Ohio History Journal

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34 Ohio Arch

34        Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications

 

LETTER FROM WILLIAM H. STEVENSON,

President of the Western Pennsylvania Historical Society

Among the letters received by the Chairman of the

Fallen Timbers State Park Committee is the following:

PITTSBURGH, PA., September 10, 1929.

MR. W. J. SHERMAN, Chairman,

Toledo, Ohio.

DEAR SIR--I have your kind invitation to attend the dedica-

tion of a monument to General Anthony Wayne on the site of the

battlefield of Fallen Timbers, Saturday, September 19th and ex-

ceedingly regret that owing to a previous engagement I cannot be

present.

The ceremonies connected with the unveiling and dedication

of this beautiful monument are of particular interest to every

Pennsylvanian, for it was in Pittsburgh that General Wayne, pur-

suant to President Washington's orders, organized "The Legion

of the United States."

General Wayne started to organize his Legion at Fort

Fayette, which stood at the corner of Penn Avenue and Ninth

Street (as those thoroughfares are known today) in Pittsburgh,

in the summer of 1792. There he gathered together a motley

crowd, mostly adventurers from the larger eastern towns and

cities. The terrible defeats of Harmar and St. Clair and the re-

ports of Indian atrocities committed on their troops served to

deter voluntary enlistments, and Wayne was compelled to take

what he could get. Soon he discovered that the environment of

Pittsburgh was not conducive to the maintenance of good dis-

cipline. Pittsburgh was but a frontier post infested with the usual

evils attendant on such places. Wayne did not have the present-

day power of creating prohibition zones, and he soon found that

Monongahela whiskey and military discipline didn't mix. So he

very wisely in the fall of the year removed his troops and their

equipment down the river on flatboats to the open country at this

spot, which came to be known as Legionville, where the men were

largely free from the temptations of the frontier town.

At this camp, Wayne put his men through a thorough school

of military training. He put into effect the lessons he had learned

in the Revolution from Baron Steuben, and which he had his

troops so effectively employ at Stony Point when he captured that

place with the bayonet. He taught the Legion all the drill of the