20 August 1794, morning
Fallen Timbers: the ambush
Blue Jacket expects Wayne to march down the Maumee and waits for him near present-day Toledo, in a stretch of forest blown down by a storm. The tangled trunks, nearly a mile long, make a natural abatis. About 1,500 warriors of the confederacy gather there with Canadian militia. Morning rain on 20 August, the third day of their fast, leads many to think there will be no battle, and they go to Fort Miami to eat.
At the battle of Fallen Timbers, 1794, illustration by John Steeple Davis, about 1891Wikimedia Commons, John Steeple Davis, Public domain (At the battle of Fallen Timbers, 1794.jpg)
Wayne advances in compact columns with the dragoons and artillery in the centre and a battalion of mounted Kentucky militia in front. About 100 yards into the fallen timber a volley from the Odawa and Potawatomi under Little Otter and Egushawa scatters the Kentuckians. Two infantry companies behind them under Captain John Cook fire, then flee as the warriors close in hand to hand.
The fugitives run back through the Legion’s left wing. Jean François Hamtramck forms the 2nd and 4th sub-legions in two ranks to stop the pursuit, and James Wilkinson forms the 1st and 3rd on the right in a line 800 yards (730 m) long. Wayne sends light infantry ahead of each wing and brings up the artillery, which fires grapeshot into the warriors.
Sources
- Alan D. Gaff, Bayonets in the Wilderness: Anthony Wayne’s Legion in the Old Northwest (2004).
- John Sugden, Blue Jacket: Warrior of the Shawnees (2000).
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