el them to quit the
country after the expenditure of so much blood and treasure, when all
were aware that a frontier must be supported somewhere. On the second of
January, 1791, between "sunset and daylight-in," the Indians surprised
the new settlements on the Muskingum, called the Big Bottom, forty miles
above Marietta, killing eleven men, one woman, and two children. General
Rufus Putnam, writing to President Washington, on the eighth of the
same month, said that the little garrison at Fort Harmar, consisting of
a little over twenty men, could afford no protection to the settlements.
That the whole number of effective men in the Muskingum country would
not exceed two hundred and eighty-seven, and that many of them were
badly armed, and that unless the government speedily sent a body of
troops for their protection, they were "a ruined people." Virginia,
Pennsylvania and Kentucky, were all being sorely pressed by savage
incursions.

It was a fortunate circumstance for the future welfare of the great
west, that George Washington was president of the United States. Great
numbers of the people in the Atlantic states, according to Secretary of
War Knox, were opposed to the further prosecution of the Indian war.
They considered that the sacrifice of blood and treasure in such a
conflict would far exceed any advantages that might possibly be reaped
by it. The result of Harmar's campaign had been very disheartening, and
the government was in straitened circumstances, both as to men and
means. But by strenuous efforts, President Washington induced Congress
to pass an act, on the second day of March, 1791, for raising and adding
another regiment to the military establishment of the United States,
"and for making further provision for the protection of the frontiers."
Governor Arthur St. Clair was appointed as the new commander-in-chief of
the army of the northwest, and Colonel Richard Butler, of Pennsylvania,
was promoted and placed second in command. St. Clair was authorized to
raise an army of three thousand men, but as there were only "two small
regiments of regular infantry," the remainder of the force was to be
raised by special levies of six months' men, and by requisitions of
militia. In the meantime, the government, owing to the pressing demands
of the western people, had authorized the establishment of a local Board
of War for the district of Kentucky. This Board was composed of
Brigadier-General Charles Scott, leader o