With recommendation from Benjamin Franklin, Augustin de La Balme, a former French cavalry officer, came to America to assist in the American Revolution. In November 1780, allegedly under secret orders from General George Washington, Colonel Augustin de La Balme and a body of 104 men from Kaskaskia and Vincennes raided the British stores at Kekionga, present-day Fort Wayne. Leaving a detachment to guard the captured stores, his force marched out over the Eel River trail, the same path Colonel John Hardin followed ten years later. The Miami Indians, angered by this intrusion, destroyed the detachment left at Kekionga and attacked La Balme near the Eel River Trading Post. There his force was surrounded by a large body of warriors led by Chief Little Turtle. La Balme and his men fortified themselves on the banks of the Eel River just north of this location. After several days of conflict, they were defeated by an overwhelming force, and the remains of Colonel de La Balme and approximately forty militiamen forever belong to the Eel River.