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STRANGE STORIES FROM HISTORY FOR YOUNG PEOPLE
by
GEORGE CARY EGGLESTON
Author of
"Red Eagle," "The Big Brother," "The Wreck of the Red Bird,"
"The Signal Boys," Etc.
Illustrated
New York
Harper & Brothers, Franklin Square
[Illustration: Title Page]
HARPER'S YOUNG PEOPLE SERIES.
Illustrated. 16mo, Cloth, $1.00 per volume.
THE ADVENTURES OF JIMMY BROWN. Edited by W. L. ALDEN.
THE CRUISE OF THE CANOE CLUB. By W. L. ALDEN.
THE CRUISE OF THE "GHOST." By W. L. ALDEN.
THE MORAL PIRATES. By W. L. ALDEN.
TOBY TYLER; OR, TEN WEEKS WITH A CIRCUS by JAMES OTIS.
MR. STUBBS'S BROTHER. A sequel to "Toby Tyler." By JAMES OTIS.
TIM AND TIP: OR, THE ADVENTURES OF A BOY AND A DOG. By JAMES OTIS.
LEFT BEHIND: OR, TEN DAYS A NEWSBOY. By JAMES OTIS.
RAISING THE "PEARL." By JAMES OTIS.
MILDRED'S BARGAIN, AND OTHER STORIES. By LUCY C. LILLIE.
NAN. By LUCY C. LILLIE.
THE FOUR MACNICOLS. By WILLIAM BLACK.
THE LOST CITY; OR, THE BOY EXPLORERS IN CENTRAL ASIA. By DAVID KER.
THE TALKING LEAVES. An Indian Story. By W. O. STODDARD.
WHO WAS PAUL GRAYSON? By JOHN HABBERTON, Author of "Helen's Babies."
PRINCE LAZYBONES, AND OTHER STORIES. By Mrs. W. J. HAYS.
THE ICE QUEEN. By ERNEST INGERSOLL.
CHAPTERS ON PLANT LIFE. By Mrs. S. B. HERRICK.
STRANGE STORIES FROM HISTORY. By GEORGE CARY EGGLESTON.
PUBLISHED BY Harper & Brothers, NEW YORK.
_Any of the above works will be sent by mail, postage prepaid, to
any part of the United States or Canada, on receipt of the price._
Copyright, 1885, by HARPER & BROTHERS.
PREFACE.
In calling the tales in this volume "Strange Stories" I have sought
simply to indicate that, in the main, they are unfamiliar to youthful
readers, and that most of them relate deeds and occurrences some what
out of the common. In choosing the themes I have tried to avoid the
tales that have been often used, and to tell only those of which young
readers generally have not before heard.
Of course, a book of this kind can make no pretension to originality of
matter, as the facts used in it are to be found in historical works of
recognized authority, though many of them have been drawn from books
that are not easily accessible to the majority of readers. If there is
any originality in my little volume it is in the manner in which the
tales are told. I have endeavored to tell them as simply as possible,
and at the same time with as much dramatic force and fervor as I could
command, while adhering rigidly to the facts of history.
It would be impossible for me to say to what sources I am indebted for
materials. The incidents related have been familiar to me for years, as
they are to all persons whose reading of history has been at all
extensive, and I cannot say with any certainty how much of each I
learned from one and how much from another historical writer. Nor is it
in any way necessary that I should do so, as the recorded facts of
history are common property. But a special acknowledgment is due to Mr.
James Parton in the case of the tale of the Negro Fort, and also for
certain details in those relating to the New Orleans campaign of
1814-15. In that field Mr. Parton is an original investigator, to whose
labors every writer on the subject must be indebted. I wish also to
acknowledge my obligation to Mr. A. B. Meek, the author of a little
work entitled "Romantic Passages in Southwestern History," for the main
facts in the stories of the Charge of the Hounds and the Battle of the
Canoes on the Alabama River; but, with respect to those matters, I have
had the advantage of private sources of information also.
Most of the stories in the volume were originally written for _Harper's
Young People_; one was first published in _Good Cheer_, and a few in
other periodicals. I owe thanks to the editors and publishers concerned
for permission to reprint them in this form.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
HISTORY STORIES.
THE STORY OF THE NEGRO FORT 13
A WAR FOR AN ARCHBISHOP 26
THE BOY COMMANDER OF THE CAMISARDS 38
THE CANOE FIGHT 55
THE BATTLE OF LAKE BORGNE 67
THE BATTLE IN THE DARK 77
THE TROUBLESOME BURGHERS 88
THE DEFENCE OF ROCHELLE 99
THE SAD STORY OF A BOY KING 111
TWO OBSCURE HEROES 120
THE CHARGE OF THE HOUNDS 130
THE STORY OF A WINTER CAMPAIGN 140
YOUNG WASHINGTON IN THE WOODS 151
THE STORY OF CATHERINE 163
THE VIRGINIA WIFE-MARKET 175
BIOGRAPHY STORIES.
BOYHOOD OF DANIEL WEBSTER 185
THE SCULLION WHO BECAME A SCULPTOR 193
BOYHOOD OF WILLIAM CHAMBERS 200
HOW A BOY HIRED OUT, AND WHAT CAME OF IT 206
THE WICKEDEST MAN IN THE WORLD 212
A PRINCE WHO WOULD NOT STAY DEAD 228
ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE
_Breakfast and Battle_ 23
_Vladimir Besieging the City Containing his Archbishop_ 35
_Cavalier Personating the Lieutenant of the Count Broglio_ 47
_With a Single Blow he Knocked over the Indian with whom
Austill was Struggling_ 63
_Boarding the Gun-boats_ 73
_General Jackson at New Orleans_ 79
_The Burghers Prepare to Defend their City_ 95
_Richelieu Surveying the Works at Rochelle_ 103
_The Parting between King Richard II. and Queen Isabella_ 117
_Martin Preaching to the People on the Duty of Fighting_ 125
"_Just at the Moment when Matters were at their Worst, he
Rode up_" 137
_Capture of the Dutch fleet by the Soldiers of the French
Republic_ 149
_Washington as a Surveyor_ 157
"_She Went Boldly into his Tent_" 171
"_'To the End of the Twelfth Book of the Æneid,' answered
the 'Idle' Boy in Triumph_" 189
THE STORY OF THE NEGRO FORT.
During the war of 1812-14, between Great Britain and the United States,
the weak Spanish Governor of Florida--for Florida was then Spanish
territory--permitted the British to make Pensacola their base of
operations against us. This was a gross outrage, as we were at peace
with Spain at the time, and General Jackson, acting on his own
responsibility, invaded Florida in retaliation.
Among the British at that time was an eccentric Irish officer, Colonel
Edward Nichols, who enlisted and tried to make soldiers of a large
number of the Seminole Indians. In 1815, after the war was over, Colonel
Nichols again visited the Seminoles, who were disposed to be hostile to
the United States, as Colonel Nichols himself was, and made an
astonishing treaty with them, in which an alliance, offensive and
defensive, between Great Britain and the Seminoles, was agreed upon. We
had made peace with Great Britain a few months before, and yet this
ridiculous Irish colonel signed a treaty binding Great Britain to fight
us whenever the Seminoles in the Spanish territory of Florida should see
fit to make a war! If this extraordinary performance had been all, it
would not have mattered so much, for the British government refused to
ratify the treaty; but it was not all. Colonel Nichols, as if determined
to give us as much trouble as he could, built a strong fortress on the
Appalachicola River, and gave it to his friends the Seminoles, naming it
"The British Post on the Appalachicola," where the British had not the
least right to have any post whatever. Situated on a high bluff, with
flanks securely guarded by the river on one side and a swamp on the
other, this fort, properly defended, was capable of resisting the
assaults of almost any force that could approach it; and Colonel Nichols
was determined that it should be properly defended, and should be a
constant menace and source of danger to the United States. He armed it
with one 32-pounder cannon, three 24-pounders, and eight other guns. In
the matter of small-arms he was even more liberal. He supplied the fort
with 2500 muskets, 500 carbines, 400 pistols, and 500 swords. In the
magazines he stored 300 quarter casks of rifle powder and 763 barrels of
ordinary gunpowder.
When Colonel Nichols went away, his Seminoles soon wandered off, leaving
the fort without a garrison. This gave an opportunity to a negro bandit
and desperado named Garçon to seize the place, which he did, gathering
about him a large band of runaway negroes, Choctaw Indians, and other
lawless persons, whom he organized into a strong company of robbers.
Garçon made the fort his stronghold, and began to plunder the country
round about as thoroughly as any robber baron or Italian bandit ever
did, sometimes venturing across the border into the United States.
All this was so annoying and so threatening to our frontier settlements
in Georgia, that General Jackson demanded of the Spanish authorities
that they should reduce the place; and they would have been glad enough
to do so, probably, if it had been possible, because the banditti
plundered Spanish as well as other settlements. But the Spanish governor
had no force at command, and could do nothing, and so the fort remained,
a standing menace to the American borders.
Matters were in this position in the spring of 1816, when General Gaines
was sent to fortify our frontier at the point where the Chattahoochee
and Flint rivers unite to form the Appalachicola. In June of that year
some stores for General Gaines's forces were sent by sea from New
Orleans. The vessels carrying them were to go up the Appalachicola, and
General Gaines was not sure that the little fleet would be permitted to
pass the robbers' stronghold, which had come to be called the Negro
Fort. Accordingly, he sent Colonel Clinch with a small force down the
river, to render any assistance that might be necessary. On the way
Colonel Clinch was joined by a band of Seminoles, who wanted to
recapture the fort on their own account, and the two bodies determined
to act together.
Meantime the two schooners with supplies and the two gun-boats sent to
guard them had arrived at the mouth of the river; and when the
commandant tried to hold a conference with Garçon, the ship's boat,
bearing a white flag, was fired upon.
Running short of water while lying off the river's mouth, the officers
of the fleet sent out a boat to procure a supply. This boat was armed
with a swivel and muskets, and was commanded by Midshipman Luffborough.
The boat went into the mouth of the river, and, seeing a negro on shore,
Midshipman Luffborough landed to ask for fresh-water supplies. Garçon,
with some of his men, lay in ambush at the spot, and while the officer
talked with the negro the concealed men fired upon the boat, killing
Luffborough and two of his men. One man got away by swimming, and was
picked up by the fleet; two others were taken prisoners, and, as was
afterwards learned, Garçon coated them with tar and burned them to
death.
It would not do to send more boats ashore, and so the little squadron
lay together awaiting orders from Colonel Clinch. That officer, as he
approached the fort, captured a negro, who wore a white man's scalp at
his belt, and from him he learned of the massacre of Luffborough's
party. There was no further occasion for doubt as to what was to be
done. Colonel Clinch determined to reduce the fort at any cost, although
the operation promised to be a very difficult one.
Placing his men in line of battle, he sent a courier to the fleet,
ordering the gun-boats to come up and help in the attack. The Seminoles
made many demonstrations against the works, and the negroes replied with
their cannon. Garçon had raised his flags--a red one and a British
Union-jack--and whenever he caught sight of the Indians or the
Americans, he shelled them vigorously with his 32-pounder.
Three or four days were passed in this way, while the gun-boats were
slowly making their way up the river. It was Colonel Clinch's purpose to
have the gun-boats shell the fort, while he should storm it on the land
side. The work promised to be bloody, and it was necessary to bring all
the available force to bear at once. There were no siege-guns at hand,
or anywhere within reach, and the only way to reduce the fort was for
the small force of soldiers--numbering only one hundred and sixteen
men--to rush upon it, receiving the fire of its heavy artillery, and
climb over its parapets in the face of a murderous fire of small-arms.
Garçon had with him three hundred and thirty-four men, so that, besides
having strong defensive works and an abundant supply of large cannon,
his force outnumbered Colonel Clinch's nearly three to one. It is true
that the American officer had the band of Seminoles with him, but they
were entirely worthless for determined work of the kind that the white
men had to do. Even while lying in the woods at a distance, waiting for
the gun-boats to come up, the Indians became utterly demoralized under
the fire of Garçon's 32-pounder. There was nothing to be done, however,
by way of improving the prospect, which was certainly hopeless enough.
One hundred and sixteen white men had the Negro Fort to storm,
notwithstanding its strength and the overwhelming force that defended
it. But those one hundred and sixteen men were American soldiers, under
command of a brave and resolute officer, who had made up his mind that
the fort could be taken, and they were prepared to follow their leader
up to the muzzle of the guns and over the ramparts, there to fight the
question out in a hand-to-hand struggle with the desperadoes inside.
Finally the gun-boats arrived, and preparations were made for the
attack. Sailing-master Jairus Loomis, the commandant of the little
fleet, cast his anchors under the guns of the Negro Fort at five
o'clock in the morning on the 27th of July, 1816. The fort at once
opened fire, and it seemed impossible for the little vessels to endure
the storm of shot and shell that rained upon them from the ramparts
above. They replied vigorously, however, but with no effect. Their guns
were too small to make any impression upon the heavy earthen walls of
the fortress.
Sailing-master Loomis had roused his ship's cook early that morning, and
had given him a strange breakfast to cook. He had ordered him to make
all the fire he could in his galley, and to fill the fire with
cannon-balls. Not long after the bombardment began the cook reported
that breakfast was ready; that is to say, that the cannon-balls were
red-hot. Loomis trained one of his guns with his own hands so that its
shot should fall within the fort, instead of burying itself in the
ramparts, and this gun was at once loaded with a red-hot shot. The word
was given, the match applied, and the glowing missile sped on its way. A
few seconds later the earth shook and quivered, a deafening roar
stunned the sailors, and a vast cloud of smoke filled the air, shutting
out the sun.
The hot shot had fallen into the great magazine, where there were
hundreds of barrels of gunpowder, and the Negro Fort was no more. It had
been literally blown to atoms in a second.
The slaughter was frightful. There were, as we know already, three
hundred and thirty-four men in the fort, and two hundred and seventy of
them were killed outright by the explosion. All the rest, except three
men who miraculously escaped injury, were wounded, most of them so badly
that they died soon afterwards.
One of the three men who escaped the explosion unhurt was Garçon
himself. Bad as this bandit chief was, Colonel Clinch would have spared
his life, but it happened that he fell into the hands of the sailors
from the gun-boat; and when they learned that Garçon had tarred and
burned their comrades whom he had captured in the attack on
Luffborough's boat, they turned him over to the infuriated Seminoles,
who put him to death in their own cruel way.
[Illustration: BREAKFAST AND BATTLE.]
This is the history of a strange affair, which at one time promised to
give the government of the United States no little trouble, even
threatening to involve us in a war with Spain, for the fort was on
Spanish territory, and the Spaniards naturally resented an invasion of
their soil.
A WAR FOR AN ARCHBISHOP.
THE CURIOUS STORY OF VLADIMIR THE GREAT.
In the latter part of the tenth century Sviatozlaf was Grand Prince of
Russia. He was a powerful prince, but a turbulent one, and he behaved so
ill towards his neighbors that, when an opportunity offered, one of them
converted his skull into a gold-mounted drinking-cup, with an
inscription upon it, and his dominions were parcelled out between his
three sons--Yaropolk, Oleg, and Vladimir.
Yaropolk, finding his possessions too small for his ambition, made war
on Oleg, and conquered his territory; but his brother Oleg having been
killed in the war, the tender-hearted Yaropolk wept bitterly over his
corpse.
The other brother, Vladimir, was so grieved at the death of Oleg that he
abandoned his capital, Novgorod, and remained for a time in seclusion.
Yaropolk seized the opportunity thus offered, and made himself master of
Vladimir's dominions also. Not long afterwards Vladimir appeared at the
head of an army, and Yaropolk ran away to his own capital, Kiev.
Vladimir at once resumed the throne, and sent word to Yaropolk that he
would in due time return the hostile visit.
About this time Yaropolk and Vladimir both asked for the hand of the
Princess Rogneda, of Polotzk, in marriage; and the father of the
princess, fearing to offend either of the royal barbarians, left the
choice to Rogneda herself. She chose Yaropolk, sending a very insulting
message to Vladimir, whereupon that prince marched against Polotzk,
conquered the province, and with his own hand slew the father and
brothers of the princess. Then, with their blood still unwashed from his
hands, he forced Rogneda to marry him.
Having attended to this matter, Vladimir undertook to return his
brother's hostile visit, as he had promised to do. Yaropolk's capital,
Kiev, was a strongly fortified place, and capable of a stout resistance;
but Vladimir corrupted Blude, one of Yaropolk's ministers, paying him to
betray his master, and promising, in the event of success, to heap
honors on his head. Blude worked upon Yaropolk's fears, and persuaded
him to abandon the capital without a struggle, and Vladimir took
possession of the throne and the country. Even in his exile, however,
Yaropolk had no peace. Blude frightened him with false stories, and
persuaded him to remove from place to place, until his mind and body
were worn out, when, at Blude's suggestion, he determined to surrender
himself, and trust to the mercy of Vladimir. That good-natured brother
ordered the betrayed and distressed prince to be put to death.
Then Vladimir rewarded Blude. He entertained him in princely fashion,
declaring to his followers that he was deeply indebted to this man for
his faithful services, and heaping all manner of honors upon him. But at
the end of three days he said to Blude: "I have kept my promise
strictly. I have received you with welcome, and heaped unwonted honors
upon your head. This I have done as your friend. To-day, as judge, I
condemn the traitor and the murderer of his prince." He ordered that
Blude should suffer instant death, and the sentence was executed.
Now that both Oleg and Yaropolk were dead, Vladimir was Grand Prince of
all the Russias, as his father before him had been. He invaded Poland,
and made war upon various others of his neighbors, greatly enlarging his
dominions and strengthening his rule.
But Vladimir was a very pious prince in his heathen way, and feeling
that the gods had greatly favored him, he made rich feasts of
thanksgiving in their honor. He ordered splendid memorials to various
deities to be erected throughout the country, and he specially honored
Perune, the father of the gods, for whom he provided a new pair of
golden whiskers--golden whiskers being the special glory of Perune.
Not content with this, Vladimir ordered a human sacrifice to be made,
and selected for the victim a Christian youth of the capital. The father
of the boy resisted, and both were slain, locked in each other's arms.
Vladimir gave vast sums of money to the religious establishments, and
behaved generally like a very devout pagan. His piety and generosity
made him so desirable a patron that efforts were made by the priests of
other religions to convert him. Jews, Mohammedans, Catholics, and Greeks
all sought to win him, and Vladimir began seriously to consider the
question of changing his religion. He appointed a commission, consisting
of ten boyards, and ordered them to examine into the comparative merits
of the different religions, and to report to him. When their report was
made, Vladimir weighed the matter carefully.
He began by rejecting Mohammedanism, because it forbids the use of wine,
and Vladimir was not at all disposed to become a water-drinker. Judaism,
he said, was a homeless religion, its followers being wanderers on the
face of the earth, under a curse; so he would have nothing to do with
that faith. The Catholic religion would not do at all, because it
recognized in the pope a superior to himself, and Vladimir had no mind
to acknowledge a superior. The Greek religion was free from these
objections, and moreover, by adopting it he would bring himself into
friendship with the great Greek or Byzantine Empire, whose capital was
at Constantinople, and that was something which he earnestly desired to
accomplish.
Accordingly, he determined to become a Christian and a member of the
Greek Church; but how? There were serious difficulties in the way. In
order to become a Christian he must be baptized, and he was puzzled
about how to accomplish that. There were many Greek priests in his
capital, any one of whom would have been glad to baptize the heathen
monarch, but Vladimir would not let a mere priest convert him into a
Christian. Nobody less than an archbishop would do for that, and there
was no archbishop in Russia.
It is true that there were plenty of archbishops in the dominions of his
Byzantine neighbors, and that the Greek emperors, Basil and Constantine,
would have been glad to send him a dozen of them if he had expressed a
wish to that effect; but Vladimir was proud, and could not think of
asking a favor of anybody, least of all of the Greek emperors. No, he
would die a heathen rather than ask for an archbishop to baptize him.
Nevertheless, Vladimir had fully made up his mind to have himself
baptized by an archbishop. It was his lifelong habit, when he wanted
anything, to take it by force. He had taken two thirds of his dominions
in that way, and, as we have seen, it was in that way that he got his
wife Rogneda. So now that he wanted an archbishop, he determined to take
one. Calling his army together, he declared war on the Greek emperors,
and promising his soldiers all the pillage they wanted, he marched away
towards Constantinople.
The first serious obstacle he met with was the fortified city of
Kherson, situated near the spot where Sebastopol stands in our day. Here
the resistance was so obstinate that month after month was consumed in
siege operations. At the end of six months Vladimir became seriously
alarmed lest the garrison should be succored from without, in which case
his hope of getting himself converted into a Christian must be abandoned
altogether.
While he was troubled on this score, however, one of his soldiers picked
up an arrow that had been shot from the city, and found a letter
attached to it. This letter informed the Grand Prince that the
water-pipes of the city received their supplies at a point immediately
in his rear, and with this news Vladimir's hope of becoming a Christian
revived. He found the water-pipes and stopped them up, and the city
surrendered.
There were plenty of bishops and archbishops there, of course, and they
were perfectly willing--as they had been from the first, for that
matter--to baptize the unruly royal convert, but Vladimir was not
content now with that. He sent a messenger to Constantinople to tell the
emperors there that he wanted their sister, the Princess Anne, for a
wife; and that if they refused, he would march against Constantinople
itself. The Emperors Basil and Constantine consented, and although
Vladimir had five wives already, he married Anne, and was baptized on
the same day.
Having now become a Christian, the Grand Prince determined that his
Russians should do the same. He publicly stripped the god Perune of his
gorgeous golden whiskers, and of his rich vestments, showing the people
that Perune was only a log of wood. Then he had the deposed god whipped
in public, and thrown into the river, with all the other gods.
He next ordered all the people of his capital city to assemble on the
banks of the Dnieper River, and, at a signal, made them all rush into
the water, while a priest pronounced the baptismal service over the
whole population of the city at once. It was the most wholesale baptism
ever performed.
[Illustration: VLADIMIR BESIEGING THE CITY CONTAINING HIS ARCHBISHOP.]
That is the way in which Russia was changed from a pagan to a
Christian empire. The story reads like a romance, but it is plain,
well-authenticated history. For his military exploits the Russian
historians call this prince Vladimir the Great. The people call him St.
Vladimir, the Greek Church having enrolled his name among the saints
soon after his death. He was undoubtedly a man of rare military skill,
and unusual ability in the government of men. Bad as his acts were, he
seems to have had a conscience, and to have done his duty so far as he
was capable of understanding it.
THE BOY COMMANDER OF THE CAMISARDS.
When Louis XIV. was King of France, that country was generally Catholic,
as it is still, but in the rugged mountain region called the Cevennes
more than half the people were Protestants. At first the king consented
that these Protestant people, who were well behaved both in peace and in
war, should live in quiet, and worship as they pleased; but in those
days men were not tolerant in matters of religion, as they are now, and
so after a while King Louis made up his mind that he would compel all
his people to believe alike. The Protestants of the Cevennes were
required to give up their religion and to become Catholics. When they
refused, soldiers were sent to compel them, and great cruelties were
practised upon them. Many of them were killed, many put in prison, and
many sent to work in the galleys.
When this persecution had lasted for nearly thirty years, a body of
young men who were gathered together in the High Cevennes resolved to
defend themselves by force. They secured arms, and although their
numbers were very small, they met and fought the troops.
Among these young men was one, a mere boy, named Jean Cavalier. His home
was in the Lower Cevennes, but he had fled to the highlands for safety.
This boy, without knowing it, had military genius of a very high order,
and when it became evident that he and his comrades could not long hold
out against the large bodies of regular troops sent against them, he
suggested a plan which in the end proved to be so good that for years
the poor peasants were able to maintain war against all the armies that
King Louis could send against them, although he sent many of his finest
generals and as many as sixty thousand men to subdue them.
Cavalier's plan was to collect more men, divide, and make uprisings in
several places at once, so that the king's officers could not tell in
which way to turn. As he and his comrades knew the country well, and had
friends to tell them of the enemy's movements, they could nearly always
know when it was safe to attack, and when they must hide in the woods.
Cavalier took thirty men and went into one part of the country, while
Captain La Porte, with a like number, went to another, and Captain St.
John to still another. They kept each other informed of all movements,
and whenever one was pressed by the enemy, the others would begin
burning churches or attacking small garrisons. The enemy would thus be
compelled to abandon the pursuit of one party in order to go after the
others, and it soon became evident that under Cavalier's lead the
peasants were too wily and too strong for the soldiers. Sometimes
Cavalier would fairly beat detachments of his foes, and give them chase,
killing all whom he caught; for in that war both sides did this, even
killing their prisoners without mercy. At other times Cavalier was
worsted in fight, and when that was the case he fled to the woods,
collected more men, and waited for another chance.
Without trying to write an orderly history of the war, for which there
is not space enough here, I shall now tell some stories of Cavalier's
adventures, drawing the information chiefly from a book which he himself
wrote years afterwards, when he was a celebrated man and a general in
the British army.
One Sunday Cavalier, who was a preacher as well as a soldier, held
services in his camp in the woods, and all the Protestant peasants in
the neighborhood attended. The Governor of Alais, whose name was De la
Hay, thought this a good opportunity not only to defeat Cavalier's small
force, but also to catch the Protestant women and children in the act of
attending a Protestant service, the punishment for which was death. He
collected a force of about six hundred men, cavalry and infantry, and
marched towards the wood, where he knew he should outnumber the peasants
three or four to one. He had a mule loaded with ropes, declaring that he
was going to hang all the rebels at once.
When news of De la Hay's coming was brought to the peasants, they sent
away all the country people, women, and children, and began to discuss
the situation. They had no commander, for although Cavalier had led them
generally, he had no authority to do so. Everything was voluntary, and
everything a subject of debate. On this occasion many thought it best to
retreat at once, as there were less than two hundred of them; but
Cavalier declared that if they would follow him, he would lead them to a
place where victory might be won. They consented, and he advanced to a
point on the road where he could shelter his men. Quickly disposing them
in line of battle behind some defences, he awaited the coming of the
enemy.
De la Hay, being over-confident because of his superior numbers,
blundered at the outset. Instead of attacking first with his infantry,
he placed his horsemen in front, and ordered an assault. Cavalier was
quick to take advantage of this blunder. He ordered only a few of his
men to fire, and this drew a volley from the advancing horsemen, which
did little damage to the sheltered troops, but emptied the horsemen's
weapons. Instantly Cavalier ordered a charge and a volley, and the
horsemen, with empty pistols, gave way, Cavalier pursuing them. De la
Hay's infantry, being just behind the horsemen, were ridden down by
their own friends, and became confused and panic-stricken. Cavalier
pursued hotly, his men throwing off their coats to lighten themselves,
and giving the enemy no time to rally. A reinforcement two hundred
strong, coming up, tried to check Cavalier's charge; but so impetuous
was the onset that those fresh troops gave way in their turn, and the
chase ended only when the king's men had shut themselves up in the
fortified towns. Cavalier had lost only five or six men, the enemy
losing a hundred killed and many more wounded. Cavalier captured a large
quantity of arms and ammunition, of which he was in sore need.
When the battle was over it was decided unanimously to make Cavalier the
commander. He refused, however, to accept the responsibility unless it
could be accompanied with power to enforce obedience, and his troops at
once voted to make his authority absolute, even to the decision of
questions of life and death. According to the best authorities, Cavalier
was only seventeen years old when this absolute command was conferred
upon him. How skilfully he used the scant means at his disposal we shall
see hereafter.
On one occasion Cavalier attacked a party of forty men who were marching
through the country to reinforce a distant post, and killed most of
them. While searching the dead bodies, he found in the pocket of the
commanding officer an order signed by Count Broglio, the king's
lieutenant, directing all military officers and town authorities to
lodge and feed the party on their march. No sooner had the boy soldier
read this paper than he resolved to turn it to his own advantage in a
daring and dangerous way.
The castle of Servas, near Alais, had long been a source of trouble to
him. It was a strong place, built upon a steep hill, and was so
difficult of approach that it would have been madness to try to take it
by force. This castle stood right in the line of Cavalier's
communications with his friends, near a road which he was frequently
obliged to pass, and its presence there was a source of annoyance and
danger to him. Moreover, its garrison of about forty men were constantly
plundering and murdering Cavalier's friends in the country round about,
and giving timely notice to his enemies of his own military movements.
When he found the order referred to, he resolved to pretend that he was
Count Broglio's nephew, the dead commander of the detachment which he
had just destroyed. Dressing himself in that officer's clothes, he
ordered his men to put on the clothing of the other dead royalists. Then
he took six of his best men, with their own Camisard uniforms on, and
bound them with ropes, to represent prisoners. One of them had been
wounded in the arm, and his bloody sleeve helped the stratagem. Putting
these six men at the head of his troop, with a guard of their disguised
comrades over them, he marched towards the Castle of Servas. There he
declared himself to be Count Broglio's nephew, and said that he had met
a company of the Barbets, or Camisards, and had defeated them, taking
six prisoners; that he was afraid to keep these prisoners in the village
overnight lest their friends should rescue them; and that he wished to
lodge them in the castle for safety. When the governor of the castle
heard this story, and saw the order of Count Broglio, he was completely
imposed upon. He ordered the prisoners to be brought into the castle,
and invited Cavalier to be his guest there for the night. Taking two of
his officers with him, Cavalier went into the castle to sup with the
governor. During supper several of his soldiers, who were encamped just
outside, went into the castle upon pretence of getting wine or bread,
and when five or six of them were in, at a signal from Cavalier, they
overpowered the sentinels and threw the gates open. The rest of the
troop rushed in at once, and before the garrison could seize their
arms the boy commander was master of the fortress. He put the garrison
to the sword, and, hastily collecting all the arms, ammunition, and
provisions he could find, set fire to the castle and marched away. When
the fire reached the powder magazine the whole fortress was blown to
fragments, and a post which had long annoyed and endangered the
Camisards was no more.
[Illustration: CAVALIER PERSONATING THE LIEUTENANT OF THE COUNT
BROGLIO.]
On another occasion, finding himself short of ammunition, Cavalier
resolved to take some by force and stratagem from the strongly fortified
town of Savnes. His first care was to send a detachment of forty men to
a point at some distance, with orders to burn a church which had lately
been fortified, "thereby," he says, "to make the inhabitants of Savnes
believe we were busy in another place." Then he detached an officer and
fifty men, and ordered them to disguise themselves as country militia in
the king's service, and to go into Savnes in that character. With some
difficulty this officer accomplished his purpose, and then Roland and
Cavalier marched upon the place. His officer inside the town, when the
alarm was given, said to the governor, "Let them come; you'll see how
I'll receive them." Anxious for his own safety, the governor permitted
the supposed officer of militia to take charge of the defence, and the
armed citizens put themselves under his command. He instructed the
citizens to reserve their fire until he should give them orders, and in
that way enabled Cavalier to approach unharmed. Suddenly the officer,
directing the aim of his men against the citizens, ordered them to throw
down their arms upon pain of instant death, and they, seeing themselves
caught in a trap, obeyed. Cavalier marched in without opposition,
secured all that he could carry away of arms, ammunition, and
provisions, and retired to the woods.
Throughout the summer and autumn the boy carried on his part of the war,
nearly always getting the better of his enemies by his shrewdness and
valor, and when that was impossible, eluding them with equal shrewdness.
During that first campaign he destroyed many fortified places, won many
fights against superior numbers of regular troops, and killed far more
soldiers for the enemy than he had under his own command. Failing to
conquer him by force or strategy, his foes fell back upon the confident
hope of starving him during the winter, for he must pass the winter in
the forests, with no bases of supply to draw upon for either food or
ammunition. But in indulging this hope his enemies forgot that the crown
and glory of his achievements in the field had been his marvellous
fertility of resource. The very qualities which had made him formidable
in fight were his safeguard for the winter. He knew quite as well as
they did that he must live all winter in the woods surrounded by foes,
and, knowing the difficulty of doing so, he gave his whole mind to the
question of how to do it.
He began during the harvest to make his preparations. He explored all
the caves in the mountains, and selected the most available ones for use
as magazines, taking care to have them in all parts of the mountains, so
that if cut off from one he could draw upon another. In these caves he
stored great quantities of grain and other provisions, and during the
winter, whenever he needed meal, some of his men, who were millers,
would carry grain to some lonely country mill and grind it. To prevent
this, the king's officers ordered that all the country mills should be
disabled and rendered unfit for use; but before the order could be
executed, Cavalier directed some of his men, who were skilled
machinists, to disable two or three of the mills by carrying away the
essential parts of their machinery and storing them in his caves. Then,
when he wanted meal, his machinists had only to replace the machinery in
some disabled mill, and remove it again after his millers had done the
necessary grinding. His bakers made use of farmers' ovens to bake bread
in, and when the king's soldiers, hearing of this, destroyed the ovens,
Cavalier sent his masons--for he had all sorts of craftsmen in his
ranks--to rebuild them.
Having two powder-makers with him, he collected saltpetre, burned willow
twigs for charcoal, and made all the powder he needed in his caves.
Before doing so he had been obliged to resort to many devices in order
to get powder, sometimes disguising himself as a merchant and going into
a town and buying small quantities at a time, so that suspicion might
not be awakened, until he secured enough to fill his portmanteau.
For bullets he melted down the leaden weights of windows, and when that
source of supply failed he melted pewter vessels and used pewter
bullets--a fact which gave rise to the belief that he used poisoned
balls. Finally, in a dyer's establishment, he had the good luck to find
two great leaden kettles, weighing more than seven hundred quintals,
which, he says, "I caused immediately to be carried into the magazines
with as much diligence and care as if they had been silver."
Chiefly by Cavalier's tireless energy and wonderful military skill, the
war was kept up against fearful odds for years, and finally the young
soldier succeeded in making a treaty of peace in which perfect liberty
of conscience and worship--which was all he had been fighting for--was
guaranteed to the Protestants of the Cevennes. His friends rejected this
treaty, however, and Cavalier soon afterwards went to Holland, where he
was given command of a regiment in the English service. His career in
arms was a brilliant one, so brilliant that the British made him a
general and governor of the island of Jersey; but he nowhere showed
greater genius or manifested higher soldierly qualities than during the
time when he was the Boy Commander of the Camisards.
THE CANOE FIGHT.
AN INCIDENT OF THE CREEK WAR.
The smallest naval battle ever fought in the world, perhaps, occurred on
the Alabama River on the 13th of November, 1813, between two canoes, and
this is the way in which it happened.
The United States were at war with Great Britain at that time, and a war
with Spain was also threatened. The British had stirred up the Indians
in the Northwest to make war upon the whites, and in 1813 they persuaded
the Creek Indians of Alabama and Mississippi to begin a war there.
The government troops were so busy with the British in other quarters of
the country that very little could be done for the protection of the
white settlers in the Southwest, and for a good while they had to take
care of themselves in the best way they could. Leaving their homes,
they gathered together here and there and built rude stockade forts, in
which they lived, with all their women and children. All the men,
including all the boys who were old enough to pull a trigger--and
frontier boys learn to use a gun very early in life--were organized into
companies of volunteer soldiers.
At Fort Madison, one of the smallest of the forts, there was a very
daring frontiersman, named Samuel (or Sam) Dale--a man who had lived
much with the Indians, and was like them in many respects, even in his
dress and manners. Hearing that the Indians were in force on the
southeastern bank of the Alabama River, the people in Fort Madison were
greatly alarmed, fearing that all the crops in that region--which were
ripe in the fields--would be destroyed. If that should occur, they knew
they must starve during the coming winter, and so they made up their
minds to drive the savages away, at least until they could gather the
corn.
Captain Dale at once made up a party, consisting of seventy-two men,
all volunteers. With this force he set out on the 11th of November,
taking Tandy Walker, a celebrated scout, for his guide. The column
marched to the Alabama River, and crossed it at a point about twenty
miles below the present town of Claiborne.
Once across the river, Dale knew that he was among the Indians, and,
knowing their ways, he was as watchful as if he had been one of them
himself. He forbade his men to sleep at all during the night after
crossing the river, and kept them under arms, in expectation of an
attack.
No attack being made, he moved up the river the next morning, marching
most of the men, but ordering Jerry Austill, with six men, to paddle up
in two canoes that had been found. This Jerry Austill--who afterwards
became a merchant in Mobile and a state senator--was a boy only nineteen
years of age at the time, but he had already distinguished himself in
the war by his courage.
At a point called Peggy Bailey's Bluff, Dale, who was marching with one
man several hundreds of yards ahead of his men, came upon a party of
Indians at breakfast. He shot one of them, and the rest ran away,
leaving their provisions behind them. Securing the provisions, Dale
marched on for a mile or two, but, finding no further trace of Indians,
he concluded that the country on that side of the river was now pretty
clear of them, and so he set to work to cross to the other side, meaning
to look for enemies there.
The river at that point is about a quarter of a mile wide, and, as there
were only two small canoes at hand, the work of taking the men across
was very slow. When all were over except Dale and about a dozen others,
the little remnant of the force was suddenly attacked.
The situation was a very dangerous one. With the main body of his
command on the other side of the river, where it could give him no help,
Dale had to face a large body of Indians with only a dozen men, and, as
only one canoe remained on his side of the river, it was impossible for
the whole of the little party to escape by flight, as the canoe would
not hold them all.
Concealing his men in the bushes, behind trees, and under the
river-bank, he replied to the fire of the Indians, and kept them at bay.
But it was certain that this could not last long. The Indians must soon
find out from the firing how small the number of their adversaries was;
and Dale knew that as soon as the discovery was made, they would rush
upon him, and put the whole party to death.
He called to the men on the other side of the river to come over and
help him, but they were panic-stricken, probably because they could see,
as Dale could not, how large a body of Indians was pressing their
commander. The men on the other bank did, indeed, make one or two slight
attempts to cross, but those came to nothing, and the little party on
the eastern shore seemed doomed to destruction.
Bad as matters were with Dale, they soon became worse. An immense canoe,
more than thirty feet long and four feet deep, came down the river,
bearing eleven warriors, who undertook to land and attack Dale in the
rear. This compelled the party to fight in two directions at once. Dale
and his companions kept up the battle in front, while Jerry Austill,
James Smith, and one other man fought the warriors in the canoe to keep
them from landing. One of the eleven was killed, and another swam ashore
and succeeded in joining the Indians on the bank.
Seeing how desperate the case was, Dale resolved upon a desperate
remedy. He called for volunteers for a dangerous piece of work, and was
at once joined by Jerry Austill, James Smith, and a negro man whose name
was Cæsar. With these men he leaped into the little canoe, and paddled
towards the big Indian boat, meaning to fight the nine Indians who
remained in it, although he and his canoe party numbered only four men
all told.
As the two canoes approached each other, both parties tried to fire, but
their gunpowder was wet, and so they grappled for a hand-to-hand battle.
Jerry Austill, being in front, received the first attack. No sooner did
the two canoes touch than an Indian sprang forward, and dealt the youth
a terrible blow with a war-club, knocking him down, and making a dent in
his skull which he carried through life. Once down, he would have been
killed but for the quickness of Smith, who, seeing the danger his
companion was in, raised his rifle. With a single blow he knocked over
the Indian with whom Austill was struggling.
Then Austill rose, and the fierce contest went on. Dale and his men
rained their blows upon their foes, and received blows quite as lusty in
return, but Cæsar managed the boat so skilfully that, in spite of the
superior numbers of the Indians, the fight was not very unequal. He held
the little boat against the big one, but kept it at the end, so that the
Indians in the other end of the big canoe could not reach Dale's men.
In this way those that were actually fighting Dale, Austill, and Smith
never numbered more than three or four at any one time, and so the
three could not be borne down by mere force of numbers. Dale stood for a
time with one foot in each boat; then he stepped over into the Indian
canoe, giving his comrades more room, and crowding the Indians towards
the end of their boat.
One by one the savages fell, until only one was left facing Dale, who
held Cæsar's gun, with bayonet attached, in his hand. This sole survivor
was Tar-cha-chee, an Indian with whom Dale had hunted and lived, one
whom he regarded as a friend, and whom he now wished to spare. But the
savage was strong within the Indian's breast, and he refused to accept
mercy even from a man who had been his comrade and friend. Standing
erect in the bow of the canoe, he shook himself, and said, in the
Muscogee tongue, "Big Sam, you are a man, I am another; now for it."
With that he rushed forward, only to meet death at the hands of the
friend who would gladly have spared him.