July 10, 1779 Colonel Bowman�s Defeat

This battle took place on July 10, 1779, and involved the Anishinabe Confederation, who were attacked by an American force numbering well over two hundred soldiers. The Americans had raised up numerous soldiers to invade the Ohio country as a result of the many raids the Anishinabek had been carrying out against the many white settlers invading their land. White soldiers were on the move in the Ohio country, to destroy as many Indian villages as possible. This was a planned invasion that was first envisioned before the 1774-1794 war started. The Anishinabek had used a very important village that important Indian leaders frequented or, had lived in the village, that the whites had planned to attack. It was very early in the morning, about the first light of day, when the small white military force made their surprise attack on the important Indian village. Though there were not a great many soldiers in the village during the first phase of the assault, the few brave soldiers who were in the village, did manage somehow to put up a very strong defense against their attackers which, eventually, either from their fierce defense of their village, or maybe from some other reason, the small white military force ended their assault on the Indian settlement, and then gradually left. The Anishinabek, under the leadership of one of their chiefs, immediately followed the retreating white soldiers and eventually caught up to the them, and more fierce fighting followed. When the fighting had stopped, it did not look very well for the white soldiers. The Anishinabek may have not had as many soldiers as the whites, but they did manage to inflict considerable casualties on the white soldiers, in their determination to defend their women and children. The whites had 94 casualties, 63 wounded, with another 31 killed in the battle. The fierce defense of their village, saved a great many lives that otherwise would have been lost. The battle at the small settlement, was not the first battle between the whites and the Ohio Indians, during that time period. Nearly two years before, the Siege of Wheeling, in the State of Pennsylvania, occurred in early September, 1777, when Anishinabe raiders, attacked for two days, resulting in 30 white casualties, 24 of whom, had been killed. During that very same month, another assault on white soldiers, occurred in the same vicinity of Wheeling, when 24 white soldiers under the command of Captain William Foreman, had been ambushed and nearly wiped out, with the exception of two wounded soldiers, who managed to survive the battle. The other 22 white soldiers had been killed in the battle by the Anishinabe Soldiers. This battle was definitely proof to the Anishinabek, that the war was now in their land.