At that point the army encamped for one night, where a plan of operation was concerted. The following morning the army moved forward with an old regular soldier for a guide, the steamboat at the same time starting, with General Gaines, up the river[81] for Vandruff’s Island, where it was expected the Indians would concentrate, opposite their village, to pick off the soldiers as they approached. It was planned that the volunteers should cross the slough to this island, rout the enemy and ford the main river to the village, where the regular troops were to meet them from Fort Armstrong. The island was covered with bushes and vines, so thick as to render them impenetrable to the sight at a distance of twenty feet. General Gaines ran his steamboat up to the south point of the island and fired several rounds of grape and canister into the bushes to test the presence of the enemy. The spy battalion formed in line of battle and swept the island until it was ascertained that the ground rose so high and so suddenly that General Gaines’ shot could have taken no effect one hundred yards from shore. The main body of volunteers, in three columns, came following, but before they could reach the northern border of the island the troops became so indiscriminately mixed, officers and men together, that no man was able to distinguish his own company or regiment. Gaines had ordered the artillery of the regulars to be stationed on a high bluff which looked down on the contemplated battlefield half a mile distant, from which, had the expected battle ensued, more friends than foes had been killed, many times over. [Illustration: BRIG. GEN. JOSEPH DUNCAN.] [Illustration: GOV. THOMAS FORD.] [Illustration: GOV. THOMAS CARLIN.] [Illustration: MAJ. JOHN T. STUART.] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Illustration: CAPT. W.F. ELKIN.] [Illustration: COL. WILLIAM THOMAS.] [Illustration: COL. J.J. HARDIN.] [Illustration: COL. JACOB FRY.] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ When the army finally reached the main body of the stream it was found bold and deep, fordable at no place nearer than half a mile and with no means of transportation convenient to carry the troops across. There, within sight of the enemy’s village, they were compelled to waste much time in idleness until scows could be brought to ferry them over. After unusual effort the volunteers reached the village, only to find it abandoned, the Indians having quietly withdrawn to the west side of the Mississippi that morning. A most abortive and humiliating campaign!