History of Hillsdale county. Michigan, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers.

24

HISTORY OF HILLSDALE COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

and in numerous others of the same class and period, it
would seem that the system of covering an advancing
column with a line of skirmishers several paces apart was
unknown to, or at least unpracticed by, the strategists of
that day. It is true a vanguard marched ahead of the main
body, but it formed a small column of itself, and was an easy
mark for the guns of ambushed foemen.
In the present instance half of the advance-guard were
killed or wounded by the first volley; the rest ran back,
throwing the main body into confusion. Dalzell rallied his
men, who made charge after charge upon the fences and
other structures which sheltered the foe, only to find in
each case that the Indians had fled back a little farther into
the darkness, whence their bullets still flew with fearful
effect into the crowded ranks of the soldiers. Dalzell was
compelled to order a retreat.
Up to this time the bloody work had been carried on by
Ojibwas and Ottawas, either because the Wyandots and
Pottawattamies had shaken off the influence of Pontiac,
or because he had planned for them to fall on the English
rear. Whichever supposition is correct, no sooner was the
noise of battle wafted to their ears than the warriors hastened to take part in the fray. The Wyandots rowed
across the river in canoes, the IPotattaattiies hastened
through the woods west of the fort. Scarcely had the
column begun its retrograde movement when all the bands
from below occupied the houses, fences, and orchards by
the roadside, pouring volley after volley into the ranks of
the wearied and discouraged soldiery.
At one point, half a mile below Bloody Run, the savages
occupied a cluster of out-houses and a newly-dug cellar close
to the road, and, strange as it may seem, they were again
able to ambush the column, allowing the vanguard to pass
unharmed, but firing with deadly effect upon the centre and
rear. The retreat came near degenerating into a perfect
rout, but Dalzell, though twice severely wounded, rallied
his men, and did all that valor could inspire to compensate
for his lack of skill. Maj. Rogers, with his American
rangers, broke into a house and drove out the savages.
Capt. Gray, while charging the enemy, was mortally wounded,
but the foe was temporarily repulsed.
Again the retreat was resumed, and instantly the Pottawattamies and Wyandots gathered on the flank of the
column and riddled it with their deadly volleys. Dalzell
was killed and his body abandoned to the brutal rage of
the foe by the fleeing soldiers. Rogers again took possession of a house to cover the retreat, and to some extent succeeded in doing so; but when the column had
passed, two hundred yelling savages surrounded the place,
firing into every aperture they could see, and effectually
preventing the escape of its defenders. Half a mile farther
down, Capt. Grant, now in command of the demoralized
troops, was able to seize some inclosures, which pretty
effectually sheltered his men. Thence he sent squads to
occupy the houses below, ahead of the Indians, and thus
secured his retreat to the fort. He then sent the two
armed bateaux, which had accompanied the expedition, to a

point opposite the house of Campau, which was held by
Rogers. The vessels swept the ground on both sides of the
house with their swivels, the fire from which sent Potta

wattamnies, Ottawas, and all, yelling in dismay to the woods.
But no sooner had Rogers marched down the road to join
Grant than some of them rushed into the house and scalped
the slain remaining there, an old squaw cutting open one of
the dead bodies and drinking the blood with more than
fiendish joy. Yet amid all this ferocity no damage was
done to any of the family, nor to the frightened French
pioneers of the neighborhood, who had crowded into the
cellar for safety.
Grant and Rogers successfully consummated their retreat;
but fifty-nine men killed and wounded, out of two hundred
and fifty, in a two-hours' fight, attested the accuracy of aim
of the Ottawa, Pottawattamie, and WVyandot braves.
Pontiac at once sent messengers, announcing his victory,
to St. Joseph, Saginaw, and numerous other points, scattered far and wide through the forest, and bands of warriors
soon came trooping in, anxious to join what seemed to them
the successful side. Yet even with these reinforcemcnts the
chieftain dared make no attack on the fort, which was now
well supplied with arms, ammunition, and provisions, and
the garrison of which, notwithstanding the recent disaster,
numbered over three hundred men.
On the 4th of September some three hundred WUyandots
and Pottawattcames made an attack in birch canoes on the
schooner " Gladwyn,' as it lay detained by contrary winds on
its way up from Lake Erie. They clambered up the sides
in spite of cannon and small arms, with their knives between
their teeth, slew the master of the vessel, and disabled
several of the men who formed the crew; yet the remainder
fought with such desperate valor that the assailants were
finally repulsed. Contemporary letters assert that the mate
ordered the vessel blown up, which some of the Indians
understood, and on their telling their comrades they all fled
to avoid the threatened explosion. This is very doubtful.
A few of the Western Indians knew a little French, but
not one in a thousand could have understood a word of
English. Doubtless the Pottawattamie braves were very
much " at sea" in attacking an armed ship, and were much
more easily repulsed than they would have been by the same
number of foes on land.
But by the end of September the patience of the Indians
was pretty well exhausted. Notwithstanding the victory
of Bloody Run, they saw no prospect of reducing the fort
as long as they had free communication with the East by
means of the river and lake, and they had already been engaged in the siege far longer than they had been in the
habit of continuing in any enterprise. As the hunting
season approached, too, they were obliged to seek for game or
go without food the next year, and a large portion of them
scattered to their respective hunting-grounds for that purpose.
Soon, all along the banks of the St. Joseph and far into
the forest on either side, the Pottawattamie warriors were
to be seen ambushing the deer as they visited their favorite
drinking-places, or tracking the bear to his lonely den, or
occasionally bringing down some stately moose which had
wandered down from its northern home, while the patient

squaws bore their lords' burdens from place to place and
prepared for future use the game the latter had slain.
Similar scenes were enacted on the hunting-grounds of the