ficial Report, xii. vol., Niles Register.]

McClung, in his valuable Sketches of Western Adventure, in describing
this sanguinary battle, speaks of the Indians fighting from behind a
breastwork; Stone, in his Life of Brant, says the Indians were forced
to avail themselves of a rude breastwork of logs and brushwood, which
they had taken the precaution to construct for the occasion. There must
be some mistake in regard to this breastwork, as it is evident from the
circumstances of the case, that the Indians could not, before the
battle, have erected one so near the camp without discovery; and after
the action commenced, it was too fiercely prosecuted for a rampart of
this kind to have been thrown up.

In regard to the number killed on either side, there is no very certain
information. Doddridge, in his Notes on the Indian wars, places the
number of whites killed in this action at seventy-five, and the wounded
at one hundred and forty. Campbell, in his History of Virginia, says
the number of whites who were killed was upwards of fifty, and that
ninety were wounded, which is probably near the truth. The Indian force
engaged in this action has been estimated by different writers, at from
eight hundred to fifteen hundred men. It is probable that the number
did not exceed eight hundred. They were led on by some bold and warlike
chiefs, among them Cornstalk, Logan, Elenipsico, Red Eagle, and
Packishenoah, the last of whom was killed. Cornstalk, the chief in
command, was conspicuous for his bravery, and animated his followers in
tones which rose above the clash of arms; and when a retreat became
necessary, conducted it so successfully and with so much delay, as to
give his men an opportunity of bearing off all their wounded and many
of the killed, whose bodies were thrown into the river. The loss of the
Indians was never ascertained. One of the historians already quoted,
speaks of it as "comparatively trifling." The character of our troops,
many of whom were experienced woods-men, familiar with Indian fighting,
the long continuance of the action--from the rising to the going down
of the sun--the equality in numbers and position of the contending
parties, the known usage of the Indians in hiding their dead and
carrying off the wounded, the number of killed found on the battle
ground the following day, and the severe loss of the Virginians, all
forbid the idea that the loss of the enemy could have been trifling.
The Ohio and Kana