A letter from St. Clair to Knox, dated Lexington, September 4, 1791, runs in part:  “Desertion and sickness have thinned our ranks.  Still, if I can only get them into action before the time of the levies expires, I think my force sufficient, though that opinion is founded on the calculation of the probable number that is opposed to us, having no manner of information as to the force collected to oppose us.”  On the 15th he writes from Ft.  Washington about the coming expiration of enlistments and says:  “I am very sensible how hazardous it is to approach, under such circumstances, and my only expectation is that the men will find themselves so far engaged that it will be obviously better to go forward than to return, at the same time it precludes the establishment of another post of communication however necessary, but that indeed is precluded also from our decreasing numbers, and the very little dependence that is to be placed upon the militia.”

Col.  Winthrop Sargent writes to General Knox from Ft.  Washington, on January 2, 1792.  He states that there were fourteen hundred Indians opposed to St. Clair in the battle, and repeats a rumor that six hundred Indians from the Lakes quarrelled with the Miamis over the plunder, and went home without sharing any part, warning their allies that thereafter they should fight their battles alone.  Sargent dwells upon the need of spies, and the service these spies would have rendered St. Clair.  A few days afterwards he writes in reference to a rumor that his own office is to be dispensed with, protesting that this would be an outrage, and that he has always discharged his duties well, having entered the service simply from a desire to be of use to his country.  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.