Josiah Harmar (November 10, 1753August 20, 1813) was an officer in the United States Army during the American Revolutionary War and the Northwest Indian War. He was the senior officer in the Army for six years and seven months (August 1784 to March 1791).
Early life Josiah Harmar was born in Philadelphia, Province of Pennsylvania, and educated at a Quaker school.
American Revolution Harmar started his military career during the Revolutionary War, receiving a commission as a captain in 1775. In 1775, Harmar first saw action during the American invasion of Canada, fighting in the Battle of Quebec.Brown, Alan "The Role of the Army in Western Settlement Josiah Harmar's Command, 1785-1790" pages 161-172 from The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography Volume 93, No. 2, April 1969 page 162. He served primarily under George Washington and "Light-Horse" Henry Lee. Harmar also served as a staff officer of Washington's during the 1777-1778 winter at Valley Forge. Washington had a high opinion of Harmar during the Revolutionary War, writing that Harmar was one of the "gentlemen...personally known to me as one of the best officers in the Army". By the end of the war, Harmar was serving as adjutant to General Nathanael Greene, who commanded the Continental Army in the South. A lieutenant colonel at its conclusion, he was chosen by Congress in 1784 to relay the ratified Treaty of Paris to commissioner Benjamin Franklin in Paris. During his time in France, Harmar was received at the Palace of Versailles by King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette, being introduced to the king and queen by the Marquis de Lafayette. In Paris, Harmar lived lavishly and beyond his means; burdened by debt, he soon left for the United States. Harmar wrote "the expenses which must necessarily be incurred in living in, and in viewing this magnificent city [Paris] demand for the benefit of the United States my speedy embarkation".Brown, Alan "The Role of the Army in Western Settlement Josiah Harmar's Command, 1785-1790" pages 161-172 from The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography Volume 93, No. 2, April 1969 pages 162-163.
Harmar was an original member of the Pennsylvania Society of the Cincinnati when it was founded on October 4, 1783. The same day, he was elected as the Society's first secretary, a position he held for two years. Harmar married Sarah C. Jenkins on 10 October 1784 in Philadelphia.Sarah Jenkins Marriage Record. Ancestry.com. Pennsylvania, U.S., Compiled Marriage Records, 1700–1821 (database on-line). Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2011. Original data: Pennsylvania Marriage Records. Harrisburg, PA: Pennsylvania Archives Printed Series, 1876. Series 2, Series 6.
Service in the Northwest Territory In the 1780s, many Americans wished to settle the "Old Northwest" as the Midwest was known at the time, which of course meant displacing the Indian tribes living there.Perry, James. Arrogant Armies, Edison: Castle Books, 2005, pages 34-35 Supported by the British who still held fur-trading forts in the Old Northwest, the Indians of the Western Confederacy were resolved to oppose the Americans. The newly independent United States had almost no army, as the Continental Army had been disbanded with the Treaty of Paris in 1783.Perry, James. Arrogant Armies, Edison: Castle Books, 2005, page 35. In 1784, the entire United States Army comprised just 55 artillerymen at West Point and 25 regulars at Fort Pitt (modern Pittsburgh). The weak central government was thus dependent on state militias, which were notoriously undertrained, ill-disciplined, badly funded, and loath to fight outside their home states. To enforce American claims upon the Old Northwest, on 3 June 1784, Congress authorized the first federal regiment, known as the First American Regiment, of about seven hundred men, to be supplied and paid for by Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and Connecticut.
As the largest contingent (about 260 men) came from Pennsylvania, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania was allowed to choose the commander of the regiment. Thomas Mifflin, an influential state politician and favorite of Washington's, successfully pushed for Harmar to be named commander. This was despite Harmar's limited command experience, unfamiliarity with Indian diplomacy, and chronic alcoholism which had only worsened due to his lackluster financial situation.Perry, James. Arrogant Armies, Edison: Castle Books, 2005, page 31. Harmar's first task was to train the First American Regiment, imposing a rigorous training regime to create what was intended to be the core of a new United States Army.Brown, Alan "The Role of the Army in Western Settlement Josiah Harmar's Command, 1785-1790" pages 161-172 from The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography Volume 93, No. 2, April 1969 page 164. The general was known as a strict disciplinarian who would punish his soldiers harshly if their uniforms were dirty or rust appeared on their weapons. Harmar reported to Congress in September 1784 that his emphasis upon Prussian-style drill and discipline was having results as "the troops begin to have a just idea of the noble profession of arms". Shortly afterwards, orders arrived to march to Fort Pitt with his forces and begin clearing the Northwest for American settlements. Harmar was not impressed with the people of Fort Pitt, writing that they "lived in dirty log cabins and were prone to find joy in liquor and fighting".Brown, Alan "The Role of the Army in Western Settlement Josiah Harmar's Command, 1785-1790" pages 161-172 from The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography Volume 93, No. 2, April 1969 page 165.
As commander of the First American Regiment, Harmar was the senior officer in the United States Army from 1784 to 1791, commanding from the Revolutionary-era Fort McIntosh. Initially, the First American Regiment was to be based in Fort Pitt, but as the Indian chiefs he was to negotiate with did not want to travel far from their homes, Harmar relocated his command to Fort McIntosh. Harmar described Fort McIntosh when he found it as having been thoroughly looted by settlers heading for Kentucky, writing the settlers had "destroyed the gates, drawn all the Nails from the roofs, taken off the boards and plundered it of every article". Harmar was impressed with the richness of the land of the Northwest. In 1785, he wrote to a friend: "I wish you were here to view the beauties of Fort M'Intosh. What think you of pike of 24 lbs, a perch of 15 to 20 lbs, cat-fish of 40 lbs, bass, pickerel, sturgeon &c &c. You would certainly enjoy yourself." Harmar also enjoyed the strawberries growing in the wild, writing: "The earth is most luxuriantly covered with them – we have them in such plenty that I am almost surfeited with them; the addition of fine rich cream is not lacking".Perry, James. Arrogant Armies, Edison: Castle Books, 2005, pages 35-36. He continued to struggle with alcohol; fellow officers noted that he drank excessive amounts of wine, cognac, whiskey and rum with meals.Perry, James. Arrogant Armies, Edison: Castle Books, 2005, page 36. In a letter to his patron Mifflin, Harmar stated that stories of "Venison, two or three inches deep cut of fat, turkey at once pence per pound, buffalo in abundance and catfish of one hundred pounds that are by no means exaggerated", going on to write that "cornfields, gardens &c, now appear in places which were lately the habitation of wild beasts. Such are the glories of industry."
Harmar signed the Treaty of Fort McIntosh on 21 January 1785, the same year that he ordered the construction of Fort Harmar near what is now Marietta, Ohio. Harmar did not think the treaty that he had just signed with the Delaware, Ottawa, Chippewa, and Wyandot, ceding what is now southeastern Ohio to the United States, to be worth much, writing: "Between you and me, vain and ineffectual all treaties will be, until we take possession of the posts. One treaty held at Detroit would give dignity and consequence to the United States, and answer every purpose".Brown, Alan "The Role of the Army in Western Settlement Josiah Harmar's Command, 1785-1790" pages 161-172 from The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography Volume 93, No. 2, April 1969 page 166.
Until the creation of the Northwest Territory in 1787, the Northwest had no government beyond the U.S. Army, and even after the creation of the Northwest Territory, the area was administered by the War Department for several more years. At this time, hundreds of American settlers, anxious to acquire the rich lands beyond the Ohio River, had begun to illegally settle in the Old Northwest, and in March 1785, Harmar was ordered by Congress to evict the squatters as no land surveys had been performed yet nor had the U.S. government started the work of selling the land.Brown, Alan "The Role of the Army in Western Settlement Josiah Harmar's Command, 1785-1790" pages 161-172 from The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography Volume 93, No. 2, April 1969 pages 167-168. Harmar described the evictions as a painful process as his soldiers had to force the settlers off their newly build homesteads and in his letters to Congress, the general asked that the land be promptly surveyed and sold before the entire Northwest was overrun by "lawless bands whose actions are a disgrace to human nature".Brown, Alan "The Role of the Army in Western Settlement Josiah Harmar's Command, 1785-1790" pages 161-172 from The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography Volume 93, No. 2, April 1969 page 168. In May 1785, Thomas Hutchins was appointed "Geographer of the United States" by Congress and was ordered to go to the Northwest to conduct surveys, starting with the Seven Ranges. Harmar was ordered by Congress to escort and assist the land surveyors in their duties.
In September 1785, when Hutchins and his assistants arrived, Harmar assured him that he "very safely repair with the Surveyors in the intersection of Pennsylvania with the Ohio". In October 1785, Harmar exercised his authority to build a new fort, named for himself, to base his men while the surveys were performed.Brown, Alan "The Role of the Army in Western Settlement Josiah Harmar's Command, 1785-1790" pages 161-172 from The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography Volume 93, No. 2, April 1969 page 169. At Fort Harmar, he supplied himself with expensive luxuries such as Windsor chairs, which led the American historian Wiley Sword to write that Harmar's "considerable urbanity may have rendered him somewhat suspect as an Indian fighter". In November 1785, Harmar reported to Congress that the early arrival of winter together with the fact that soldiers who were guarding the surveyors from Indians and squatters were "barefoot and miserably off for clothing" had ended the surveying for that year.
One Indian tribe who refused to sign a treaty giving up their lands was the Shawnee, and Harmar was ordered in October 1785 to advance to the Great Miami River against them. At the time, Congress took the viewpoint that the Indians living in the Old Northwest had by supporting the British in the Revolutionary War forfeited their land, from which they were to be evicted from, and the land handed over to American settlers.Brown, Alan "The Role of the Army in Western Settlement Josiah Harmar's Command, 1785-1790" pages 161-172 from The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography Volume 93, No. 2, April 1969 pages 166-167. The Indians did not share this viewpoint that they were defeated peoples living on a land that rightfully belonged to the Americans, and many began to resist efforts to evict them.