On the eleventh the army moved to and crossed Loramie’s Creek, seven miles from its camping-place of the preceding night (ten miles from the camp near the Great Miami of September 9). Of the route from the Great Miami onward, Irwin states: “Crossed Loirimous Creek a short Distance from its mouth into the great Miami river had a pretty good Indian Trace from there to what was Called the old french store or Trading house at St marys had a good Trace from there to the Maumee towns.” The Morris record reads: “Next day, we took up our march for Lorrimiers, a French trader at St. Marys—... We crossed Lorrimie creek on the next morning, at a village that had been burned by Clark or Logan, some ten years before. From here, we passed over the summit level for St. Marys, where we encamped.... Having crossed St. Marys we encamped on its eastern bank.”[85]
On September 12, by Armstrong’s journal, the army “crossed a stream at seven miles and a half running N. E. on which there are several old camps, much deadened timber, which continues to the river Auglaize, about a mile. Here has been a considerable village—some houses still standing. This stream is a branch of the Omi [Maumee] river, and is about twenty yards wide.”
From this on the route was along the old trace which followed the St. Mary, some distance to the northward of the immediate bank, to its junction with the Maumee, where the army arrived on the seventeenth of September, having accomplished the hard march of over one hundred and sixty miles in eighteen days by the regulars and twenty by the militia.
On the thirteenth, “I think the 1st or 2d morning after we Left St Marys,” according to Mr. Irwin, “8 or 10 mounted men went out in Search of some horses that had Been Lost or missing over night Started a Smart young Indian without a gun in the open woods—Took him prisoner Brought him into Camp ... he give Every information respecting the movements of the Indians Stated they had Determined to move Their families and property out of the Towns and Burn Them. Six hundred men was Detached or Drafted from the army placed under the Command of Col. Hardin he Being the 2d in Command with orders to proceed as quick as possible to the Towns. When We arrived found what the prisoner Stated was True 2 Indians happened to Be under the Bank of the river when the army came up they tried to Escape the Troops Discovered them and about 100 guns was Discharged at them one was found Dead the Next Day in the Brush, The Ballance of the army arriv’d at the Towns two Days after the first got there I was with the rear.”[86]
Signs that the Indians had retreated in a northwesterly direction being discovered, General Harmar, on the eighteenth, ordered Colonel Trotter of the militia to follow and attack them with a force of three hundred men. The detachment was provided with three days rations. About one mile from camp an Indian was pursued and killed. A little later a second solitary Indian scout was killed—after wounding one of his assailants. Trotter moved hither and thither with apparent aimlessness until nightfall when he returned to camp—to Harmar’s disgust. The militia in camp had scattered in various directions searching for corn and other plunder which the savages had buried. The gun fired to call these into camp, Trotter affirmed, was thought to be an alarm signal for him to return. The men under Trotter displayed no more military characteristics than the prowling militia left at the encampment. Such men, it was sure, would suffer at the hands of the fierce, watchful enemy, if ever their turn should come.
It came on the very next day! It was now Colonel Hardin’s turn to strike a blow, and he was ordered out on the Indian path which ran northwest toward the Kickapoo towns. Proceeding about eleven miles from camp (Fort Wayne, Indiana) to near the point where the Goshen state road crosses the Eel River, the keen scouter John Armstrong saw important “signs” and heard an alarm gun in front. Hardin did not act on the advice and made no disposition of his troops for battle. Soon after, Armstrong discovered the fires of the Indian camp—but Hardin, scorning the enemy, pushed straight on. The Indian commander—the famous Miami warrior, Little Turtle—based his plans on just such recklessness. Deep in the brush and grass on either side of the trail his dogs of war crouched silent as cougars. The army had walked well into the trap before two crimson streaks of fire flashed out in the very faces of the troopers. The militia bolted at breakneck speed—some never stopping in their flight until they reached the Ohio River. A small band of regulars under Armstrong retired slightly and held their ground temporarily; then they retreated to Harmar’s camp. This savage stroke cost heavily, the Indians killing almost an average of a white man apiece—the loss, about one hundred, equalling, probably, the number of the waylaying savage force. It was one of the bloodiest ambuscades in western history. Armstrong’s journal for the nineteenth reads: “Attacked about one hundred Indians fifteen miles west of the Miami village; and from the dastardly conduct of the militia, the troops were obliged to retreat. I lost one sergeant, and twenty-one out of thirty men of my command. The Indians on this occasion gained a complete victory—having killed, in the whole, near one hundred men, which was about their number. Many of the militia threw away their arms without firing a shot, ran through the federal troops and threw them in disorder.” Of the Indians Armstrong adds “they fought and died hard.”
When Hardin’s troops returned, they found that Harmar had moved two miles down the Maumee in the work of destroying the Indian villages and crops. From this camp, an old Shawanese village, various companies were sent out in different directions to finish the work of destroying the Indian settlements. On the night of the twenty-first, when seven miles distant from the Miami village, Colonel Hardin proposed to Harmar that he be allowed his pick of the militia with which to return secretly upon the Indians. It was believed, and spies no doubt so reported, that the Indians had returned to their central villages at the junction of the St. Mary and St. Joseph. Harmar acquiesced, feeling that another blow would undoubtedly prevent the savages from following the army.
The force was composed of three hundred and forty militia, under Majors Hall and McMullen, Major Fontaine’s mounted militia, and sixty regulars under Major Wyllys. The Miami town was reached after sunrise. Hardin’s plan was to surround secretly the village and make a simultaneous attack from all sides. Major Hall’s battalion was sent to cross the St. Mary and hold themselves in readiness to attack from the rear when the main body, which would cross the Maumee at the common ford, fell upon the village in front. Hall’s men wantonly fired on a fugitive Indian before the signal for attack was given; to make matters worse the militia under McMullen and Fontaine began pursuing the various parties of flying redskins, leaving Major Wyllys and the regulars unsupported. The latter crossed the Maumee, according to the fixed scheme, but were suddenly assailed by an overpowering force led by Little Turtle and were compelled to return with loss of many men, including Major Wyllys himself. The militia then hastened back to the main army. Miserable as had been the deportment of the militia, their muskets had done severe execution, and Harmar had no fear now of an Indian attack—nor the slightest remnant of confidence in any but the fragment of regular troops left to him.
On the twenty-third the army took up the line of outward march for Fort Washington and reached the Ohio on the fourth day of November, having lost one hundred and eighty-three killed and thirty-one wounded. Major Wyllys and Lieutenant Frothingham of the regulars, and Major Fontaine and Captains Thorp, McMurtrey, and Scott, and Lieutenants Clark and Rogers of the militia were the principal officers sacrificed.
On the other hand there is ground for partly agreeing with Irwin that Harmar’s campaign was not wholly a defeat. The Indian loss was as large as the American—and this was a great deal accomplished. Few armies before had entered the Indian land and not been followed by the Indians on the return with distinct losses. Harmar’s repeated though costly operations on the Maumee had given the Indians all the battle they wished; indeed it is not too much to say that they were stunned.