e of these was Detroit; and
the officials stationed there systematically encouraged the hordes of
redskins who had congregated about the western end of Lake Erie to make
all possible resistance to the American advance. The British no longer
had any claim to the territories south of the Lakes, but they wanted to
keep their ascendancy over the northwestern Indians, and especially to
prevent the rich fur trade from falling into American hands. Ammunition
and other supplies were lavished on the restless tribes. The post
officials insisted that these were merely the gifts which had regularly
been made in times of peace. But they were used with deadly effect
against the Ohio frontiersmen; and there can be little doubt that they
were intended so to be used.

By 1789 the situation was very serious. Marauding expeditions were
growing in frequency; and a scout sent out by Governor St. Clair came
back with the report that most of the Indians throughout the entire
Northwest had "bad hearts." Washington decided that delay would be
dangerous, and the nation forthwith prepared for its first war since
independence. Kentucky was asked to furnish a thousand militiamen and
Pennsylvania five hundred, and the forces were ordered to come together
at Fort Washington, near Cincinnati.

The rendezvous took place in the summer of 1790, and General Josiah
Harmar was put in command of a punitive expedition against the Miamis.
The recruits were raw, and Harmar was without the experience requisite
for such an enterprise. None the less, when the little army, accompanied
by three hundred regulars, and dragging three brass field-pieces,
marched out of Fort Washington on a fine September day, it created a
very good impression. All went well until the expedition reached the
Maumee country. On the site of the present city of Fort Wayne they
destroyed a number of Indian huts and burned a quantity of corn. But
in a series of scattered encounters the white men were defeated, with
a loss of nearly two hundred killed; and Harmar thought it the part
of wisdom to retreat. He had gained nothing by the expedition; on the
contrary, he had stirred the redskins to fresh aggressions, and his
retreating forces were closely followed by bands of merciless raiders.

Washington knew what the effect of this reverse would be. Accordingly
he called St. Clair to Philadelphia and ordered him to take personal
command of a new expedition, adding a special warning against ambush