[The Winning of the West, Volume Four by Theodore Roosevelt]@TWC D-Link book
The Winning of the West, Volume Four

CHAPTER VII
51/59

He explains that the money he receives would hardly do more than equip him, and that he only went into the army because he valued reputation and honor more than fortune.
The letters of the early part of 1792 show that the survivors of St.
Glair's army were torn by jealousy, and that during the winter following his defeat there was much bitter wrangling among the various officers.
Wilkinson frequently wrote to Knox giving his estimate of the various officers, and evidently Knox thought very well of him.

Wilkinson spoke well of Sargent; but most of the other officers, whom he mentions at all, he mentions with some disfavor, and he tells at great length of the squabbles among them, his narrative being diversified at times by an account of some other incident such as "a most lawless outrage" by "a party of the soldiery on the person of a civil magistrate in the village of Cincinnati." Knox gives his views as to promotions in a letter to Washington, which shows that he evidently felt a good deal of difficulty in getting men whom he deemed fit for high command, or even for the command of a regiment.
One of the worst quarrels was that of the Quartermaster, Hodgdon, first with Major Zeigler and then with Captain Ford.

The Major resigned, and the captain publicly insulted the Quartermaster and threated to horsewhip him.
In one letter Caleb Swan, on March 11, 1792, advises Wilkinson that he had been to Kentucky and had paid off the Kentucky militia who had served under St.Clair.Wilkinson in a letter of March 13th, expresses the utmost anxiety for the retention of St.Clair in command.

Among the numerous men whom Wilkinson had complained of was Harmar, who, he said, was not only addicted to drink, but was also a bad disciplinarian.

He condemned the quartermaster also, although less severely than most of the other officers.
Darke's letter is worth quoting in full.


<<Back  Index  Next>>

D-Link book Top

TWC mobile books