William Wells married a Wea woman (a member of a Miami-Illinois tribe) and had a child. His wife and child were captured in a raid by US General James Wilkinson. Enraged, Wells organized a 300-man suicide squad that fought with distinction at St. Clare's defeat, the Battle of the Wabash, Nov. 4, 1791.
His fighting attracted the attention of Miami War Chief Little Turtle and Wells eventually married his daughter and had four children and served as a scout in his father-in-law's wars with the United States.
In 1793, at Vincennes, Indiana Territory, he met his older brother Samuel, and traveled to Fort Nelson and met General Rufus Putnam and warned him that the British were inciting Indians to fight in the Northwest Territory.
Little Turtle gave Wells permission to join the Legion of the United States, a subgroup of the U.S. Army. he was wounded at the Battle of Fallen Timbers. After the Treaty of Greenville, Little Turtle asked that Wells be appointed Indian Agent to the Miami and he moved to Fort Wayne where he pressed to government to establish a trading post there. His wife died in 1805.
In 1809, he married his third wife, and first white woman, Mary Geiger, daughter of Col. Frederick Geiger.
William Wells Certainly Had Important Connections With Both Sides.. --Brock-Perry
2012 marks the 200th anniversary of America's "Forgotten War," the War of 1812 that took place over three years, 1812 to 1815.
Battle of New Orleans.
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