News of the attack upon Bryan's Station spread rapidly and at once reinforcements began their march to the beleaguered fort and to pour into the station. One hundred and eighty horsemen arrived on the night following the raising of the siege. Among these was Daniel Boone who, in a letter to Governor Harrison dated August 30, 1782, stated almost one third of this force was composed of commissioned officers. This is not to say that these officers were not as brave and efficient as the privates. It is but another proof It is but another proof that in those early days, as in these, there were many colonels who had no regiments.

It was determined in a council of war to begin an immediate pursuit of the retreating savages, without awaiting the arrival of Colonel Logan, who was known to be coming at the head of three hundred men. It is believed that Boone opposed this hurried advance. Expert as he was in Indian warfare, he readily deciphered the signs so ostentatiously left by the Indians on their line of march. To him they spelled danger; they were intended to deceive and to invite an attack upon what they supposed was a flying and demoralized force, but which, in reality, was strong and not only ready but anxious to be attacked. Coming within sight of the Licking river, the pursuers saw a small party of Indians on a leisurely retreat. The hot

heads desired to attack at once. Boone, wisest in Indian warfare of any of the party, advised against precipitancy, urging that the Indian force was undoubtedly strong and not only ready but anxious for battle. He insisted upon delay until Colonel Logan and his men arrived, but while he was thus using his knowledge of savage warcraft, Major McGary, one of the hotheads, spurred his horse into the river, calling out: "Those who are not cowards, follow me; I will show them where the Indians are." where the Indians are." Upon this reckless challenge, the entire party moved forward, attacking the Indians with much bravery but without any organized system. The enemy appeared to retreat in much disorder, drawing the whites on until they came to a point on the ridge where two ravines, one on either side of their path, afforded the Indians an excellent opportunity for an ambuscade of which they had taken full advantage; for in these ravines was hidden their entire force and from them they poured a merciless fire upon the whites resulting in a panic among the latter. Before a retreat could be effected the Indians extended their lines and completely surrounded the attacking party. At this moment, Boone's son was killed in the father's presence. The elder Boone attempted with some of his followers to gain the ford, only to find it in possession of the enemy. Retracing his steps to

one of the ravines in which the Indians had first hidden, he, and a small number of men, succeeded in crossing the river and by a circuitous way, finally returned in safety to Bryan's station.

The death roll was heavy at the river. Surrounded on every hand, the gallant men fought desperately for their only means of escape. The water was filled with a mass of horsemen, men on foot and Indians engaged in a life and death struggle. Many were killed; some who could not swim were drowned, while a few swimmers made their escape.

There was a man named Netherland who had been suspected of cowardice, who at the ford showed the stuff of which heroes are made and proved the injustice of the charge that had been held against him. Owing to the excellence of his horse, he had escaped across the river in advance of some twenty other mounted men, which latter showed an inclination to continue their flight until a point of safety was reached, leaving their friends to continue the struggle alone and arrange their retreat as best they could.. Netherland, placing himself in front of these mounted men, called upon them in a loud voice to halt, fire upon the Indians and aid in the rescue of those of their comrades who were in a life and death struggle in the river. These men, encouraged by Netherland's gallant challenge, promptly faced to the rear pouring at the same time a deadly fire into the front of the savage ranks.

The Indians fell back under this galling fire to the opposite side of the Licking, thus giving opportunity to the whites struggling in the water to escape. This repulse, however, was but momentary. Driven back by Netherland and his men from the ford, the savages began crossing above and below that point, and the flight became a rout, "every man for himself" with no semblance of military discipline. The Indians pursued for about twenty miles, inflicting but little fur

ther damage, owing to the whites having scattered. By circuitous routes the survivors made their way back to Bryan's station, from which they had but a short time before taken their departure full of high hopes of victory and the determination to drive the Indians from the country after inflicting upon them such punishment as would forever deter them from another concerted attack upon the stations.

Smith says: "The loss in this battle was heavier than had been experienced in any other contest that had ever taken place with the savages on Kentucky soil, and carried distress and mourning into half the houses in Kentucky. Of the one hundred and eighty men engaged, sixty were killed and seven taken prisoners. Colonels Todd and Trigg were especially deplored for their eminent social and private, as well as their public worth. Of Major Harlan it was the common sentiment that no officer was braver and more beloved in the field."

Colonel Logan's force was within less than a day's march of the battlefield when the fateful contest occurred. The advance guard of Logan's command met the fugitives from Blue Lick and returned to Bryan's station, there to await the coming of the main body of the command. When the force was again. united, they marched to the scene of the late battle to fight the Indians if any remained; to bury the dead if the savages had withdrawn. Arriving at noon on the following day they found that the Indians had gone, leaving on the field the mutilated bodies of the slain. There were buried on the field where they had sacrificed their lives in vain because Major McGary had more of rashness than of soldierly judgment in his mental make-up. More than one soldier has needlessly gone to his death on other and later fields than that of Blue Lick by reason of the same lack of soldierly judgment upon the part of his commanding officer, a fact to which the

soldiers who fought in the grand battles of the War Between the States will readily testify. In Boone's Narrative a commonly credited report is narrated to the effect that after the battle, the Indians found that of their number four more had been killed than of the whites, whereupon four of their seven white prisoners were killed in order that the score might be even. The tradition continues, relating that the three remaining prisoners, McMurtry, Rose and Yocum were treated with savage brutality, being required, among other sufferings and indignities, to three times run the gauntlet. At last they were condemned, in accordance with the custom of savages, to be burned at the stake. To this end they were tied to stakes and the faggots kindled to burn them. A thunder storm, accompanied by a heavy downfall of rain, occurred at this opportune moment and extinguished the flames. The Indian is superstitious and religious after his own fashion, and accepting the thunder and rain as a manifestation of displeasure upon the part of the Great Spirit at the deed they were about to commit, they desisted from further attempts to burn their prisoners and afterwards treated them kindly as beings under the especial protection of the Great Spirit whom, according to their dim light, they worshipped.

The main Indian force returned after the battle to Ohio, but some of their allies sought their return home by another route which brought them into touch with the settlements in Jefferson county, where they hoped to fall upon the unprotected and scattered settlements murdering the inhabitants; plundering and burning their homes.

Colonel Floyd early learned of their coming and ordered out a force to patrol the section where they were expected to first appear. Of these troops Collins says: "Some of this party were from Kincheloe's station on Simpson's creek in what is now Spencer county, where six or seven families resided. On the

Ist of September, the militia, unable to discover any Indians, dispersed and returned to their homes. There had been no alarm at Kincheloe's station during the absence of the men and, upon reaching home late in the evening much fatigued and without apprehension of danger, they retired to rest. At the dead hour of night, when the inmates of the station were wrapped in the most profound sleep, the Indians made a simultaneous attack upon the cabins of the station and breaking open the doors, commenced a massacre of men, women and children. The unconscious sleepers were awakened but to be cut down, or to behold their friends fall by their side. A few only, availing themselves of the darkness of the night, escaped the tomahawk or captivity. Among those who escaped was Mrs. Davis whose husband was killed, and another woman whose name is not known. They fled to the woods, where they were fortunately joined by a lad by the name of Ash, who conducted them to Cox's station.

"Wm. Harrison, after placing his wife and a young woman of the family, under the floor of the cabin, made his escape under cover of the darkness. He remained secreted in the neighborhood until he was satisfied the Indians had retired when he returned to the cabin and liberated his wife and her companion from their painful situation.

"Thomas Randolph occupied one of the small cabins with his wife and two children, one an infant. The Indians succeeded in breaking into his house and, although they outnumbered him four or five to one, he stood by his wife and children with heroic firmness. He had succeeded in killing several Indians, when his wife and the infant in her arms were both murdered by his side. He instantly placed the remaining child in the loft, then, mounting himself, made his escape through the roof. As he alighted on the ground from the roof of the cabin, he was assailed by two of the savages whom he had just forced out of the

house. With his knife he inflicted a severe wound upon one and gave the other a stunning blow with his gun, when they both retreated. Freed from his foes, he snatched up his child, plunged into the forest and was soon beyond the reach of danger.

"Several women and children were cruelly put to death after they were made prisoners, on their way to the Indian towns. On the second day of her captivity, Mrs. Bland made her escape in the bushes. Totally unacquainted with the surrounding country, and destitute of a guide, for eighteen successive days she wandered through the woods without seeing a human face, without clothes and subsisting on sour grapes and green walnuts, until she became a walking skeleton. On the eighteenth day she was accidentally discovered and taken to Linn's station, where, by kind treatment and careful nursing, her health and strength were soon restored."

There is another interesting story connected with the capture of Kincheloe's station. Among the prisoners taken by the Indians there was a Mrs. Polk and her four children. She was in extremely delicate health and was compelled to walk until almost exhausted. An Indian brandished a tomahawk and threatened her with death, at which another Indian interposed and saved her life. This latter Indian, having about him an instinct of humanity, and recognizing the delicate condition of the prisoner, took her into his care, and mounting her and two of her children on a horse, took her safely to Detroit. Here a British trader purchased her and her children from her captors. By some means she sent a letter to her husband, who had been absent from the station at the time of the attack, and he at once visited Detroit, where he regained his wife and children with whom he returned to Kentucky. The remaining prisoners, left alive, were permitted to return to their homes in Kentucky after the declaration of peace be

tween England and the United States in the following year.

The optimists hoped that the close of the War of the Revolution would bring peace to those who had pressed forward into the wilderness to make homes for their families; that the specious inducements, offered by English officers, to savages, to raid white settlements and murder women and children, would fall into disuse, and that the Kentucky pioneer would thereafter be left to till his fertile fields in safety undisturbed by the sound of an English gun carried by a savage.

Col. John Mason Brown, a descendant of the early Kentucky pioneers, and himself a distinguished son of Kentucky, whose modesty was only surpassed by his great capacity, says of this period:

"The spring of the year 1782 opened upon what, indeed, seemed an era of prosperity and security for the west. The surrender of Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown, in the preceding autumn, had ended the War of Independence. Peace with England brought with it a recognized American title to the great northwest as far as the lakes and beyond Detroit. The splendid dream of Clark, which none but Jefferson seemed fully to comprehend, was fulfilled in the cession of an empire. Strong men had come in numbers to seek fortune and adventure in the brakes and forests of Kentucky. Brave women encountered the hardships of the frontier and followed husbands and fathers into the wilderness. Families had been established and children had been born to the pioneers. Already was cradled the generation of riflemen destined to crush, in after years, the great confederation of Tecumseh, and to assure the northern boundary of the Union.”

That the whites had a reason to expect a cessation of Indian atrocities after the declaration of peace between the United States and England, as stated by Colonel Brown, was entirely reasonable, but the deadly affair at Blue

Lick showed that however peace may have come in general sense, there was yet war for them and that the sturdy "backwoodsmen of Kentucky" had still to fight for home, wife and children..

Recognizing this fact and the dangers that surrounded them, Daniel Boone, Levi Todd, Robert Patterson, R. Netherland (the latter of whom had been called a coward and who was really the hero of Blue Lick), William Henderson, John Craig and others of the Kentucky pioneers, addressed the following memorial to Governor Harrison of Virginia:

"The officers, civil as well as military, of this county, beg the attention of Your Excellency and the Honorable Council. The number of the enemy that lately penetrated into our country, their behavior and, adding to this, our late unhappy defeat at the Blue Licks, fill us with the greatest concern and anxiety. The loss of our worthy officers and soldiers who fell there the 19th of August, we sensibly feel and deem our situation truly alarming. We can scarcely behold a spot of earth but what reminds us of the fall of some fellow adventurer, massacred by savage hands. Our number of militia decreases. Our widows and orphans are numerous; our officers and worthiest men fall a sacrifice. In short, Sir, our settlement hitherto formed at the sacrifice of treasure and much blood, seems to decline, and if something is not speedily done we doubt not will be wholly depopulated. The Executive, we believe, thinks often of us and wishes to protect us, but we believe that any military operations that for eighteen months have been carried on in obedience to orders from the Executive have been rather detrimental than beneficial. Our militia are called upon to do duty in a manner that has a tendency to protect Jefferson county, or rather Louisville, a town without inhabitants, and a fort situated in such manner that an enemy coming with a design to lay waste our country would scarcely come within one hundred miles of it; and our own frontiers are open and unguarded. Our inhabitants are discouraged. It is now near two years since the division of the county and no surveyor has ever appeared among us, but has, by appointment, from time to time, deceived us. Our principal expectation of strength is from him. During his absence from the county claimants of land disappear, when if otherwise they would prove a source of additional strength.

"We entreat the executive to examine into the

cause and remove it speedily. If it is thought impracticable to carry the war into the enemy's country the plan of building a garrison at the mouth of the Limestone and another at the mouth of Licking, formerly prescribed by Your Excellency, might be again adopted and performed. A garrison at the mouth of Limestone would be a landing place for adventurers from the back parts of Pennsylvania and Virginia, adjacent to a large body of good land which would be speedily settled. It would be in the enemy's principal crossing place, not more than fifty miles from Lexington, our largest settlement, and might be readily furnished with provisions from above till they could be supplied from our settlements here. Major Netherland, we expect, will deliver this. He will attend to give any additional information that may be deemed necessary. manity towards inhabitants, destitute of hope of any other aid will surely induce Your Excellency to spare from the interior parts of the state two hundred men and a few pieces of artillery for those purposes above mentioned."

Hu

Col. Benjamin Logan on the 31st of August of the same year, wrote to Governor Harrison, as follows in relation to the affair at Blue Lick:

"From the situation of the ground on which our men were drawn, I hardly know how it was possible for any to escape. I am inclined to believe that when Your Excellency and council become acquainted with the military operations in this country, you will not think them so properly conducted as to answer the general interests of Kentucky. From the accounts we had received by prisoners who had escaped this spring, we were confident of an invasion by the Detroit Indians. Common safety then made some scheme of defense necessary. For this purpose I was called upon by General Clark to attend a council, and after consulting over matters, it was determined to build a fort at the mouth of the Licking. Shortly, I received his orders for one hundred men to attend this business with a certain number from Fayette. Before the day of the rendezvous, I was instructed to send the men to the Falls of the Ohio in order to build a strong garrison and a row-galley, thus by