THE ANTHONY WAYNE ESSAY CONTEST
The Anthony Wayne Memorial Legislative
Committee
during the winter of 1944-45, in
cooperation with the Ohio
State Archaeological and Historical
Society and the Ohio State De-
partment of Education, sponsored a
contest among the public,
parochial and private schools in Ohio on
the subject of "Anthony
Wayne and the Indian Wars in Ohio,
1790-1795." Several thou-
sand students from all over the State
entered the contest. Winning
essays in the several counties were then
submitted to the final
judges in Columbus. The contestants were
separated into two
divisions: the junior division
consisting of the seventh, eighth and
ninth grades, and the senior division
consisting of the tenth,
eleventh and twelfth grades. Three
prizes were offered for each
division. The winning contestants of the
junior division were
Glen Dashner, Maumee; Arthur Oldham,
Mariemont; and Mar-
tin Vincent, Toledo. In the senior
division Kathleen Mierka, a
senior at Roosevelt High School, Dayton,
received first honors,
followed by Dherlys Mae Nicely and Patsy
A. Terrell also of
Dayton. Miss Mierka's winning
contribution is published below:
ANTHONY WAYNE
HIS INDIAN CAMPAIGNS
BY KATHLEEN MIERKA
Washington spoke in anger:
"It's all over--
St. Clair's defeated--routed--
The officers nearly all killed,
The men by hundreds--
The rout complete--
Too shocking to think of--
And a surprise into the bargain.
.... 'Beware of a surprise!
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WAYNE ESSAY CONTEST 387
You know how the Indians fight us!'
He went off
With that as my last solemn warning
thrown into his ears.
And yet to suffer that army to be cut to
pieces,
Hacked,
Butchered,
Tomahawked by a surprise--
The very thing I guarded him
against."
Then Washington became calm.
Calm enough to add,
"St. Clair shall have
justice!"
St. Clair was given justice, was
appointed civil
governor of the Northwest Territory.
But his military command was vacated.
Who would be given the office
To carry on what St. Clair was unable to
accomplish,
To avenge the murder and carnage running
rampant
in the wilderness?
He must be
Bold,
Valorous,
Resourceful,
A leader of men!
.... Thus, to the Ohio country was sent
Anthony Wayne,
Hero of Stony Point, whose daring never
failed in an
emergency.
"Mad" Anthony, he had been
dubbed
Since his unbelievable bayonet attack,
But now his tactics bore out his sanity.
Wayne would have no six-month' men.
Men, whose term always ended when they
were needed
most.
388 OHIO
ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
For two full years he prepared,
Organizing,
Drilling,
Hardening his men.
He would not strike until he was sure.
Sure that he could deliver the
"death-blow."
Before the die was cast
A final peace gesture was tendered to
the Indians.
The peace offer was just
Five years too late!
The savages were elated,
Drunken with success,
Rich in spoils taken from Harmar and
St. Clair,
Little dreaming that the time and man
were at hand
To seal their doom.
Peace rejected, unremitting war was the
only alternative.
Late in the autumn of 1793
A winter camp was established--
Greenville,
Named for Wayne's old comrade,
General Nathaniel Greene.
From here were sent spies,
Brave,
Fearless,
Wily,
Many brought up among the Indians.
Their deeds became paragons for early
Ohio romance.
They cut roads in various directions
To deceive the Indian spies.
In December was thrown up a strong
stockade
On the site of St. Clair's old
battleground,
Fort Recovery.
A battleground had been regained.
Wayne was progressing.
WAYNE ESSAY CONTEST 389
It was the last of June,
When Ohio is beautiful with its fresh
greenery,
That Little Turtle assaulted the fort.
Here was an Indian!
Possessor of great natural ability,
Shrewdness,
Sagacity,
Energy,
Respected not only by his red brethren,
But by white opponents as well.
A supply column, under Major McMahon,
arrived from
Greenville.
Before it could enter the stockade, the
Indians were
upon it.
McMahon's contingent fought bravely
But not until nightfall could they enter
the fort.
By then, McMahon, the stalwart
frontiersman,
was dead.
After two days, the Indians were
repelled.
Again in the life and death struggle for
the West,
The enemy had been checked.
The attack on Fort Recovery greatly
aroused Wayne.
Indifferent to personal danger,
The suffering of his men touched him
deeply.
He keenly felt the loss of McMahon.
Less than a month after the attack,
Wayne was again on the march.
Through the Black Swamp country,
Laying bridges,
Cutting roads,
Building a small way-station at the
junction of the
Maumee and Auglaize.
Here he planned to surprise an
encampment of Indians,
But spies had discovered his movements.
The Indians had left their crops
And fled down the Maumee.
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OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Wayne was impetuous by nature,
But experience had been his teacher.
He paused,
Erected a stockade,
And named it Fort Defiance.
Cautiously, yet boldly
He sent spies to penetrate the Indian
camps.
Frontier bred, they rode into camps
Passed as members of distant tribes.
Then went Christopher Miller with a flag
of truce.
Christopher Miller--reared by the
Indians,
Almost ignorant of the English tongue,
But drawn back to his own race in this
great
struggle.
Miller returned. The answer was
Vague,
Evasive,
They were playing for time.
So Wayne gave the order to march!
A long prairie and heavy timber
Separated the two camps.
There were many fallen trees.
These made a tangle which would prove
difficult for
cavalry.
The Indians noted this.
But so did Wayne.
The braves concealed themselves,
In Indian fashion,
Among the fallen timber.
Wayne placed a battalion of Mounted
Volunteers
Before his "Legion,"
To act as a screen and draw the enemy
fire,
Thus, revealing the Indian positions.
Advancing cavalry was met with heavy
fire.
It retreated, fell back upon the
"Legion."
But the advance began again.
WAYNE ESSAY CONTEST 391
The infantry moved forward.
The Indians fired.
Men dropped.
But the chargers did not waver.
They pressed on, jabbing with their
bayonets.
The Indians were driven from their
stand.
They fled through the heavy timber
Terror-stricken,
Forever dispersed.
In less than an hour
The pride and power of the Indian
Confederation
Were broken.
One week after the Battle of Fallen
Timbers.
Anthony Wayne departed for Fort
Defiance,
Burning Indian crops on the way.
Winter came.
Famine entered the wigwams.
Starving Indians begged for subsistence.
Yes, the power of the Indian was broken
forever.
Wayne was a warrior.
He was also a diplomat.
Through the Greenville Treaty,
Perpetual peace came to the tribes of
the Northwest.
Indians and whites at last were
reconciled.
No chief or warrior, who gave Wayne his
hand at Greenville,
Ever "lifted the hatchet"
against the United States again.
A triumph as great as his battles.
Wayne's contribution cannot be
minimized.
For it was Anthony Wayne,
The lion-hearted warrior,
Who opened the "glorious gates of
the Ohio."