JOSIAH HARMAR AND HIS INDIAN EXPEDITION*
By HOWARD H. PECKHAM
When the Revolutionary War ended, the
new United States
of America faced a problem that is
acutely familiar to us today:
Nobody wanted to remain in the Army or
Navy. At the conclu-
sion of the Revolution, there were
probably 20,000 to 30,000 men
under arms. The single, unifying aim of
the war -- independence
from Great Britain -- appeared
to have been won, at least on the
battlefield. Acknowledgement of that
independence remained to
be secured by a treaty of peace. The
soldier and the sailor believed
that their work was done; and if they
had been serving their
country for eight years, ever since the
Battle of Lexington, every-
one agreed that they had done their
duty. In fact, if they had
joined the armed forces only in time to
participate in the final
campaign at Yorktown, everyone agreed
that they had done
enough. The "homing instinct"
of the American soldier was as
strong then as it is now. None of them
liked the military life.
Yet the happy issue of the Revolutionary
War did not remove
all danger for the new republic. Great
Britain was to exhibit a
disgraceful stubbornness in failing to
evacuate the northwest posts
along the line of the Great Lakes.
Lecherous, ambitious Spain
was entrenched at New Orleans and up
along the west bank of the
Mississippi River and casting covetous
eyes at the eastern shore.
The Indian tribes which had been allied
with Great Britain did
not forget or forgive their recent
enemies, the "long knives," and
regardless of the treaty making in Paris
were not going to sur-
render the lands on which they lived and
hunted to the hated
Americans. In fact, they denied the
right of Britain to give away
their -- the Indians' -- land, since the
Indians argued that the
British had only a tenant's rights to
the posts they held.
So then as now, the United States stood
in dire need of
military protection to prove or make
good its dearly bought vic-
tory. And yet its military force was
melting away like ice in
* Delivered on the Museum Lecture series, sponsored by the Ohio State
Archaeologi-
cal and Historical Society, Thursday,
April 11, 1946, in the Auditorium of its Museum
and Library Building.
227
228
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
the spring. An important difference
between the situation then
and now was that the Continental
Congress, which represented
the federation of states, had no money
to support a standing
army. By 1784, the army of the United
States was reduced to
one regiment of infantry and one
battalion of artillery, and the
western settlements of the country lay
exposed and unprotected.
To command this token army, the
Continental Congress ap-
pointed a young veteran of the
Revolutionary War from Phila-
delphia. His name was Josiah Harmar, and
he was, oddly
enough, a Quaker. He was one of the very
few officers of the
Revolution who wished to continue his
military career. Without
that desire on his part, that
satisfaction in serving his country
well in a military office, the new
nation would not have enjoyed
the little protection it did receive
from the pitiful, though valiant,
army it maintained.
Josiah Harmar was born in Philadelphia
in 1753. Genealogi-
cal research has failed to identify his
father, but it was learned
that his mother's name was Rachael
Harmar. Although this fact
suggests that Josiah may have been an
illegitimate child, it is by
no means conclusive evidence. Rachael
Harmar may have mar-
ried a cousin by the name of Harmar. Any
way, it is known that
Rachael's ancestors were English Quakers
who had migrated to
Pennsylvania in 1682.
Rachael Harmar died when her son was
less than three
months old, and Josiah was reared by his
aunt, who was his
mother's sister, Elizabeth Harmar. There
appears to have been
some money in the family, and Josiah
attended Robert Proud's
highly respectable Quaker school in
Philadelphia. Before he
was twenty-three years old, the American
Revolution broke out,
and Josiah, who must have had influence
and no Quaker con-
victions against warfare, was appointed
a captain in 1775 of the
2nd Pennsylvania regiment. Thus he
served his country from
the very beginning of the conflict.
Promotion came rapidly. He was appointed
a major in 1776
and a lieutenant-colonel in 1777. At
various times he com-
manded the 6th, 7th, 3rd, and
1st Pennsylvania regiments. He
fought around New York and Philadelphia,
and then staved up
JOSIAH HARMAR AND HIS INDIAN
EXPEDITION 229
on the Hudson with Washington until the
descent on Yorktown
in 1781. After Cornwallis' surrender, he
was detached under
General Anthony Wayne to join General
Nathanael Greene in
the southern theater, where warfare
continued. Greene made
him adjutant general of the Southern
Army in 1782.
During the war, Harmar came to
Washington's notice and
also became acquainted with several
members of Congress. He
seems to have had some of Washington's
ability to get along with
people and not to arouse the antagonism
of the jealous politicians
in the Continental Congress. As a result of the respect he
aroused and his desire to remain in
military service, he was
singled out for a particular duty of
high honor. The long, drawn
out peace negotiations in Paris had at
last produced an acceptable
treaty in 1783. After the American
commissioners had signed it,
it became necessary for the Congress to
ratify it and put it into
effect. A ratified copy of the treaty
was then to be exchanged
with Great Britain. The official copy
for the British archives
had to be taken to Paris and delivered
over to the British com-
missioners. Congress selected Josiah Harmar, who had just
passed his thirtieth birthday, to be the
courier.
Harmar went up to New York in January,
1784, where he
was forced to wait a month for ice to
clear out of the harbor.
He then embarked for the port of
L'Orient in France. As a
Quaker boy in France, he found much to
occupy his time. He
attended the theater in L'Orient the
first night of his arrival,
despite the fact that he did not know
the language and conse-
quently, as he remarked in his diary,
"understood very little of
it."
He traveled by carriage to Paris, and
special attention was
shown this military officer from the
United States on a diplomatic
mission all along the route. Harmar
arrived in Paris on March
29 and delivered his dispatches and the
ratified Treaty of Peace
to our commissioner, Benjamin Franklin.
Of course, he dined
with Franklin and went to the theater
several times.
He also called on his old companion in
arms, the Marquis de
Lafayette, "who ruined me with the
greatest affection and polite-
ness imaginable." He visited the
zoo and saw many animals from
230
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Africa and India which he had never seen
before. He did all
the things that modern tourists do in
Paris: visited the Louvre,
the Luxembourg Gardens, Notre Dame
cathedral, and even went
out to Longchamp to the races. He also
paid his respects at the
Ecole Militaire and the Sorbonne
University. Lafayette ar-
ranged for him to be presented at Court
and meet Louis XVI,
the king who was in a few short years to
fall before a revolution
inspired in part by the success of the
American rebels. Lastly,
Harmar dined with the Comte de
Vergennes, the French foreign
minister who had directed the French aid
extended to the United
States. For a Quaker boy in a strange
capital, Harmar certainly
got around.
On April 19, 1784, he left Paris by
coach for Calais and
crossed the channel to London, on a
secret mission for Franklin.
He visited all the usual places of
interest and attended the theater
almost every night. He records seeing
the renowned Sarah Sid-
dons in Tancred and Sigismunda. In
fact he went to see her
twice in Douglas and once in Isabella.
From London Harmar
returned to Paris, and at length on June
18 set out for the port
of L'Orient. He sailed for America in
company with Lafayette,
who was, Harmar reported,
"intolerably and constantly sick."
On his return to Philadelphia, Harmar
found himself al-
most at once appointed
colonel-commandant of the United States
Army, which had been assigned to guard
the northwest frontier.
Given a few weeks' grace, Harmar
improved his time by renew-
ing his attentions to a Philadelphia
girl whom he had known for
more than a year. She figures
occasionally in his diary as the
"divine Miss Sarah" or
"my dear Sally." The entry in his diary
for October 10, 1784, notes:
"Sunday -- very fine weather.
Hymen. My dear S. J." This cryptic
reference to the god of
marriage meant that on that day Josiah
Harmar was married to
Miss Sarah Jenkins. Like the pioneer
women who came after
her, she followed her husband into the
wilderness without com-
plaint.
Col. Harmar and his troops were ordered
first to Fort Mc-
Intosh at the present site of Beaver,
Pennsylvania, northwest of
JOSIAH HARMAR AND HIS INDIAN
EXPEDITION 231
Pittsburgh, where a great Indian
conference was held for the
purpose of treaty making.
I have already mentioned that the
Indians did not recognize
the right of the British to cede their
lands in the Ohio Valley to
the Americans. The Indian claim was
complicated further by the
fact that the Ohio Valley was claimed by
both the tribes who
lived there and the Iroquois in New York
state. Joseph Brant,
a Mohawk of considerable education, was
trying to unite the
Indians behind him in order to demand
that the land between the
Great Lakes and the Ohio River be
retained by and for the
Indians. The Continental Congress refused to recognize the
confederation he was forming or himself
as its spokesman.
Shrewdly they dealt with the tribes
separately. A treaty was
made with the Iroquois in 1784 by which
they gave up their
claim to the Ohio Valley in return for a
secure title to the land
they occupied in New York state. Now the
Congress invited the
western tribes to Fort McIntosh in order
to purchase title to the
same region from them.
Representatives of the Delawares,
Hurons, Ottawas, and Chippewas turned
up, and the United
States commissioners obtained title to
much of what is now the
State of Ohio. The treaty was signed in
January, 1785. Harmar's
little force was sent along to protect
the commissioners and to
show the Indians that the Americans
still had an army. After
this initial duty, Harmar moved his
headquarters down to Fort
Pitt.
From there he sent one company northward
to establish
Fort Franklin at what is now Franklin,
Pennsylvania. Two
more companies went down the Ohio River
to establish Fort
Steuben at Steubenville and Fort Harmar
at Marietta. These
two forts were used as bases from which
to offer protection to
the United States surveyors under Thomas
Hutchins who were
beginning to lay out the townships with
which we are so familiar
today.
Before the Northwest Territory could be opened for
settlement it had to be surveyed in
order that claims and pur-
chases could be described and recorded.
The importance of this survey demands
further comment.
Ohio was the laboratory state in this
work. After much experi-
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OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
menting the township of six miles
square, divided into 36 sections,
was determined to be the best means of
measurement. Seven
ranges of townships were surveyed and
marked by Hutchins with
Harmar's protection. When the settlers
began to pour in, it was
possible to designate clearly their
claims and purchases and to
give them clear titles--although there
was a little confusion and
skullduggery. On the basis of the
pioneer work done in eastern
Ohio, the surveys of Indiana, Illinois,
Michigan, and other states
proceeded without a hitch. How many
millions of dollars were
saved the early settlers by being kept
out of the pockets of law-
yers in land suits, we can only guess.
Kentucky furnishes an
example of the expensive confusion
rising from unsurveyed,
squatter settlement.
Besides protecting the surveying
parties, Harmar's main
duties were to see that the Indians
observed their treaty obli-
gations and did not molest white traders
and settlers, to evict
white settlers from lands rightfully
claimed by the Indians, and
to be ready to take over the posts still
held by the British in
defiance of the cession made in the
peace Treaty of 1783.
The Canadians were no happier about the
northern boundary
of the United States than the Indians
were. The area between
Lake Superior and the Ohio River was a
rich fur region which
Canadian traders were exploiting.
Moreover, if the Indian tribes
withdrew from this area, they might very
well demand large
tracts of land in Canada as compensation
for the loss they had
suffered. Governor Haldimand and Governor Carleton both
decided to hold the Lakes region as long
as possible. They re-
fused to evacuate the posts of Oswego,
Niagara, Detroit, and
Mackinac on the technical grounds that
they had received no
direct orders from London to do so.
The Continental Congress thereupon
demanded that London
send orders for the evacuation of the
posts. The British disliked
to antagonize the Canadians or their
recent Indian allies, and
they benefitted from the fur monopoly in
the Northwest. They
found a loophole in the Treaty of 1783.
The American peace
commissioners had agreed to recommend to
the several states that
the Loyalists, whose property had been
confiscated during the
JOSIAH HARMAR AND HIS INDIAN
EXPEDITION 233
war, be compensated for it. The
recommendation had been made,
but the Congress was powerless to force
the states to make such
restitution if they didn't want to--and
none of them did. Britain
blamed the United States for evading a
clause of the treaty and
said she would hang on to the northwest
posts until the Loyalists
were compensated. It was apparent that
the United States could
make good its claim to the area only by
settling it under armed
protection and eventually pushing the
British out. One of Col-
onel Harmar's ticklish jobs was to keep
his army moving just
ahead of the settlers, until the British
gave away or attacked.
Settlers did not need to be urged into
the rich new territory.
They clamored to go west. The Ohio River
was a broad highway
that permitted entry for everybody into
the fertile valley, unimag-
inably rich in good soil, pleasant
climate, water power, great
forests, wild fruits and game and fish.
We can hardly picture
the new life that opened up before the
western pioneer. Great
land companies were formed to buy huge
tracts of land from
Congress and resell it to individuals.
It is not my purpose to
discuss the organization of the Ohio
Company and the Scioto
Company and their encouragement of
westward migration, ex-
cept to point out that their promotional
efforts made Congress
realize that some form of government
must be set up in this
territory. On July 13, 1787, the famous
Northwest Ordinance
was passed for the government of this
region. General Arthur
St. Clair, a Revolutionary War officer
and a former president of
the Continental Congress, was appointed
civil governor of the
territory. He was an old friend of
Harmar's.
We left Harmar at Fort Pitt, but late in
1786 he moved
down the river with 600 of the 670 men
composing the United
States Army and established his
headquarters at Fort Harmar.
From the fort, Harmar dispatched Captain
Walter Finney to
establish Fort Finney in 1786 at modern
Jeffersonville, Indiana.
This fort, at the rapids of the Ohio,
was to protect the Kentucky
settlements and Clark's Grant from
Indian raids. In 1787 Har-
mar marched to Vincennes and established
Major Hamtramck
there in command. A new fort, called
Fort Knox, was built
in the settlement. Harmar was back at
his headquarters again
234
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
to welcome the first colony of settlers
brought by Rufus Putnam,
which landed on April 8, 1788. The
newcomers established
themselves across the Muskingum from the
fort and named the
town Marietta in honor of Queen Marie
Antoinette of France.
The establishment and garrisoning of
these western forts--
three in Pennsylvania, two in Ohio, and
two in Indiana--had the
effect of stringing out Harmar's meager
force in a thin line.
Communication and the forwarding of
supplies were difficult,
and almost impossible in bad weather.
Harmar was plagued with
all the old troubles familiar to
generals in the Revolution and
some new ones. He had difficulties with
army contractors who
failed to deliver food and clothing
supplies to his troops on time,
or who furnished damaged goods. He had
to deal with lawless
settlers who sold liquor to the Indians
and otherwise incited
them to acts of depredation. He was
continually put off by the
government in his efforts to obtain
proper clothing for his troops
and to get them paid. He was constantly
in need of new recruits
to fill up the companies. He was in
continuous correspondence
with Secretary of War Henry Knox.
Doubtless many of his
soldiers blamed him for their condition,
and certainly some of
the settlers resented the presence of
authority and power.
But the government existing under the
loose Articles of
Confederation was coming to its
unlamented end. In 1788 a
new Constitution was adopted, and the
next year George Wash-
ington was inaugurated as our first
President. Harmar's work
was rewarded by a new commission as
brigadier-general, the first
commander, again, of the first United
States Army under the
Constitution.
But as things looked better behind him,
the Indians grew
more menacing in front of him. They were
not living up to
their treaty obligations, once the full
meaning of surrendering
title to certain areas came home to
them. They found that the
lands they had ceded away for temporary
gifts were being taken
up by settlers who resented having the
Indians set foot on their
farms, and who by their very presence
were driving wild game
out of the region. The Indians were
forced to hunt far and wide
from the reservations left to them.
JOSIAH HARMAR AND HIS INDIAN EXPEDITION 235
Then they were cheated by the traders
who bought their
furs, and out of fear they were given as
little shot and powder
as possible. It is certainly true that
the Americans were not
interested in making living conditions
easy or even tolerable for
the savages. The red men were frankly a
nuisance and a danger,
to be pushed out of the way by treaty,
by purchase, by cheating,
by threats, and by ill-treatment. Our
record of observing our
treaty commitments with the Indians is a
black one. The rush
of westward migration was such that
always the Federal Govern-
ment asked for more land and more land.
We paid for it, yes,
under a forced sale; but the money and
goods we gave in pay-
ment did not last long in Indian hands,
and the dispossessed
savages resented their bargains.
White families who pushed a few miles
northward of the
Ohio River found themselves subject to
attack by wandering
bands of Indians. Behind the unrest of
the Indians was the dark
hand of the British at Detroit, who were
anxious to promote
border warfare to keep back the growing
tide of American mi-
gration and settlement. The nearer the
Americans came the more
pressing would grow the demands for
settlement of the Canadian
boundary dispute and evacuation of the
illegally held posts. It
was an old game Britain was playing--and
it is still being played
today--of stirring up native peoples
against the extension of
rule by a rival power.
White settlers had moved westward down
the Ohio from
Marietta on to the land of the Miami
purchase in the fall of
1789. To protect them another fort
became necessary, and Fort
Washington was erected on the site of
modern Cincinnati. Gen-
eral Harmar moved his headquarters there
in December, 1789.
At the same time Indian raiders grew
bolder. By the spring of
1790 it became evident to the Federal
Government, as it was to
Governor St. Clair and General Harmar,
that a military expedi-
tion to chastise the Indians was
necessary. The regular army
was too small to undertake it alone, of
course, so a call was issued
for militia in Kentucky and
Pennsylvania.
The volunteers came into Fort Washington
all during the
summer. They were not the sharpshooting
frontiersmen of the
236
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Daniel Boone type. They were boys, old
men, drunkards, minor
fugitives from justice, men without jobs
or money, and the like
--all the undesirable, restless, and
unsuccessful element that is
churned out of an established society
and thrown to the frontiers.
The motley rabble alarmed General Harmar
because he had al-
most no time to train them. They
numbered 1133, of which
Harmar said "at least 200 are good
for nothing." He added
320 regulars to the militia which made a
total force of 1453
men.
The expedition left Fort Washington on
September 30. Its
objective was the Miami Indian towns
under Chief Little Turtle,
located on the portage between the
Maumee and the Little
Wabash, the present site of Fort Wayne,
Indiana. Since the
highways of the wilderness were the
waterways, Harmar could
not proceed directly to the spot. He was
going on foot, but had
to follow the rivers. The expedition
started up the west bank
of the Little Miami, paralleling highway
42 to Xenia. Then it
swung northwestward to Piqua and Fort
Loramie, and northward
to Girty's Town, or modern St. Marys.
Then it followed down
the St. Mary's River on the north side,
paralleling present-day
highway 33.
The remarkable part of this wilderness
march, which took
18 days, was that during that time
Harmar saw almost no
Indians. They vanished before him and he
met no opposition.
On reaching the Miami villages, he found
them deserted. Fore-
warned, the Indians had withdrawn rather
than face this army.
Harmar destroyed about 300 log cabins
and wigwams and 20,000
bushels of corn in the village area.
After this destructive work was done,
Harmar was still dis-
appointed at finding no enemy to fight.
He started back toward
Fort Washington, then detached 210
men under Colonel Hardin,
the militia commander, to comb the Miami
towns in the hope of
encountering some Indians who might have
returned to the site
of their homes. In this hope the
detachment was not disap-
pointed; it was in fact attacked by
surprise, and the militia fled
disgracefully, while the regulars stood
their ground and 23 were
killed. Colonel Hardin returned to
General Harmar's camp and
JOSIAH HARMAR AND HIS INDIAN EXPEDITION 237
made his sad report. He was greatly
disappointed in the show-
ing the militia had made, and asked
permission to avenge his
defeat. Two days later, Harmar allowed
him to take a detach-
ment of 320 men to go back and stir up
another fight. The
same pattern was repeated. The Indians
overwhelmed the detach-
ment, again the militia wilted, and this
time 180 men were killed
and wounded. Probably 100 to 120 Indians
were killed.
After this second beating and having
suffered over 15%
casualties in his total force, Harmar
marched straight back to
Fort Washington over the route he had
come. Oddly enough,
he seems to have considered his
expedition a success in his
reports to Secretary of War Knox. He had
destroyed the village
and the corn supply that the Indians
needed for the winter. He
had also killed over 100 Indians.
Apparently he did not think
his more than 200 casualties too great a
price for that accomplish-
ment, in view of the fact that his force
was largely militia.
The fact was, however, the Indians were
encouraged by
their two victories over American arms
to make fresh attacks
on the outlying white settlements. Moreover, the Kentucky
militia on returning home had no
intention of bearing the blame
for the two defeats. Before Harmar's
report reached the capital,
rumors swept out of Kentucky criticizing
Harmar's command
and even saying that he was drunk all
the time.
Secretary of War Knox let Harmar know
that President
Washington was greatly disappointed in
the costly venture. Since
the Indians were not subdued, the
expedition had failed in its
main objective. A second expedition was
promptly planned, and
this time the command was invested in
Governor St. Clair.
Harmar was deeply hurt and refused to
serve on the second cam-
paign. He asked instead for a hearing
before a court of inquiry.
This was not a court martial, but a
board of officers directed to
investigate and report on his conduct.
The inquiry acquitted
him of all unbecoming and incompetent
behavior. One cannot
help feeling, however, that Washington
was right in objecting to
the detachments Harmar made to attack
the Indians. After all,
the reason for raising a task force of
1400 men was because two
or three hundred were not regarded as
sufficient to send against
238
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
the Indians. The entire force should
have been used as a unit,
or not at all.
The Federal Government learned one
lesson from Harmar's
experience, and that was the
undependability of militia. For St.
Clair's expedition the regular United
States Army was doubled
in size, to consist of two regiments.
Still, militia had to be called
out to fill up the number of troops
needed. When the volunteers
came in to Fort Washington, they proved
to be even a worse
lot than Harmar had commanded. St. Clair
was apprehensive of
his fate, but he had to carry on. His
appalling disaster is not
part of my story. Harmar left Fort
Washington and resigned
from the army just before St. Clair set
out in September, 1791.
He was shrewd enough to predict that the
expedition would be a
failure.
Harmar returned to Philadelphia and for
a year apparently
had no employment. It is time to return
to his domestic life. Mrs.
Harmar had followed her husband to his
successive headquarters
and presented him with two children:
Charles, who was born
in 1785 and who was drowned in the West
Indies when he was
twenty-one years old; and Eliza, born in
1787 and died in 1869.
She married but left no issue. Another
daughter was born after
Josiah Harmar left the Northwest, but
she died while still a
small girl.
The Harmars had what might be called a
second family:
two sons, Josiah, Jr., born in 1802, and
William, born in 1803.
Both of these boys survived and won
honors at Yale University.
Then they went out to Cincinnati for a
few years to manage
family properties there. Later they
returned to live in Phila-
delphia.
In 1793, Harmar's old friend, Governor
Mifflin of Pennsyl-
vania, appointed him adjutant general of
the Pennsylvania
Militia. The job was mainly
administrative, keeping tab on the
various county units. The militia was
called out to Philadelphia
shortly after he took office, owing to
brawls resulting from ten-
sion between France and England as
reflected in sailors from
those two countries. Pennsylvania also
furnished militia for the
suppression of the Whiskey Rebellion in
western Pennsylvania
JOSIAH HARMAR AND HIS INDIAN
EXPEDITION 239
in 1794. Harmar again crossed the
mountains to Fort Pitt, with
this federal force. The state militia
was also greatly enlarged
under Harmar. It was kept in readiness
for the anticipated war
with France in 1798, but the cloud
passed. Harmar resigned
his commission in 1799, offering as
reasons the state of his
health and of his private affairs.
He retired to his estate outside
Philadelphia, oddly named
"The Retreat." He had tenant
farmers on most of the land, and
he also owned property in the city of
Philadelphia, in western
Pennsylvania, and his Revolutionary War
bonus lands centered
in Ohio around Cincinnati. It is
difficult to believe that Harmar
was ever poor. The problem of
administering these properties
for profit doubtless did require much of
his time, but whether
his health was impaired I have no way of
knowing. At least he
lived for 14 years in retirement.
A receipt, written on a small scrap of
paper and dated in
August, 1813, tells its own story. From
one David Evans to
Mrs. Harmar, it reads: "for a
mahogany Coffin with Silvered
handles 22 Dollars." The general
was dead at sixty years of
age. There is no biography of him
although he is important in
our country's military history and
noteworthy in the development
of the Northwest Territory. Because he performed his daily
duties competently and failed to shine
on his one opportunity
to be spectacular, he is too easily
dismissed as a name connected
with an ill-fated Indian campaign. His
career before and after
that date is largely unknown. Yet he had
a great deal of respon-
sibility in making the Northwest
Territory a safe place for many
of our pioneering ancestors.
He held together and efficiently
deployed a meager military
force maintained by an insolvent and
shaky Congress under the
Articles of Confederation. This force
was the visible arm of
government to the Indians and to the
British in Detroit. For
five years General Harmar distributed
this inadequate force along
a wild frontier with the shrewdness of
an expert chess player
and exacted services from it that
furnish our present day army
with proud traditions. He commanded a
peacetime standing
army in a country that suspected all
ambitious military men and
240
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
hated peacetime standing armies. He kept
together a ragged
force because the country could afford
nothing better. He estab-
lished forts that became centers of
pioneer settlement. He had
the unpleasant job of enforcing treaty
obligations on the Indians,
sometimes when they regretted making
those treaties, and he had
to chase raiders away from outlying
settlements. Every movement
he made was watched both by a critical
Congress and by a dis-
gruntled former enemy to the north. He
was engaged in a con-
stant race to exert sufficient pressure
on the British, by maintain-
ing control over the Indians and
preparing the way for white
settlement, so that the British would
seek neither a boundary
revision nor a new war. It was a
ticklish assignment, and Har-
mar's unwavering attitude and steady
hand paid off in 1794 when
Anthony Wayne was able to defeat the
Indians at Fallen Timbers
within sight of a British post, and at
the crucial moment the
British did not quite dare fight back.
Perhaps we can appreciate General
Harmar's contribution to
our northwest history, if we consider
what a commander of less
integrity might have done in the same
position. There were wide
opportunities for petty graft in dealing
with the army contractors.
Under an anemic Congress, a lazy man
could have shown no
initiative and not been criticized. An
unscrupulous man could
have insisted on a large share in the
land companies he was
ordered to protect. A conspirator could have
been paid hand-
somely by the British for being
ineffective. An ambitious tyrant
might have turned his army against the
Congress. These are all
things that might very well have
happened during those pre-
carious years of our experiment with a
new republic and with our
first frontier.
Yet Josiah Harmar seems to have been as
firmly wedded to
the new country for which he had fought
as George Washington
was. As a soldier he was loyal and
obedient to the government
that employed him: as a man he was
honest and energetic. His
failure to subdue the Indian raiders in
1790 may have revealed
faulty judgment in tactics, but he was
more successful than St.
Clair was, and Anthony Wayne was
completely successful only
JOSIAH HARMAR AND HIS INDIAN
EXPEDITION 241
because the regular army was again
increased in size and Wayne
was allowed two years in which to train
his men. However we
judge Harmar's expedition, we should not
let it outweigh his
extraordinary services in opening the
Northwest Territory to
settlement in perilous times. He is a
man to remember with
gratitude.