ted New York, September 3, 1790. After much
preliminary apology, Knox states that it "has been reported, and under
circumstances which appear to have gained pretty extensive credit on the
frontiers, that you are too apt to indulge yourself to excess in a
convivial glass"; and he then points out the inevitable ruin that such
indulgence will bring to the General.

A letter from St. Clair to Knox, dated Lexington, September 4, 1791,
runs in part: "Desertion and sickness have thinned our ranks. Still, if
I can only get them into action before the time of the levies expires, I
think my force sufficient, though that opinion is founded on the
calculation of the probable number that is opposed to us, having no
manner of information as to the force collected to oppose us." On the
15th he writes from Ft. Washington about the coming expiration of
enlistments and says: "I am very sensible how hazardous it is to
approach, under such circumstances, and my only expectation is that the
men will find themselves so far engaged that it will be obviously better
to go forward than to return, at the same time it precludes the
establishment of another post of communication however necessary, but
that indeed is precluded also from our decreasing numbers, and the very
little dependence that is to be placed upon the militia."

Col. Winthrop Sargent writes to General Knox from Ft. Washington, on
January 2, 1792. He states that there were fourteen hundred Indians
opposed to St. Clair in the battle, and repeats a rumor that six hundred
Indians from the Lakes quarrelled with the Miamis over the plunder, and
went home without sharing any part, warning their allies that thereafter
they should fight their battles alone. Sargent dwells upon the need of
spies, and the service these spies would have rendered St. Clair. A few
days afterwards he writes in reference to a rumor that his own office is
to be dispensed with, protesting that this would be an outrage, and that
he has always discharged his duties well, having entered the service
simply from a desire to be of use to his country. He explains that the
money he receives would hardly do more than equip him, and that he only
went into the army because he valued reputation and honor more than
fortune.

The letters of the early part of 1792 show that the survivors of St.
Glair's army were torn by jealousy, and that during the winter following
his defeat there was much bitter wrangling among the various o