iors; exactly how many cannot be said, but they were
certainly fewer in number than the troops composing either wing of
Clark's army. [Footnote: Haldimand MSS. McKee to De Peyster, Aug. 22,
1780. He was told of the battle by the Indians a couple of days after it
took place. He gives the force of the whites correctly as nine hundred
and seventy, forty of whom had been left to guard the boats. He says the
Indians were surprised, and that most of the warriors fled, so that all
the fighting was done by about seventy, with the two Girtys. This was
doubtless not the case; the beaten party in all these encounters was
fond of relating the valorous deeds of some of its members, who
invariably state that they would have conquered, had they not been
deserted by their associates. McKee reported that the Indians could find
no trace of the gun-wheels--the gun was carried on a pack-horse,--and so
he thought that the Kentuckians were forced to leave it behind on their
retreat. He put the killed of the Kentuckians at the modest number of
forty-eight; and reported the belief of Girty and the Indians that
"three hundred [of them] would have given [Clark's men] a total rout." A
very common feat of the small frontier historian was to put high praise
of his own side in the mouth of a foe. Withers, in his "Chronicles of
Border Warfare," in speaking of this very action, makes Girty withdraw
his three hundred warriors on account of the valor of Clark's men,
remarking that it was "useless to fight with fools or madmen." This
offers a comical contrast to Girty's real opinion, as shown in McKee's
letter.] They were surprised by Clark's swift advance just as a scouting
party of warriors, who had been sent out to watch the whites, were
returning to the village. The warning was so short that the squaws and
children had barely time to retreat out of the way. As Clark crossed the
stream, the warriors left their cabins and formed in some thick timber
behind them. At the same moment a cousin of Clark's, who had been
captured by the Indians, and was held prisoner in the town, made his
escape and ran towards the Americans, throwing up his hands, and calling
out that he was a white man. He was shot, whether by the Americans or
the Indians none could say. Clark came up and spoke a few words with him
before he died. [Footnote: Durrett MSS. Volume: "Papers referring to G.
R. Clark." The cousin's name was Joseph Rogers, a brother of the
commander of the galley.]