the Creeks, was enticed
to New York, where the kindness of Washington and the evident desire of
Congress to deal with his people fairly, resulted in a treaty, August
13, 1790, which secured peace to the Southwest for a long time.

[1791]

Touching the northwestern redskins, Harmar's defeat had convinced
Washington that mild measures were not yet the thing. A larger force was
fitted out against them under St. Clair in person, whom, as an old
Revolutionary comrade, Washington still trusted. General Butler was
second in command. The two thousand regulars and one thousand militia
rendezvoused at Cincinnati in the autumn of 1791. Part object of the
expedition was to build a military road, with forts at intervals, all
the way to the upper Wabash. Progress was therefore slow.

A fort was constructed on the present site of Hamilton, 0.; then one to
the northwest, near Greenville, 0., close to the present Indiana line.
From here the army pressed northwesterly still farther.

St. Clair was heroic, but incompetent through age and the gout. Some of
his militia deserted. Chills and fever shook the remainder of his too
slender host. His orders were not well obeyed. On November 9th,
encamping by a small branch of the Wabash, St. Clair's force was most
vehemently attacked by Indians, under the redoubtable Joseph Brant or
Thayendanegea--famed for his bloody exploits against us during the
Revolution--and well-nigh annihilated. Five high officers, including
Butler, were killed, and as many more sank from wounds. Cannons, guns,
accoutrements, in fact the whole equipment of the army, were lost. After
a four hours' fight St. Clair, sick but brave as a tiger, horse after
horse shot beneath him, part of the time carried in a litter, his gray
locks streaming in the breeze, put himself at the head of the five
hundred who remained unscathed, and hewed his way through walls of
savages to the rear. Six o'clock that night found the survivors back at
Greenville, twenty-nine miles from the scene of carnage. Had the Indians
pursued instead of stopping to mutilate the slain, every soul must have
perished.

[Illustration: Portrait.]
Joseph Brant or Thayendanegea.

[1793]

The announcement of this disaster called forth in the East a universal
howl of rage at the unfortunate commander. Even Washington went beside
himself: "To suffer that army to be cut to pieces, hacked, butchered,
tomahawked, by a surprise--the very thing I guarded him again