Note II-25 — Chapter II · ITINERARY, CONTINUED: FROM THE PAWNEE VILLAGE THROUGH KANSAS AND COLORADO TO PIKE'S PEAK, OCT. 1ST-NOV. 30TH, 1806.

Alluding to the terrible defeat of General Arthur St. Clair's army by Indians on a branch of the Wabash r., in present Darke Co., Ohio, Nov. 4th, 1791. This was the most disastrous battle ever lost by the whites to the Indians, surpassing Braddock's defeat on the Monongahela in 1755. On Dec. 25th, 1793, General Anthony Wayne, who had become commander-in-chief in 1792, and taken command of the Army of the West, sent a detachment of soldiers to take possession of the field where General St. Clair had been defeated, built a fort there, and named the place Recovery, because it was then first recovered from the Indians, who had retained possession after the disaster above named. June 29th, 1794, General Wayne sent troops with supplies to Fort Recovery from Greenville, where he was then stationed. The detachment reached the fort and deposited its supplies in safety, but was immediately attacked, and the fort itself was invested by Indians, assisted by whites from Canada. The battle raged June 30th and July 1st, when the assailants were repulsed, not without great loss on our side. Among those who fell was the gallant McMahon, who had commanded the expedition to Fort Recovery. For further information see: Howe's Hist. Coll. Ohio, under head of Darke Co.; Burnet's Notes of the N. W. Terr., chap. vii; Albach's Annals of the West, p. 642. Present Fort Recovery is a village in Mercer Co. O., on a branch of the Wabash r., close to the Indiana State line.