before leaving the place, about forty or fifty rods from the fort. Parties had gone out on the same errand on several previous mornings and had returned unmolested. This led the garrison to believe that the Indians would not be watching the fort in such very cold weather. But on this fatal morning a party of warriors had concealed themselves behind a knoll or mound which lay between the fort and the wood, and the soldiers passed on one side of the mound a part of the Indians, canie round on the other, and enclosed the wood party so that notone escaped. The entire party was slain in full sight of the fort before assistance could be sent to them. Soon after the slaughter of the soldiers who went to bring in the wood, the Indians marched across the prairie in full view of the fort. They resorted to a stratagem to make it appear that their number was much larger than it really was. From one of the bastions eight hundred and forty seven painted warriors were counted. Some historians assert that there were so many, while others state that this number was the result of the stratagem by which the same warriors were counted three or four times. We have good
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