A look at the role of citizen-soldiers in taming the wilderness of the old Northwest. Skaggs focuses on Harrison's early life and military exploits, especially his role on Major General Anthony Wayne's staff during the Fallen Timbers campaign and Harrison's leadership of the Tippecanoe campaign. This work reveals how the military and Indian policies of the early republic played out on the frontier, freshly revisiting a subject central to American history : how white settlers tamed the west, and at what cost. -- From the publisher.

Includes index.

Apprenticeship in frontier warfare -- To Tippecanoe -- The politics of command -- The failed counteroffensive -- Defending Ohio -- Invading Canada -- The politics of victory.