Page:Historic highways of America (Volume 8).djvu/150

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146
MILITARY ROADS

was Between 8 & 9 oclock Before the army got fixed to Rest." Then follows the ominous sentence: "this was on the 3d of November 1791."

Happy it is that the bloody promontory to which St. Clair's army hobbled late on that cold November night can forever bear the cheerful name which another and more successful campaigner—whose soldiers were not always half-famished—gave it. And still no thoughtful student can look upon the slow-moving Little Wabash from the present site of Fort Recovery, Ohio, without remembering that here Camp Destruction was pitched before ever Fort Recovery was erected. A fine high plateau or promontory thrusts itself out into the lower flats through which the river curves. At its extreme point the river approaches on the left and in front. On the right are extensive fields where the sunlight plays so tenderly that it is difficult to picture the rank swamp which lay there a century ago. Beyond the river, level flats extend half a mile and more to the foothills beyond.

Major Denny had accompanied the