282 The Winning of the West 



guns, and many tomahawks 38 and some other plun- 

 der, 39 returned to their camp. 



The battle had been bloody as well as stubborn. 

 The whites, though the victors, had suffered more 

 than their foes, and indeed had won only because it 

 was against the entire policy of Indian warfare to 

 suffer a severe loss, even if a victory could be 

 gained thereby. Of the whites, some seventy-five 

 men had been killed or mortally wounded, and one 

 hundred and forty severely or slightly wounded, 40 

 so that they lost a fifth of their whole number. The 

 Indians had not lost much more than half as many ; 

 about forty warriors were killed outright or died of 

 their wounds. 41 Among the Indians no chief of im- 



38 "Am. Archives." Letter of November 4, 1774. It is 

 doubtful if Logan was in this fight ; the story about Corn- 

 stalk killing one of his men who flinched may or may not be 

 true. 



39 Hale, 199; the plunder was afterward Sold at auction for 



40 These are the numbers given by Stewart ; but the ac- 

 counts vary greatly. Monette ("Valley of the Mississippi,") 

 says 87 killed and 141 wounded. The letters written at the 

 time evidently take no account of any but the badly wounded. 

 Shelby thus makes the killed 45, and the wounded (including 

 the .mortally hurt) 68.* Another account ("Am. Archives," 

 p. 1617) says 40 men killed and 96 wounded, 20 odd of whom 

 were since dead ; while a foot-note to this letter enumerates 

 53 dead outright, and 87 wounded, "some of whom have since 

 died." It is evidently impossible that the slightly wounded 

 are included in these lists; and in all probability Stewart's 

 account is correct, as he was an eye-witness and participant. 



41 Twenty-one were scalped on the field; the bodies of 12 

 more were afterward found behind logs or in holes where 

 they had been lain, and 8 eventually died of their wounds. 

 (See "American Archives," Smith, Hale, De Haas, etc.; 



