The best backwoods fighters, however, such men as Kenton and Brady had in their scout companies, were much superior to the regulars, and were able to meet the Indians on at least equal terms.  But there were only a very few such men; and they were too impatient of discipline to be embodied in an army.  The bulk of the frontier militia consisted of men who were better riflemen than the regulars and often physically abler, but who were otherwise in every military sense inferior, possessing their defects, sometimes in an accentuated form, and not possessing their compensating virtues.  Like the regulars, these militia fought the Indians at a terrible disadvantage.  A defeat for either meant murderous slaughter; for whereas the trained Indian fighters fought or fled each for himself, the ordinary troops huddled together in a mass, an easy mark for their savage foes.

    Extreme Difficulty of the War.

The task set the leaders of the army in the Northwest was one of extreme difficulty and danger.  They had to overcome a foe trained through untold ages how to fight most effectively on the very battle-ground where the contest was to be waged.  To the whites a march through the wilderness was fraught with incredible toil; whereas the Indians moved without baggage, and scattered and came together as they wished, so that it was impossible to bring them to battle against their will.  All that could be done was to try to beat them when they chose to receive or deliver an attack.  With ordinary militia it was hopeless to attempt to accomplish anything needing prolonged and sustained effort, and, as already said, the thoroughly trained Indian fighters who were able to beat the savages at their own game were too few in numbers, and too unaccustomed to control and restraint, to permit of their forming the main body of the army in an offensive campaign.  There remained only the regulars:  and the raw recruits had to undergo a long and special training, and be put under the command of a thoroughly capable leader, like old Mad Anthony Wayne, before they could be employed to advantage.

    The Feeling between the Regulars and Frontiersmen.

The feeling between the regular troops and the frontiersmen was often very bitter, and on several occasions violent brawls resulted.  One such occurred at Limestone, where the brutal Indian-fighter Wetzel lived.  Wetzel had murdered a friendly Indian, 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 repaid in kind; they soon gave up the attempt, and afterwards 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 afterwards made his escape, and the incident ended. [Footnote:  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.]