The War in the Northwest 247 



tain Patterson's ire; and he now undertook to be 

 spokesman for the rest. Springing up into sight 

 he answered Girty in the tone of rough banter so 

 dear to the backwoodsmen, telling the renegade that 

 he knew him well, and despised him, that the men 

 in the fort feared neither cannon nor reinforce- 

 ments, and if need be, could drive Girty's tawny 

 followers back from the walls with switches; and 

 he ended by assuring him that the whites, too, were 

 expecting help, for the country was roused, and if 

 the renegade and his followers dared to linger where 

 they were for another twenty- four hours, their scalps 

 would surely be sun-dried on the roofs of the cabins. 

 The Indians knew well that the riflemen were 

 mustering at all the neighboring forts ; and, as soon 

 as their effort to treat failed, they withdrew during 

 the forenoon of the i/th. 12 They were angry and 



12 There are four contemporary official reports of this battle : 

 two American, those of Boone and Levi Todd; and two Brit- 

 ish, those of McKee and Caldwell. All four agree that the 

 fort was attacked on one day, the siege abandoned on the 

 next, pursuit made on the third, and the battle fought on 

 the fourth. Boone and Todd make the siege begin on August 

 r6th, and the battle take place on the igth ; Caldwell makes 

 the dates the isth and i8th; McKee makes them the i8th 

 and 2ist. I therefore take Boone's and Todd's dates. 



McClung and Marshall make the siege last three or four days 

 instead of less than two. 



All the accounts of the battle of the Blue Licks, so far, 

 have been very inaccurate, because the British reports have 

 never been even known to exist, and the reports of the Ameri- 

 can commanders, printed in the Virginia State Papers, have 

 but recently seen the light. Mr. Whitsitt in his recent excel- 

 lent "Life of Judge Wallace," uses the latter, but makes the 



