12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Definitive Study of a Crucial yet Obscure Chapter of American History, June 2, 2006
Wiley Sword has written the definitive book on one of the most important chapters of our national history; a chapter that has unaccountably remained obscure and understudied despite its overwhelming importance to the development of the United States. The Indian War of 1790 to 1795 was an important postscript to the Revolution, involving undefeated belligerents and a continuing, undeclared cold war with Britain. It was central to the eventual development of a professional, standing army in the United States, an idea that had previously been anathema to many Americans who preferred the idea of national defense through state militias. It contained the worst single defeat of an American army in the 100 years of war between the United States and the Native tribes, a defeat that dwarfed Custer's much more famous one, and was comparable to the Braddock Massacre of the French and Indian War. And it was the single most important action in the one hundred year history of war between the United States and Native American tribes. It marked the best chance the tribes ever had to gain their objectives, and their eventual lose of that war was a mortal body blow to the tribes, making all their proceeding wars little more than the inevitable death throes of their cause. Finally, it cleared the way for the American settlement of the Northwest Territory; modern Ohio, Indiana, Illinios, Michigan, and Wisconsin - it created the heartland of America.
In the Treaty of Paris of 1783, the British not only gave up their claims to the thirteen colonies, but ceded the vast track of land beyond them that would become known as the Northwest Territory - the homeland of many of the tribes that had been their allies during the war. The treaty made no provisions for or any acknowledgement of their former allies, the tribes that inhabited that land. Americans prepared to expand their nation westward, and settlers began pouring into the Ohio country. The undefeated tribes were determined to protect their homeland from the encroachments of an alien civilization, and began to resist with all possible force. The British, seeing in this an opportunity to maintain their influence and their profitable fur trade, as well as a possibility of regaining some of their lost territory, broke their treaty agreements, and continued to maintain several frontier forts on American territory from which they provisioned the tribes and encouraged their resistance to the Americans. For the next seven years, intrepid American settlers floated down the Ohio River to make a life in Indian country, and determined Natives resisted them ferociously and effectively, until the Washington administration decided that they must move decisively against the tribes to make continued westward expansion of the nation possible.
Sword's book effectively captures all the elements of the war, the drama leading to it, and its aftermath. He examines it not only from the American perspective, but from the point of view of the tribes and the British as well, without injecting value judgments. He chronicles not only the military action, but the often flawed and usually deceitful diplomacy that was carried on, and the goals and strategies of all three of the players involved. His descriptions of the battles are riveting, and he captures a sense of the times and the people involved in the action believably. While his writing here had not yet developed to the full potential of his later books, it is still a cut above the typical fare of scholarly histories, and anyone at all interested in the subject should find reading his book enjoyable, as well as enlightening. I know of no other single book that details this crucial chapter of American history half as well as does Sword's book, and I recommend it highly.
Theo Logos
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Oustanding book on the Federal period!, May 16, 1997
By A Customer
This is one of the most well-researched books on the Federal period of our country that has been written. It has become the "bible" of anyone interested in this turbulent period of our nation's history. If you want to know anything about the settlement of the Northwest Territory, this is the book to read. It has a lot of historical detail in it, but it is still a very readable book. I use it for reference all of the time, living is one of the historical towns mentioned in the book
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
1790s army history, August 27, 2010
This is a well-written, interesting book on the army in the years immediately following the Rev War. Just a decade after Yorktown, the US faced hostile tribes in the OH Valley and fought 3 significant, difficult campaigns there. The first in 1790 (led by Harmar) met with difficulties and heavy casualties, although it was not the disaster it is often called. The 2nd was a huge disaster, led by St. Clair in 1791. Only Wayne's campaign that ended with the victory at Fallen Timbers (1794) was successful. Sword gives excellent account not just of the battles but of the enormous diificulties campaigning on the frontier entailed.
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