h
desperation; & when the troops which had gone in pursuit of those who
fled upon the first onset, returned to take part in the engagement,
they threw down their guns and rushed upon the regulars tomahawk in
hand. Many of them fell, but being so very far superior in numbers,
the regulars were at last overpowered. Their firmness and bravery
could not avail much, against so overwhelming a force; for though one
of them might thrust his bayonet into the side of an Indian, two other
savages were at hand to sink their tomahawks into his head. In his
official account of this battle, Gen. Harmar claimed the victory; but
the thinned ranks of his troops shewed that they had been severely
worsted. Fifty of the regulars and one hundred of the militia were
killed in the contest, and many wounded. The loss of the Indians was
no doubt considerable, [293] or they would not have suffered the army
to retire to Fort Washington unmolested.[14]

Instead of the security from savage hostilities, which it was expected
would result from Harmar's campaign, the inhabitants of the frontier
suffered from them, more than they had been made to endure since the
close of the war with Great Britain. Flushed with the success which
had crowned their exertions to repel the invasion which had been made
into their country, and infuriated at the destruction of their crops
and the conflagration of their villages, they became more active and
zealous in the prosecution of hostilities.

The settlements which had been recently made in Ohio up the Muskingum,
had ever after their first establishment, continued apparently on the
most friendly terms with the Indians; but on the part of the savages,
friendship had only been feigned, to lull the whites into a ruinous
security. When this end was attained, they too were made to feel the
bitterness of savage enmity. On the 2d of January 1791, a party of
Indians came to the Big Bottom, and commenced an indiscriminate murder
of the inhabitants; fourteen of whom were killed and five taken
prisoners. The settlement at Wolf's creek escaped a similar fate, by
being apprized of the destruction of Big Bottom by two men who got
safely off in time of the massacre. When the Indians arrived there the
next morning, finding the place prepared to receive them, they
withdrew without making any serious attempt to take it.

On the 24th of April, John Bush (living on Freeman's creek,) having
very early sent two of his children to drive up