ere posted
behind logs and trees, immediately under the knoll on which the
artillery stood. They picked off the artillery-men one by one, until a
huge pile of corpses lay about the gun wheels. As the Indians swarmed
into the camp in the intervals between the futile charges of the
regulars, the artillery-men were all scalped. Wells belonged to a
Kentucky family and had been captured by the Miamis when a child twelve
years of age, and is said to have become the adopted son of Little
Turtle. He had acquired the tongue and habits of a savage, but after the
battle with St. Clair he seems to have been greatly troubled with the
thought that he might have slain some of his own kindred. Afterwards
when Wayne's army advanced into the Indian country he bade the Little
Turtle goodbye, and became one of Wayne's most trusty and valuable
scouts. After Fallen Timbers he returned to his Indian wife and
children, but remained the friend of the United States. In General
Harrison's day he was United States Indian agent at Fort Wayne, but was
killed in the massacre of Fort Dearborn, in 1812, by the faithless bands
of Potawatomi under the chief Blackbird.

The retreat of St. Clair's army was very precipitate. "It was, in fact,
a flight." The fugitives threw away their arms and accouterments and
made a mad race for the walls of Fort Jefferson, twenty-nine miles away,
arriving there a little after sunset. The loss of the Americans was
appalling, and recalled the disaster of Braddock's defeat on the
Monongahela. Out of an army of twelve hundred men and eighty-six
officers, Braddock lost seven hundred and twenty-seven in killed and
wounded. St. Clair's army consisted of fourteen hundred men and
eighty-six officers, of whom eight hundred and ninety men and sixteen
officers were killed or wounded. The slaughter of officers of the line
had been so disastrous, that in the spring of the next year, Anthony
Wayne, the new commander, found it extremely difficult to train the new
troops. He had first to impart the military tactics to a group of young
officers. "Several pieces of artillery, and all the baggage, ammunition,
and provisions, were left on the field of battle, and fell into the
hands of the Indians. The stores and other public property, lost in the
action, were valued at thirty-two thousand eight hundred and ten dollars
and seventy-five cents." The loss of the Indians was trifling. As near
as may be ascertained, they had about thirty killed an