Major General Anthony Wayne

In the early 1790s, after the United States Army suffered two serious defeats at the hands of Indians led by Little Turtle of the Miami nation, President George Washington sent Revolutionary War hero Gen. “Mad” Anthony Wayne into the western frontier. Wayne had earned his nickname for reckless daring in an attack on the British at Stoney Point, New York, during the Revolution. A stern disciplinarian, he rigorously trained his troops before leading his Legion of the United States into Miami territory in 1794. His forces defeated the Indian confederacy at Fort Recovery, Ohio, on July 2, 1794, and again at Fallen Timbers near Toledo on August 20, 1794. Wayne then moved up the Maumee River to the Native American settlement of Kekionga at the confluence of the Three Rivers, chose a site across the river to build the first American fort there, and handed command over to Col. John Hamtramck. On October 22, 1794, the fourth anniversary of the United States defeat at the Battle of Kekionga, Hamtramck assembled the garrison, fired 15 rounds of cannon in honor of the fifteen states in the Union, and formally announced the name Fort Wayne. Anthony Wayne left four days later, never to return. After inspecting other U.S. garrisons and successfully negotiating the Treaty of Greenville in 1795 with Indians of the region, he returned to Pennsylvania, where he died in 1796.

Fort Wayne, Indiana · United States