[XX.]
BATTLE OF THE BLUE LICKS
Reinforcements reach Bryan’s Station—Unwise counsel rules the leaders—Boone’s warning is not heeded—The force starts in pursuit of the Indians—“All who are not cowards, follow me!”—The terrific fight on the banks of the Licking—The whites are beaten and dispersed—Israel Boone is wounded and falls—The father’s fierce fight for his son—Boone and Hardy swim to safety—Reynolds’ heroic rescue of his captain—His capture and dashing escape—Colonel Logan arrives with reinforcements—But the Indians escape to their own country—Boone and Hardy revisit the scene of carnage—The blackest day in Kentucky’s history.
Thanks to the timely warning of Hardy Goodfellow, and the expedition employed in spreading the news, information of the attack upon Bryan’s Station quickly reached every settlement within sixty miles of that place. The day after the retreat of the Indians, reinforcements began to come in from various directions. Before the fall of night one hundred and eighty-two men were mustered in the fort. Daniel Boone arrived with a strong party from Boonesborough, which included his brother Samuel and his son Israel. The latter had been almost a baby when the family lived in Clinch Valley and had only recently come into his backwoods heritage of rifle and axe. Colonel Stephen Trigg brought in a force of men from Harrodsburg, and Colonel John Todd an additional levy from Lexington. This party included Majors Harlan, McGary, McBride, and Levi Todd. A considerable proportion of the newcomers were mounted.
Colonel Todd, as senior officer present, assumed command of the entire forces. Early in the afternoon a council of officers was held. The deliberations were far from cool, and the opinions expressed were of the most contradictory character. The majority, however, agreed in advocating immediate pursuit. This proposal met with the approval of Colonel Todd, although it was not consistent with his reputation for prudence and circumspection.
Colonel Todd’s decision is believed to have been influenced by a rather selfish and short-sighted consideration. A messenger had arrived with the tidings that Colonel Benjamin Logan had raised a body of four hundred and fifty men and would hurry forward with them. A proper soldierly spirit would have prompted the commander to wait for this reinforcement, but he and others seem to have been jealous of Logan, whose reputation as a leader was growing apace. It is said that the determination to advance at once was largely due to a hope that Logan might be shut out of participation in the affair.
Colonel Boone had not been present during the long wrangle between the leading officers. With them, he had gone out to the late camp of the Indians, immediately on arriving at Bryan’s, but, unlike them, he had not contented himself with a cursory survey of the surroundings. Whilst the officers were debating, Boone and Hardy were engaged in a careful examination of the ground occupied by the warriors on the previous night and the trace left by them in their retreat.
The first thing noticed by Boone was that the fires in the camp had been very few, indicating a desire on the part of the Indians to create the impression that their numbers were less than was actually the case. Such deception was not consistent with flight in fear, because it courted pursuit.
No attempt had been made to cover the trail, or disguise the direction taken by the war-party. On the contrary, their path was plainly marked and strewn with a variety of articles. These signs were readily accepted by the less experienced as evidences of a hurried and panic-spurred retreat. But Boone discerned in them a very thin deception, designed to draw the whites to their destruction. Indeed, the entire tactics of the Indians on this occasion were such as they commonly resorted to, and no backwoods officer claiming any degree of experience should have been outwitted by them.