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President Washington’s Indian War Paperback – September 15, 1993

by Wiley Sword (Author)
5.0 5.0 out of 5 stars 15 ratings
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Military history buffs and scholars will revel in Wiley Sword's exciting narrative, the first comprehensive history of the United States-Indian war of 1790-1795. The struggle for the Old Northwest Territory (modern-day Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, and Michigan) was as vicious and bitter a conflict as any war in our history. Indeed, the very survival of the new nation was in doubt.

The years from 1790 to 1795 may have been the turning point in Indian white relations on the North American continent. At this time the Indians of the Ohio country-tribes such as the Miamis, the Shawnees, and the Ottawas-engaged in a last-ditch effort to stop the settlers who were moving west into the "Black Forest" wilderness of mid America. They were aided by British agents, based in Detroit, who manipulated the Indian confederacy in an attempt to recoup some of their losses from the Revolutionary War.

Josiah Harmar and Arthur St. Clair led early disastrous campaigns, including possibly the worst defeat of a United States army at the hands of Indians. Ultimately, President George Washington assigned "Mad Anthony" Wayne to rebuild and expand the army, despite considerable domestic opposition. This is the most detailed history yet published of the battles and skirmishes, the futile treaty negotiations with the Indians, and the tribes' intrigues among themselves and with the British, leading to Wayne's final victory 'over the Indian confederacy at Fallen Timbers.

Most impressive is the extent and depth of the author's research in primary and secondary sources. With extraordinary vividness Sword recounts the battles and the life in the American and Indian encampments, quoting from diaries, letters, and statements by American officers and soldiers as well as the accounts of their enemies, such as Little Turtle of the Miamis, Blue Jacket of the Shawnees, and Joseph Brant of the Iroquois. Nor does Sword neglect the activities and life-ways of Britain's traders, agents, and haughty commandants.

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  1. Print length
    400 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    University of Oklahoma Press
  4. Publication date
    September 15, 1993
  5. Dimensions
    6 x 0.9 x 9 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0806124881
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0806124889
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“Readers will find Wiley Sword’s President Washington’s Indian War an amazingly comprehensive, intriguingly complicated, and compellingly dramatic treatment of warfare between citizens of the newly formed U.S. and Indians in the Old Northwest during 1790–1795...Sword has compiled a detailed, vivid historical narrative of one of the major turning points in Indian-white relations on the North American continent.”—American Indian Quarterly

About the Author

Wiley Sword, a graduate of the University of Michigan, is well known as an author of books and articles on American military history, and as a collector of historic American weapons.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ University of Oklahoma Press; Revised ed. edition (September 15, 1993)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 400 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0806124881
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0806124889
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.6 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.9 x 9 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    5.0 5.0 out of 5 stars 15 ratings

About the author

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Wiley Sword

Wiley Sword

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Wiley Sword is the author of eight books including "Mountains Touched with Fire: Chattanooga Besieged, 1863" and "Embrace an Angry Wind" for which he received the 1992 Fletcher Pratt Award. His book "President Washington’s Indian War" was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, Bancroft Prize, Parkman Prize and Western Heritage Prize. He was educated at the University of Michigan.

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5 out of 5 stars
5 out of 5
15 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Kevin W
5.0 out of 5 stars Forget the rest, read this one
Reviewed in the United States on June 4, 2023
Verified Purchase
Bookkeeping: After reading Theo Logos’ review I thought “Why bother? He’s said it all already and eloquently so.” I’m going to add a few words of my own, but highly encourage you to read his 5 star review.

Sword has definitively chronicled the Indian War which culminated with the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794. The war was really the swan song of the Native American tribes east of the Mississippi, and involved chiefly the Shawnees, Miami, and Delaware Indians, however the Potawatomi, Ottawa, Wyandot, and Chippawa also contributed mightily, along with several other tribes.

While the war officially was waged between the US and Indian tribes from 1790 to 1795, in reality it was an ongoing festering problem from the end of the American Revolution when the British ceded land to the nascent nation in what would now be Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, and Wisconsin even though they did not consult with the tribes living on that very land. The result was an immediate clash between two societies over the manner in which that land would be used - both of which were mutually exclusive (domestic agriculture or hunter/gathering).

Thus, Sword starts his narrative in the 1780’s relating the causes of the war, the escalating massacres (by both sides), and the various peace initiatives that were put forward by both the US and Indians (all were doomed to failure from the get go due to the fact that the US had already sold off the land before the peace initiatives began).

Sword details the various campaigns of the war and the three major US Expeditions lead by Generals Harmar (defeated), St. Clair (infamously wiped out), and Wayne (victorious). Sword then details the Treaty of Greenville which ended the war, and he then goes a step further and briefly summarizes the fate of the major participants of the war.

The narrative is highly balanced giving the perspective of the major participants from all three sides:
*The Indians trying to form a united front (the Northwestern Confederation) which would have included the Lake Indians, the Ohio Valley Indians, and the Six Nation Indians. This would have enabled them to bargain from a position of greater strength.
*The British attempting to use the Indians as a buffer state between the US and Canada, by providing food, arms, and encouragement to go to war with the US. This would have allowed them to continue to exploit the natural resources of the area they had already ceded to the US.
*The US who had already sold the land in the Ohio Valley to speculators in order to payoff the enormous debt that had resulted from the Revolution and the disfunction of the Articles of Confederation. The very solvency of the nation was at stake.

Sword covers all the major personalities of the war, chiefs Little Turtle of the Miami, Blue Jacket of the Shawnee, and Joseph Brant of Mohicans; the US Generals named above, as well as President Washington & Secretary of War Henry Knox; and also the Canadian Governor Lord Dorchester and his Indian Agent Alexander McKee.

Sword also explains in detail that while the culminating Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794 was a rather small affair casualty wise, it had a huge impact on the Indian Confederation, because the Indians saw first hand that the British (who had been encouraging them to go to war) were not going to join in the fight against US, when the British refused the fleeing Indians entry into Fort Miamis which was literally on the doorstep of the battlefield. As a result, the Confederation saw no alternative but to capitulate, which quickly ended in a tragic ruin for them.

Sword’s writing style while filled with details is engaging, his descriptions of the terrain and people intriguing, and his narratives of the battles compelling. Also, the book is filled with maps to orient the reader. Truly this book should be required reading for anyone who wants to learn more about the earliest days of our country, warts and all.
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Daniel
5.0 out of 5 stars lots of killin on the frontier.
Reviewed in the United States on December 4, 2014
Verified Purchase
It was about time somebody put these redskins in their place.
3 people found this helpful
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Theo Logos
5.0 out of 5 stars Definitive Study of a Crucial yet Obscure Chapter of American History
Reviewed in the United States on June 2, 2006
Wiley Sword has written the definitive book on one of the most important chapters of our national history; a chapter that has unaccountably remained obscure and understudied despite its overwhelming importance to the development of the United States. The Indian War of 1790 to 1795 was an important postscript to the Revolution, involving undefeated belligerents and a continuing, undeclared cold war with Britain. It was central to the eventual development of a professional, standing army in the United States, an idea that had previously been anathema to many Americans who preferred the idea of national defense through state militias. It contained the worst single defeat of an American army in the 100 years of war between the United States and the Native tribes, a defeat that dwarfed Custer's much more famous one, and was comparable to the Braddock Massacre of the French and Indian War. And it was the single most important action in the one hundred year history of war between the United States and Native American tribes. It marked the best chance the tribes ever had to gain their objectives, and their eventual lose of that war was a mortal body blow to the tribes, making all their proceeding wars little more than the inevitable death throes of their cause. Finally, it cleared the way for the American settlement of the Northwest Territory; modern Ohio, Indiana, Illinios, Michigan, and Wisconsin - it created the heartland of America.

In the Treaty of Paris of 1783, the British not only gave up their claims to the thirteen colonies, but ceded the vast track of land beyond them that would become known as the Northwest Territory - the homeland of many of the tribes that had been their allies during the war. The treaty made no provisions for or any acknowledgement of their former allies, the tribes that inhabited that land. Americans prepared to expand their nation westward, and settlers began pouring into the Ohio country. The undefeated tribes were determined to protect their homeland from the encroachments of an alien civilization, and began to resist with all possible force. The British, seeing in this an opportunity to maintain their influence and their profitable fur trade, as well as a possibility of regaining some of their lost territory, broke their treaty agreements, and continued to maintain several frontier forts on American territory from which they provisioned the tribes and encouraged their resistance to the Americans. For the next seven years, intrepid American settlers floated down the Ohio River to make a life in Indian country, and determined Natives resisted them ferociously and effectively, until the Washington administration decided that they must move decisively against the tribes to make continued westward expansion of the nation possible.

Sword's book effectively captures all the elements of the war, the drama leading to it, and its aftermath. He examines it not only from the American perspective, but from the point of view of the tribes and the British as well, without injecting value judgments. He chronicles not only the military action, but the often flawed and usually deceitful diplomacy that was carried on, and the goals and strategies of all three of the players involved. His descriptions of the battles are riveting, and he captures a sense of the times and the people involved in the action believably. While his writing here had not yet developed to the full potential of his later books, it is still a cut above the typical fare of scholarly histories, and anyone at all interested in the subject should find reading his book enjoyable, as well as enlightening. I know of no other single book that details this crucial chapter of American history half as well as does Sword's book, and I recommend it highly.

Theo Logos
30 people found this helpful
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S. Gibbs
5.0 out of 5 stars The rea longest war
Reviewed in the United States on April 12, 2019
(Edited for typos 11/15/20)I bought a copy years ago, never reviewed it. I found it a very informative and important book. Having been born and raised in Indiana I Was very interested in how we gained what was called "a dark and bloody ground". The media likes to claim that Afghanistan is our longest war, but I argue that was the war(s) fought with the Indians from the Jamestown massacre in 1622 up to Wounded Knee and the end of the Apache wars in 1890. Whose fault it all was does not interest me. All those tribes lived on land they seized or took control of from other tribes. What would the world look like now if we as a nation or people had stayed pinned in the east side of the Blue Ridge?
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Jason Roberts
5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding
Reviewed in the United States on September 15, 2000
Very well researched, very readable. I bought the book originally because I was interested in the period, and was glad I did.
8 people found this helpful
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Historian
4.0 out of 5 stars 1790s army history
Reviewed in the United States on August 27, 2010
This is a well-written, interesting book on the army in the years immediately following the Rev War. Just a decade after Yorktown, the US faced hostile tribes in the OH Valley and fought 3 significant, difficult campaigns there. The first in 1790 (led by Harmar) met with difficulties and heavy casualties, although it was not the disaster it is often called. The 2nd was a huge disaster, led by St. Clair in 1791. Only Wayne's campaign that ended with the victory at Fallen Timbers (1794) was successful. Sword gives excellent account not just of the battles but of the enormous diificulties campaigning on the frontier entailed.
11 people found this helpful
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