The Army That Vanished

In November 1791, a Native confederacy destroyed an American army in a single morning. The victory forced the young republic to build a force that could come back.

The United States claimed the country north of the Ohio River. The nations living there refused to surrender it. Among their leaders were Little Turtle of the Myaamia and Blue Jacket of the Shawnee, fighting to hold together an alliance whose members answered to their own people. Together, those nations had the strength to stop an invasion. Keeping their country would demand more than winning battles.

At the Battle of the Wabash, an American army marched into the catastrophe remembered as St. Clair’s Defeat. The defeat prompted the first congressional investigation in American history, and George Washington turned to Anthony Wayne to prepare another campaign. As Wayne trained his men, the confederacy faced negotiations, divided interests, and British promises whose worth would be tested under fire. Between the two forces stood William Wells, raised among the Myaamia, married to Little Turtle’s daughter, and now serving the Americans.

Drawing on contemporary diaries, letters, and council records, The Army That Vanished is a vivid narrative history of the Northwest Indian War, from Harmar’s Defeat through Fort Recovery and the Battle of Fallen Timbers to the Treaty of Greenville. It follows the people whose decisions shaped a war the new United States could neither afford nor abandon.

The first book in Forgotten Wars of American Expansion, this complete, standalone history begins a larger story of how the republic acquired the power to take the land it claimed, and what that expansion cost the Native American nations in its path.