The Nome daily nugget., 1935-02-09
By ELMO SCOTT WATSON

unique in American history. For 1t
 w Is doubtful if there has ever been IN a military engagement of more far ~ NIS1 reaching consequences won as easily
 and as quickly as was Mad An- NJ I thony" Waynes victory over the
 confederated Indian tribes of the Old Northwest at Fallen Timbers on the banks of the Maumee river in northwestern Ohio on August 20, 1794
 Not only 1t all the more brilliant by con trast with the disasters which had befallen two American generals who had previously tried to subdue these same red men, but 1t led directly to another victory, won around the council fire in stead of on the battefeld-the Treaty of Green vile, signed just a year later. Without these two the settlement of the Ohio country, the push ing of the frontier line clear to the Mississippi river and the opening up of the rich inland empire of the Mississippi Valley to the land hungry Americans of the early Nineteenth cen tury might have been postponed indefinitely. So the Battle of Fallen Timbers Is milepost in the history of our westward expansion
 That expansion began even before the Revou- tion was over and the decade which followed the signing of the Treaty of Paris saw thou sands of settlers streaming through Pittsburgh "the Gateway to the Vest of that period, and floating down the Ohio to seek new homes both to the north and to the south of that river. The Indians of that regon-the Miamis, Wyandots Delawares, Shawnees, Ottawas and Pottawato- mles-watched with alarm this ever-increasing tide of white men pouring into their hunting grounds. F
 British imperial officers in Canada also watched the flood of immigration with dismay If 1t kept up 1t meant the end of the profitable fur trade in that area. So If they did not actually encour- age the Indian attacks on the American settlers, they certainly did not discourage them, and the forts and trading posts which they still held in the West in spite of the terms of the" Treaty of Paris were outfttlng points for many scalp ing party that weut out to harass the immigrant traffic on the Ohio.
 Not only were they threatening to wipe out these new settlements, but back in Philadelphia the new federal government seemed to be tot tering to its ruin because of the blows which the Harmar and St Clair defeats had dealt to It's prestige. Tn this crisis President Washington called upon an old friend of Revolutionary war days to make good where the others had failed. Gen. Anthony Wayne had retired to private life m Pennsylvania after the Revolution, but when Washington asked him to reorganize the army and take command of third expedition against the Indians, he accepted the responsibility as readily as he had accepted the task of capturing Stony Point in TIT.
 Waynes popular nickname of "Mad Anthony" was a misnomer insofar as 1t implied rashness and reckless daring. But 1t was true as syno- nym for one poets characterization of him. "hery heart and cool, clear brain." And if ever adequate preparation caution and eternal vigil lance had a splendid reward, they had 1t in Wayne's campaign which eliminated at Fallen Timbers.
 When Wayne took command of the army in April, 1792, he found its men untrained, lacking in discipline and with little faith In their officers not much to be wondered at considering what had happened In 1790 and 1791. But Wayne brought about thorough reorganization, even tol the name which he changed to 'The Legion of the United States" and which he began drilling at Pittsburgh in June, 1792
 It was his original plan to form an army of some 5000 men, but he soon saw that this would be impossible with the recruits that were fur. nished him. There were almost constant deser- tions even at Pittsburgh, which was not far enough away from the Indian country to allay the fear of some of his soldiers who expected the redskins to come whooplng out of the for ests and scalp them as they drilled.
 From December, 1792 to May, 1793, Wayne was camped some 27 miles below Pittsburgh at place he named Legonvllle and during this time his army of 2,5O0 men was being whipped into some semblance of a military organization. On May he camped at Hobson's Choice, SO named because he could find no other suitable ground in the vicinity. In August negotiations with the Indians were finally broken off and Wayne, who already had been advancing toward the Indian country, prepared for campaign which he saw would mean the success or failure of the United States In enforcing itS rights against the British as well as the Indians in the Ohio territory.
 The next stopping place noted In his orderly book was Head Quarters near Fort Hamilton" on october 9, 1793. At this point he began a rigorous order of march and constant vigilance against surprise attacks.
 Mad Anthony" bearing in mind the earlier failures was at great pains to impress upon the troops the necessity of constant vigilance. On October 10 two soldiers were shot for sleeping while on sentry duty. In that month cold weather