The Land of the Miamis: An Account of the Struggle to Secure Possession of the North-West from the End of the Revolution until 1812Barce, Elmore
History
The Land of the Miamis: An Account of the Struggle to Secure Possession of the North-West from the End of the Revolution until 1812
Barce, Elmore
Indians of North America -- Wars -- 1750-1815; Miami Indians; Northwest, Old -- History
McKee, who had done so much to inflame the war between the tribes and
the United States. His houses, stores and property were utterly
consumed.
The army now retired by easy marches to Fort Defiance, laying waste the
villages and corn fields for about fifty miles on each side of the
Maumee. On the fourteenth of September the march was taken up for the
Miami villages at the junction of the St. Joseph and the St. Marys, and
the troops arrived there on the seventeenth. On the eighteenth, Wayne
selected a site for a fort. On the twenty-second of October the new
fortification was completed, and a force of infantry and artillery
stationed there under command of Colonel John F. Hamtramck. The new post
was named Fort Wayne. On the twenty-eighth of October, the main body of
the troops started back on the trace to Fort Greenville, and here, on
the second day of November, 1794, General Wayne re-established his
headquarters.
The victory of Wayne was complete and final. It brought peace to the
frontiers, and paved the way for the advance of civilization. In 1802,
Ohio became a state of the Union. His triumph did more. It made the
name and the power of the United States respected as they never were
before, and gave authority and dignity to the federal arms. The Indian
tribes were sorely dispirited. Not only had the British abandoned them
in their final hour of defeat, but their fields and cabins had been laid
waste and their supplies of food destroyed. There was much suffering
among them, during the ensuing winter. The establishment of the post at
Fort Wayne put a new obstacle in the path of the British in the valleys
of the Wabash and the Maumee, and led the way to the final abandonment
of the northwest by their troops and garrisons.
The administration of Washington was also vindicated. In the face of two
disheartening defeats, a lack of confidence in the west, and almost open
opposition in the east, a fighting general had at last been found, an
army trained, and led forth to splendid victory. The great northwest
owes a debt of eternal gratitude to the first president of the republic,
George Washington.
The administration was further successful. While General Wayne was
preparing for his campaign, the Chief Justice of the United States, John
Jay, had been sent to England to effect a treaty of peace. Feeling was
high in both countries and the danger of war was imminent, but the
prudence and moderation of Washington led him to see that what the
nation needed most was peace and repose and a chance for development. On
the nineteenth of November, 1794, Mr. Jay and Lord Grenville "concluded
a treaty of amity, commerce and navigation between the United States
and Great Britain," by the terms of which the latter country, among
other things, agreed to surrender the western posts. On the eleventh day
of July, 1796, at the hour of noon, the Stars and Stripes floated over
the ramparts of the British fort at Detroit.
CHAPTER XV
THE TREATY OF GREENVILLE
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