He had fallen in the preceding July.

Twenty armed men were of the party.

Twenty-three widows were in attendance upon the court to obtain letters of administration on the estates of their husbands who had been killed during the past year." The letter also mentions that most of the original settlers of the fort were from Pennsylvania, "orderly respectable people and the men good soldiers.

But they were unaccustomed to Indian warfare, and the consequence was that of some ten or twelve men all were killed but two or three." This incident illustrates the folly of the hope, at one time entertained, that the Continental troops, by settling in the west on lands granted them, would prove a good barrier against the Indians; the best Continentals in Washington's army would have been almost as helpless as British grenadiers in the woods.] Clark's Counter-Stroke.
At last the news of repeated disaster roused Clark into his old-time energy.

He sent out runners through the settlements, summoning all the able-bodied men to make ready for a blow at the Indians.