Here, on the
twentieth of August, 1794, he advanced against the enemy, and, throwing
his troops into the "Fallen Timbers," in which the Indians were
ambushed, routed them out, cut them down, and administered a defeat so
crushing that they could not rally from it, and their whole country was
laid waste with fire and sword. Wayne did his work well, burning their
villages, and destroying their crops, so that they would have no means
of sustenance during the coming winter. Thoroughly cowed by this
treatment, the Indians sued for peace, and at Greenville, nearly a year
later, Wayne made a treaty in which twelve tribes took part. It marked
the beginning of a lasting peace, which opened the "Old Northwest" to
the white settler.
* * * * *
No soldier of the Revolution, with the exception of Washington, was
elevated to the presidency, nor did any of them attain an exalted place
in the councils of the Nation. Statecraft and military genius rarely go
hand in hand, and it was not until 1828 that a man whose reputation had
been made chiefly on the battlefield was sent to the White House. Andrew
Jackson was the only soldier, with one exception, who came out of the
War of 1812 with any great reputation, and it is only fair to add that
his victory at New Orleans was due more to the rashness of the British
in advancing to a frontal attack against a force of entrenched
sharpshooters than to any remarkable generalship on the American side.
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