1814.

FORT MADISON BURNT.

915

" I then determined to drop down the river to the Des Moines, without delay, as some of the officers of the rangers informed me their men were short of provisions, and execute the principal object of the expedition, in erecting a fort to command the river.

"In the affair at Rock river, I had eleven men badly wounded, three mortally, of whom one has since died.

"I am much indebted to the officers for their prompt obedience to orders, nor do I believe a braver set of men could have been collected, than those who compose this detachment. But, sir, I conceive it would have been madness in me, as well as in direct violation of my orders, to have risked the detachment without a prospect of success.

" I believe I would have been fully able to have accomplished your views, if the enemy had not been supplied with artillery, and so advautageously posted, as to render it impossible for us to have dislodged him, without imminent danger of the loss of the whole detachment.'

"Had Major Taylor known the real strength of the enemy, he would not have retreated, as it was soon afterward discovered that there were only three individual Britons present, with one small field piece.

"Fort Madison, after sustaining repeated attacks from the Indians, was evacuated and burnt. And in the month of October, the people of St. Louis were astounded with the intelligence that the troops stationed in Fort Johnston, had burnt the block-houses, destroyed the works, and retreated down the river to Cape au Gres-The officer in command, (Major Taylor having previously left that post,) reported they were out of provisions, and could not sustain the position. It should be here noticed, that the defeat of the Indians in the battle of the Thames, drove back a large force of hostile savages to the Mississippi.

"Fort Johnston, a rough stockade with block-houses of round logs, was then erected on the present site of the town of Warsaw, opposite the mouth of the Des Moines.

" On the 18th of September, General Benjamin Howard, whose military district extended from the interior of Indiana to the frontier of Mexico, died in St. Louis.

"The Boone's Lick settlement, near and about the Missouri river, at the commencement of the war with Great Britain, numbered about one hundred and fifty families. The governor of the territory considered them beyond the organized jurisdiction of any county, aud for about four years the only authority over them was