eding profusely in
several places. The battle continued with the Indians on the left. The
infantry, with some of colonel R. M. Johnson's troops mixed up
promiscuously with them, continued the battle for half an hour after
colonel Johnson was disabled and had ceased to command his men."[B]
Doctor S. Theobald, of Lexington, Kentucky, one of the surgeons to the
mounted regiment, says, "colonel Johnson was wounded in the onset of
the battle. I had the honor to compose one of his 'forlorn hope,' and
followed him in the charge. It is impossible, under such circumstances,
to estimate time with precision; but I know the period was a very brief
one from the firing of the first guns, which indeed was tremendously
heavy, till colonel Johnson approached me covered with wounds, but
still mounted. I think he said to me, I am severely wounded, which way
shall I go? That I replied, follow me, which he did: and I conducted
him directly across the swamp, on the margin of which we had charged,
and to the point where doctor Mitchell, surgeon-general of Shelby's
corps, was stationed. Some one hundred and fifty or two hundred yards
in the rear, colonel Johnson was taken from his horse. He appeared
faint and much exhausted. I asked him if he would have water, to which
he answered, yes. I cast about immediately for some, but there was none
at hand, nor any thing that I could see to bring it in, better than a
common funnel, which I saw lying on the ground, and which I seized and
ran to the river, (Thames) a distance probably of one hundred yards or
more; and closing the extremity of the funnel with my finger, made use
of it as a cup, from which I gave him drink. In a few minutes after
this, Garret Wall, who also composed one of the 'forlorn hope,' and was
thrown from his horse in the charge, came and solicited me to return
with him to the ground on which we had charged, to aid him in
recovering his lost saddle-bags. I assented. We crossed the narrow
swamp, to which I have before alluded, and had not progressed far,
before we came to the body of one of our men who had been killed, and
who I recognized as Mansfield, of captain Stucker's company: a little
further, that of Scott, of Coleman's company; and progressing some
forty or fifty steps (it may have been more,) in advance of that, we
found our venerable and brave old comrade, colonel Whitley, who was
also of the 'forlorn hope.' Near him, in a moment, I well remember to
have noticed, with a fee