et fence, using
their long rifles so expertly that they killed or wounded a hundred and
eighty-five of the British regulars, who thereupon had to abandon their
artillery. Meanwhile, the American regular force, caught on open ground,
was flanked and driven toward the river, carrying a militia regiment
with it. Panic spread among these unfortunate men and they fled through
the deep snow, Winchester among them, while six hundred whooping Indians
slew and scalped them without mercy as they ran.

But behind the picket fence the Kentuckians still squinted along the
barrels of their rifles and hammered home more bullets and patches.
Three hundred and eighty-four of them, they showed a spirit that made
their conduct the bright, heroic episode of that black day. Forgotten
are their mutinies, their profane disregard of the Articles of War,
their jeers at generals and such. They finished in style and covered the
multitude of their sins. Unclothed, unfed, uncared for, dirty, and
wretched, they proved themselves worthy to be called American soldiers.
They fought until there was no more ammunition, until they were
surrounded by a thousand of the enemy, and then they honorably
surrendered.

The brutal Procter, aware that the Indians would commit hideous
outrages if left unrestrained, nevertheless returned to Amherstburg with
his troops and his prisoners, leaving the American wounded to their
fate. That night the savages came back to Frenchtown and massacred those
hurt and helpless men, thirty in number.

This unhappy incident of the campaign, not so much a battle as a
catastrophe, delayed Harrison's operations. His failures had shaken
popular confidence, and at the end of this dismal winter, after six
months of disappointments in which ten thousand men had accomplished
nothing, he was compelled to report to the Secretary of War:

Amongst the reasons which make it necessary to employ a large
force, I am sorry to mention the dismay and disinclination to the
service which appears to prevail in the western country; numbers
must give that confidence which ought to be produced by conscious
valor and intrepidity, which never existed in any army in a
superior degree than amongst the greater part of the militia which
were with me through the winter. The new drafts from this State
[Ohio] are entirely of another character and are not to be depended
upon. I have no doubt, however, that a sufficient