This 1791 US Military Defeat Was 3x Worse than Little Bighorn And Nearly Destroyed the Army

History Unplugged Podcast

History Unplugged

Society & Culture, History

4.2 • 3.7K Ratings

🗓️ 16 March 2023

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

November 4, 1791, was a black day in American history. General Arthur St. Clair’s army had been ambushed by Native Americans in what is now western Ohio. In just three hours, St. Clair’s force sustained the greatest loss ever inflicted on the United States Army by American Indians—a total nearly three times larger than what incurred in the more famous Custer fight of 1876. It was the greatest proportional loss by any American army in the nation’s history. By the time this fighting ended, over six hundred corpses littered an area of about three and one half football fields laid end to end. Still more bodies were strewn along the primitive road used by hundreds of survivors as they ran for their lives with Native Americans in hot pursuit. It was a disaster of cataclysmic proportions for George Washington’s first administration, which had been in office for only two years. Today’s guest is Alan Gaff, author of Field of Corpses: Arthur St. Clair and the Death of the American Army. We look at the first great challenge of Washington’s presidency, a humiliating defeat that the United States needed to strengthen its military or die. It’s a war story that emphasizes individuals and small units rather than grandiose armies and famous generals, making St. Clair’s defeat all the more immersive and personable.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This guy here with another episode of the History Unplugged Podcast, the US military has
0:08.8	suffered a number of disastrous defeats in its nearly two and a half century history.
0:13.4	The first battle will run in the Civil War, numerous battles during the War of 1812,
0:17.5	and Custer's last stand.
0:18.5	Well, one of the worst defeats is also one that's completely forgotten.
0:22.4	That was Arthur St. Clair's 1791 battle against Native Americans in the Northwest territories
0:27.5	where three times as many died and what happened in Custer's fight of 1876.
0:32.4	It was the greatest proportional loss by any American army in the nation's history.
0:36.5	After three hours of fighting, over 600 corpses littered an area about three and a half
0:41.0	football fields laid end to end.
0:43.0	This was the first major crisis of George Washington's presidency.
0:46.0	Today's guest is Alan Gaff, author of Field of corpses, Arthur St. Clair in the death
0:50.6	of the American army.
0:52.0	Known as the Battle of the Wabash or St. Clair's Defeat, the defeat was so damaging to the reputation
0:57.2	of the United States that for a while the British thought that they could supply American
1:01.0	Indians and create a buffer state against the young republic and perhaps even bring it
1:04.9	down, sort of like how the United States supplied Afghanistan of the 1980s against Russia.
1:09.6	It also pushed Washington to establish additional army regiments and required all white male
1:14.4	citizens of the various states between certain ages to enroll in the militia of the state
1:18.7	in which they resided.
1:19.7	While America wouldn't be a military power for a very long time, it gave the infant
1:23.7	republic enough strength to handle its early tests like the whiskey rebellion.
	...

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