on the south-east side, to send out a detachment to take
and spike the British guns on the south side.

[Footnote A: M'Affee.]

General Clay ordered the five remaining boats to fall behind the one
occupied by him; but in attempting to do so, they were driven on shore,
and thus thrown half a mile into the rear. The general kept close to
the right bank, intending to land opposite to the detachment under
Dudley, but finding no guide there, and the Indians having commenced a
brisk fire on his boat, he attempted to cross to the detachment. The
current, however, was so swift, that it soon carried him too far down
for that project; he therefore turned back, and landed on the right
bank further down. Captain Peter Dudley, with a part of his company,
was in this boat, making in the whole upwards of fifty men, who now
marched into camp without loss, amidst a shower of grape from the
British batteries and the fire of some Indians. The boat with their
baggage and four sick soldiers, was left, as the general supposed, in
the care of two men who met him at his landing, and by whom he expected
she would be brought down under the guns of the fort. In a few minutes,
however, she fell into the hands of the Indians. The attempt which he
had made to cross the river, induced colonel Boswell, with the rear
boats, to land on the opposite side; but as soon as captain Hamilton
discovered the error under which he was acting, he instructed him to
cross over and fight his way into camp. When he arrived at the south
side, he was annoyed on landing by the Indians; and as soon as his men
were on shore, he formed them and returned the fire of the enemy; at
the same time he was directed by captain Shaw, from the commanding
general, to march in open order, through the plain, to the fort. As
there was now a large body of Indians on his flank, general Harrison
determined to send out a reinforcement from the garrison to enable him
to beat them. Accordingly, Alexander's brigade, a part of Johnson's
battalion, and the companies of captains Nearing and Dudley, were
ordered to prepare for this duty. When the Kentuckians reached the
gates of the fort, these troops were ready to join them. Having formed
in order--colonel Boswell being on the right,--they marched against the
Indians, who were superior to them in numbers, and at the point of the
bayonet, forced them into the woods to the distance of half a mile or
more. Such was the ardor of our troops, in the p