ne, the fallen
trees forming a natural barricade.

On August 20, 1794, shortly after daybreak, Wayne ordered
his troops to advance. He was still uncertain whether
the Indians were hostile or friendly. But before he had
proceeded far his soldiers were fired upon by a body of
red men secreted in the tall grass. In the battle which
followed Tecumseh led the Shawnees, and, with two of his
brothers, was in the advance-guard when the fighting
began. The Indians fought stubbornly, but to no purpose.
The American force of mounted volunteers advanced, while
the infantry with fixed bayonets drove the red men from
cover and compelled them to retreat. In the latter part
of the action Tecumseh lost the use of his gun by having,
in his excitement, rammed a bullet into it before putting
in powder. Falling back until he met another body of
Shawnees, he secured a fowling-piece, and then fought on
bravely until again forced to give ground. In spite of
his desperate efforts to rally his followers, the Indians
were beaten and were fleeing in disorder through the
woods. When night fell and the Indians stole back to bury
or hide their dead, Tecumseh gazed on the familiar
features, now fixed in death, of Sauwaseekau, his second
brother to fall in battle; and another battlefield, in
which Cheeseekau had in like manner beheld the silent
face of his father, arose before his mind. He remembered
his eldest brother's return from the battle, with tidings
that had burned into his very soul, while he was yet too
young to take up arms in defence of his race.

The Indian warriors were defeated and scattered, and the
Americans proceeded to lay waste their villages and
cornfields in the valley of the Au Glaize. The blow to
Indian power was irrevocable. On August 3 of the following
year, 1795, was concluded the Treaty of Greenville, by
which large tracts of Indian territory in what are now
the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan were
surrendered to the Americans. The treaty was signed by
Blue Jacket for the Shawnees, by Little Turtle for the
Miamis, and by chiefs representing the Wyandots, the
Delawares, the Ottawas, the Potawatomis, and other tribes.
Tecumseh, however, had refused to attend Wayne's council,
and when he heard from Blue Jacket of the terms of the
treaty, he disputed its validity. Indian land, he said, was
common property; all the chiefs had not been consulted, and
many of them would refuse to accept the loss of their la