St. Clair’s Defeat

Governor General. Arthur St. Clair, was ordered to raise another American Army up, after the very humiliating defeats Harmar had suffered at the hands of the Anishinabe Army, in the this long war. The new American Army numbered around 2,500. Though the white soldiers had been trained somewhat, as you will shortly learn, it was obviously not enough. After training his new American soldiers, St. Clair moved his small American Army to the sight of General Harmar's very humiliating defeats. While there, the small American force started to construct strong American forts, for their settlers protection against the always patrolling Anishinabe soldiers, and for future use against the Anishinabe soldiers of the region. It was the custom of the whites to first build fortified settlements when invading Indian domain. The Anishinabe soldiers, knew of the Americans and their illegal intentions, and very patiently they waited for the invaders arrival to do battle with them. The Anishinabe soldiers raised up to protect their homelands against the invading white Americans, numbered anywhere from 2,000 to 3,000, which was obviously more than sufficient to give battle to that American force, and in fact, by the time the battle commenced, there may have been twice as many Anishinabe soldiers than American soldiers. Before the battle, St. Clair had absolutely no respect for Native Americans at all, apparently thinking of them as an obstacle in the way of progress. Many Europeans shared St. Clair’s view on Native Americans, but we all know that in reality, the Europeans used progress as an excuse, and guilt was the reason. St. Clair’s views on Native Americans, had to have greatly changed after his not so famous battle with them. St. Claire’s unfortunate battle started when the brave Anishinabe soldiers, attacked St. Clair’s forward guard which was apparently located near a river.

Under a heavy assault by the Anishinabe soldiers and probably in panic, that section of St. Clair’s soldiers retreated away from the assault of the Anishinabe soldiers, back to the main part of the small American Army of St. Clair. The real damage to St. Clair’s small American Army soon followed. The Anishinabe soldiers continued their furious assault on the Americans, and probably recognized that the American soldiers were in great confusion and panic, and increased their furious assault on them even more. The Americans were being torn apart by the Anishinabe soldiers, something that St. Clair had no choice but to realize. After several hours of fighting, the American General finally gave up, probably because of the few remaining Americans alive, who to the American General, had only one choice if they wanted to live, and that was to run away. Hundreds of women and children had accompanied the small American Army, only to end up being killed or taken captive by the victorious Anishinabe soldiers. One thing probably saved the lives of the few Americans that survived, and that had to be the scalps and valuables of the many dead Americans on the battlefield.

Unfortunately, the Americans were not at all pleased when the news of St. Clair’s battle reached them. St. Clair’s defeat was even far more humiliating to the Americans than General Harmars defeats were. The Indians had to be very pleased with the outcome of the battle. Though they had won a great victory over the white invaders, they knew that they had not seen the last of the long knives. The total casualties the Anishinabe soldiers suffered in their great victory was 75. Of that number, 66 had been killed and another 9 had been wounded. The Americans total casualties were far greater. Out of 1,096 American casualties, 832 Americans had been killed, with another 264 wounded. Many of the American casualties were women and children. The Americans were very fortunate to have had at least a few of their soldiers escape from that battle without being wounded. It was a horrible defeat. In fact, it was the deadliest battle of the so called American Revolutionary War.