Page:Historic highways of America (Volume 8).djvu/180

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176
MILITARY ROADS

shall have some difficulty before we can purge the Legion of Characters who never were fit for Officers."[1] Such administrative ability as this was the very thing needed on the frontier; it drove from the gathering army many useless characters and made possible the encouragement and promotion of such valuable men as Lieutenant William Clark (of Lewis and Clark fame), Eaton, and William Henry Harrison. The fine spirit of Wayne infused courage throughout the frontier and made men eager to serve and win promotion, though sometimes "without shoez or shirts called upon to do the hardest duty & 7 mo. pay due—while they have not money to buy a chew of tobacco."[2]

One of the most interesting manuscripts now extant of Wayne, his army, its marches and battles, is preserved in the library of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. Its author was no less a personage than Brigadier-general Thomas Posey, associated with General Wilkinson as second in com-

  1. Wayne to Knox, October 5, 1792, Draper MSS., v U, fol. 21.
  2. Id., Armstrong to Wilkinson, September 13, 1792.