Moreover, the backwoodsmen had neither swords nor bayonets.
Most of the creole townspeople received Clark joyfully, and rendered him much assistance, especially by supplying him with powder and ball, his own stock of ammunition being scanty.

One of the Indian chiefs [Footnote: A son of the Piankeshaw head-chief Tabae.]offered to bring his tribe to the support of the Americans, but Clark answered that all he asked of the red men was that they should for the moment remain neutral.

A few of the young Creoles were allowed to join in the attack, however, it being deemed good policy to commit them definitely to the American side.
The Attack on the Fort.
Fifty of the American troops were detached to guard against any relief from without, while the rest attacked the fort: yet Hamilton's scouting party crept up, lay hid all night in an old barn, and at daybreak rushed into the fort.

[Footnote: Hamilton's Narrative.

Clark in his "Memoir" asserts that he designedly let them through, and could have shot them down as they tried to clamber over the stockade if he had wished.