The “Legion” departed for Greenville on October 28, leaving Lieutenant-Colonel John Francis Hamtramck in command of four infantry companies and one artillery battery at Fort Wayne. Colonel Hamtramck is described as being “a small Canadian Frenchman, an intelligent, capable, and meritorious officer.”[7] After serving in the Revolution, Hamtramck came to the West with Harmar, being in command at Vincennes when he joined Wayne’s army. Although somewhat of a martinet, Hamtramck was popular with his men and, from all accounts, one of the most efficient officers in the army at that time.
It was fortunate that Wayne left a capable man in charge of Fort Wayne, as Hamtramck’s difficulties proved to be many. There still remained a great deal of work to be done in strengthening the fort, which was not completed until the following spring. The garrison was plagued by an epidemic of malaria fever during the first summer. This condition was made worse by the lack of quinine or any medical supplies.[8] During the winter, the men often went about in rags and tatters. Hamtramck was forced to permit them to cut up their blankets and turn them into over-coats.
Facing such difficulties, it is little wonder that Hamtramck complained frequently to Generals Wayne and Wilkinson about the problems of disciplining his rebellious men and caring for the destitute Indians who were returning to their ruined villages. Concerning the soldiers Hamtramck wrote, “I have flogged them until I am tired. The economic allowance of one hundred lashes, allowed by the government, does not appear a sufficient inducement for a rascal to act the part of an honest man.”[9]
Hamtramck was actively engaged at this time in discussions with the chiefs, particularly Little Turtle, LeGris, and Richardville, concerning the proposed peace negotiations to be held at Greenville the following summer. In these matters, Hamtramck was aided immensely by the Lasselle brothers, Antoine and Jacques.[10] Antoine had resided at Miamitown from 1771 until Harmer’s destruction of the village in 1790. He had fought on the side of the Indians in the battle of Fallen Timbers and had been captured by Wayne’s troops. Tried as a spy, he narrowly escaped the gallows through Hamtramck’s intercession. Colonel John Johnston, Indian factor at Fort Wayne, later described Antoine Lasselle as a man of wit and drollery who “would often clasp his neck with both hands to show how near he had been to hanging by order of Mad Anthony.”[11] After his release, Antoine Lasselle with his brother Jacques returned to Fort Wayne, apparently the first traders to do so. Here they furnished the Americans with supplies and used their strong influence with the Miamis to the good advantage of the American cause.
The Indians had asked that the forthcoming peace conference be held at their old village, Kekionga, as Kiskakon had come to be called by that time. Wayne insisted that the tribesmen come to Greenville, 79 miles southeast of Fort Wayne. Resorting to the use of Indian symbolism, Wayne argued, “It was there [Kekionga] that the hatchet was first raised, to bury a bloody hatchet there would disturb the spirits of the unburied dead.”[12] Wayne’s real reasons were less symbolic, but more practical. The distance of bringing supplies to Fort Wayne would be much farther than to Greenville, and at Greenville he would have his “Legion” ready in case of trouble. In the spring the Indians going to Greenville came by way of Fort Wayne, so overcrowding the post that Hamtramck’s garrison had to go on half-rations to feed the delegates. Even this did not suffice; emergency stores were depleted, while the liquor and tobacco were so exhausted that Hamtramck had to buy additional supplies from Antoine Lasselle.
At Greenville Wayne won the peace which Fallen Timbers had secured. In respect to Fort Wayne, which remained an American island deep in Indian Territory, the United States gained an area of six square miles around the fort, free use of the Maumee-Wabash portage, and an area of two square miles at the Wabash end of the portage. The Indians also promised the United States the use of the roads leading to Fort Wayne from Defiance to the northeast and Piqua to the southeast. Little Turtle, Wayne’s keenest antagonist during the negotiations, debated long and eloquently over these concessions at and around Fort Wayne. The great Miami chief secured one compromise from the General, a reduction of the land around the fort to be ceded to the United States. After this concession by Wayne, Little Turtle addressed the council:
These people [the French] were seen by our forefathers first at Detroit; afterwards we saw them at the Miami village—that glorious gate which your younger brothers had the happiness to own.... Brothers, these people never told us they wished to purchase these lands from us.
I now give you the true sentiments of your younger brothers with respect to the reservation at the Miami villages. We thank you kindly for contracting the limits you at first proposed. We wish you to take this six mile square on the side of the river where your fort now stands, as your younger brothers wish to inhabit that beloved spot again ... The next place you pointed to was the Little River, and said you wanted two miles square at that place. This is a request that our fathers, the French or British, never made us; it was always ours. This carrying place has heretofore proved in a great degree, the subsistence of your younger brothers. That place has brought us in the course of one day, the amount of one hundred dollars. Let us both own this place.[13]
To this Wayne replied:
The Little Turtle observes, he never heard of any cession made at that place [Fort Wayne] to the French. I have traced the lines of two forts at that point ... and it is ever an established rule, among the Europeans, to reserve as much ground around their forts, as their cannon can command.[14]
Wayne could not grant Little Turtle’s request for joint-control of the Maumee-Wabash portage since the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 guaranteed to everyone free use of all important portages (Article V). Wayne proved himself an economist and shrewd diplomat by arguing before the other assembled tribes that the tolls garnered by the Miamis actually were passed off to all the Indians in the form of higher prices for the traders goods. At length, Little Turtle, speaking for four tribes besides the Miamis, expressed himself as satisfied with the treaty, and being the last to sign it, promised he would be the last to break it.[15] This he never did, as he spent the last seventeen years of his life at peace with the Americans.