nctions not to run any risks--and of course a really good fighting
general ought to be prepared to run risks. The Secretary of War wrote
him that above all things he was to remember to hazard nothing, for a
defeat would be fraught with ruinous consequences to the country. Wayne
knew very well that if such was the temper of the country and the
Government, it behooved him to be cautious, and he answered that, though
he would at once advance towards the Indian towns, to threaten the
tribes, he would not run the least unnecessary risk. Accordingly he
shifted his army to a place some eighty miles north of Cincinnati,
where he encamped for the winter, building a place of strength which he
named Greeneville in honor of his old comrade in arms, General Greene.
He sent forward a strong detachment of his troops to the site of St.
Clair's defeat, where they built a post which was named Fort Recovery.
The discipline of the army steadily improved, though now and then a
soldier deserted, usually fleeing to Kentucky, but in one or two cases
striking through the woods to Detroit. The bands of auxiliary militia
that served now and then for short periods with the regulars, were of
course much less well trained and less dependable.

Indians Attack the Convoys.

The Indians were always lurking about the forts, and threatening the
convoys of provisions and munitions as they marched slowly from one to
the other. Any party that left a fort was in imminent danger. On one
occasion the commander of Fort Jefferson and his orderly were killed and
scalped but three hundred yards from the fort. A previous commander of
this fort while hunting in this neighborhood had been attacked in
similar fashion, and though he escaped, his son and a soldier were
slain. On another occasion a dozen men, near the same fort, were
surprised while haying; four were killed and the other eight captured,
four of whom were burned at the stake. [Footnote: Bradley MSS., Journal,
entries of Feb. 11, Feb. 24, June 24, July 12, 1792.]

Before Wayne moved down the Ohio a band of Kentucky mounted riflemen,
under major John Adair, were attacked under the walls of one of the log
forts--Fort St. Clair--as they were convoying a large number of
packhorses. The riflemen were in camp at the time, the Indians making
the assault at dawn. Most of the horses were driven off or killed, and
the men fled to the fort, which, Adair dryly remarked, proved "a place
of safety for the bashful"