"The foundation of this great state of Indiana is of a homeland for the Indian Peoples. How then could we support measures to expel them from this state?"
--Allen Trimble
After the Battle of Kekionga and the death of Josiah Harmar, the young sub-Legion commander Andrew Jackson assumed control of Legion I until an official appointment from back east could be made. In contrast to Harmar who didn’t hold any particular hatred towards the natives, Jackson held an immense loathing towards the native Americans.
This loathing would drive Jackson to a more aggressive campaign against the Indian Confederacy-Charlotina Protectorate than Harmar. While the winter months approached, Jackson ordered the Legion north to attack the British-held Fort Lernoult. This led to conflict between the Legion and the Kentucky Militia led by François Hamtramck as Hamtramck wanted to return to Kentucky due to the approaching winter. The Kentucky Militiamen were growing tired of the campaign and had little desire to continue fighting so far away from their homes, especially on a winter campaign. Hamtramck was also fearful that a winter campaign would be disastrous due to the harshness of the Northwest winter.
Jackson refused to consider Hamtramck or the Kentucky Militia’s desires and concerns, leading to Hamtramck abandoning the Legion and returning to Kentucky. Despite this, Jackson would drive the Legion on, driving towards Fort Lernoult. Moral remained surprisingly high amongst the Legionaries; Jackson’s strength of will and determination inspired loyalty amongst his the soldiers of the Legion even as the rains turned to snow.
On December 19th, the Legion I, half-starving and raggard, reached Fort Lernoult, catching the British soldiers garrisoning the fort off guard, allowing for the Legion to successfully seize the fort with relatively little bloodshed. Jackson believed that the capture of Fort Detroit would be a crowning triumph of his leadership of the Legion. But, while the event was celebrated by the American people as a whole, the American government was set almost into a panic as fear that war with Britain could ensue. Jackson was stripped of his rank and initially discharged from the army. Fear of a new war prompted the Federal government to organize three more Legions (Legion II New York, Legion III Boston, Legion IV Savannah) to prepare for the British response.
The British response did not, as many feared, consist of a direct military response. Instead, the British began to blockade the United States in August, 1791. This blockade harmed American shipping, however it was relatively loose due to Britain being unable to dedicate very many ships to the blockade due to the Great Dutch War. Only one out of every two ships departing America would be affected by the blockade, and many more American ships would fly the flag of the Independent Republic of Rhode Island as Rhode Island wasn’t under the blockade.
Somewhat more critical for America was that Britain moved to strengthen their Charlotina Protectorate. General John Graves Simcoe was sent to the Protectorate along with six hundred British regulars to serve as the British authority to the protectorate. Simcoe and his forces arrived in Quebec City on August 20th where Simcoe would gather recruits before departing on September 18th with six hundred additional militiamen alongside the main force. As Simcoe’s army marched south, Little Turtle and the remains of the native army joined up with his forces, bringing the total size of the army up to 3400 when, on October 7th, Simcoe’s army reached Fort Lernoult.
American defenses of Fort Lernoult consisted solely of the largely depleted third subLegion of the Legion I, numbering about 300 men, allowing for Simcoe to lay siege to the fort with little effort. Legion II, under the command of James Wilkinson, had only arrived in Kentucky that September while the remainder of Legion I had been dispersed across the Ohio river valley in order to deal with other native tribes and the rapidly immigrating republicans. And it was in these republican forces that Simcoe found an unexpected ally in the remnants of the New Legion which had also crossed into the Ohio river valley.
Simcoe believed that through allying the New Legion and other republicans with the natives of the Indian Confederacy, the Charlotina Protectorate would gain a white population who would resist an American takeover and could be an acceptable group to rule the Protectorate in Britain’s name. In order to get this alliance, Simcoe worked to wrangle Little Turtle into calling a convention of the tribes. The convention would take place at the newly recaptured Fort Lernoult which fell on October 16th. After Britain reclaimed the fort, the British agent Alexander McKee was discovered to have been imprisoned by the 3rd subLegion. McKee was a trusted agent of Britain to the native tribes however he had been replaced by the new and less trusted Jonathan Vallwick after his arrest by the Americans for treason. After his arrest, McKee had managed to escape and fled north to Fort Lernoult, only to once again be arrested by the American garrison.
With McKee’s diplomatic skills assisting him, Simcoe was able to convince Little Turtle and the other native leaders into assembling an assembly of the tribes. Over the next month native leaders began to slowly make their way to Fort Lernoult where it became apparent that all sides desired separate things. Simcoe sought to strengthen Britain’s control over the Indian Confederacy, the native tribes desired to be left alone and the republicans wanted land to immigrate to the region. Buckongahelas, the chief of the Lenape tribe which had suffered the bulk of the republican immigration opposed an alliance with the republicans, seeking to expel them from the land his tribe held, the Lenapehoking. Other chieftains such as Blue Jacket of the Shawnee or Little Turtle recognized that the Confederacy simply could no longer hold against the American army and required British assistance. Thus, with Simcoe threatening to withhold British aid unless an alliance was forged, the leaders of all of the tribes except for Buckongahelas attempted to press forward with the alliance. The Lenape leaders would depart from Fort Lernoult that night. The Confederacy, in many ways the last chance for an independent native state, was fracturing.
Chief Buckongahelas would return to the Lenapehoking to a grim situation. Republicans continued to stream into the Northwest virtually unimpeded by the harsh weather of the approaching winter. Conflict was breaking out between the Lenape and Republicans, threatening to plunge their new homeland into chaos. But, without the prospect of assistance from the other tribes in the region, the Lenape were standing alone. Through the winter, Buckongahelas and the other Lenape chiefs would debate and argue the course of action their tribe would take until one conclusion was reached. The Lenape had one option, an unholy alliance, seemingly one as bad as an alliance with Hell itself.
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