In the Current of the Revolution 281 



followed up their advantage, and running along the 

 banks of the Kanawha out-flanked the enemy in 

 turn. The Indians being pushed very hard now be- 

 gan to fall back, the best fighters covering the re- 

 treat, while the wounded were being carried off; 

 although a rare thing in Indian battles they 

 were pressed so close that they were able to bear 

 away but a portion of their dead. The whites were 

 forced to pursue with the greatest caution ; for those 

 of them who advanced heedlessly were certain to 

 be ambushed and receive a smart check. Finally, 

 about one o'clock, the Indians, in their retreat, 

 reached a very strong position, where the under- 

 brush was very close and there were many fallen 

 logs and steep banks. Here they stood resolutely 

 at bay, and the whites did not dare attack them in 

 such a stronghold. So the action came almost to 

 an end; though skirmishing went on until about an 

 hour before sunset, the Indians still at times taunt- 

 ing their foes and calling out to them that they had 

 eleven hundred -men as well as the whites, and that 

 to-morrow they were going to be two thousand 

 strong. 37 



This was only bravado, however; they had suf- 

 fered too heavily to renew the attack, and under 

 cover of darkness they slipped away, and made a 

 most skilful retreat, carrying all their wounded in 

 safety across the Ohio. The exhausted Americans, 

 having taken a number of scalps, as well as forty 



17 Campbell MSS. Preston's letter. 



