President Washington's Indian War

by Wiley Sword

Book Overview

The first comprehensive history of the United States-Indian War of 1790-1795. The struggle for the Old Northwest Territory (modern-day Ohio, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Michigan) was as vicious and bitter a conflict as any war in our history. 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...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0806124881
• ISBN13: 9780806124889
• Release Date: September 1993
• Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
• Length: 400 Pages
• Weight: 2.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.0" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

Definitive Study of a Crucial yet Obscure Chapter of American History

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

Outstanding

Very well researched, very readable. I bought the book originally because I was interested in the period, and was glad I did.

Oustanding book on the Federal period!

This is one of the most well-researched books on the Federal period of our country that has been written. It has become the "bible" of anyone interested in this turbulent period of our nation's history. If you want to know anything about the settlement of the Northwest Territory, this is the book to read. It has a lot of historical detail in it, but it is still a very readable book. I use it for reference all of the time, living is one of the historical towns mentioned in the book