Description: This photograph of a hand-drawn military map shows the encampment and disposition of forces during St. Clair's Defeat on November 4, 1791, near the future Fort Recovery, Ohio. St. Clair's Defeat is also known as the Battle of the Wabash and the Battle of Kekionga. The sketch shows the battle lines and location of battalions, artillery, the American Indian forces, and line of retreat. A handwritten caption reads: "The light I am in will not give me time fully to explain this plan of the action of the [indecipherable]." In November 1791, Arthur St. Clair, the governor of the Northwest Territory, led a U.S. military force against the Miami tribe in the area of the Wabash River in western Ohio, near several Miami villages. On the morning of November 4, under the leadership of Shawnee chief Weyapiersenwah (Blue Jacket) and Miami chief Mishikinakwa (Little Turtle), a large alliance of seasoned volunteer warriors moved against the attacking forces. The American Indians engaged in the battle came primarily from nine different tribes, including the Wyandots, Seneca, Cherokee, Ojibwe, Ottawa, Potawatomi, Shawnee, Delaware, and Miami. Many of the militiamen under St. Clair immediately fled as the American Indians surrounded their’ camp. After three hours of fighting, the remaining U.S. soldiers fought their way out and began a lengthy retreat. The survivors reached Fort Jefferson late that afternoon and evening. Facing limited quantities of food and supplies at Fort Jefferson, St. Clair ordered his forces to Fort Washington. Of the 1,400 men who served under St. Clair, 623 soldiers were killed and another 258 wounded. One of the survivors stated, "The ground was literally covered with the dead." The American Indians had soundly defeated St. Clair's army; this loss, one of the worst defeats of the American military at the hands of the American Indians, would come to be known as "St. Clair’s Defeat." View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL06996
Subjects: Military maps; Military encampments; Kekionga, Battle of, Ohio, 1791; St. Clair, Arthur, 1734-1818; Little Turtle, 1747?-1812; Miami Indians; Fort Recovery (Ohio);
Places: Fort Recovery (Ohio); Mercer County (Ohio)
 

Description: This black-and-white illustration portrays the death of Richard Butler (1743-1791), frontiersman and military leader, on November 4, 1791, during the Battle of the Wabash (also known as St. Clair’s Defeat). It comes from an engraving in "History of the Discovery of America," written by Henry Trumbull and first published in 1811. The uniformed Butler is reclining against a tree, his right hand raised in supplication or in self-defense, as an American Indian man armed with a tomahawk approaches. Butler was born in Dublin, Ireland, and at age five came to North America with his father. They settled in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Richard Butler had a long career in the military, serving an ensign in Bouquet's Expedition in 1764 and an officer in the Continental Army during the American Revolution. He participated in the Battle of Saratoga and eventually attained the rank of brigadier-general. In 1783 the Confederation Congress appointed him to be an Indian commissioner. He helped to negotiate a treaty with the Iroquois tribe, determining their western boundary with the United States. In 1785 the Confederation Congress sent George Rogers Clark, Arthur Lee, and Butler to the Ohio Country to negotiate a treaty with the Delaware, the Wyandot, the Ottawa, and the Chippewa. Treaty negotiations took place at Fort McIntosh. Most of the tribal representatives were younger chiefs who did not have the legal authority to negotiate a treaty; despite this, American commissioners pressed for a treaty. After several weeks of negotiations and the consumption of a lot of alcohol provided by the Americans, the American Indians signed the Treaty of Fort McIntosh on January 21, 1785. Tribal leaders agreed that they lived under the American government and could not form alliances with any other powers. They were forced to relinquish their lands in southern and eastern Ohio, and were confined to the western corner of modern-day Ohio. Many American Indians rejected the treaty. The Shawnee were especially opposed to the treaty because they lost claim to all of their lands in southwestern Ohio. Later that year, the Confederation Congress sent Butler and Samuel Holden Parsons to negotiate a new treaty with the Shawnee. The negotiations took place at Fort Finney near what is now Cincinnati. The Shawnee refused to give up their land, but Butler and Parsons threatened them with attack. Shawnee chiefs, fearing the power of the American military, agreed to the Treaty of Fort Finney on February 1, 1786. The Shawnee agreed to relinquish all claims to their land in southwestern Ohio and southern Indiana, and would move to the land set aside for them in the Treaty of Fort McIntosh. The Americans also promised to keep white squatters from settling on land reserved exclusively for the tribes. Butler spent the remainder of the 1780s as the superintendent of Indian Affairs for the Northern District of America. He also served in the Pennsylvania legislature. Butler was killed during St. Clair's Defeat, a major confrontation between the U.S. military and a large alliance of American Indians, led by Shawnee chief Weyapiersenwah (Blue Jacket) and Miami chief Mishikinakwa (Little Turtle). View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL06995
Subjects: Butler, Richard, 1743-1791; Kekionga, Battle of, Ohio, 1791; American Revolutionary War, 1775-1783; American Indians--Warfare
Places: Ohio; Northwest Territory
 

Description: This image is an engraved portrait of Major Ebenezer Denny (1761-1882), Revolutionary War soldier and first mayor of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In this portrait, Denny is wearing a ruffled shirt and a high-collared waistcoat and coat. This engraving appears opposite the title page of his book "Military Journal of Major Ebenezer Denny, An Officer in the Revolutionary and Indian Wars" (1859), published in Philadelphia. Denny was born March 11, 1761, in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and joined the Continental Army in 1778. He witnessed the British surrender at the 1781 Siege of Yorktown (Yorktown, Virginia) and wrote a description of that event in his war journal. It is one of the most frequently quoted accounts of the event. After the Revolutionary War, Denny also witnessed two of the worst military defeats of U.S. military forces by American Indians: Harmar’s Campaign and St. Clair’s Defeat. Both events occurred in the Northwest Territory, in present-day Ohio. In fall 1790, Josiah Harmar, commander of the U.S. army in the Northwest Territory, was stationed at Fort Washington (present-day Cincinnati). He received orders from Secretary of War Henry Knox to end the threat of American Indian attack in western Ohio. Harmar marched from Fort Washington with 320 regular soldiers and roughly 1,100 militiamen, primarily from Pennsylvania and Kentucky. The militiamen were poorly trained and badly equipped, and the U.S. forces were soundly defeated in a series of battles with the American Indian forces led by Miami chief Mishikinakwa (Little Turtle). Following Harmar's defeat, native attacks against settlers increased. In 1791, Major-General Arthur St. Clair, governor of the Northwest Territory, led another campaign against the American Indian tribes in western Ohio, hoping to succeed where Harmar had failed. Lieutenant Ebenezer Denny was St. Clair’s aide-de-camp. St. Clair ordered the construction of forts in what is now western Ohio. He and his men left Fort Washington in September 1791. After a two-day journey, the troops stopped and built Fort Hamilton. Then they advanced forty-five miles northward and built Fort Jefferson. From the beginning of his campaign, St. Clair had trouble with his poorly trained and demoralized troops. Although it was still early fall, his men faced cold temperatures, rain, snowfall, and insufficient food. Despite these problems, St. Clair continued to advance against the Miami natives. By November 3, his men had arrived on the banks of the Wabash River, near some of the Miami villages. The next day Little Turtle, along with Shawnee chief Weyapiersenwah (Blue Jacket), led a large alliance of seasoned volunteer warriors from nine different American Indian tribes against the U.S. troops and soundly defeated them. In his account of the day’s events, Denny wrote, “The ground was literally covered with the dead.” The battle known as “St. Clair’s Defeat” remains the worst defeat of the U.S. Army at the hands of American Indians. On November 19, Denny left for Philadelphia, where he had the unenviable task of informing President George Washington and Secretary of War Knox of the defeat. Washington demanded that St. Clair resign from the army. St. Clair did so on April 7, 1792, but remained governor of the Northwest Territory. In 1794, Washington dispatched General Anthony Wayne to succeed where St. Clair had failed. Wayne defeated the Native Americans at the Battle of Fallen Timbers in August 1794. In 1795, most natives in modern-day Ohio signed the Treaty of Greeneville, relinquishing all of their land holdings in Ohio except what is now the northwestern corner of the state. Denny continued his military service until 1794, when he resigned his commission and settled near Pittsburgh. He entered local politics and held several offices before being elected the city’s first mayor in 1816. He resigned the office in 1817 because of ill health. He died in July 1822. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL07028
Subjects: American Revolutionary War, 1775-1783; Kekionga, Battle of, Ohio, 1791; American Indians--Warfare; Northwest Territory--History; Veterans; Mayors
Places: Carlisle (Pennsylvania); Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania);