St. Clair and Wayne 63 



of his battalion, until the end of the fight, and led 

 his men in one of the momentarily successful bayonet 

 charges. The only regular regiment present lost 

 every officer killed or wounded. The commander 

 of the Kentucky militia, Colonel Oldham, was killed 

 early in the action, while trying to rally his men 

 and damning them for cowards. 



The charging troops could accomplish nothing 

 permanent. The men were too clumsy and ill-trained 

 in forest warfare to overtake their fleet, half-naked 

 antagonists. The latter never received the shock; 

 but though they fled they were nothing daunted, 

 for they turned the instant the battalion did, and 

 followed firing. They skipped out of reach of the 

 bayonets, and came back as they pleased; and they 

 were only visible when raised by a charge. 



Among the pack-horsemen were some who were 

 accustomed to the .use of the rifle and to life in the 

 woods; and these fought well. One, named Ben- 

 jamin Van Cleve, kept a journal, in which he de- 

 scribed what he saw of the fight. 33 He had no gun, 

 but five minutes after the firing began he saw a 

 soldier near him with his arm swinging useless ; and 

 he borrowed the wounded man's musket and car- 

 tridges. The smoke had settled to within three 

 feet of the ground, so he knelt, covering himself 

 behind a tree, and only fired when he saw an In- 

 dian's head, or noticed one running from cover to 

 cover. He fired away all his ammunition, and the 

 bands of his musket flew off; he picked up another 



33 "American Pioneer," II, 150; Van Cleve's memoranda. 



