Didz's American game blog.

[Didz]

1798: Indian Wars

It probably occured to the American adminstration that the death their Warchief Buckongehlas might have persuaded the Iroquios to accept peace. However, if it did nothing was mentioned, instead preparations were made to escalate the war against the savages.

The fact of the matter was that the Iroquios occupied land rich in resources that the fledgeling nation needed, and now that it was clear that the British were not going to come to their rescue it made much more sense to extend hostilities until all the Iroquios lands were in American possession.

To that end the veteran soldier General 'Jack' Cowell was appointed 'Indian Fighter General' and ordered to form a specialist fighting force to deal with the Iroquios threat. He immediately built a fort (Fort Hoo) on the border between Pennyslvania and the indian Alogonquin Territory and began to put together a special army of indian fighters.

Cowell had studied the indian's tactic's faced by Greene and concluded that he needed a difference type of army to deal with the indian's effectively. Greene's Continental Army had of course been designed to fight the French and had struggled against the Iroquios. The Continental musket had a shorter range than the bow, and the formal training of the Continental infantry merely made them easy targets when faced by savages sneaking through the undergrowth.

Cowell decided that his army would be composed mainly of dragoons, supported by skilled indian fighters capable of meeting the indian's on equal terms and supported by both howitzers (which had shown themselves to be useful against massed warriors) and some of the new fangled horse guns which Cowell thought might prove useful if cannister was employed.

These troops began mustering at Fort Hoo in 1997, and a few cavalry raids into Alogonquin territory had already produced minor successes, now he was keen to make a major push into indian territory and try out his special indian fighting army.

1798 Winter

Braddocks Brigade abandons Fort Crevecoeur
News of the approach of a large Iroquios warparty of 4,425 braves under Chief Obbatinewat forced Braddocks Brigade to abandon Fort Crevecoeur and escape to the north. The Iroquios did not prusue but instead descended on the protestant mission at Shikaakwa and razed it to the ground.

General Greene immdeiately mustered his own army at Fort de Chartres and is marching on Shikaakwa to engage the savages.

The Battle of Shikaakwa

The Battle of Shikaakwa was very much a repeat performance of the battle against Buckonghelas two years earlier. Obbatinewat had rather more mounted warriors than Buckonghelas and Greene had more scouts, but apart from that the battle ran along exactly the same lines. Greene stated afterwards that fighting the indian's was more like conducting a quail shoot than a battle, 'first you have to flush the savages out of the grass and then you just blast away at them with you guns.'. Of course it wasn't quite that simple, for a start quail don't shoot back, and the frontiersmen give the job of beaters in this analogy did not see it in quite the same light.

Greene drew his army up in an almost identical square formation as he had used at Fort Crevecoeur and as before he sent his scouts out into the pen plain to hunt down and 'flush out' the indian's. The frontiersmen crept out across the plain using as much cover as they could find and heading in the general direction of a small wood approximately half-way between Greene's main army and the positions where they could see the thousand or so indian horsemen Obbatinewat has with him.

All was going quite well until the frontiersmen came across a large clearing believed to be the location of a former indian village. Rather than go around the open ground, the scouts decided to risk crossing the open ground, and were immediately spotted by a sharp eyed indian lookout.

A great whoop filled the air and the entire mass of indian cavalry kicked their horses forward and bore down on the hapless scouts. Not having any doubts about the potential consequences if they were caught in the open, the scouts took to thier heels and ran as fast as thier legs could carry them for the safety of the square, which suddenly seemed an aweful long way away.

Greene seeing the indian cavalry on the move immediately ordered his first line regiments to form square, and his artillery opened fire as soon as the indian's came within range. The slaughter amongst the cavalry was terrible but they kept coming and managed to catch the rear of the fleeing frontiersmen just before they reach safety cutting down 75 men. The rest threw themselves into the square of the 8th Continental Infantry Regiment closely followed by the indian horsemen.

[The square of the 3rd Continental Infantry seemingly swamped with mounted indians. The 8th can be seen in the background.]

All along the Continental line crazed indian horsemen smashed their way into the Continental squares, and some of them looks like they would certainly break. But the Continental line held and the 1,000 or so indian warriors either died or fled the field.

After this initial assault a lull settled over the battlefield and Greene was forced to send his scouts once more out onto the plain looking for trouble. Once more they headed for the small wood and this time reached it without being seen. Creeping through the tree's they emerged on the far side to find they were in range of the indian chief and his bodyguards. They fired a volley and saw several indian's fall from the saddle. However, as the shots rang out over 1,200 indian braves rose up out of the grass a few hundred yards away where they had been hiding and rushed at them.

[Time to get the heck out of dodge, boys.]

Once more the scouts took to their heels and ran for safety. This time easily evading the pursuing indians and managing to lead them into the artillery and musketry of the American square. Blasted by shell and musketry volleys the indian braves stood no chance.

With the enemy now severely weakened Greene decided to move his main army forward so as to give his scouts more support and enable them to range further towards the Indian Chiefs position.

[The 3rd Continental leads the advance.]

With the square now redeployed on the approximate location of the old indian village the scouts were sent out once more to flush some indians. Heading once again for the small wood they now referred to as 'dead injun wood'. Once again they entered the wood and managed to get a fews shots off at the Indian chief. This time about 600 braves with muskets rose from the grass and headed towards them. But the scouts quickly ducked back amongst the tree's and the indians seemed relunctant to follow them, instead going back to ground to avoid the shell fire directed at them.

[Greens's scouts reload under cover of 'dead injun wood' before picking of a few more of the chief's braves in the distance.]
The scouts were therefore able to reload their muskets in the wood and creep forward to shoot a few more of the Chief's bodyguard. Once more the idnians rose form the grass forcing them to withdraw but once again they didn't chase them into 'dead injun wood'.

This act was repeated several more times and on each occassion a few more indian's from the Chief warparty died. In the end the chief himself was hit and his bodyguard feld the field. The next time the scouts moved forward the deliberately didn't flee back into the wood but fired into the musket armed warriors. At last the began to advance on the scouts trying to close the range and the scouts commenced to 'fire and retire' drawing the indians forward through 'dead injun wood' and into range of Greene's infantry.

A brief and one sided firefight ensured between the surviving indians and the American sharpshooters and artillery before the surviving indians fled.

[Greene's Army on the move in final stages of the battle.]

The scouts could find no more indian's on this side of the battlefield and so Greene order his square to leave the area of the old indian village and move to the other end of the field. Here they discovered a further 1,000 or more indian braves skulking behind a hill and bombarded them with artillery until they fled.

The battle ended just as dusk fell. Out of a force of 7,675 men Greene had lost 590 killed or wounded. Obbatinewat lost 4,355 braves out of 4,425.

Detroit Taken
Meanwhile to the north amazing news reaches the American's that the 1st Dragoon Regiment (245 men) has managed to capture the settlement at Detroit and in doing so secured Michigan Territory for the Unites States. The regiment was opposed by 1,200 Iroquios warriors but in a seriesof daring charges managed to put them all to flight and slaughter them to a man for the loss of just 45 troopers.