general confederacy is entirely broken," wrote St. Clair. Instead of breaking the confederacy, St. Clair had discredited Natives willing to compromise and strengthened the influence of the militants. After the Fort Harmar treaty, violence between Natives and settlers escalated. Natives attacked flatboats on the Ohio River and raided into Kentucky, killing, capturing, and torturing settlers in an attempt to stem the tide of immigrants. Americans responded with counter raids, such as one led by Major John Hardin, who in August 1789 led 220 Kentucky militiamen to the Wabash region, where they killed eight Shawnees, including women and children. In 1790, George Washington, recently inaugurated as the first President of the United States, and Secretary of War Henry Knox decided to attack the Native confederacy to secure the Northwest Territory for American occupation. Because many Americans distrusted the idea of a professional "standing army," Congress kept the United States Army small and relied upon state-run militias for defense. In 1790, Congress expanded the army's single regiment, the First American Regiment, from 700 to 1,216 men. For the duration of the war, the Americans would use combined operations of militiamen and regulars, with a U.S. Army officer in overall command. 1790: Harmar campaign On 20 April 1790, the First American Regiment participated in its first offensive against Native Americans when General Josiah Harmar joined Kentucky General Charles Scott in an attack on the Shawnee village of Chalawgatha. The next month, Native Americans retaliated by attacking settlers near Limestone (modern-day Maysville, Kentucky) in a skirmish known as Hartshorne's Defeat, leaving 5 settlers dead and 8 missing. That autumn, the United States launched a major offensive against the Natives along the Maumee River. This punitive expedition was led by General Harmar, whose orders were to destroy Kekionga and the surrounding towns, killing any Natives who opposed him. His army, consisting of 1,100 militiamen and 320 regulars, departed Fort Washington on the Ohio River on September 30. A diversionary force led by Major Jean François Hamtramck invaded from Vincennes, though it turned back before joining with Harmar. Native scouts monitored the slow progress of Harmar's northward march. The Natives had scattered for their annual winter hunt, but Blue Jacket, the principal Shawnee war chief, and Little Turtle, his Miami counterpart, dispatched messengers calling for the warriors to regroup. They managed to collect about 600 men to oppose Harmar's army. This was not enough men to