PREPARING FOR THE WORST.
It was fortunate for these settlers, that, in view of contingencies,
they had made thorough preparations for defence.
By noon of that day their household effects had been removed to the
fort, troughs filled with water to extinguish fire, and the cannon in
the flankers loaded.
"Neighbors," said Honeywood, "there are too many of them for us to meet
in the field. If we wait in the fort for them to attack us, they'll
first burn our houses and barns, kill the cattle, tread down or pull up
the corn: that is too green to burn, but the grain is not. And we shall
have to look on and see it done. Rather than do that, I counsel we
ambush their advance: it is possible we may rout them altogether; and,
if not, we can fall back to the fort."
"I," said McClure, "like Honeywood's plan, and I don't like it: there's
much to be said on both sides. I know very well that if we don't make
any fight except behind the walls of the fort, they'll destroy every
thing outside of it; but suppose they do: we're not going to quite
starve. It's no great to build up the log houses again. A good part of
our hay is inside the stockade, and we could get the cattle through the
winter on browse; we've considerable of last year's corn, grain, and
pork, in the garrison; we can drive the hogs and cattle inside; and,
though it would be a dreadful calamity to lose our corn and grain, we
could keep life in us by hunting.
"Now as consarns ambushing, we of course should take but part of our
force, and leave the rest in the fort; and that part would be so small,
that if there's as many Indians as the Mohawk said, they would be
surrounded and killed without making much impression on the Indians;
and that would leave a very weak garrison to hold so large a fort."
"Indians," said Armstrong, "always march in Indian file, except they're
going to attack, or apprehend danger, when they come two abreast.
They'll be likely to come now in Indian file till they cross the
river, 'cause they expect to surprise us. In that case there wouldn't
be rifles enough to kill many, 'cause you can't take aim right in the
night, and firing at men in a long line is not like firing into a
crowd, when if you miss one you'll hit another. They would know by our
fire that our number was small, and would take trees till daylight, and
then surround us."
"What do you say, Brad?" inquired McClure, appealing to Holdness.
"I'm in favor of the ambush. You see, they're coming down here with a
force large enough to divide, and then attack every house at once. The
Mohawk says there are seventy Delawares. These Delawares were driven
off from here: they know every inch of the ground, every house and
every man, and can guide the rest. It would be a great backer ter 'em
when they expected ter find us all in our houses unprepared, and ter
wipe us out as easy as a man would snuff a candle, and pay off old
scores, ter be ambushed themselves, and met with a rattling volley; and
they might break, and give it up."
"But, neighbors, that's all _perhaps_: there's another thing that
ain't. One hundred nor five hundred Indians can't drive us out of this
fort; and in it our families are safe if we are there to defend it.
If we were all single men, I'd say, Ambush 'em; let's have a right
up-and-down fight, and try their mettle: and I'm for it now, if we can
reduce the risk for the women and children in any way."
"The greatest difficulty 'bout an ambush," said Blanchard, "is, we
don't know which way they'll come. The Mohawk told Honeywood they would
start from their town Kittanning; but whether they'll take either of
the war-paths, or come through the woods where there is no path, we
can't tell."
"Whichever way they come in the daytime," said Armstrong, "when at
night they come near to us, they'll take the path that leads direct to
the ford. There's so many of 'em, they'll be bold: they won't hesitate
to take the water at the regular fording-place, because they know the
country is all their own, and that they've killed or driven off all but
us."
"Why not lay an ambush there, where we cannot be flanked, because we
shall have the stream at our backs, nor be so far away but what we can
fall back and reach the fort?"
"We must of course fall back if the Indians don't," said Grant; "and
then we shall be exposed to their fire while we are crossing the river,
when they'll be under cover, and probably but very few of us would get
across. I should like to have one slap at 'em. They'll take very good
care to keep out of rifle-shot of the fort; and all we can do will be
to stand on the platforms and grind our teeth, while they are burning
our houses and destroying our crops."
"I see there's but one feeling among us," said Honeywood: "that is, to
preserve our crops if it can be done without risking the lives of our
household. Suppose we do this: Let one party lay in ambush at the ford
among the bushes and drift timber on the edge of the bank on the side
next the fort, and another party lay in ambush on the opposite bank in
the woods; then both parties hold their fire till a good many Indians
are in the water crossing, and then open fire on them. It will be a
great deal lighter on the river than in the woods, as there will be
part of a moon; and, looking out of the darkness into the light, we can
see them better than they can see us. So heavy a fire as both parties
can throw will stagger them; and in surprise they will fall back, as
Indians always do when they lose men. Then the party on the western
side can recross, join the others, and we can hold the ford, or retreat
to the fort, as we think best."
"I like that," said Holdness: "then the party on the western bank can
be protected while crossing by the fire of the others, if the Indians
attack 'em in the water."
"Harry Sumerford," said Grant, "you seem to have something on your
mind, and we would like to hear it."
"I think there are people here whose opinions are of much more value
than mine, Mr. Grant. I was going to say that Dick Ellison told Mr.
Honeywood that the Black Rifle was at his place in the mountains,
and was going to stay there quite a spell. Now, he generally has ten
or a dozen men that he can lay his hands on when he wants 'em for a
scalping-scrape, and perhaps they might help us. They are men to be
depended upon, or the Black Rifle would have nothing to do with them."
"I'll go," said Nat Cuthbert: "I know the road."
"Take my horse," said Armstrong, "and ride for your life, and all our
lives: if you kill him, no matter."
"What shall I say to him?"
"Just tell him a hundred Indians are on the road from Kittanning, to
attack us at daybreak to-morrow morning. He'll know what ter do; and
he'll want no coaxing ter come ter such a party, I kin tell you," said
Holdness.
"If I ain't back by midnight, you may know he's coming, and that I'm
coming with him."
"Where were all our wits, that we could none of us think of that," said
Honeywood, "when Dick told me, and I told the rest of you, that the
captain was about getting up a scalping-party? God grant they may not
have started before Nat gets there!"
"He may be alone," said Grant; "may not have got his party together
yet."
"If he is alone," said Holdness, "he'll come: and his war-whoop is
worth a dozen men. There ain't an Indian this side the Monongahela, but
knows the Black Rifle's yell, for it don't sound like any thing else in
this world; and, when they hear it, they'll think their game is up."
The settlers now proceeded to make their final arrangements. To
Honeywood were assigned Harry, Alex and Enoch Sumerford, Ned Armstrong,
Hugh Crawford, jun., Stewart, James Blanchard, Cal Holdness, Andrew
McClure, and nearly all Harry's company of the "Young Defenders." This
was done because these youth had been engaged together in several sharp
conflicts with Indians, had been accustomed to act together under the
command of Harry, and had always come off victorious. They were also
greatly attached to Honeywood, and reposed the most implicit confidence
in his judgment and courage.
The other party consisted of Holdness, McClure, Grant, sen., Ben
Rogers, Wood, Holt, Maccoy, Armstrong, Proctor, and Heinrich Stiefel.
Israel Blanchard was left in command of the fort. With him was his
brother Seth (who was of no account as a fighting man), Daniel
Blanchard, and the boys who had been drilled to fire from a rest,
had participated in several actions, some of whom had been wounded,
of which they were sufficiently proud. This band comprised all the
"Screeching Catamounts."
These two parties, who were to meet a hundred and ten Indians, all
picked men, were in the proportion of more than five savages to one of
the settlers: yet so high was their courage, and so inured were they to
danger, that when they might have remained behind their defences, and
repulsed the foe, they hesitated not to take the fearful risk, rather
than see their grain destroyed when almost ready for the sickle.
"I have thought of another thing," said Holdness, as, after having
selected the place for ambush, they were returning to the fort. "You
know for the last year we've been taking more or less smooth-bores and
rifles from the Indians we've killed; then we've all got more than one
gun apiece that we had before the war broke out; and, when we went
after the salt, we bought more: now we kin take two rifles, or a rifle
and a smoothbore apiece, and then leave extra arms in the fort for the
women ter load or use if worst comes ter worst; and that will be almost
the same as doubling our forces, at any rate for the first fire."
"If," said McClure, "instead of coming, as we expect, before or about
the break of day, they should not get along till after sunrise, they
would stop short, hide in the woods, and put off their attack till the
next morning before daybreak; but then they would send scouts ahead,
who'd creep round and find that we had left our houses and gone ter the
fort, and discover our ambush."
"Well, I'll send Harry and Ned Armstrong ahead," said Honeywood, "to
watch their motions, and give us notice; and then we must retreat to
the fort, and let them burn and destroy; for it's no use for us to
think of fighting such a host, except we can surprise them; for if
we stay here, and they discover us, as they certainly would in the
daytime, they would find ways to cross the stream and surround us. But
I think they will be here at the very time the Mohawk said. Indians are
not like a regular force, that are liable to be impeded by a thousand
things, under the command of several officers. Nothing stops an Indian
on the war-path: there is but one leader and one mind among 'em."
As they assembled in the kitchen of the fort that night for supper,
it seemed well-nigh certain that some of those seated at that table
would never eat together again; yet the men ate heartily, and even
cheerfully. But it was a solemn parting, when, soon after nightfall,
they moved silently from the fort, in Indian file, to take up their
positions.
The mothers and children stood at the gate watching the departing
forms of their kindred till they could no longer be distinguished, and
when the great bars that closed the entrance were dropped into their
mortises with a dull thud, it reminded more than one of the fall of
clods on the coffin-lid.
There were but two men left in the fort,--Israel Blanchard and Mr.
Seth. As for the negro, he had not been seen since the inhabitants went
into garrison.
"What a pity Scip is such a miserable coward! He is an excellent
shot, and might do good service at the loop-holes. I suppose he's hid
somewhere," said Israel Blanchard.
In this state of things, the boys held the watch; and, as there were
so many of them, they stood but an hour each, Blanchard keeping guard
during the two hours before daybreak.
The women were busily employed scraping lint, preparing bandages and
ointments, the virtues of which they had learned from the Indians, or
by long experience had found to be efficacious in the case of gun-shot
wounds. It was a season of anxious foreboding: none cared to converse,
and they plied their labors for the most part in silence. The only
exceptions were to be found among the boys, who, confident in the
prowess of their fathers and brothers, elated with the idea that they
were holding the fort and intrusted with guard-duty, seemed raised far
above all perception of danger or possibility of mishaps, and were in a
state of most pleasurable excitement.
It increased the sadness of their parents to see them thus, and often
the tears sprang to the mother's eyes as she thought of the terrible
fate that awaited them, should those who had gone out to engage in such
an unequal conflict be overcome.
Under the influence of these depressing anxieties, all that they could
do being done, Mrs. Honeywood proposed that they should go into the
schoolhouse, and spend a season in prayer.
Upon this Israel Blanchard said to Mr. Seth, who looked pale and
anxious,--
"Brother, you had better go with the women."
"You mean, Israel, that I am good for nothing else."
"I did not say that; for, if He who made you has denied courage, he has
given you grace. You're a better man than I am, Seth,--better fitted
either to live or die. Go with them; for we need divine aid now, if we
ever did since we broke ground here."
The settlers had now reached their positions, where they were concealed
not merely by trees and underbrush, but by large quantities of
drift-wood brought down by the floods, and left on the banks by the
falling of the water. Having set their watch, the rest lay down and
slept as coolly as though their own lives and the lives of those they
held most dear were not at stake.
"Ned," said Holdness to Honeywood, "they pay us a fine compliment,
coming a hundred and ten against twenty, for these Delawares know about
what our number is."
"True: they have a pretty thorough knowledge of what they may expect at
our hands."