Preface                     v

they found the enemy had fled, but with the eagerness
of famished tigers in the pursuit of their prey they fol-
lowed and overtook them in battle array at a chosen
point on the river Thames, protected by a precipitous
bank on their left and by an impassable swamp on their
right. The strong position chosen by the enemy was at
once recognized by the Americans, but - they were so
eager to avenge the massacre of their fellow-soldiers that
they would have attacked them had their numbers been
twice as great and the fortifications of nature double as
strong around them.
   The advantages of position were with the enemy at
the battle of the Thames, as they had been in the battle
of King's Mountain. The British had in each instance
the field of their choice. At the Thames the Americans
had not to point their guns upward as at King's Mountain
to dislodge the enemy, but had to shoot at them around
trees and through swamps which would have discouraged
any other troops. No advantage of position, however, in
favor of the enemy could have slaked the thirst for battle
which was consuming every American heart.
  Beside the massacre of their brethren at Fort Dearborn
and Fort Meigs and the river Raisin, the Americans
remembered atrocities, barbarities, and oppressions in the
more distant past which helped to fire their spirit. The