USA > Ohio > The picturesque Ohio : a historical monograph > Part 9
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dent occurred which caused them to forget the general calamity in the absorbing interest of the moment.
"In each of the boats, of which there were eighteen, two or more of the captured soldiers, deprived of their weapons, were compelled to act as rowers, guarded by several armed savages, while many other Indians, for the sake of farther security, followed the boats along the shore. In the foremost, as it happened, there were four soldiers and only three Indians. The larger of the two vessels still lay anchored in the stream, about a bow- shot from the fort, while her companion, as we have seen, had gone down to Niagara to hasten up this very re-enforcement. As the boat came oppo- site this vessel the soldier who acted as steersman conceived a daring planı of escape. The principal Indian sat immediately in front of another of the soldiers. The steersinan called, in English, to his conrade to seize the sav- age and throw him overboard. The man answered that he was not strong enough, on which the steersman directed him to change places with hini, as if fatigued with rowing, a movement which would excite no suspicion on the part of the guard. As the bold soldier stepped forward, as if to take his companion's oar, he suddenly seized the Indian by the hair, and grip- ping with the other hand the girdle at his waist, lifted him by main force, and flung him into the river. The boat rocked till the water surged over her gunwale. The Indian held fast to his enemy's clothes, and draw- ing himself upwards as he trailed alongside, stabbed him again and again with his knife, and then dragged him overboard. Both went down the swift current, rising and sinking, and, as some relate, perished, grappled in each other's arms. The two remaining Indians leaped out of the boat. The prisoners turned and pulled for the distant vessel, shouting aloud for aid. The Indians on shore opened a heavy fire upon them, and many canoes paddled swiftly in pursuit. The men strained with desperate strength. A fate inexpressibly horrible was the alternative. The bullets hissed thickly around their heads; one of them was soon wounded, and the light birch canoes gained on them with fearful rapidity. Escape seemed hopeless, when the report of a cannon burst from the side of the vessel. The ball flew close past the boat, beating the water in a line of foam, and narrowly missing the foremost canoe. At this the pursuers drew back in dismay; and the Indians on shore, being farther saluted by a sec- ond shot, ceased firing, and scattered among the bushes. The prisoners soon reached the vessel, when they were greeted as men snatched from
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the jaws of fate. 'A living monument,' writes an officer of the garrison, ' that fortune favors the brave.'
"After night had set in several Canadians came to the fort bringing vague and awful reports of the scenes that had been enacted at the In- dian camp. The soldiers gathered round them, and, frozen with horror, listened to the appalling narrative. On the following day, and for several succeeding days, they beheld frightful confirmation of the rumors they had heard. Naked corpses, gashed with knives and scorched with fire, floated down on the pure waters of the Detroit, whose fish came up to nibble at the clotted blood that clung to their ghastly faces.
"Late one afternoon, at about this period of the siege, the garrison were again greeted with the dismal cry of death, and a line of naked warriors were seen issuing from the woods, which, like a wall of foliage, rose beyond the pastures in rear of the fort. Each savage was painted black, and each bore a scalp fluttering from the end of a pole. It was but too clear that some new disaster had befallen ; and in truth, before night- fall, one La Brosse, a Canadian, came to the gate with the tidings that Fort Sandusky had been taken, and all its garrison slain or made cap- tive. Among the few survivors of the slaughter was the commanding offi- cer, Ensign Paully, who had been brought prisoner to Detroit, bound hand and foot, and solaced on the passage with the expectation of being burnt alive; but an old woman, whose husband had lately died, chose to adopt him in place of the deceased warrior. Seeing no alternative but the stake, Paully accepted the proposal ; and having been first plunged in the river, that the white blood might be washed from his veins, he was conducted to the lodge of the widow, and treated thenceforth with all the consideration due to an Ottawa warrior.
"Gladwyn soon received a letter from him, through one of the Cana- dian inhabitants, giving a full account of Fort Sandusky. On the 16th of May-such was the substance of the communication-Paully was in- formed that seven Indians were waiting at the gate to speak with him. As several of the number were well known to him, he ordered them, with- out hesitation, to be admitted. Arrived at his quarters, two of the treach- erous visitors seated themselves on each side of the commandant, while the rest were dispersed in various parts of the room. The pipes were lighted, and the conversation began, when an Indian, who stood in the doorway, suddenly made a signal by raising his head. Upon this, the
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astonished officer was instantly pounced upon and disarmed; while, at the same moment, a confused noise of shrieks and yells, the firing of guns, and the hurried tramp of feet, sounded from the area of the fort without. It soon ceased, however, and Paully, led by his captors from the room, saw the parade-ground strewn with the corpses of his murdered garrison. At night-fall, he was conducted to the margin of the lake, where several birch canoes lay in readiness, and as, amid thick darkness, the party pushed out from shore, the captive saw the fort, lately under his command, bursting 011 all sides into sheets of flame.
"The sleepless garrison, worn by fatigue and ill-fare, and harassed by constant petty attacks, were yet further saddened by the news of disas- ter which thickened from every quarter. Of all the small posts, scattered at wide intervals through the vast wilderness to the westward of Niagara and Fort Pitt, it soon appeared that Detroit alone had been able to sustain itself. For the rest, there was but one unvaried tale of calamity and ruin. On the 15th of June, a number of Pottawattamies were seen approaching the gate of the fort, bringing with them four English prisoners, who proved to be Ensign Schlosser, lately commanding at St. Joseph's, together with three private soldiers. The Indians wished to exchange them for several of their own tribe, who had been for nearly two months prisoners in the fort. After some delay this was effected, and the garrison then learned the unhappy fate of their comrades at St. Joseph's.
" The next news which came in was that of the loss of Ouatanon, a fort situated upon the Wabash, a little below the site of the present town of La- fayette. Gladwyn received a letter from its commanding officer, Lieutenant Jenkins, informing him that, on the Ist of June, he and several of his men had - been made prisoners by stratagem, on which the rest of the garrison had surrendered. The Indians, however, apologized for their conduct, de- claring that they acted contrary to their own inclinations, and that the surrounding tribes had compelled them to take up the hatchet.
"Close upon these tidings came the news that Fort Miami was taken. This post, standing on the River Maumee, was commanded by Ensign Holmes.
" The loss of Presque Isle will close this black catalogue of calamity. Rumors of it first reached Detroit on the 20th of June, and two days later the garrison heard those dismal cries, announcing scalps and prisoners, which, of late, had grown mournfully familiar to their ears. Indians were
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seen passing in numbers along the opposite bank of the river, leading several English prisoners, who proved to be Ensign Christie, the command- ing officer at Presque Isle, with those of his soldiers who survived. There had been hot fighting before Presque Isle was taken.
"At early dawn on the 15th of June the garrison of Presque Isle were first aware of the enemy's presence; and when the sun rose they saw then- selves surrounded by two hundred Indians, chiefly from the neighborhood of Detroit. At the first alarm they abandoned the main body of the fort, and betook themselves to the block-house as a citadel. The Indians crowd- ing together in great numbers, under cover of the rising ground, kept up a rattling fire, and not only sent their bullets into every loop-hole and crev- ice, but shot fire-arrows upon the roof, and threw balls of burning pitch against the walls. Again and again the building took fire, and again and again the flames were extinguished. From earliest daybreak the little gar- rison had fought and toiled without a moment's rest. Nor did the darkness bring relief, for guns flashed all night long from the Indian intrenchments. Morning brought fresh dangers. The men were now, to use the words of their officer, 'exhausted to the greatest extremity;' yet they kept up their forlorn and desperate defense, toiling and fighting without pause within the wooden walls of their dark prison, where the close and heated atmosphere was clogged with the smoke of gunpowder. The fire on both sides continued through the day, and did not cease till midnight, at which hour a voice was heard to call out in French, from the enemy's intrench- ments, warning the garrison that further resistance would be useless, since preparations were made for setting the block-house on fire. Christie de- manded if there were any among them who spoke English; upon which a man in the Indian dress came out from behind the breastwork. He said that if they yielded their lives should be spared, but if they fought longer they must all be burnt alive. Christie, resolving to hold out as long as a shadow of hope remained, told them to wait till morning for his answer. When morning came Christie sent out two soldiers, as if to treat with the enemy, but, in reality, to learn the truth of what they liad said respecting their preparations to burn the block-house. On reaching the breastwork the soldiers made a signal, by which their officer saw that his worst fears were well founded, and Christie, going out, yielded up the little fortress which he had defended with such indomitable courage, having first stipu- lated that the lives of all the garrison should be spared, and that they might
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retire unmolested to the nearest post. The soldiers, pale, wild, and haggard, like men who had passed through a fiery ordeal, now issued from the block-house, whose sides were pierced with bullets and scorched with fire. In spite of the capitulation, they were surrounded and seized, and having been detained for some time in the neighborhood, were sent as prisoners to Detroit, where Ensign Christie soon after made his escape, and gained the fort in safety.
"After Presque Isle was taken, the neighboring little posts of Le Bœuf and Venango shared its fate, while farther southward, at the forks of the Ohio, a host of Delaware and Shawanese warriors were gathering around Fort Pitt, and blood and havoc reigned along the whole frontier.
" On the 19th of June a rumor reached them, at Detroit, that one of the vessels had been seen near Turkey Island, some miles below the fort, but that, the wind failing her, she had dropped down with the current, to wait a inore favorable opportunity.
"For several days the officers at Detroit heard nothing further of the vessel, when, on the 23d, a great commotion was visible among the Indians. The cause of these movements was unknown till evening, when M. Baby came in with intelligence that the vessel was again attempting to ascend the river, and that all the Indians had gone to attack her. Upon this two cannon were fired, that those on board might know that the fort still held out.
"The schooner brought to the garrison a much needed supply of men, ammunition, and provision. She brought, also, the interesting and im- portant tidings that peace was at length concluded between France and England. By this treaty the Canadians of Detroit were placed in a new po- sition ; their allegiance was transferred from the crown of France to that of Britain, and they were subjects of the English king. To many of them the change was extremely odious, for they cordially hated the British. They went about among the settlers and the Indians, declaring that the pre- tended news of peace was only an invention of Major Gladwyn; that the king of France would never abandon his children. This oft-repeated false- hood was implicitly believed by the Indians.
" Pontiac himself clung fast to this delusive hope. He exerted himself with fresh zeal to gain possession of the place, and attempted to terrify Gladwyn into submission. He sent a message, in which he strongly urged him to surrender, adding, by way of stimulus, that eight hundred more
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Ojibways were every day expected, and that, on their arrival, all his influ- ence could not prevent them from taking the scalp of every Englishman in the fort. To this friendly advice Gladwyn returned a very brief and con- temptuous answer.
" Pontiac, having long been anxious to gain the Canadians as auxiliaries in the war, now determined on a final effort to effect his object. For this purpose he sent messages to the principal inhabitants, inviting them to meet him in council. In the Ottawa camp there was a vacant spot, quite level, and encircled by the huts of the Indians. Here mats were spread for the reception of the deputies, who soon convened, and took their seats in a wide ring. One part was occupied by the Canadians, among whom were several whose withered, leathery features proclaimed them the patriarchs of the secluded little settlement. Opposite these sat the stern-visaged Pon- tiac, with his chiefs on either hand, while the intervening portions of the circle were filled by Canadians and Indians promiscuously mingled. Standing on the outside, and looking over the heads of this more dignified assemblage, was a motley throng of Indians and Canadians, half-breeds, trappers, and voyageurs, in wild and picturesque, though very dirty, attire. Conspicuous among them were numerous Indian dandies, a large class in every aboriginal community.
"All was silent, and several pipes were passing round from hand to hand, when Pontiac rose and threw down a war-belt at the feet of the Canadians.
"'My brothers,' he said ' how long will you suffer this bad flesh to re- main upon your lands? I have told you before, and I now tell you again, that when I took up the hatchet, it was for your good. This year the En- glish must all perish throughout Canada. Until now I have said nothing on this matter. I have not urged you to take part with us in the war. It would have been enough had you been content to sit quiet on your mats, looking on, while we were fighting for you; but you have liave not done so. You call yourself our friends, and yet you assist the English with provision, and go about as spies among our villages. This must not continue. You must be either wholly French or wholly English. If you are French, take up that war-belt and lift the hatchet with us; but if you are English, then we declare war upon you. Look upon the belt, and let us hear your answer.'
" One of the Canadians, having suspected the purpose of Pontiac, had brought with him, not the treaty of peace, but a copy of the capitulation of
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Montreal, with its dependencies, including Detroit. Pride, or sonie other motive, restrained him from confessing that the Canadians were no longer children of the king of France, and he determined to keep up the old de- lusion that a French army was on its way to win back Canada, and chastise the English invaders. He began his speech in reply to Pontiac by profess- ing great love for the Indians, and a strong desire to aid them in the war. 'But, my brothers,' he added, holding out the articles of capitulation, 'you must first untie the knot with which our great father, the king, has bound us. In this paper he tells all his Canadian children to sit quiet and obey the English until he comes. We dare not disobey him. Do you think you could escape his wrath if you should raise the hatchet against his French children ? Tell us, my brothers, what can you reply to this?'
"Pontiac for a moment sat silent, mortified, and perplexed; but his purpose was not destined to be wholly defeated. 'Among the French,' says the writer of the diary, 'were many infamous characters, who, having no property, cared nothing what became of them.' They were, for the most part, a light and frivolous crew, little to be relied on for energy or stability ; though among them were men of hard and ruffian features, the ringleaders and bullies of the voyageurs, and even a terror to the bourgeois himself. It was one of these who now took up the war-belt, and declared that he and his comrades were ready to raise the hatchet for Pontiac. The council had been protracted to a late hour. It was dark before the assembly dissolved; ' so that,' as the chronicler observes, 'these new Indians had no opportunity of displaying their exploits that day.'
"Pontiac derived little advantage from his Canadian allies. On the night succeeding the feast a party of the renegades, joined by about an equal number of Indians, approached the fort. They were observed, the gate was thrown open, and a file of men, headed by Lieutenant Hay, sallied out to dislodge them. This was effected without much difficulty.
"Until the end of July, little worthy of notice took place at Detroit. In the meantime, unknown to the garrison, a strong re-enforcement was coming to their aid. Captain Dalzell had left Niagara with twenty-two barges, bearing two hundred and eighty men, with several small cannon, and a freshi supply of provision and ammunition.
"On the day of his arrival he had a conference with Gladwyn at the quarters of the latter, and strongly insisted that the time was come when an irrecoverable blow might be struck at Pontiac. He requested permission
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to march out on the following night and attack the Indian camp. Glad- wyn, better acquainted with the position of affairs, and, perhaps, more cau- tious by nature, was averse to the attempt ; but Dalzell urged his request so strenuously that the commandant yielded to his representation, and gave a tardy consent. On the afternoon of the 30th orders were issued and prep- arations made for the meditated attack.
"About two o'clock, on the morning of the 3Ist of July, the gates were thrown open in silence, and the detachment, two hundred and fifty in number, passed noiselessty out.
"A mile and a half from the fort, Parent's Creek, ever since that night called 'Bloody Run,' descended through a wild and rough hollow, and en- tered the Detroit amid a growth of rank grass and sedge. Only a few rods from its mouth the road crossed it by a narrow wooden bridge, not existing at the present day. The advanced guard were half-way over the bridge, and the main body just entering upon it, when a horrible burst of yells rose in their front, and the Indian guns blazed forth a general discharge. Half the advanced party were shot down; but Dalzell shouted from the van, and, in madness of mingled rage and fear, they charged at a run across the bridge and up the heights beyond. Not an Indian was there to oppose them. In vain the furious soldiers sought their enemy behind fences and in- trenchments. The active savages had fled; yet still their guns flashed thick through the gloom, and their war-cry rose with undiminished clamor. The English pushed forward amid the pitchy darkness. At every pause they made, the retiring enemy would gather to renew the at- tack, firing back hotly upon the front and flanks. To advance further would be useless, and the only alternative was to withdraw and wait for daylight. This task was commenced amid a sharp fire from both sides; and before it was completed, heavy volleys were heard from the rear, where Captain Grant was stationed. It was now evident that instant re- treat was necessary; and the command being issued to that effect, the men fell back into marching order, and slowly began their retrograde move- ment. Grant was now in the van, and Dalzell at the rear. They reached a point where, close upon the right, were many barns and out-houses, with strong picket fences. Behind these, and in a newly dug cellar close at hand, lay concealed a great multitude of Indians. They suffered the advanced party to pass unmolested, but when the center and rear came opposite their ambuscade, they raised a friglitful yell, and poured a volley
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among them. The men had well-nigh fallen into a panic, and but for the presence of Dalzell, the retreat would have been turned into a flight. 'The enemy,' writes an officer who was in the fight, 'marked him for his extraordinary bravery;' and he had already received two severe wounds. Yet his exertions did not slacken for a moment. Some of the soldiers he rebuked, some he threatened, and some he beat with the flat of his sword.
"The enemy had taken possession of a house, from the windows of which they fired down upon the English. Major Rogers, with some of his provincial rangers, burst the door with an axe, rushed in, and expelled them, and now the fire of the Indians, being mnuch diminished, the re- treat was resumed. No sooner had the men faced about, than the savages came darting through the mist upon their flank and rear, cutting down stragglers, and scalping the fallen. At a little distance lay a sergeant of the 55th, helplessly wounded; raising himself on his hands, and gazing with a look of despair after his retiring comrades. The sight caught the eye of Dalzell. That gallant soldier, in the true spirit of heroism, ran out amid the firing to rescue the wounded man, when a shot struck him, and he fell dead.
"In the meantime, Captain Grant, with his advanced party, had moved forward about half a mile, where he found some orchards and inclosures, by means of which he could maintain himself until the center and rear should arrive. From this point he detached all the men he could spare to occupy the houses below ; and as soldiers soon began to come in from the rear, he was enabled to re-enforce these detachments, until a complete line of communication was established with the fort, and the retreat effect- ually secured. Within an hour the whole party had arrived, with the ex- ception of Rogers and liis men, who were quite unable to come off, being besieged in the house of Campan by full two hundred Indians. The two armed bateaux had gone down to the fort, laden with the dead and wounded. They now returned, and in obedience to an order from Grant, proceeded up the river to a point opposite Campan's house, where they opened a fire of swivels, which swept the ground above and below it, and completely scattered the assailants. Rogers and his party now came out, and marched down the road to unite themselves with Grant. The two bateaux accompanied them closely, and, by a constant fire, restrained the Indians from making an attack.
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" About eight o'clock, after six hours of marching and combat, the de- tachment entered once more within the sheltering palisades of Detroit.
"The Indians were greatly elated by their success. Runners were sent out for several hundred miles through the surrounding woods, to spread tidings of the victory ; and re-enforcements soon began to come in to swell the force of Pontiac. 'Fresh warriors,' writes Gladwyn, 'arrive almost every day, and I believe that I shall soon be besieged by upwards of a thousand.' But nothing worthy of notice occurred, until the night of the 4th of September.
"The schooner Gladwyn, the smaller of the two armed vessels so often mentioned, had been sent down to Niagara with letters and dispatches. She was now returning. The night set in with darkness so complete that at the distance of a few rods nothing could be discerned. Meantime, three hundred and fifty Indians, in their birch canoes, glided silently down with the current, and were close upon the vessel before they were seen. There was only time to fire a single cannon-shot among them before they were beneath her bows and clambering up her sides, holding their knives clinched fast between their teeth The crew gave theni a close fire of mus- ketry, without any effect; then, flinging down their guns, they seized the spears and hatchets with which they were all provided, and met the assail- ants with such furious energy and courage that in the space of two or three minutes they had killed and wounded more than twice their own number. But the Indians were only checked for a moment. The master of the ves- sel was killed, several of the crew were disabled, and the assailants were leaping over the bulwarks, when Jacobs, the mate, called out to blow up the schooner. This desperate command saved her and her crew. Some Wy- andots, who had gained the deck, caught the meaning of his words, and gave the alarm to their companions. Instantly every Indian leaped over- board in a panic, and the whole were seen diving and swimming off in all directions, to escape the threatened explosion. The schooner was cleared of her assailants, who did not dare to renew the attack; and on the following morning she sailed for the fort, which she reached without mnolestation."
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