Despite having the nickname "Mad Anthony," the commander of America's first standing army was not a foolhardy man.

Major Gen. Anthony Wayne was not going to take units of the "Legion of the United States" into battle against Indian foes until his troops had been drilled and had learned discipline.

That meant finding winter quarters large enough to house more than 2,000 people and near enough to Pittsburgh to maintain communications with President George Washington in Philadelphia, then the nation's capital.

"I returned last evening from a tour of Four days march into the Indian Country on the NW side of the Allegheny in search of a proper position for hutting the troops during the Winter agreeably to the presidents ideas & wishes," Wayne wrote on Oct. 26, 1792, to his boss, War Secretary Henry Knox.

Wayne believed he had found an appropriate place "situate twenty two Miles below this place [Pittsburgh] on the banks of the Ohio."

During the previous summer and fall Wayne had begun training his army at Fort Fayette, built along the Allegheny River side of Pittsburgh's Point. One old map shows it straddling what became Penn Avenue between 9th and 10th streets.

President Washington had sent his friend Wayne, a hero of the American Revolution, to the Pennsylvania frontier following back-to-back defeats of U.S. forces in battles against Native Americans. The Indians had the support of and received supplies from the British, who hoped to retain their influence in the vast Northwest Territory.

The destruction of a U.S. army led by Gen. Arthur St. Clair on Nov. 4, 1791, near the Wabash River remains the worst defeat ever inflicted on American forces by Indians. More than half St. Clair's force of 1,000 was killed and many of the rest were wounded.

As summer 1792 gave way to fall, it became clear that Wayne's "Legion" would not be ready to move before winter set in. While in Pittsburgh, the army had been plagued both by a shortage of supplies and by desertions.

"There have been tried, punished, or pardoned, Fifty Deserters at this place," Wayne wrote on Sept. 13 to Knox. All but three of those men were without uniforms, having "either lost, sold, or defaced them & are now actually naked, except [for] a tattered shirt & overalls p[er] man ..."

"Remnants of Cloth, thread & Needles are wanting to repair the ... soldiers Uniforms," he wrote.

Wayne's papers, including the many letters he wrote from Pittsburgh, are in Philadelphia at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

"I have the honor to inform you, that the Legion embark'd at Pittsburgh yesterday morning & encamped at this place last evening without any accident," he wrote Nov. 29 in a letter sent from the new army camp that he named "Legion Ville."

Work parties already had marked out places to build barracks, and "we have a flattering prospect of soon being under cover," Wayne wrote. The site of Legion Ville, often written Legionville, is north of Ambridge in Harmony Township, just east of Route 65.

As the weather turned colder, Wayne had his troops concentrate both on drilling and on constructing huts.

"The Soldiery are nearly under cover; which has been effected in a very short time by the example & unremitting industry of the Officers, who nobly & generously submitted to every inconvenience and inclemency of weather living," he wrote to Knox on Dec. 6. "Our chain of redoubts & lines of defence are nearly completed; so that in the Course of a few days we shall be warm and secure."

At the same time that Wayne was training his Legion, peace talks were continuing with a Native American confederacy, led by the Shawnee chief Blue Jacket. It included more than a half dozen tribes including Delaware, Mingo and Miami Indians.

The Indians' goal was to retain possession of the northern shore of the Ohio River, territory into which American settlers had been moving in growing numbers.

In April 1793, Wayne and his army left their winter quarters at Legionville by boat for Fort Washington, located at present-day Cincinnati. For the next year, Wayne moved his army slowly north, building new forts and depots.

It wasn't until Aug. 20, 1794, that his army of 3,000 faced about 1,500 Indians in what is now Maumee, Ohio, south of Toledo.

While casualties were low on both sides at the Battle of Fallen Timbers, the bigger blow for the Native Americans came when their British allies declined to aid them. The British commander at nearby Fort Miami did not want to risk restarting a war with the United States.

Less than a year later, the U.S. government and the Indians had signed the Treaty of Greenville, opening the way for Ohio's settlement and statehood.