Historic Highways of America: Volume 8: Military Roads of the Mississippi Basin by Archer Butler Hulbert

Author:Archer Butler Hulbert [Hulbert, Archer Butler]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Geschichte
Publisher: Jazzybee Verlag
Published: 2018-05-01T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER IV - WAYNE AND FALLEN TIMBER

THE defeat of St. Clair's army cast a nation into gloom. As the terrible tidings sped eastward a thousand frontier cabins were filled with dismayed men, women, and children. The passion into which it is said the patient Washington was thrown, upon hearing the melancholy story, was typical of the feeling of a whole people. There could be no doubt, now, what the future would bring forth; a deluge of raiding savages, such as had never overrun the frontiers since Braddock's defeat in 1755, would certainly come; the desperate cry, " White men shall not plant corn north of the Ohio," would now ring out over the thin fringe of frightened settlements on the Miami and Muskingum, and with that cry would come frenzied raiders from whose tomahawks men would do well to escape death and women be fortunate if they were quickly killed. From all the western settlements in Kentucky, Ohio, and Pennsylvania a cry, anxious and often piteous, was hurried over the mountains to Philadelphia for aid and protection.

The young government now faced a problem difficult in the extreme with fine courage, fully conscious of its own dignity and its own latent power. Within six weeks of St. Clair's annihilation, the Secretary of War submitted a statement to Congress which summed up the situation briefly and clearly. The former treaties with the Indians, the efforts for peace, the sorry details of the campaign were all described. Peaceful and warlike efforts, alike, had failed. So much for the past. For the future, the plan was already formulated and ready for adoption by Congress. First, the war must be brought to an end; if peace could be secured without further resort to arms, well and good; " it is submitted," read the Secretary's communication, " that every reasonable expedient be again taken . that the nature of the case, and a just regard to the national reputation, will admit." Those in best position to judge, however, were sure that the pride of victory was so strong among the confederated nations that " it would be altogether improper to expect any favorable result from such [peaceful] expedients," and Congress was warned accordingly that it was " by an ample conviction of superior force only, that the Indians can be brought to listen to the dictates of peace on reasonable terms." It was properly insisted that relinquishment of territory formerly ceded by the savages could not be arranged " consistently with a proper regard to national reputation." The plan included the organization of a new army, comprising three hundred cavalry, three hundred artillerymen, and five regiments of infantry of four thousand five hundred and sixty men. It was to be styled " The Legion of the United States," and was to be divided into four sub-legions of one thousand two hundred and eighty non-commissioned officers and privates each. The mistakes of the past dictated the necessity of having this force disciplined " according to the nature

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