Field of Corpses: Arthur St. Clair and the Death of an American Army

by Alan D. Gaff

From Alan Gaff, author of the highly acclaimed Bayonets in the Wilderness, comes the real story of this stunning defeat against the Native American nations in the Northwest Territory. In three hours on the morning of November 4, 1791, General Arthur St. Clair lost one half of his soldiers as well as his reputation.

November 4, 1791, was a black day in American history. General Arthur St. Clair’s army had been ambushed by Native Americans in what is now western Ohio. In just three hours, St. Clair’s force sustained the greatest loss ever inflicted on the United States Army by Native Americans—a total nearly three times larger than what incurred in the more famous Custer fight of 1876. It was the greatest proportional loss by any American army in the nation’s history. By the time this fighting ended, over six hundred corpses littered an area of about three and one half football fields laid end to end. Still more bodies were strewn along the primitive road used by hundreds of survivors as they ran for their lives with Native Americans in hot pursuit. It was a disaster of cataclysmic proportions for George Washington’s first administration, which had been in office for only two years.

416 pages, Paperback

Published February 28, 2023

About the author

I am an historian and author. My latest book, "Field of Corpses: Arthur St. Clair and the Death of an American Army" is out now.

Other recent books include the bestselling "Lou Gehrig: The Lost Memoir," "Amid the Ruins: Damon Runyon: World War I Reports from the Trenches," and "From the Halls of the Montezumas: Mexican War Dispatches from James L. Freaner."

Some of my other books are "Bayonets in the Wilderness," "Blood in the Argonne," "On Many A Bloody Field," "Ordered West," and "A Corporal's Story."

I am also the President of Historical Investigations, a company specializing in historical and genealogical research.

Be sure to follow me on Good Reads and other social media for blog posts, updates, and other information about history and writing.

Reviews

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a slog, especially early on. There were many times I was going to move onto something else. However, I really learned a lot, which is why I read.

Also, this theme of a slog really fits this campaign. The campaign was slog. Difficulties in recruiting, moving, and supplying this often unenthusiaatic army through ineptitude, corruption, and harsh conditions made it horrible. If you want a really good idea of how hard it was to move a group of people through what was really undeveloped country in this time, this book shows you how difficult logistics were in these days. If you really want a good idea of the travails average recruits faced in an environment like this, you get it here. The army was trying to cut a path through (to them) the wilderness to reach the tribes. For some reason, instead of using the one known known (to whites) route, Gen St. Clair decided to carve his own using the limited surveying resources at his disposal. His army was often just lost in the woods.

The book was much more lively when recounting the battle and aftermath. As always, there were feats of bravery and cowardice, along with great and poor leadership. It really showed how much the American army attempted to follow the European warfare style and how disastrous that was. They were totally unprepared for native warfare style. It was an unmitigated disaster.

It was painful to read the stories of the survivors' attempts to keep one step ahead of the victorious tribe, mostly on foot as groups of stragglers.

Another thing that struck me was in the aftermath. Because of the destruction of the camp, most records were destroyed or captured (many to turn up much later and leave us some historical records to access), many of the men, especially the enlisted, were left hanging. Men were declared dead who were not and struggled for their compensation. Men were thought alive who were dead, and the army tried to contact them for years. Horribly, many men were left in the Ohio country to try to find their way home in the east with little or no help or money.

This was a debacle, but the roads carved, small forts built, and lessons learned set the stage for Gen Anthony Wayne's successful follow-up action later. Wayne learned those lessons well.

[Todd Price · Rating 4 out of 5]

Few know that the greatest defeat of the United States military by Native American forces occurred in western Ohio on November 4, 1791. Most everyone is familiar with the infamous “Custer’s Last Stand” of nearly a century later and half a continent away in Montana. Yet, “St. Clair’s Defeat”, or the Battle of the Wabash was the single greatest battlefield victory by Native Americans over the United States Army in history. Whereas Custer’s command suffered deaths of fewer than 300, St. Clair’s army sustained well over 600 dead.

Author Alan Gaff has written this account of the battle from strictly the United States Army’s perspective. He carefully charts the full campaign, from its inception by President George Washington and Secretary of War Henry Knox, through its formation and organization, to the march to the ill-fated battlefield on the banks of the Wabash River.

Gaff’s account documents the recruitment of soldiers for the campaign, primarily from New England, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia, Tennessee, and Kentucky. He also spends considerable time discussing the backgrounds of major American officers like Colonels Richard Butler and William Darke. He then traces the forces’ movements from Fort Pitt and Kentucky into Fort Washington at Cincinnati. He then dutifully records the trailblazing undertaken, including the building of roads through the uncharted Ohio wilderness, and the building of Forts Hamilton and Jefferson en route to the encounter of November 4, 1791. The battle itself is given significant coverage, including the retreat and fallout from the defeat, as well as the fate of the many hundreds of killed and wounded soldiers.

There is fairly insightful evaluation of the causes of the loss of the campaign. Logistics were surely the Achilles Heel of the campaign, as St. Clair employed no scouts that knew the area and blindly attempted to hack out a wilderness road through an uncharted region of the country. Supplies and supply lines were also woefully inadequate, as the soldiers were often placed on half rations, awaiting the arrival of new food supplies over the tenuous supply line. Gaff also regularly points out that St. Clair had deluded himself into believing the Indians would not dare attack such a large force as the 1,500 man army he brought to the field. All of these factors conspired to lead him into a beautifully executed trap laid by Native American forces, which resulted in losses of half of his command during the rout and a precipitate retreat.

I previously enjoyed Gaff’s work “Bayonets in the Wilderness”, his history of General Anthony Wayne’s campaign that resulted in the United States victory at the Battle of Fallen Timbers on August 20, 1794, which was the follow up campaign to the defeat of St. Clair’s army from 3 years prior. While Gaff clearly has done impressive research into American military archives, his lack of perspective from the Native American side can be frustrating. It is so extreme, that he fails to even mention prominent Native American leaders, such as Blue Jacket and Little Turtle, who have rightfully been given credit for their masterful generalship in defeating St. Clair at the Wabash. Oddly, he recounts several eyewitness testimonies detailing the presence of British Indian Department operative Simon Girty, but fails to even recognize by name the leading Native Americans.

Gaff does recognize others who have written about the Battle of the Wabash. He specifically mentions Dr. Colin Calloway’s work “A Victory With No Name”. Yet, Gaff chooses to disparage Dr. Calloway’s title by saying that “St. Clair’s Defeat” is perfectly acceptable as the title of the battle. I do truly appreciate the work he has done, but a more well rounded approach would be preferable, one in which both sides are evaluated more fully. However, for military or American history fans, this work will certainly scratch your proverbial “itch”.

[Christopher Lutz · Rating 5 out of 5]

The new definitive work on this forgotten battle. Excellently compliments Gaff’s earlier book Bayonets in the Wilderness about the follow up campaign under Anthony Wayne. I’ve read multiple books that directly or indirectly deal with this battle, but none approached it with this level of detail. From recruitment, to mobilization, to the slow advance up the Miami river valley and the battle itself, it’s all here. I frankly was surprised as just how much I still had to learn. As the author points out, there are other books that focus more on the political and indigenous sides of this conflict, but in terms of military history, and as someone who has visited this battlefield multiple times and finds it a passion, Field of Corpses is nothing less than required reading.