rty of men from Boonesborough. Colonel
Stephen Trigg led a similar corps from Harrodsburg; and Colonel John
Todd headed the militia from Lexington. Majors Harland, McGary, McBride,
and Levi Todd were also among the arrivals.[43]

It is said that nearly one-third of the whole force assembled at
Bryant's Station were commissioned officers, many of whom had hurried
to the relief of their countrymen. This superior activity is to be
accounted for by the fact that the officers were generally selected
from the most active and skillful of the pioneers.

A consultation was held in a tumultuous manner, and it was determined
to pursue the enemy at once. The Indians had retreated by way of the
Lower Blue Licks. The pursuit was commenced without waiting for the
junction of Colonel Logan, who was known to be coming up with a strong
reinforcement. The trail of the enemy exhibited a degree of carelessness
very unusual in an Indian retreat. Various articles were strewn along
the path, as if in terror they had been abandoned. These symptoms, while
they increased the ardor of the young men, excited the apprehensions
of the more experienced borderers, and Boone in particular. He noticed
that, amid all the signs of disorder so lavishly displayed, the Indians
seemed to take even unusual care to conceal their numbers by contracting
their camp. It would seem that the Indians had rather overdone their
stratagem. It was very natural to those not much experienced in Indian
warfare to suppose that the articles found strewn along the road had
been abandoned in the hurry of flight; but when they found that the
utmost pains had been taken to point out the way to them by chopping the
trees, one would have thought that the rawest among them, who had only
spent a few months on the border, could have seen through so transparent
an artifice. But these indications were disregarded in the desire felt
to punish the Indians for their invasion.

Nothing was seen of the enemy till the Kentuckians reached the Blue
Licks. Here, just as they arrived at Licking River, a few Indians were
seen on the other side, retreating without any appearance of alarm.
The troops now made a halt, and the officers held a consultation to
determine on the course to be pursued. Colonel Daniel Boone, on being
appealed to as the most experienced person present, gave his opinion as
follows:

"That their situation was critical and delicate: that the force opposed
to them was undoubted