river, where they crossed the Ohio and struck into the Indian country. They penetrated one hundred and fifty miles into the wilderness, without meeting an enemy; visited the Indian villages on the Wabash, destroyed their lodges and their corn, and returned to Kentucky. The Wea towns, upon the Wabash, twelve miles below Tippecanoe, were surprised. The warriors fled, but a large portion of the women and children were taken, and delivered to the charge of the regular troops at Fort Washington, where they were kept until the peace made by General Putnam with the Wabash tribes, in

1793.

This was one of the first occasions on which the efficiency of mounted riflemen, in a warfare with the Indians, was fairly tried-or perhaps it is more proper to say, that the superiority of this description of troops, was now first made the subject of remark. General Clarke had already made the experiment. The backwoodsmen are expert riders; they love the horse, and are as expert in the management of that noble animal, as in the use of the rifle; and in all the expeditions against the Indians, a portion of the volunteers were mounted. So decided is the preference of the people of the frontier for this mode of warfare, that they are unwilling to take the field in any other manner. But they had heretofore always been accompanied by infantry, whose sluggish movements through the intricacies of the forest, and among the wilds and swamps of the wilderness, impeded their march and damped their ardour; while the Indians, unencumbered with baggage, and more intimately acquainted with the country, reaped the full ad

vantage of their capacity for rapid marches and sudden attacks.

General Wilkinson, who, whatever may be the opinion entertained of his character in some other respects, was, undoubtedly, a gentleman of high courage, of singular address, and considerable military sagacity, is entitled to the credit of having been the first to notice these circumstances, and to insist publicly, on the expediency of employing mounted riflemen alone, in hostilities against the Indians. Immediately after his return from the last expedition, he spoke and wrote in favour of the employment of this description of troops; and in July of the same year, published a notification, inviting five hundred volunteer horsemen to accompany him on an expedition into the territory north-west of the Ohio. It was announced, that Colonel John Hardin, and Colonel James M'Dowell, both of whom were popular leaders, would serve under him as majors. Such was the mode of conducting these hostilities, at that period. A leader of repute planned an expedition, announced his intention, appointed a place of rendezvous, and the volunteers flocked around his standard. When the enterprise was sufficiently important, and a numerous force required, several gentlemen united as leaders, arranged the plan, settled their relative rank among themselves, and used their combined influence in collecting the number of men required. Thus, Colonel John Hardin, who, on previous occasions, had commanded a much larger force than that now proposed to be raised, served on this occasion as second in command under Wilkinson. It is thus, also, that we account for the numerous military titles, under which we find the distinguished

men among the pioneers denominated. Some of them, designate the proper rank held by these gentlemen in the militia; others, are titles acquired in actual service, during the revolution; and others, show the rank gratuitously conferred upon the voluntary leaders in some military enterprise, by their companions-a rank which gave them actual command for the occasion, and military titles which they retained permanently. These expeditions were extremely popular; the men offered their services cheerfully, and went at their own cost. There was at first, no government except that of Virginia, which was too distant, and too much occupied in acting her distinguished part in the war of the revolution, to afford assistance to the settlements; and the military duty rendered for the public defence, was both voluntary and gratuitous. The men furnished their own horses, arms, ammunition, and provisions; thus expending their substance, and exposing their property as well as their lives, in this patriotic service.

This enterprise of Wilkinson produced no important result, except to show the facility with which troops may be moved by an active officer. He scoured the Indian country for a few weeks, swept over a great extent of territory, devastated some of the villages and fields of the enemy, and returned without having succeeded in bringing the savages into an engagement. Among the towns destroyed by him, was that at the mouth of the Tippecanoe; no other town was built at or near that place, until the establishment of the Prophet's village, which afterwards caused so much trouble to the frontiers of Indiana.

CHAPTER III.

Causes of the failure of several of the Expeditions in the Northwestern Territory-St. Clair's Campaign.

That the engagements of the regular troops with the Indians in this region, should have been so often disastrous, is by no means surprising; on the contrary, when we reflect on the character of the army, and the circumstances under which our troops were placed, we can only wonder that they should ever have been successful. The troops which had been engaged in the revolutionary war, had been disbanded, and did not, necessarily, form any part of the military peace establishment of the federal government, though many individuals, who had served in the continental line, afterwards entered the army as officers or privates. The first standing army authorized by Congress, was too small to offer strong inducements to gentlemen of talent and enterprise, to embrace the military life as a profession; the officers, therefore, though many of them were high minded, gallant men, were not generally the elite of the nation, and a large portion of the men were either worn out old soldiers, or raw recruits of degraded character. The habit of intemperate drinking prevailed to an alarming extent. Among the specimens of the military of that day, who survived the assaults of time, and came down to us as the honoured relics of a past generation, this propensity was strongly developed, and the appellation of old soldier, was always

associated with the idea of a hard drinking man.

We have, also, some records that attest this fact; the proceedings of courts martial in those days show, that the charge of drunkenness was more than once brought home to the gentlemen of the sword; and some of the published reminiscences of the old heroes, attest the same lamentable truth. General Eaton has left a list of some of his companions, in which the expressive phrases, "dead per brandy," "dead per ditto," occur with melancholy frequency. Public opinion had not then placed the stamp of disgrace upon that species of dissipation, and military discipline, although severe, was imperfect.

Our government was then but recently organized, and the war department had not acquired character or stability. It was the branch of the executive which was least esteemed. The standing army had been made the theme of bitter party denunciation, had been pronounced dangerous to liberty, and had been stigmatized by the demagogues of the day, with the bitterest and foulest epithets in the vocabulary of party invective. It was decidedly unpopular. While, therefore, it appeared certain, that neither its numbers, nor the respectability of its appointments, would be enlarged by the deliberate action of government, it was doubtful whether the whole establishment would not be swept off as a nuisance. Congress made appropriations for military purposes with reluctance; and there was little to encourage the war department, in making any decided efforts to improve the service, or sustain the reputation of the army.

The government was poor, and our councils were distracted. These facts have not been made sufficiently prominent, by those who have commented upon the ser