldier will never attempt to roast or fry his meat.” Punishments were severe, with 100 lashes occasionally being inflicted on those breaking discipline.
Wargames were continuously conducted to prepare the troops for the expected hostilities. In his article “Learning the Dreadful Trade of Death: Training the U.S. Army at Legionville, 1792-1793, Timothy C. Hemmis writes:
“One of the ways the legion prepared for battle was in the use of sham engagements because great units master the basics. During these sham engagements, and similar to warfighting exercises that take place today, the rifle corps of the sub-legions acted like the enemy, which included painting themselves. They would simulate an attack and the rest of the legion would have to respond. Wayne praised the roles of the rifle corps as it "acted well the part of Savages—which required all the skill & fortitude of Our little Legion to sustain." In one such sham engagement, the cavalry and infantry maneuvered together but were outflanked and charged by the opposing rifle corps (acting as the Native American force). A part of the cavalry had to cross and recross the Allegheny River during this engagement, which led to real-time decisions and lessons learned.”
Wayne’s army included indigenous forces formerly associated with the confederacy, and Pennypacker reports that he effectively exploited divisions among the First Nations to recruit warriors. The result was Wayne “having in his army the chief Cornplanter as well as 90 Choctaws and twenty-five Chickasaws.”
Wayne Builds an Intelligence Package
In September 1793, William Wells reported in, notifying Putnam and Wayne that diplomacy with the confederacy had failed. He blamed the failure largely on intransigence on the part of the renegade translator Simon Girty and Alexander McKee, acting on behalf of John Graves Simcoe, Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada. At Simcoe’s urging, the British were beginning to overcome their wariness about supporting the confederacy. They had begun providing them with arms, ammunition and provisions, as well as fortifying their forts on the disputed frontier. Simcoe hoped to establish an indigenous barrier state in the region to protect Britain’s North American fur trade ventures, and to block anticipated American attacks on its remaining North American possessions.
Wells reported on Britain’s growing support and warned that some 1500 warriors were amassing to attack the Legion forces at Fort Washington. In response, Wayne marched 80 miles north to a branch of the Miami River, where he fortified a camp called Fort Greenville and settled his army into winter quarters. Pennypacker tells us that:
“The march was so rapid and the order maintained so perfect, that the Indian scouts were baffled. From there he sent a corps with guides and spies six miles further along the trail…to secure ‘intelligence and scalps’. He likewise detached a force to go to the field where St. Clair had been defeated, to bury the bones and erect a fort called Fort Recovery.”
Under the leadership of William Wells, now a captain, the scouts and spies corps guided the detachment to Fort Recovery, and also helped to recover a number of cannons abandoned by St. Clair. They also assisted in burying the extensive remains of casualties from the disastrous Battle of the Wabash. He then settled in for the winter with the Fort Recovery garrison, now manned by eight companies of infantry and a detachment of artillery.
Considering the building of Fort Recovery to be a provocation, the newly energized British built Fort Miami in order to block Wayne’s forces from advancing further toward Detroit.
By June, Fort Recovery had been fully fortified. In addition to the artillery detachment in garrison, ordnance recovered from the Battle of the Wabash site had been mounted including four copper cannons (two six-pounders and two three-pounders) two copper howitzers, and one iron carronade, particularly useful in antipersonnel applications.
The Confederacy Strikes the First Blow
The preparations paid off, as did warnings issued by scouts in Wells’ intelligence corps, on June 30. Just after 7:00 am, a war party of some 1500 warriors fell upon a wagon convoy seeking to supply the fort. Despite an escort of some 90 riflemen and 50 mounted dragoons, the convoy was overwhelmed. The soldiers hastily fell back on the fort, leaving the horses and wagons behind. Buoyed by their success, the attackers made an attempt to besiege the fort. Despite heavy casualties, the well-prepared defenders held the fort. The indigenous warriors withdrew, from the assault – and ultimately, as the rifts among the indigenous factions describe by Wells emerged – from the overall campaign. The U.S. Army Military History Institute describes the implications of their withdrawal:
“The loss of these warriors and a shortage of provisions to feed even a smaller force led the remaining tribes to retreat north towards the British Fort Miamis. The remaining Delawares and Shawnees had to abandon their campaign of attacking forward convoys…”
In August, the leaders of the North-West Indian Confederacy held a grand council on the limestone island of Roche de Bout on the Maumee River near today’s Waterville, Ohio. While the fractured council debated its course of action – a fixed battle versus continued guerilla raids – Wayne built Fort Deposit directly across from the island. It’s a move that is hard to see as anything but a deliberate, aggressive provocation. Left in the command of Captain Zebuolon Pike, who was accompanied by his 15-year-old sone, cadet Zebulon Pike Jr. Fort Deposit was equipped with yet another cache of forward ammunition and supplies.
Before moving on from Fort Recovery, Wayne sent a final offer of peace to Roche de Bout for the council’s consideration. Little Turtle of the Miami favoured peace negotiations, while the Shawnee chief Blue Jacket argued for Wayne’s destruction. He pointed to the success of the campaigns against Harmar and St. Clair and argued for a repeat of those tactics. Mocked as a traitor, Little Turtle relinquished his position of leadership of the overall host, and the confederacy as a whole rejected Wayne’s terms.
It was to be war. Again.
William Wells’ watching spies reported the split in indigenous leadership to Wayne, who was sure that he could exploit their divisions. The confederacy’s British allies had also become concerned enough with the disputes to send reinforcements south from Detroit to Fort Miami.
On August 11, as Wells and some of his spies were attempting to infiltrate a nearby Delaware camp they were discovered and forced to flee…but not before Wells was shot in the hand and wrist. Wounded, he would be out of combat for the coming hostilities.
Wayne meanwhile was becoming increasingly unwell, to the extent that his Choctaw and Cherokee scouts lost faith in his leadership capabilities and deserted. Wells’ intelligence troop was so depleted that the Americans enlisted the army’s Ranger detachment to perform scouting duties. On August 18, one of these mounted scouts, William May, was captured by the confederacy, who learned from him that Wayne intended to attack on August 19.
Choosing Ground and Making a Stand
Receiving this intelligence, the British Indian Agent Alexander McKee urged the confederacy to make a stand on ground of their choosing, within retreating distance from Fort Miami, near present-day Toledo. With four bastions, and surrounded by a 25-foot-deep trench lined with rows of stakes, and armed with 14 cannon, Fort Miami was garrisoned by Major William Campbell and a detachment of 50 men from Detroit’s 24th Regiment of Foot. McKee told the confederacy it would give them a strong fall-back position, if needed.
Blue Jacket established a defensive position about 14 miles inland from Lake Erie. Here, the river was flanked by the Great Black Swamp, more than 900,000 acres of glacial moraines, thick black mud, dense forests and maddening clouds of mosquitoes. As one early traveller described the area: “They tell me God separated land from water, but here is the place he forgot!”
Blue Jacket positioned his troops behind a stand of trees that had been blown down by a storm. Stretching for nearly a mile, the tangle of fallen timbers created a natural abatis or obstacle behind which the indigenous troops could shelter.
The indigenous warriors numbered about 1,500. Shawnee led by Blue Jacket, and Miami led by Little Turtle, who had relinquished an overall command role within the confederacy, but still led his people’s war band. Lenape Delaware were commanded by Buckongahelas, and the Wyandot by Tarhe the Crane and Roundhead. The Ojibwa and Odawa were led by Egushawa, and the Potawatami were commanded by Little Otter, or Nekig. Simon Girty and small units of Mingos and Mohawks were accompanied by a company of 60 Canadian rangers from Detroit, dressed as First Nations warriors and led by Lieutenant Colonel William Caldwell.
Caldwell was a veteran of Lord Dunmore’s war and a frontier fighter against American patriot forces during the American revolution. In the years since he had partnered with the prosperous trader and British Indian Agent Matthew Elliott who operated a large farm of some 4,000 acres near Amherstberg in Upper Canada. Elliott was also a long-time colleague of McKee’s, a Loyalist veteran of the revolution, and an experienced scout, and fought among Caldwell’s British-Canadian contingent.
Once they had established their positions, the confederacy began fasting in preparation for battle.
Wayne had departed Fort Recovery on August 17th and pushed north, his troops accompanied by about 1,000 mounted Kentucky militia under General Charles Scott. Blue Jacket’s scouts reported that the Legion only marched until early afternoon, then stopped to build a fortified encampment, making attack on camps less practical than in the Harmar Campaign. Among the camps built were Fort Adams and Fort Defiance, the latter built at the junction of the Maumee and Auglaize rivers by the militia. It was so-named because at the time, militia General Charles Scott said "I defy the English, Indians, and all the devils of hell to take it."
On August 19, 150 mounted Kentucky militia scouts under Major William Price were dispatched to reconnoiter and map the area. They identified a number of enemy positions, but no shots were fired. That night the indigenous leadership held a council and concluded that Wayne was likely to consolidate his forces before launching an attack, which might take several days. Having been fasting for two days already, the warriors were given permission to eat the next morning. At dawn, with a heavy rain falling, and making an attack even less likely, many of the fighters retired to Fort Miami to break their fast.
‘Charge the Damn Rascals!’: The Legion Advances
Instead of consolidating, the aggressive General Wayne ordered the Legion to advance, with a battalion of mounted Kentucky militia in the lead. In the centre of the column of march, he distributed dragoons and artillery in such a way as to allow them to be able to respond to attacks from any direction.
As the army approached to within 100 meters of the warriors, the mounted cavalry in the vanguard slowed, struggling with the broken terrain and the deadfall timber. The Odawa and Potawatomi chose that moment to open fire, a cloud of gunpowder smoke erupting from the tangled brush and a swarm of lead buzzing angrily around the militia.
Behind the embattled Kentuckians were two companies of infantry from the 4th Sub-Legion under Captain John Cook. When the mounted militia broke in the face of the indigenous volley, he ordered his infantry to fire upon them, believing the Kentuckians to be deserting. But after that initial volley, the Legion infantry was engaged by the Odawa and Potawatomi who left the cover of their abatis to engage in hand-to-hand combat with tomahawks. Cook’s infantry also broke and ran, veering to the left of the front, where Lieutenant-colonel Jean-Francois Hamtramck commanded two sub-legions.
After a short period of chaos, Hamtramck formed his left wing into two ranks to halt the pursuing warriors, while General Wilkinson, commanding the 1st and 3rd sub-legions, formed his men into a line covering the right wing.
Meanwhile, Wayne rushed from the rear of the column, deploying two light infantry companies, one to each wing, to bolster the battle lines as they were in the process of being formed. Finally – and decisively – artillery was deployed forward. Each cannon was loaded with a cluster of small iron or lead balls packed into a canvas bag around a wooden base/standoff and cordage, resembling a bunch of grapes. When fired, the canvas and ties burned away, scattering the iron balls like a giant shotgun blast. Devastatingly effective at short and medium ranges, the grapeshot wreaked devastation on the indigenous assault lines.
At that point, Wayne’s aide-de-camp, Lieutenant William Henry Harrison, asked for orders. Wayne is said to have responded with a snarl, "charge the damned rascals with the bayonet!”
Map of the Battle of Fallen Timbers. Aggressive and well-drilled advances by a Legion with an innovative force structure broke the Northwest Indian Confederacy forces.
The Warfare History Network describes the scene:
“…the superbly trained Legion Infantry went forward at a run, trail arms at first, then a full bayonet charge as they neared the timber-cluttered barricades. Blood-curdling war-whoops rang through the trees, punctuated by deafening blasts of musketry. The sweating infantry could see the tangle of trees just ahead, and occasional glimpses of warriors from behind logs or through the smoky skein of powder smoke. Musket barrels would appear from bushes or fallen tree limbs, then spout tongues of flame and clouds of dirty white smoke as they discharged.
Occasionally an infantryman would tumble into the forest detritus, his blue and buff uniform now bright with a spreading stain of crimson, but others pressed forward, the bearskin crests that decorated each Legionary’s hat glistening in the summer sun, and bayonet tips sparkling as they caught its rays. Once the Legionnaires reached the timber barricades, they engaged the warriors hand to hand. Knife- and hatchet-wielding Indians fought bravely, but were soon impaled on the lethal steel shafts.”
Overwhelmed, the confederated indigenous forces in the center – not only the Odawa and Potawatomi, but now also a number of the Miami and Shawnee – were forced to retreat at a run. They were followed in close pursuit by Legion infantry, reloading and firing their newly improved muskets on the move.
Lieutenant William Clark, commander of the elite ‘Chosen Rifle’ company, noted in his journal that the infantry paused long enough to consume two ounces of whisky granted them as a reward for their successful bayonet charge.
Attentive readers will remember William Clark’s older brother George Rogers Clark from last chapter; the Shawnee’s old nemesis who burned Tecumseh’s village of Piqua. Among Lieutenant Clark’s Chosen Rifle Company was a young ensign named Meriwether Lewis, who had recently joined the company following a court-martial and an acquittal, which necessitated his transfer to a different unit.
The two men forged a life-long friendship in the heat of battle that would lead to greater renown for both, when they served as co-commanders of the Corps of Discovery – otherwise known as the Lewis and Clark Expedition – from 1804 to 1806. For now, though, let’s return to the battle.
Confederacy Forces Retreat
While the infantry fortified themselves with whiskey, Captain Robert Campbell ordered his dragoons to charge, sabres drawn, across 100 yards of rough terrain. A dozen dragoons were shot in the attack, including Campbell, who was killed. But more infantry followed in their wake, and the Odawa and Potawatomi fled the battlefield.
On the left, Brigadier-General Hamtramck had advanced to contact with the Wyandot, Lenape Delaware, and Canadian rangers led by Caldwell and Elliott. As the two sides rained heavy volleys on one another, the First Nations attempted to flank Hamtramck, only to be met by a contingent of counter-flanking Kentucky militia emerging from the swamp. Their attack was followed up by the fixed bayonets of the 4th sub-legion, and withering rifle fire from Lieutenant Clark’s Chosen Rifles. Unable to reform in good order due to the rough terrain and the intense fire, the rangers were forced to retreat.
On the right wing, the confederacy attempted to regroup in a ravine, their leadership suffering loss after loss. Egushawa, leading the Ojibwa and Odawa, was shot through the eye and grievously wounded. Little Otter of the Potawatomi was also severely wounded and had to be evacuated by being unceremoniously thrown over a white horse. Another Odawa chieftain, Turkey Foot, or Me-Sa-Sa, stood atop a large rock and urged the warriors to make their stand, but he was shot in the chest and died almost instantly.
(We pause here to note that the story of Turkey Foot, despite a plaque on the rock where he is supposed to have stood, is disputed. Authorities such as the Waterville Historical Society call it nothing more than post-event mythologizing. Their verdict? “…there never would have been an Indian chief named Turkey Foot and the whole story is a fabrication”.)
Turkey Foot Rock, Between Maumee and Waterville, Ohio. Does this mark the spot where the Miami chief died while encouraging his fellow warriors, or is it all a fabrication?
Alexander McKee, reported to his British superiors that “…the loss of so many confederate leaders made the Native American losses seem greater than they actually were, and many warriors fled to Fort Miami.”
Beyond the ravine, the landscape was more open, allowing the pursuing Legion to advance even faster, giving the mounted dragoons a terrifying advantage over dismounted native fighters. Alexander McKee, Matthew Elliot, and Simon Girty tried to rally the retreating allied forces one last time, but they were unable to prevent a total rout. In almost all cases, when infantry break ranks in the face of mounted assailants, those fleeing expose their vulnerable backs to the sabres of their faster attackers and are cut down. Utter annihilation was only prevented by a disciplined rear-guard provided by the Canadians and Wyandot.
The entire battle lasted only one hour and ten minutes. The Americans lost 33 men and 100 wounded. The confederacy’s casualties are reported to have been similar, but the toll among their leadership was disproportionate. They had been broken, at least for now.
Locked Out by the British
The survivors sought refuge in the British Fort Miami, but Major William Campbell closed the timber gates after only a few warriors arrived, hearing the advancing American musket fire. Unwilling to start a war with the U.S., he refused entry to the remaining fighters, who had to continue five miles north to Swan Creek, where their families were encamped. There, McKee tried once again to rally them, but after Campbell's refusal to let them shelter in the safety of Fort Miami they had lost faith in their British allies, and refused.
When Wayne’s forces arrived at the fort, he tried to exploit his success by provoking Campbell. First, he burned Alexander McKee’s trading post, located on a nearby island. His troops also burned indigenous crops and nearby villages. Campbell, however, refused to be baited and would not leave the fort, and the Legion ultimately returned to Fort Recovery.
Do Not Enter! Interpretive illustration of the British Fort Miami. Denied its shelter by the fort’s commandant, the exhausted survivors of Fallen Timbers had to march an additional five miles to Swan Creek, where their families were encamped.
Legion troops then marched about 85 miles to Kekionga, the spiritual and political capital of Little Turtle’s Miami nation. A large village, it was located where the Saint Joseph and Saint Marys rivers converged to become the Maumee River, on the western edge of the Great Black Swamp. Its name came from the fact that it was located in the largest patch of blackberries in the region. It was also an important trading centre, sitting astride a crucial portage connecting Lake Erie to the Wabash and Mississippi rivers.
Map of Kekionga, 1790. 'That glorious gate'.
Little Turtle called Kekionga “that glorious gate…through which all the good words of our chiefs had to pass from the north to the south, and from the east to the west.” In 1790, the Canadian governor had warned London that losing Kekionga would result in grave economic hardships to Detroit, to the tune of some 2000 packs of pelts, worth about £24,000 sterling.
When Wayne arrived at this strategic location on September 17, he razed the village to the ground and ordered Captain Jean-Francois Hamtramck to construct a new fort in its place. An especially stout fortification, capable of withstanding cannon fire from British 24-pounders, it was finished by October 17. Upon its completion, 15 cannon rounds were fired, to represent each state of the union as it then existed, and Hamtramck named it Fort Wayne, after his commander.
Scorched Earth, a Dire Winter and a Treaty
Throughout the autumn, Wayne’s troops embarked on a scorched earth policy, venturing from their forts to destroying indigenous food stores wherever they could be found. Once the indigenous stores were essentially exhausted, they switched from the stick to the carrot. Wayne offering food to various tribal groups in turn, all part of a divide and conquer policy. By the spring, having survived a severe winter of dire food shortages, the resolve of the confederacy forces was substantially weakened, making them receptive to peace overtures from Wayne and the United States.
The formerly militant Shawnee Blue Jacket advocated for peace negotiations, and Tarhe the Crane of the Wyandot cited the defeat at Fallen Timbers as a sign of the Great Spirit’s displeasure with the confederacy. Little Turtle on the other hand, even though he had argued for negotiations prior to the Fallen Timbers engagement, was strongly opposed at first, probably because his home village of Kekionga had been levelled by Wayne.
In August, the confederacy leaders favouring peace met with an American delegation at Fort Greenville. Among the indigenous chieftains were Tarhe, Roundhead and Leatherlips of the Wyandot; Blue Jacket and Black Hoof of the Shawnee; Buckongahelas of the Lenape Delaware; 23 different chiefs of the Potawatomi; representatives of the Wea, Kickapoo and Kaskasia; and numerous chiefs of the Miami.
Even Little Turtle was finally won over, after a private meeting with Wayne at which he said that since he was the last to sign, he would therefore be the last to break the treaty, even though he disagreed with the terms.
For the U.S., negotiators and signatories in attendance included Wayne, his aide William Henry Harrison, William Clark and Meriwether Lewis. Captain William Wells, Little Turtle’s son-in-law and Wayne’s chief of scouts and spies, served as interpreter.
The Treaty of Greenville, 1795. On the left is Little Turtle of the Miami, and General ‘Mad Anthony’ Wayne is the uniformed figure on the right.
The Treaty of Greenville was signed on August 3, 1795. The Greenville Treaty Line marked the boundary between lands retained by Native Americans from those ceded to the United States. Ceded territories included two-thirds of modern-day Ohio, as well as strategic areas in Indiana and Illinois, including lands near Chicago, Vincennes, and the Maumee and lower Sandusky regions.
In exchange, the U.S. provided goods valued at $20,000, including domestic animals, tools, and other supplies, and instituted an annuity of yearly payments to the tribes. The treaty also required the return of prisoners and established rules for trade and interaction between settlers and natives.
Treaty Map. Lands ceded to the U.S. in the Treaty of Greenville are shown in a darker shade of green. Note the inclusion of current-day Chicago, Detroit and Vincennes – a beachhead for yet more land-taking later.
A Heart of Stone
Tecumseh, by now representing some 250 Shawnee, disregarded the entreaties of his elder Blue Jacket, and refused to sign on behalf of his adherents.
A Treaty Repudiated. Tecumseh refused to honour the Treaty of Greenville.
The defeat at Fallen Timbers and the subsequent Treaty of Greenville cemented Tecumseh’s lifelong-conviction for pan-tribal unity. He remained more convinced than ever that a confederation of First Nations was morally obligated to resist American encroachment. He is quoted as saying:
“My heart is a stone: heavy with sadness for my people; cold with the knowledge that no treaty will keep whites out of our lands; hard with the determination to resist as long as I live and breathe."
He would dedicate the remainder of his life to that end.
Across the Medicine Line: Tales From the 49th Parallel.
The articles in ‘Across the Medicine Line’ are written in hopes of learning more about how North America came to be. How our peoples lived, ate, drank, travelled, loved, fought and thought during the time between the discovery, founding and solidification of our long partnership and our current society. We believe that learning these stories can further strengthen the many ties that bind our two nations and better understand – or even heal! -- the divisions that still separate us.
Stay tuned for the next chapter of the Tecumseh story. Tecumseh, Part Five: The Prophet and the Children of the Evil Spirit is coming soon!
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