Battle of Fallen Timbers

After the British ceded control of the Northwest Territory after the 1783 signing of the Treaty of Paris formally ended the Revolutionary War, the British continued to man their forts in the region, further badgering American settlers in the area by supporting Native American raiding parties.

Military Response to Native American Aggression

Prior to the Battle of Fallen Timbers, two military expeditions led by generals Josiah Harmar and Arthur St. Clair failed to end Native American aggression against settlers.

In response, in 1792, President George Washington appointed General Anthony Wayne to head a new professional army known as the Legion of the United States.

What Was the Battle of Fallen Timbers?

On August 20th, 1794, amid a mile-long swatch of fallen trees toppled by a storm along the Maumee River near present-day Toledo Ohio, nearly 1,500 native warriors led by Miami Chief Little Turtle, Shawnee Chief Blue Jacket and Delawares Chief Buckongahelas, faced off with Wayne’s forces, who used the line of fallen trees as a natural abatis or fortification.

Several divisions of Wayne’s men broke into retreat during the initial assault by native warriors, until Wayne instructed his aide-de-camp and future American president, Lieutenant William Henry Harrison, to “Charge the damned rascals with the bayonet!”

The battle was over in less than an hour and ten minutes after the confederation of native warriors fled toward Fort Miami, where British Major William Campbell refused to let them in over his concerns about starting another war with the previously triumphant and now independent United States. Wayne’s army lost 33 men with 100 more wounded, while field reports indicate some 30 to 40 warriors lay dead along the river, including Ottawa Chief Turkey Foot and six white men fighting on the side of the Native Americans.

Treaty of Greenville

Roughly one year later, formal hostilities ended with the Treaty of Greenville, forcing Native Americans to cede lands to the steady advance of white European-American settlers, including present-day Indiana, Illinois and Michigan, making the Battle of Fallen Timbers, yet another painful loss for America’s first people.