by Dr. David Cox and Dave Heckaman
Part one of two:
The history of Fort Jefferson, located in western Ohio, has been neglected over the years. The fort was built in October 1791 to support Arthur St. Clair’s ill-fated campaign against the Western Confederation of Indians. Anthony Wayne later used it in his campaign and treaty negotiations at Greenville, only 6 miles away. Ft. Jefferson deserves recognition for its role in the accomplishments of the U.S. Legion and the forming of the new nation and U.S. Army during a critical period. 1
A recently formed group of volunteers, “Friends of Fort Jefferson” (FoFJ), have been looking for Ft. Jefferson period artifacts to help illustrate, document, and tell its story.2 Two significant discoveries were recently made during a random metal detection survey north of Ft. Jefferson of a musket ball target range and an iron case shot area.
Several spent, soft-lead musket balls were found in a circular cluster 65 feet in diameter, the center 249 yards from the northwest corner of the fort. A few exceptions were found outside of this circle. The 52 balls were similar in that they were soundly deformed (some had tree bark impressions pressed in) and were approximately all the same size. (Figure 2)
The distribution pattern suggests a possible firing range, with the topography allowing soldiers to fire at targets about 40 yards away. However, some questions remain.
Why are only a few buckshot found in the area? Wayne ordered his Legion to use three buckshot and one musket ball in each load.3 Secondly, why wouldn’t a more significant number of spent balls be found as expected on a target range? Third, why was the scatter larger than one might expect for target practice? Fourth, what size caliber were the mangled musket balls, and would they be consistent with the French Charleville muskets issued to the United States soldiers? To answer these questions, we need to consider the following:
- St. Clair built Fort Jefferson, but he was only briefly in charge due to his disastrous defeat at the Wabash. While St. Clair was in command of Ft. Jefferson, he gave strict orders not to fire any muskets unless under attack. St. Clair considered a court-martial of a militiaman unaware of the order.4
- Ft. Jefferson was the post deepest in Indian Territory for the next two years, 1792-1793, until Wayne’s Legion built Greene Ville in November 1793.
- Between St. Clair’s departure and Wayne moving up from Cincinnati to build Greene Ville, General Wilkinson assumed control of the remnants of the Western U.S. Army. At the same time, Wayne raised the recruits for the Legion and trained them near Pittsburgh, then Cincinnati.
- Wayne wrote Secretary of War Knox in August 1792 that the Legion’s daily guards at Pittsburgh were ordered to clear their weapons at targets after their guard duty ended. A gill of whiskey was given to the best shot and a half gill to the second best. Wilkinson ordered the troops he commanded in western Ohio to do the same in January of 1793 and ordered soldiers to shoot “mark” when they had time in addition to their guard duty. These orders also told the men to return the lead to the fort magazine when finished.5
- Wayne wrote Knox in early February 1793, stating he had never approved single cartridges, asking Knox to give orders to prepare and forward 3 buckshot and a musket ball in each cartridge.
- The men picked up the easily found balls near the target area and returned most to the magazine, as ordered. The balls that ricocheted or were embedded in the target or trees were the ones left for us to find. The relatively large target area (65 feet in diameter) could result from the number of targets on the ridge.
How could the caliber of badly deformed fired musket balls be determined? The solution was to weigh each ball and compare it to a chart of weights indicating its diameter. The idea worked like a charm! When the musket ball hit a solid object, it did not lose any of its material. The deformed ball stayed together and weighed like an unfired, perfectly round musket ball of an unfired .62 caliber (0.62 inches) plus or minus .1 caliber. The issued Charleville musket has a bore diameter of .69 caliber(0.69 inches). In a muzzleloader, the musket ball has to be smaller than the musket bore to help loading by leaving space for the build-up of powder residue in the barrel.6
In the first year of Ft. Jefferson’s existence, we know of five Indian hit-and-run attacks. Based on original accounts, four attacks were not near the musket ball range area based on direction, distance, and topography.7 One event, with the Indian’s objective being the cattle pen north of the fort, could have been near the musket ball field, but we are not positive since we do not know the attack route. The Indians never got to the cattle pen, and no musket firing was reported. This incident will be discussed further in the iron case shot section. We think the Indians were driven off by the firing of an iron case shot from a cannon.
While the research is ongoing, we are adhering to the idea that we have found a firing range used by soldiers at Fort Jefferson between the time Wilkinson ordered the guards to clear their weapons at marks in January 1793 and the time Wayne’s Legion began receiving buck and ball in the cartridges sometime after Wayne’s request letter to Knox on February 8, 1793. It is possible that soldiers at the fort in 1792, after St. Clair’s Defeat, shot at marks before Wilkinson ordered it in early 1793.
Another indicator of the musket ball range being used early in the fort’s existence is the few buttons being found at the target range site by Friends of Fort Jefferson. The buttons at the target site match those worn by the St. Clair’s Army regulars who were left to defend the western frontier after St. Clair’s Defeat. No buttons were found at this site that were “frog legged” eagle buttons from the Legion uniform, which appeared later and are found in other areas in and around the fort.
(End of Part 1)
