GENERAL HARMAR’S CAMPAIGN


                      Prepared by the Staff of the
             Public Library of Fort Wayne and Allen County
                                  1954

    [Illustration: Boards of the Public Library of Fort Wayne and Allen
    County]

One of a historical series, this pamphlet is published under the
direction of the governing Boards of the Public Library of Fort Wayne
and Allen County.

           BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE SCHOOL CITY OF FORT WAYNE

  _B.F. Geyer, President_
  _Joseph E. Kramer, Secretary_
  _W. Page Yarnelle, Treasurer_
  _Mrs. Sadie Fulk Roehrs_
  _Willard Shambaugh_

                 PUBLIC LIBRARY BOARD FOR ALLEN COUNTY

The members of this Board include the members of the Board of Trustees
of the School City of Fort Wayne (with the same officers) together with
the following citizens chosen from Allen County outside the corporate
City of Fort Wayne:

  _James E. Graham_
  _Arthur Nieneier_
  _Mrs. Glenn Henderson_
  _Mrs. Charles Reynolds_




                                FOREWORD


General Josiah Harmar’s ill-fated campaign in 1790 was the first of
three historic expeditions against the Indians in the Old Northwest. The
defeat of General Arthur St. Clair followed in 1791, and the victory of
General Anthony Wayne in 1794.

The first article in this pamphlet identifies the exact sites of the
Indian villages around the three rivers. The destruction of these
villages was one of the objectives of Harmar’s campaign. The journal of
one of Harmar’s soldiers and admirers provides a firsthand account of
this expedition and is printed as the second article. The third article
is a speech delivered by James McGrew at a meeting of the Maumee Valley
Monumental and Historical Association on August 15, 1888.

The Boards and the Staff of the Public Library of Fort Wayne and Allen
County present this publication in the hope that it will increase
interest in local history. Grammar, spelling, and punctuation have been
changed to conform to current usage.




                    INDIAN VILLAGES NEAR FORT WAYNE


On October 15, 1790, Colonel Hardin and a detachment of six hundred of
General Harmar’s men reached the Indian towns at the forks of the Maumee
River. The destruction of these towns was the object of General Harmar’s
expedition. When Colonel Hardin’s command arrived at the towns, they
found them abandoned by the Indians. The principal one, called Omee
Town, had been burned. On the seventeenth, General Harmar and the
remainder of the army joined Colonel Hardin.

Most readers know that there were a number of Indian villages at and
near the junction of the St. Mary’s and St. Joseph rivers, but few
persons know the exact location of these towns. To add to the general
information which we have heretofore given on Fort Wayne’s early
history, we present the testimony of a writer who wrote a supplement to
the official account sent to the War Department. That writer included
some details which could not go into the official report. The supplement
was written in 1791 and was published in the PHILADELPHIA DAILY GENERAL
ADVERTIZER of that year; hence, it may be considered accurate. It was
read in 1840 by the late John W. Vancleve of Dayton, Ohio, who knew much
of the report to be true. With reference to the towns at the forks of
the Maumee, we quote as follows:

“There were at that time seven towns on the three rivers in the vicinity
of the confluence of the St. Joseph and St. Mary’s rivers. The principal
Miami village was called Omee Town, and among its inhabitants were a
considerable number of French traders. Omee Town stood upon the east
bank of the St. Joseph, or north side of the Maumee, directly opposite
the mouth of the St. Mary’s; it had been burned before Colonel Hardin’s
arrival. Another Miami village of thirty houses stood on the bank
opposite Omee Town. The Delawares had three villages. Two were on the
St. Mary’s about three miles from its mouth, with forty-five houses in
all; the other village was on the east bank of the St. Joseph two or
three miles from its mouth, with thirty-six houses. The Shawnee had two
villages about three miles down the Maumee. Chillicothe was on the north
bank with fifty-eight houses, and the other village of sixteen houses
was on the opposite side of the river. The army burned all the houses in
the different villages and destroyed about twenty thousand bushels of
corn which had been hidden by the Indians. Considerable property
belonging to the French traders was also destroyed.”

The above quotation contains the best information that we have found
concerning the Indian towns at this place. It locates the exact sites of
the Miami towns. The large village was built on the bottom land at the
junction of the Maumee and St. Joseph rivers, and the smaller one was on
the tract afterward called the Wells Pre-emption between Spy Run and the
St. Joseph River. It also ascertains that Chillicothe was a Shawnee town
three miles down the Maumee River. The spot is identified on which
General Harmar dated his orders on October 20, 1790, before starting his
return march to Fort Washington. The Piqua towns mentioned in some
accounts must have been the two Delaware towns located on the St. Mary’s
River which was once called the Pickaway Fork of the Maumee River.

In 1790 there were five hundred acres of cleared land at and around the
junction of the three rivers. Four years later, on the seventeenth of
September, 1794, General Wayne’s army reached the Maumee villages. The
next day that distinguished commander designated the spot on which to
build a fort. On October 22, the work was finished; and Colonel
Hamtramck, after fifteen rounds of cannon were fired, called it Fort
Wayne.


DAWSON’S FORT WAYNE DAILY TIMES, October 15, 1860




                          A SOLDIER’S JOURNAL


Colonel Joseph McMaken has obligingly furnished us for publication the
following interesting sketch of General Harmar’s campaign. The writer,
Colonel David H. Morris, Miami County, Ohio, was a sergeant in the
expedition and kept a journal of the most interesting occurrences.
Colonel Morris still has his journal and, at the request of Colonel
McMaken, transcribed this sketch. It may therefore be relied on as
correct; it is, indeed, corroborated by the statements of the late Chief
Richardville and other old residents of Fort Wayne.

“Fort Washington was the rendezvous. Colonel Hardin, with a regiment of
mounted riflemen, and James Fontaine, with a troop of cavalrymen from
Kentucky and militiamen from Pennsylvania, joined Harmar here. On
September 29, 1790, we began our march and proceeded four miles toward
the Maumee villages near where Fort Wayne now stands. On the thirtieth
of September we moved forward on the Indian trail leading to the old
Chillicothe town on the Little Miami River. When we arrived there after
several days’ marching, we fired our guns and reloaded them.

“In the evening we encamped about one mile above James Galloway’s
residence. The next day we crossed Mad River and encamped a little below
the site of New Carlisle. Here we killed twenty cows that had been
condemned because of injuries received from the stronger cattle. The
next day we crossed Indian Creek, which I named in honor of an old
Shawnee chief; the same day we crossed Lost Creek in Miami County. In
the evening we encamped two miles north of Staunton. On the following
day we crossed the Miami River, just above where Piqua is now located.
Indians who had crossed the river just before us had left their canoe.
They had killed a cub bear, cut the skin into small pieces, and placed
it on stumps. From this circumstance, we were sure that we had been
discovered. That evening we encamped near Upper Piqua and the next day
moved toward the St. Mary’s River. About midday seven Indians were
discovered and pursued by the scouting party. One of them was taken; he
proved to be a half-breed about twenty years old, and a sullen dog he
was!

“We crossed Loramie Creek next morning, where Clark or Logan had burned
a village some ten years before. After crossing the divide to the St.
Mary’s River, we encamped. A council of war decided that Colonel Hardin
with a detachment from the army should proceed by forced marches to the
Maumee villages, intercept the Indians in their flight, and, if
possible, capture their goods and furs. In this they were disappointed;
all the buildings were on fire when the detachment arrived. Directly
after Colonel Hardin took possession of the town, two Indians were fired
upon as they rode into the plain west of the St. Joseph River. The next
day their horses were found, and it was supposed from the quantity of
blood discovered that both Indians had been killed. General Harmar
arrived two days after Colonel Hardin had taken possession of the place.
The next day two Indians were discovered, and one of them was shot down
but not killed. When a young Kentuckian attempted to end the Indian’s
misery, his pistol failed to fire; the Indian raised his rifle and
fatally shot the white man through the body. We remained in this
encampment for several days; a great deal of corn, beans, and other
supplies were destroyed.

“On the evening of October 16, Captain McClure killed a Delaware chief
called Captain Pauk. On the seventeenth we remained stationary; this day
six brass kettles containing $32.00 were found buried in the hazel
thicket. On the eighteenth Colonel Hardin was sent up the St. Joseph
River to burn two towns; one was twelve and the other was eighteen miles
from our camp. At the same time General Harmar marched down the Maumee
River to Chillicothe and encamped.

“Colonel Hardin destroyed the Indian towns and on his return was
attacked about ten miles from Fort Wayne, near the late Captain Hull’s
farm at Eel River. When the Indians fired upon them, the Kentucky
mounted riflemen wheeled their horses and made for the camp. The
Pennsylvania militia and the regular soldiers were left a prey to savage
barbarity; one officer and four private soldiers never returned to the
camp. The nineteenth was spent in camp. Cannon were fired throughout the
day in hopes that some of the men had escaped the massacre and could
find the camp from the sound; none came.

    [Illustration: TWO INDIANS WERE FIRED UPON]

“On the twentieth we started home and encamped that night six or seven
miles from the Maumee villages. About midnight David Williams, a spy and
our principal guide, who had been a prisoner among the Indians for many
years and who had been left behind to observe their movements, came into
camp. He reported that about 120 Indians had collected in the bend
opposite the site of Fort Wayne. On hearing this news, a council
resolved to send a detachment back to disperse them. This force was put
under the command of Colonel Hardin, Major Willis, Captains Ashton and
Frothingham of the regulars, Major Fontaine and Captain Gains of the
Kentucky horse company, and Captains McMullen and Saunders of the
Kentucky mounted riflemen. I have forgotten the names of the other
officers.

“The troops were put in motion as quickly as possible. By sunrise they
arrived at the ford of the Maumee River. As soon as our men entered the
river, the Indians opened a brisk fire upon them. Major Fontaine
succeeded in gaining the bank and discovered the main body of Indians
concealed in ambush. He gave orders to halt until the main body of his
men got across the river; at that moment he was shot dead. By this time
the right and left flanks, composed of Kentucky mounted men, had gained
the bank. A small party of Indians on each wing fled as if defeated, and
the horsemen pursued. As soon as the horsemen were separated from the
footmen, the savages fell upon our people with the utmost fury. Major
Willis was killed charging the enemy. Captain McMullen discovered the
stratagem of the enemy, wheeled about, approached the back of the
Indians, and made dreadful havoc in their ranks. Captain Ashton was of
the opinion that forty of the enemy fell at the first fire. The Indians
gave way and were driven across the St. Joseph River with great
slaughter. Two soldiers, Captain Ashton says, signalized themselves on
this occasion by using their bayonets to gig the foe like fish.

    [Illustration: DAVID WILLIAMS CAME INTO THE CAMP]

“Richardville, a Miami chief now dead, who was in the engagement,
related that the river ran red with blood, and that he could cross the
river on dead bodies. During the battle an incident occurred that
deserves to be noticed. An old Indian had two boys who rushed into the
river by his side. One son was shot down near him; the old man dropped
his gun and seized his son to save the boy’s scalp from his enemies. The
other son was killed also. The father drew them to shore and sat down
between them, where he was killed.

“Some blame has been attached to General Harmar for not returning to aid
Colonel Hardin; it is certainly without foundation. A young Kentuckian,
who was wounded through the wrist while in the river, reported that the
enemy was completely routed and flying. In this sanguinary engagement,
eighty-three regulars were killed; only Captain Ashton and six privates
survived. In both engagements one hundred militiamen were killed.

“I cannot, in justice to my feelings, close this communication without
saying a word in commendation of General Harmar. I knew him intimately,
for I was favored with his personal friendship and was in service under
his immediate command for four years, eight months, and twenty-one days.
Throughout the whole of the campaign of which I have been writing, I was
quartered within twenty feet of the General’s marquee.

“The reader will perceive from this fact that I had the best opportunity
of observing everything that happened. My recollection is greatly
assisted by my orderly book, in which I recorded every order given by
the General and every circumstance I thought worthy of being remembered.
But to conclude, I regard General Harmar as a veteran soldier, an
accomplished gentleman, and especially as a sincere friend of the poor
soldier.

                                                        DAVID H. MORRIS”


FORT WAYNE SENTINEL, March 4, 1843

    [Illustration: THE FATHER DREW THEM TO SHORE]




                         SPEECH OF JAMES McGREW


Ladies and Gentlemen:

As I stand in your presence, I remember that my father, John McGrew, was
born in York County, Pennsylvania, in 1766, ten years before the signing
of the Declaration of Independence. I remember that he was married in
Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, and moved to near Georgetown,
Kentucky, in 1788. He was one of those men who commenced the settlement
of the Ohio Valley, the centennial of which is being so generally
celebrated this year. I remember that in 1788 my father’s brother, sick
on a flatboat that was decoyed to the shore just above the mouth of the
Licking River opposite where Cincinnati now stands, was thought to have
been tomahawked, for he was never heard from afterward. It was the
custom of the Indians to tomahawk all sick persons who could not be
carried into captivity. I also remember that my father was in the bloody
and disastrous Indian fight just across your own Maumee River in 1790.

I say I remember these facts. Yes, as they with a multitude of other
events come rushing upon my memory, I feel as though I belonged in the
dim distance of the past age. Yet, I am glad to be among you today to
assist in calling up these recollections and in doing honor to the brave
and heroic men—and women, too, God bless them—who blazed their way
through the dense forests of this northwestern region ninety to one
hundred years ago.

I do not know that I can do better than to recite much of what I wrote
to Allan H. Dougall. My letter to him was written last December at the
suggestion of the Honorable Charles F. Muhler, mayor of your city. It
came about in this way. I saw in the CHICAGO DAILY NEWS of October 23,
1887, that Henry M. Williams of your city had erected a handsome iron
fence around the ground formerly occupied by the old fort. He had also
erected a flagpole, from the top of which floated a beautiful American
flag. And he had formally presented the whole to your city on October
22, 1887, the ninety-third anniversary of the dedication of the old
fort. It was stated that this was also the ninety-seventh anniversary of
General Harmar’s battle with the Indians at the ford of the Maumee
River.

This statement called to my mind the fact that my father was in that
engagement with the Indians, and I stated this in a letter to Mayor
Muhler. In reply, he wrote me that Colonel Dougall was greatly
interested in the early history of Fort Wayne and the Maumee Valley, and
that the Colonel would be glad to learn any facts from me relating to
the early history of this area. This caused me to write the letter I
will now read. Some of you may have read it last winter when it was
published in one of your city papers. But as there are doubtless many
persons here who have not seen or heard it, you will excuse my reading
it before your society.

                                                      Kankakee, Illinois
                                                       December 11, 1887

  Allan H. Dougall, Esq.
  Fort Wayne, Indiana
  Dear Sir:

  Mayor C. F. Muhler states in his letter, dated November 22, that you
  are the local secretary of the Maumee Valley Monumental and Historical
  Association, and that you are greatly interested in the early history
  of Fort Wayne and the Maumee Valley. As my father was with General
  Harmar in his 1790 campaign against the Indians of the Old Northwest,
  Mayor Muhler wrote that you thought I must have gained a good deal of
  traditional information about the Indian campaigns between 1790 and
  1794 and about the early history of Fort Wayne.

  Well, such is the case, especially in reference to General Harmar’s
  defeat on the twenty-second of October, 1790. In order to come to a
  better understanding of what gave rise to General Harmar’s campaign
  and other expeditions against the Indians of the Northwest, it is
  necessary for us to recall the treaty made at Fort Harmar on January
  9, 1789, by Governor St. Clair with the chiefs and warriors of the
  Wyandot, Chippewa, Potawatomi, and Sauk nations. This treaty was a
  renewal and confirmation of the agreement previously made at Fort
  McIntosh, and it was hoped that the early settlers would be secure in
  a large degree from molestation by these and the other Indian tribes
  in the Ohio Valley and the Miami of the Lakes. Undoubtedly this
  treaty, which gave the general impression that immigrants to the Ohio
  Valley would be secure against serious molestation, induced the tide
  of immigration in this direction immediately thereafter.

  But it was soon found that notwithstanding this treaty, roving bands
  of Indians were continuing to commit depredations upon all the new
  settlements. Horses, cattle, and other forms of property were stolen;
  settlers were captured and carried off as prisoners; and quite a
  number of white men were killed near the Miami River. The feeling of
  alarm and insecurity became very general, and blockhouses were erected
  in nearly all the new settlements.

  In June, 1789, Major Doughty with about 140 men commenced building
  Fort Washington where Cincinnati now stands. In the fall of that year,
  General Harmar with three hundred men arrived and took possession of
  the fort. After all negotiations with the Indians had failed, General
  Harmar was ordered to attack their towns. In compliance with this
  order, in the summer and fall of 1790 he gathered a force of thirteen
  hundred men at Fort Washington. Less than one fourth of the men were
  regular soldiers; the others were volunteer militiamen. In September
  he commenced his march against the Indians of the Maumee country,
  known in early times as the Miami of the Lakes. The Indians were
  constantly committing depredations upon the white settlers in southern
  Ohio, northern Kentucky, and, indeed, throughout the entire Ohio
  Valley.

  My father, who had moved from Pennsylvania to Kentucky in 1788, was
  one of the mounted volunteers who accompanied General Harmar. They
  marched, as I now recollect, via Greenville, Ohio, to the Maumee
  country, where they destroyed a few patches of corn and an Indian
  village near the site of Fort Wayne. Having accomplished this, General
  Harmar proposed to march back to Fort Washington. This caused great
  dissatisfaction among the volunteer forces; and a proposition was made
  to recruit volunteers to attack the Indians, who were known to be not
  far beyond the north side of the Maumee River.

  The volunteer force was organized under Colonel Hardin and other brave
  officers. On the morning of October 22, 1790, they forded the Maumee
  River and pushed north to a small prairie, with a boggy strip in the
  middle which was troublesome to cross on horseback. The Indians lay
  concealed in the timber on the opposite side. The two rangers and the
  greater part of the command had crossed the bog and were approaching
  the timber, wholly unconscious of impending danger, when suddenly the
  rangers were shot down. My father said:

  “There was an awful pause; then all at once the whole forest seemed on
  fire (this was the result of flintlocks), accompanied by the reports
  of hundreds of rifles, which sent a shower of bullets into our ranks
  and resulted in fearful loss of life. My comrades fell on all sides.”

  In the hasty retreat that followed, the horses made a rapid approach
  to the bog and naturally sank into it. While they were struggling
  through the quagmire, the Indians had a decided advantage. The
  greatest loss of life occurred here and at the attempted refording of
  the river. The survivors were scattered in every direction.

  My father was one of the five who, under the leadership of “Indian
  Davie” (who at one time had been an Indian prisoner), pushed northward
  through a terrible tangle of grapevines, greenbriers, and hazel brush
  which grew along the St. Joseph River. They succeeded in crossing the
  river quite a distance above its junction with the St. Mary’s. Then
  they made their way back on the west side of the river to a point
  nearly opposite Harmar’s headquarters. Here they crossed the St.
  Mary’s River and came into camp with their clothes almost torn off
  them and their flesh fearfully lacerated by thorns and greenbriers.

  My father was very severe in his denunciation of General Harmar. He
  said that Harmar neither sent help to cover the retreating forces nor
  provided help which the wounded men needed to get back to camp. All
  Harmar did was to keep a cannon booming so that the stragglers might
  know where the camp was. Once, after having heard what someone had
  written in palliation of Harmar’s conduct on that occasion, my father
  replied: “There is not a word of truth in what he says; Harmar was a
  distressed old coward.”

  To give you some idea of my father’s courage and daring, I will
  mention one instance. He moved from Kentucky in 1796 and located five
  miles south of Dayton, Ohio. Soon after he settled there, the Indians
  stole a mare and two colts from him. Later he found two of the horses
  at an Indian camp just across the Miami River from Dayton. He tried to
  get someone in Dayton to go with him to get the mare and colt, but no
  one dared go. He went to the camp about sundown. As there were only
  two or three squaws in camp, he took his mare and colt and made all
  possible speed toward home, which he reached in safety and where he
  stood sentinel all night.

  Mrs. Shroyer saw him pass two miles south of Dayton. A short time
  later she was shocked and trembled with fear as she saw three Indians
  in hot pursuit with rifles and tomahawks. Fortunately, night came on,
  and they lost his trail. The next day my father took his rifle and
  went alone to the camp. By signs he made them understand that he had
  retrieved the mare and colt that they had stolen from him. He demanded
  the other two-year-old colt. By signs, they indicated that it was
  dead. The Indians never disturbed him again.

  My father was engaged in forwarding supplies for General William Henry
  Harrison’s forces at the time of the fight with the Indians at the
  Battle of Tippecanoe. I was with my father at Germantown, Montgomery
  County, Ohio, in the summer of 1840, when he met General Harrison
  (afterward President Harrison) for the first time after the Tippecanoe
  campaign. Had I time, I could tell you other exploits of my father
  with the Indians, but I forbear wearing out your patience. I doubt if
  there is another man living whose father was in that fight with the
  Indians on October 22 at the ford of the Maumee.

  Most of this information is traditional, handed down from father to
  son. I have been greatly helped in calling to mind many of these
  incidents and occurrences by my brother-in-law, Dr. Samuel H. Binkley,
  of Alexanderville, Montgomery County, Ohio. He is a geologist of high
  standing and is one of the noted archaeologists in the country. Dr.
  Binkley has one of the finest geological and archaeological cabinets
  to be seen in the West. This collection is closely related to
  historical and monumental matters.

  I will mention that I, too, have some early recollections of Fort
  Wayne. In the fall of 1838 I passed through here, driving a
  three-horse team moving a relative to Whitley County, Indiana, near
  where Columbia City now stands. As I now recollect, Fort Wayne was
  then a town of log houses, principally. I think the courthouse was a
  square building with a roof run up to a point from all four sides. If
  I am not right in this, some of you old settlers can correct me. I
  passed through this city in 1846 or 1847 on a canalboat with Mr.
  Tabour, an early settler at Logansport. About the same time, I passed
  through with Mr. Elsworth, of Lafayette, who was at that time
  commissioner of patents at Washington. In 1856 Olif Johnson and
  Colonel Sweet of Galva, Illinois, General Thomas Henderson, now in
  Congress from the seventh Illinois district, and I went bathing (we
  called it swimming) in the Maumee River a short distance below your
  then small city.

                                                        Sincerely yours,
                                                            JAMES McGREW

You will agree that I have some personal recollections of your city and
the Maumee country. I think of Fort Wayne and the Maumee country as
historic ground, baptised with the blood of brave and patriotic men.
These men were as heroic as any who have lived in this country; and
their toils, hardships, daring, and courage, as well as their
patriotism, deserve to be kept green in our memories.


FORT WAYNE JOURNAL, August 16, 1888




                          Transcriber’s Notes


—Silently corrected a few typos.

—Retained publication information from the printed edition: this eBook
  is public-domain in the country of publication.

—In the text versions only, text in italics is delimited by
  _underscores_.