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Osprey Campaign #256
Fallen Timbers 1794: The US Army’s first victory
After the formidable Ohio Indians destroyed the US Army at Wabash in 1791, the Washington administration created a new US Army to defeat them. The famous Revolutionary War commander Major-General “Mad” Anthony Wayne organized and trained the new army, and then led it into the Ohio wilderness in 1794. To defeat the Indians, he had to overcome not just the logistical and intelligence problems that had doomed his predecessor's 1791 campaign, but also a conspiracy of officers and contractors led by his principal subordinate, and threatened opposition by British and Spanish forces. On August 20, 1794, Wayne defeated the Indians at Fallen Timbers. His decisive victory led to the 1795 Treaty of Greeneville, which ended 20 years of conflict between the Americans and the Ohio Indians, and opened to American settlement the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin.
96 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2013
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
March 31, 2022
One of Osprey's free offers as the pandemic began, this was an unexpected acquisition for me. I'm not up on the US's Indian Wars at all, other than a few bits of brief outline.
I was certainly aware of the problems with continued British presence in the area after the end of the Revolutionary War, and that there certainly was a lot of conflict between the tide of settlement washing over the Alleghenies and the Indians that did culminate in a short war, but that's about the limit of it. Certainly, the subtitle of 'The US Army's first victory' seemed... off.
But of course, before the end of the Revolution, the military was the "Continental Army", and the first major engagements after its disbandment, and slow replacement under the Articles of Confederation, and then the current constitution were defeats. The Legion of the United States is then formed as the start of this particular campaign. Osprey spends some good time on this, as well as a couple pages talking about the general situation in the Northwest Territory, including some estimates of the numbers of people in the region.
This gets complicated with the French Revolution spilling over into North America in person of Edmond-Charles Genêt, who was supposed to be a minister from the new French government, but wanted to be a revolutionary leader, raising armies to invade Spanish territory, and planning to overthrow the American government for one more sympathetic with spreading the Revolution far and wide.
In addition to this, the new American army faced problems from within. Notably, two of Major General Anthony Wayne's subordinates were working against him; Hamtramck felt unfairly passed over for promotion, leaving his reliability in doubt, and far worse, Wilkinson was being paid by the Spanish Empire to make sure the new army posed no threat to them, wanted Wayne's job, and had been writing letters and newspaper articles undermining Wayne. So, when a major battle was finally in the offing after two years of campaigning, Maj Gen Wayne had arranged his chain of command so as to largely bypass his two primary subordinates. Not that they had nothing to do; the point was they did have things to do at Fallen Timbers, it just didn't include command all of their sub-legions.
The bulk of the book of course is about the actual course of events, with a fair emphasis on the logistics challenges Wayne was overcoming to advance deep into Indian territory to force a confrontation. There's the usual good maps along the way, but since I'm reading this in PDF, and maps are generally rotated 90-degrees, they weren't as handy for me as I might have liked. There's also a good number of color photographs of relevant places and museum exhibits. In all, a fairly typical solid Osprey Campaign presentation.
Overall, this period was very unsettled politically for the interior (Wilkinson earlier was involved with an effort to get Kentucky separated from Virginia and the US and allied to/part of Spain... with the practical goal of opening up navigation from there to the Caribbean, since Spain controlled all the downriver parts of the Mississippi), and this shows off part of the process where the region became more firmly tied to the US. However, Wayne's methodical working through the various obstacles makes this an interesting study for a pure military viewpoint.
I was certainly aware of the problems with continued British presence in the area after the end of the Revolutionary War, and that there certainly was a lot of conflict between the tide of settlement washing over the Alleghenies and the Indians that did culminate in a short war, but that's about the limit of it. Certainly, the subtitle of 'The US Army's first victory' seemed... off.
But of course, before the end of the Revolution, the military was the "Continental Army", and the first major engagements after its disbandment, and slow replacement under the Articles of Confederation, and then the current constitution were defeats. The Legion of the United States is then formed as the start of this particular campaign. Osprey spends some good time on this, as well as a couple pages talking about the general situation in the Northwest Territory, including some estimates of the numbers of people in the region.
This gets complicated with the French Revolution spilling over into North America in person of Edmond-Charles Genêt, who was supposed to be a minister from the new French government, but wanted to be a revolutionary leader, raising armies to invade Spanish territory, and planning to overthrow the American government for one more sympathetic with spreading the Revolution far and wide.
In addition to this, the new American army faced problems from within. Notably, two of Major General Anthony Wayne's subordinates were working against him; Hamtramck felt unfairly passed over for promotion, leaving his reliability in doubt, and far worse, Wilkinson was being paid by the Spanish Empire to make sure the new army posed no threat to them, wanted Wayne's job, and had been writing letters and newspaper articles undermining Wayne. So, when a major battle was finally in the offing after two years of campaigning, Maj Gen Wayne had arranged his chain of command so as to largely bypass his two primary subordinates. Not that they had nothing to do; the point was they did have things to do at Fallen Timbers, it just didn't include command all of their sub-legions.
The bulk of the book of course is about the actual course of events, with a fair emphasis on the logistics challenges Wayne was overcoming to advance deep into Indian territory to force a confrontation. There's the usual good maps along the way, but since I'm reading this in PDF, and maps are generally rotated 90-degrees, they weren't as handy for me as I might have liked. There's also a good number of color photographs of relevant places and museum exhibits. In all, a fairly typical solid Osprey Campaign presentation.
Overall, this period was very unsettled politically for the interior (Wilkinson earlier was involved with an effort to get Kentucky separated from Virginia and the US and allied to/part of Spain... with the practical goal of opening up navigation from there to the Caribbean, since Spain controlled all the downriver parts of the Mississippi), and this shows off part of the process where the region became more firmly tied to the US. However, Wayne's methodical working through the various obstacles makes this an interesting study for a pure military viewpoint.
February 20, 2016
This book leaves out a crucial fact about General Anthony Wayne: In comic book canon, Bruce Wayne is a direct descendant of Gen. Wayne, and Wayne Manor is built on land gifted to General Wayne for his service during the Revolutionary War. (I guess this puts Gotham City somewhere in New England.)
My interest in the Battle of Fallen Timbers is mainly due to the fact that my mom’s house was either on or right near the battleground. If the map in this book is to be believed, the right side of the US formation went through our pony barn.
It seems more likely that the battle was a bit further to the east though because there are some steep (for Ohio) ravines around the area that some accounts mention marching through before engaging in the battle.
But when I was a kid, people generally thought that the battle was to the west of us and down the hill in the flat area before the Maumee River. This can’t be true because the area was covered in 6 foot tall grass, which is not ideal for fighting Native Americans. Regardless, that’s where the monument and park is overlooking.
As a result, a good chunk of the real battleground has been undisturbed for 200 years, where it is looks like a random forest between a hospital and a recently-built shopping mall. A local professor verified the location by searching around the edges of the area with a team of people using metal detectors. [Search Google for “Remote sensing surveys at the Fallen Timbers Battlefield” for all the interesting details.]
I was surprised that the battle was so brief (about 2 hours) and so few people were killed (about 40 on the US side) considering how important it was in securing the Northwest Territory and putting a stop to the violent raids happening to the settlers and Indian towns.
Interestingly only 21 people were buried — two officers buried immediately and 19 a few days later when the army sent a detail back to the battlefield. So most bodies were left, maybe because they were hard to find in the woods or maybe because the burying detail didn’t feel like sticking around.
I didn’t realize that there was so much historical intrigue going on at the time. The French ambassador was running around America trying to raise a private army, annoying the heck out of President Washington. The British were hanging out in Canada opportunistically helping the Indians and waiting for America to implode so they could swoop in. The settlers were unhappy about the Federal army using land and resources (shades of Oregon).
There was also drama in the army at the time. Traitors were leaving notes for the British/Indians letting them know their plans. One night someone dropped a tree on General Wayne’s tent. But like Batman, it just made him mad.
I also didn’t know that a militia from KY — the kind that the 2nd amendment is actually referring to — came up to help out with the battle. Like most citizen militias, they were undisciplined and a bunch of them tried to bolt once the action started, but a few shots from the rear made sure that everyone stayed in the battle to get their participation awards.
Very interesting book. It is really hard to find anything in book stores about this period of history between the Revolutionary War and The War of 1812, though it is obviously significant to our history as a country. The War Nerd makes a convincing case that this is all one connected war that lasted several generations, and I see his point. (Read his excellent summary of the period starting at https://www.nsfwcorp.com/dispatch/twe... then read this book.)
Ok. Now I’ve finally reviewed the books I read between Christmas and New Year.
My interest in the Battle of Fallen Timbers is mainly due to the fact that my mom’s house was either on or right near the battleground. If the map in this book is to be believed, the right side of the US formation went through our pony barn.
It seems more likely that the battle was a bit further to the east though because there are some steep (for Ohio) ravines around the area that some accounts mention marching through before engaging in the battle.
But when I was a kid, people generally thought that the battle was to the west of us and down the hill in the flat area before the Maumee River. This can’t be true because the area was covered in 6 foot tall grass, which is not ideal for fighting Native Americans. Regardless, that’s where the monument and park is overlooking.
As a result, a good chunk of the real battleground has been undisturbed for 200 years, where it is looks like a random forest between a hospital and a recently-built shopping mall. A local professor verified the location by searching around the edges of the area with a team of people using metal detectors. [Search Google for “Remote sensing surveys at the Fallen Timbers Battlefield” for all the interesting details.]
I was surprised that the battle was so brief (about 2 hours) and so few people were killed (about 40 on the US side) considering how important it was in securing the Northwest Territory and putting a stop to the violent raids happening to the settlers and Indian towns.
Interestingly only 21 people were buried — two officers buried immediately and 19 a few days later when the army sent a detail back to the battlefield. So most bodies were left, maybe because they were hard to find in the woods or maybe because the burying detail didn’t feel like sticking around.
I didn’t realize that there was so much historical intrigue going on at the time. The French ambassador was running around America trying to raise a private army, annoying the heck out of President Washington. The British were hanging out in Canada opportunistically helping the Indians and waiting for America to implode so they could swoop in. The settlers were unhappy about the Federal army using land and resources (shades of Oregon).
There was also drama in the army at the time. Traitors were leaving notes for the British/Indians letting them know their plans. One night someone dropped a tree on General Wayne’s tent. But like Batman, it just made him mad.
I also didn’t know that a militia from KY — the kind that the 2nd amendment is actually referring to — came up to help out with the battle. Like most citizen militias, they were undisciplined and a bunch of them tried to bolt once the action started, but a few shots from the rear made sure that everyone stayed in the battle to get their participation awards.
Very interesting book. It is really hard to find anything in book stores about this period of history between the Revolutionary War and The War of 1812, though it is obviously significant to our history as a country. The War Nerd makes a convincing case that this is all one connected war that lasted several generations, and I see his point. (Read his excellent summary of the period starting at https://www.nsfwcorp.com/dispatch/twe... then read this book.)
Ok. Now I’ve finally reviewed the books I read between Christmas and New Year.
May 27, 2013
The United States sent an army west in 1791 to confront marauding (as white Americans saw it) Indians. And that army was essentially destroyed at the battle of Wabash. This is the story of a follow up expedition westward, culminating in the battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794.
The commander of the later operation was the renowned general, Anthony Wayne. He performed well in the Revolutionary War and was given command of an expedition to the west. In addition to his rather small force, he would be joined by Kentucky volunteers, creating--in the end--a sizable force.
As always in the Campaign series, the book follows a standard outline: opposing commanders, opposing armies, opposing plans, and then the actual campaign. One challenge for Wayne was a key subordinate commander, the duplicitous and treacherous Brigadier General James Wilkinson, an astonishing figure in the early American military. And rightly was Wayne not trusting of Wilkinson. This slender volume does a nice job showing how Wayne tried to mitigate any damage that Wilkinson (and another subordinate officer, John Hamtramck) might do.
One thing that characterized Wayne's outline of the campaign was logistics. He carefully planned the movement of his forces, including creation of a series of forts and camps (see the diagram on page 52). Finally, the battle began. Wayne tried to keep his forces linear enough so that the Indians would not outflank his troops (as had happened at Wabash). Once outflanked, the American forces would face a very difficult situation. But Wayne and his officers avoided that and ended up routing the Indians (and their Canadian and English allies).
The book concludes with a discussion of the aftereffects of the battle.
Overall, a fine entry in the "Campaign" series. So9metimes, one wishes for a bit more detail, but these Osprey volumes specialize in short and punchy treatments of campaigns, making them accessible to a larger audience.
The commander of the later operation was the renowned general, Anthony Wayne. He performed well in the Revolutionary War and was given command of an expedition to the west. In addition to his rather small force, he would be joined by Kentucky volunteers, creating--in the end--a sizable force.
As always in the Campaign series, the book follows a standard outline: opposing commanders, opposing armies, opposing plans, and then the actual campaign. One challenge for Wayne was a key subordinate commander, the duplicitous and treacherous Brigadier General James Wilkinson, an astonishing figure in the early American military. And rightly was Wayne not trusting of Wilkinson. This slender volume does a nice job showing how Wayne tried to mitigate any damage that Wilkinson (and another subordinate officer, John Hamtramck) might do.
One thing that characterized Wayne's outline of the campaign was logistics. He carefully planned the movement of his forces, including creation of a series of forts and camps (see the diagram on page 52). Finally, the battle began. Wayne tried to keep his forces linear enough so that the Indians would not outflank his troops (as had happened at Wabash). Once outflanked, the American forces would face a very difficult situation. But Wayne and his officers avoided that and ended up routing the Indians (and their Canadian and English allies).
The book concludes with a discussion of the aftereffects of the battle.
Overall, a fine entry in the "Campaign" series. So9metimes, one wishes for a bit more detail, but these Osprey volumes specialize in short and punchy treatments of campaigns, making them accessible to a larger audience.
February 15, 2016
A very good companion piece with Osprey's Wabash 1791. The first focused on St. Clair's defeat by the various tribes hanging out in the Northwest Territory/Ohio River valley, while this looks at Gen. Wayne's subsequent defeat of the tribes. While neither fully resolved the situation (that took about another 20 years) it provides a great feel for the challenges being faced by the young nation and by the tribes resisting encroachment from the Eastern seaboard.
October 30, 2017
While clearly a "battle" book, this reader was taken by the subterfuge and logistical dilemmas that plagued "Mad Anthony" Wayne's campaign to defeat the Ohio Indians and bring an end to the depredations on the frontier.
The conspiracies of James Wilkinson ( could Aaron Burr be far behind?), the instigation of the British, corrupt sutlers, and even the Whiskey Rebellion contributed to the obstacles that this campaign had to overcome to reach a successful conclusion. As it turns out Wayne and his "Legion of the United States" was able to do just that.
The Legion was composed of infantry, light infantry, artillery, dragoons and Kentucky volunteers. Wayne skillfully wielded this force in defeating a combined force of Indians and Canadian militia, the bayonet overcoming the tomahawk as it were.
But the subsequent Treaty of Greenville did nothing to alleviate or assuage relations with the Native American population as U.S. expansion moved forward. Indian raids would continue and culminate in a final defeat for the Ohio Indians at Tippecanoe during the War of 1812.
The conspiracies of James Wilkinson ( could Aaron Burr be far behind?), the instigation of the British, corrupt sutlers, and even the Whiskey Rebellion contributed to the obstacles that this campaign had to overcome to reach a successful conclusion. As it turns out Wayne and his "Legion of the United States" was able to do just that.
The Legion was composed of infantry, light infantry, artillery, dragoons and Kentucky volunteers. Wayne skillfully wielded this force in defeating a combined force of Indians and Canadian militia, the bayonet overcoming the tomahawk as it were.
But the subsequent Treaty of Greenville did nothing to alleviate or assuage relations with the Native American population as U.S. expansion moved forward. Indian raids would continue and culminate in a final defeat for the Ohio Indians at Tippecanoe during the War of 1812.
January 3, 2017
Another great detailed Winkler book on an important battle in the Old Northwest. If you want to know specifics on the events at Fallen Timbers look no further. Personally I would get the print copy vs a Kindle version as this makes the many maps and illustrations easier to reference.
November 24, 2019
This is a good account of one of America's most pivotal battles, a victory that secured the Northwest territory for settlement. The maps are excellent. The prose is a bit dry, but not the worst from Osprey.
August 22, 2024
Like other Osprey Campaign books, this volume provides a good overview of the campaign that lead up to the Battle of Fallen Timbers. It includes plenty of maps and illustrations, including several modern-day photographs of campaign sites. However, I'm not sure about the usefulness of the battle scenes; the color plates themselves take up two full pages along with a third full page explaining what's in the scene.
April 7, 2015
Fallen Timbers
I thought the book was well done with very good historical accuracy. Being from Ohio this battle is pivotal in State history. Gen Wayne is well represented along with the others soldiers especially the scoundrel, Gen Wilkinson. A good book for serious history buff.
I thought the book was well done with very good historical accuracy. Being from Ohio this battle is pivotal in State history. Gen Wayne is well represented along with the others soldiers especially the scoundrel, Gen Wilkinson. A good book for serious history buff.
January 25, 2016
A brief, but surprisingly detailed account. These Osprey books are very good.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews