er than they saw fit."
* When the War of 1812 began, these backwoods troops were pitted against
British regulars who were powerfully supported by Indian allies. The
officers of these untrained American troops were, like Hull, pompous,
broken-down, political incapables; while to the men themselves may
fairly be applied Amos Kendall's disgusted characterization of a
Kentucky muster: "The soldiers are under no more restraint than a herd
of swine. Reasoning, remonstrating, threatening, and ridiculing their
officers, they show their sense of equality and their total want
of subordination." Not until the very last of the war, when under
Harrison's direction capable and experienced officers drilled them
into real soldiers, did these backwoods stalwarts become an effective
fighting force.

* "Winning of the West," vol. IV, p. 246.

There were also shortcomings of another sort. None was more exasperating
or costly than the lack of means of transportation. Even in Ohio, the
oldest and most settled portion of the Northwest, roads were few and
poor; elsewhere there were practically none of any kind. But the regions
in which the war was carried on were far too sparsely populated to be
able to furnish the supplies, even the foodstuffs, needed by the troops;
and materials of every sort had to be transported from the East, by
river, lake, and wilderness trail. Up and down the great unbroken
stretches between the Ohio and the Lakes moved the floundering supply
trains in the vain effort to keep up with the armies, or to reach camps
or forts in time to avert starvation or disaster. Pack-horses waded
knee-deep in mud; wagons were dragged through mire up to their hubs;
even empty vehicles sometimes became so embedded that they had to be
abandoned, the drivers being glad to get off with their horses alive.
Many times a quartermaster, taking advantage of a frost, would send
off a convoy of provisions, only to hear of its being swamped by a thaw
before reaching its destination. One of the tragedies of the war was the
suffering of the troops while waiting for supplies of clothing, tents,
medicines, and food which were stuck in swamps or frozen up in rivers or
lakes.

Beset with pleurisy, pneumonia, and rheumatism in winter, with fevers
in summer, and subject to attack by the Indians at all times, these
frontier soldiers led an existence of exceptional hardship. Only the
knowledge that they were fighting for their freedom and their homes