Historic Highways of America/Volume 8/Preface
PREFACE
THIS volume treats of five of the early campaigns in the portion of America known as the Mississippi Basin—Clark's campaigns against Kaskaskia and Vincennes in 1778 and 1779; and Harmar's, St. Clair's, and Wayne's campaigns against the northwestern Indians in 1790, 1791, and 1793–94.
Much as has been written concerning Clark's famous march through the "drowned lands of the Wabash," the important question of his route has been untouched, and the story from that standpoint untold. The history of the campaign is here made subservient to a study of the route and to an attempted identification of the various places, and a determination of their present-day names. Four volumes of the Draper Manuscripts in the library of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin give a vast deal of information on this subject. They are referred to by the library press-mark.
Turning to the study of Harmar's, St. Clair's, and Wayne's routes into the Northwest, the author found a singular lack of detailed description of these campaigns, and determined to combine with the study of the military roadway a comparatively complete sketch of each campaign, making use, in this case as in that of Clark's campaigns, of the Draper Manuscripts.
A great debt of thanks is due to Mr. Reuben Gold Thwaites, Secretary of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, for assistance and advice; to Josiah Morrow of Lebanon, Ohio, the author is indebted for help in determining portions of Harmar's route; and to Francis E. Wilson, President of the Greenville Historical Society, many thanks are due for help in questions concerning the pathway of the intrepid leader known to the East as "Mad Anthony" Wayne, but remembered in the West as the "Blacksnake" and the "Whirlwind," because he doubled his track like a blacksnake and swept over his roads like a whirlwind.
Marietta, Ohio, September 14, 1903.