St. Clair and Wayne 57 



had twenty Chickasaws with him ; but he sent these 

 off on an extended trip, lost touch of them entirely, 

 and never saw them again until after the battle. 

 He did not seem to realize that he was himself in 

 danger of attack. When some fifty miles or so from 

 the Miami towns, on the last day of October, sixty 

 of the militia deserted; and he actually sent back 

 after them one of his two regular regiments, thus 

 weakening by one half the only trustworthy portion 

 of his force. 29 



On November 3d the doomed army, now re- 

 duced to a total of about fourteen hundred men, 

 camped on the eastern fork of the Wabash, high up, 

 where it was but twenty yards wide. There was 

 snow on the ground and the little pools were 

 skimmed with ice. The camp was on a narrow rise 

 of ground, where the troops were cramped together, 

 the artillery and most of the horse in the middle. 

 On both flanks, and along most of the rear, the 

 ground was low and wet. All around, the wintry 

 woods lay in frozen silence. In front the militia 

 were thrown across the creek, and nearly a quarter 

 of a mile beyond the rest of the troops. 30 Parties 

 of Indians were seen during the afternoon, and they 

 skulked around the lines at night, so that the senti- 



99 Bradley MSS. In his journal Captain Bradley ex- 

 presses his astonishment at seeing the regiment and his in- 

 ability to understand the object in sending it back. Captain 

 Bradley was not over-pleased with his life at the fort; as one 

 of the minor ills he mentions in one of his letters to Eben- 

 ezer Banks: "Please deliver the enclosed letter to my wife. 

 Not a drop of cider have I drinked this twelve month." 



30 St Clair's Letter to the Secretary of War, Nov. g, 1791. 



