"Yes; he took possession of and fortified the place where St. Clair
was defeated, and called it Fort Recovery. That was in 1794. On the
30th of June he was attacked by about a thousand Indians with some
British soldiers and Canadian volunteers, who assailed the garrison
several times. Fifty-seven Americans were killed, wounded, and
missing; also 221 horses. The Indians said they lost more than in
their battle with St. Clair.
"A few weeks later Wayne was joined by Major-General Scott with 1600
mounted volunteers from Kentucky, and two days later he moved forward
with his whole force toward the Maumee. Remembering the sad fate of
St. Clair and his men, Wayne moved very cautiously; so slowly and
stealthily that the Indians called him the 'Black Snake.' He had
faithful, competent scouts and guides, and he moved by unfrequented
ways, with perplexing feints. Twenty-five miles beyond Fort Recovery
he built Fort Adams. Again he moved forward for four days, then
encamped on a beautiful plain at the confluence of the Maumee and
Auglaize rivers, on the site of the present town of Defiance; I
presume from the fort Wayne built there, and which he called Fort
Defiance. He found there a deserted Indian town with at least a
thousand acres of corn growing around it. Wayne was now in full
possession of power to subjugate and destroy the Indians, but,
unwilling to shed blood unnecessarily, he sent them a message with
kind words. 'Be no longer deceived or led astray by false promises and
language of bad white men at the foot of the rapids; they have neither
the power nor the inclination to protect you.'
"He offered them peace and tranquillity, and invited them to send
deputies to meet him in council without delay.
"But they rejected his overtures, and said in reply, 'Stay where you
are for ten days, and we will treat with you; but if you advance we
will give you battle.'
"Wayne was, however, too wise and wary to be deceived by them. He saw
that nothing but a severe blow would break the spirit of the tribes
and end the war, and, as Lossing says, he resolved to inflict it
mercilessly.
"On the 15th of August his legion moved forward, and on the 18th took
post at the head of the rapids, near the present town of Waterville,
where they established a magazine of supplies and baggage, protected
by military works, and named it Fort Deposit. There, on the 19th,
Wayne called a council of war and adopted a plan of march and battle
proposed by Lieutenant Harrison."
"Afterward general, papa?"
"Yes, nineteen years later he had become general-in-chief, and
performed gallant exploits in this same valley of the Maumee.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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