and sustained a
loss in killed and wounded, as great as was occasioned to the
enemy. This circumstance was attributable to the sudden and
unexpected attack made on it, by the Indians, while entirely
concealed, and partially sheltered. No men could have evinced more
dauntless intrepidity and determined fortitude than was displayed
by them, when fired upon by a hidden foe, and their comrades were
falling around them. When the "combat thickened," such was their
noble daring, that Girty, (who had been made chief among the
Mingoes,) remarking the desperation with which they exposed
themselves to the hottest of the fire, drew off his three hundred
warriors; observing, that it was useless to fight with fools and
madmen. The loss in killed under the peculiar [225] circumstances,
attending the commencement of the action, was less than would perhaps
be expected to befall an army similarly situated;--amounting in all
to only twenty men.

Here, as at Chilicothe, the crops of corn and every article of
subsistence on which the troops could lay their hands, were entirely
laid waste. At the two places, it was estimated that not less than
five hundred acres of that indispensable article, were entirely
destroyed.[13]

An unfortunate circumstance, occurring towards the close of the
engagement, damped considerably the joy which would otherwise have
pervaded the army. A nephew of Gen. Clarke, who had been taken, and
for some time detained, a prisoner by the savages, was at Piqua during
the action. While the battle continued, he was too closely guarded to
escape to the whites; but upon the dispersion of the savages which
ensued upon the cannonading of the houses into which some of them had
retreated, he was left more at liberty. Availing himself of this
change of situation, he sought to join his friends. He was quickly
discovered by some of them, and mistaken for an Indian. The mistake
was fatal. He received a shot discharged at him, and died in a few
hours.

Notwithstanding the success of the expeditions commanded by Col.
Broadhead and Gen. Clarke, and the destruction which took place on the
Alleghany, at Coshocton, Chilicothe and Piqua, yet the savages
continued to commit depredations on the frontiers of Virginia. The
winter, as usual, checked them for awhile, but the return of spring,
brought with it, the horrors which mark the progress of an Indian
enemy. In Kentucky and in North Western Virginia, it is true that the
inhabitants di