The column had marched parallel with the Pottowatomie "escort" until both bodies reached the sand-hills. Then the whites kept by the shore-road, while the Indians, veering slightly to their right, put the sand-hills between their crowd and the slim, weak line of troops and wagons.
The reports of the fight itself, given by the two witnesses on whom we must rely, do not differ materially from each other. Mrs. Helm's narrative naturally treats more fully of the Kinzie family's experiences; Mrs. Heald's more fully of her own adventures and the death of her uncle. Neither woman mentions the other; they were probably separated early. I will give the stories in turn, beginning with Mrs. Helm's.
MARGARET HELM'S STORY.
The boat started, but had scarcely reached the mouth of the river, which, it will be recollected, was here half a mile below the fort, when another messenger from To-pe-nee-be arrived to detain them where they were. In breathless expectation sat the wife and mother. She was a woman of uncommon energy and strength of character, yet her heart died within her as she folded her arms around her helpless infants and gazed on the march of her husband and her eldest child [Mrs. Helm] to certain destruction.
They had marched perhaps a mile and a half [Fourteenth Street], when Captain Wells, who had kept somewhat in advance of his Miamis, came riding furiously back. "They are about to attack us!" he shouted. "Form instantly and charge upon them." Scarcely were the words uttered when a volley was showered from among the sand-hills. The troops were hastily brought into line and charged up the bank. One man, a veteran of seventy winters, fell as they ascended.
After we had left the bank the firing became general. The Miamis fled at the outset. Their chief rode up to the Pottowatomies and said: "You have deceived the Americans and us. You have done a bad action, and (brandishing his tomahawk) I will be the first to head a party of Americans to return and punish your treachery." So saying he galloped after his companions, who were now scouring across the prairies.
Mrs. Helm does not say that she heard these words when uttered, nor is it probable that she could have been within hearing distance of the very head of the column, or even could have understood the words unless (what most unlikely) they were uttered in English. The whole circumstance looks apocryphal—probably a later Indian fabrication.