There was but one thing to do.  If possible the remnant of the army must be saved, and it could only be saved by instant flight, even at the cost of abandoning the wounded.  The broad road by which the army had advanced was the only line of retreat.  The artillery had already been spiked and abandoned.  Most of the horses had been killed, but a few were still left, and on one of these St. Clair mounted.  He gathered together those fragments of the different battalions which contained the few men who still kept heart and head, and ordered them to charge and regain the road from which the savages had cut them off.  Repeated orders were necessary before some of the men could be roused from their stupor sufficiently to follow the charging party; and they were only induced to move when told that it was to retreat.

    The Troops Break through the Indian Ring.

Colonel Darke and a few officers placed themselves at the head of the column, the coolest and boldest men drew up behind them, and they fell on the Indians with such fury as to force them back well beyond the road.  This made an opening through which, said Van Cleve the packer, the rest of the troops “pressed like a drove of bullocks.”  The Indians were surprised by the vigor of the charge, and puzzled as to its object.  They opened out on both sides and half the men had gone through before they fired more than a chance shot or two.  They then fell on the rear, and began a hot pursuit.  St. Clair sent his aide, Denny, to the front to try to keep order, but neither he nor anyone else could check the flight.  Major Clark tried to rally his battalion to cover the retreat, but he was killed and the effort abandoned.

    Wild Rout of the Army.

There never was a wilder rout.  As soon as the men began to run, and realized that in flight there lay some hope of safety, they broke into a stampede which soon became uncontrollable.  Horses, soldiers, and the few camp followers and women who had accompanied the army were all mixed together.  Neither command nor example had the slightest weight; the men were abandoned to the terrible selfishness of utter fear.  They threw away their weapons as they ran.  They thought of nothing but escape, and fled in a huddle, the stronger and the few who had horses trampling their way to the front through the old, the weak, and the wounded; while behind them raged the Indian tomahawk.  Fortunately the attraction of plundering the camp was so overpowering that the savages only followed the army about four miles; otherwise hardly a man would have escaped.

    Story of Van Cleve the Packer.

St. Clair was himself in much danger, for he tried to stay behind and stem the torrent of fugitives; but he failed, being swept forward by the crowd, and when he attempted to ride to the front to rally them, he failed again, for his horse could not be pricked out of a walk.  The packer, Van Cleve, in his journal, gives a picture of the flight.  He was himself one of the few who lost neither courage nor generosity in the rout.