Another man, of a far higher type, was Captain Samuel Brady, already a noted Indian fighter on the Alleghany.  For many years after the close of the Revolutionary war he was the chief reliance of the frontiersmen of his own neighborhood.  He had lost a father and a brother by the Indians; and in return he followed the red men with relentless hatred.  But he never killed peaceful Indians nor those who came in under flags of truce.  The tale of his wanderings, his captivities, his hairbreadth escapes, and deeds of individual prowess would fill a book.  He frequently went on scouts alone, either to procure information or to get scalps.  On these trips he was not only often reduced to the last extremity by hunger, fatigue, and exposure, but was in hourly peril of his life from the Indians he was hunting.  Once he was captured; but when about to be bound to the stake for burning, he suddenly flung an Indian boy into the fire, and in the confusion burst through the warriors, and actually made his escape, though the whole pack of yelling savages followed at his heels with rifle and tomahawk.  He raised a small company of scouts or rangers, and was one of the very few captains able to reduce the unruly frontiersmen to order.  In consequence his company on several occasions fairly whipped superior numbers of Indians in the woods; a feat that no regulars could perform, and to which the backwoodsmen themselves were generally unequal, even though an overmatch for their foes singly, because of their disregard of discipline. [Footnote:  In the open plain the comparative prowess of these forest Indians, of the backwoodsmen, and of trained regulars was exactly the reverse of what it was in the woods.]

So, with foray and reprisal, and fierce private war, with all the border in a flame, the year 1781 came to an end.  At its close there were in Kentucky seven hundred and sixty able-bodied militia, fit for an offensive campaign. [Footnote:  Letter of John Todd, October 21, 1781.  Virginia State Papers, II., 562.  The troops at the Falls were in a very destitute condition, with neither supplies nor money, and their credit worn threadbare, able to get nothing from the surrounding country (do., p. 313).  In Clark’s absence the colonel let his garrison be insulted by the townspeople, and so brought the soldiers into contempt, while some of the demoralized officers tampered with the public stores.  It was said that much dissipation prevailed in the garrison, to which accusation Clark answered sarcastically:  “However agreeable such conduct might have been to their sentiments, I believe they seldom had the means in their power, for they were generally in a starving condition” (do., Vol.  III., pp. 347 and 359).] As this did not include the troops at the Falls, nor the large shifting population, nor the “fort soldiers,” the weaker men, graybeards, and boys, who could handle a rifle behind a stockade, it is probable that there were then somewhere between four and five thousand souls in Kentucky.