There will thus remain twenty to be accounted for, of whom I can only give the following names: Dyson Dyer, William Nelson Hunt, Duncan McCarty, Augustus Mott, John Smith, John Smith, his son, a fifer, James Van Horn.
Four: of the five women whose fate remains to be ascertained, I am enabled to give the names of them all. They were Mrs. Burns, wife to the citizen before mentioned as killed after the attack; Mrs. Holt, Mrs. Lee, Mrs. Needs, and Mrs. Simmons. Among these women six children saved out of the whole number, which was eighteen; part of them belonging to the surviving mothers, and part to those who were slain.
As to the means of preserving these unhappy survivors from the distressing calamities which environ them, if they have preserved their lives, and which the rigors of the approaching season cannot fail to heighten, I would beg leave to suggest the following:
First: to send a special messenger to that quarter, overland, and with such safeguard of Indians or others, as can be procured, charged with collecting the prisoners who may yet survive, and accounts of those who may have ultimately suffered, and supplied with the means of conveying them either to Detroit or Michillimackinac.
Second: to communicate to Captain Roberts, who now commands at Michillimackinac, the circumstances of the same in full, and to request his co-operation in effecting the humane object of their ultimate preservation.
I am not authorized by my Government to make the assurance, but I shall not doubt their cheerfully defraying such expense of ransom, or conveyance, as circumstances will justify; and private funds are also ready to be applied to the same purpose. I do not less doubt your willing and zealous assistance, and with a confident hope of it, permit me, sir, to assure you of the high respect with which I have the honor to be
Your obedient servant,
A. B. Woodward.
To Col. Henry Proctor.