When the Revolutionary War ended Washington\’s victorious Continental Army was disbanded. The infant United States had very mixed feelings about standing armies; but years of Indian-fighting on the frontier emphasised the need for a force larger than Josiah Harmar\’s original 700-man 1st American Regiment. In the event Secretary Hamilton\’s far-sighted reforms, which produced \’Wayne\’s Legion\’ in the early 1790s, were to be short-lived, and it took later threats of international war to stimulate the eventual expansion of the young US Army. James Kochan\’s meticulously researched study of a dramatic and confused period in American military history – the years of St Clair\’s disaster, \’Mad Anthony\’ Wayne\’s victory at Fallen Timbers, and Harrison\’s at Tippecanoe – is illustrated with many rare and important paintings and drawings.