was
probably at the mouth of the Licking.] The skiffs, laden with men, were
poled against the current, while bodies of footmen and horsemen marched
along the bank. After going a short distance up stream the horses and
men were ferried to the farther bank, the boats were drawn up on the
shore and left, with a guard of forty men, and the rest of the troops
started overland against the town of Old Chillicothe, fifty or sixty
miles distant. The three-pounder was carried along on a pack-horse. The
march was hard, for it rained so incessantly that it was difficult to
keep the rifles dry. Every night they encamped in a hollow square, with
the baggage and horses in the middle.

Chillicothe, when reached, was found to be deserted. It was burned, and
the army pushed on to Piqua, a town a few miles distant, on the banks of
the Little Miami, [Footnote: The Indians so frequently shifted their
abode that it is hardly possible to identify the exact location of the
successive towns called Piqua or Pickaway.] reaching it about ten in the
morning of the 8th of August. [Footnote: "Papers relating to G. R.
Clark." In the Durrett MSS. at Louisville. The account of the death of
Joseph Rogers. This settles, by the way, that the march was made in
August, and not in July.] Piqua was substantially built, and was laid
out in the manner of the French villages. The stoutly built log-houses
stood far apart, surrounded by strips of corn-land, and fronting the
stream; while a strong block-house with loop-holed walls stood in the
middle. Thick woods, broken by small prairies, covered the rolling
country that lay around the town.

The Fight at Piqua.

Clark divided his army into four divisions, taking the command of two in
person. Giving the others to Logan, he ordered him to cross the river
above the town [Footnote: There is some conflict as to whether Logan
went up or down stream.] and take it in the rear, while he himself
crossed directly below it and assailed it in front. Logan did his best
to obey the orders, but he could not find a ford, and he marched by
degrees nearly three miles up stream, making repeated and vain attempts
to cross; when he finally succeeded the day was almost done, and the
fighting was over.

Meanwhile Clark plunged into the river, and crossed at the head of one
of his own two divisions; the other was delayed for a short time. Both
Simon Girty and his brother were in the town, together with several
hundred Indian warr