ion by
Joseph Hamilton Davis.

[Illustration: The Line of Harrison's March to Tippecanoe and the New
Purchase of 1809. Drawing by Heaton]

All doubt of the Prophet's hostility was now dispelled. He had committed
open acts of war on the United States. While the army was on the march
to Terre Haute a party of the Prophet's raiders, in open daylight, took
eight horses from a settlement in the Illinois Territory about thirty
miles above Vincennes. At eight o'clock, on the evening of the tenth of
October, a sentinel belonging to the Fourth United States Regiment was
fired on and badly wounded by savages prowling about the camp. "The army
was immediately turned out," says Harrison, "and formed in excellent
order in a very few minutes. Patrols were dispatched in every direction,
but the darkness was such that pursuit was impracticable. Other alarms
took place in the course of the night, probably without good cause, but
the troops manifested an alertness in taking their positions which was
highly gratifying to me." On the evening of the eleventh, John Conner
and four of the Delaware chiefs came into camp. Before leaving
Vincennes, Harrison had sent a request that some of their chiefs might
meet him on the march, for the purpose of undertaking embassies of peace
to the different tribes. On the sixth of October, many of them had set
out from their towns, but were met on the way by a deputation from the
Prophet's Town. This deputation declared that the followers of the
Prophet had taken up the tomahawk against the United States, "and that
they would lay it down only with their lives." They were confident of
victory and required a categorical answer from the Delawares to the
question of whether they would or would not join them in the coming
war. Conner and the four chiefs were immediately sent to report to
Harrison, and another party ordered forward to Tippecanoe to remonstrate
with the Prophet. On the twenty-seventh the latter party reported to the
Governor at Fort Harrison. They had been insulted and badly treated by
the Prophet and were dismissed with contempt. During their stay with the
Shawnee leader, the warriors arrived who had fired on the sentinel at
Terre Haute. They were Shawnees and the Prophet's nearest friends.

Harrison now resolved to immediately march to Tippecanoe and demand
satisfaction. To return to Vincennes with his troops without effecting a
dispersion or humiliation of the Prophet's party would be attende