The Soldiers Fell Like Autumn Leaves: The Battle of the Wabash, the United States’ Greatest Defeat in the Wars Against Indigenous Peoples by Rick M. Schoenfield, Westholme Publishing, 2024, 296 pp.
Till the Extinction of This Rebellion: George Rogers Clark, Frontier Warfare, and the Illinois Campaign of 1778–1779 by Eric Sterner, Westholme Publishing, 2024, 224 pp.
Rarely do we see the history of the Revolutionary War and Founding era considered in the context of Midwestern history. Most commonly, this time period’s impact on the Midwest is simply ignored, but occasionally the untamed wilderness of the time is included in lists of British holdings beyond the Appalachian Mountains—that is to say, beyond civilization, as it was known in the day.
This spring, Yardley, Pennsylvania’s Westholme Publishing made great strides to rectify the mistakes of previous generations of historians. Two recent books make an effort to shed light on the history of the Ohio River Valley during this period. Eric Sterner’s Till the Extinction of This Rebellion tells the story of George Rogers Clark, an interesting character by all accounts, and his fateful (and overall successful) incursion into British territory from 1778 to 1779. Rick M. Schoenfield’s The Soldiers Fell Like Autumn Leaves takes place more than ten years later, in 1791, where he offers the most recent and comprehensive account of the Battle of the Wabash and places its historically important position of opening “the West,” from the Appalachian Mountains to the Mississippi River.
In a purely literary vein, both works succeed, being transportive, intriguing, and enlightening. They also make exemplary use of primary sources, particularly those from Indian participants or storytellers. In particular, Schoenfield weaves together a wide variety of perspectives and sources to tell a well-rounded story—not just about the Battle of the Wabash and the Maimi, Shawnee, and Delaware Indian tribes, but also about the birth of the U.S. Army, the investigation into its disastrous performance, and other connected parts of the era and region’s history. While Schoenfield does not shy away from the fact that the Battle of the Wabash was an unmitigated disaster for the fledgling United States, he unfortunately does not delve into the impact the battle had on the Native tribes of the region after its conclusion.
By contrast, Sterner works to provide a more balanced approach to the opposing sides of the conflict he writes about: the Illinois Campaign in the late 1770s. Giving fairly equal time to both Clark and his British counterpart, Henry Hamilton, Sterner does not refrain from showing the unsavory aspects of either militant leader, nor does he exclude the numerous atrocities committed by their subordinates (sometimes with orders from high command), particularly their zealousness in instigating Indian raids against the opposing faction. As such, unfortunately for scholars of Indian history, the book reduces Native Americans’ contributions to the conflict to little more than manipulated or coerced interactions.
Sterner writes a very focused book, beginning with Clark’s taking of Kaskaskia and ending with his retaking Vincennes and capturing Hamilton. All told, Sterner’s book covers a period of roughly nine months (May 1778 to February 1779). Nary a word is said about the historical impact of Clark’s campaign, though it is often credited for the British willingness to cede the Northwest Territory post war. It is an admirable, and often rare, accomplishment to write specifically on a topic such as this.
In that way, the two books diverge significantly and would perhaps have benefitted from a little more crossover in methodologies. While Sterner’s book is incredibly specific, it lacks a certain grounding in the broader historical perspective. By contrast, while overall an excellent book, The Soldiers Fell Like Autumn Leaves diverges into a few tangents, like his inexplicable mentions of ISIS and William Henry Harrison. These random references to unconnected pieces of history addle the book and are somewhat based on the notion that the Battle of the Wabash is adjacent to the Battle of Little Bighorn in terms of importance, public memory, and failures of leadership. Schoenfield would have benefited from a narrowing of his perspective, while Sterner’s book likely would have been stronger with a slight expansion of viewpoint. In all, these are fairly minor complaints about two rare and vital books regarding Midwestern, Indian, and Army history.
Indeed, these books could serve important roles in revitalizing interest in Midwest history of this period. Both are unique: Sterner’s work is the first full-length book on the Illinois campaign in more than thirty years. While there have been a few scholarly journal articles discussing the little-known campaign, it served as one of the most crucial ways the Continental Army asserted dominance over the British in the region and on the continent more broadly. It might not get the name recognition as Arnold and Allen’s march and capture on Fort Ticonderoga, but it still served a purpose in cutting into the heart of British strength at the time. As such, Sterner shines much-needed light onto an otherwise forgotten topic.
Likewise, while the Indian Wars of the Old West (that is, generally, west of the Mississippi) are often romanticized and enshrined in pop culture, very little attention is ever given to the first Indian Wars of our nation, those just this side of the Appalachian Mountains. Sitting Bull and the Lakota, for example, rightfully hold a place of broader knowledge in the American psyche, but what of Little Turtle and the Miamis, or Blue Jacket and the Shawnees? Just because they are older figures in American history does not mean they should be relegated to the footnotes of textbooks discussing “greater” struggles. Schoenfield, in a work worthy of consideration, does a truly remarkable job of bringing these figures to life in what has become a commonly misunderstood and forgotten period of Indian American and Midwestern history.
For a nation constantly evolving and reevaluating its history, these works, while not perfect, play a necessary role in preserving and exploring the region’s past as well as the people(s) that made it what it is today.
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Al Dickenson is a writer and historian living in his native Wisconsin. His work has been published in the Journal of the American Revolution, Along the Shore: Strategies for Living with Grief (Orange Blossom Publishing, 2023), the History News Network, and Mental Floss, among other outlets. He is a passionate advocate of Midwestern history and culture.
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