134 The Winning of the West 



sion, 31 and his main stroke was directed against the 

 clusters of wooden forts that were springing up south 

 of the Ohio. 32 



Late in May, some six hundred Indians and a few 

 Canadians, with a couple of pieces of light field ar- 

 tillery, were gathered and put under the command of 

 Captain Henry Bird. Following the rivers where 

 practicable, that he might the easier carry his guns, 

 he went down the Miami, and on the 22d of June, 

 surprised and captured without resistance Ruddle's 

 and Martin's stations, two small stockades on the 

 South Fork of the Licking. 33 But Bird was not 

 one of the few men fitted to command such a force 

 as that which followed him ; and contenting himself 

 with the slight success he had won, he rapidly 

 retreated to Detroit, over the same path by which 

 he had advanced. The Indians carried off many 

 horses, and loaded their prisoners with the plunder, 

 tomahawking those, chiefly women and children, 

 who could not keep up with the rest ; and Bird could 

 not control them nor force them to show mercy to 

 their captives. 34 He did not even get his cannon 



31 Do. March 8, 1780. 



32 Do. May 17 to July 19, 1780. 



33 He marched overland from the forks of the Licking. 

 Marshall says the season was dry and the waters low; but 

 the Bradford MSS. particularly declare that Bird only went 

 up the Licking at all because the watercourses were so full, 

 and that he had originally intended to attack the settlements 

 at the Falls. 



34 Collins, Butler, etc. Marshall thinks that if the forces 

 could have been held together it would have depopulated 

 Kentucky ; but this is nonsense, for within a week Clark had 

 gathered a very much larger and more efficient body of troops. 



