Problem: Following the Revolutionary War, most men did not want a military career. It was extremely difficult to recruit men to serve in the first army.
Problem: Each state recruited its own men and appointed its own officers. Advancement in the military depended on an officer’s influence with those in power in their state government at home.
Problem: Josiah Harmar used Baron von Steuben's Revolutionary War Drill Manual - aimed at fighting British forces not Indian warriors who used guerilla tactics.
Problem: Obtaining food, supplies and clothing was always a problem. The government could not pay the contractors on time; the contractors could not buy the needed food and supplies and get them to the soldiers in a timely manner; the soldiers suffered as a result.
Problem: Discipline and desertion was ongoing problems in the army.
Problem:Soldiers frequently got drunk. If alcohol was restricted, morale dropped even more.
Problem: Wives and prostitutes often came with the troops to the Ohio Country.
Problem: The army assumed they were superior fighters and that Indians were inferior when it came to battle. People in the east either thought of the Indian as “a noble red man” or as a “savage.” Following the Treaty at Fort McIntosh, one soldier called the Indians who signed that document an “ugly set of devils.”
Problem: The savy frontiersmen were excellent fighters against Indians. But trappers, hunters, and farmers on the frontier were not very effective when in battle with men who could dissappear into the forrest.
Problem: The officers and soldiers in the American Army disliked the untrained and undisciplined militia, particularly those from Kentucky. As Gen. St. Clair prepared for the upcoming battle with the Indians during the fall of 1791, he found that many of his men were militia and six-month recruits who were not trained for the task at hand. Capt. John Armstrong said they were “the worst and most dissatisfied troops I ever served with.”
Problem: If the American army officer in charge was killed in battle, soldiers did not want to report to the ranking militia officer if he was next in the line of command.
From: William H. Guthman. March to Massacre; A History of the First Seven Years of the United States Army, 1784-1791. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1974. |