Battle of the Wabash
The Battle of the Wabash, fought on November 4, 1791, was a significant conflict between a coalition of Native American tribes and the United States military during the early years of American expansion. The Native forces, led by the Miami chief Little Turtle, comprised various tribes, including the Shawnee and Lenni Lenape, united in their resistance against American encroachment following treaties that disregarded their land rights. This battle arose after a previous U.S. military expedition led by Brigadier General Josiah Harmar faced a critical defeat, which heightened Native American unity and morale.
The American forces, commanded by Major General Arthur St. Clair, were poorly trained and inadequately equipped. Lacking effective discipline and organization, St. Clair's troops suffered heavy losses when they were ambushed by Little Turtle's warriors at dawn. The encounter resulted in one of the most devastating defeats for the U.S. military, with a significant portion of St. Clair's troops either killed, wounded, or captured. The battle is notable for its impact on both American military strategy and Native American resistance, leading to a temporary decline in Native unity until Major General Anthony Wayne's later successes opened the region for American settlement.
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Battle of the Wabash
Date: November 4, 1791
Place: Mercer County, Ohio
Tribes affected: Huron, Iroquois Confederacy, Lenni Lenape, Miami, Ojibwa, Ottawa, Potawatomi, Shawnee
Significance: Usually known as St. Clair’s defeat, this victory of the Maumee Valley tribes and their confederates from around the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley constitutes perhaps the most dramatic defeat of the U.S. Army at the hands of Native Americans in the history of the Indian wars of 1790-1890
During the 1780’s and 1790’s, Indian resistance to American encroachment north of the Ohio River rose to new heights. Led primarily by the Miami, Shawnee, and Lenni Lenape (Delaware), the western Algonquian-speaking peoples felt betrayed by the Treaty of Paris of 1783, which placed their homelands within the United States. They also assumed that the Treaty of Fort Stanwix (1768) was still valid, with its prohibition of white settlement in what became the Northwest Territory. The British encouraged them by stationing soldiers at Fort Detroit and through the blandishments of their Indian Department representatives, who raised Indian expectations.
Many of the militant Indians settled along the upper Wabash and Maumee River valleys. Under the nominal leadership of the Miami war chief Little Turtle (Michikinikwa), the tribes most associated with him were the Shawnee (led by Blue Jacket, or Wyeapiersenwah) and the Lenni Lenape (led by Buckongahelas). Little Turtle’s warriors inflicted a critical defeat on the first United States military incursion into their territory. Brigadier General Josiah Harmar’s expedition to the Maumee forks (Fort Wayne, Indiana) was badly mauled in two engagements by a pan-Indian force in October, 1791. This defeat caused President George Washington to name the Northwest Territory’s governor, Arthur St. Clair, as a major general commanding a second expedition into the Maumee Valley.
Harmar’s defeat raised Little Turtle’s reputation and increased Indian Unity throughout the region. The Maumee Confederacy’s contacts and support stretched from Lake Superior to the Lower Creek villages in modern Alabama. The coalitions of Pontiac and Tecumseh were never as broad or as unified as this one. Miami, Shawnee, and Lenni Lenape war-riors would be joined by Ojibwa, Potawatomi, Huron (Wyandot), and Ottawa militants and there was some coordination with the Cherokees and Creeks to the south. With Little Turtle in nominal command, the Indians’ consensual and tribal kinship approach to combat proved effective in this campaign.
St. Clair’s ill-trained and poorly equipped regulars, plus even less effective and less disciplined militia volunteers, left Cincinnati at the end of September, 1791. St. Clair’s regulars constituted almost all the combat troops in the U.S. Army. By November 3 they had advanced only 89 miles, and discipline was so poor that entrenched encampments were no longer maintained. The American encampment near the Wabash River’s source (now Fort Recovery, Ohio) was divided between regular and militia units, thereby diluting St. Clair’s command authority even more.
The Indians advanced south from the Glaize (modern Defiance County, Ohio), keeping their presence and size hidden from St. Clair. Little Turtle struck at dawn on November 4, and his thousand warriors quickly overran the militia camp, pushing the survivors into an ever smaller killing zone among the regulars. With his forces encircled, St. Clair’s attempts to rally his defense failed. Indian marksmanship directed at the officers contributed to the disorganization. Eventually a breakout to the south was successful for about a third of the fourteen hundred American soldiers. The remainder were killed, wounded, or taken prisoner. Never before or since has such a high proportion of the total United States military establishment been defeated. Approximately twenty-one Indians died, and forty were wounded.
It would be three years before Major General Anthony Wayne would lead a third expedition toward the Maumee Valley. In the meantime, Indian unity declined. Wayne’s subsequent victory at the Battle of Fallen Timbers opened the Ohio country for American settlement.
Bibliography
Dowd, Gregory Evans. A Spirited Resistance: The North American Indian Struggle for Unity, 1745-1815. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992.
Eid, Leroy V. “American Indian Military Leadership: St. Clair’s 1791 Defeat.” Journal of Military History 57 (January, 1993): 71-88.
Tanner, Helen Hunt. “The Glaize in 1792: A Composite Indian Community.” Ethnohistory 25 (Winter, 1978): 15-39.