- It was November 1792, and Maj. Gen. "Mad" Anthony Wayne needed a place to weather the
winter and train his troops in the newly created Legion of the United States. Pittsburgh was filled
with the distractions of whiskey and women, so Wayne set off down river to a site about 20 miles
away a place, he remarked, "where nature has done much for us." It was there, at a site Wayne
dubbed Legion Ville, that historians say Wayne ruled with iron will and snapping whip to form the
first standing army under the United States Constitution. Its mission was to control Indian raids on
the fledgling country's western frontier.
Through the years, the vacant field Wayne once trod in Harmony Township has been used as a
cornfield by the Harmony Society, an airplane landing strip, temporary trailer housing for mill
workers and a carnival ground. The field was a meeting place and an Indian village in an ancient
age. But perhaps its most distinctive era was when the 50-acre tract now bordered by Duss
Avenue, Logan Lane, Route 65 and a deep ravine was used by Wayne as a secluded training camp
to prepare his soldiers to open the western wilderness. The story of Wayne and his time at Legion
Ville begins shortly after the Revolutionary War. At the end of the American Revolution, the Treaty
of Paris was intended to drive the British out; other treaties were made to prevent white settlement
in the Indian territory past the Ohio River. It didn't work that way. Americans began settling in
Ohio, leaving the British who still maintained forts along the Great Lakes an opportunity for
harassment by inciting Indian raids against settlers.
President George Washington tried to stop the raids with military campaigns in 1790 and 1791
primarily using state militias. Washington had been inaugurated as president in 1789. Both
expeditions failed miserably, one battle causing the loss of nearly 700 men and women. It was the
worst defeat of U.S. troops by American Indians in the nation's history, far surpassing Custer's
270-man loss at Little Bighorn. Reeling from the losses, President Washington disbanded the scant
remains of the Continental Army, recomissioned Wayne and established the Legion of the United
States. Mike McAfee, curator of history for the West Point Museum at the U.S. Military Academy,
said Wayne's Legion was the country's first unified army under the Constitution. Prior to Legion
Ville, the army consisted of a small full-time regiment augmented by volunteers, McAfee said, such
as the troops at Fort McIntosh in Beaver nearly 10 years earlier.
Wayne collected his troops in Pittsburgh and soon established camp at Legion Ville, a place he
described in letters as a perfect encampment. The Ohio River on the west and deep ravines on the
north and south made the site easily defensible. Between 1,000 and 3,500 men trained at Legion
Ville, according to several historical sources. The camp quartermaster's notes show 1,536 men had
gathered at Pittsburgh by August 1792. The number rose to 2,000 shortly before troops moved to
Legion Ville by barge in November. Among the soldiers training at Legion Ville were such names as
William Clark, who with Meriwether Lewis commanded the famous western expedition from 1803
to 1806; William Eaton, who led the U.S. Marines ashore at Tripoli in 1806; and William Henry
Harrison, the country's ninth president. For about five months, Wayne drilled his men at Legion Ville
to create a deadly force from a group of mostly uneducated, unskilled men, said history professor
and Indian War-era authority Gregory J.W. Urwin of the University of Central Arkansas.
A book of Wayne's daily orders indicates Wayne frequently sent detachments into the woods to
build fortifications and learn woodsmanship. He pressed his men to learn marksmanship, prompting
an unidentified writer for the Pittsburgh Gazette who visited the camp to write, "I have been at
shooting matches in the country, and have never seen better shots." Soldiers constructed four
"redoubts," or small fortifications, around the camp and dug an entrenchment around Legion Ville's
perimeter. Patrick Riley a professional archaeologist from South Heights who has studied Legion
Ville for nearly a decade said the sunken Duss Avenue may have been constructed in one of the
wider trenches. Yet another lasting reminder of Legion Ville is Anthony Wayne Drive, a road
leading to the top of the hill across from Legion Ville. Riley said Wayne's soldiers constructed that
road to access a parade ground they formed on the hilltop. Although soldiers only trained at Legion
Ville for several months, the camp developed quickly under Wayne's watchful eye. The camp at
Legion Ville was occupied from November through early May, 1792-93. The Pittsburgh Gazette
correspondent wrote, "The troops appear to have exercised great industry, in erecting their huts,
which are commodious, and form ... a town with streets at right angles. The huts of the officers, are
neat and lead one to regret that so much labour, and in many cases taste should be abandoned, and
lost." Wayne's house was described as "elegant."
Despite the pleasant appearance of the camp, Wayne's men likely found little rest. Wayne was a
taskmaster who believed in hard work and merciless punishment. During Legion Ville training,
Urwin said, Wayne meted out about 190 courts-martial. "This was a guy who shot deserters; this
was a guy who flogged men," Urwin said. Twenty-five lashes with a cat-o'-nine-tails was a typical
punishment, although 100 lashes was not unheard of for deserters. But Wayne was respected, and
he instilled pride through rewards, elegant uniforms and emphasis on self-improvement, Urwin
added.
But Legion Ville's place in American history is not without its detractors. Beaver resident Leroy
Friend owns a small parcel of the property preservationists believe to be part of the Legion Ville
site. And Friend thinks the preservationists and historians are flat wrong. Friend believes the camp
was small, with only 300 to 500 soldiers, and was located near the river where cars and trains now
travel. Friend said Legion Ville was not an important training ground, but merely a place to spend
the winter. "Read the letters. That's the problem we have uneducated people," Friend said. "It was
strictly a winter encampment. It was never referred to as a training camp." However, a December
1792 letter to Wayne from Secretary of War Henry Knox referred to Legion Ville as "the school of
discipline of the American Legion," and Wayne's letters to Knox are rife with references to his strict
training regimen.
Whatever happened at Legion Ville, it worked. Wayne led expeditions west in 1793 and 1794,
defeating the Miami Confederacy of Indians on Aug. 20, 1794, at the Battle of Fallen Timbers.
Peace followed via the Treaty of Greene Ville and the 1796 surrender of British posts along the
Great Lakes. The end result was a frontier opened to unfettered white settlement. The treaty placed
the current states of Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin firmly in the country's grasp and
opened the way for the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, Riley said.
And more, Urwin said, it was a major turning point for the government. "It wasn't until Anthony
Wayne ... that our government under the Constitution proved its ability to protect its citizens," Urwin
said. Michigan historian Wiley Sword, who wrote a detailed account about the Indian wars of
Wayne's era, said Legion Ville is invaluable as a reminder of that war. "A campsite might not seem
that significant, but ... it's a reminder of an incident in our past that too often has gone unnoticed and
unrespected," Sword said. Riley offered an interesting aside. Records indicate that while Wayne's
troops drilled at Legion Ville, the Shawnee Indian Chief Tecumseh camped near modern-day
Aliquippa and watched. He left before Wayne began to move his troops, Riley said. Since Wayne
vacated Legion Ville in 1793, the site has remained largely undeveloped despite its prime industrial
location. Beaver County Community Development Director Bob Dyson thinks that's a telling sign.
Dyson has cast his lot with the local citizens who, since the 1970s, have fought to preserve Legion
Ville as a historical site. Those citizens formed the Anthony Wayne Historical Society in the 1970s.
They got the site placed on the National Register of Historic Places and convinced Congress to
make Legion Ville a national park in 1978. President Jimmy Carter pocketed the bill, and it died.
Under the more recent leadership of Riley and Economy resident Bill Dignan, the Anthony Wayne
group became the Legion Ville Historical Society Inc., and formed a reenactment group to teach
people the importance of Wayne's war on the Indians and his camp at Legion Ville. They've formed
task forces, enlisted legislative support and obtained grants, albeit too small to purchase the
property. Friend insists a car dealership will be constructed on his piece of the site, but he won't say
when. About 28 acres of the site is owned by Jerart Inc., which has been mining slag dumped at the
site. In 1992, Jerart co-owner Jerry Peckich promised to turn the land over to the county for
preservation when the mining is done. Jerart Inc., is still mining slag, and Peckich now says Jerart's
land will be donated to the Maj. Gen. Anthony Wayne Foundation Inc., a nonprofit foundation he
established to create a park honoring Legion Ville. Ambridge accountant Bogus Paul Mouradian
owns about 16 acres of the site. He said his land has been for sale since he bought it in 1994.
Mouradian's latest asking price was $1.7 million, and he says an Atlanta-based company that builds
shopping malls has taken out an option through January to buy his property.
Throughout the struggle, archaeological tests have been performed, and property owners have
repeatedly claimed nothing significant was found. Yet historical society members display a sizable
pile of artifacts from the Legion Ville site, including bayonets, musket and cannon balls, buttons and
innumerable Indian arrow heads from older encampments. Much was found simply by chance;
more was salvaged after Mouradian bulldozed the site of an archaeological dig. Pennsylvania
Historical and Museum Commission archaeologist Noel Stratton said that dig revealed numerous
"features," or indications of historical happenings. "It looked like there was significant information in
the ground," she said. Harmony Township Commission Chairman August Antonini said he would
like to see some sort of development at the site even a tourist park.
A vacant field won't relieve residents' tax burden, he said. But Antonini urges caution. He said he
doesn't want a business that seems unlikely to thrive, like some other nearby businesses. Dyson,
Riley and the Legion Ville Historical Society believe the site should be studied, its artifacts cataloged
and part of Wayne's camp recreated. The result, they agree, would be an increase in tourism and
the businesses that go along with a tourism boom. Steel has left the valley, but tourism is a waiting
treasure, Dyson said. "I feel positive, at some point, that everybody's going to realize the value of
this site in our own back yard." State Rep. Susan Laughlin, D-16, Conway, said she would
encourage new development, but not before Legion Ville's tourism potential is examined. Harmony
Township Planning Commissioner Mike Kuga has long fought preservation efforts, claiming Jerart's
proposed park should be enough. The rest, he said, should be developed to bring in tax revenue.
"This is a fantasy world they're living in," Kuga said of those touting tourism potential. The peripheral
development of tourism "will never happen ... not in Beaver County." Kuga pointed to Old
Economy in Ambridge, a site many visit in a town where few shop or eat. The community gains
nothing from that type of tourism, Kuga said.
But Riley has another argument, one he said makes all the other arguments seem trivial. The human
side. "It's not so much that Legion Ville was this great entity. It's the people who built it and are still
there," Riley said. Americans, Riley noted, have a proud tradition of honoring their veterans.
Wayne's records indicate that 17 soldiers lie buried at Legion Ville. "The most important thing to me
is the men," Riley said, referring to the soldiers who fell at Legion Ville. "That's the bottom line."
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