the American van was pressing close upon his rear, the British
general was prevailed upon by Tecumseh and his own officers to face
about and give the enemy battle. His ground was well chosen. Parallel
with the river and separated from it by a narrow strip of firm land,
over which ran the beaten route, there lay a swamp of considerable
extent which, besides being densely covered with other wet land growth,
was thickly sprinkled over with willows, whence its name, "Willow
Marsh." Across this isthmus Proctor hastily threw his regiment of about
nine hundred regulars, while Tecumseh, with his brigade of about two
thousand warriors, ambushed himself in the fastness of the swamp. On
this occasion, as had he, indeed, on every other occasion of the kind,
the Indian leader displayed a degree of generalship which stands
without parallel in the annals of savage warfare. Pivoting his brigade
on the right of the English regiment, he stretched it out in a long
line, inclined curvingly forward, with the intent of suddenly unmasking
and swinging it round upon the enemy's flank, should he in a body
attempt to force the passage of the isthmus.

About the middle of the afternoon the Americans came marching up in full
force and in orderly array. Inferring at once, from the features of the
ground and from the little that was visible of the enemy, what the
English and Indian line of battle must be, General Harrison promptly
determined upon his plan of attack. The Kentucky regiment of mounted
riflemen, one thousand strong, commanded by Colonel Johnson, he ordered
to open the engagement by falling upon the Indian brigade where he knew
it must be lying concealed in the swamp. His two companies of United
States regulars, with a regiment of volunteer infantry, he sent forward
to make a charge on the British regulars where, with their muskets and
bayonets gleaming in the yellow autumn sunlight, they were seen extended
in a long scarlet line from river to swamp. The general himself would
hold a reserve of fifteen hundred men with which to cooperate as
occasion should direct.

The Americans advanced to the attack with great spirit, and were
received with equal spirit by the Indian wing of the enemy, and with a
steady concert of action unprecedented in Indian warfare. But hardly had
the Kentuckians sent forth their first volley when Proctor, too tender
of his precious body even to strike a single blow for his precious
booty, to say nothing of his pre