The indignation of the American people may well be imagined. To a long train of secret machinations the British now added open insult. Washington, justly aroused by England's long course of treachery and double-dealing, wrote to Jay concerning Simcoe's action as follows: "Can that government, or will it attempt, after this official act of one of their governors, to hold out ideas of friendly intentions toward the United States, and suffer such conduct to pass with impunity? This may be considered the most open and daring act of the British agents in America, though it is not the most hostile or cruel; for there does not remain a doubt in the mind of any well-informed person in this country, not shut against conviction, that all the difficulties we encounter with the Indians—their hostilities, the murder of helpless women and innocent children along our frontiers—result from the conduct of the agents of Great Britain in this country. In vain is it, then, for its administration in Britain to disavow having given orders which will warrant such conduct, whilst their agents go unpunished; whilst we have a thousand corroborating circumstances, and indeed almost as many evidences, some of which cannot be brought forward, to know that they are seducing from our alliance, and endeavoring to move over the line, tribes that have hitherto been kept in peace and friendship with us at heavy expense, and who have no causes of complaint, except pretended ones of their creating; whilst they keep in a state of irritation the tribes who are hostile to us, and are instigating those who know little of us or we of them, to unite in the war against us; and whilst it is an undeniable fact that they are furnishing the whole with arms, ammunition, clothing, and even provisions to carry on the war; I might go farther, and if they are not much belied, add men also in disguise." The President also called on the British minister, Mr. Hammond, for an explanation. Hammond, while admitting the authenticity of Dorchester's speech and the construction of the British fort on the Maumee, pointed to pretended acts of hostility on the part of the United States. This was the insolent tone assumed toward a government considered to be too weak to defend its lawful rights.
The British were now busy in assembling a savage army to oppose Wayne's advance. Two Potawatomi captured on the fifth of June, said that a message had been sent to their tribe to join in the war against the United States; that the British were at Roche de Bout on the Maumee with about four hundred troops and two pieces of artillery, exclusive of the Detroit militia, and that they "had made a fortification around Colonel McKee's house and store at that place, in which they had deposited all their stores and ammunition, arms, clothing and provisions with which they promised to supply all the hostile Indians in abundance, provided they would join and go with them to war; that about two thousand warriors had been assembled, and that Governor Simcoe had promised that fifteen hundred British troops and militia would join them in the attack on the Americans." They further related that this same Governor Simcoe had sent them four different invitations to join in the war, promising them arms, ammunition, provisions and clothing, and everything that they wanted. "All the speeches," said these Potawatomi, "that we received from him, were as red as blood; all the wampum and feathers were painted red; the war pipes and hatchets were red; and even the tobacco was red." The evidence furnished by two Shawnees, captured on the twenty-second of June, corroborated the Potawatomi. They testified that the British were always setting the Indians on, like dogs after game, pressing them to go to war, and kill the Americans, "but did not help them; that unless the British would turn out and help them, they were determined to make peace; that they would not be any longer amused by promises only." Asked about the number of warriors collected along the Maumee, they put the number of the Shawnees at three hundred eighty, the Delawares at four hundred and eighty, the Miamis at one hundred, and the Wyandots at about one hundred and fifty. The Chippewas, however, would furnish the greatest number of fighting men, and they were on the way to the council. That the question of whether there would be a fight or not depended upon the British; "that the British were at the foot of the rapids, and had fortified at Roche de Bout; that there was a great number of British soldiers at that place; that they told the Indians they were now come to help them to fight; and if the Indians would generally turn out and join them, they would advance and fight the American army; that Blue Jacket had been sent by the British to the Chippewas and northern Indians, a considerable time since, to invite them, and bring them to Roche de Bout, there to join the British and other hostile Indians in order to go to war."
On the last day of June, 1794, the premeditated blow fell on Fort Recovery, the scene of St. Clair's disaster in 1791. The garrison was under the command of Captain Alexander Gibson, of the Fourth Sub-Legion. Under the walls of the fort were a detachment of ninety riflemen and fifty dragoons under the command of Major McMahon, who had escorted a train of packhorses from Fort Greenville on the day before, and who were now about to return. The Indians were, according to some authorities, under the command of the Bear chief, an Ottawa; others assign their leadership to the Little Turtle. That they had planned a coup de main and a sudden re-capture of the position is certain. Their army consisted of about fifteen hundred men; they had advanced in seventeen columns, with a wide and extended front, and their encampments were perfectly square and regular. They were attended by "a captain of the British army, a sergeant, and six matrosses, provided with fixed ammunition, suited to the calibre of two field pieces, which had been taken from General St. Clair, and deposited in a creek near the scene of his defeat in 1791." They expected to find this artillery, which had been hidden by the Indians, and turn it on the fort, but the guns had been recovered by their legitimate owners and were now used for defense. A considerable number of white men accompanied the savages, disguised as Indians and with blackened faces, and three British officers, dressed in scarlet, were posted in the rear and encouraged the Indians in their repeated assaults.
The first attack on Major McMahon was successful. Nineteen officers and privates and two packhorsemen were killed and about thirty men wounded. Packhorses to the number of two hundred were quickly taken. But the Indians now made a fatal mistake. In a spirit of rashness, they rushed on the fort. The determined legionaries, aided by McMahon's men, poured in a murderous fire, and they fell back. Again they attacked, and again were they repulsed. All day long they kept up a constant and vigorous fire but it availed nothing. During the succeeding night, which was dark and foggy, they carried off their dead.
On the next morning the attack was renewed, but great numbers of the savages were now becoming disheartened. The loss inflicted by the American garrison had been severe, and was mourned for months by the Indian tribes. Forty or fifty red men had bit the dust and over a hundred had been wounded. Disgraced and crestfallen the savage horde retired to the Maumee. The first encounter with Wayne's army had proved disastrous.
On the twenty-sixth of July, Wayne was joined by sixteen hundred mounted volunteers from Kentucky under the command of Major-General Charles Scott. Scott was a man of intrepid spirit and his men knew it. Moreover, the Kentuckians now looked forward to certain victory, for they trusted Wayne. On the twenty-eighth of July, the whole army moved forward to the Indian towns on the Maumee. No finer body of men ever went forth into the wilderness to meet a savage foe. Iron drill and constant practice at marksmanship had done their work. Officers and men, regulars and volunteers, were ready for the work at hand. Unlike Harmar and St. Clair, Wayne had in his service some of the most renowned scouts and Indian fighters of the day. Ephraim Kibby, William Wells, Robert McClellan, Henry and Christopher Miller, and a party of Chickasaw and Choctaw warriors, constantly kept him posted concerning the number and whereabouts of the enemy, and the nature of the ground which he was to traverse. "The Indians who watched his march brought word to the British that his army went twice as far in a day as St. Clair's, that he kept his scouts well out and his troops always in open order and ready for battle; that he exercised the greatest precaution to avoid an ambush or surprise, and that every night the camps of the different regiments were surrounded by breastworks of fallen trees so as to render a sudden assault hopeless." "We have beaten the enemy twice," said Little Turtle, "under separate commanders. We cannot expect the same good fortune always to attend us. The Americans are now led by a chief who never sleeps. The night and the day are alike to him; and, during all the time that he has been marching upon our villages, notwithstanding the watchfulness of our young men, we have never been able to surprise him. Think well of it. There is something whispers me, it would be prudent to listen to his offers of peace."
On the eighth of August Wayne reached the junction of the Au Glaize and the Maumee, and began the erection of Fort Defiance. The whole country was filled with the Indian gardens and corn fields which extended up the Maumee to the British fort. On the thirteenth of August, the General dispatched the scout, Christopher Miller, with the last and final overture of peace. In the event of a refusal, there must be a final appeal to arms. "America," said Wayne, "shall no longer be insulted with impunity. To the all-powerful and just God I therefore commit myself and gallant army." Impatient of a reply, Wayne moved forward again on the fifteenth, and met Miller returning. The Indians requested a delay of ten days to debate peace or war. Wayne gave orders to march on. At eight o'clock on the morning of the twentieth of August, 1794, the army advanced in columns and in open order to meet the enemy. The Indian forces consisted of Shawnees, Delawares, Wyandots, Ottawas, Miamis, Potawatomi, Chippewas and Mohawks, numbering from fifteen hundred to two thousand warriors. Added to these were two companies of Canadian militia from Amherstburg and Detroit, commanded by Captain Caldwell. Alexander McKee was present, and Matthew Elliott and Simon Girty, but they kept well in the rear and near the river. The whole mixed force of Indians and Canadians were encamped on the north bank of the Maumee, "at and around a hill called 'Presque Isle,' about two miles south of the site of Maumee City, and four south of the British Fort Miami."
The order of march was as follows: The Legion was on the right, its flank covered by the Maumee. On the left hovered a brigade of mounted Kentucky volunteers under Brigadier-General Todd. In the rear was another brigade of the same kind of troops under Brigadier-General Barbee. In advance of the Legion rode a select battalion of mounted Kentuckians under Major Price. These were to be on the lookout and to give timely notice to the regulars in case of attack. The army had advanced about five miles and were entering an area covered with fallen timber and high grass, when the advance corps under Price received such a sudden and terrible fire from the hidden enemy that they were compelled to retreat. "The savages were formed in three lines, within supporting distance of each other, and extending for two miles, at right angles with the river." The fallen trunks of the trees, blown down by a tornado, made a fine covert for the red men and prevented any favorable action by the cavalry. Wayne was instantly alert. He formed the Legion into two lines, one a short distance behind the other, and began the fight. He soon perceived from the weight of the savage fire and the extent of their lines that they were trying to turn his left flank and drive him into the river. He now ordered the second line to advance and support the first; directed Major-General Scott to take all the mounted volunteers and turn the right flank of the enemy, while he issued orders to Mis Campbell who commanded the legionary cavalry, to gallop in at the right and next to the river and turn the Indian left. The front line was ordered to charge with trailed arms and rouse the Indians from their coverts at the point of the bayonet, "and when up, to deliver a close and well directed fire on their backs, followed by a brisk charge, so as not to give them time to load again." The mounted volunteers under Scott, Todd and Barbee, and the second line of the Legion, had only gained their positions in part, when the battle was over. The first line of the federal infantry, charging with that impetuosity imparted to them by their gallant commander, drove savages and Canadians in headlong rout for a distance of two miles and strewed the ground with many corpses. The legionary cavalry, blowing their trumpets and dashing in upon the terrified Indians, slew a part of them with broadswords, and put the remainder to instant retreat. "This horde of savages," says Wayne, "with their allies, abandoned themselves to flight and dispersed with terror and dismay, leaving our victorious army in full and quiet possession of the field of battle." The British, with their usual treachery, closed the gates of the fort in the face of the fleeing red men and refused them refuge. Lured and encouraged into a hopeless contest, they found themselves abandoned by that very power that had urged them to reject all offers of peace. The Americans lost thirty-three in killed, and had one hundred wounded. The savage loss was much heavier.
Immediately after the battle of Fallen Timbers the American army moved down the river and encamped within view of the British garrison. Fort Miami occupied a well fortified position on the north bank of the Maumee near the present Maumee City. There were four nine-pounders, two large howitzers, and six six-pounders, mounted in the fort, and two swivels. The entire fortification was surrounded by a wide, deep ditch about twenty feet deep from the top of the parapet. The forces within consisted of about two hundred and fifty regulars and two hundred militia. All were under command of Major William Campbell, of the Twenty-fourth Regiment. The rout of the Indian allies had been humiliating enough, but at sight of the victorious ranks of the American army Campbell became furious. On the next day after the battle he could contain himself no longer. He addressed a note to Wayne complaining that the army of the United States had taken post on the banks of the Maumee and within range of his majesty's fort, for upwards of twenty-four hours, and he desired to inform himself as speedily as possible, in what light he was to view so near an approach to the garrison. Wayne made immediate reply. He said that without questioning the authority or the propriety of the major's question, he thought that he might without breach of decorum observe, that if the major was entitled to an answer, that a most full and satisfactory one had been announced to him from the muzzles of his (Wayne's) small arms on the previous day, in an action against a horde of savages in the vicinity of the British post, which had terminated gloriously to the American arms. He further declared that if said action had continued until the Indians were driven under the influence of the British guns, that these guns would not have much impeded the progress of the victorious army under his command, "as no such post was established at the commencement of the present war between the Indians and the United States." On the next day the incensed major wrote another note, threatening Wayne with war if he continued to approach within pistol shot of the fort with arms in his hands. To this Wayne replied by inviting the major to return with his men, artillery and stores to the nearest post "occupied by his Britannic Majesty's troops at the peace of 1783." Campbell wrote another reply refusing to vacate the fort and warning Wayne not to approach within reach of his cannon. "The only notice taken of this letter," says Wayne, "was by immediately setting fire to and destroying everything within view of the fort, and even under the muzzles of the guns." For three days and nights the American troops continued to destroy the houses and corn fields of the enemy both above and below the British post, while the garrison looked on and dared not sally forth. One of the severest sufferers from this devastation was the notorious renegade, Alexander 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.