Editing Little Turtle (section)

=== St. Clair's defeat ===
{{main|St. Clair's defeat}}
[[File:Glaize.png|thumb|upright=1.5|Native towns at the Glaize in 1792]]
Little Turtle is generally credited with leading<ref>Eid, p. 754.</ref><ref>Historian John Sugden states that Little Turtle is generally credited with the overall command of the Confederate Army that defeated St. Clair. See: See {{cite book |author=John Sugden |title=Blue Jacket: Warrior of the Shawnees |pages=[https://archive.org/details/bluejacketwarrio00sugd/page/118 118–20] |location=Lincoln |publisher=University of Nebraska Press |year=2000 |isbn=978-0-8032-4288-3 |url=https://archive.org/details/bluejacketwarrio00sugd/page/118 }} Sugden also argues that Blue Jacket was the preeminent native leader. The notion that Little Turtle commanded the Confederacy was a myth perpetuated by Turtle and his son-in-law, [[William Wells (soldier)|William Wells]], and uncritically repeated by historians. See Sugden, pp. 4–6.</ref> a coalition force of about 1,000 warriors that [[St. Clair's Defeat|routed the U.S. forces]] near the headwaters of the [[Wabash River]] on November 4, 1791. The battle remains the U.S. Army's worst defeat by American Indians, with 623 federal soldiers killed and another 258 wounded. The Indian confederacy lost an estimated 100 men.<ref name=Madison29 /><ref>{{cite web| title =Michikinikwa | work =Ohio History Central | url=http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Michikinikwa?rec=240| access-date =July 30, 2018}} See also: {{cite web| title =St. Clair's Defeat | work =Ohio History Central | url=http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/w/St._Clair's_Defeat?rec=557 | access-date =July 30, 2018}}</ref> Both Little Turtle and Blue Jacket claimed overall command of the combined native forces in the victory, causing tension within the Confederacy.<ref name="Calloway, 459">Calloway, p. 459</ref>

In November 1792, following the decision of a grand council of tribal leaders at the mouth of the [[Auglaize River]], Little Turtle led a force of 200 Miami and Shawnee past the U.S. outposts of [[Fort Jefferson (Ohio)|Fort Jefferson]] and [[Fort St. Clair]], reaching Fort Hamilton on November 3. The warriors intended to attack the U.S. settlements on the anniversary of St. Clair's Defeat. The warriors captured two prisoners and learned that a large convoy of packhorses had left for Fort Jefferson and was due back in the area within days. Little Turtle moved north and found the convoy of nearly 100 horses and 100 Kentucky militia under the command of Major [[John Adair]] encamped outside Fort St. Clair.<ref>Sword, p. 220.</ref> Little Turtle and his warriors attacked at dawn on November 4, just as Adair recalled his sentries. The militia fled into the fort, suffering six killed and four missing, while another five were wounded. Little Turtle's force lost two warriors but captured Adair's camp and its provisions. All the horses were killed, wounded, or driven off; only 23 were later recovered. Adair considered the battle to be a "triumph" for Little Turtle; James Wilkinson, at that time a lieutenant colonel in command of the U.S. Army at Fort Washington, believed that the loss of the horses made these advanced forts indefensible.<ref>Sword, p. 221.</ref>

Between 1792 and 1794, General [[Anthony Wayne]] commanded the [[Legion of the United States]] in a third expedition in the Northwest Territory against the Indian Confederacy. To avoid another defeat, Wayne rigorously trained 3,500 U.S. troops and carefully planned his campaign.<ref name=Madison29 /> The American forces successfully repulsed an exploratory [[Siege of Fort Recovery|attack on Fort Recovery]] with an estimated 1,000 warriors on June 1794.<ref>Rafert, ''The Miami Indians of Indiana'', p. 53.</ref> Afterwards, Little Turtle counseled his tribesmen to pursue negotiations and peace rather than suffering a defeat in battle, remarking that Wayne was " the chief that never sleeps."<ref name=Madison29 /><ref name=GS234>Gugin and St. Clair, eds., p. 234.</ref>

When Little Turtle was unable to persuade the leaders of the tribal Confederacy to negotiate peace, he stepped down as the intertribal war chief.<ref name=GS234 /> Little Turtle is said to have ceded command to Blue Jacket, although he retained leadership of his group of Miami tribesmen.<ref>Rafert, ''The Miami Indians of Indiana'', p. 54.</ref> Little Turtle's son-in-law, [[William Wells (soldier)|William Wells]], a white man who was born in Kentucky and lived among the Miami for eight years after his capture in 1784, also sensed the defeat of the Indian alliance and switched his alliance to the Americans. Wells served as a scout for General Wayne's troops and later as an Indian Agent for the U.S. government.<ref>Madison, p. 37.</ref>