USA > Mississippi > The pioneers, preachers and people of the Mississippi Valley > Part 14
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and sixty by one hundred and fifty feet, one angle resting on the river bank. Its rude but sufficient fortifications consisted of two cabins on a side, with a gate between, one at each end, and at the corners block-houses, which were merely houses built with larger logs than a common cabin, and more carefully and closely constructed for defence. These cabins and block-houses were connected by high strong fences of large piekets or timbers driven elose together into the ground. All the outer walls were loopholed for musketry ; and this wooden fort, that could not have resisted a six-pound field bat- tery, was to the children of the forest an impregnable stronghold, proved by many a desperate assault urged on by the bitter sorrow and anger they felt at each successive extension of the white man's hold on their favorite forests and savannas. .
One of the men employed on the work was killed a few days after the foundations were laid. The fort was incessantly beleaguered for years, and sustained three furious sieges by large bodies of Indians ; the last time in September, 1778, under the command of British officers. The settlement had grown so dense and spread so far by this time, that the sava- ges could no longer penetrate to the walls of the fort without leaving too many enemies in their rear.
The following incident well illustrates the dangers
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to which the inhabitants of these little fortresses were daily exposed.
One fine summer afternoon, while the garrison was not dreaming of danger, some of the men lounging idly around the gate, or under the shadow of the stockade, were looking upon three girls, two of them daughters of Col. Richard Calloway, the other of Daniel Boone ; the oldest fourteen years of age, the youngest nine or ten. The three girls were playing in a light canoe upon the placid bosom of the stream, dancing, and seemingly in danger of upsetting the light bark, but yet with practised skill preserving its balance; their sweet and merry peals of laughter ringing far, far away, through the silent air. By the movements of the girls the eanoe is driven further and further from the southern bank, until they are two-thirds of the way across the stream; when sud- denly, by an unseen yet irresistible impulse, it be- gins to move directly toward the northern shore, while the girls, surprised and wondering, look all around to see what may be the cause of the motion. Just as they are gaining the edge of the northern shore, the hand of a savage, and then his eye, fierce and glaring as that of a panther about to leap upon its prey, is seen within the shade of the bushes that fringe the stream, and as the boat is pulled within the same dark covert, they see other fierce eyeballs gleaming there, and strong arms inclose them. One
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shriek from the poor affrighted girls, and their mouths are closed, and they are hurried off in the grasp of their Indian captors. That scream had been heard at the fort-the men had seen the motion of the boat, and quickly understood what had happened. No other canoes were in the neighborhood, and there was every reason to apprehend that other savages were still lurking in the bushes to pick off' any men who might seek to pursue. How they finally sue- eeeded in getting across, whether by swimming or the rescue of their canoe, is not known. Those in the fort waited the return of Boone, who was away on business. After several hours he returned ; but as it was near nightfall, he waited until morning, and by daylight set out in pursuit, with seven men. They had made a mareh of but a few miles when they reached a cane-brake where the savages had entered, and had taken suel special pains to obliterate their traces that to follow the trail through the brake would consume time most critically precious, and might probably allow the Indians to escape.
In this emergency, Boone strikes on a happy device, to "circumvent " the savages, to use a favorite word in western parlance -- by making a detour around the entire brake, so as to strike the trail of the savages on the other side, wherever it might be. The plan is fortunately successful, and after travelling thirty miles with incredible speed, they find a buf-
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falo path where the trail is quite fresh. Hastening ten miles further, they come suddenly upon the savages lying down or preparing a meal, and little thinking of danger, supposing that they had dis- tanced pursuit; but having the girls in close and careful custody.
The two parties saw each other at the same time ; but the whites, firing a volley, charged so furiously upon the Indians, that they fled, leaving packs, am- munition, and weapons, except one empty shot-gun. The girls were uninjured, except by excessive fright and fatigue; and their rescuers were so rejoiced at their recovery that, without pursuing the Indians further, they returned at once to the fort.
In this same summer, one or two other feats were performed which merit our notice. Harrod's, Logan's and Boone's stations were this year attacked by Indians at the same time ; large numbers of them besieging each fort, and innumerable parties prowl- ing through the wilderness for the purpose of cutting off isolated settlers. Harrod's fort was attacked by a large body of Indians, who were determined to starve the garrison out. Their cornfields were des- troyed. The body of savages attacking them was some five or six hundred in number, while there were only about forty men inside the stockade. The woods for many miles were infested by the Indians, so that the crack of a white man's gun, if heard
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within them, would have secured his instant death. Nevertheless, a lad sixteen or seventeen years of age, named James Ray-several older hunters having tried in vain to supply the fort with provisions- volunteered his services. He was a married man, for they married early then; a son-in-law of Col. McGary. Taking the only horse of his father-in-law, all the others, of forty, having been stolen or des- troyed by the Indians-an old, worn-down beast- and leaving the stockade between midnight and day- light, taking his pathway in running brooks of water so as to leave no trace-thus the shrewd bold boy pursued his way for many miles, till far beyond the savages ; hunted the remainder of the day, slept a portion of the evening, and then came back as he had gone, his horse loaded with provisions. Thus for months, did this gallant young Virginian maintain the fort by his single rifle.
One other instance. All the stations, as I have said, were attacked; and Logan's, containing fifteen men, shared the fate of the others. Early in the morning, a small guard of men are outside the gates, guarding a party of women milking the cows. This party is saluted by a sudden hail of bullets. Three of the men are killed ; the women all succeed in mak- ing their escape. The entire party rush into the gate of the fort, and enter in safety; but the bodies of the three slain men and one poor wounded fellow
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are still outside the gate. The wounded man, Harri- son by name, runs a few steps and falls, in sight of both attackers and defenders. Here he lies, and un- less rescued must quickly be scalped. The Indians re- frain from firing upon him further, hoping to lure other of his friends to his help. The cries of the wounded man for aid, the frantic grief of his wife, seem to fall upon deaf ears. The men say : "There are only twelve of us, and not one can be spared for less than a hundred red-skins, at least. No man's life can be given, and it will cost any man's life to at- tempt the rescue. But his wife, with terrible urgency, with cries and implorations of heartbreaking inten- sity, solicits all in turn. Col. Logan, the command- ant of the station, cannot withstand such entreaty and helplessness. He says, "Boys, are there none of you will go with me ?" John Martin rallies his cour- age, and says, "I am as ready to die now as I ever shall be ; I will go with you." The gates are opened, and out they rush. A storm of leaden hail greets them. Martin finds he is not as ready to die as he thought, and runs back again. But out among the rifle balls rushes Logan; bends over the wounded man ; raises him in his arms as if he were an infant ; and while the bullets are flying all around him, and more than one lock of his hair is cut off as by scissors, succeeds in entering the gates again, and delivers the wounded Harrison into the arms of his rejoicing wife.
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Still the Indians maintain the siege. There are only twelve men left ; their powder and ball are run- ning low ; a fresh supply must be had, or all the hor- rors of Indian captivity must be the consequence. None can be had nearer than at the settlements on the Holston River, two hundred miles distant. There was scarcely a chance that any messenger could pass the Indians, or that if he could, the fort could hold out until his return. Rash and desperate as the bold woodsmen were, they all hesitated to make this fear- ful experiment. Col. Logan himself, with that reflec- tive, resolute, deliberate bravery which carries the nobler sort of men, in time of need, so much further than the animal impulses of common hardihood, then volunteers, and selecting two companions, creeps out at night, and the three bold men noiselessly pass the Indian lines. Avoiding the usual road, he strikes off into the forest, pushes at almost superhuman speed over trackless mountain and valley, reaches Holston, secures the ammunition, puts it into the hands of his two companions, and himself preceding them, that his little garrison may the sooner receive the good news and strengthen their hearts, returns again, arriving in ten days after his departure ; thus making this trip of four hundred miles through a rugged wilderness at the rate of forty miles a day, on foot, and with scarce aught to live upon. The powder and
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ball is successfully brought in, and the Indians are driven away.
About this same time, or just before it, there comes to Kentucky a young man. Born in 1752, when he enters Kentucky in 1775 he is twenty-three years of age-a fine soldier-like fellow, who has been in Lord Dunmore's war, who commenced life as did most of the young men in Virginia and thereabouts, as a surveyor, this being the surest highway to for- tune and distinction. He had been in Logan's war as a volunteer in the personal staff of Lord Dunmore, and now comes to Kentucky to see what manner of persons are there, and if the country be fit to settle in. Of stalwart bearing, noble in person, winning in manners, yet commanding, this man's courage and conduet through all the subsequent struggles of the pioneers of the West well entitle him to the lofty ap- pellation of the Washington of the West. His name is George Rogers Clark, a man, singularly enough, as yet without a biography ; and yet, excepting Washington, Franklin, and a few others, there is not a man in all the annals of our country who so well deserves the tribute of the biographer, the pane- gyric of the historian, and the applause of his coun- trymen. He came to Kentucky, examined the con- dition of the province, returned to Virginia in the fall, and came back to Kentucky in early spring for the purpose of making it his home, and taking part
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with his brothers of the frontier in their arduous de- fence of their lands and lives. He spent much of his time, alone, hunting or wandering through the woods; visiting all the stations; and easily making himself acquainted with the pioneers, from the smallest child- ren upward. And now, having acquainted himself with all the features of their life and needs, le recom- mends their calling a convention for the purpose of acquiring for themselves some political rights and position. He is appointed by this convention, with one Gabriel Jones, a representative or delegate to the legislature of Virginia ; and proceeding to Williams- burg, then the capital of Virginia, finds the legisla- ture adjourned. He submits his credentials and claims to Governor Patrick Henry, who is lying ill ; urges upon the governor the pressing needs of Ken- tucky ; and claims the protection of Virginia's strong arm. Virginia has nearly as much as she can do to care for herself; but the heart of Henry is touched by the representations of the chivalric young man, and he gives him a letter to the Representative Council of the State. These gentlemen say they can do no- thing for him, because the Kentuckians are not yet recognized by the legislature as citizens. They, how- ever say, " Yon shall have five hundred pounds of gunpowder for the Kentuckians, as a loan from friends, provided you will enter into personal recog- nizances for the value of the same." " No," he re-
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plies, " I cannot accept it. It is unjust to demand individual security from me, when I ask the powder for the service of the country." " But," they say, "it cannot be had otherwise." " Very well," he says, " a country that is not worth defending is not worth claiming. Kentucky will take care of itself." Mr. Jefferson, Mr. Wye, and other members of the Council, much impressed by the lofty, decided tone of the young man, at last procure him an order for the powder, to be delivered to him at Pittsburg. Receiving it there, he embarks it in a keel-boat, and, with the little guard of seven men, they hasten down the river, hotly pursued by the Indians ; until, gain- ing the mouth of Limestone Creek, the site of Mays- ville, they ascend it a little way, scatter the precious cargo in various places of concealment in the woods, set their boat adrift, hasten to Harrod's station, and returning with a sufficient escort, bring the ammuni- tion in safety home, and supply the scattered forts with the means of defence against the now increasing waves of Indian incursion from north of the Ohio. Nor is the powder the only good gift he brings. Against the strenuous opposition of Col. Campbell and the great land speculator Col. Henderson, he and his colleague succeeded in inducing the Virginia legislature to erect Kentucky into a county ; and thus he brought back to his adopted home its first politi- cal organization, entitling it to representation in the
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Virginia Assembly, and to the benefits of a regular judicial and military establishment.
And now is in full activity that fearful torrent of savage invasion which surged so furiously in upon the scattered stations and settlements of Kentucky during the revolutionary years. British soldiers, French Canadians, Indian warriors, either in separate or allied hosts, beleaguer the rude log forts, haunt the settlements, waylay hunter and woodsman, peace- ful laborer, and innocent child. One after another, the best and bravest of the Kentuckians are picked off by the lurking foe ; blood flows like water ; and this infernal league of pretended Christians with savages little less than fiends in ferocity and cruelty, seems likely to waste away the sparse and feeble white set- tlements, by a slow and bloody but sure process of exhaustion. For a year and more, George Rogers Clark ranges the woods, commonly alone in the midst of all the war and all the danger, keenly enjoying a long series of desperate adventures, and participating in many hardy frontier fights, of which no detailed record remains. But his profound and penetrating genius soon awoke to the important truth-which the Virginian authorities had not ap- prehended-that the true field for opposing this bitter, cruel contest, was not so much within the devastated fields and haunted forests of bleeding Kentucky, as afar within the distant forests of the
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North ; at the great Indian towns where the warriors recruited their forces, where their squaws labored and their children played; and still more, at the British posts of Detroit, Vincennes and Kaskaskia, the unfailing fountain of succor to the tribes; where arms and clothing and gay ornaments were sold by British officers with white skins, but hearts black and vile with inhuman, supersavage ferocity, to the red warriors for scalps ; or given freely away to them, if only they would carn them by a foray in the American settlements.
Clark resolves to attack these posts, profoundly convinced that thus he will strike a fatal stroke at the heart of the war; and in 1777, he already sends two spies to examine the ground, whose report of the activity and efficiency of the English garrisons in maintaining the savage war stimulate his resolve still more. In December of the same year, he lay's before Governor Henry the plan of a bold, sudden and secret blow at the enemy, which that officer and his council quickly approve. With two sets of in- structions, a public one authorizing him to go and defend Kentucky, and a secret one directing him to organize a force and take Kaskaskia, he returns, raises four companies instead of the authorized num- ber of seven-for the women will not let so many men leave their homes undefended-then sifts these, after the fashion of Gideon, until he has a hundred
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and fifty-three men; and with a military chest con- taining twelve hundred pounds in depreciated paper money, and reinforcing this small amount by a bounty of three hundred acres of land for each sol- dier, he sets out. They descend the Ohio until within forty miles of its mouth, disembark, sink their boats to hide them, and then, each man carrying his baggage and stores, himself foremost in the march and partaking of every exposure, they plunge into the howling wilderness of marshes and forests-a tangled, hopeless labyrinth in which their veteran guides even lose their way. After a most toilsome march of one hundred and twenty miles, they reach the neighborhood of the fort unperceived, on the evening of July 4th, 1778. Waiting until midnight, Clark makes a brief, stirring address to his men, then sends Capt. Helm with a detachment across the Kaskaskia River to secure and guard the town, and himself advances against the fort. A lonely light burns in a small house outside the stockade. A cor- poral's guard silently secures the party within ; and a Pennsylvanian among them, not much a lover of England, willingly volunteers to guide the assault, and shows them an entrance through a postern gate. Colonel Clark, with his main body, takes possession of the various defences of the fort; and the fearless Simon Kenton, with a file of men, stepping softly into the bedroom of the commander, Lieutenant.
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Rocheblanc, governor of the Illinois country, quietly asleep by the side of his wife, touches him. He wakes, is informed that he is a prisoner, and is forced to make unconditional surrender of the fort and gar- rison. But Mrs. Rocheblanc, a bold and shrewish dame, springs out of bed in her night-gear, seizes her husband's papers and disposes them about her person, railing in good set terms at the ungallant intrusion into a lady's bed-chamber. And so delicately over- polite are the rough sons of the woods that they will not lay hands on a woman ; and thus the scold gains time to secrete or destroy all the documents. Clark now proceed to strike a wholesome fear of the " Bostonais,"-as the French called all the American colonists-into the bosoms of the simple Frenchmen ; and the measures he takes for a day or two are well calculated to maintain the horrible apprehensions which the British have diligently instilled into them of the ferocious and bloodthirsty brutality of the "Long-Knives." Surrounding the town, he orders the troops to whoop and yell all night, as the In- dians do ; sends runners throughout the town to pro- claim in French that any enemy found in the streets will be instantly shot down; that all the inhabit- ants must observe profound silence; and that no intercourse will be permitted between houses. Then he sends a sergeant's guard, who completely disarm the town in a couple of hours. When daylight
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returns, having gained abundant intelligence respect- ing the posts and defences in the vicinity, and having secured his prisoners and sundry suspicious persons, and even ironed certain militia officers in the British service, he draws off his troops behind a hill, pro- hibits all intercourse between them and any doubtful characters, and places the town under martial law. In all things he acts with an air of stern promptness and cold severity, using but few words, and those of a menacing character.
This threatening demeanor soon becomes intolera- bly fearful to the simple-minded French. They deputed six principal citizens, with the priest, Father Gibault, at their head, to beg this terrible com- mander to mitigate a little the mysterious vengeance thus delaying to fall. The priest and his fellows are admitted to the quarters of the American general, and find him seated with his officers. The almost gigantic forms of the dreaded Bostonais, their sordid apparel, all torn and begrimed from thicket and swamp, their rough, grim features and wild fierce looks, appall the very souls of the unwarlike French, and for a short season they stand speechless in their terror. At length the priest finds voice to prefer, he says, one small request. Evidently the townsmen were expecting a repetition of the inhuman Acadian tragedy. He says, that as his people expect to be torn from each other probably forever, they beg
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leave to assembly once more in their little church, to take leave of each other. Colonel Clark briefly and austerely grants the request, but warns them against attempting to leave the town. Something more the deputies would have said, but Clark, with a stern gesture, intimates that he has no time for further conversation, and they retire. The sad congregation assembles at church, and indulges in the melancholy pleasure of a last farewell ; and again the little em- bassy waits on the conqueror. They humbly thank him for the favor received ; and add, that although they know they must submit to the fate of war, and can endure the loss of their property, they would pray not to be separated from their wives and ehil- dren, and to be allowed some small means of support ; and they say something further of the submissive ignorance in which they have obeyed their commandants; of their total unacquaintance with the causes of the war; and hint at good izclina- tion toward the United States.
Clark turns sternly to the priestly spokesman -- "Do you take us for savages and cannibals ?" he asks. "We disdain to war upon the innocent and the helpless. We are defending ourselves against the Indians-not attacking you. The French king is leagued with us ; the victory will soon be ours; we only desire to transfer your allegiance from Great Britain to the United States ; and, to prove my
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words, take home the news that your friends shall be released. Your townsmen may go where they please, safe in persons and property."
The astounded deputies would now have apolo- gized for their mistaken estimate of American cha- racter, but are prevented, and desired to communi- cate their information to the inhabitants. The most unbounded joy instantly takes the place of the terri- fied gloom that had darked the town ; the bells ring out; and crowding into their well-beloved church again, the devont little flock offer heartfelt thanks to God for this unexpected release.
Clark now sent a detachment which secured Cahokia ; and the inhabitants of Vincennes, a little afterward, themselves expelled the British garrison, and declared themselves citizens of the United States and of the State of Virginia. After considerable negotiation, in which he exhibited great judgment and still more remarkable knowledge of the Indian character, he succeeded, before the end of September of the same year, in impressing all the tribes of the Illinois and upper Mississippi with a great respect for the American character and name, and in cou- cluding treaties with all of them.
Before the end of the year, however, Hamilton " the hair-buyer," governor at Detroit, both alarmed and ashamed at the brilliant success of Clark, learn- ing that many of the Virginians had returned home,
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mustered a force of eighty soldiers, together with some Canadian militia, and, making a rapid march down the Wabash, reached Vincennes, now garri- soned by Capt. Helm with one soldier and a little squad of volunteer militia. Hamilton, informed that the garrison was feeble, was already advancing to the attack at the head of his forces, when Helm, springing upon a bastion, near a six-pounder trained upon the British column, and waving his lighted match in the air, hailed them with the stern com- mand, "Halt ! or I will blow you to atoms !" A little doubtful whether this bold defender would not fulfill his threat, Hamilton actually obeyed the order, beat a parley, and made a formal demand for the surrender of the fort ; to which Helm replied that he would capitulate if allowed all the honors of war, but otherwise he would hold ont the fort as long as a man was left alive to shoulder a rifle. Hamilton consented to the terms, and was violently disgusted when, the gates being thrown open, the bold Ken- tuckian marched out with all possible formalities, and laid down his arms, together with a force of five men, all told ! The lateness of the season preventing him from further movements, Hamilton occupied the fort at Vincennes, and while he prepared to complete his re-conquest of Illinois in the spring, launched war-party after war-party upon the frontiers of Vir- ginia and Pennsylvania, thus keeping his Indian
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