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From Ohio History Central
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| caption = Photographic reproduction of an engraved portrait depicting Josiah Harmar, ca. 1790-1799. The original portrait was engraved by John Sartain and based on a painting by Raphael Peale.
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<p>In 1790, Josiah Harmar, commander of the U.S. army in the Northwest Territory, was stationed at Fort Washington (present-day Cincinnati). Henry Knox, the Secretary of War, ordered Harmar to end the threat of Native American Indian attack in western Ohio. Harmar marched from Fort Washington with 320 regular soldiers and roughly 1,100 militiamen, primarily from Pennsylvania and Kentucky. The militiamen were poorly trained. Many did not know how to load and fire a musket; several others did not even have a gun. Harmar was determined to destroy the native American Indian villages near modern-day Fort Wayne, Indiana. He intended to attack the Miami natives, the Shawnee natives, and the Delaware natives, along with other natives American Indian nations located in western Ohio.</p><p> The natives Ambushed America Indians fled their villages as Harmar's army approached. The Americans burned several villages, but the natives American Indians regrouped. On October 20, the nativesAmerican Indians, now led by Little Turtle, of the Miami nativesnation, attacked a detachment from Harmar's army led by Colonel John Hardin. Hardin's force consisted of several hundred militiamen and a few regular soldiers. Hardin led his men into an ambush. Most of the militiamen fled the battle without even firing a shot. The regular soldiers put up a brief resistance, but the natives American Indians killed most of them. Some of the retreating militiamen did not stop until they crossed the Ohio River into Kentucky. Harmar sent out another detachment after Little Turtle's warriors two days later. Once again, the natives American Indians inflicted heavy casualties upon the AmericansAnglo-American settler militia. Harmar immediately retreated to the safety of Fort Washington. He had lost 183 men killed or missing in his campaign. It The incident became known as Harmar's Defeat. In 1791, the United States army convened a court-martial against Harmar. He was accused him of wrongdoing during the campaign, including being drunk on duty. The court-martial exonerated him of all charges, but Harmar retired from the army on January 1, 1792. </p><p> Harmar's actions in western Ohio only heightened tensions between the resident American Indians and white settlers and the Native Americans. Following Harmar's defeat, native American Indian attacks against settlers increased. In 1791, Arthur St. Clair led another campaign against the natives American Indians in western Ohio, hoping to succeed where Harmar had failed.</p>
==See Also==
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