the
houses and cornfields, both above and below the British Fort, and
among the rest, the houses and stores of Col. McKee,[12] an English
trader of great influence among the Indians and which had been
invariably exerted to prolong the war, were consumed by fire or
otherwise entirely destroyed. On the 27th, the American army returned
to its head quarters, laying waste the cornfields and villages on each
side of the river for about fifty miles; and [316] this too in the
most populous and best improved part of the Indian country.

The loss sustained by the American army, in obtaining this brilliant
victory, over a savage enemy flushed with former successes, amounted
to thirty-three killed and one hundred wounded:[13] that of the enemy
was never ascertained. In his official account of the action, Gen.
Wayne says, "The woods were strewed for a considerable distance, with
the dead bodies of the Indians and their white auxiliaries;" and at a
council held a few days after, when British agents endeavored to
prevail on them to risk another engagement, they expressed a
determination to "bury the bloody hatchet" saying, that they had just
lost more than two hundred of their warriors.

Some events occurred during this engagement, which are deemed worthy
of being recorded here, although not of general interest. While Capt.
Campbell was engaged in turning the left-flank, of the enemy, three of
them plunged into the river, and endeavored to escape the fury of the
conflict, by swimming to the opposite shore. They were seen by two
negroes, who were on the bank to which the Indians were aiming, and
who concealed themselves behind a log for the purpose of intercepting
them. When within shooting distance one of the negroes fired and
killed one of the Indians. The other two took hold of him to drag him
to shore, when one of them was killed, by the fire of the other negro.
The remaining Indian, being now in shoal water, endeavored to draw
both the dead to the bank; but before he could effect this, the negro
who had first fired, had reloaded, and again discharging his gun,
killed him also, and the three floated down the river.

Another circumstance is related, which shows the obstinacy with which
the contest was maintained by individuals in both armies. A soldier
and an Indian came in collision, the one having an unloaded gun,--the
other a tomahawk. After the action was over, they were both found
dead; the soldier with his bayonet in the bo