Preble County, Ohio - Chapter 4: St, Clair's Campaign - Engagement at Fort St. Clair, 1881

NEARLY all of the Indian tribes of the Northwest Territory maintained an attitude of unceasing, uncompromising, hostility toward the white settlers from the organization of the territorial government in 1788, until the ratification of the treaty of Greenville, otherwise known as Wayne's treaty, in 1795. The campaigns directed against the Indians prior to the organization of civil government had failed to secure a permanent peace. The inhabitants of the county were constantly exposed to, and occasionally suffered from, sudden, stealthy attacks of the savages. Immigration was discouraged and the constant apprehension felt by the scattered pioneers of the territory, led a few to return to the older settlements and prevented those who remained in the wilderness from making the improvements with which they would have surrounded themselves had peace been assured.

'The National Government, anxious to bring about a termination of hostilities in the territory, organized a number of military expeditions, the first of which was that of General Harmar, who was then commander in chief of the military department of the West, in 1790. Detachments of the army met with mortifying defeat at the confluence of the St. Joseph and St. Mary's rivers (now Fort Wayne, Indiana), and the campaign failed to give security from the apprehended attack of the Indians on the white settlements.

in the Revolutionary war, organized an expedition which, although stronger than Harmar's army, was nevertheless terribly overwhelmed by the combined Indian forces. Little Turtle, the chief_of the Miamis, Blue Jacket, of the Shawnees, and Buckongahelas, of the Delawares, were engaged in forming a confederacy of all the tribes in the northwest territory, strong enough to drive the whites beyond the Ohio. It was St. Clair's purpose to check this movement, to secure control over the Indians by establishing a line of forts from the Ohio to Lake Erie, and especially to secure the commanding position ` at the head of the Maumee. General St. Clair began organizing his army at Pittsburgh at the close of April. On the fifteenth of May he reached Fort Washington (Cincinnati), and from this place, after many vexatious delays, he moved forward upon the seventeenth of September to a point on the great Miami (the site of Hamilton, Butler county), where Fort Hamilton was built, the first in the proposed chain of fortresses.

with the exception of a small garrison, left there, marched on forty-four miles further, and erected Fort Jefferson, about six miles south of the site of Greenville, Darke county. St. Clair and his army in passing northward through the territory now included within the boundaries of Preble county, marched up Seven Mile creek, west of Eaton. [The trace cannot now be definitely located. It was not cut to as great a width as most of the military roads, and the line has been almost wholly obscured by the growth of the forest and the action of the weather upon the soil] Having garrisoned Fort Jefferson, St. Clair pushed on in the direction of the Indian villages on the Maumee, his force constantly being reduced by desertions, until he had, on arriving at the point where Fort Recovery was afterward built (near the south line of Mercer county), only about At this point, on the fourth of November, 1791, occurred St. Clair's overwhelming defeat, the most disheartening disaster known in the annals of American border warfare. Even the defeat of Braddock was less disastrous. 'Braddock's army consisted of twelve hundred men and eighty-six officers, of whom seven hundred and fourteen men and sixty-three officers were killed or wounded. St. Clair's army consisted of fourteen hundred men and eighty-six officers, of whom eight hundred and ninety men and sixteen officers were either killed or wounded. But the comparative losses of the two engagements represent very inadequately the crushing effect of the defeat of St. Clair. An unprotected frontier of a thousand miles, from the Allegheny to the Mississippi, was at once thrown open to the attack of the infuriated and victorious savages." Tlie Indians in this battle adhered to their usual mode of warfare during the first part of the engagement, and, unseen by the whites, poured into the broken, disorderly ranks of the terrified raw troops, a deadly fire. The battle began about half an hour before sunrise, and continued until half past nine, a constant, fierce and murderous engagement. 'The men who manned the guns of St. Clair's army were shot down one after another by the skilled marksman among the Mzamzs and their confederates, and at length confusion beginning to spread from the great number who were falling in all quarters, "it became necessary to try what could be done by the bayonet." Lieutenant Colonel Darke led a spirited charge against the enemy's left flank, before which the Indians instantly gave way, and were driven back three or four hundred yards. For want of a sufficient number of riflemen, however, the advantage thus gained could not be maintained, and the troops were obliged to fall back in turn. The Indians entered the camp, and were repeatedly charged and driven back, but each time with a terrible loss to the whites. In one charge made by the Second regiment, all of the officers fell but three. The Indians fought with desperation and a fury born of long hatred. It was evident that they were controlled by some great chief, and in accordance with a well laid and thoroughly strategic plan. 'They made the attack from all quarters, and through the whole carnage maintained the most harrassing line of tactics possible. At last, after four hours of unremitting battle, much of it hand to band fighting, the remnant of St. Clair's army, terror-stricken, demoralized and utterly hopeless of victory, made a flying, disorderly retreat. The camp and artillery were abandoned necessarily, as there were no horses left, and the men in panic fled pell-mell through the woods and southward along the road, by which they had marched two days before, a well organized army of twice as many men. Most of them threw away their arms, ammunition and accouterments, even after the pursuit which was continued about four miles, was abandoned. 'The road was strewn with them for miles. All day long the rout was continued, and at sunset ended twenty-nine miles from the scene of battle, at Fort Jefferson.

More than a hundred women were with St. Clair's army, following the fortunes of their husbands. The greater number fell victims to the savage enemy, and upon them was wreaked the most cruel vengeance of the Many were found with huge stakes driven through their bodies, pinning them to the ground. The Indians believing that the whites had, for many years, made war merely to acquire land, crammed sand and clay into the eyes and down the throats of the dying and the dead. On the first of February, 1792, the field of battle was reached by General James Wilkinson and a detachment of men, who marched northward from Fort Washington through Preble county. The expedition was made for the purpose of recovering the artillery carriages and burying the dead. The soldiers found indications that the men who had fallen from wounds in the battle had been subjected to the most horrible torture, their limbs having been torn off, and the most indecent indignities perpetrated. Over six hundred skulls were reported to have been found.

It was never known exactly how many Indians fell in this battle, nor, for that matter, how many there were engaged in the fight, though from the extent of the camp which General Wilkinson and his soldiers visited and which was supposed to have been that of the Indians the night before the engagement, their number must have been very large. estimated at from one to three thousand. Two thousand is said, by good authorities, to have been the approximate number. It has been generally supposed that Little Turtle, the great chief of the Miamis, led the Indians in this, their fiercest fight and greatest victory, but Stone, in his life of Joseph Brant, says that that famous chief was present with a hundred and fifty Mohawk braves, and commanded the warriors of the wilderness.

We have given a somewhat extended account of St. Clair's defeat, because, although it occurred at some distance from the territory of which this volume is the history, a knowledge of the event is necessary to a proper appreciation of the condition of the country at this period, and an adequate understanding of subsequent occurrence in Preble county.

It'was after the terrible defeat at the site of Fort Recovery that Fort St. Clair was built just west of the site of Eaton. It was intended as an intermediate place of refuge between Fort Hamilton and Jefferson. The work was performed under the supervision of Major John S. Gano, of the State militia, and by the order of General Wilkinson, who had succeeded St. Clair as commandant of Fort Washington. General Harrison, at that time an ensign, was present during the building of Fort St. Clair, his duty being to command the guard on alternate nights. The detachment of troops detailed for the construction of this fort, and who successfully accomplished it during the winter of 1791-92, suffered very severely fron: the cold, having no fires and no covering.

Fort St. Clair was a stockade like the other strongholds along the border. It enclosed an area of only a few acres, and contained block-houses and officers! quarters. The forest was cleared away around it for a space of about forty acres. Stockades were usually made by digging a trench along the proposed line of defences, and in this setting the palisades-or pickets, of which from one to two or three thousand were required, according to the size of the enclosure. General St. Clair, in his "Narrative," further describes the construction of one of the fortresses in the line which stretched northward from the site of Cincinnati. As its features were, in a general way, similar to those of Fort St. Clair, we transcribe a portion of his description:

" * * * [tis not tres taken promiscuously that will answer for pickets. They must be tall and straight, and from nine to twelve inches in diameter, for those of a larger size are too unmanageable; of course, few trees that are proper are to be found without going over a considerable space of woodland. When found, they are peeled, cleared of their branches, and cut into lengths of about twenty feet. They were then carried to the ground and butted, that they might be placed firm and upright in the trench, with the axe or cross-cut saw. Some hewing upon them was also necessary, for there are few trees so straight that the sides of them will contact when set upright. A thin piece of timber, called a 'ribbon,' is run around the whole, near the top of the pickets, to which every one of them is pinned, with a strong wooden pin, without which they would decline from the perpendicular with every blast of wind, some hanging outward ànd some inward, which would render them in a great measure useless. The earth thrown out of the trench is then returned, and strongly rammed to keep the pickets firmly in their place, and a shallower trench is dug outside about three feet distant, to carry off the water, and prevent their being removed by the rains. K x * Pickets are set up on the outside, one between every two of the other; the work is then enclosed."

In October, 1792, a great council of all the Indian tribes of the West - the largest council of the kind ever held - was held at Auglaize (Fort Defiance, Ohio), and an armistice was entered into, which the Indians promised to observe until springtime. Peace was not, however, very faithfully observed. It was first broken within the present bounds of Preble county, upon the sixth of November following. On that day about two hundred and fifty Mingo and Wyandot warriors, under the command of Little Turtle, attacked, almost under cover of the guns of Fort St. Clair, a company of one hundred mounted riflemen of the Kentucky militia, commanded by Major John Adair, afterwards governor of Kentucky. Several accounts of this battle or skirmish, differing slightly, have been furnished by participants in the struggle. The first which we produce is condensed in part and in part taken word for word froma letter which James McBride, of Butler county, elicited from Joel Collins, who was in the action, and who afterward was a prominent citizen of Oxford. Writing in 1843 from memory of the events then, fifty years old, the judge stated that these men had been called out to escort a brigade of pack-horses under an order from General Wilkinson. They could then make a trip from Fort Washington, past Fort St. Clair, night under the walls of one of these military posts for protection. The Indians being elated by the check they had given our army. in the preceding year, in defeating St. Clair, determined to make a descent upon the settlement then forming at Columbia, at the mouth of the Little Miami. Some time in September two hundred and fifty warriors struck the war pole and took up their line of march. Fortunately for the infant settlement, in passing Fort Hamilton they discovered a fatigue party, with a small guard, chopping firewood east of the fort. While the men were gone to dinner the Indians formed an ambuscade, and, on their return captured two of them. The prisoners informed the Indians that on the morning previous - which must have been on Friday - a brigade of eighty or one hundred pack-horses, loaded with supplies for the two military posts in the advance, had left Fort Hamilton, escorted by a company of riflemen, mounted on fine horses, and that if they made their trip in the usual time they would be at Fort Hamilton on their return on Monday night. Upon receiving this information Little Turtie abandoned his design of breaking up the settlement above Cincinnati and fell back some twelve or fifteen miles, with a view of intercepting the brigade on its return. He formed an ambuscade on the trace at a well-selected location, which he occupied through the day that he expected the return of the escort. But as Major Adair arrived at Fort Jefferson on Saturday night, he permitted his men and horses to rest over Sunday, and thus escaped the ambuscade. On Monday night, when on their return, they encamped within a short distance of Fort St. Clair. The remainder of the letter we quote verbatim. Judge Collins wrote:

The chief of the band of Indians being informed of our position by his runners, concluded that by a night attack he could drive us out of our encampment. Accordingly he left his ambush and a short time before daybreak, on Tuesday morning, the Indians, by a discharge of rifles and raising the hideous yells for which they are distinguished, made a simultaneous attack upon three sides of the encampment leaving that open next to the fort. The horses became frightened and numbers of them broke from their fastenings. 'The camp, in consequence of this, being thrown into some confusion, Captain Adair retired with his men and formed them into three divisions, just beyond the shine of the fires, on the side next the fort, and while the enemy were endeavoring to secure the horses and plunder the camp - which seemed to be their main object - they were in turn attacked by us - on the right by the major and his division, on the left by Lieutenant George Madison, and in the center by Lieutenant Job Hale, with their respective divisions. The enemy, however, were sufficiently strong to detail a fighting party double our numbers, to protect those plundering the camp and driving off the horses, and as we had left the side from the fort open to them they soon began to move off, taking all with them,

As soon as day dawn offered light sufficient to distinguish a white man from an Indian there ensued some pretty sharp fiighting, so close in some instances as to bring in use the war-club and tomahawk. Here Lieutenant Hale was killed, and Lieutenant Madison wounded. As the Indians retreated the white men hung on their rear, but when we pressed them too close they would turn and drive us back. In this way a kind of running fight was kept up until after sunrising, when we lost sight of the enemy, and nearly all of our horses, about where the town of Eaton now stands. On returning from the pursuit our camp presented rather a discouraging appearance. Not more than six or eight horses were saved - some twenty or thirty lay dead on the ground. The loss of the enemy remained unknown. The bodies of two Indians were found among the dead horses. We gathered up our wounded - six in

' By sunset on the day of the action, we had some kind of rough coffins prepared for the slain. For the satisfaction of surviving friends, I will name them, and state that in one grave, some fifty paces west of the site of Fort St. Clair, are the remains of Captain Job Hale. Next to him on his left we laid the remains of our orderly sergeant, Matthew English, then followed the four privates, Robert Bowling, Joseph Clinton, Isaac Jett and John Williams. Dejection and even sorrow hung on the countenances of every member of the escort as we stood around or assisted in the interment of these our fellow-comrades. Hale was a noble and brave man, fascinating in his appearance and deportment as an officer. It was dusk in the evening when we completed the performance of our melancholy duty. What a change! The evening before nothing was to be seen or heard in the encampment but life and animation."

"This morning, about the first appearance of day, the enemy attacked my camp, within sight of this post. "The attack was sudden, and the enemy came on with a degree of courage that proved them warriors indeed. Some of my men were hand in hand with them before we retreated, which, however, we did to a kind of stockade, intended for stables; we then made a stand. I then ordered Lieutenant Madison to take a party and gain their right flank if possible. I called for Lieutenant Hale to send to the left, but found he had heen slain. I then led forward the men that stood near me, which, together with the ensigns, Buchanan and Florin, amounted to about twentyfive, and pressed the left of their centre, thinking it absolutely necessary to assist Madison. We made a manly push, and the enemy retreated, taking all of our horses except five or six. We drove them about six hundred yards through our camp, where they again made a stand, and we fought them for some time. Two of my men were shot dead.

"At that moment I received information that the enemy were about to flank us on the right, and on turning that way I saw about sixty of them running to that point. I had yet heard nothing of Madison. I then ordered my men to retreat; which they did with deliberation, heartily cursing the Indians, who pursued us close to our camp, where we again fought them until they gave way; and when they retreated our ammunition was almost expended, although we had been supplied from the garrison in the course of the action. I did not think proper to follow them again, but ordered my men into the garrison to draw ammunition. I returned in a few minutes to a hill to which we had first drawn them; where I found five of my men scalpcd, who were brought in.

"Since I began to write this a few of the enemy appeared in sight, and I pursued them with a party about a quarter of a mile, but could not overtake them, and did not think proper to go further. Madison, whom I sent to the right, was on the first attack wounded and obliged to retreat into the garrison, leaving a man or two dead. To this misfortune I think the enemy are indebted for the horses which they have got; had he gained their right flank and I once had possession of their left, I think we might have routed them at that stage of the action, as we had them on the retreat.

"I have six killed and five wounded; four men are missing. I think they went off early in the action on horse-back and are by this time at Fort Hamilton. My officers and a number of my men distinguished themselves greatly. Poor Hale died calling to his men to advance. Madison's bravery and conduct need no comment; they are well known, Florin and Buchanan acted with a coolness and courage that do them much honor; Buchanan after firing his gun knocked an Indian down with the barrel.

"They have killed and taken a great number of the pack-horses. I intend following them this evening some distance, to ascertain their strength and route if possible. I can, with propriety say, that about fifty of my men fought with a bravery equal to any men in the world; and had not the garrison been so nigh as a place of safety for the bashful I think many more would have fought well. The enemy have no doubt as many men killed as myself; they left two dead upon the ground and I saw two carried off. "The only advantage they have