The entire American loss in this enterprise, so formidable in prospect,
did not exceed one hundred men. The pioneer parties, necessarily the
most exposed, suffered most. Of the twenty men led by Lieutenant Gibbons
of the Sixth Pennsylvania Regiment, seventeen were killed or wounded.
Wayne's own escape on this occasion was of the hair-breadth kind. Struck
on the head by a musket-ball, he fell; but immediately rising on one
knee, he exclaimed, "March on, carry me into the fort; for should the
wound be mortal, I will die at the head of the column." The enemy's
loss in killed and captured amounted to six hundred and seven men. This
affair, the most brilliant of the war, covered the commanding general
with laurels.
[Footnote 28: An officer of the revolutionary army, and a conspicuous
actor in the War of 1812; has written chiefly on military affairs.]
* * * * *
=_Charles Caldwell,[29] 1772-1853._=
From his "Autobiography."
=_104._= A LECTURE OF DR. RUSH.
At length, however, though the class of the winter, all told, amounted
to less than a hundred, a sufficient number had arrived to induce the
professors to commence their lectures; and the introductory of Dr. Rush
was a performance of deep and touching interest, and never, I think, to
be forgotten (while his memory endures), by any one who listened to it,
and was susceptible of the impression it was calculated to make.
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