An irregular fire began, the whites, who were better covered, having slightly the advantage, but neither side suffering much.

This lasted for several hours, until early in the afternoon a party from Lexington suddenly appeared and tried to force its way into the fort.
The runners who slipped out of the fort at the first alarm went straight to Lexington.

There they found that the men had just started out to cut off the retreat of the marauding savages who were ravaging south of the Kentucky.

Following their trail they speedily overtook the troops, and told of the attack on Bryan's.

Instantly forty men under Major Levi Todd countermarched to the rescue.