" [Footnote: Colonel Stone's Life and Times of Red Jacket. Mr. Stone
refers to General Porter, as his authority, representing him as having
voluntarily prepared the account given of this campaign.]
The Indians during this engagement performed a most important service.
Their conduct was highly commended by General Porter. Speaking of those
under his command, General Porter says: "The great body of warriors as
well as volunteers, engaged in the opening attack, fought with boldness,
not to say desperation, unsurpassed by any other troops, until they were
placed in a situation where it would have been madness not to retreat."
The part Red Jacket took in this battle, though by no means conspicuous,
was such as to call forth from an early biographer the affirmation, that
"he displayed the most undaunted intrepidity, and completely redeemed his
character from the suspicion of that unmanly weakness, with which he had
been charged in early life; while in no instance did he exhibit the
ferocity of the savage, or disgrace himself, by any act of outrage towards
a prisoner, or a fallen enemy."
The same writer adds: "His therefore was that true moral courage, which
results from self respect, and the sense of duty, and which is more noble,
and a more active principle, than that mere animal instinct which renders
many men insensible to danger. Opposed to war, not ambitious of martial
fame, and unskilled in military affairs, he went to battle from principle,
and met its perils with the spirit of a veteran warrior, while he shrunk
from its cruelties with the sensibility of a man and of a philosopher.
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