Fleming marched to a pond three-quarters of a mile from camp,
and fifty rods inland from the Ohio--this pond being one of the
sources of Crooked Creek. The hostile line was found to extend
from this pond along Crooked Creek, half way to its mouth. The
Indians, under Cornstalk, thought by rushes to drive the whites
into the two rivers, "like so many bullocks," as the chief
later explained; and indeed both lines had frequently to fall
back, but they were skillfully reinforced each time, and by
dusk the savages placed Old Town Creek between them and the
whites. This movement was hastened, a half hour before sunset,
by a movement which Withers confounds with the main tactics.
Captains Matthews, Arbuckle, Shelby, and Stuart were sent with
a detachment up Crooked creek under cover of the bank, with a
view to securing a ridge in the rear of the enemy, from which
their line could be enfiladed. They were discovered in the act,
but Cornstalk supposed that this party was Christian's advance,
and in alarm hurried his people to the other side of Old Town
Creek. The battle was, by dark, really a drawn game; but
Cornstalk had had enough, and fled during the night.--R. G. T.

[16] During the day, a messenger had been dispatched to hurry
on Christian, who with 250 men was convoying cattle and powder.
In the early evening, fifteen miles from Point Pleasant, this
rear party was found, toiling painfully over the wilderness
trail. Christian at once left his property in charge of a small
party, and arrived in camp by midnight.--R. G. T.

[17] Most of the killed and wounded, on both sides, were shot
in the head or breast, which indicates good marksmanship. The
Indians, though skillful marksmen, did not exhibit sufficient
mechanical knowledge to enable them properly to clean their
guns, and thus were at some disadvantage.

The statistician was at work in those days, as now, for we
learn from an old diary that at Old Town Creek were found by
the white victors, 78 rafts with which the Indians had crossed
the Ohio to the attack, the night of October 9-10; and on the
battlefield during the 10th and 12th, were collected 23 guns,
27 tomahawks, 80 blankets, and great numbers of war-clubs,
shot-pouches, powder