Fort Recovery was a

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...

fort ordered built by

General A general officer is an officer of high rank in the armies, and in some nations' air forces, space forces, and marines or naval infantry. In some usages the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colonel."general, adj. and n.". O ...

"Mad" Anthony Wayne Anthony Wayne (January 1, 1745 – December 15, 1796) was an American soldier, officer, statesman, and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. He adopted a military career at the outset of the American Revolutionary War, where his mil ...

during what is now termed the

Northwest Indian War The Northwest Indian War (1786–1795), also known by other names, was an armed conflict for control of the Northwest Territory fought between the United States and a united group of Native American nations known today as the Northwester ...

. Constructed from late 1793 and completed in March 1794, the fort was built along the

Wabash River The Wabash River (French: Ouabache) is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed May 13, 2011 river that drains most of the state of Indiana in the United States. It flows from ...

, within two miles of what became the Ohio state border with Indiana. A detachment of Wayne's Legion of the United States held off an attack from combined Indian forces on June 30, 1794. The fort was used as a reference in drawing treaty lines for the 1795

Treaty of Greenville The Treaty of Greenville, formally titled Treaty with the Wyandots, etc., was a 1795 treaty between the United States and indigenous nations of the Northwest Territory (now Midwestern United States), including the Wyandot and Delaware peopl ...

, and for later settlement. The fort was abandoned in 1796. The present-day village of

Fort Recovery, Ohio Fort Recovery is a village in Mercer County, Ohio, United States. The population was 1,501 at the 2020 census. The village is near the location of Fort Recovery, first established in 1793 under orders from General Anthony Wayne. The town is loc ...

developed around the fort and along the river. It includes sites and monuments to commemorate the fort and battles in the area.

Background

General Wayne purposely built the fort at the site where

Arthur St. Clair Arthur St. Clair ( – August 31, 1818) was a Scottish-American soldier and politician. Born in Thurso, Scotland, he served in the British Army during the French and Indian War before settling in Pennsylvania, where he held local office. During ...

had been defeated in 1791 by an Indian confederacy under Miami Chief Michikinikwa (Little Turtle) and Shawnee Chief Weyapiersenwah (Blue Jacket). That battle, called St. Clair's Defeat, ended St Clair's military career and prompted the

United States Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washi ...

to undertake a full investigation of the loss. As a direct result of the Native American victory, the Legion of the United States was founded and placed under the command of General "Mad Anthony" Wayne. Wayne hoped to demonstrate that the United States Army could recover from this crushing defeat and emerge victorious in what was also known as "Little Turtle's War." In late 1793, Wayne led 300 men to the site of St. Clair's defeat and deliberately had Fort Recovery built there. On December 25, they identified the site due to the large amount of unburied remains. Private George Will wrote that to setup camp, the unit had to move bones to make space for their beds. On June 30 of that year, a large Native American force and a few British officers conducted the

Siege of Fort Recovery The Battle of Fort Recovery, 30 June – 1 July 1794, was a battle of the Northwest Indian War, fought at the present-day village of Fort Recovery, Ohio. A large force of warriors in the Western Confederacy attacked a fort held by United State ...

. Although the Legion suffered high casualties, they were able to maintain control of the fort, in part because they had recovered cannons lost by St. Clair in 1791. Wayne used Fort Recovery as a staging ground for advances into the territory. He ultimately defeated the Native American confederacy at the

Battle of Fallen Timbers The Battle of Fallen Timbers (20 August 1794) was the final battle of the Northwest Indian War, a struggle between Native American tribes affiliated with the Northwestern Confederacy and their British allies, against the nascent United Stat ...

in August 1794. In 1795, confederacy representatives signed the

, which ceded control of most of the modern state of Ohio, using Fort Recovery as a reference point for the border between Native American and United States territories.

Attack on Fort Recovery

Fort Recovery had been garrisoned since spring 1794 by a 250-man detachment of Gen. Anthony Wayne's Legion of the United States. On June 30, 1794, a United States supply column left Fort Recovery for Fort Greenville, under the command of Major William McMahon and escorted by ninety riflemen under Captain Asa Hartshome and fifty

dragoons Dragoons were originally a class of mounted infantry, who used horses for mobility, but dismounted to fight on foot. From the early 17th century onward, dragoons were increasingly also employed as conventional cavalry and trained for combat ...

under Lieutenant Edmund Taylor. It had gone only about a quarter mile when it was attacked by Indians led by Shawnee war chief

Blue Jacket Blue Jacket, or Weyapiersenwah (c. 1743 – 1810), was a war chief of the Shawnee people, known for his militant defense of Shawnee lands in the Ohio Country. Perhaps the preeminent American Indian leader in the Northwest Indian War, i ...

, and including the young

Tecumseh Tecumseh ( ; October 5, 1813) was a Shawnee chief and warrior who promoted resistance to the expansion of the United States onto Native American lands. A persuasive orator, Tecumseh traveled widely, forming a Native American confederacy an ...

. The dragoons cut a retreat back to the fort, losing thirty-two killed (including Captain Hartshome and

Cornet The cornet (, ) is a brass instrument similar to the trumpet but distinguished from it by its conical bore, more compact shape, and mellower tone quality. The most common cornet is a transposing instrument in B, though there is also a so ...

Daniel Torrey) and thirty wounded, while inflicting an unknown number of casualties on their attackers. During the night, a scouting company under Captain William Wells reported that there were British officers behind the Indian lines, and that they had brought powder and cannonballs, but no cannons. The Indians were looking for U.S. cannons that had been buried after St. Clair's defeat, not knowing that these had already been recovered by the Legion of the United States. The next day, July 1, the Indian forces attacked the fort again, but they began to withdraw by noon, and they were gone by nightfall.

Boundary marker -Treaty of Greenville

Following Wayne's victory in the

, the US offered peace in the 1795

with the regional Indian tribes. Fort Recovery was used as a reference point to define the boundary line established by the treaty between the US and Indian tribal territory. In 1800, the fort was used as a reference point in defining the initial boundaries of the

Indiana Territory The Indiana Territory, officially the Territory of Indiana, was created by a congressional act that President John Adams signed into law on May 7, 1800, to form an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from July 4, ...

, when that was first separated from the original Northwest Territory. When Ohio was admitted as a state in 1803, the western boundary was placed a few miles west of Fort Recovery.

Fort Recovery Memorial

In 1891, the battle sites around the fort were excavated. The remains of some 1200 people were buried in a memorial park established in downtown Fort Recovery. In 1908, President

William Howard Taft William Howard Taft (September 15, 1857March 8, 1930) was the 27th president of the United States (1909–1913) and the tenth chief justice of the United States (1921–1930), the only person to have held both offices. Taft was elected pr ...

signed a bill that allowed for the building of a monument for those killed under the commands of Arthur St. Clair and Anthony Wayne in Fort Recovery. In 1910, his administration gave the village of Fort Recovery $25,000 to commission the monument. The monument, in the form of an

obelisk An obelisk (; from grc, ὀβελίσκος ; diminutive of ''obelos'', " spit, nail, pointed pillar") is a tall, four-sided, narrow tapering monument which ends in a pyramid-like shape or pyramidion at the top. Originally constructed by An ...

, was built in 1912 and dedicated on July 1, 1913. The obelisk stands tall. It weighs approximately and cost $23,700 to build. Today that monument is part of a historical landmark known as Fort Recovery State Memorial, which is maintained by the

Ohio Historical Society Ohio History Connection, formerly The Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society and Ohio Historical Society, is a nonprofit organization incorporated in 1885. Headquartered at the Ohio History Center in Columbus, Ohio, Ohio History Connec ...

. A replica of Wayne's fort has two reconstructed

blockhouse A blockhouse is a small fortification, usually consisting of one or more rooms with loopholes, allowing its defenders to fire in various directions. It is usually an isolated fort in the form of a single building, serving as a defensive stro ...

s with a connecting stockade. The Fort Recovery State Museum, opened in 1938 during the Great Depression. It features life-size

diorama A diorama is a replica of a scene, typically a three-dimensional full-size or miniature model, sometimes enclosed in a glass showcase for a museum. Dioramas are often built by hobbyists as part of related hobbies such as military vehicle mode ...

s of fort soldiers and the various Indian tribes involved in the fighting. Exhibits explain Wayne's campaign and include military and Indian artifacts, uniforms, weapons, paintings and maps. The museum features a gift shop and offers programs for school groups. In 2011, students from Ball State University found the original location of a fort wall, not far from the Fort Recovery state museum.

Gallery

Wabash River old course.jpg, The former location of the Wabash River running by the site of the original Fort Recovery. The reproduction can be seen in the background, but it is not the original fort. Fort Recovery obelisk.jpg, Victory monument in Fort Recovery FtRecovery Cannonballs.jpg, Cannonballs left over from Fort Recovery, now seen at the replica. Cannonballs have also been found around the village in many locations, including private property.

References

Sources

External links

Historic Fort RecoveryFort Recovery Research Page
from Ball State University
Fort Recovery
on Ohio Historical Society site
Fort Recovery State Museum
* {{National Register of Historic Places Government buildings completed in 1794 Infrastructure completed in 1794 18th-century fortifications Recovery Buildings and structures in Mercer County, Ohio National Register of Historic Places in Mercer County, Ohio Military and war museums in Ohio Museums in Mercer County, Ohio Native American museums in Ohio Northwest Indian War Ohio History Connection Pre-statehood history of Ohio Recovery 1794 establishments in the Northwest Territory