audiobook Wabash 1791: St Clair’s defeat (Campaign) by John F. Winkler in History

Review

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful. Very; very Good Read !By 5/0Wabash 1791 St. Clair's Defeat" by John F. Winkler (originally published in the UK). At 91 pages with plenty of good photos and drawings; it is a "brass tacks" account of the battle and context within which the (imho) vastly overrated Arthur St. Clair (Gov. of the Ohio Territory and former Revolution officer; at least present at the battle/surrender at Yorktown) proceeded to accomplish the worst military defeat by Indians in the history of the United States. It is well organized; well illustrated; and mostly devoid of "fluff and feathers". The portrait of St. Clair that emerges is of a fellow whom has notably less sense than courage. His defeat occasioned the first-ever "full Congressional investigation" and he was - not too surprisingly - exonerated. His exoneration; however; is due in large part to Congress and Henry Knox (Sec. of War) and Washington himself realizing that they and their imprudence; deserved a major share of the blame and their fear that such a scandal might wreck the new national government. In a nutshell; St. Clair took an untrained; poorly organized; very poorly armed and virtually unsupplied mob on a trek through unknown country to face a foe of unknown strength whose tactics he didn't understand in terrain that was almost as foreign to him as the back side of the moon at a location that he wasn't even sure of... on the eve of winter... accompanied by a few hundred women and children. Except for that; he did everything right. In fairness to St. Clair; who did; in fact; demonstrate substantial courage; the "untrained; disorganized; poorly armed and unsupplied" problems were due entirely to the incompetence and negligence of Knox and Congress and their bureaucrat minions. Mr. Geo. Washington is guilty of the pressure to fight based on the (apparent) assumption that the logistics were being handled correctly. St. Clair should have; and could have; aborted the project immediately; but he didn't. Heeeeere's Yer sign ! In fairness to everyone else; Washington; Knox and St. Clair very well should have known at the very beginning of their planning that the timetable they were talking about for recruiting; transporting; training and equipping the "army" was little short of preposterous. They have no excuse - zero - whatsoever for that blunder. It was that specific idiocy that lost the battle and lost those lives months before St. Clair ever arrived in Ohio. So of course St. Clair was "exonerated". St. Clair had been a trusted "favorite" of Mr. Washington and; from a few steps back one can see a similarity. Both were courageous and very determined to the point; sometimes of impetuosity- an impetuosity that caused suffering and loss of life that probably could have been avoided; although St. Clair was probably a little "more so" in these respects. It may be a telling point that the man who would clean up the messes left by Crawford; Harmar and St. Clair would be Mad Anthony Wayne; a man whom Washington selected in spite of his personal reservations about Wayne's character and reliability. St. Clair's defeat; or the Battle of the Wabash; besides being an interesting albeit gruesome tale of Frontier conflict; is fascinating for the detail it reveals of the lifeways and character of Americans and Ohioans-to-be circa 1791 - a crucial chapter in the biography of our struggling new nation. It is a very good read.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Excellent StorytellingBy Carl RobinsonOne of President George Washington's greatest and simultaneously under-reported dilemmas was the disastrous defeat of General St. Clair and the US Army at the Wabash in the Ohio Country. This book explains the situation quite well with easy to read prose and excellent images.Essentially; the Army was defeated in that it attempted to do the impossible-build forts; build roads; and defeat the Indians under a very tight schedule.I read this book quite quickly and was impressed with its tight; storytelling craftsmanship.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. It gave me a good insight on what my 5th great grandfather a corporal ...By tom bowmanI found this to be well researched and coupled with back ground on the complexity of moving a military force in 1791 through the Ohio. It gave me a good insight on what my 5th great grandfather a corporal in the 2nd regiment and was amongst the 350 or so soldiers who received wounds and survived this historic miss adventure.