The War in the Northwest 245 



side. As soon as a noisy but harmless skirmish 

 had been begun by the sallying party, the main body 

 of warriors burst out of the woods and rushed to- 

 ward the western gate. A single volley from the 

 loopholes drove them back, while the sallying party 

 returned at a run and entered the Lexington gate 

 unharmed, laughing at the success of their counter- 

 strategem. 



The Indians surrounded the fort, each crawling 

 up as close as he could find shelter behind some 

 stump, tree, or fence. An irregular fire began, the 

 whites, who were better covered, having slightly 

 the advantage, but neither side suffering much. 

 This lasted for several hours, until early in the after- 

 noon a party from Lexington suddenly appeared 

 and tried to force its way into the fort. 



The runners who slipped out of the fort at the 

 first alarm went straight to Lexington. There they 

 found that the men had just started out to cut off 

 the retreat of the marauding savages who were 

 ravaging south of the Kentucky. Following their 

 trail they speedily overtook the troops, and told of 

 the attack on Bryan's. Instantly forty men under 

 Major Levi Todd countermarched to the rescue. 

 Being ignorant of the strength of the Indians they 

 did not wait for the others, but pushed boldly for- 

 ward, seventeen being mounted and the others on 

 foot. 10 



The road from Lexington to Bryan's for the last 



10 Va. State Papers, III, p. 300. McClung's and Collins' 

 accounts of this incident are pure romance. 



