Page 90 - La Société canadienne d'histoire de l'Église catholique - Rapport 1961

86 WISCONSIN IIISTORIOAL COLLECTIONS.
the command, and making a short address to the troops, in which
he failed not to remind them of the 'soft shell" slur, and telling
them that he knew not the number of the enemy, but, few or
many, it was his determination to overtake and fight them, and
immediately started in pursuit, the trail for some distance
running through a swamp, covered principally with vines and an
undergrowth of prickly ash. Emerging from this, they struck
upon a broad plain, and a sight of their enemy in full retreat.
The horses of the party were now urged 60 the uttermost,
DODGE'S horse carrying him in advance of his party, and the
remainder coming on with what speed they could command.
Arriving at Pekatonica creek, the Indians found that a success-
ful retreat was impossible, and disdaining, under such circum-
stances, to attempt flight, they chose their ground and prepared
for battle. This was under the bank of an arm or bend of the
creek, the channel of which was dry, and affording them, besides
an embankment of about three feet, the protection of a thick
hedge of vines and under brush which grew on its bank. Here
their old chief drew them up to bide the fate of the battle.
General DODGE now collected his force, and allotting to four of
his men the charge of the horses, ordered the remainder to
dismount. Having formed his men, twenty-one in number,
including himself, he told them they were about to go upon a
death struggle, and if any one wished to decline it to say so
now, that he might know on whom to depend. The whole line
stepped forward as one man in assent to the fight. He then
ordered them to 'unbutton their shirt collars and tighten their
belts.' He then advanced through an open wood, Mr. BRACKEN,
in his account, says in the form of a V or triangle, of which his
party formed the two sides, and the Indians in the ravine the
base.
''Coming within good musket shot, they received a full volley
from the ravine, in which three of their party were wounded.
Gen. DODGE now gave the order to 'Charge,' which was as readi-
ly obeyed, and led by him. It now became a hand-to-hand fight,
and, as it afterwards appeared, of about equal numbers on each