Information of the butchery was at once dispatched to General Clinch.  General Richard Keith Call, with Colonels Richard C. Parish and Leigh Read, having arrived on the 29th with about five hundred volunteers from the adjoining counties, who had previously been ordered to scour the country on the right and left flank, joined the United States troops, numbering about two hundred under General Clinch.  Orders were issued for a forward movement at sunrise on December 29th.  They arrived near the Ouithlacoochee on the 30th, and threw up breastworks around their encampment.  On arriving at the river next morning it was found too deep to be forded.  No Indians being in sight, one of the men swam the river and brought over a canoe.  As only seven men could be taken over at a time, the work of crossing the troops was slow and tedious.  General Clinch and Colonels Samuel Parkhill and Read crossed over, and, in conjunction with General Call, began the construction of rafts on which the baggage and stores could be crossed over.  The regulars were all over by twelve o’clock, and Major Alexander C.W.  Fanning marched them into an open field surrounded on all sides either by a thick swamp or hammock, and there formed them into line, awaiting the crossing of the volunteers.  When about fifty of the volunteers had crossed, and the officers were engaged in superintending the construction of the rafts, an alarm was given that the Indians were upon them.  General Call at once put his men in line, and the Indians opened fire, but the volunteers poured a heavy volley into the hammock, which silenced the fire of the Indians for a time; but they soon collected their forces and opened a galling fire on the regulars.  General Clinch ordered a charge, which was gallantly led by Major Fanning, but the Indians maintained their ground.  A second charge was more successful, driving the Indians some distance back.  The chiefs made every effort to rally them, but without success.

During the battle General Call, Colonel John Warren, and Major James G. Cooper, with a number of volunteers, crossed the river at imminent peril, and the two latter immediately engaged and fought with the most determined bravery.  General Call had formed the volunteers that last crossed into two parallel lines, placing one above and the other below the crossing place, for the purpose of protecting the troops on the other side and those who were recrossing with the dead and wounded.  He therefore did not reach the field until the enemy were repulsed, though his services were eminently useful in directing the crossing.  Clinch at this time was not advised of the disaster to Major Dade’s command.