The center of the camp was all confusion. The horses broke away a dozen at a time and stampeded through the wounded troops. At ten o’clock the circle was yet unbroken, but there had been many killed. If the day was to be saved, the effort must be made at once and Bouquet was equal to the emergency.
In the midst of the confusion he conceived a masterly stratagem. Could the Indians be brought together in a body and made to stand their ground, there could be little doubt of the result. Bouquet instructed the men who were in the most exposed place to give way. The Indians mistook this movement for a retreat. Confident that their victory was sure, they leaped up on all sides and rushed headlong towards the spot.
Here they found themselves between two deadly fires and with the reserve troops blocking their retreat they were utterly routed. The Highlanders, with yells as wild as their own, fell on them with bayonet. The shock was irresistible and they fled before the charging ranks, not a living Indian remained near the spot. Among the dead were found several prominent chiefs.
The battle of Bushy Run was the best contested battle ever fought between white men and Indians. It was the most serious defeat ever inflicted upon the savages down to that time.
With the loss of eight officers and 115 men, Bouquet reached Fort Pitt August 10. It was a joyous moment both to the troops and the garrison, which had been surrounded and hotly pressed by the Indians since July 28.
The next year Bouquet led an expedition beyond the Ohio, but the Indians sued for peace and he compelled them to bring all their captives to Fort Pitt, where their friends could identify them.
Indian Council Between Governor Denny
and Tedyuskung Ended at Easton
August 7, 1757
The fact that the great Delaware King Tedyuskung was not present at the important council at Lancaster in April, 1757, caused much more concern in the Provincial Government than is usually the case when one person of importance fails to attend. The Delaware Indians were still chafing under the rebuke they received at the hands of Canassetoga[Canassetoga], the great Onondaga Chief Sachem, and the Six Nations, who ordered them from the lands at the Forks of the Delaware River to the Wyoming and Shamokin Valleys.