en down by
the worry and by continued sickness; time and again it was doubtful
whether he could so much as stay with the army. The second in command,
Major-General Richard Butler, was also sick most of the time; and, like
St. Clair, he possessed none of the qualities of leadership save
courage. The whole burden fell on the Adjutant-General, Colonel Winthrop
Sargent, an old Revolutionary officer; without him the expedition would
probably have failed in ignominy even before the Indians were reached,
and he showed not only cool courage but ability of a good order; yet in
the actual arrangements for battle he was, of course, unable to remedy
the blunders of his superiors.

His Shortcomings.

St. Clair should have covered his front and flanks for miles around with
scouting parties; but he rarely sent any out, and, thanks to letting the
management of those that did go devolve on his subordinates, and to not
having their reports made to him in person, he derived no benefit from
what they saw. He had twenty Chickasaws with him; but he sent these off
on an extended trip, lost touch of them entirely, and never saw them
again until after the battle. He did not seem to realize that he was
himself in danger of attack. When some fifty miles or so from the Miami
towns, on the last day of October, sixty of the militia deserted; and he
actually sent back after them one of his two regular regiments, thus
weakening by one half the only trustworthy portion of his force.
[Footnote: Bradley MSS. In his journal Captain Bradley expresses his
astonishment at seeing the regiment and his inability to understand the
object in sending it back. Captain Bradley was not over-pleased with his
life at the fort; as one of the minor ills he mentions in one of his
letters to Ebenezer Banks: "Please deliver the enclosed letter to my
wife. Not a drop of cider have I drinked this twelve month."]

The Last Camp.

On November 3d the doomed army, now reduced to a total of about fourteen
hundred men, camped on the eastern fork of the Wabash, high up, where it
was but twenty yards wide. There was snow on the ground and the little
pools were skimmed with ice. The camp was on a narrow rise of ground,
where the troops were cramped together, the artillery and most of the
horse in the middle. On both flanks, and along most of the rear, the
ground was low and wet. All around, the wintry woods lay in frozen
silence. In front the militia were thrown across the