rifle fire to no great purpose,
"Captain Russell's company of spies and a party of the Cherokee
tone, headed by their gallant chieftain, Colonel Richard Brown, and
conducted by the brave Colonel Morgan, crossed over to the peninsula
in canoes and set fire to a few of their buildings there situated. They
then advanced with great gallantry toward the breastwork and com-
menced firing upon the enemy, who lay behind it. Finding that this
force, notwithstanding the determination they displayed, was wholly
insufficient to dislodge the enemy, and that General Coffee had secured
the opposite hanks of the river. I now determined on taking possession
of their works by storm.'" '
Coffee's official report to his commanding officer states that he had
taken seven hundred mounted troops and about six hundred Indians,
of whom five hundred were Cherokee and the restfriendly Creeks,
and had come in behind, having- directed the Indians to take position
secretly along the bank of the river to prevent the enemy crossing, as
already noted. This was done, but with fighting going on so near at
hand the Indians could not remain quiet. Continuing, Coffee says:
The firing of your cannon and small arms in a short time l>ecame general and
heavy, which animated our Indians, and seeing about one hundred of the warriors
and all the squaws and children of the enemy running about among the huts of the
village, which was open to our view, they could no longer remain silent spectators.
While some kept up a fire across the river to prevent the enemy's approach to the
hank, others plunged into the water ami swam the river for canoes thai lay