Hi, I'm the History Guy. I have a degree in history,
and I love history. And if you love history too, this is the channel for you.
What we used to refer to in US history as the period of Westward Expansion, most people now
acknowledge was really a two century period of conquest. Of course North America wasn't some
vast open space that was waiting to be settled, it was occupied by millions of Native Americans
who had to be defeated, and subjugated in order to open that land for settlement. But in as much as
we even remember, and acknowledge the Indian Wars, we tend to think in terms of the late 19th century
Indian Wars, the ones that you see in western movies. But that misrepresents the situation,
because Europeans were at odds with Native Americans pretty much from the first moment
that Europeans showed up on America's Shores. There were 201 years for example,
between King Philip's War, which is often called the first Indian War in 1675, and Custer's defeat
at the Battle of the Little Bighorn, in 1876. And in those 200 years there's a lot of forgotten
history, but there's a particular period of the Indian Wars that seems even more forgotten than
most. November 4th of 1791, the United States Army faced the greatest defeat in its history
at the Battle of the Wabash. And that forgotten battle, in a forgotten period of a forgotten war,
is very important to American history. It had a lot to do with how we built our armed forces,
it affected how we grew westward, and perhaps most importantly, it defined our relationship
with the native peoples of North America. It is history...that deserves to be remembered.
American Indians played a meaningful role in the American Revolution. While many Indian nations
maintained neutrality, and some support of the American cause, others maintained long-term
alliances with the British, and or saw the English side as the best way to protect their lands from
encroachment. An estimated 13,000 Native Americans fought on the British side during the conflict.
Since they were considered British allies, they were supposedly represented by, and bound to,
the terms of the 1783 Treaty of Paris, which ended the Revolutionary War, and granted the
US control of the areas northwest of the Ohio River. But in fact, many of those nations were
not represented at all in the treaty discussions, and did not think themselves bound by the treaty.
And even Britain continued to maintain forts in the area, continuing to support the Nations,
in the hope of creating an Indian buffer state, to stall US expansion. While the Native Nations were
often fractured, a loose Confederacy had formed in order to counter American expansion in the Great
Lakes region. Called the Western Confederacy, the loose organization included members of dozens of
nations, including powerful tribes like the Miami, the Shawnee, and the Delaware Lenape.
For their part, the United States saw the Northwest Territory as more than just room for
expansion, they saw it as a means of financing. Under the articles of the Confederation, Congress
did not have the authority to levy taxes, and so their plan for funding the government was to sell
the lands that was east of the Mississippi, and south of the Great Lakes, to settlers.
But some 45,000 Native Americans were still occupying that territory, presenting a significant
obstacle to Congress's plan. Continued friction, and raiding from both sides had become a barrier
to settlement. In 1790, President George Washington, and Secretary of War Henry Knox,
organized a military response under the leadership of General Josiah Harmar. The Harmar campaign in
1790, consisted of mostly poorly trained militia. The campaign was a disaster for the Americans,
who were defeated by the Warriors of the Western Confederacy in a string of battles
with heavy losses, often due to poor command decisions. Washington ordered General Arthur
St. Clair to put together a larger force, for a more vigorous campaign in 1791.
While Congress had authorized additional troops the pay was low, and recruiting was less than
was expected. Sinclair was once again forced to depend upon the even more poorly trained militia,
for nearly half his force. By the time he was finally ready to move, his army of 1500 was poorly
trained, and poorly supplied. They were also followed by about 250 camp followers; those are
wives and children, laundresses and prostitutes, that tend to follow an army in the field.
Desertion continued to take its toll, by November, St. Clair had barely a thousand
able troops. On the evening of November 3rd, his force had set camp near the headwaters of
the Wabash River. The camp was poorly prepared; they had failed to build any defensive works.
While St. Clair's force had been dwindling, the Western Confederacy had been gathering warriors.
Around a thousand had come to the area, ready to fight. Led by a Miami chief named Little Turtle,
they attacked at dawn. As the American troops, who had not sent out scouting parties, were mustering
for breakfast. Little Turtle attacked the militia first, who were quickly overrun and ran without
collecting their guns. St. Claire's regulars were able to form a line and fire volleys,
but they were continually flanked. As the American artillery tried to deploy, their crews were killed
by Indian marksmen. The regulars attempted to drive back the Indians with bayonet charges,
but that allowed the Indians to isolate groups, and overwhelm them. As soldiers fell,
the camp followers joined in the desperate fight. Finally, facing annihilation St. Clair ordered a
retreat, forcing the force to leave behind its supplies, and its wounded, who were slaughtered.
St. Claire's defeat at the Battle of the Wabash had the highest casualty rate of any battle in
the history of the United States army. Of 930 troops in the field, 632 were killed,
and 264 wounded. A casualty rate of 97%. Nearly a quarter of the entire US Army was lost. In
addition, virtually all the camp followers were also killed. As for the Western Confederacy on
the other hand, their losses were only about twenty killed, and forty wounded.
In 1792, Washington argued that we are involved in an actual war,
and Congress raised the funds for a larger and better trained force. That force will
be called the Legion of the United States. In 1793, under the command of Major General
Anthony Wayne, the Legion would defeat the Western Confederacy at the Battle
of the Fallen Timbers, and force upon them the Treaty of Greenville in 1795.
The greatest defeat in the history of the United States Army would have far-reaching
ramifications. The Legion of the United States, for example, created as a response to St. Claire's
defeat would eventually become the first four regiments of the United States Army,
still in service today. In addition to creating the Legion of the United States, Congress also
passed two militia acts, one requiring that all able-bodied men sign up for their state militias,
and another authorizing the president to call upon those militias. That authority would be
used to put down the Whiskey Rebellion in 1794. The militias that were created
as a result of those acts would eventually become the United States National Guard.
While the Western Confederacy won a significant victory at the Battle of the Wabash,
they were unable to effectively follow up that victory, there had been a poor harvest that year,
and the Warriors had to go home to hunt in order to feed their families. The
newly created Legion of the United States under Major General Wayne, was significantly larger,
better trained, and better equipped than the armies that had been put in the field in 1790,
and 1791. And while the Western Confederacy took relatively light losses at the Battle of
the Fallen Timbers, near modern-day Toledo Ohio, in August of 1794, they were soundly defeated.
And the British had gone to war with France, and were afraid of antagonizing the United States,
and so withdrew their support for the Nations, forcing the Western Confederacy to negotiate.
The resulting Treaty of Greenville put an end to the Northwest Indian Wars,
and demarcated the line between Indian lands, and settler lands, opening up
southern Ohio for settlement. But perhaps more importantly, it created the system of annuities.
The annuity system had the government promise to give the nation's an annual tribute,
usually food and blankets, in exchange for respecting the treaty boundary lines. That
system would be exploited over the next hundred years, to take away Native Americans lands.
What it really did was allow the government to purchase Native American land at a very cheap
price. And if you wanted more land, all you had to do was threaten to withhold the annuities,
to force the Indians to make more concessions in further treaties. Finally unable to survive on the
land that they were allowed, the Nations would go into debt, which would be paid by taking,
even more land. Ironically, by inflicting on the US Army the greatest defeat in their history,
the Western Confederacy had set into motion the dynamic that would be used to subjugate
Native American peoples across the continent. What the treaty did not do was buy peace,
settlers continued to settle across the Greenville line causing more tension,
and in 1811, the Tecumseh War would erupt in the same area. The United States-Indian
Wars would not end officially until the end of the Apache War, in 1924.
I'm the History Guy. I hope you enjoyed this episode of my series, five minutes of history,
short snippets of forgotten history five to ten minutes long. If you did enjoy it, please go
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