ht of the first of September, Captain Ogal, who with a party
of twelve men, had been for some days engaged in watching the paths to
the settlement and endeavoring to ascertain the approach of danger,[4]
came into Wheeling with the assurance that the enemy were not at hand.
In the course of that night, however, the Indian army, consisting of
three hundred and eighty-nine warriors,[5] came near to the village,
and believing from the lights in the fort, that the inhabitants were
on their guard, and that more might be effected by an ambuscade in the
morning, than by an immediate and direct attack, posted themselves
advantageously for that purpose. Two lines were formed, at some
distance from each, extending from the river across the point to the
creek, with a cornfield to afford them concealment. In the centre
between these lines, near a road leading through the field to the
fort, and in a situation easily exposing them to observation, six
Indians were stationed, for the purpose of decoying within the lines,
any force which might discover, and come out to molest them.

Early in the morning of the second, two men, going to a field for
horses, passed the first line, and came near to the Indians in the
centre, before they were aware of danger.[6]--Perceiving the six
savages near them, they endeavored to escape by flight. A single shot
brought one of them to the ground: the other was permitted to escape
that he might give the alarm. Captain Mason (who, with Captain Ogal
and his party, and a few other men had occupied the fort the
preceding night) hearing that there were but six of the enemy,
marched with fourteen men, to the place where they had been seen. He
had not proceeded far from the fort, before he came in view of them;
and leading his men briskly towards where they were, soon found
themselves enclosed by a body of Indians, who 'till then had
remained concealed.--Seeing the impossibility of maintaining a
conflict with them, he endeavored to retreat with his men, to the
fort; but in [162] vain. They were intercepted by the Indians, and
nearly all literally, cut to pieces.[7] Captain Mason however, and his
sergeant succeeded in passing the front line, but being observed by
some of the enemy, were pursued, and fired at, as they began to
rise the hill. The sergeant was so wounded by the ball aimed at him,
that he fell, unable again to get up; but seeing his Captain pass near
without a gun and so crippled that he moved but sl