FALLEN TIMBERS

One of the shortest and most significant battles in American history was fought at a point some 10 miles southeast of the Fallen Timbers Service Plaza in Lucas County. “Mad Anthony” Wayne’s victory in the Battle of Fallen Timbers on August 20, 1794, broke the power of the Indians in the Northwest Territory and opened up to settlement that vast, rich land from which was carved Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and part of Minnesota.

The first settlers in the Northwest Territory lived in constant fear of Indian attack. In order to survive they had to be quick with the rifle as well as efficient with the axe. Indian inhabitants in the area did not recognize the right of the Americans to enter upon their homelands and hunting grounds north of the Ohio River. Clashes and bloodshed along the frontier increased as the number of settlers increased. The area between the two Miami rivers became known with good reason as the “Miami Slaughter House.”

Indian power centered in the Maumee Valley, particularly at Kekionga, the present Ft. Wayne, Indiana. Here the Miamis had their major village. It became necessary for the United States Government to send three armies into the Indian country in order to break the resistance of the Indians and to destroy their stronghold at Kekionga.

General Arthur St. Clair, Governor of the Northwest Territory, attempted in 1790 to negotiate a peaceful settlement with the Indians. When his efforts failed, he ordered General Josiah Harmar to march against the Indians with his poorly trained and badly equipped army. In an encounter at Kekionga, the Americans were routed by Indian forces led by Little Turtle, the great Miami chief.

Smarting under this defeat, the Federal Government in 1791 ordered General St. Clair to lead another fore into the Indian country. At sunrise on November 4, 1792, the Indians, again led by Little Turtle, ambushed St. Clair’s army on the site of present day Fort Recovery. They slaughtered many of St. Clair’s troops and drove the remainder of his forces back in confusion to Fort Washington at Cincinnati. The United States Government had suffered another costly defeat.

President George Washington then selected Anthony Wayne as Commander-in-Chief of the Legion of the United States. He gave him orders to train and discipline an army of sufficient strength to defeat the red foe.

Wayne spent many months training his troops in the Indian style of warfare at his winter quarters at Fort Greene Ville in western Ohio near the present Ohio-Indiana line. In the spring of 1794 he began a cautious but determined advance from Green Ville north to the confluence of the Auglaize and Maumee Rivers, the granary of the Indians. Wayne referred to that site as “the grand emporium of the hostile Indians of the West.”

There he found that the Indians had moved eastward down the Maumee River. Pausing to build a stockade with blockhouses at the corners that he called Fort Defiance, Wayne moved on in pursuit of the Indians. When he saw the green waves of Indian cornfields during his approach to Fallen Timbers, he said the land was the richest he had ever seen.

On the north bank of the Maumee River General Wayne encountered an army of Indian troops at a point where some large trees had been felled by a tornado. His adversaries’ army included Miami Indians under Little Turtle; Shawnees under Black Wolf; Ottawas, Chippewas and Potawantomis commanded by Blue Jacket; the Sauk and Fox tribes; a few Iroquois, and 70 white Canadian rangers.

It took but 40 minutes for Wayne’s disciplined troops to bring to an end 20 years of border warfare. While the cavalry hurdled the fallen trees and fired into the Indians, Wayne’s infantry charged with fixed bayonets and soon the Indians were running pell-mell. The Indians fled to nearby Fort Miamis where they were refused admission by the British; their flight ended in utter rout.

In November 1794 Wayne returned to Fort Greene Ville to await peace overtures from the scattered and helpless tribes. In June 1795 the first of about 1,130 chiefs and warriors began to arrive at Fort Greene Ville. The proceedings involved feasting, ceremonials, orations and pleading of cases and lasted 50 days. Prominent among the orators was Little Turtle, who had defeated Generals Harmar and St. Clair but who was one of the leading spokesmen for peace at Green Ville. The treaty established a boundary between the Americans and the Indians and permitted settlers to penetrate rapidly and safely into the rich lands north of the Ohio River.

To commemorate the victory of the United States over the Indians both Ohio and Indiana have authorized the development of the Anthony Wayne Parkway which consists of a network of highways in the two states leading to sites of the log forts and to the battle grounds where the Indians fought with the Americans.

At Maumee the Ohio Turnpike crosses over the Anthony Wayne Trail that runs south of Toledo to become part of the Anthony Wayne Parkway.

For those who wish to relive an exciting chapter in early American history, the Ohio Turnpike will provide swift and convenient access via the Maumee-Toledo interchange to Maumee, gateway to Anthony Wayne country.