wns on
the Scioto.

Some short time after the battle had ended, Colonel Christian arrived
with the troops which he had collected in the settlements on the
Holstein, and relieved the anxiety of many who were disposed to
believe the retreat of the Indians to be only a feint;[16] and that
an attack would be again speedily made by them, strengthened and
reinforced by those of the enemy who had been observed during the
engagement, on the opposite side of the Ohio and Kenhawa rivers. But
these had been most probably stationed there, in anticipation of
victory, to prevent the Virginia troops from effecting a retreat
across those rivers, (the only possible chance of escape, had they
been overpowered by the enemy in their front;) and the loss sustained
by the Indians was too great, and the prospect of a better fortune,
too gloomy and unpromising, for them to enter again into an
engagement. Dispirited by the bloody repulse with which they had met,
they hastened to their towns, better disposed to purchase security
from farther hostilities by negotiation, than risk another battle with
an army whose strength and prowess, they had already tested; and found
superior to their own. The victory indeed, was decisive, and many
advantages were obtained by it; but they were not cheaply bought. The
Virginia army sustained, in this engagement, a loss of seventy-five
killed, and one hundred and forty wounded.--About one fifth of the
entire number of the troops.

Among the slain were Colonels Lewis and Field; Captains Buford,
Morrow, Wood, Cundiff, Wilson, and Robert McClannahan; and Lieutenants
Allen, Goldsby and Dillon, with some other subalterns. The loss of the
enemy could not be ascertained. On the morning after the action,
Colonel Christian marched his men over the battle ground and found
twenty-one of the Indians lying dead; and twelve others [129] were
afterwards discovered, where they had been attempted to be concealed
under some old logs and brush.[17]

From the great facility with which the Indians either carry off or
conceal their dead, it is always difficult to ascertain the number of
their slain; and hence arises, in some measure, the disparity between
their known loss and that sustained by their opponents in battle.
Other reasons for this disparity, are to be found in their peculiar
mode of warfare, and in the fact, that they rarely continue a contest,
when it has to be maintained with the loss of their warriors. It would
not