Page:Historic highways of America (Volume 8).djvu/179

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FALLEN TIMBER
175

cannot be stated definitely, but the command was at last offered to Brevet Major-general "Mad" Anthony Wayne and it was accepted. Brevet Brigadier-generals Wilkinson and Thomas Posey were second in active command. Major-general Scott was to command fifteen hundred mounted Kentucky militia.

As with Washington, so with Wayne, the most serious task was to choose his officers from the recruits which early in 1792 were hurried on to Pittsburg to defend the frontier under the dashing hero of Stony Point—Wayne's appointment having been well received everywhere save in Virginia and Kentucky. If the army was to be disciplined "according to the nature of the service"—Indian-fighting—Indian-fighters must do the training. "We will be under the necessity," wrote Wayne to Knox from Pittsburg, "of discharging many of the men—who never were—nor never will be fit for service, they are at present a nuisance to the Legion & a useless expense to the publick. . . You may rest assured I will carefully guard against improper appointments or recommendations—we