ll by a shot from David King, a
private in captain Davidson's company, from Lincoln county, Kentucky.
In this state of the case, even had the fact of Tecumseh's death been
fully ascertained, at the date of general Harrison's letter, it would
have been manifestly unjust, not to say impracticable, for the
commander-in-chief to have expressed an opinion as to the particular
individual to whose personal prowess his death was to be
attributed."[C]

[Footnote A: One of the aids of general Harrison, and inspector-general
of the United States army, during the late war.]

[Footnote B: Early on the 7th, general Harrison left the army under the
command of governor Shelby, and returned to Detroit. His report of the
battle, was dated on the 9th. The army did not reach Sandwich, opposite
Detroit, until the 10th.]

[Footnote C: See Louisville Journal.]

In taking leave of this branch of our subject, it may be remarked, that
the strong terms of approbation in which general Harrison, in his
official account of the battle of the Thames, speaks of the bravery and
bearing of colonel Johnson in the conflict, should have shielded him
from the suspicion that any unkind feeling towards that officer was
allowed to sway his judgment in the preparation of his report.

We now proceed to give some testimony in favor of other individuals,
whose friends have claimed for them the credit of having slain
Tecumseh. It has been already stated, that before our army left the
field of battle, it was reported and believed by many of the troops,
that colonel Whitley, of Johnson's corps of mounted men, had killed the
Indian commander in the action of the Thames. The only testimony, in
confirmation of this report, which has fallen under our observation, is
contained in the two following communications. The first is a letter
from Mr. Abraham Scribner, now of Greenville, Ohio, under date of
September 8th, 1840. The writer says--"I had never seen Tecumseh, until
the body was shown to me on the battle ground on the river Thames: by
whose hand he fell must always be a matter of uncertainty. My own
opinion was, the day after the battle, and is yet, that Tecumseh fell
by a ball from the rifle of colonel Whitley, an old Indian fighter: two
balls passed through colonel Whitley's head, at the moment that
Tecumseh fell; he (colonel Whitley,) was seen to take aim at the Indian
said to be Tecumseh, and his rifle was found empty."

The second is from colonel Ambrose Du