they would oppose that advance, no one knew. The Great Miami was now reached and soon the strategic portage of the St. Mary would be taken possession of. The course would then be down grade to the Miami towns on the Maumee. Would the enemy rally here on the watershed crest near the old French fort on the Loramie? Such speculations as these occupied many more minds, it may confidently be believed, than thoughts of the streams or prairies crossed. The records left us tell only of the commonplaces, leaving the human element to the imagination. Yet this can be better conceived if the route is correctly outlined.
On the tenth of September Harmar crossed the Great Miami River. "At the crossing," wrote Armstrong, "there is a handsome high prairie on the S. E. side." "On the following day," reads the Morris record, "we crossed the big Miami, a little above the town of Piqua, near Manning's old mill. . . This evening we encamped not far from upper Piqua." This agrees with the Irwin MS. previously quoted.
On the eleventh the army moved to and
