A detachment of troops was ambushed and badly cut up.

The design had been to push on to the upper course of the Wabash, but so many horses had been stolen by the Indians that the expedition was crippled.

As a result, Harmar marched his troops back again, professing to believe that punishment had been inflicted upon the Indians that would be a severe lesson to them.

What really happened was that the Indians were encouraged to think that they were more than a match for any army which the settlers could send against them, and before long news came of the destruction of settlements and the massacre of their inhabitants.

"Unless," wrote Rufus Putnam to Washington, "Government speedily sends a body of troops for our protection, we are a ruined people." Washington did what he could.