Indian hostilities still continued to destroy the peace and safety of our
frontier settlements. And Congress with a view to provide relief, resolved
to increase our military force, and place in the hands of the Executive,
more ample means for their defense. A new expedition was therefore
projected. General St. Clair, governor of the territory west of the Ohio,
was appointed commander-in-chief of the forces to be employed.
President Washington had been deeply pained by the disasters of General
Harmar's expedition to the Wabash, resulting from Indian ambushes. In
taking leave of his old military comrade, St. Clair, he wished him success
and honor; at the same time to put him on his guard, said,--"You have your
instructions from the secretary of war. I had a strict eye to them, and
will add but one word--Beware of a surprise! You know how the Indians
fight. I repeat it--_Beware of a surprise_!" With these warning words
sounding in his ear, St. Clair departed. [Footnote: Irving's life of
Washington.]
On the seventh of September, 1791, General St. Clair set out for the
Indian country. The American banner was unfurled and waved proudly over
two thousand of her soldiers, as with sanguine hopes and bright
anticipations, they took up their line of march for the Miami, designing
to destroy the Indian villages on that river, expel the savages from the
region, and by establishing a line of posts to the Ohio river, prevent the
Indians from returning to a point, where they had been the occasion of
great mischief.
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