and died hard." When Hardin's troops returned, they found that Harmar had moved two miles down the Maumee in the work of destroying the Indian villages and crops. From this camp, an old Shawanese village, various companies were sent out in different directions to finish the work of destroying the Indian settlements. On the night of the twenty-first, when seven miles distant from the Miami village, Colonel Hardin proposed to Harmar that he be allowed his pick of the militia with which to return secretly upon the Indians. It was believed, and spies no doubt so reported, that the Indians had returned to their central villages at the junction of the St. Mary and St. Joseph. Harmar acquiesced, feeling that another blow would undoubtedly prevent the savages from following the army. The force was composed of three hundred and forty militia, under Majors Hall and McMullen, Major Fontaine's mounted militia, and sixty regulars under Major Wyllys. The Miami town was reached after sunrise. Hardin's plan was to surround secretly the village and make a simultaneous attack from all sides. Major Hall's battalion was sent to cross the St. Mary and hold themselves in readiness to attack from the rear when the main body, which would cross the Maumee at the common ford, fell upon the village in front. Hall's men wantonly fired on a fugitive Indian before the signal for attack was given; to make matters worse the militia under McMullen and Fontaine began pursuing the various parties of flying redskins, leaving Major Wyllys and the regulars unsupported. The latter crossed the Maumee, according to the fixed scheme, but were suddenly assailed by an overpowering force led by Little Turtle and were compelled to return with loss of many men, including Major Wyllys himself. The militia then hastened back to the main army. Miserable as had been the deportment of the militia, their muskets had done severe execution, and Harmar had no fear now of an Indian attack--nor the slightest remnant of confidence in any but the fragment of regular troops left to him. On the twenty-third the army took up the line of outward march for Fort Washington and reached the Ohio on the fourth day of November, having lost one hundred and eighty-three killed and thirty-one wounded. Major Wyllys and Lieutenant Frothingham of the regulars, and Major Fontaine and Captains Thorp, McMurtrey, and Scott, and Lieutenants Clark and Rogers of the militia were the principal officers sacrificed. On the other hand there is ground for partly agreeing with Irwin that Harmar's campaign was not wholly a defeat. The Indian loss was as large as the American--and this was a great deal accomplished. Few armies before had entered the Indian land and not been followed by the Indians on the return with distinct losses. Harmar's repeated though costly operations on the Maumee had given the Indians all the battle they wished; indeed it is not too much to say that they were stunned. CHAPTER III