276 The Winning of the West 



and small attention was paid to picket and sentinel 

 duty; the army, like a body of Indian warriors, 

 relying for safety mainly upon the sharp-sighted 

 watchfulness of the individual members and the 

 activity of the hunting parties. 



On the 9th Simon Girty 22 arrived in camp bring- 

 ing a message from Lord Dunmore, which bade 

 Lewis meet him at the Indian towns near the Pick- 

 away plains. Lewis was by no means pleased at 

 the change, but nevertheless prepared to break camp 

 and march next morning. He had with him at 

 this time about eleven hundred men. 23 



His plans, however, were destined to be rudely 

 forestalled, for Cornstalk, coming rapidly through 

 the forest, had reached the Ohio. That very night 

 the Indian chief ferried his men across the river 

 on rafts, six or eight miles above the forks, 24 and 

 by dawn was on the point of hurling his whole 

 force, of nearly a thousand warriors, 25 on the camp 

 of his slumbering foes. 



made when the defeats of Braddock and Grant were still re- 

 cent, that British regulars with the bayonet were best fitted 

 to oppose Indians. 



22 Some accounts say that he was accompanied by Ken ton 

 and McCulloch ; others state that no messenger arrived until 

 after the battle. But this is certainly wrong. Shelby's letter 

 shows that the troops learned the governor's change of plans 

 before the battle. 



23 "Am. Archives," IV, Vol. I, p. 1017; and was joined by 

 Col. Christian's three hundred the day after the battle. 



24 Campbell MSS. Letter of Col. William Preston (presum- 

 ably to Patrick Henry), Oct. 31, 1774. As it is interesting 

 and has never been published, I give it in the Appendix. 



25 Many of the white accounts make their number much 



