but he was himself untouched. He wore a blanket coat with a hood; he had
a long queue, and his thick gray hair flowed from under his
three-cornered hat; a lock of his hair was carried off by a bullet.
[Footnote: McBride's "Pioneer Biography," I., 165. Narrative of Thomas
Irwin, a packer, who was in the fight. There are of course discrepancies
between the various accounts; in the confusion of such a battle even the
most honest eye-witnesses could not see all things alike.] Several times
he headed the charges, sword in hand. General Butler had his arm broken
early in the fight, but he continued to walk to and fro along the line,
his coat off and the wounded arm in a sling. Another bullet struck him
in the side, inflicting a mortal wound; and he was carried to the middle
of the camp, where he sat propped up by knapsacks. Men and horses were
falling around him at every moment. St. Clair sent an aide, Lieutenant
Ebenezer Denny, to ask how he was; he displayed no anxiety, and answered
that he felt well. While speaking, a young cadet, who stood nearby, was
hit on the kneecap by a spent ball, and at the shock cried aloud;
whereat the General laughed so that his wounded side shook. The aide
left him; and there is no further certain record of his fate except that
he was slain; but it is said that in one of the Indian rushes a warrior
bounded towards him and sunk the tomahawk in his brain before any one
could interfere.
The Indians Capture the Artillery.
Charges and Counter-Charges.
Instead of being awed by the bellowing artillery, the Indians made the
gunners a special object of attack. Man after man was picked off, until
every officer was killed but one, who was wounded; and most of the
privates also were slain or disabled. The artillery was thus almost
silenced, and the Indians, emboldened by success, swarmed forward and
seized the guns, while at the same time a part of the left wing of the
army began to shrink back. But the Indians were now on comparatively
open ground, where the regulars could see them and get at them; and
under St. Clair's own leadership the troops rushed fiercely at the
savages, with fixed bayonets, and drove them back to cover. By this time
the confusion and disorder were great; while from every hollow and grass
patch, from behind every stump and tree and fallen log, the Indians
continued their fire. Again and again the officers led forward the
troops in bayonet charges; and at first the men follo
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