The United States Army 1783-1811

When the Revolutionary War (1775-1783) ended Washington's victorious Continental Army was disbanded. The infant United States had very mixed feelings about standing armies; but years of Indian-fighting on the frontier emphasised the need for a force larger than Josiah Harmar's original 700-man 1st American Regiment. In the event Secretary Hamilton's far-sighted reforms, which produced 'Wayne's Legion' in the early 1790s, were to be short-lived, and it took later threats of international war to stimulate the eventual expansion of the young US Army. James Kochan's meticulously researched study of a dramatic and confused period in American military history - the years of St Clair's disaster, 'Mad Anthony' Wayne's victory at Fallen Timbers, and Harrison's at Tippecanoe - is illustrated with many rare and important paintings and drawings.