St. Clair and Wayne 383 



oughly capable leader, like old Mad Anthony Wayne, 

 before they could be employed to advantage. 



The feeling between the regular troops and the 

 frontiersmen was often very bitter, and on several 

 occasions violent brawls resulted. One such oc 

 curred at Limestone, where the brutal Indian-fighter 

 Wetzel lived. Wetzel had murdered a friendly In 

 dian, and the soldiers bore him a grudge. When 

 they were sent to arrest him the townspeople sallied 

 to his support. Wetzel himself resisted, and was, 

 very properly, roughly handled in consequence. The 

 interference of the townspeople was vigorously re 

 paid in kind; they soon gave up the attempt, and 

 afterward one or two of them were ill-treated or 

 plundered by the soldiers. They made complaint 

 to the civil authorities, and a court-martial was then 

 ordered by the Federal commanders. This court- 

 martial acquitted the soldiers. Wetzel soon after 

 ward made his escape, and the incident ended. 7 



By 1787 the Indian war had begun with all its 

 old fury. The thickly settled districts were not much 

 troubled, and the towns which, like Marietta in the 

 following year, grew up under the shadow of a Fed 

 eral fort, were comparatively safe. But the frontier 

 of Kentucky, and of Virginia proper along the Ohio, 

 suffered severely. There was great scarcity of pow 

 der and lead, and even of guns, and there was diffi 

 culty in procuring provisions for those militia who 



1 Draper MSS. Harmar's letter to Henry Lee, Sept. 27, 

 1789. Also depositions of McCurdy, Lawler, Caldwell, and 

 others, and proceedings of court-martial. The depositions 

 conflict. 



