Produced by Al Haines
[Illustration: Cover art]
[Frontispiece: Custer's Last Stand]
BOYS' BOOK OF
FRONTIER FIGHTERS
BY
EDWIN L. SABIN
Author of "Boys' Book of Indian Warriors," etc.
PHILADELPHIA
GEORGE W. JACOBS & COMPANY
PUBLISHERS
_Copyright, 1919, by_
_George W. Jacobs & Company_
_All rights reserved_
_Printed in U. S. A._
Ah, where are the soldiers that fought here of yore?
The sod is upon them, they'll struggle no more,
The hatchet is fallen, the red man is low;
And near him reposes the arm of his foe.
. . . . . . . .
Sleep, soldiers of merit; sleep, gallants of yore.
The hatchet is fallen, the struggle is o'er.
While the fir tree is green and the wind rolls a wave,
The tear drop shall brighten the turf of the brave.
--From an Old Poem.
FOREWORD
The BOYS' BOOK OF INDIAN WARRIORS told of the deeds by the red
Americans in defense of their lives and to keep their homes. This
second book tells of the deeds by the white Americans, in defense of
their lives and also to clear the way for their homes. It commences
with the pioneers and hunters in the East, and continues on to the
frontiersmen and soldiers in the West.
These are stories of bravery and of pluck amidst great odds. In many
of the stories victory was won by the aid of powder, ball and steel,
used manfully. In others it was won by sheer nerve and wit alone--for
a good fighter fights with his heart and head as fully as with his
hands.
Americans have always been great fighters, when called upon to fight in
self-defense. They never quit until they are killed or triumphant; and
although many may be killed, those they leave press forward again. In
France the Americans "never gave up an inch." We Americans of to-day,
looking back, may be proud not only of the part played by our blood in
the World War, but likewise of the part it played in the days when,
rifle in hand, we were hewing the peace trail in our own country.
Clothes do not make the soldier. Whether in buckskin, wool, cotton
gown or army uniform, those men and women--yes, and boys and girls--of
frontier times in the forest and upon the plains and prairies were
soldiers all, enlisted to face danger.
It is largely the quick, dauntless spirit inherited from the American
pioneers, hunters and Indian fighters of the old days that shone so
brightly in the recent days when, in record time, we raised a gallant
army of fighters, at home and abroad, against a desperate enemy.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER
I THE CAPTURE OF OLD CHIEF ANNAWAN (1676)
Bold Captain Church in the Lion's Den
II THE ATTACK ON LOGAN'S STATION (1777)
And the Noble Deed of Captain Logan
III IN THE STOCKADE AT WHEELING (1777)
And the Great Leap of Major McColloch
IV BIG TURTLE BREAKS THE NET (1778)
And Meets His Father at Boonesborough
V SCOUT KENTON HAS A HARD TIME (1778-1779)
How He Paid for his Horse-Stealing
VI THE SCRAPE OF LEWIS AND JACOB WETZEL (1778)
And the Nerve of Two Boy Scouts
VII CAPTAIN SAMUEL BRADY SWEARS VENGEANCE (1780-1781)
And Broad-Jumps Like a Wild Turkey
VIII THE FLIGHT OF THREE SOLDIERS (1782)
On the Trail with the Crawford Men
IX THE BRAVE WOMEN OF BRYANT'S STATION (1782)
And the Defeat of the Villain Girty
X BETTY ZANE'S "POWDER EXPLOIT" (1782)
How a Girl Saved the Day
XI THE FIVE BOY CAPTIVES (1785)
Adventures of "Little Fat Bear" and All
XII ODDS AGAINST HIGGINS THE RANGER (1814)
And his Rescue by Heroine Pursley
XIII JOHN COLTER'S RACE FOR LIFE (1808)
The Trapper and the Blackfeet
XIV HUGH GLASS AND THE GRIZZLY BEAR (1823)
"As Slick as a Peeled Onion"
XV A FRACAS ON THE SANTA FE TRAIL (1829)
And the Building of Bent's Fort
XVI A SEARCH FOR A SILVER MINE (1831)
And the "Bowie Indian Fight"
XVII THROUGH THE ENEMY'S LINES (1846)
The Three Kit Carson Couriers
XVIII THE HOTTEST CHASE ON RECORD (1864)
Two in an Army Wagon
XIX RELIEF FOR BEECHER'S ISLAND (1868)
And a Rattle-Snake in the Way
XX THE DEFENSE OF THE BUFFALO-HUNTERS (1874)
When the Comanche Medicine Failed
XXI WHITE MEN AT BAY AGAIN (1874)
The "Fight of the Privates"
XXII BUFFALO BILL AND YELLOW HAND (1876)
A Plains-Day Duel
XXIII THE "SIBLEY SCOUT" (1876)
A Famous Army Tale
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Custer's Last Stand . . . . . . . . . . . . . _Frontispiece_
The Great Leap of Major McColloch
At the Siege of Boonesborough
Simon Kenton in Trouble
Lewis Wetzel Leads on the Run
Captain Brady of Pennsylvania
The "Fight of the Privates"
Buffalo Bill, Chief of Scouts
BOYS' BOOK OF FRONTIER FIGHTERS
CHAPTER I
THE CAPTURE OF OLD CHIEF ANNAWAN (1676)
BOLD CAPTAIN CHURCH IN THE LION's DEN
Captain Benjamin Church, born in Plymouth Colony of old Massachusetts,
was a rousing Indian fighter. He earned his title when in 1675 the
Pokanoket League of nine Indian tribes, under King Phillip the
Wampanoag, took up the hatchet against the whites. Then he was called
from his farm in Rhode Island Colony, to lead a company into the field.
So he bade his family good-by, and set forth.
He was at this time aged thirty-six, and built like a bear--short in
the legs, broad in the body, and very active. He knew all the Indian
ways, and had ridden back and forth through the Pokanoket country,
between his Aquidneck home on Rhode Island, and Plymouth and Boston on
the Massachusetts coast. In his Indian fighting he never turned his
face from a trail. The famous Kit Carson of the West was no bolder.
King Phillip's War lasted a year and two months, from June of 1675,
into August of 1676.[1] Captain Church soon became the Indians' most
hardy foeman.
He was constantly trailing the King Phillip warriors to their
"kenneling places," routing them out and killing them, or taking
prisoners, whom he spared for scouts.
At the terrible battle of Sunke-Squaw, when in dead of winter the
colonist soldiery stormed the Indian fort in southern Rhode Island, he
was struck by three balls at once. One entered his thigh and split
upon the thigh-bone; one gashed his waist; and one pierced his pocket
and ruined a pair of mittens--which was looked upon as a real disaster,
in such cold weather.
It was while his wounds were still bandaged, and he was yet unable to
mount a horse, that the bold Captain Church had a fierce hand-to-hand
tussle with a stout Netop, which gave him great renown.
Now the Netops were of the allies in the Pokanoket League, and this
warrior had been captured by a Mohegan ally of the Captain Church men.
Captain Church wished to save him, in order to get information from
him; but owing to a wound in the leg the Netop could not travel fast,
therefore the Mohegan was granted leave to kill him, that night.
Accordingly the Netop was seated by the large fire, with a Mohegan at
either side of him, to hold him fast until the tomahawk had been sunk
into his head. Although Captain Church had seen much blood-shedding
and had made short work of many other Indians, to-night he walked away,
with his heart a little sick.
The Netop had appeared to be waiting for the tomahawk, as if he
intended to die like a brave. But when the Mohegan struck, he suddenly
jerked his head aside so cleverly that the tomahawk not only missed him
entirely, but flew from the Mohegan's hand and almost killed one of the
others.
That was a surprise. With a quick writhe the Netop broke loose, and
bolted headlong, fairly into Captain Church himself, among the baggage
and the horses. This was a surprise for the captain, too. He grabbed
him but could not keep him, because he was a naked Indian and as
slippery as an eel.
Away they two went, both lame. The captain had not wished the Netop to
be killed, but he was bound that he should not escape. In the darkness
the Netop stumbled, and again the captain grabbed him. No use. This
Netop was an eel and a panther as well--slippery and strong. A second
time he wrenched free. Once more away they went, with the captain now
grasping for his hair. On through the surrounding swamp they pelted,
crunching the ice so loudly that the captain thought everybody within a
mile should hear. And he knew that the swamp was full of other
Pokanokets. However, that did not stay the angry Captain Church.
The Netop was getting off, when he was barred by a fallen tree, breast
high. He began to shout for help from his own people, hiding in the
swamp. Captain Church charged into him--and found _himself_ seized by
the hair! The Netop tried to twist his head and break his neck.
Captain Church gained a hair hold; and he, too, tried neck-breaking.
Thus they wrestled in the swamp, in the darkness, with their hands in
one another's hair, and the captain bunting the Netop in the face
whenever he might.
On a sudden there was a new sound. Somebody else came running. They
could hear the ice crunching under rapid footsteps. Each hoped that it
was one of his own party; but the captain hung on, like a bulldog, and
called in English.
Horrors! The on-comer did not reply, which was a bad sign for the
captain. Very soon the man arrived. They could not see him and he
could not see them; and the next thing the captain knew, a pair of
hands were feeling him over, as if to pick out a good spot on him.
They crept up to where his own hands were fastened in the Netop's hair.
While the captain was still hanging on grittily, and expecting to feel
a blow, down thudded the hatchet, right between his hands, into the
Netop's crown.
It was the Mohegan!
Now that the fight was done, the Mohegan hugged his captain and thanked
him for holding the prisoner. He cut off the Netop's head, and
together they bore it back to the camp fire.
Of such bull-dog stuff Captain Church was made. His fight with the
Netop, in the darkness of the dangerous swamp, raised him high among
his scouts.
He finally cornered King Phillip in another swamp, August 12, 1676.
There King Phillip fell, with two bullets in his breast from the gun of
a deserter. Captain Church's Indians hacked King Phillip into
quarters, to be hung upon a tree.
Only a remnant of King Phillip's people were left at large, under two
principal chiefs, Tispaquin and old Annawan. Of these chiefs Annawan
was the more important; he had ranked as Phillip's head captain. In
the swamp battle where Phillip was killed, his great voice had boomed
through the mist of morning, calling "Iootash! Iootash!"--"Fight
stoutly! Fight stoutly!" But in the mix-up he had escaped, and when
the dew had dried the Captain Church scouts could not trail him.
Having shattered the league of the Pokanokets and killed King Phillip,
Captain Church withdrew to Plymouth headquarters, to report. For the
campaign his men were granted only about $1.10 each, and he himself was
well tired out.
But right soon a message reached him, from Rehoboth, of southern
Massachusetts north of Rhode Island, that Head Captain Annawan was
"kenneling" in Squannaconk Swamp, and plundering the farms outside.
Being a true citizen, and knowing that the settlers looked to him for
aid, Captain Church, instead of resting up, sought his faithful
lieutenant, Jabez Howland, and others of his former company.
"Old Annawan is out," he said. "He is among the last of King Phillip's
men. I have reliable word that he is kenneling in Squannaconk and
doing much damage. You have been poorly paid, but I want hands to go
with me to hunt him."
"We will go with you wherever you please to take us, as long as there
is an Indian left in the woods," they answered. Which made him very
glad.
So again he set forth, from Plymouth, with Lieutenant Jabez Howland and
a few soldiers, and with Scout Captain Lightfoot, the friendly
Sogkonate Indian who had charge of the scouts. He led westward across
southern Massachusetts to the eastern border of Rhode Island Colony.
He arrived there at the end of the week. He had hoped to spend Sunday,
at least, with his family on Aquidneck Island, just opposite, in the
bay; but in the morning there came a courier to tell him that Indians
had been sighted, landing from canoes upon Poppasquash Neck.
Poppasquash Neck was a narrow point, northwest of him, in the upper
portion of Narragansett Bay. It is a fork of the same point upon which
King Phillip had his "royal seat" of Mount Hope, and upon which the
present city of Bristol is located.
Captain Church marched for Poppasquash at once; he was that kind of a
man. He had to cross the arm of the bay here in canoes. By the time
that he had made a round trip and a half, such a wind was blowing that
he was stranded on the point side with only two white soldiers and
fifteen or sixteen scouts.
Yet no whit daunted was bold Captain Church.
"My brave boys, if you are willing, we shall march on across to
Poppasquash and see whether we may not catch some of those enemy
Indians," he said.
March they did, through the thickets and swamps of the base of the main
point, to enter the upper part of the Poppasquash Neck. Here the
captain sent forward Lightfoot the Sogkonate, with three other Indians,
to scout. Lightfoot took with him, as one, a Wampanoag of King
Phillip's defeated army, named Nathaniel. He explained that Nathaniel
knew the signals of the Annawan band, and would be a good decoy.
"If you come upon any of the rogues, do not kill them but take them
prisoner, so that we may learn where Annawan is," Captain Church
directed, to Lightfoot; and Lightfoot promised.
Lightfoot was gone ahead a long time. Captain Church and his little
band proceeded, until they reached the narrowest part of upper
Poppasquash Neck; and here he posted his men, and waited for Lightfoot
to drive the enemy to him, or else appear and report.
He waited until dark, but Lightfoot did not come, nor did any of the
enemy. So night fell without news or stir. This night he dared make
no fire, and they had nothing at all to eat, for the supplies were
behind with Lieutenant Howland. The scouts began to fear that
Nathaniel had deserted--perhaps had given Lightfoot the slip or tolled
him into ambush, for there had been several gunshots in the distance.
In that case, old Annawan himself was likely to turn up and make
serious trouble. Therefore the night passed gloomily and hungrily, on
this lonely, swampy Poppasquash Neck, with water at two sides.
As soon as day dawned, Captain Church took his party to a better
position, on a brushy little hill just outside the neck. Scarcely had
he done so, when they saw an Indian come running. It was Lightfoot.
"What news?" Captain Church hailed anxiously.
"Good news, great captain," Lightfoot panted. "We are all safe and
sound and we have 'catched' ten of the Annawan people!"
Nathaniel had done this. First there had been sighted two strange
Indians skinning a horse in an old Indian burying-ground. Nathaniel
had decoyed them on by howling the Wampanoag wolf signal. After they
had been taken they had told of eight others near by. Nathaniel had
howled those in, also. The ten had been carried to the rude fort built
last year on the main point, of Mount Hope. Lieutenant Howland was
waiting there, with them.
This August 28 was to be Captain Church's busy day. He and his men had
had nothing to eat for twenty-four hours; but without pausing to eat of
the horse-flesh brought by Lightfoot they hastened across eastward, to
talk with the prisoners, and see what they knew about Chief Annawan.
They found the prisoners happy. Nathaniel had assured his friends that
it was better serving Captain Church than hiding in swamps, and they
now agreed with him. Indeed, they wished the captain to send out for
their families, who were not far away. First the captain ordered that
enough horse beef be roasted to last a whole day. Then he easily
bagged the prisoners' families, until his captives numbered thirty.
These Wampanoags had been with Annawan only yesterday, but one and all
declared that they did not know where Annawan might be to-day, for he
never stayed long in one place. Then a Wampanoag young man asked leave
to go out and get his old father, four miles distant in a swamp.
Captain Church decided to go with him and explore. So taking a
soldier, Caleb Cook, whom he especially liked, and five scouts, he
went--for he was a man who did things. He never missed a chance.
This time he rode horseback, being tired. At the swamp the Indian who
was looking for his father scurried ahead, to howl the wolf signal.
While waiting for him, the captain saw an old Indian man coming down
through the swamp, with a gun on his shoulder, and with a young squaw
close behind, carrying a basket. They were quickly ambushed and
seized. The captain questioned them separately, after telling them
that if they lied to him they should be killed. He questioned the
young squaw first.
"What company have you come from last?"
"We come from Captain Annawan's."
"How many are there with him?"
"Fifty or sixty."
"How many miles is it to the spot where you left him?"
"I do not know how to count in miles," she said. "He is up in the
great Squannaconk swamp."
The old man proved to be one of Annawan's councillors. He gave the
same answers as the young squaw, his daughter.
"Can we get to Annawan by night?" Captain Church queried.
"If you start at once and travel stoutly, you might get to him by
sunset," replied the old man.
"Where were you going when I seized you?"
"Annawan had sent me down to look for some of his Indians who were to
kill provisions on this Mount Hope Neck."
"Those Indians have all been taken by me," Captain Church informed him.
"They are with my men and will not be harmed. Now I mean to take
Captain Annawan."
He asked his little squad if they were willing to pay Annawan a visit.
That rather startled them. They made their reply.
"We are your soldiers and ready to obey your commands," said the
scouts. "But we know Captain Annawan to be a great soldier, too. He
was a captain under Massasoit, Phillip's father, and under Phillip
also. He is a man of courage and strong mind, and we have heard him
say that he will never be taken alive by the white people. We know the
men with him. They are warriors and very determined; and we are but a
handful. It will be a pity if after all your great deeds you should
throw your life away at last."
"I do not doubt that this Captain Annawan is a valiant man," Captain
Church admitted. "But I have hunted him a long time, and not until
this moment have I got exact news of his quarters. So I am loth to let
him escape again. If you will cheerfully go with me, by the protection
of Providence we shall take him, I think."
The scouts agreed to go.
"What is your mind, in the matter?" the captain next asked, of Caleb
Cook.
Caleb Cook was brave: a Plymouth man who had been in the fight when
King Phillip was killed. Yes, he had tried a shot at King Phillip,
there, but his gun had failed him.
"Sir, I am never afraid of going anywhere when you are with me,"
asserted Caleb Cook.
Captain Church made ready. No time was to be lost, for Squannaconk
swamp contained three thousand acres, and if he did not start at once
he might lose Annawan in the darkness. He sent his horse back. The
old Indian said that the swamp was too thick with brush, for a horse.
He sent the Indian young man and two other prisoners back, with the
horse. They were to tell Lieutenant Howland to move on to the town of
Taunton, but to expect him in the morning on the Rehoboth road--where
he would surely come out, if he were alive, with Chief Annawan.
He kept the old man and the girl.
"Now if you will guide me to Captain Annawan, your lives shall be
spared," he said to them.
The old man bowed low to him.
"Since you have given us our lives, we are obliged to serve you," he
answered. He was a courtly old man. "Captain Annawan and his people
are camped under a great rock in the midst of the swamp, north from
here. Come and I will show you."
Thereupon Captain Church pressed forward to the vast swamp, with his
one white man and five Indians, to capture Chief Annawan and his fifty
or sixty.
The old councillor was nimble. He scuttled fast, but whenever he got
out of sight from them, he would wait. They traveled all the rest of
the day, until sunset. Then when amidst the twilight deep in the swamp
they came upon the old man again, he was sitting down. They all sat
down.
"What news now?" Captain Church demanded.
"We must wait here," the old man replied. "Captain Annawan is not far.
At this time he sends out his scouts, to see that there are no enemies
near about. They return at dark, and then we may move without fear."
When the swamp was dark, the old man arose.
"Let us go on," he said.
"Will you take a gun and fight for me," Captain Church invited.
The old councillor bowed lower than before.
"I beg you not to ask me to fight against my old friend, Captain
Annawan," he pleaded. "But I will go in with you, and help you, and
will lay hands upon anybody that shall offer to harm you."
They moved forward, keeping close together, for the swamp was growing
dark indeed. Suddenly Captain Church heard a strange sound. He
grasped the old man by the arm to hold him back. They all listened.
"It is somebody pounding corn in a mortar," they agreed; and by that
they knew they were approaching the Chief Annawan camp.
Presently a great outcrop of rock loomed before them, and there was the
glow of fires. The corn pounding sounded plainer. Now Captain Church
took two of his scouts, and crawled up a long slope of brush and gravel
to the crest of the rock pile, that he might peer over. He saw the
Annawan camp. There were three companies of Wampanoags, down in front
of the rock pile, gathered about their fires. And right below, at the
foot of the cliff, he saw big Annawan himself.
Chief Annawan and several of his head men had made their own camp here.
They had leaned brush against a felled tree trunk to keep the wind from
the cliff face. The rocks overhung, forming a sort of cave that
narrowed upward in a split; and at the mouth of the cave Annawan and
his young son were lying watching the squaws cook meat in pans and
kettles upon the fires.
The guns of the party had been stacked along a stick set in two
crotches, and covered with a mat to keep the dampness off. Annawan's
feet, and his son's head, opposite, almost touched the gun butts.
It was a snug, well-protected kenneling place, surrounded by the swamp.
The face of the rock pile was so steep that there was no way of getting
down except by holding to the shrubs and small trees. That did not
look very promising. So Captain Church crept back to ask the old man
guide if there was not some other trail. The old man shook his head.
"No, great captain. All who belong to Annawan must come in by that
way, down the cliff. Whoever tries to come by another way will likely
be shot."
"Very well," said the captain. He made up his mind to beard the lion
in the den. "You and your daughter shall go down before us, so that
Annawan shall suspect nothing. We will follow close behind, in your
shadows."
This they set about to do. The old man and his daughter climbed the
slope of the rock pile, and passed over, and down by the narrow trail,
for the fires at the bottom. Captain Church, his hatchet in his hand,
followed close, stooping low and keeping in the shadow of his guides,
cast by the firelight. His six men trod after.
The corn pounding helped them. Whenever the squaw paused to shake the
corn together, they paused also, and crouched. When she began to pound
again, they hastened. The trail ended just at one side of Captain
Annawan. The old man and daughter passed on--and suddenly darting
forward Captain Church stepped right over the son's head, at Annawan's
feet, and stood by the stacked guns.
He was here. They knew him well. The surprise was perfect. Young
Annawan, seeing, instantly "whipped his blanket over his head and
shrunk in a heap." Old Annawan straightened half up, astonished.
"Howoh (I am taken)!" he gasped.
Then he fell back, without speaking farther, while Captain Church, with
his men on guard, gathered the guns. No one dared to resist. None,
there, dreamed that he had only the six men.
"Go to those other companies," ordered Captain Church of his scouts,
"and tell them that I have taken their captain, Annawan, and it will be
best for them to surrender peaceably; for if they try to resist or to
escape, they will find themselves entrapped by a great army brought by
Captain Church and will be cut to pieces. But if they stay quiet till
morning, they will have good quarter and be carried to Taunton, to see
their friends already there. As for you," he spoke to Annawan, "you
will be well treated, also; and at Plymouth I will ask my masters to
spare your life."
The scouts made the talk, and brought in all the guns and hatchets, so
that now Captain Church was in possession of the whole camp. His nerve
had won out for him.
So far, Chief Annawan had not uttered another word. He seemed dumb
with his astonishment.
Captain Church maintained a bold front, as though he truly had a great
army at his back.
"What have you for supper?" he asked. "You see I have come to sup with
you."
Chief Annawan aroused. He was a strong, burly man, and spoke in a deep
voice.
"Taubut (beef)." He called to the squaws, bidding them bring food for
the Captain Church men. "Will you have cow beef or horse beef?" he
queried.
"Cow beef would pleasure me the most," answered the captain, in Indian.
So he supped heartily upon cow beef and the dried corn that the squaw
had been pounding into meal in the mortar.
He had not slept any for two days and a night and had traveled hard
upon only one meal. Now he stretched himself out by the fire, to sleep
for two hours while his party watched. But he was so nervous that he
closed his eyes in vain. When he opened them, he saw that everybody
was asleep except himself and Chief Annawan!
This was a curious situation--and not very comfortable, either. The
moon had risen, flooding the swamp with pale light. He and Annawan lay
for a few minutes, eyeing one another--the white captain and the red
captain. Captain Church would have given a great deal to know what
Captain Annawan was thinking. Presently Annawan cast off his blanket
and stood up. Without a word, he walked away through the moonlight,
until he disappeared among the trees.
Captain Church did not call out. That would have been sign of fear.
But he was much alarmed. He drew the guns closer to him and shifted
over to lie against young Annawan, so that if the chief found a gun
outside he would not be able to shoot in without risk of hitting his
son.
Pretty soon, here came Annawan back again, through the moonlight, with
a bundle in his arms. He knelt beside Captain Church and spoke in good
English:
"Great captain, you have killed Phillip, and conquered his country, for
I believe that I and my company are the last that war against the
English. Therefore, these things belong to you."
He unwrapped the bundle. It contained the royal treasures of the
Wampanoags. There was a large wampum belt of black and white beads
woven into figures of persons and animals and flowers. Hung upon
Captain Church, it reached from his shoulders to his ankles, before and
behind. There was another wampum belt, with flags worked into it, and
a small belt with a star. And these all were edged with red hair got
in the country of the Mohawks. There were two fine horns full of
glazed powder, and a red blanket.
They had been the tokens of kingship, when King Phillip had sat in
state. They had passed to Annawan, as the next chief. Now they had
passed to Captain Church, the conqueror of both.
After having given them, Chief Annawan seemed to feel relieved. While
the camp slept, he and Captain Church spent the rest of the night
talking like brother warriors. Annawan told of the mighty deeds that
he had done, as a young man under Phillip's father Massasoit, in
battles against other Indians. Captain Church gladly listened. He
appreciated bravery.
There was great joy, the next morning, when with all his prisoners
Captain Church was met by Lieutenant Rowland on the Rehoboth road--for
nobody had expected to see the captain alive again. He sent the most
of the prisoners to Plymouth, by way of Taunton, but he took Annawan
and the scouts to his home in Rhode Island, and there kept them for two
or three days. Then he went with these also, to Plymouth.
If Captain Church had stayed at Plymouth, very likely he would have
saved the life of old Annawan, whom he much admired. However, he was
ordered out upon another hunt, which resulted in the surrender, this
time, of Chief Tispaquin. That over with, he went to Boston; and when
he returned to Plymouth from Boston he found the heads of Annawan and
Tispaquin cut off and stuck up for all to see.
This is what had occurred: Tispaquin had claimed to be a wizard whom
bullets could not harm. "In that case," said the Plymouth people, "we
will shoot at you, and if your wicked claim is true, you shall live";
so the government soldiers stood him up and shot at him, and of course
he died. And as old Annawan could not deny that he had put some of his
prisoners to death, he was shot, also.
Captain Church served New England in other Indian wars through almost
thirty more years. He was made commander-in-chief of all the Plymouth
Colony forces, and as major and colonel campaigned by horse, foot and
boat clear up to Canada. He prospered in business, and likewise grew
very large in body, until, in January, 1718, he was killed, aged
seventy-eight, by a fall from his horse.
[1] See "Boys' Book of Indian Warriors."
CHAPTER II
THE ATTACK ON LOGAN'S STATION (1777)
AND THE NOBLE DEED OF CAPTAIN LOGAN
Upon the old Indian frontier of Virginia and Kentucky the year 1777 was
known as "the three bloody sevens." The American settlers had crossed
the Cumberland Mountains dividing Virginia and Kentucky, to make new
homes in a fair land reported upon by the great Daniel Boone.
John Findlay of North Carolina had been the first to explore Kentucky,
in 1767. His story of his trip and of the wonderfully fertile realm
that he had discovered stirred the hearts of the Boone brothers. In
1769 Daniel Boone, his brother-in-law John Stuart, Joseph Holden, James
Mooney and William Cooley, guided by the old but stout-limbed Findlay
(a peddler by trade and a hunter by nature) crossed the Cumberland Gap
Mountain of eastern Kentucky, and with horses and packs traveled still
westward into that country where white foot had only once before
trodden.
But they had confidence in John Findlay. Daniel Boone had scouted with
him a dozen years back, when General Braddock, his British regulars and
his Virginia riflemen, had been shattered by the French and Indians
south of Pittsburgh.
They found Kain-tuck-ee to be all that fancy painted. So four years
later, in September, 1773, the two Boone brothers, Daniel and Squire,
with their families and five other families and a total of forty men,
started out to open the way in earnest. But before they had crossed
the Gap, on October 10 their rear was attacked by the Shawnees and
Cherokees. It was a sad day for Daniel Boone--his oldest son, James
Boone, aged seventeen, was killed, and five others.
They had been on the road only fourteen days. So, to save the women
and children they turned homeward.
But Kentucky was not forgotten. Nothing stops Americans when their
faces are set westward, and the long trail beckons.
The next year Daniel Boone and party went into Kentucky again. They
found James Harrod of Virginia building Harrodsburg, south of the
Kentucky River in central Kentucky. He had come in from the north;
Daniel Boone and companion Michael Stoner from the east.
This James Harrod was a man of valor. At sixteen years of age he was a
young soldier in the French and Indian War. He loved the scout trail,
and grew up to be one of the best sign-readers among all the "Long
Hunters of Kentucky." He was tall, silent, swarthy--as dark as the
Indians whom he tracked. They called him the "Lone Long Knife." When
he was fifty years of age, or in 1792, he left his wife and daughter,
on his last journey through the forests. After that February day he
never appeared again, nor did word of him come back.
But in 1774 he had founded Harrodsburg--or Harrod's Fort, as it was
known. Daniel Boone visited with him and his thirty. A company was
formed of North Carolina and Virginia settlers, who by treaty with the
Cherokees purchased all southern Kentucky. In March of the next year,
1775, Daniel Boone led thirty men who with their hatchets blazed a
bridle-trail of two hundred miles, from southwestern Virginia across
Cumberland Gap and on into the northwest clear to the Kentucky River.
"Boone's Trace" and the "Wilderness Road" was the name of the path.
April 1 they commenced Boone's Fort of Boonesborough, on the south bank
of the Kentucky eighteen miles southeast of present Lexington. Then
there came the women, in September: for Boonesborough, Daniel Boone's
wife Rebecca and their daughters; for Harrod's, Mrs. Hugh McGary, Mrs.
Hogan and Mrs. Denton. These were the first white women in Kentucky.
There came, also, the same year, from the Holston River in southwestern
Virginia, the noble Benjamin Logan, of Irish birth but as dark in hair
and complexion as James Harrod. Since the age of fourteen he had been
caring for his mother, his brothers and sisters.
While Boonesborough was being built and Harrod's Fort was not yet
completed, he founded his own settlement of Logan's Station, or Fort
Asaph, at Stanford of to-day, about thirty-five miles southwest of
Boonesborough, and twenty miles southeast of Harrod's. Now, by the
close of 1775, here was a triangle of three white men's settlements, in
central Kentucky. The "Long Hunters" had arrived, to stay. The first
homes of any human being had been planted.
No Indians had placed villages in Kentucky. The Indians only hunted
and warred here. It was to them the Dark and Bloody Ground. The
Cherokees had sold, but the Shawnees and their allies of the Northern
Confederacy--the Miamis, Wyandots, and all--with headquarters in Ohio,
also claimed Kentucky for their hunting reserve. The Shawnees had not
been consulted in the treaty with the Cherokees. Following the fierce
and bloody battle of Point Pleasant in October, 1774, peace had been
declared between the Northern Confederacy and the Long-Knife
Virginians; nevertheless, here just before the war with England,
British agents were stirring the Indians up against the colonists.
Kentucky, said the Shawnees, must be cleared.
They swooped down upon the young settlements. On the day before
Christmas, 1775, they attacked half-finished Boonesborough. After
that, through some years, it was rare for a young man to die except
from wounds.
By reason of the outbreak of the Revolution, in 1776, the Kentucky
settlements seemed to be cut off entirely. The next winter the people
of Logan's Station and the post of McClelland's Station fled to
Boonesborough and Harrodsburg. In all that region there were only one
hundred and fifty white men, to protect the women and children; but
they were men such as Daniel Boone and his brother Squire Boone; the
tough-skinned Simon Kenton whose touch-and-go escapes are related in
Chapter V; tall James Harrod and Benjamin Logan; George Rogers Clark,
soon to found Louisville and to conquer the "Illinois country"
bordering upon the Mississippi River; William Whitley, captain of
Rangers; and many another, every one an expert with the flint-lock
rifle.
The year of the "three bloody sevens" dawned peacefully. The Logan's
Station families returned home from sheltering Harrodsburg, to till
their farms. In March the Kentucky men were organized into a militia:
their posts supposed to be Boonesborough, Harrodsburg and Logan's
Station; their officers, George Rogers Clark as major, Daniel Boone,
James Harrod, Benjamin Logan and John Todd as captains. This same
month some two hundred Shawnees entered Kentucky, to wipe out the
little forts.
On March 7 they first attacked Harrodsburg. Harrodsburg resisted so
bravely that they drew off, to try Boonesborough. A great storm of
sleet and snow halted them, and not until April 24 did one hundred of
them appear before Boone's Fort. Daniel Boone and Squire Boone, their
less than twenty men and their heroic women fought the good fight and
won; but it was a close shave. Daniel Boone almost was tomahawked, and
owed his life to young Simon Kenton.
The Shawnees under Chief Black Fish marched for Logan's Station.
They should have tried Logan's Station first. It mustered a garrison
of only thirteen rifle-bearers, and was the weakest of the three
stockades. Now it had heard from the two other forts, and had done its
best to get ready. But it was short of provisions and of ammunition.
The Indians cunningly took their time. At last the Logan people grew
hopeful that there would be no attack, for nearly a month had passed
since the attack upon Boonesborough. Early in the morning of Friday,
May 30, Mrs. Ann Logan, Mrs. William Whitley and a negress servant went
out to milk the cows; William Hudson, Burr Harrison, John Kennedy and
James Craig were their body-guard. Suddenly, from a brake of cane,
there burst a volley. The Indians!
The persons in the fort rushed to the pickets. They saw the three
women and James Craig running wildly in. They saw John Kennedy
staggering after. He had four bullets to carry. They saw William
Hudson, dead, and being scalped, and Burr Harrison limp upon the ground.
In through the gateway rushed the three women and James Craig;
protected by the rifles, John Kennedy lurched through, also. The heavy
gate was quickly barred, while bullets pattered against the close-set
palings. Then there arose the cry:
"Harrison! Look at Burr! He's trying to make in!"
He had fallen in the full open, half way between the fort and the cane
brake. Now he was working hard to crawl for the gate. He could drag
himself only a few feet at a time. The Indians let him alone; the men
and women peered anxiously through the cracks in the palisades--his
frenzied wife and children cried piteously, urging him on.
But he collapsed in a patch of thin brush, and lay lax, plain to see.
Captain Logan sprang to the gate.
"Who will go with me to rescue Burr Harrison?" he thundered.
The voices of the women were stilled; the men hesitated, looking one
upon another. The Indians evidently were waiting for just such a try.
How many lurked in the thicket? Who might tell? A report from those
days says fifty-seven; chronicles say one hundred, two hundred. It is
difficult to count Indians skulking amidst bushes and trees. At any
rate there were plenty. One hundred had attacked Harrodsburg; a like
number had attacked Boonesborough; probably one hundred guns commanded
the gateway of Logan's Station.
It looked to be certain death for any two men venturing outside.
"Who will go with me to rescue Burr Harrison?" Captain Logan repeated,
seeking right and left with his dark face and flashing black eyes. His
brave wife uttered never a word to hold him back.
"I'd be your man, Cap, but I'm weakly yet," spoke one.
"I'm sorry for Burr, but in a case like this the skin is tighter than
the shirt," muttered another.
"Will you let Captain Logan go alone?" reproached the women.
"No. I'm with you, Cap," exclaimed John Martin. "A man can die but
once, and I'm as ready now as I'll ever be."
"Open the gate. Keep the savages off us. That's all we ask," Captain
Logan ordered.
He and John Martin stood, braced for their dash. The gate was swung
ajar, and instantly they dived through. But as if he had gained
strength, Burr Harrison rose to his knees. Seeing, John Martin whirled
and leaped back under cover again. He afterward explained that he
thought Burr was coming in of himself, and rifles would be needed more
in the fort than outside.
Captain Logan only paused; then, crouched, he darted on, for Harrison
had toppled. During the space of just a moment or two the Indians were
silent. Now, before he had reached his goal, a musket whanged, from
the thicket--a second followed--the firing swelled to a volley, while
the stockade answered.
Was he down? No, not yet. He had seized Burr, and hoisting him in his
two arms was coming at a plunging run through the spatter of bullets
and the drift of powder-smoke.
The gate swung wider. He was here--he panted in, out-sped by the balls
but still on his feet. Eager hands received him and his burden; the
gate slammed to and the bar fell into place.
"Hurt, Logan?"
"No. Never mind me; watch the walls."
There were bullet-holes in his shirt and hat. The gate and the pickets
enclosing it were riddled, but by a miracle the lead had not touched
his flesh.
The women tended to Burr. He was grievously wounded--he lived six
weeks and died in his bed, which was better than dying by torture or
the tomahawk. So Captain Logan's hero deed had not been in vain.
The rescue made the Indians very angry. They laid themselves to the
siege, and so briskly they maintained it that there was no rest for the
little garrison of only ten able-bodied men, nor was there any chance
for succor from Harrodsburg or Boonesborough.
Within less than a week the ammunition was almost spent, and the food
alarmingly low. Help must be summoned from the Holston settlement on
the Holston River in southwestern Virginia, two hundred miles by
Boone's Trace.
How many might be spared from the feeble garrison? Not more than
two--not more than one; and after a short debate, Captain Logan himself
set out, in the night of June 6.
It was a forlorn hope, but he slipped out amidst the darkness, by way
of a loosened picket in the rear of the stockade, and vanished. The
garrison strained their ears, listening. They heard nothing, and
breathed a sigh of relief. For an hour more they listened, fearing
sudden burst of whoops and shots. Silence reigned. Good! Captain
Logan was through the lines by this time.
But could he make it, when all the surrounding country was being
watched by the Shawnee scouts? He had planned to avoid the Boone
Trace. That surely would be guarded close; it was the white man's
road. He was to follow no trail at all, and the wilderness had
swallowed him.
Two weeks passed. There was no token of any nature from Captain Logan.
Likely enough he had perished; the bullet, the tomahawk, perhaps the
torture stake, had stopped him. His wife was in despair, and the
garrison were beginning to despair, for the powder had dwindled, and
the Indians had relaxed their relentless circle for never an instant.
It seemed impossible that a man could get through them, going or coming.
In the night of June 23 the guards heard a scratching on the loose
picket. A trick? Be careful.
"Hist! It's I--Logan."
What! They stood aside, with hatchets lifted; but he it was, for he
poked a pack ahead of him, and slipped in after.
He told his story. Five hundred miles, at least, he had trudged,
always at top speed, day and night; making his own trail, through
tangled vines, across streams, up and down lonely gorges; and now he
brought powder, and the promise of reinforcements.
In all his journey eastward and westward he had not been sighted by an
Indian. It was a trip long remembered in the border country.
With such a leader, no garrison would yield. Logan's Station was
filled with courage and hope renewed. It fought on, day after day,
night after night, constantly expecting the reinforcements. Finally it
seemed that Captain Logan's venture had been for naught; a month had
elapsed since his return, and the reinforcements had not arrived. Once
more the powder was low, and by this time the scanty provisions had
been reduced to miserably small rations.
This was August 23. The end appeared near. On August 25 gun shots
sounded, in the timber behind the Shawnee lines. Indians were running.
Relief had come--the reinforcements were breaking through! Hurrah!
No! The gun-fire ceased. Hope died again. The Indians were too
thick. Logan's Station settled for another night of waiting.
But the next morning, where were the Shawnees? From the stockade weary
eyes searched to locate the shadowy forms. All was quiet. What had
happened? If the Indians actually were gone, that could mean only one
thing: relief. Could it be true, at last!
Within a short time, amidst the cheers of the men and the sobs of the
women Colonel John Bowman led his column of Virginians straight into
the widely open gate of the fort.
He had brought from the Holston one hundred rifle-men. He had already
been at Boonesborough--therefore his delay. From Boonesborough he had
advanced for Logan's Station, sweeping the timber. The Shawnees had
ambushed six of his advance scouts, and killed two. But here he was,
just in nick of time, with his hardy Long Knives, whose rifles were as
much feared as the rifles of the Long Hunters.
Logan's Station, Harrodsburg and Boonesborough were saved, for the
present. The Shawnees, Mingos and warring Delawares continued to watch
them close.
Benjamin Logan lived on, as scout, soldier and Kentucky statesman, and
died peacefully in 1802, aged fifty years.
CHAPTER III
IN THE STOCKADE AT WHEELING (1777)
AND THE GREAT LEAP OF MAJOR MCCOLLOCH
While from Virginia, North Carolina and soon from Tennessee the
American settlers were pushing on through Kentucky for the closed trail
of the broad Ohio River, farther north another out-post had been placed
at the river itself.
This was the Zane settlement away up in the panhandle of North-Western
Virginia; to-day the city of Wheeling, West Virginia.
The Zanes, first there, were three brothers: Colonel Ebenezer, Silas
and Jonathan. They all were of the roving "wild-turkey" breed, and
bolder spirits never wore buckskin or sighted a rifle. A fourth
brother, Isaac, had been taken by the Indians when nine years old, and
had chosen to stay with them. He married a sister of a Wyandot chief;
rose to be a chief, himself, but never lifted the hatchet against the
whites. On the contrary, he helped them when he might.
It was in the summer of 1769 that the three Zanes led a party from
present Moorfield, on the South Branch of the Potomac River in eastern
West Virginia, to explore northwest into a country where Ebenezer
already had spent a season. They reached the Ohio and looked down upon
the shining river, and the lovely vales surrounding, where Wheeling
up-sprang.
Ebenezer Zane, then twenty-three years old, built a cabin on a knoll
near the river above the mouth of Wheeling Creek. The Zane family home
was here long after Wheeling became a town. Jonathan lived with Eb;
Silas put up a cabin beside the creek. The next year they went back
for their wives and children; other settlers returned with them. Among
these were John Wetzel, whose five sons, Lewis, Jacob, Martin, John and
George grew to be such frontier fighters that Lewis was called the
Boone of West Virginia; there were the McCollochs--John, William and
Samuel--whose sister Elizabeth had married Eb Zane; and another of the
Zanes, Andrew.
Those were days of large families.
Up and down the east bank of the Ohio, north and south of Wheeling
Creek, the number of cabins gradually increased, until in the year of
the "three bloody sevens" they numbered some twenty-five or thirty.
They were scattered here and there under the protection of a fort that
had been built three years before by the Government. At first it was
named Fort Fincastle, after Fincastle County of Virginia; the name had
been changed to Fort Henry, in honor of the great Patrick Henry, orator
and governor of the State of Virginia; but it was known also as
Wheeling Fort.
And considerable of a fort it was, too--ranking second to only the
famed Fort Pitt at Pittsburgh. It stood near the river edge of a flat
bluff about a quarter of a mile up the Ohio from the mouth of Wheeling
Creek. Its stockade of sharpened white-oak pickets seventeen feet high
enclosed more than half an acre, with small block-houses or bastions in
the corners, and with a commandant's log house of two stories, in the
middle.
Inland, or east from it, there arose a high hill--Wheeling Hill.
Between the fort and the base of the hill were the Ebenezer Zane cabin
and the other cabins, on the bottom-lands, forming Wheeling.
To this time young Wheeling had been little bothered by the Indians.
But the Ohio River was the border country; it flowed through a No-Man's
Land. On the east and south the white people were pressing toward it,
on the west and north the red people were seeking to keep its banks
clear. The struggle waged back and forth. All the territory of
present Ohio was red, and in Ohio and adjacent Indiana the Shawnees,
Miamis, Wyandot Hurons, the Mingos, the war Delawares, and such, had
their principal towns. The Wheeling settlements in the pan-handle were
within short striking distance of the Indian strongholds.
The War of the Revolution had been in full stride for a year. The
majority of the Indians of the northwest sided with the British, in the
hopes of keeping their country from the Americans. It is said that
Isaac Zane, the white Wyandot, sent the word of danger to the
commanding officer at Fort Pitt. At any rate, on the first day of
August, 1777, Chief White-eyes the friendly Delaware appeared there
with warning that the Indians of the Northern Confederacy, helped by
the British, were making ready "to take Wheeling home with them."
[Illustration: The great leap of Major McColloch. (From an Old Print)]
General Edward Hand of Fort Pitt dispatched a runner to Colonel David
Shepherd, of Fort Shepherd, six miles up Wheeling Creek.
"The Indians are planning to attack Wheeling. You will therefore
remove your forces from Fort Shepherd and rally all the militia of your
district between the Ohio and the Monongahela at Fort Henry."
No regular troops might be spared by General Washington; they were
needed at the front--and these were dark days for the Buff and Blue.
The home guards, or militia, needs must protect the settlements on the
far border. But Fort Henry itself had no garrison of any kind. The
settlers around-about were supposed to defend it when defending
themselves.
Colonel David Shepherd was lieutenant in charge of the
pan-handle--which at that time included a slice of Pennsylvania on the
east. He had under him a number of small block-houses. From these and
the settlements he summoned eleven companies of militia. He also
worked hard to put Fort Henry in good repair.
Had the Indians struck at once, they might have scored heavily, in
spite of the fighting Zanes, Wetzels, McCollochs, and all. But they
delayed, and by the last week of August Colonel Shepherd reported to
General Hand:
"We are well prepared. Fort Henry is Indian proof."
He relaxed, and dismissed nine of the militia companies, so that only
two remained: the companies of Captain Joseph Ogle and Captain Samuel
Mason, composed mainly of Wheeling men. There were about sixty, in all.
The night of the last day of August Captain Ogle returned to the fort
from a scout with twelve of his men. He had been watching the trails.
"Never a sign of Injun anywhere around," he and Martin Wetzel and the
others declared.
The warning by White-eyes seemed to have been a false alarm, or else
the Indians had learned of the preparations and had backed out.
That very night, however, the Indians cunningly crossed the Ohio below
the fort, instead of above; there were almost four hundred of
them--Shawnees, Wyandots, Mingos, accompanied by a white man
interpreter. They saw the lights in the fort, and planned their
favorite morning surprise instead of a direct attack.
So they formed two lines from the river to a bend in the creek, facing
the fort and surrounding the settlers' cabins. A corn field hid them.
The main road from the fort down through the corn field led right
between the two lines. Then they posted six warriors, who should show
themselves and decoy the garrison out.
Some of the militia-men were in the fort; others were with their
families in the cabins, for after the first alarm the cabins had been
used again. Wheeling slept well this night of August 31, with no
inkling that three hundred and eighty or more red enemies were
occupying its own corn fields.
A heavy fog dimmed the sunrise. Andrew Zane, Samuel Tomlinson, John
Boyd (a mere lad) and a negro slave started out to hunt the horses of
James McMechen, who had decided to leave. All unsuspecting, they
passed right through the first line of Indians. They met the six
decoys.
For a few minutes there was lively work. A single shot brought poor
young Boyd to the ground; in making for the fort Andrew Zane leaped a
terrific distance (the stories say, seventy feet) down a cliff bank;
but the six Indians did not pursue far, none of the other Indians took
part, and Andrew Zane, Samuel Tomlinson and the negro reached safety.
"How many out there, Andy?"
"Six is all we counted. We saw no sign of more," panted Andrew Zane.
"By thunder, we can't let Boyd lie unavenged, without a try. That's
beyond human nature. With Colonel Shepherd's permission I'll take some
men and shake the rascals up," Captain Mason exclaimed.
Out he marched, with fourteen of his company. The six Indians decoyed
them on. Those scores of fierce eyes that had been peering from trees
and corn-stalks, waiting for the morning to break and for this very
sally to occur, focussed on the sight.
Suddenly the war-whoop rang. Behind, and on either flank of the
Captain Mason party the painted scalps and faces of the Indians rose
above the tassels and brush--their muskets belched smoke and lead
through the fog.
Wellnigh by the one volley two-thirds of the men fell; the others
turned in retreat. Soon it become every man for himself. William
Shepherd, son of Colonel Shepherd, almost gained the stockade. Shelter
beckoned, faintly seen. But his foot caught in a grape-vine, down he
pitched, head-long, and a war-club finished him. Captain Mason and his
sergeant burst through the Indian line, and raced up the slope, for the
protection of the loop-holes. The captain had been twice wounded, and
had lost his rifle.
Midway, the sergeant dropped. Captain Mason paused for a moment, to
help him.
"No use, Cap. I've got to stay. Take my gun and save yourself.
Better one, here, than two."
It had to be. Captain Mason took the gun. Without a weapon, the brave
and crippled sergeant died like a hero.
An Indian, tomahawk in hand, pursued the captain close. Captain Mason
sensed the lifted hatchet poised to split his head. He was too weak to
run farther--he whirled, to grapple. He had not noticed that the
sergeant's rifle was loaded. By a vigorous shove he pushed the Indian
backward, down hill, and the tomahawk blade was buried in the ground.
The gun! It was loaded and capped! He leveled and fired just in time,
and the Indian, at the very muzzle, fell dead.
The captain made onward. He concealed himself under a large felled
tree; remained there for the rest of the day and into the night.
The people of the cabins and the fort had heard the fracas out in the
fog. They could see little. Still not knowing how many Indians there
were, Captain Ogle and twelve men sallied to the reinforcement. They,
too, were ambushed, and wiped out. Captain Ogle himself hid in a
fence-corner, until darkness. Only Sergeant Jacob Ogle, his son,
Martin Wetzel and perhaps one other man, escaped to the fort.
From the Captain Mason party only Hugh McConnell and Thomas Glenn came.
Of the twenty-six men under the two captains these five, alone, ran
gasping in from the deadly fog; and two had been badly wounded.
By this time the women and children, carrying the babies, and many of
them still in their night-clothes, had scurried from their cabin homes
into the fort. The mists were lifting; and barely had the gates of the
fort been closed again when the Indian lines advanced upon the village.
They appeared, marching to beat of drum, with the British flag flying;
crossed the corn-field bottom-land and took possession of the village.
The cabins and out-buildings swarmed with them.
From a window of a cabin near to the fort the white savage shouted a
message. He promised mercy to all the people who would join the cause
of their sovereign, King George; he had come to escort them safely to
Detroit. And he read a proclamation from Lieutenant-Governor Henry
Hamilton, the general commanding the British Northwest, offering pardon
to the "rebels" who would renounce the cause of the Colonies. The
people here would be allowed fifteen minutes to decide.
There were no faint hearts in Fort Henry. Colonel Ebenezer Zane
replied at once.
"We have consulted our wives and children, and we all are resolved to
perish, sooner than trust to your savages, or desert the cause of
liberty. You may do your worst."
"Think well of that," retorted the Indian's spokesman. "I have a
thousand warriors. They are rich with powder and guns furnished by
their father at Detroit. Once you enrage them, I will not be able to
hold them back. Then it will not be possible for you to escape.
Better for you to save your wives and children by accepting the offer
of the governor and yielding to your rightful king."
But a rifle bullet made him duck. The attack opened at once.
There were thirty-three men and grown boys in the fort; and as many
women and children. Led by the white savage, the Indians charged the
gate with battering-ram logs; the log-carriers fell, but a hundred
warriors stormed the palisade and tore with their knives and tomahawks
and fingers at the pickets.
From the loop-holes the long rifles cracked in a steady drum-fire.
Every man and boy who could raise a muzzle aimed and fired and aimed
and fired again. Every woman was busy--running bullets, filling powder
flasks, loading rifles and leaning them ready for the eager, groping
hands, and serving out water and food.
Two of the strongest women, Mothers Glum and Betsy Wheat, took station
at loop-holes and shot the same as the men. Border women, they, who
well knew the uses of a rifle.
A dummy cannon, of painted wood, had been mounted upon the flat roof of
the commandant's quarters. But the Indian soon saw that it did not
awaken. They laughed and jeered, and grew bolder.
Within the fort all was a reek of powder-smoke; the stout pickets
quivered to the pelting balls--every loop-hole was a target. Never did
a garrison work harder; there was not an idle hand, for the wounded
crawled about, helping.
The Indians withdrew as quickly as they had come, and from the cover of
the cabins shot furiously. In the afternoon they tried once more.
They divided, and launched a heavy attack upon the south end of the
fort. The garrison rushed to repel. A cry arose:
"Here! In the front! Quick!"
The attack had been a feint--battering-rams were crashing against the
gates again. Back to defend the gates ran the men, and the enemy did
not get in.
Toward evening the attacks lessened. The little garrison had a
breathing space, sorely needed. Their faces were grimy, their eyes
wearied, their rifles fouled in spite of the frequent cleanings by the
women. Fortunately the fort had its own well--but how long would the
ammunition and provisions last!
That proved to be a hideous night. About nine o'clock the Indians
rallied, in a third attack. They fired the cabins and out-buildings
before the fort; the blaze gave them light. All was pandemonium.
Colonel Zane saw his home go up in flame and smoke, while the
feathered, shrieking foe danced and capered and deluged the fort with
lead. The whole village blazed, and the frightened cows and horses and
dogs scampered in slaughter.
The fort showed no lights; the Indians' figures were outlined blackly,
and the rifles of the Zanes, the Wetzels, and the others--every man a
dead shot--picked them off.
So the night attacks failed. Morning brought a pleasant surprise.
Colonel Andrew Swearingen, Captain Bilderdock and Private Boshears
entered at the rear of the fort, having climbed up from the river.
They brought the news that they had left twelve men, near by, from Fort
Holliday, twenty-four miles above. But they had feared, by reason of
the burning houses, that Fort Henry had been taken.
"Not yet, sir," reproved Colonel Zane. "Not while we have a bullet for
a rifle."
Back went the three, to the boat, and the twelve men were brought in.
The Indians had been strangely quiet since before daylight. Had they
actually quit, defeated! Who might say? It was decided to send out
two scouts, to see. The scouts stole as far as the corn-field and
sighted nothing but the plundered, smoking homes, the carcasses of the
cattle, and the bloody trail of bodies that had been dragged off. Not
a shot was fired at them.
Scarcely had they returned, hopeful, and Colonel Ebenezer Zane was
about to lead out a larger force, when they all heard a cheer. They
looked. Hurrah! Another company of men, ahorse, were galloping across
the bottom, for the top of the bluff, and the fort gates.
"It's Major McColloch! It's Sam McColloch, from Short Creek! Huzza!
Huzza!"
Short Creek was a dozen miles north. The McCollochs lived there. Here
they came--the Short Creek settlers, business bent.
And on a sudden, as the battered double gates of the fort swung, the
Indians sprang from the very ground, and charged to cut off the
galloping company. 'Twas a race for life or death. Shooting right and
left, the Short Creek riders tore on. They were winning, they were
winning. Major Sam McColloch veered aside, to let his men pass. He
was resolved that not one should fail. It was a generous act--the act
of a real captain. But he lingered too long. The Indians were upon
him--they out-stripped him, as he turned late, and before his horse had
caught its stride they were between him and the gates.
He wheeled around, and bending low to avoid the bullets he sped at a
tangent in the opposite direction, for the timber of Wheeling Hill.
The Indians afoot could not catch him, no bullet caught him; he would
make it--he would make it; there he goes, up the hill. He was
safe--but was he?
He had planned to reach another fort: Van Metre's Fort, a block-house
beyond the hill. And he himself thought that he was safe, until,
galloping more easily along the brow of the hill, he ran squarely into
another band of Indians, trooping to the siege of Fort Henry. The
Indians recognized him. They all knew Sam McColloch and his white
horse; they asked no better prize.
"Sam! Now we got you, Sam!" They spread, to take him alive.
Again he wheeled. There were foes in front of him, foes closing in hot
behind him, and a dusky line extending on his right. On his left the
hill ended in a precipice. He chose the precipice, and with his
moccasined heels hammered his horse straight for it.
Yelling gleefully, the Indians ran after. Now they had Sam.
Just as the foremost arrived at the spot where Major Sam should be at
bay, they heard a crashing of brush and branches, a grinding of rock
and gravel. They peered over. It was three hundred feet to the creek
below--and plunging, scrambling, now on its haunches, now on its nose,
the white horse was bounding, leaping, sprawling, already half way
down, with the major firmly astride, reins in one hand, rifle in the
other.
For one hundred feet there was a sheer drop that might have daunted
even a deer. But the horse had taken it--he had struck on his feet,
where the rougher slope commenced; from there he had slid, braced, and
scratching fire from the rock; he was still sliding and pitching.
Other Indians panted in, to peer. Presently the defiant shout of Major
McColloch echoed up to them. He flourished his rifle, and splashing
through the creek went clattering into the timbered flat on the other
side.
Major McColloch's Leap was a famous spot through many years.
The reinforcements to the fort discouraged the Indians. It was saved.
Major McColloch also had been saved, but the red enemy did get him, at
last, five years later.
That was the fall of 1782. He and his brother John were looking for
Indian sign, out of the same Fort Van Metre which was located east of
the Short Creek settlement, over near the Monongahela River. They made
a circuit west, almost down to Wheeling, and on July 30 were circuiting
back by way of Short Creek, for Van Metre's again, without having
discovered a single track, when from the bushes half a dozen guns
opened on them.
Major Sam wilted in his seat and fell to the ground dead. John's horse
crumpled under him, dead also, but he himself was wounded only by a
scratch across his hip.
He saw that Sam was dead; the Indians were yelling--and as quick as
thought he had sprung to his brother's horse, and was away, to give the
alarm at Van Metre's. He looked back. The Indians were flocking into
the trail, and one was about to scalp Sam. John drew rein, threw his
rifle to his shoulder, the ball sped true. That Indian took no scalp.
John reached Van Metre's. The next day Major Sam McColloch's body was
rescued. The Indians had eaten his heart, to make them as bold, they
said in after years, as he had been.