The Birth of a Nation 83war ahead. Between 1792 and 1794 , Wayne put together a com
bined force of regulars with a large contingent of experienced rang
ers. He enthusiastically embraced such counterinsurgent tactics as
destroying food supplies and murdering civilians.
Among the fifteen hundred mounted rangers in the first mission
was the talented William Wells with his group of rangers. When he
was thirteen, Wells had been captured by the Miamis and then had
lived with them for nine years, marrying Little Turtle's daughter.
Under his father-in-law's command, Wells had fought the invading
settlers and the US Army. In 1792, Wells was chosen to represent the
Miami Nation in a negotiation with the United States, but on arrival
for talks he encountered a brother from the family he had been sepa
rated from for a decade. He was persuaded to return to Kentucky
and served as a ranger for the US Army. 7
Wayne's troops and rangers managed to enter the Ohio Coun
try and establish a base they called Fort Defiance (in northwestern
Ohio), in what had been the heart of the Indigenous alliance led by
Little Tu rtle. 8 Wayne then made an ultimatum to the Shawnees: "In
pity to your innocent women and children, come and prevent the
further effusion of your blood." The Shawnee leader Blue Jacket
refused submission, and the US forces began destroying Shawnee
villages and fields and murdering women, children, and old men.
On August 20, 1794 , at Fallen Timbers, the main Shawnee fighting
force was overpowered. Even after this US victory, the rangers con
tinued for three days laying waste to Shawnee houses and cornfields.
After creating a fifty-mile swath of devastation, the invading forces
returned to Fort Defiance. The defeat at Fallen Timbers was a severe
blow to the Indigenous nations of the Ohio Country, but they would
reorganize their resistance during the following decade.
The US conquest of southern Ohio was formalized in the 1795
Treaty of Greenville, a victory based on vicious irregular warfare.
The nations of the region no longer had the British and the French
and the settlers to play against one another, but rather were now
faced with the determined imperialist thrust of an independent re
public that had to coddle settlers if they were to recruit any into their
service.9