Description
Book SynopsisOn November 4, 1791, a coalition of warriors determined to set the Ohio River as a permanent boundary between tribal lands and white settlements faced an army led by Arthur St. Clair – the resulting horrific struggle ended in the greatest defeat of an American army at the hands of Native Americans.
The road to the battle of the Wabash began when Arthur St. Clair was appointed to lead an army into the heart of the Ohio Indian Confederacy while building a string of fortifications along the way. He would face difficulties in recruiting, training, feeding, and arming volunteer soldiers. From the moment St. Clair’s shattered force began its retreat from the Wabash the men blamed the officers, and the officers in turn blamed their men. For over two centuries most historians have blamed either the officer corps, enlisted soldiers, an entangled logistical supply line, poor communications, or equipment. The destruction of the army resulted in a stunned Congress authorising a regular army in 1792.
This book, the result of 30 years’ research, puts the battle into the context of the last quarter of the 18th century, exploring how the central importance of land ownership to Europeans arriving in North America resulted in unrelenting demographic pressure on indigenous tribes, as well as the enormous obstacles standing in the way of the fledgling American Republic in paying off its enormous war debts.
This is the story of how a small band of determined indigenous peoples defended their homeland, destroyed an invading American army, and forced a fundamental shift in the way in which the United States waged war.
Trade ReviewWar Along the Wabash is an excellent introduction to the Washington Administration’s Indian policy as well as that of the post-revolutionary United States and a guide to a significant, but often overlooked battle of the early Indian Wars. * War History Network *
Rescuing from an undeserved obscurity one of the great triumphs of 18th Century Native Americans over the U. S. Military, War Along the Wabash is a seminal work of meticulous research and scholarship. * Midwest Book Review *
Table of Contents1 The American World in 1791 2 The Post-War War 3 Land 4 Woodland Indians 5 Arthur St. Clair 6 Futile Attempts at Control 7 Indian Warfare 8 The Indian Confederacy 9 The Annihilation of Native Culture: Alcohol, Demographics and Disease 10 Little Turtle of the Miami; Blue Jacket of the Shawnee 11 Assembling an Army. A chronological Narration of the St. Clair Campaign Between March 1791 to November 1791
