[FN-1] Holmes—Marshall.
[FN-2] A letter to Captain Brant, written from Detroit, gave a still more disastrous account of this affair than was admitted by the American authorities. The following is an extract:—"I have to inform you that there have been two engagements about the Miami towns, between the Americans and the Indians, in which, it is said, the former had about five hundred men killed, and that the rest have retreated. The loss was only fifteen or twenty on the side of the Indians. The Shawanese, Miamis, and Pottawattamies were, I understand, the principal tribes who were engaged; but I do not learn that any of the nations have refused their alliance or assistance, and it is confidently reported that they are now marching against the frontiers on the Ohio. As Mr. McKee writes to the chiefs at the Grand River, he will be able to state circumstances more particularly than I can. The gentlemen of the garrison beg their compliments."—-MS. Letter of John Smith to Captain Brant.
Flushed and emboldened by their success, the depredations of the Indians became more frequent, and the condition of the frontier was more deplorable than it had been previous to this ill-fated expedition. [FN-1] Nor were their aggressions confined to the settlements along the Ohio and the Kentucky border. Two of the Seneca Indians having been murdered by the whites, that nation, with others among the warriors of the Six Nations, were becoming more hostile; and the consequence was, that early in the Spring of 1791, the Pennsylvania settlements along the Allegheny river, above Pittsburgh, experienced repeated and fearful visitations of Indian retribution. Several stations of the settlers were entirely broken up. The murders of women and children were frequent, and were often attended with circumstances of undiminished inhumanity, while many people were carried into captivity. [FN-2]
[FN-1] "It appears, from the most indubitable testimony, that from 1783, when peace was made, to October, 1790, when the United States commenced offensive operations against them, on the Ohio and the frontiers, the Indians killed and wounded, and took prisoners, about fifteen hundred men, women, and children; besides taking away two thousand horses and a large quantity of other property"—Narrative and Sufferings of Massy Harbison.
[FN-2] Idem.
News of the disastrous victory of General Harmar having reached the seat of government, a regiment was added to tho permanent military establishment, and the President was authorised to raise a body of two thousand men for six months, to appoint a major and a brigadier general to continue in command so long as he should think their services necessary. [FN-1] No time was lost in calling this augmented force into the field, and Major General Arthur St. Clair, Governor of the territory north west of the Ohio, was appointed Commander-in-chief, and charged with the conduct of the meditated expedition; the immediate objects of which were to destroy the Indian villages on the Miamis, to expel the Indians from that country, and to connect it with the Ohio by a chain of posts which would prevent their return during the war. [FN-2]
[FN-1] Marshall's life of Washington.