moosey] THE I1ATTLE OF PROPHET^ TOWN 689 



of two minutes, a fact as creditable to their own activity and bravery as to the skill 

 and bravery of their officers. The battle soon became general, and was maintained 

 on both sides with signal anil even desperate valor. The Indians advanced and 

 retreated by the aid of a rattling noise, made with deer hoofs, and persevered in 

 their treacherous attack with an apparent determination to conquer or die upon the 

 spot. The battle raged with unabated fury and mutual slaughter until daylight, 

 when a gallant and successful charge by our troops drove the enemy into the swamp 

 and put an end to the conflict. 



Prior to the assault the prophet had given assurances to his followers that in the 

 coming contest the Great Spirit would render the arms of the Americans unavailing; 

 that their bullets would fall harmless at the feet of the Indians; that the latter 

 should have light in abundance, while the former would be involved in thick dark- 

 ness. Availing himself of the privilege conferred by his peculiar office, and perhaps 

 unwilling in his own person to attest at once the rival powers of a sham prophecy 

 and a real American bullet, he prudently took a position on an adjacent eminence, 

 and when the action began, he entered upon the performance of certain mystic rites, 

 at the same time singing a war song. In the course of the engagement he was 

 informed that his men were falling. He told them to tight on — it would soon be as 

 he had predicted. And then, in louder and wilder strains, his inspiring battle song 

 was heard commingling with the sharp crack of the rifle and the shrill war whoop of 

 his "brave but deluded followers, iltnihf, Tecumseh, 6.) 



Drake estimates the whole number of Indians engaged in the battle 

 at between 800 ami 1,000, representing all the principal tribes of 

 the region, and puts the killed at probably not less than 50, with 

 an unusually large proportion of wounded. Harrison's estimate would 

 seem to put the numbers much higher. The Americans lost 60 killed 

 or mortally wounded, and 188 in all. (Drake, Tecumseh, 7.) In their 

 hurried retreat the Indians left a large number of dead on the field. 

 Believing on the word of the prophet that they would receive super- 

 natural aid from above, they had fought with desperate bravery, and 

 their defeat completely disheartened them. They at once abandoned 

 their town and dispersed, each to his own tribe. Tecumtha's great 

 fabric was indeed demolished, and even its foundations rooted up. 



The night before the engagement the prophet had performed some 

 medicine rites by virtue of which he had assured his followers that 

 half of the soldiers were already dead and the other half bereft of 

 their senses, so that the Indians would have little to do but rush into 

 their camp and finish them with the hatchet. The result infuriated 

 the savages. They refused to listen to the excuses which are always 

 ready to the tongue of the unsuccessful medicine-man, denounced him 

 as a liar, and even threatened him with death. Deserted by all but a 

 few of his own tribe, warned away from several villages toward which 

 he turned his steps, he found refuge at last among a small band of 

 Wyandot; but his influence and his sacred prestige were gone forever, 

 and he lived out his remaining days in the gloom of obscurity. 



From the south Tecumtha returned through Missouri, Iowa, and 

 Illinois, everywhere making accessions to his cause, but reached the 

 Wabash at last, just a few days after the battle, only to find his fol- 

 lowers scattered to the four winds, his brother a refugee, and the great 



