dian force which lay concealed in the woods. General St. Clair, who was suffering severely from gout, was unable to mount his horse, and had to be carried about in a litter, from which he gave his orders with discretion and the most perfect coolness. The battle raged fearfully for nearly three hours, and after nearly half of his army had been slaughtered, St. Clair beat a headlong retreat. Thus were all the plans, hopes and labors of President Washington, congress, and the cabinet, in reference to the Indian campaign, utterly and deplorably overthrown in a single day! This result is stated to have arisen thus: On the third of November, St. Clair formed his force into two lines; the first, under the command of General Butler, composed the right wing, and lay with a creek immediately in their front. The left wing, commanded by Colonel Darke, formed the second, and lay with an interval of about seventy yards between them and the first line. The militia were advanced beyond the creek, about a quarter of a mile in front. About half an hour before sunrise the next morning, just after the troops had been dismissed from the parade, an unexpected attack was made upon the militia, who fled in the utmost confusion, and rushing into camp through the first line of regular troops, which had

been formed the instant the first gun was discharged, threw them too into disorder. Such was the panic, and so rapid and irregular the flight, that the exertions of the officers to recall the men to their senses and to duty were quite unavailing.

It was soon perceived that the American fire could produce, on a concealed enemy, no considerable effect, and that the only hope of victory was in the bayonet. At the head of the second regiment, which formed the left of the left wing, Darke made an impetuous charge upon the enemy, forced them from their ground with some loss, and drove them about four hundred yards. He was followed by that whole wing; but the want of a sufficient number of riflemen to press this advantage, deprived him of its benefit, and, as soon as he gave over the pursuit, the Indians renewed the attack. dians renewed the attack. In the mean

wounded, the left of the right wing was broken, the artillerists almost to a man killed, the guns seized, and the camp penetrated by the enemy. Orders were given to again charge with the bayonet; this was done with spirit and momentary success, the Indians being driven out of the camp, and the artillery recovered.

To save the remnant of the army was all that now remained to be done; and, about half-past nine in the morning, General St. Clair ordered Colonel Darke, with the second regiment, to charge a body of Indians who intercepted their retreat, and to gain the road. Major Clarke, with his battalion, was directed to cover the rear. These orders were executed, and then a disorderly flight commenced. The pursuit was kept up about four miles, when, fortunately for the surviving Americans, the victorious savages, eager for plunder, stopped at the camp of their vanquished foes, to divide the spoils. The routed troops continued their flight to Fort Jefferson-some thirty miles, throwing away their arms along the road. At this place they met the detached regiment, and leaving their wounded at Fort Jefferson, the army continued its retreat to Fort Washington, the site of the present city of Cincinnati.

Towards the close of a winter's day, in December, an officer in uniform was seen to dismount in front of the president's house in Philadelphia, and, giving the bridle to his servant, knock at the door of the mansion. Learning from the porter that the president was at dinner, he said he was on public business, having dispatches which he could deliver only to the commander-in-chief. A servant was sent into the dining-room to give the information to Mr. Lear, the president's private

secretary, who left the table and went into the hall, where the officer repeated what he had said. Mr. Lear replied that, as the president's secretary, he would take charge of the dispatches and deliver them at the proper time. The officer made answer that he had just arrived from the western army, and his orders were explicit to deliver them with all promptitude, and to the president in person; but that he would wait his directions. Mr. Lear returned, and in a whisper imparted to the president what had passed. General Washington rose from the table and went to the officer. He was back in a short time, made a word of apology for his absence, but no allusion to the cause of it. He had company that day. Everything went on as usual. Dinner over, the gentlemen passed to the drawing-room of Mrs. Washington, which was open in the evening. The general spoke courteously to every lady in the room, as was his custom. His hours were early, and by ten o'clock all the company had gone. Soon Mrs. Washington left the room, and the general and Mr. Lear remained. The chief now paced the room in hurried strides, and without speaking, for several minutes. Then he sat down on a sofa by the fire, telling Mr. Lear to sit down. He rose again, and, as he walked backward and forward, Mr. Lear saw a storm gathering. In the agony of his emotion, he struck his clenched hands with fearful force against his forehead, and in a paroxysm of anguish exclaimed

"It's all over! St. Clair's defeatedrouted; the officers nearly all killed-the men by wholesale-that brave army cut to pieces the rout complete! too shocking to think of—and a surprise in the bargain!"

He uttered all this with great vehemence. Then he paused, and walked about the room several times, agitated, but saying nothing. Near the door he stopped short and stood still a few seconds; then, turning to the secretary, who stood amazed at the spectacle of Washington in all his terrors, the general, in his wrath, again broke out, saying,

"Yes, sir, HERE, in this very room, on this very spot, I took leave of him; wished him success and honor. " You have your instructions,' I said, 'from the secretary of war; I had a strict eye to them, and will add but one word-beware of a surprise! I repeat it-beware of a surprise! You know how the Indians fight us.' He went off with that as my last solemn warning thrown into his ears. And yet, to suffer that army to be cut to pieces, hacked by a surprise-the very thing I guarded him against! O God! O God! he's worse than a murderer! How can he answer it to his country? The blood of the slain is upon him-the curse of widows and orphans-the curse of heaven!"

This torrent came out in tone appalling. His very frame shook. "It was awful!"

saw the whole disaster, but not all the particulars. I will hear him without prejudice; he shall have full justice; yes, long, faithful, and meritorious services have their claims."

Washington was now perfectly calm. Half an hour had gone by; the storm of indignation and passion was over, and no sign of it was afterward seen in his conduct or heard in his conversation. His wrath on this occasion was perhaps never before aroused to so great a pitch, except when he confronted Lee, when the latter was retreating at the battle of Monmouth.

St. Clair was succeeded by the brave General Wayne, whose successes retrieved the misfortunes of his predecessor, as the following stirring record will show. It will be interesting, however, to have some account of the character and personal ap

said Mr. Lear. More than once he threw his hands up as he hurled imprecations upon St. Clair. Mr. Lear remained speechless-awed into breathless silence. Presently the roused chief sat down on the sofa once more. He seemed conscious of his passion, and uncomfortable. He was silent; his wrath began to subside. He at length said, in an altered voice,

"This must not go beyond this room." Another pause followed-a longer onewhen he said, in a tone quite low,

"General St. Clair shall have justice. I looked hastily through the dispatches

pearance of Michikiniqua, or "Little Turtle," the Missesago chief, who conquered St. Clair, for in no recorded battle did the sons of the forest ever show themselves better warriors, or achieve more renown at home and abroad.

Notwithstanding his name, Little Turtle was at this time at least six feet high, strong, muscular, and remarkably dignified in his manners, though of a very sour and morose countenance, and apparently very crafty and subtle. He was the son of a Miami chief, and was forty-five

years of age when he led his warriors against poor St. Clair. His warlike training was of that stern and hardening kind which was never omitted in his nation.

It was on the banks of the Miami, or Maumee, in 1794, that General Anthony Wayne, the successor of St. Clair in the command of the American army in the Miami country, dealt a retributive and staggering blow to the power of the Indians in that vast and magnificent region, -a blow from which they never recovered.

Realizing the terrible shock which the nation received by the defeat of St. Clair,

solved, and a general savage confederacy formed against the United States.

On the eighth of August, 1794, Wayne had reached the confluence of the Au Glaize and the Miamis of the lakes, without opposition. The richest and most extensive settlements of the western Indians were here. Halting at this place, a few days, the Americans threw up some works of defense. A fort had also been built on the St. Mary, twenty-four miles in advance of Fort Recovery.

Unwilling to lose time, or to be in any way outwitted, Wayne moved forward on the fifteenth of August, and on the sixteenth met his messenger returning from the Indians, and bearing word from them, that, if the Americans would wait ten days at Glaize, they, the Indians, would decide for

peace or war. Wayne's only notice of this evasive message was to march straight on, arriving, on the eighteenth, at the rapids; here they halted, and labored the next day in erecting works for the protection of their baggage. At eight, on the morning of the twentieth, the American army moved down the north bank of the

Maumee; Wayne's legion was on the right, its flank covered by the Maumee; one brigade of mounted volunteers was on the left, under Brigadier-General Todd; and the other was in the rear, under Brigadier-General Barbee. A selected battalion of mounted volunteers moved in front of the legion, commanded by Major Price, who was directed to keep sufficiently advanced, so as to give timely notice for the troops to form in case of action, it being yet undetermined whether the Indians would choose peace or war.

Wayne says, in his official dispatch, that, after advancing about five miles, Major Price's corps received so severe a fire from the enemy, who were secreted in the woods and high grass, as to compel them to retreat. The legion was immediately formed into two lines, principally in a close thick wood, which extended for miles on the left, and for a very considerable distance in front; the ground was covered with old fallen timber, probably occasioned by a tornado, which rendered it impracticable for the cavalry to act with effect, and afforded the enemy the most favorable covert for their mode of warfare. The savages were formed in three lines, within supporting distance of each other, and extending for nearly two miles at right angles with the river. Wayne soon discovered, from the weight of the fire and the extent of their lines, that the enemy were in full force in front, in possession of their favorite ground, and endeavoring to turn the American left flank. He therefore gave orders for the second line to advance and support the first, and directed Major-General Scott to gain and turn the right flank of the savages, with the whole of the mounted volunteers, by a circuitous route; at the same time, the front line was ordered to advance and charge with trailed arms, and rouse the Indians from their coverts at the point of the bayonet, and when up to deliver a close and well-directed fire on their backs, followed by a brisk charge, so as not to give them time to load again.

All these orders were obeyed with spirit