On November 4, 1791, a coalition of warriors determined to make the Ohio River 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 a U.S. army at the hands of the Native Americans.
The path to the Battle of Wabash began when Arthur St. Clair was appointed to lead an army into the heart of the Ohio Indian Confederacy while building a series of fortifications along the way. It would have difficulty recruiting, training, feeding and arming volunteer soldiers. From the moment St. Clair's broken forces began their retreat from the Wabash, the men blamed the officers, and the officers in turn blamed their men. For more than two centuries, most historians have blamed the officer corps, enlisted soldiers, a tangled logistical supply line, poor communications, or equipment. The army's destruction resulted in a stunned Congress authorizing the creation of a regular army in 1792.
This book, the result of 30 years of research, places the battle in the context of the last quarter of the 18th century, exploring how the central importance of land ownership for Europeans arriving in North America led to relentless population pressure on the tribes indigenous people, as well as the enormous obstacles that stand in the way of the young American Republic in repaying its enormous war debts.
It is the story of how a small group of determined indigenous peoples defended their homeland, destroyed an invading U.S. army, and forced a fundamental change in the way the United States fought war.
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