Note 533 — Chapter IX · THE OUTBREAK OF WAR
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The number of Harrison's troops cannot be stated with entire precision. For a discussion of this point see Adams, op. cit., W, 96, and note 534 below.
[534] Harrison himself stated his number in the battle as "very little above seven hundred men," aside from sixty dragoons whom he omitted from consideration because they were "unable to do us much service." They were present in the battle, however, and it is obvious that the mere fact of Harrison's failure to make effective use of them does not justify their omission from a statement of the strength of his army. The statement of Dawson, his biographer, therefore, that on the day before the battle he had "something more than eight hundred men," may be regarded as approximately correct. The number of the Prophet's followers can only be estimated. Harrison was "convinced that there were at least six hundred," but he admits that he had no data from which to form a correct statement. Henry Adams, allowing for "the law of exaggeration," concludes that there were not more than four hundred Indians in the battle. On the size of the two armies see American State Papers, Indian Affairs, I, 778; Dawson, Harrison, 216; Adams, op. cit., VI, 104-5.
[535] Dawson, Harrison, 211-12, 236-37.
[536] See in this connection the account of the campaign, and particularly of the plight of the army after the battle, in Dawson, Harrison, 233, 238-39; see also, Adams, op. cit., VI, chap. v.