Head of Auglaize - Part 3
Chapter 3
NOTE: Some of what you read in this first blog is gleaned from previous blogs and my first book; "Fort Amanda - A Historical Redress." These are included to help create a timeline and continuity of events leading up to Wayne's decision to build his post on the Auglaize.
RECAP
1. Wayne has orders to destroy the Indian
villages at Kekionga (Fort Wayne, Ind.)
2. He comes to Ohio and builds Fort Greenville
(Greenville, Oh.
3. Wayne is trying to get the Indians to come to Greenville for peace talks (no luck).
4. Wayne is also negotiating with contractors who
will keep his troops supplied.
4. Wayne’s concern is his
army and supplies could get bogged down in the swamp, .
5. Wayne begins to look at using local rivers to transport his supplies.
6. This blog will cover Wayne's interest in the Auglaize River
The Rivers
The St. Marys River
If you recall from previous blogs, Wayne's mission was to attack and destroy the Indin villages at Kekionga (Fort Wayne, Ind.). He needed an alternative to land casrriage of supplies. At Greenville he decided to see if local rivers were navigable enough to ship his supplies. He had three large rivers to his south and north; the The Great Miami, the St. Marys and the Auglaize. One advantage of using the St. Mary’s river was it flowed directly to the Miami villages. A disadvantages is it was very difficult to navigate. The St. Marys River is very crooked and shallow in spots with a very large number of bends and hairpin curves making it very difficult to navigate even in the spring and summer months. It would be especially difficult particularly for boats loaded with heavy cargo. In 1795 the trip from St. Marys to Defiance took seven days.
Another disadvantage of using the St. Marys River was it was prone to freezing. This is evidenced in a letter from by Quartermaster Thomas Bodley, to General William Henry Harrison in Oct 1812 in which he described how ice had literally blocked the St Marys river for miles and that supplies had to be unloaded and placed in shelters until conditions improved.
Frozen In On the St. Marys
“A messenger arrived with information
that the last boats were stopped by the ice below this about 40 miles by water
and about 12 by land that they had used every exertion but could proceed no
further and in the Evening our express arrived from the first boats that they
got to Shanes Crossing about 60 miles by water and 18 by land from this place
where they were frozen up and no possibility of them getting on. There was no
alternative left but to secure the craft and properly which Col. Barbee taken
every necessary step to effect Captain Jordan’s company remain with the first
boats and to build storehouses etc. The
roads are so extremely bad and the waters have been so high as to render it
impossible for wagons or horses to travel.The St. Marys is so extremely crooked
and blocked up with drift wood in many places where its out of the Bank and
overflowed for miles in short terns. The slush has collected and frozen solid
so as to dam it up for miles. Consequently nothing but a general thaw or hard
rains can give us the benefit of the navigation of this stream. The Auglaize is much straighter, has more
water and will not freeze up as soon as the St. Marys”.
A short time later Wayne sent out a
second group to look for a portage portage route to the Auglaize, not from Greenville this time, but from from Loramie’s store. The group returned the 18th of
January and reported that not only had they found, a good portage route, they
also a spot on the river where the water was deep enough for watercraft and it
was only 22 miles from Loramie’s store. Wayne
referred to the site as as the “north end of the portage.”
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During the same period Wayne dispatched two small boats manned by experienced river boatmen down the Great Miami from Loramie’s store to determine if indeed the river was navigable from Cincinnati to Loramie’s store. The boats left Loramie’s store on February 22nd and arrived at Fort Hamilton, the armys main supply depot north of Cincinnati two days later (February 24th) The 110 river trip had taken only 2 days.
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In Letter No. 70 Wayne estimated the distance from Loramies store to the "north end of the portage" on the Auglaize where he wanted to build a post is actually 22 miles "as the crow flies."
Wayne now had a river transport system that stretched from Fort Hamilton north of Cincinnati to Grand Glaize with only 22 miles of land carriage. From his new post at Grand Glaize, boats could merge into the Maumee River then travel west to the Miami villages or east to Roche de Boeuf another major Indian stronghold 9 miles to the east. The Auglaize route to Grand Glaize was approximately 70 miles by water, compared to 170 mile using the St. Marys. Plus, as Major Botts pointed out in his letter to Harrison in 1812, The Auglaize is much straighter, has more water and will not freeze up as soon as the St. Marys”.
Letter No. 73. What Wayne needed now was a post at the north end of the portage. On March 3rd, in his letter to Secretary Knox, Wayne wrote that he was “determined to build a strong post” on the banks of the Auglaize at the “north end of the portage.”
He told Secretary Knox that he wanted a post on the Auglaize River because it would be almost imposible to keep troops supplied so far in advance of their supply base using only packhorses and wagons. He added that building a post there would serve as a wake-up call to the Indians at Grand Glaize that his army was practically in their back yard. He went on to say that he needed to act advance his army quickly to take possession of the gound at the north end of the portage as well as taking advantage of the natural resources and foreage for his packhorses and cattle.
