The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1896-03-11
A Battle With American Savages

Theodore Roosevelt describes the i'll
starred expedition against The Miami
Indians, undertaken during Washing
toms first administration, under the
command of General Arthur ST. Clair.
On November Sd the doomed army,
now reduced to 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 lit
tie pools were skinned wi h ice. The
camp was on narrow rise of ground,
where the troops were cramped to
gether, the artillery and most of the
horse in the middle. On both TANKS
and along most of the rear the ground
was low and wet. All about the wiutry
woods lay in frozen silence. In front
the militia were thro Tn across the
creek, and nearly a quarter of mile
beyond the rest of the troops. Parties
of Indians were seen during the after
noon, and they skulked around the lines
at night, so that the sentinels frequently
fired at them; yet neither st. Clair nor
Butler took any adequate measures to
ward off the impending blow. 1t is i'm
probable that, as things actually were
at this time, they could have won vic.
tory over their terrible foes, but they
might have avoided overwhelming dis.
aster.
On November 4th the men were I'M
der arms, as usual, by dawn, st. Clair
intending to throw up iEtrenchments
and then make forced march in lig
order against the Indian towns. But
he was fOrestaled. Soon after sunrise,
just as the men were dismissed from
parade, sudden assault was made
upon the militia, who lay unprotected
beyond the creek. The unexpected
ness and fury of the onset, the heavy
firing, and the wild whoops and yells of
the throngs of painted savages threw
the militia into disorder. After few
moments resistance they broke and
fed in wild panic to the camp of the
regulars, among whom they drove in
frightened herd, spreading dismay and
confusion.
The drums beat, and the troops
sprang to arms as soon as they heard
the heavy firing at the front, and their
volleys for a moment checked the on.
rush of the plumed woodland warriors.
But the check avaied nothing. The
braves filed off to one side and the
other, completely surrounded the camp,
killed or drove in the guards and pick
cts, and then advanced close to the
main lines.
A furious battle followed. After the
first onset the Indians fought in silence,
no sound coming from them save the
incessant rattle of their fire as they
crept from log to log, from tree to tree,
ever closer and closer. The soldiers
stood in close order in the open; their
musketry and artillery fire made tire.
mendous noise, but did little damage to
foe they could hardly see. Now and
then, through the hanging smoke, ter
ribe figures fitted, painted black and
red, the feathers of hawk and eagle
braided in their long scalp locks; but,
save for these glimpses, the soldiers
knew the presence of their somber
enemy only from the fearful rapidity
with which their comrades fell dead
and wounded in the ranks. They
never even knew the numbers or lead
ers of the Indians. At the time it was
supposed that they outnumbered the
whites; but it is probable that the re-
verse was the case, and it may even be
that they were not more than half as
numerous. 1t is said that the chief
who led them, both in council and bat
tie, was Little Turtle the Miami. AT
any rate there were present all the
chiefs and picked warriors of the Della
wares, Shawnees, Wyandols and Mi
amies, and all the most reckless and ad-
venturous young braves from among
the Iroquois and the Indians of the up
per lakes, as we'll as many of the fero-
cious whites and half-breeds who dwelt
in the Indian villages.
The Indians fought with the utmost
boldness and ferocity, and with the ut
most skill and caution. Under cover oil
the smoke of the heavy but harmless
fire from the army they came up &c
close that they shot the troops down as
hunters slaughter a herd of standing
buffalo. Watching their chance, they
charged again and again with the toma
hawk, gliding in to close quarters, while
their bewildered foes were still blndly
firing into the okeshrouded woods
The men saw no enemy as they stood
in the ranks to load and shoot; in mo-
ment, without warning, dark faces
frowned through the haze, the war. axei
cleaned, and on the frozen ground the
weapons clattered as the soldiers fell
AS the comrades of the fallen sprane
forward to avenge them, the 1.-THE war
riors vanished as rapidly as they hat
appeared, and once more the soldier,
saw before them only the dim forests
and the shifting smoke wreaths, will
vague half-glimpses of the hidden foe
while the steady singing of the Indiar
bullets never ceased, and on every hant