He then learned that there had been a skirmish on the morning of the twenty-third at Table Rock, and a four hours battle in the afternoon, the Indians having the advantage of a wooded eminence where they had erected a breastwork of logs; and the attacking force the advantage of superior arms. The morning s fight had been a surprise, and lasted but a quarter of an hour, during which, says J. A. Cardwell, whose party was at Willow springs, " there was a terrible yelling and crying by the Indians, and howling of dogs."[1]
The afternoon's battle was a determined fight, in which the Indians suffered severely, and several white men were wounded. The Indians had not yet learned to shoot with accuracy with their few guns, but chief Jo boasted that he could "keep a thousand arrows in the air continually." the ping and sting of which were very annoying, even when not deadly. Further, when Kearney proposed making a treaty, the proud savages challenged him to fresh combat, for which, indeed, he had not much stomach. Chasing naked savages up and down hills and through wooded ambushes had nothing in it alluring to the fighter of real battles.
It was, however, Kearney's intention to attack the Indians again on the morning of the twenty-fifth, but when daylight came they had abandoned their fortifications and escaped down the river. The pursuit was eagerly taken up, the trail being found to cross the river seven miles below Table Rock. Following it up Sardine creek, the fugitives were overtaken, but when discovered separated; the warriors fleeing to cover in the forest, leaving their women and children to be captured and cared for by the troops, who, after scouring the country for two days, returned to Camp Stuart with thirty prisoners.
- ↑ This account is taken from a dictation by J. A. Cardwell of Ashland, and from letters by General Lane and Jesse Applegate. The names of Waldo, Boone, Lamerick, Armstrong, Hunter, Rust, Blanchard, Simonson, Scott, and Colonel Tranor appear in these letters. Tranor was James W. of New Orleans, a brilliant writer, who was killed by Indians on Pit river at a later date.
