harmar s defeat at was first fruits of military policy which has sacrificed Sari fied americans on altar of by ELMO SCOTT WATSON released Ra leased by western newspaper union i N THE month of october october I 1 IN 1790 the present site of if fort wayne ind was the scene of two significant military enga engagements cements ge ments they not only were the first of a series of disasters which overtook our regular army during a century of conflict with the indians but they marked the beginning of a blundering military policy that repeatedly sacrificed american lives on the altar of unprepared ness 7 these two engagements have come down in history as harmars defeat thus for a century and a half the name of the first general in chiet chief of the united states army and the beginning of our permanent military establishment have been linked with the ideas of failure and disaster harmar born in philadelphia adelphia la on july 25 1753 had served in the revolution under washington and greene his war record although not brilliant had been an honorable one in the year 1784 the continental congress after having set the strength of the permanent military forces of the new nation at 80 men asked four states to furnish forthwith from their militia men to serve for 12 months unless sooner discharged thus was inaugurated our system of depending upon militia tor for providing the bulk of our armed forces a system which was repeatedly to prove such a dismal failure in wartime war time emergencies gen cies cles harmar was made mad e lieu tenant colonel commandant and assumed command of the troops on august 12 1784 his rank made him the senior officer jn n the service of the united states so he automatically became general in chief n 1 Y A rn GEN JOSIAH HARMAR after the adoption of the constitution ution and the election of wash ington as president harmar was kept in command of the army by gen henry knox secretary of war with most of its domestic problems on the way toa to a sol solution u administration was able to turn its attention toward the indian problem in the west the wave of emigration that had begun to pour into kentucky then seep north into the ohio aou country was bitterly resisted by the indians gen arthur st clair governor of the northwest territory had tried tri edin in vain to bring peace to the harried frontier by negotiations with the indians when these efforts failed washington appealed to congress for money enough to carry on an a successful campaign against the hostiles ho stiles but that body jittery over the imaginary dangers of a large standing army declined to make the necessary appropriations so when general harmar set out for the west with an ex force to whip the indians into submission it was pitifully inadequate for that task although it numbered more than 1400 men only of these were regu regulars gars and the remainder were militia three battalions of virginians ona one of pennsylva anians and one of mounted light troops from kentucky not only were the majority of these troops wretched stuff for the stem task ahead of them but their equipment was deplorable such was the army that was sent against the hundreds of wyandot shawnee and miami warriors their exact fi number timber is unknown 0 wn who had repeatedly proved themselves formidable fighters skilled in the type of warfare that had overwhelmed braddock in 1755 1758 and led by one of the greatest chieftains this continent ever produced he was little turtle of the on october A 4 harmars army left fort washington site of the present city of cincinnati and moved north near the st marys river 10 days later harmar sent colonel hardin with a company A MA fl DEFEAT E V VE k jt I N 1 flint FIGHT BETWEEN MILITIA e A band INDIANS ka cp ali ahro r V Y 1 A W A f xa INDIANS e 0 T ec CAMP rosus 2 of regulars and militia to push on to the miami villages at the head of the maumee river hardin found the indian towns on both banks of the st joseph deserted but the red men had left behind a number of cows and gr great t stores of vegetables and gr grain in including bushels of corn hardins bardins Har dins men immediately began plundering and it was with great difficulty that their officers brought them under control on october 19 the general sent a detachment of men under colonel hardin at his request to locate the encampment of the retreating indians and bring them to battle into an ambuscade Ambus nade five miles from the village the soldiers came upon an abandoned indian camp where hardin deployed e his forces but neglected to arrange for any real co ordina tion of their movements three miles further on they discovered two indians on foot who tried to escape in the underbrush and tb throwing rowing caution to the winds the soldiers plunged forward in pursuit the result was that har dins command was drawn into an ambuscade that had been prepared by little turtle whose warriors opened up with a fusillade of musketry that threw the soldiers into confusion at the first fire of the savages the militia with the exception of nine men fled without firing a shot these nine joined the little detachment of 30 regulars led by captain armstrong and E ensign hartshorn who were standing their ground and returning the savages fire which was now concentrated cent rated upon them the nine militiamen were shot down but the regulars made a brave resistance with their bayonets until 22 of the 30 had been killed the next morning harmar issued a general order I 1 berating the shameful coward cowardly li conduct of the militia who ran away and threw down their arms without scarcely firing a shot next the commander ordered an advance against the shawnee village of Chilli chillicothe to destroy that town and the supplies stored there this was successfully accomplished but harmar was so dis heartened by the evident demoralization aliza tion of his army that he decided upon an immediate retreat to fort washington the movement began on the morning of october 21 and by evening the army had gone into camp seven miles southeast of the present city of fort wayne then colonel hardin still chagrined over his failure two days earlier went to the commander and outlined a plan for snatching victory from defeat believing that the indians would swarm back to their burned villages he would make a swift night march with a picked force of men and fall upon the unsuspecting savages harmar was dubious of the wisdom of the scheme but hardin was so persistent in his pleading that the commander finally gave his consent accordingly late that night a force of picked militiamen and 60 regulars corn commanded byman by maj john P wy wyllys 11 ys set out for the miami villages they reached their objective soon after sunrise undiscovered by the indians indiana who were busily engaged in trying to salvage some of their property from froin the burned village A plan that failed the plan of battle was a good one and probably would have succeeded had it not been for an action characteristic of undisciplined cip lined troops major hall with a battalion of militia was to take a circuitous route to the westward cross the st marys rl river verat bat the ford and there in the rear of the village walt wait until they heard the noise of the attack by major battalion major fontaines mounted riflemen and the regulars under major wyllys the latter would then move across the tho maumee and drive the surprised ravages savages against the guns of halls battalion hall reached his position unobserved but one ot of his men disobeyed orders fired ata at a lone indian and alarmed the village before the other troops were in position the aroused savages quickly discovered them and little turtle quickly sensing that hall offered offer ed no serious threat concentrated cent rated his attention on the main body of troops soon small groups of indians were seen streaming away to the northeast and militia and fontaines tain s horsemen pursued them leaving wyllys and the regulars unsupported undaunted by this fact the regulars advanced across the river and attempted to for force ce their way up the river where a large force of indians opened a hot fire upon them wyllys was 0 one ne of the first killed and the others were driven back into the river which was soon literally choked with the bodies of men and horses meanwhile major majo fontaine was hotly engaged with another force of indians who shot down the major and killed a number of his men but immediately afterwards the savages were attacked in the rear by halls men there was a short fierce struggle then halls and fontaines forces fell back in confusion to the ford across the maumee where they joined the remnants of the regulars in their retreat one of the horsemen who had escaped from the field bore the news of the new disaster to harmar who immediately ordered a detachment of militia to march to the aid of their comrades but such was the demoralization of the militia that only 30 of them were willing to go when hardin arrived in camp and urged the commander to lead his entire force against the enemy harmar har mar having lost LITTLE TURTLE after the portrait by gilbert stuart destroyed when the british burned the national capital in 1814 all confidence in his soldiers refused to go the next day he continued his retreat to fort washington where he arri arrived ved on november 4 the Ame americans rigans loss was given as killed and 31 wounded a although it is probable that some of these numbers were men who had deserted and made their way back to kentucky harmar claimed that his men had killed at least indians and regarded did his campaign as a success despite the fact that a court of inquiry was appointed to investigate what the authorities considered a serious disaster disante r the court exonerated him of all blame and he was retained in the service as adjutant general of the pennsylvania troops in this capacity capaci tk he rendered good service in providing men tor for the army of gen arthur st clair which suffered an even worse defeat the next year and thearty th the army earmy of gen anthony wayne which finally whipped the indians at the battle of fallen timbers in 1794 he here re signed from the army in ia 1799 and entered the mercantile business in philadelphia where he died august 20 1813