he Tallapoosa River. The party of
scouts soon overtook him and led the way. As they approached the spot
through the silent trails which threaded the wide solitudes, they came
upon many signs of Indians being around. The scouts gave the alarm, and
the main body of the army came up. The troops under Jackson amounted to
about one thousand men. It was the evening of January 23d, 1814.

The camp-fires were built, supper prepared, and sentinels being
carefully stationed all around to prevent surprise, the soldiers,
protected from the wintry wind only by the gigantic forest, wrapped
themselves in their blankets and threw themselves down on the withered
leaves for sleep. The Indians crept noiselessly along from tree to
tree, each man searching for a sentinel, until about too hours before
day, when they opened a well-aimed fire from the impenetrable darkness
in which they stood. The sentinels retreated back to the encampment,
and the whole army was roused.

The troops were encamped in the form of a hollow square, and thus were
necessarily between the Indians and the light of their own camp-fires.
Not a warrior was to be seen. The only guide the Americans had in
shooting, was to notice the flash of the enemy's guns. They fired at
the flash. But as every Indian stood behind a tree, it is not probable
that many, if any, were harmed. The Indians were very wary not to
expose themselves. They kept at a great distance, and were not very
successful in their fire. Though they wounded quite a number, only four
men were killed. With the dawn of the morning they all vanished.

General Jackson did not wish to leave the corpses of the slain to be
dug up and scalped by the savages. He therefore erected a large funeral
pyre, placed the bodies upon it, and they were soon consumed to ashes.
Some litters were made of long and flexible poles, attached to two
horses, one at each end, and upon these the wounded were conveyed over
the rough and narrow way. The Indians, thus far, had manifestly been
the victors They had inflicted serious injury upon the Americans; and
there is no evidence that a single one of their warriors had received
the slightest harm. This was the great object of Indian strategy. In
the wars of civilization, a great general has ever been willing to
sacrifice the lives of ten thousand of his own troops if, by so doing,
he could kill twenty thousand of the enemy. But it was never so with
the Indians. They prized the lives of their