Battle of Fallen Timbers The Battle of Fallen Timbers ( August 20 , 1794 ) was the final battle of the Northwest Indian War , a struggle between American Indian tribes affiliated with the Western Confederacy and the United States for control of the Northwest Territory ( an area bounded on the south by the Ohio River , on the west by the Mississippi River , and on the northeast by the Great Lakes ) . The battle , which was a decisive victory for the United States , ended major hostilities in the region until Tecumseh ' s War and the Battle of Tippecanoe in 1811 . Background . The Ohio River boundary line established with Britain by the Treaty of Fort Stanwix in 1768 recognized certain lands as belonging to the Native American nations . After the American Revolution , however , the United States maintained that the Indian nations no longer owned the lands in the Ohio area , citing an article in the Treaty of Paris of 1783 in which Britain agreed to cede the lands owned by indigenous nations . Native Americans rejected the notion that the British or Americans could dispose of their tribal lands without their consent . They said they did not have a representative at the Treaty negotiations , did not sign the treaty , and did not recognize its giving away rights to their lands . As American settlers began moving into the Ohio territory in increasing numbers , the Indians viewed them as unwanted intruders . The United States government insisted that it had the right to seize the lands , which had been conquered in battle and agreed to by the Treaty of Paris . The Western Confederacy , an alliance of Native American nations , was formed to fight to retain their traditional lands . It achieved several victories over United States military forces in 1790 and 1791 , alarming the administration of President George Washington . Washington realized that the settlers were to blame for much of the violence ; nevertheless , he made preparations to defeat the alliance as the battles became more serious . In 1792 , Washington ordered Revolutionary War hero General " Mad " Anthony Wayne to build and lead a new army to crush resistance to American settlement . Wayne could see that previous campaigns had failed because of poor training and discipline . He had time to train his volunteers , since peace negotiations were undertaken in the summer of 1793 . Shawnee war chief Blue Jacket and Delaware ( Lenape ) leader Buckongahelas , encouraged by their previous victories and the hope of continued British support , argued for a return to the Treaty of Fort Stanwix of 1768 . They rejected the subsequent treaties , which they had never been consulted on , that ceded the land north of the Ohio River to the United States . A faction led by the influential Mohawk leader Joseph Brant attempted to negotiate a compromise , but Blue Jacket would accept nothing less than an Ohio River boundary , which the United States refused to concede . The American government thus fought a war over the possession of the Ohio area Indian land under the direction of Secretary of War Henry Knox . Battle . Wayne ' s new army , the Legion of the United States , marched north from Fort Washington ( Cincinnati , Ohio ) in 1793 , building a line of forts along the way . Wayne commanded more than 4 , 600 men , with Choctaw and Chickasaw Indians serving as his scouts . Blue Jacket took a defensive position along the Maumee River , not far from present - day Toledo , Ohio , where a stand of trees ( the " fallen timbers " ) had been blown down by a recent storm . They thought the trees would slow the advance of Wayne ' s Legion . Fort Miami , a nearby British outpost on American soil , had supplied the Indian confederacy with provisions . The Indian forces , numbering about 1 , 500 , were composed of Blue Jacket ' s Shawnees , Buckongahelas ' s Delawares , Miamis led by Little Turtle , Wyandots , Ojibwa s , Ottawas , Potawatomi s , Mingo s , and a company of Canadian militiamen under Captain Alexander McKillop . The battle was over quickly . Wayne ' s men closed and pressed the attack with a bayonet charge . His horse soldiers outflanked Blue Jacket ' s Indians , who were routed . The Indians fled towards Fort Miami , but they found gates closed against them . The fort ' s commander , Major William Campbell , the British commander of Fort Miami , refused to open the fort to his Indian allies , unwilling to start a war with the United States , and Wayne ' s force won a decisive victory . Wayne ' s army spent several days destroying the Indian villages and crops in the area , then retreated . Wayne ' s army had lost 33 men and 100 were wounded . They claimed to have found 30 to 40 Indian dead on the battlefield . However , according to Alexander McKee of the British Indian Department , the Indian confederacy lost 19 men killed and an unknown number wounded , though this may not include casualties in the Canadian militia . Translator Sally Ainse assisted with the peace negotiation s following the battle , and served as a liaison for Joseph Brant . Aftermath . The defeat of the Indians led to the signing of the Treaty of Greenville in 1795 , which ceded much of present - day Ohio to the United States . Before withdrawing from the area , Wayne began the construction of a line of forts along the Maumee , from its mouth at present - day Toledo to its origins in present - day Indiana . After Wayne had returned to his home in western Pennsylvania , the last of these forts was named Fort Wayne in his honor . Its location is the site of the present - day Indiana city . Behind this line of forts , white settlers moved into the Ohio country , leading to the admission of the state of Ohio in 1803 . Tecumseh , a young Shawnee veteran of Fallen Timbers who did not sign the Greenville Treaty , would renew American Indian resistance in the years ahead . Legacy . On September 14 , 1929 , the US Post office issued a stamp commemorating the 135th anniversary of the Battle of Fallen Timbers . The post office issued a series of stamps referred to as the ' Two Cent Reds ' by collectors , issued to commemorate the 150th Anniversaries of the many events that occurred during the American Revolution and to honor those who were there . Fallen Timbers . The Ohio Historical Society maintains a small park near the battle site that features the Battle of Fallen Timbers Monument , honoring Major General Anthony Wayne as well as his army and Little Turtle and his warriors . Additionally , there are plaques describing The Battle of Fallen Timbers and honoring the several Indian tribes that participated there . The main monument has tributes inscribed on each of its four sides honoring in turn , Wayne , the fallen white settlers and Little Turtle and his brave Indian Warriors . The park is located near Maumee in Lucas County .