Fallen Timbers was a major battle in a contest for the Ohio country that began with the French and Indian War (175463), ran through the Revolutionary War (1775-83), and continued into the 1790s between European Americans and Native Americans. Until this battle, it appeared that the Indians were winning the war north of the Ohio
River despite treaties that had ceded some of the territory. A confederacy of Shawnee, Delaware, Miami, Wyandot, and other Indians under the leadership of Little Turtle and Blue Jacket had twice defeated invading armies from the United States: In 1790 the Indians annihilated a force under General Josiah Harmar and in 1791 crushed troops under Governor Arthur St. Clair. These disasters crippled the U. S. Army and led President George Washington to appoint General “Mad” Anthony Wayne to rebuild and train an army to defeat the Indians. Meanwhile, the Indians, who enjoyed a position of dominance, refused to make peace with the United States. The Indians demanded that all of the treaties providing for the surrender of land north of the Ohio River be abolished. They would make peace only if the Ohio River was restored as the boundary between Indians and European Americans. Throughout 1793 and 1794, General Wayne trained his army—called the Legion of the United States—and marched it into Ohio, destroying many Indian villages and crops along the way.
The campaign culminated in the Battle of Fallen Timbers, in far northwestern Ohio, on August 20, 1794. Fallen Timbers was so-named because a recent thunderstorm had knocked down large numbers of trees. Wayne’s army counted about 3,000 men. The Indian forces numbered around 1,300, with a small addition of Canadian militia volunteers also in their ranks. Many Indians were absent from the battlefield, however, because they had sought shelter from the storm at their village several miles away. Those who remained had ritually fasted in preparation for the battle. Unfortunately for them, the battle came a day later than anticipated, leaving the Indian warriors famished. Perhaps as few as 400 actually participated in the battle. Early in the battle, the Indians provided stiff resistance to the legion’s attack. However, Wayne’s army compelled the Indians to retreat. The Indians fled to nearby Fort Miami, a British post, where they had been assured in the past that they would find a safe haven in times of trouble. In this instance, the British would not allow the Indians to enter, wishing to avoid conflict between themselves and the United States. The Indians thus had to retreat farther from the field, and they lost additional warriors.
Although the casualties in the battle were nearly equal for the legion and Indians, the victory clearly went to Wayne’s army, which had displayed its newfound power. The Indians now realized that the United States would not be easily defeated. Due to the Fort Miami incident, the Indians also lost confidence in the British, who they had hoped would join them as allies. As a result, less than a year later the Indian confederacy signed the Treaty of Greenville (1795).
Further reading: Wiley Sword, President Washington’s Indian War: The Struggle for the Old Northwest (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1985).
World History
