Profitting by
the experience of his predecessors, Wayne insisted that
campaigning should begin only after the troops were thoroughly
prepared; and no drill-master ever worked harder to get his
charges into condition for action. Going beyond the ordinary
manual of arms, he taught the men to load their rifles while
running at full speed, and to yell at the top of their voices
while making a bayonet attack.
In October, 1793, the intrepid Major-General advanced with
twenty-six hundred men into the nearer stretches of the Indian
country, in order to be in a position for an advantageous spring
campaign. They built Fort Greenville, eighty miles north of
Cincinnati, and there spent the winter, while, on St. Clair's
fatal battle-field, an advance detachment built a post which they
hopefully christened Fort Recovery. Throughout the winter
unending drill was kept up; and when, in June, 1794, fourteen
hundred mounted militia arrived from Kentucky, Wayne found
himself at the head of the largest and best-trained force that
had ever been turned against the Indians west of the Alleghanies.
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