Page:Historic highways of America (Volume 8).djvu/101

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MIAMI CAMPAIGNS
97

owned by Nathaniel Gerrard, and about two miles from the town of Troy. Gen. Harmar gave to this spring, the name Tea Spring, as he and his officers refreshed themselves there, on that beverage."

Armstrong's record for the eighth and ninth is: "The army moved at halfpast nine o'clock. Passed over rich land, in some places a little broken: passed several ponds, and through one small prarie, a N. W. course.—Seven miles. 9th—The army moved at halfpast nine o'clock. Passed through a level, rich country, well watered: course N. W.,—halted halfpast four o'clock, two miles south of the Great Miami.—Ten miles."

These commonplace records do not in any way represent the real state of affairs; perhaps they suggest only the topics of conversation of the vanguard of scouts and guides that led the army. The little band of troops was now in the heart of the enemy's country. The face of the land was covered with forests, broken here and there by patches of bush and prairie. That the Indians knew of their advance, there was little doubt. When, where, or how