Autumn of the Black Snake

April 1, 2017
The history of the founding of the U.S. Army in response to indigenous push back against the takeover of their territory.According to this tightly focused account by Hogeland (Founding Finance: How Debt, Speculation, Foreclosures, Protests, and Crackdowns Made Us a Nation, 2012, etc.), American "existence, purpose, and future" were first clarified by the need to make military incursions into hostile Indian territory. The state-supported militias that had sustained the early republic and largely won the War of Independence against the British were no longer enough in conquering new territory westward. George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and other nationalists fervently believed that this land belonged to Americans by native right and indeed had been ceded as a "gigantic mishmash" by Britain in the 1783 Treaty of Paris. However, the Indian confederation, made up of the Miami, Shawnee, Delaware, and other western tribes who lived and hunted west of the Ohio River and were led by Blue Jacket and Little Turtle, successfully resisted American incursion into their territory, climaxing in the utter rout of Gen. Arthur St. Clair's troops in the Battle of the Wabash in November 1791. Hogeland points to this battle, which resulted in the deaths of some 650 American troops, including Gen. Richard Butler and many civilians, as the moment that galvanized "Americans' real emergence as a national people." The author also highlights Washington's efforts to use St. Clair's ignominious defeat to gain support for a standing army; this was not an easy task in the face of popular resistance led by "state sovereigntists" like Patrick Henry, in spite of the newly ratified Constitution's assertion that Congress had the power to create an army. Hogeland vividly delineates these seminal personalities, such as the first commander of Washington's Western army, "Mad Anthony" Wayne; the Indian leaders Blue Jacket and Little Turtle as well as the half-white Indian ally, Alexander McKee, angling for British aid in the next American-Indian clash. An enlightening history of American westward expansion.

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May 15, 2017
On November 4, 1791, a motley force of American troops was camped near the mouth of the Wabash River in what is now western Ohio. Although they were poorly trained, undisciplined, and ill-equipped, under the command of Major General Arthur St. Clair they were expected to pacify the various Indian tribes of the region and thus open up the Northwest Territory for white settlement. At dawn, a coalition of Miami, Shawnee, and Lenape Indians attacked and devastated St. Clair's men, killing around 900 in the worst American defeat at the hands of Native American fighters. This was both the humiliating end of a poorly conceived campaign and the start of a new initiative, urged on by an outraged President Washington, that saw the formation of a regular and effective American army that would repeatedly defeat and displace the Indians of the region. Hogeland (Founding Finance, 2012) relates how this task was achieved with eloquence and insight into the motives and actions of each side. This is a scrupulously balanced account of a formative period in westward expansion.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)

December 1, 2016

Still fighting the Native peoples of the Ohio valley at the end of the Revolution, the new country's motley militiamen suffered 1,000 casualties in 1792. That's when commander in chief George Washington decided that the United States needed a regular army. A lead title for Farrar.

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 15, 2017

In 1783, the newly formed United States found itself in a violent, escalating conflict with indigenous tribes of the Ohio Valley who witnessed land grabbers steadily encroaching on their property. In this, settlers were encouraged by British policy and agents. By 1791, the violence had worsened, and an expedition of militiamen was bloodily defeated by a coalition of Shawnee, Miami, and Delaware tribes. In return, President George Washington decided that the new republic needed a national army lest expansion stop west of the Appalachians, something Virginian planters like himself could not chance. Hogeland's (The Whiskey Rebellion) complicated story of the politics and economics of the era involves Native tribes and Colonists along with Britain and France. The author spreads a rich tale of land hunger, self-dealing, betrayal, and change as Colonizers steadily migrated west, pushing Native tribes out of their traditional hunting and agricultural demesnes. Jeffersonian and Hamiltonian philosophies clashed while an unending stream of settlers trekked west. VERDICT Detailed and thoroughly cited from several original sources, this comprehensive work will attract readers of military and American history. [See Prepub Alert, 11/14/16.]--Edwin Burgess, Kansas City, KS

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.