Harmar Campaign

Infobox Military Conflict
conflict=Harmar Campaign
partof=Northwest Indian War
date=October 19-22, 1790
place=Ohio Territory, United States
result=Decisive Indian Victory
combatant1=Western Confederacy
combatant2=United States
commander1=Little Turtle
commander2=Josiah Harmar
strength1=1,050 warriors
strength2=540 regulars and militia
casualties1=120-150 killed or wounded
casualties2=129 killed
94 wounded

The Harmar Campaign was an attempt by the United States to subdue Native Americans in the Northwest Territory in the Autumn of 1790. It was led by General Josiah Harmar and is part of the Northwest Indian War. The campaign featured a series of battles which were all overwhelming victories for the Native Americans, and the losses are sometimes referred to as Harmar's Defeat.

Prelude to battle

In 1789, President George Washington wrote to Northwest Territory Governor Arthur St. Clair and asked him to determine if the Wabash and Illinois Indians were inclined for war or peace with the United States. St. Clair was led to believed the tribes wanted war, and called for a militia force to be assembled at Fort Washington and Vincennes. President Washington and Secretary of War Henry Knox ordered General Harmar to launch a campaign into the Shawnee and Miami Indian country in retaliation for the killing of over 1,500 civilians in Kentucky, along the Ohio River, and at the few settlements north of the Ohio from the mid to late 1780s. The primary objective of the campaign was the destruction of the large, main Miami village of Kekionga (present-day Fort Wayne, Indiana), where the St. Joseph and St. Marys Rivers join to create the Maumee River.

General Harmar gathered 320 regulars of the First American Regiment and 1,133 militia, for a total of 1,453 men. [Barnhart, pg 283] The force also had three wheel-mounted, horse drawn, 6-pounder cannon. No time was allotted to train the militia, since when winter arrived the pack horses would lose their forage and go hungry, [Barnhart, 283] so the campaign was launched from Fort Washington (Cincinnati) in the southwestern Ohio Territory at 10:00 a.m. on October 7, 1790. General Harmar began the march north, along the Great Miami River, as smaller army led by Jean François Hamtramck marched north from Vincennes in a coordinated effort to distract the Wabash Indians. St. Clair wrote to Fort Detroit to assure the British that the expedition was only against Indian tribes, and expressed his confidence that the British would not interfere. [Barnhart, pp 284-285, fn.21]

By October 14, Harmar's force had marched to within convert|25|mi|km of Kekionga. At that point, Kentuckians serving as scouts for the army captured a Shawnee. After some intense interrogation (and possible torture), the Indian informed Harmar that the Miami and Shawnee were gathering at Kekionga, preparing for his army's advance. Before dawn on October 15, a detachment of 600 men under Colonel John Hardin was dispatched north on a convert|25|mi|km|sing=on forced march to "surprise" the Indians at Kekionga. When Colonel Hardin's detachment arrived, they found the village abandoned and burned it, and camped south of the destroyed town.

Miami villages near Kekionga were reached on October 17. Some had been destroyed by departing Miami, while others were plundered by the Americans.

Battle of Heller's Corner

On October 19, Colonel Hardin was given command of a scouting party consisting of 180 militia, a troop of cavalry under Major James Fontaine, and 30 regulars under Captain Armstrong. They were to estimate the size of the Native American coalition and attack the village of Chief Le Gris. [Carter, 94] The party came within a few miles of Kekionga, where they encountered an Indian on horseback, who fled along a minor trail leading away from the village. Hardin ordered his company to pursue, but sent Major Fontaine's cavalry back to bring up a company that had been left behind. The Indian was a decoy, and led Hardin into a swampy lowland by the Eel River, where he could neither pursue nor easily retreat. Here, Little Turtle attacked from three sides. The militia fled, warning Major Fontaine's reinforcements to turn around.

The regulars stood their ground with about 9 militia, but only 8 of the 30 regulars survived. 40 men of the militia had died [Barnhart, 284] , and 12 Americans had been wounded. [Allison, 73] Captain Armstrong hid in the marsh and escaped with his life. He blamed Hardin and the militia for the defeat, and claimed that only about 100 Indians had been involved. This was the approximate number of warriors available from Kekionga and Le Gris' Village. [Carter, 92-93] The battle came to be known as Hardin's Defeat or the Battle of Heller's Corner.

Hartshorn's Defeat

On October 20, General Harmar arrived at the camp and immediately sent out a detachment of 300 men under Ensign Phillip Hartshorn northward to reconnoiter the Indian force's trail. Eight miles above Kekionga, Hartshorn was ambushed by a large war party, which killed him and 19 of his men. Instead of advancing immediately to attack the Indian force, Harmar pulled back, several miles south of the village, not even permitting a burial detail to bury their twenty dead. Morale by now had plummeted, and the men were enraged at the cowardice of their commander. Hardin then demanded that he be allowed to take 400 men and attack the Indian force, or at the very least, bury their fallen comrades.

Battle of Pumpkin Fields

On the night of October 21, Colonel Hardin and Major John P. Wyllys returned with 300 militia and 60 regulars from the First American Regiment under Major John P. Wyllys. At dawn on October 22, they reached Kekionga to find a force of approximately 1,050 warriors encamped there. Hardin immediately sent a dispatch to Harmar requesting reinforcements. When the courier told Harmar (who was rumored to have been drunk) about the size of the enemy force, he became visibly shaken and ordered his 800-900 remaining men into a hollow defensive square and refused to come to Hardin's aid, leaving him alone to face an enemy more than twice his number. Colonel Hardin, expecting reinforcements at any time, divided his command into four groups under Major Wyllys, Major Hall, Major Fontaine, and Major McMullen. He planned to divide the forces and flank the Indians on all sides. [Allison, 74]

Little Turtle attacked first, however, sending small parties to fire on the militia and retreat. The militia gave chase in many instances, until the Regulars were left unguarded. Little Turtle then attacked Major Wyllys, with results as devastaing as Heller's Corner. [Allison, 75] Major Fontaine, meanwhile, lead a cavalry charge into a wooded area and into an ambush. Soon the Shawnee and Miami force was attacking Hardin from three sides. Still holding out for reinforcements from Harmar, Hardin's men put up a valiant defense, holding the Indians at bay for over three hours before finally falling back to join the rest of the army.

The battle came to be known as the Battle of the Pumpkin Fields because the steam from the scalped skulls reminded the Indians of squash steaming in the autumn air. 180 men were either killed wounded. [Barnhart, 284] The army forces reported 129 men killed in action (14 officers, including Major Wyllys and Major Fontaine, and 115 enlisted men) and 94 wounded (including 50 of the Regulars). Estimates of Indian casualties range from 120 to 150 total.

Aftermath

With such high casualties from these skirmishes, General Harmar determined that he could no longer mount an offensive. The approaching winter further threatened his command, as militia deserted and horses starved. The force reached Fort Washington November 3 1790. [Barnhart, 284]

It was the worst defeat of the U.S. forces by Native Americans until that time, and would only be surpassed by St. Clair's Defeat and the Battle of the Little Bighorn. [Allison, 76] The defeat encouraged the Indians in the Northwest Territory to resist the United States. A similar force would be led the next year by Governor St. Clair, and would end in the worst defeat by American Indians the United States Army would ever receive. A court martial in 1791 cleared Harmar of any wrong-doing during the campaign [cite journal | last=Johnson | first=Jeffery L. | title=Saving Private Boon: Joseph Boone at "Harmar's Defeat" | journal=Compass | publisher=The Boon Society | date=October 2004 | url=http://www.boonesociety.com/articles/saving_private_boone.htm | accessdate=2006-12-29] [cite website | publisher=Ohio Historical Society | title=Harmar's Defeat | url=http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=505 | accessdate=2006-12-29]

References

*

* Barnhart, John D. and Riker, Dorothy L. "Indiana to 1816. The Colonial Period." ©1971, Indiana Historical Society. ISBN 0-87195-109-6

* Carter, Harvey Lewis. "The Life and Times of Little Turtle: First Sagamore of the Wabash." ©1987, Urbana: University of Illinois Press. ISBN 0-252-01318-2.

* Johnson, Jeffery L. (October 2004). "Saving Private Boon: Joseph Boone at "Harmar's Defeat". Compass. The Boon Society. Retrieved on 2006-12-29. 

External links

* [http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=505 Ohio History Central]
* [http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=1338 Historical Marker Database]