Chap. XV.} 1774. Oct. |
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was rising, the Indians opened a heavy fire on both
parties; wounding Charles Lewis mortally.
Fleming was wounded thrice; and the Virginians must have given way, but for successive reinforcements from the camp.
‘Be strong,’ cried Cornstalk, the chief of the Red Men; and he animated them by his example.
Till the hour of noon, the combatants fought from behind trees, never above twenty yards apart, often within six, and sometimes near enough to strike with the tomahawk.
At length the Indians, under the protection of the close underwood and fallen trees, retreated, till they gained an advantageous line extending from the Ohio to the Kanawha.
A desultory fire was kept up on both sides till after sunset, when under the favor of night, the savages fled across the river.
The victory cost the Virginians three colonels of militia, forty-six men killed and about eighty wounded.
This battle was the most bloody and best contested in the annals of forest warfare.
The number of the Red Men who were engaged, was probably not less than eight hundred; how many of them fell was never ascertained.
The heroes of that day proved themselves worthy to found states.
Among them were Isaac Shelby, the first governor of Kentucky; William Campbell; the brave George Matthews; Fleming; Andrew Moore, afterwards a senator of the United States; Evan Shelby, James Robertson, and Valentine Sevier.
Their praise resounded not in the backwoods only, but through all Virginia.
Soon after the battle a reinforcement of three hundred troops arrived from Fincastle.
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