The camp-fires were built, supper prepared, and sentinels being carefully stationed all around to prevent surprise, the soldiers, protected from the wintry wind only by the gigantic forest, wrapped themselves in their blankets and threw themselves down on the withered leaves for sleep.  The Indians crept noiselessly along from tree to tree, each man searching for a sentinel, until about too hours before day, when they opened a well-aimed fire from the impenetrable darkness in which they stood.  The sentinels retreated back to the encampment, and the whole army was roused.

The troops were encamped in the form of a hollow square, and thus were necessarily between the Indians and the light of their own camp-fires.  Not a warrior was to be seen.  The only guide the Americans had in shooting, was to notice the flash of the enemy’s guns.  They fired at the flash.  But as every Indian stood behind a tree, it is not probable that many, if any, were harmed.  The Indians were very wary not to expose themselves.  They kept at a great distance, and were not very successful in their fire.  Though they wounded quite a number, only four men were killed.  With the dawn of the morning they all vanished.

General Jackson did not wish to leave the corpses of the slain to be dug up and scalped by the savages.  He therefore erected a large funeral pyre, placed the bodies upon it, and they were soon consumed to ashes.  Some litters were made of long and flexible poles, attached to two horses, one at each end, and upon these the wounded were conveyed over the rough and narrow way.  The Indians, thus far, had manifestly been the victors They had inflicted serious injury upon the Americans; and there is no evidence that a single one of their warriors had received the slightest harm.  This was the great object of Indian strategy.  In the wars of civilization, a great general has ever been willing to sacrifice the lives of ten thousand of his own troops if, by so doing, he could kill twenty thousand of the enemy.  But it was never so with the Indians.  They prized the lives of their warriors too highly.

On their march the troops came to a wide creek, which it was necessary to cross.  Here the Indians again prepared for battle.  They concealed themselves so effectually as to elude all the vigilance of the scouts.  When about half the troops had crossed the stream, the almost invisible Indians commenced their assault, opening a very rapid but scattering fire.  Occasionally a warrior was seen darting from one point to another, to obtain better vantage-ground.

Major Russel was in command of a small rear-guard.  His soldiers soon appeared running almost breathless to join the main body, pursued by a large number of Indians.  The savages had chosen the very best moment for their attack.  The artillery-men were in an open field surrounded by the forest.  The Indians, from behind stumps, logs, and trees, took deliberate aim, and almost every bullet laid a soldier