ir corn, and the captivity of their women and
children, only aroused them to more desperate efforts to defend their
country, and to harass their invaders." The review of Secretary of War
Knox, communicated to President Washington on the twenty-sixth of
December, 1791, however, contains the following: "The effect of such
desultory operations upon the Indians, will, by occupying them for their
own safety and that of their families, prevent them spreading terror and
destruction along the frontiers. These sort of expeditions had that
precise effect during the last season, and Kentucky enjoyed more repose
and sustained less injury, than for any year since the war with Great
Britain. This single effect, independent of the injury done to the
force of the Indians, is worth greatly more than the actual expense of
such expeditions."

Other effects produced were equally important. The brave Kentuckians,
for the first time, were acting in conjunction with, and under the
direction and control of the federal authorities. The cement of a common
interest, as Washington would say, was binding state and nation
together. Not only were the soil and the long suffering people of
Kentucky rendered more secure against Indian attack, but the hardy
descendants of the pioneers were being trained for the eventful conflict
of 1812, when seven thousand of the valorous sons of that commonwealth
should take the field in the defense of their country.

CHAPTER XIII

ST. CLAIR'S DEFEAT

_--The first great disaster to the Federal armies brought about by the
Miamis._

The objectives of General St. Clair have already been mentioned. He was
now to take the village of Kekionga, establish a garrison there, and
erect a chain of posts stretching from the new establishment to Fort
Washington at Cincinnati.

The army with which St. Clair was expected to accomplish this task
consisted of "two small regiments of regulars, two of six months'
levies, a number of Kentucky militia, a few cavalry, and a couple of
small batteries of light guns." In all there were fourteen hundred men
and eighty-six officers. The Kentucky militia were under the command of
Colonel Oldham, a brave officer who afterwards fell on the field of
battle. The levies were "men collected from the streets and prisons of
the city, hurried out into the enemy's country and with the officers
commanding them, totally unacquainted with the business in which they
were engaged." Their pay was