s regulars, his lines broken by attacks on both flanks,
and his artillery silenced to the last gun. The attack was so well
planned, so sudden and so furious, that nothing remained but precipitate
and disastrous retreat. Out of an army consisting of fourteen hundred
men and eighty-six officers, eight hundred and ninety men and sixteen
officers were killed and wounded. St. Clair believed that he had been
"overpowered by numbers," and so reported to the government. "It was
alleged by the officers," says Judge Burnet, "that the Indians far
outnumbered the American troops. That conclusion was drawn, in part,
from the fact that they outflanked and attacked the American lines with
great force, and at the same time on every side." The truth is, that St.
Clair was completely outwitted by the admirable cunning and strategy of
Little Turtle, the Miami, who concerted the plan of attack, and directed
its operation. Nor is it at all likely that the Indians had a superior
force. They often attacked superior numbers, if they enjoyed the better
fighting position, or could take advantage of an ambush or surprise. A
very respectable authority, who has the endorsement of historians,
says: "There was an army of Indians composed of Miamis, Potawatomis,
Ottowas, Chippewas, Wyandots, Delawares, Shawnees, and a few Mingoes and
Cherokees, amounting in all to eleven hundred and thirty-three, that
attacked and defeated General St. Clair on the 4th of November, 1791.
Each nation was commanded by their own chiefs, all of whom were governed
by the Little Turtle, who made the arrangements for the action, and
commenced the attack with the Miamis, who were under his immediate
command. The Indians had thirty killed and died with their wounds the
day of the action and fifty wounded."

Of such formidable mould, were the redmen of the northwest, who went
into battle stripped to the skin, and with bodies painted with horrible
stripes of vermilion. So disastrous had been the result of their
victories over the armies of Harmar and St. Clair, and so illy equipped
with men, money and supplies was the infant government of the United
States, that immediately prior to the campaign of General Anthony Wayne,
a military conference was held between President Washington, General
Knox, Secretary of War, and General Wayne, to devise a system of
military tactics that should thereafter control in the conduct of all
wars against the Indians of the northwest.

The developmen