The Edward Miller journal contains 49 pages of daily entries, which document the period between July 26 and November 1, 1794, when Miller was serving as captain in the 2nd U.S. Sublegion, under General Anthony Wayne. During this time, the Sublegion departed from Greenville, Ohio, traveled around northwest Ohio--including Fort Recovery and the towns of Defiance and Maumee--and returned to Greenville. The journal recounts the sublegion's duties (including building and repairing roads, bridges, and garrisons), its many marches, encounters with Native Americans, and the exhaustion and illnesses of the soldiers.
Miller's detailed description of the Battle of Fallen Timbers (August 20), which relates positions and numbers of wounded and killed, sheds light on the conflict. Also of interest are his continual updates concerning the building of Fort Wayne, which occur between September 22 and October 22. Miller's entries, though frequently terse, show the complexity of the relationships between the Americans, the British, and various American Indian tribes engaged in the dispute. On October 13, he wrote, "The Indians are now in Counsel at Ditroit with Mr. Elliot and Colo Symco [Simcoe], which gives us every Reason to suppose that the Indians however prone to peaseable measures will be urged to go to war by the presents and promises of the British." Miller's journal ends abruptly on November 1, 1794, just before the Sublegion's return to Greenville.
Edward Miller was born June 30, 1756, in Middleton, Connecticut, the son of Jared Miller and Elizabeth Center. He served for Connecticut in the Revolutionary War, after which, on October 16, 1783, he married Elizabeth Rockwell. In March 1791, he was commissioned as an ensign in the 2nd U.S. Infantry, followed by a promotion to lieutenant in August 1791. In September 1792, the Army was reorganized, and the 2nd Regiment was renamed the 2nd Sublegion. In February 1793, Miller was promoted to captain, and he held this rank throughout Anthony Wayne's campaign against the Indian Confederacy of the Ohio River Valley, known as the Wayne Campaign. Along with his Sublegion, Miller participated in the Battle of the Fallen Timbers in August 1794, and the building of Fort Wayne in October 1794. In 1798, he moved with his wife and children to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he commanded Fort Washington, until he resigned from the service on September 10, 1800, and moved to Clermont County, Ohio. He died July 6, 1823, in Columbia Township, Ohio.
