Hardin's Defeat

Harmar Campaign
Part of Northwest Indian War
General Josiah Harmar
Date 7–22 October 1790 Location Several locations around Kekionga (present day Fort Wayne, Indiana, United States) Result Indian Victory
Belligerents
Western Confederacy	United States Kentucky Militia Pennsylvania Militia
Commanders and leaders
Little Turtle (Miami) Blue Jacket (Shawnee)	Josiah Harmar John Hardin
Strength
about 1,050 warriors	320 regulars 1,100 militia
Casualties and losses
about 120-150 killed or wounded	262 killed 106 wounded

The Harmar Campaign was an attempt by the United States to subdue Native Americans in the Northwest Territory in the Autumn of 1790. They were seeking to expel American settlers whom they considered interlopers in their territory.

The campaign was led by General Josiah Harmar and is considered an early part of the Northwest Indian War. The campaign consisted of a series of battles that were all overwhelming victories for the Native Americans, and the collective losses are sometimes referred to as Harmar's Defeat.

From 1784 to 1789, there was considerable violence between encroaching American settlers and the Shawnee and Miami Indians in Kentucky, along the Ohio River, and at the few American settlements north of the Ohio, with some 1,500 settlers killed by the Indians. However, there was no general war. Before the American Revolutionary War, the British had tried to preserve this area as a Native American reserve but it was forced to cede what became known as the Northwest Territory when the United States gained independence. American settlers were eager to enter these lands and started to do so.

In 1789, President George Washington wrote to Arthur St. Clair, Governor of the Northwest Territory (an entity not recognized by its Native inhabitants), and asked him to determine whether the Indians living along the Wabash and Illinois Rivers were "inclined for war or peace" with the United States. St. Clair decided the tribes "wanted war", and called for militia forces to be assembled at Fort Washington (now Cincinnati, Ohio) and Vincennes, Indiana. President Washington and Secretary of War Henry Knox ordered General Josiah Harmar to lead these forces on a "punitive expedition" into the Shawnee and Miami lands as retaliation for the killings of American settlers and travellers on the contested frontier, and to deter the tribes from further attacks.

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