Anthony Wayne was an enigma. He dressed like a dandy, but the toughest guys on the frontier were afraid of him . He has gone down in history as a military genius, but his contemporaries called him “mad”.  He made sure his soldiers lacked for nothing, yet he drove them to exhaustion.  He was a trusted advisor to George Washington and stood beside him at Valley Forge, yet his greatest victory came during his second career, after he retired from Washington’s Army.

The life and legacy of General “Mad” Anthony Wayne is full of irony.  After distinguished service in the American Revolution, Wayne crushed the Indian resistance and paved the way for Ohio statehood.  Too bad he did not live to see it

Anthony Wayne was born in 1745 to a well-to-do family in Chester County, Pennsylvania.  He was sent to Philadelphia for a good education under the tutelage of his uncle, who noted that young Anthony preferred playing war games and staging mock battles to school work.  Still, he had an aptitude for mathematics, and completed his studies with the skills of a surveyor, but the heart and soul of a soldier.  For several years, Wayne alternated stints of wilderness surveying, operating the family farm and tannery, and serving in the Pennsylvania legislature.  In 1775, the outbreak of the Revolutionary War gave Wayne the chance to match his experiences as a woodsman, businessman and politician with his passion as a patriot.

Anthony Wayne started his military career as colonel of the Fourth Pennsylvania Regiment.  Their first assignment was to provide reinforcements for the American campaign into Canada to drive the British out of Quebec.  The effort was doomed to failure, but Wayne and his troops fought bravely.  Wayne sustained a nasty leg wound at the Battle of Three Rivers, but he continued to fight, and took command of the arduous retreat through mucky swamps and dense forests to usher the soldiers to safety.  After the battle, Wayne was promoted to brigadier general for his extraordinary service.

General Wayne’s next escape was not so successful.  In the fall of 1777, under orders from George Washington, Wayne and 1,500 men harassed the rear of the British line as they crossed Brandywine Creek, near Philadelphia.  Wayne’s regiments fought admirably, but were outnumbered and forced to withdraw.  That night, Wayne established camp at Paoli, about three miles from the British camp.  Despite Wayne’s best efforts to hide his location, British spies found him out.  Late that night, the British troops ambushed without firing a shot, silently stabbing the pickets with swords and slaughtering Wayne’s sleeping soldiers with bayonets.  Wayne orchestrated a quick escape for the survivors, but nearly 200 men were killed or injured amid the chaos.  The bloody ambush was a lesson Wayne would never forget, but allegations that he had mismanaged the incident inflamed his famous temper.  Wayne requested a court-martial to clear his name, and the court acquitted him with the highest honor for performing “…every duty that could be expected from an active, brave and vigilant officer...”

For the remainder of the Revolution, Wayne served as a go-to general for reliable reinforcement, as well as bold maneuvers.  During Washington’s miserable winter of 1777-78 at Valley Forge, Wayne led forays into the countryside to gather food for starving soldiers.  His shining moment was the daring capture of the well protected British fort, Stony Point, in 1779.  Perched on a bluff high above the Hudson River and surrounded by water and swampland, the fort was a tempting challenge Wayne couldn’t resist.  George Washington approved Wayne’s carefully crafted scheme, and he was assigned light infantry to carry out the sneak attack.  Wayne led a swift and precise assault that surprised and overwhelmed the British, despite suffering a serious scalp wound in the fighting.  The following year, Wayne marched 16 miles in four hours to help foil the infamous traitor Benedict Arnold’s attempt to turn the fortifications at West Point over to the British.  These were important morale-building victories for Washington’s army, and they cemented Anthony Wayne’s reputation as a Revolutionary War hero.

After the war, Wayne tried to return to business and politics, but his restless soldier’s spirit was not well suited to civilian life.  Meanwhile, his old boss George Washington got a big promotion, and was struggling with big issues in the Northwest Territory.  The continuing British presence on the frontier was an ongoing threat, and the Native Americans were menacing settlers in the Ohio country.  In 1790 and again in 1791, armies were dispatched from Fort Washington at present day Cincinnati to retaliate against the Indian villages in northwest Ohio and present day Indiana.  Both commanding generals, Josiah Harmar and Arthur Sinclair, suffered catastrophic defeats at the hands of the Miami war chief, Little Turtle, and his Shawnee allies, Blue Jacket and Tecumseh.  President Washington needed a leader who was audacious enough to try a third time, and cunning enough to pull it off.  It was a job for Mad Anthony Wayne.

In 1792, Washington appointed Wayne Commanding General of the Legion of the United States in the Northwest, stationed at present-day Pittsburgh.  Determined to avoid the errors of his predecessors, Wayne slowly and deliberately plotted his trek up the Wabash Trail.  His first challenge was to invigorate the soldiers demoralized by the failed campaigns.  Wayne wanted his men to fear him more than they feared the Miami and Shawnee warriors.  He conducted relentless drills and enforced strict discipline to mold his troops into an efficient fighting force.

He spruced up their uniforms and insisted on a professional dress code and a clean camp.  He punished insubordination with painful and humiliating public flogging.  The legions were convinced Wayne was as mad as ever.  There was method to the madness, however.

By the summer of 1793, Wayne was stationed at Fort Washington and poised to begin his slow and deliberate march into hostile territory.  In September, he set out with 3,700 men along the Wabash Trail, stopping at the existing frontier fortifications Fort Hamilton (present-day Hamilton), Fort St .Clair (near present-day Eaton, by Hueston Woods State Park), and Fort Jefferson (south of modern-day Greenville).  As winter approached, Wayne built Fort Green Ville just north of Fort Jefferson to provide adequate quarters and protection for his winter encampment.  The imposing fort had walls ten feet tall, and the roomy stockade sprawled across 50 acres.  When the spring of 1794 arrived, Wayne had completed another fortress at the site of St .Clair’s defeat on the banks of the Wabash River (in present-day Mercer County).  He named it Fort Recovery.

Wayne’s plodding march and industrious building program had the desired impact of attracting the Natives’ attention.  Small bands of Indians and their allies, including the frontier renegade Simon Girty, stalked Wayne’s scouts and supply convoys, and menaced the American forts.  Sometimes they succeeded in killing a few soldiers, but the Indians had no luck disrupting the legion, which was too well organized and too well protected to ambush or incite mutiny.

Still, the Indians were determined to resist Wayne’s intrusion.  In the spring of 1794, some 1,500 warriors led by Blue Jacket staged an ambitious surprise attack on a supply convoy departing from Fort Recovery.  The Indians killed or injured 50 soldiers in the fierce assault, until the Americans inside the fort rallied, and sent volleys of gunfire that resulted in nearly as many braves injured and killed.  Wayne was encouraged that the fort held its own under the siege, yet he continued to bide his time before making his big move .  The Miami Indians adopted the nickname “Black Snake” for Wayne because, like his cunning reptilian namesake, Wayne sat quietly and patiently, studying his prey and waiting for the right moment to strike.

In the summer of 1794, Wayne began his strategic advance deep into the heart of the Indian territory.  He erected yet another post at the confluence of the Auglaize and Maumee Rivers (present day Defiance, near Independence Dam State Park) and named it Fort Defiance.  One of Wayne’s officers remarked that the fortification could protect them from “the Indians, the English, and all the devils in hell”.

Meanwhile, the British were becoming unnerved as Wayne advanced.  Fearing that Wayne’s intention was to march along the Maumee River and attack the British stronghold at Fort Detroit, British soldiers constructed Fort Miamis near present-day Toledo.  The Indian Confederation was also showing signs that it may unravel.  Little Turtle, the primary war chief who commanded the victory against St .Clair, decided to step down and pass the torch to Blue Jacket.  Without Little Turtle’s leadership, it seemed unlikely that neighboring tribes around the Great Lakes would cooperate in the cause.

Finally, in August 1794, the patient “Black Snake” sensed that it was time to strike.  Wayne led his legion slowly along the Maumee, leaving the door open to any overture of peaceful negotiation rather than all-out war.  On August 18, Wayne set up the day’s camp at a rocky outcropping on the river named Roche de Bout (at present day Waterville, near Mary Jane Thurston State Park), several miles from Fort Miamis.  Wayne’s scouts discovered that the Indians were lying in wait just ahead, hiding amid a jumble of enormous trees toppled by a storm, known as Fallen Timbers.  On the morning of August 20, Wayne set out once again, expecting an ambush.  Although he was suffering from a painful flare-up of an old injury, he insisted on mounting his horse and riding with his men.

As the army’s advance column approached the area, the Indians leapt up and fought furiously with muskets.  Wayne retaliated with a bayonet charge into the center of the Indian forces among the fallen trees.  Blue Jacket attempted to maneuver his finest warriors around Wayne’s flank, but the unruly Great Lakes Indians ignored Blue Jacket’s stealthy strategy, and boldly charged into Wayne’s infantry.  In the end, the bravado of the Indians’ onslaught was no match for the discipline of Wayne’s sharpshooters and bayonets.  After two hours of fierce fighting, the warriors scattered and fled for the safety of Fort Miamis.  The turncoat British refused to allow them in or provide reinforcements, however.

Wayne’s legion suffered 33 dead and about 100 wounded in the Battle of Fallen Timbers, while Blue Jacket’s alliance suffered at least twice as many casualties.  Wayne did not chase the warriors beyond Fort Miamis, although his soldiers continued to harass the local tribes by setting fire to the nearby villages and crop fields on their march back to Fort Green Ville.  For the defeated Shawnee and Miami, the looming prospect of bargaining away an end to their comfortable life in the Ohio territory was even more devastating than the loss of life and property.

Like Wayne’s military campaign, crafting a successful plan for peace took time and patience.  Wayne summoned the tribal leaders to meet with him at Fort Green Ville in January 1795 to begin the long process of treaty negotiation.  Little Turtle served as a primary negotiator, representing the Miamis.  Tecumseh flatly refused to take part, although Blue Jacket and Black Hoof attended as representatives of the Shawnee. In June of 1795, more than 1,000 representatives of local and far-flung tribes converged on the fort for the customary speeches, feasting and peace-pipe ceremonies.  Other notables from Ohio tribes included Tarhe the Crane of the Wyandot, Buckongehelas of the Delaware, and Chegonickska of the Ottawa.  In all, 90 Indians signed the treaty, which was completed in August 1795.

The Greenville Treaty required that the Native Americans relinquish all claims to much of the Ohio territory, from the mouth of the Cuyahoga River (Cleveland), going south (through today’s Portage Lakes State Park) to the Tuscarawas River at Fort Laurens (built during the Revolutionary War near present-day Bolivar to protect frontier settlements) . The treaty line traced a westward path to Fort Recovery, and then took a sharp southerly turn to the Ohio River . The Indians were still permitted to hunt below the treaty line, and the Americans were permitted to establish forts above the treaty line . Additional treaty terms included the return of all the white captives, and gifts to the tribes including $20,000 worth of goods, and an annual stipend of $9,500

During and after the treaty talks, Wayne continued to pepper northwest Ohio with forts, often on sites that already had historical significance . On the heels of their victory at Fallen Timbers, Wayne’s triumphant soldiers built Fort Wayne at the place where General Harmar met his disastrous defeat four years earlier . He built Fort Loramie (near Lake Loramie State Park) on the site of Shawnee sympathizer Peter Loramie’s old trading post, which was destroyed in George Rogers Clark’s 1782 raid . In 1795, he built Fort St .Marys (near Grand Lake St .Marys State Park) on the St .Mary’s River near the deserted Girty’s Town and trading post . The town was named for James Girty, brother of the renegade Simon Girty, who fled as Harmar’s troops closed in on the area five years earlier

In 1796, Wayne received a new assignment to oversee the surrender of the British forts on the frontier . He was carrying out his orders at Fort Presque Isle (present-day Erie, Pennsylvania) when he was seized with a disabling attack of gout in November 1796 . On December 16, 1796 he died of the disease at the age of 51 . In the final irony of his life, the bold general, who was impervious to pain and injury in the heat of battle, died young after a bad bout with a disease commonly attributed to the pampered lifestyle of rich men and kings

Through his iron will and the steely force of his personality, General “Mad” Anthony Wayne overwhelmed the worthiest of opponents to earn liberty for his country, and expand its boundaries . His greatest passion was waging war, but his greatest legacy was brokering peace on the frontier . It was a fragile peace, but it was enough for the budding settlements in the Ohio country to coalesce into the state of Ohio in 1803.

- Jean Backs, Editor

¹ Heckewelder, John, History, Manners and Customs of the Indian Nations that Once Inhabited Pennsylvania and the Neighboring States, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 1876

References

• Battin, Richard, “ ‘Mad Anthony’ Wayne at Fallen Timbers – General Wayne’s Decisive Victory in the Northwest Territory Ends the Young Nation’s Crisis of Authority,” The News Sentinel, Fort Wayne, Indiana 1994-1996.
• Knepper, George W., An Ohio Portrait, Ohio Historical Society, 1976.
• Millett, Allan R., “Caesar and the Conquest of the Northwest Territory, the Wayne Campaign, 1792-5,” Timeline Magazine, Ohio Historical Society, May-June 1997.
• Spears, John Randolph, Anthony Wayne: sometimes called Mad Anthony, D.Appleton & Co., New York, 1903

On-Line Resources

• Ohio Historical Society, www.ohiohistorycentral.org
• Independence Hall Association, www.ushistory.org
• The Historical Marker Database, www.hmdb.org
• Pennsylvania Historical &Museum Commission, www.phmc.state.pa.us