Links from the show:
Book blurb:
From Alan Gaff, author of the highly acclaimed Bayonets in the Wilderness, comes the real story of this stunning defeat against the Native American nations in the Northwest Territory. In three hours on the morning of November 4, 1791, General Arthur St. Clair lost one half of his soldiers as well as his reputation.
November 4, 1791, was a black day in American history. General Arthur St. Clair’s army had been ambushed by Native Americans in what is now western Ohio. In just three hours, St. Clair’s force sustained the greatest loss ever inflicted on the United States Army by Native Americans—a total nearly three times larger than what incurred in the more famous Custer fight of 1876. It was the greatest proportional loss by any American army in the nation’s history. By the time this fighting ended, over six hundred corpses littered an area of about three and one half football fields laid end to end. Still more bodies were strewn along the primitive road used by hundreds of survivors as they ran for their lives with Native Americans in hot pursuit. It was a disaster of cataclysmic proportions for George Washington’s first administration, which had been in office for only two years.
About my guest:
I'm Alan D. Gaff, author and President of Historical Investigations, a company specializing in historical research. With over 40 years experience in American history, I've published on everything from the Civil War to Damon Runyon. When not working jigsaw puzzles and listening to music with Maureen, my wife of 50 years, we enjoy watching deer and birds in our backyard. I like reading a good book until 3 a.m., a cold Diet Coke, and watching Indianapolis Colts football.
With a Master's Degree in American History from Ball State University, my books have won Awards of Merit from the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, a University Press Best Seller, and finalist for both the Distinguished Writing Award Army Historical Foundation and New Mexico and Arizona Book Award in Biography.
Field of Corpses: Arthur St. Clair and the Death of an American Army