Book Talk: Colin Calloway on his new book “The Victory with No Name: The Native American Defeat of the First American Army”

Courtesy of Colin Calloway

Dartmouth College Professor of Native American Studies Colin G. Calloway explores a key military episode that has become an aberration in the American narrative and a blank spot in the national memory. In 1791, General Arthur St. Clair led the United States army in a campaign to destroy a complex of Indian villages in northwestern Ohio. Almost within reach of their objective, his 1,400 men were attacked by about a thousand Indians. In a dramatic defeat, the U.S. force suffered nearly one thousand casualties while Indian casualties numbered only a few dozen. The highly motivated and well-led Native American force shattered not only the American army but the assumption that Indians stood no chance against European methods and models of warfare. Calloway explores how and why this battle has been overlooked in American history and shows how it ultimately changed the ways in which Americans fought their wars.