About the Massacre In Ohio, US Armies Biggest Defeat with over 600 Dead
The massacre of St. Clair that left over 700 Americans dead in the field in absent from most history books. The loss of life is far more than that lost by Custer.
It was now evident to the government that large measures
must be taken to establish the authority of the United States among
the Indians and protect their Ohio settlements. Washington called
Gov, St. Clair to Philadelphia, and with the approval of Congress
placed him in command of an army to be organized for a new In-
dian expedition. On October 4, 1791, Gen, St. Clair, at the head
of some three thousand troops, hardly better in quality than those
under Harmar, set out from Fort Washington. The plan was to
proceed northward along the present western line of the state and
establish a line of Forts to be properly maintained as permanent
points for military operation and protection. Forts Hamilton, St.
Clair and Jefferson, the latter near Greenville, were erected. But
when the expedition, now about twenty-five hundred strong, had
reached a branch of the Wabash in what is now Mercer county,
some thirty miles from Fort Jefferson, it was attacked by an allied
force of Indians, fifteen hundred strong, under Little Turtle. It
was a desperate, irregular combat, the troops were completely
demoralized and panic stricken, and indulged in "a most ignominious
flight," with the woeful loss of over six hundred killed and two
hundred and fifty wounded, a loss equal to that of the American
army at Germantown, when Gen. Washington suffered one of the
worst defeats and greatest losses of the Revolution.
The Indian question had now become more serious than ever
before, and there was great danger of the disaffection spreading
among the Six Nations, with whom the whites had been at peace
since the treaty of Fort Harmar. Washington anxiously scanned
the list of officers for a reliable successor to St. Clair
It was now evident to the government that large measures
must be taken to establish the authority of the United States among
the Indians and protect their Ohio settlements. Washington called
Gov, St. Clair to Philadelphia, and with the approval of Congress
placed him in command of an army to be organized for a new In-
dian expedition. On October 4, 1791, Gen, St. Clair, at the head
of some three thousand troops, hardly better in quality than those
under Harmar, set out from Fort Washington. The plan was to
proceed northward along the present western line of the state and
establish a line of Forts to be properly maintained as permanent
points for military operation and protection. Forts Hamilton, St.
Clair and Jefferson, the latter near Greenville, were erected. But
when the expedition, now about twenty-five hundred strong, had
reached a branch of the Wabash in what is now Mercer county,
some thirty miles from Fort Jefferson, it was attacked by an allied
force of Indians, fifteen hundred strong, under Little Turtle. It
was a desperate, irregular combat, the troops were completely
demoralized and panic stricken, and indulged in "a most ignominious
flight," with the woeful loss of over six hundred killed and two
hundred and fifty wounded, a loss equal to that of the American
army at Germantown, when Gen. Washington suffered one of the
worst defeats and greatest losses of the Revolution.
The Indian question had now become more serious than ever
before, and there was great danger of the disaffection spreading
among the Six Nations, with whom the whites had been at peace
since the treaty of Fort Harmar. Washington anxiously scanned
the list of officers for a reliable successor to St. Clair
