Lot 247: SCOTT, CHARLES

An Account of the Defeat of General St. Clair's Army, by the Indians, on the 4th of November, with the Loss of 46 Officers, and 600 Privates, killed. [Richmond?, after 15 November 1791]

Broadside (11 x 9 15/16 in.; 279 x 252 mm). Double-column; a few stains, several tears or fold separations neatly repaired verso, costing a few letters, some pinholes. Matted, glazed and framed.

PROVENANCE

The Frank T. Siebert Library of the North American Indian and the American Frontier (sale, Sotheby's, 21 May 1999, lot 306) -- Peter Decker, 1957 -- Jane H. Mitchell (contemporary signature on verso)

NOTE

A rare broadside account of St. Clair's defeat, evidently unrecorded and possibly unique : not traced in Evans, Bristol, Shipton and Mooney, Bristol's Kentucky Imprints, or Hummel's Southeastern Broadsides. The text is reprinted from a circular letter of 11 November 1791 from Brigadier General Scott to the county militia commanders throughout Kentucky, which had been published in the Lexington Gazette. Scott calls for a rendezvous at Craig's Mill of volunteers "completely equipped with arms, ammunition, and 20 days provisions" to relieve the survivors of St. Clair's disastrous expedition along a branch of the Wabash.

An extract from a letter by an otherwise unidentified "gentleman in Mercer County" printed in the second column gives more particular details of St. Clair's defeat by an Indian confederation led by the Miami chief Michikinikwa (Little Turtle): "General St. Clair expected an action: the men were drawn up in order of battle and stood in their ranks all night, the army were formed in a hollow square... the enemy made their attack at the dawn of the day on all the lines, particularly on the rear, which was composed of militia; they were overpowered and gave way, the Indians rushed on and soon were possessed of the artillery, which was taken in a few moments by a company of regulars with fixed bayonets, but most of the matrosses being killed, no use was made of it: the action continued obstinately until 9 o'clock, when our men gave way. General St. Clair rallied them and brought off the greater part of the wounded to Fort Jefferson... where the remains of the army are cooped, almost starved, living upon poor pack-horses." The broadside also prints a preliminary list of officers killed and wounded, as well as a report from 15 November of another Indian raid.