USA > Texas > Border fights & fighters; stories of the pioneers between the Alleghenies and the Mississippi and in the Texan republic > Part 1
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org.
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24
BORDER FIGHTS
nia University Souther: Librar
AND FIGHTERS
CYRUS · TOWNSEND · BRADY
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT LOS ANGELES
RSITATIS
SIGILLV
LVX
RNIENSIS
FIAT
N
VIII
EX LIBRIS
GIFT OF
W.P. Harrison
William Gasta Harrison días a gala Border Fights & Fighters
5
AN
" They came on with fixed bayonets without firing."
Border Fights Fighters
STORIES OF THE PIONEERS BETWEEN THE ALLEGHENIES AND THE MISSIS- SIPPI AND IN THE TEXAN REPUBLIC
BY CYRUS TOWNSEND BRADY, LL.D. Author of American Fights & Fighters, Colonial Fights & Fighters, &c.
With Maps, Plans, & many Illustrations by Louis Betts, Howard Giles, J. N. Mar- chand, Roy L. Williams, Harry Fenn & A. de F. Pitney
PHILLIPS & C.
/R
C
M
EX OFFICINA
NOVI EBORACI
1902
NEW YORK MCCLURE, PHILLIPS & CO MCMII
Copyright, 1902, by S. S. MCCLURE Co.
Copyright, 1902, by MCCLURE, PHILLIPS & CO.
Published, October, 1902, N
.. ,4.1
....... . .
·
E179 B728
DEC 13 1937
W. P. Harrison
GIFT OF
I dedicate this book in the bonds of an old affection to that venerated and admired SCHOLAR & GENTLEMAN
Edward Brooks, A. Att., ph.D., LL.D., etc.,
Superintendent of Public Education, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, whose VARIED LEARNING, PHILO- SOPHIC CULTURE, WIDE EXPERIENCE, and most of all, UNFAILING CHRISTIAN COURTESY and KINDLINESS OF HEART, have so endeared him to all those who, like myself, are privileged to call him
Friend
281279
AB 9- 7.39
Prefatory Note
F ROM De Soto, who opens the first book of this Fights and Fighters Series, to Houston, who closes the third, is just three centuries.
The salient incidents of these three hundred years, from the Conquistador to the Pioneer, have engaged the greater part of my attention for a long time, and with the completion of this book they are set before the reader. To me this last book of the series has been the most interesting. It is more thoroughly American and the men come more closely home to us therefore. Two of them come especially close to me, since Captain John Brady was my great-great-grandfather, and Captain Samuel Brady my great-granduncle. It has been a pleasure and pride to me to find them worthy of inclu- sion in this category of heroes.
As I look back upon the history of America through my studies therein, I seem to catch a glimpse of the great purpose and plan back of it all. The story of our land has been the story of a struggle for the possession of a continent, a story of the rise to domination of that branch of the Germanic Race known as the Anglo-Saxon. Whatever be the continental affiliation of the early or late settler, whether Irish, Dutch, Scots, German, or Latin, he has been modified, changed, absorbed by the dominant racial solvent, primarily into a Germano-Anglo- Saxon, latterly into an American-the new racial type. Our social habits and political practices, like our lan-
vii
viii
Prefatory Note
guage, law, and religion, are English, with just enough modification to differentiate us and give us an originality of our own.
The struggle by which this has been brought about is the true meaning of our history, and that is the story told in these books. Alien races were compelled either to affiliate or go out; absorption or destruction were the unconscious alternatives, and if they could not be ab- sorbed they had to disappear in one way or another. The French, the Spanish, the Indians, have gone, and so jealous of control have we been that even the ties that bound us to older civilizations of Europe had to be ruthlessly broken.
To anticipate a little, the dominant idea of America for the free Americans persisted through a Civil War of appalling magnitude, and until we had driven the Spanish flag from Cuba and the Antilles; and if I dare venture a prophecy, though I personally am called an Anti- Imperialist, this supreme idea of American Continental Domination will not reach its limit until there is but one flag from the Isthmus of Panama to the Arctic Circle, and. that the Stars and Stripes.
One of the greatest questions that troubles the Ameri- can mind is the ultimate solution of what is known as the race problem. How far modern ethics may modify ancient habit cannot be said, yet the experience of the past presented but two possibilities to the alien, assimila- tion or disappearance - and we cannot assimilate the negro!
As to the particular volume in which this note appears let me say that to these unfamiliar subjects I have given more thought, study, and investigation, than to both the preceding books. Again, I admit the free use of all
-
ix
Prefatory Note
authentic printed authorities,-among them only citing by name Roosevelt's great Epic, "The Winning of the West,"-much old manuscript unprinted and some per- sonal recollections of ancient men, together with family traditions. Many of the incidents depicted, while more or less familiar, are not easy to come at in detail, even in the larger histories accessible to the people.
The period treated of was a most important one in our history, and its masters must be judged according to their tasks. The President in a recent speech well said :
"To conquer a continent is rough work. All really great work is rough in the doing, though it may seem smooth enough to those who look back upon it or gaze upon it from afar. The roughness is an unavoidable part of the doing of the deed. We need display but scant patience with those, who, sitting at ease in their own homes, delight to exercise a querulous and censorious spirit of judgment upon their brethren who, whatever their shortcomings, are doing strong men's work as they bring the light of civilization into the world's darkest places."
And Stuart Edward White, a welcome young apostle of the west, in a recent clever novel writes:
" When history has granted him the justice of per- spective, we will know the American Pioneer as one of the most picturesque of her many figures. Resourceful, self-reliant, bold; adapting himself with fluidity to di- verse circumstances and conditions; meeting with equal cheerfulness of confidence and completeness of capabil- ity both unknown dangers and the perils by which he has been educated; seizing the useful in the lives of the beasts and men nearest him, and assimilating it with marvellous rapidity; he presents to the world a picture
2
x
Prefatory Note
of complete adequacy which it would be difficult to match in any other walk of life."
In this book I have striven to do the Pioneer justice, as I have striven to lay aside prejudice all through the series and to write fairly even of the enemy, be he Briton, or Indian, or Mexican, or whatever he may. And in ad- dition to a mere recital of heroic incidents I have endeav- ored to depict the characters of men like Boone, Hous- ton, Crockett, Brady, Sevier, Tecumseh, Bouquet, Santa Anna, and the rest.
More pressing literary engagements will probably pre- vent the issuance of the fourth volume of the series in 1903, as I had wished, but the next book is already planned under the title of Beyond the Mississippi Fights and Fighters, and I hope to have it ready in 1904.
The Normandie, PHILADELPHIA, PENNA., June, 1902.
C. T. B.
CONTENTS
PART I
PENNSYLVANIA
PAGE
HOW HENRY BOUQUET SAVED PENNSYLVANIA I
I. A VETERAN SOLDIER AND HIS PROBLEM . 3
II. THE MARCH OVER THE MOUNTAINS 8
III. THE BATTLE OF BUSHY RUN 13
IV. THE END OF BOUQUET 19
CAPTAIN SAMUEL BRADY, CHIEF OF THE RANGERS . 21
I. A FAMILY OF FIGHTERS . 23
II. THE FIRST OF THE BORDERERS 27
III. THE ADVENTURE AT BLOODY SPRING 28
IV. BRADY'S FAMOUS LEAP 33
V. AN EXPEDITION WITH WETZEL AND OTHER ADVENTURES 36
PART II
VIRGINIA, TENNESSEE, THE CAROLINAS
ON THE EVE OF THE REVOLUTION . 41
I. ANDREW LEWIS AND HIS BORDERERS 43
II. THE BATTLE OF POINT PLEASANT ·
48
III. THE FATE OF THE PARTICIPANTS IN THE CAMPAIGN . 56
xi
xii
Contents
PAGE
THE PIONEERS OF EAST TENNESSEE 61
I. JOHN SEVIER AND THE WATAUGA MEN 63
II. "THE REAR GUARD OF THE REVOLUTION " 67
III. THE STATE OF FRANKLIN AND ITS GOVERNOR 68
IV. THE ASSEMBLING OF THE MOUNTAINEERS 72
V. THE DASH TO CATCH FERGUSON · 79
VI. KING'S MOUNTAIN; LAUNCHING THE THUNDERBOLT . 83
VII. AFTER THE BATTLE · 91
UNPUBLISHED ACCOUNT OF THE BATTLE OF KING'S MOUNTAIN, BY THE REV. STEPHEN FOSTER, A PAR- TICIPANT .
95
PART III
KENTUCKY
DANIEL BOONE, GREATEST OF PIONEERS · III
I. THE LAND BEYOND THE MOUNTAINS . 113
II. THE GREATEST OF THE PIONEERS . 116
III. THE EXPLORATION OF KENTUCKY . 118
IV. THE SETTLEMENT OF KENTUCKY 122
V. ADVENTURES WITH INDIANS . 127
VI. THE DEFENCE OF BOONESBOROUGH . · 134
VII. THE LAST BATTLE OF THE REVOLUTION . . 138
VIII. THE END OF THE OLD PIONEER . . 146
THE WOMEN AND CHILDREN OF BRYAN'S STATION . 149
I. THE WIVES OF THE PIONEERS . . 151
II. AN OLDTIME FRONTIER FORT . 153
III. RUSE AGAINST RUSE . . 155
IV. THE STORY OF THE MORGANS . 163
.. ×111
Contents
PART IV
THE FAR SOUTH
PAGE
THE MASSACRE AT FORT MIMS . 165
I. THE BEGINNING OF THE CREEK WAR . 167
II. CARELESS DEFENDERS . 171
III. PAYING THE AWFUL PENALTY . . 173
JACKSON'S VICTORY AT TOHOPEKA . 179
I. THE LAST STAND OF THE CREEKS . 181
II. THE HEROISM OF YOUNG SAM HOUSTON . 186
WHEN THE SEMINOLES FOUGHT FOR FREEDOM . . 191
I. THE INJUSTICE OF THE UNITED STATES . · 193
II. THE MASSACRE OF DADE AND HIS MEN . . 197
III. AFTER THE BATTLE . 202
PART V
THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY
GEORGE ROGERS CLARK AND THE GREAT NORTH- WEST . 209
I. THE ORIGIN OF A GREAT IDEA
. 2II
II. THE FIRST SUCCESS . . 218
III. "THE HAIR-BUYER GENERAL " . 224
IV. . THE TERRIBLE MARCH . 229
V. THE CAPTURE OF VINCENNES
· 234
VI. FORGOTTEN ! . . 238
TECUMSEH AND WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON . 24%
I. THE GREATEST OF THE INDIANS . 243
II. THE PROTAGONIST OF THE LEAGUE . . 248
III. THE BATTLE OF TIPPECANOE - . 257
IV. THE BATTLE OF THE THAMES . 264
xiv
Contents
PAGE
THE MASSACRE ON THE RIVER RAISIN . 269
I. THE ARMY OF TIIE WEST . 271
II. A HAZARDOUS EXPEDITION . 274
III. THE BATTLE OF FRENCHTOWN . . 280
IV. THE MURDER OF THE WOUNDED . 286
GEORGE CROGHAN AND THE DEFENCE OF FORT STEPHENSON . 289
I. A BOY IN COMMAND OF OTHER BOYS . 291
II. THE IMPUDENCE OF THE YOUNG CAPTAIN · 296
III. DESPERATE FIGHTING · 300
PART VI
TEXAS
DAVID CROCKETT AND THE MOST DESPERATE DE- FENCE IN AMERICAN HISTORY · 305
I. A TYPICAL AMERICAN . 307
II. THE LONE STAR REPUBLIC . 312
III. THE MISSION DEL ALAMO . 314
IV. THE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY AGAINST THE FIVE THOU- SAND . 316
THE WORST OF SANTA ANNA'S MISDEEDS · 327
I. THE DELAY AT FORT DEFIANCE · 329
II. THE BATTLE OF THE COLETA · 334
III. THE MASSACRE AT GOLIAD . 338
SAM HOUSTON AND FREEDOM · 345
I. SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF THE MAN
· 347
II. IN THE SERVICE OF THE TEXAN REPUBLIC · 353
III. "THE RUNAWAY SCRAPE " . 354
IV. SANTA ANNA IS TRAPPED .
· 357
V. THE BATTLE OF SAN JACINTO . 363
INDEX . · 369
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
FACING PAGE
" THEY CAME ON WITH FIXED BAYONETS WITHOUT
FIRING " 0
.
Frontispiece
" THAT WAR PARTY WAS ANNIHILATED " .
32
" CORNSTALK RECEIVED THEM STANDING WITH WIDE OPEN
· 58 ARMS" . . . . .
. " FERGUSON SHOWED HIMSELF A VERY PALADIN OF COURAGE". . . .
. 88
" THE KENTUCKIANS STOOD TO THEIR GROUND MANFULLY
· 142 AND RETURNED THE FIRE" .
"IT WAS INDEED A FEARFUL MOMENT FOR THE WOMEN " . 158
" THE MAJOR BENT HIS BACK AND PUSHED LIKE MAD " 174
" THEY PLUNGED DAUNTLESSLY INTO THE FORD, ONLY TO BE MET BY THE FIRE FROM COFFEE'S RIFLEMEN ON THE FARTHER SIDE " . . 188
"I CAN GIVE YOU NO MORE ORDERS, LADS. DO YOUR BEST !" .
. . 202
"CLARK, WITH TRAGIC INTENSITY, BADE THEM GO ON WITH THE DANCE" .
. · 220
" MESSENGERS BROUGHT LETTERS APPEALING FOR VENGEANCE OR PROTECTION " . · 250
XV
xvi
List of Illustrations
FACING PAGE
" PROCTOR . · HAD A FIERY INTERVIEW WITH THE AMERICAN COMMANDER ".
· . 284
" THE YOUNG SUBALTERN DID NOT SCARE A LITTLE BIT" . 300 THE MISSION DEL ALAMO . . 314
"SO HE MAKES A FINE END !"
. · 324
"SHE TOOK THE FAMILY FAR OVER THE ALLEGHENY MOUNTAINS" . . . · 348
1
>
LIST OF MAPS AND PLANS
PAGE
I. PLAN OF THE BATTLE OF BUSHY RUN · 15
II. PLAN OF THE BATTLE OF KING'S MOUNTAIN . 86 ·
III. PLAN AND PERSPECTIVE VIEW OF BOONESBOROUGH . 126
IV. PLAN OF FORT MIMS 170
V. MAP OF THE HORSE-SHOE BEND AND PLAN OF THE BATTLE . 182
VI. PLAN OF THE BATTLE OF TIPPECANOE
. 256
VII. MAP OF FRENCHTOWN AND THE MASSACRE ON THE RAISIN . 278
VIII. MAP OF FORT STEPHENSON · · 294
IX. PLAN OF THE BATTLE OF SAN JACINTO
.
. · 361
PART I PENNSYLVANIA
I How Henry Bouquet Saved Pennsylvania
HOW HENRY BOUQUET SAVED PENNSYLVANIA
" At once there rose so wild a yell Within that dark and narrow dell, As all the fiends, from heaven that fell Had peal'd the banner-cry of hell !"
I. A Veteran Soldier and His Problem
I N the far western part of the province of Pennsyl- vania on the night of the 5th of August, 1763, a little party of English soldiers found themselves con- fronted by as desperate a situation as ever menaced a military expedition. They were encamped upon a low barren hill with a few stunted trees upon it, which was surrounded on all sides by a thick dense forest. Not a fire was burning on the hill, not a light of any kind could be shown. The sky was overcast and no star sparkled like a beacon of heaven above them.
The troops, numbering four hundred and fifty, were posted on the slopes of the hill in a large circle. Within this circle some three hundred pack-horses were tethered. On the very crest of the elevation, in the centre of the cordon of soldiery, a temporary breastwork had been made by piling in a circle bags of flour and meal which had been the burden of the pack-horses. Within the meagre shelter afforded by the enclosure so formed, some thirty-five desperately wounded officers and men
3
4
Border Fights and Fighters
were lying. What slight attention the suffering soldiers received was given them in the darkness. There was not a drop of water on the hill.
At irregular intervals a flash of light would lance the darkness of the mass of trees enclosing them like a wall, and the report of a musket, followed by a terrifying war- cry, would break the stillness of the night, apprizing the anxious soldiers that their watchful enemies were still there. The pickets crouching down on the slopes and peering into the blackness about them, kept fearful watch while the rest of the exhausted soldiers lay upon their arms full of dismal forebodings for the morrow, vainly endeavoring to stifle the pangs of thirst or to get a little sleep. Across a little ravine in front of the position they held, upon the slopes of a similar hill, the bodies of some twenty-five of their fellow-soldiers lay still and ghastly under the trees. The well-aimed bullet, the brutal tomahawk, and the terrible scalping-knife had done their fell work. There were no wounded there.
The soldiers on the hill were alone in the wilderness. Back at Fort Ligonier, some fifty miles away, there was a little garrison, the major part composed of sixty in- valids too weak to accompany their comrades on the expedition. About twenty miles before them another small body of English soldiers, hopefully awaiting for the arrival of the very party in such sore straits, were tena- ciously defending Fort Pitt, situated at the confluence of the Monongahela and Allegheny rivers. On all sides of them extended the unbroken wilderness, virgin woods, forests primeval, covering mountain range and valley. The soldiers on the hill, therefore, could hope for no assistance and must depend upon their own endeavors to extricate themselves from their desperate position.
How Bouquet Saved Pennsylvania 5
The locality in which they found themselves was preg- nant with menacing history. A few miles away, a few years before, twice their number of English troops had been utterly defeated with dreadful loss, and some of the same Indians who had overwhelmed Braddock with such terrible success, lay encamped about these men that night. Still nearer in time as the place was closer in distance, these same red men could recall the disas- trous beating they had given Major Grant and his High- landers. They had never been conquered by the white men-they did not mean to be then.
Every military post on the western Pennsylvania bor- der, except those two mentioned, had been captured by these selfsame savages during the spring; their gar- risons had been first tortured and then murdered and the forts themselves burned and destroyed. All over the northwest the Indians had risen, animated by the genius and inspired by the enthusiasm of Pontiac, and they had fed fat their ancient grudge against the hap- less English. Not yet glutted by their successes and the ensuing slaughter, they were slowly making their way eastward into the populous and well-settled portions of Pennsylvania.
Such a scene of rapine and murder as had followed the destruction of the military posts has never been equalled. The frontier was left entirely unprotected. In every clearing, where, a few months before, had dwelt the settler in comparative peace and security, tilling the soil, planting his crops and wresting from the wilder- ness his hard-earned livelihood; and with his wife and children devoting himself to the conquest of the country to the arts of peace and to the spirit of civilization, now stood the tottering remnants of a chimney amid the
6
Border Fights and Fighters
ashes of a home. Unburied bodies by hundreds, the prey of the wild beasts of the forest, the wolves and the vultures, aye, of the very swine that ranged the wilder- ness, gave mute attestation to the thoroughness with which the border had been swept by the desolating Indian.
The struggling little towns clustering about the walls of some feeble fort, such as Shippensburg, Carlisle, and Bedford, were crowded with terrified fugitives. With their limited accommodations they were able to afford a shelter to but few of those who sought their protec- tion. Their already depleted stocks of provisions were soon exhausted, and famine and privation added their pangs to the troubles of the people. And there were many wounded and ill, some who had been tortured, shot, even scalped, who yet lived, for whom nothing could be done, who must needs suffer without any alle- viation of their anguish.
Distracted wives who had been bereft of their hus- bands gathered their children about them and lay house- less in the fields. Starving children who had lost their parents wandered from group to group, their pitiful wailings almost unnoticed in the general misery. Here a mother mourned a son, there a friend longed for a friend. And there were many haggard desperate men, too, who had seen their dear ones taken from them and submitted to a fate too horrible to mention. These kept watch and ward over the huddled fugitives; and, as they grasped their rifles with nervous hands, with breaking hearts they swore eternal vengeance against the red man.
And the colony of Pennsylvania did nothing to pro- tect its children!
How Bouquet Saved Pennsylvania 7
Fortunately, however, there happened to be at the time an officer named Henry Bouquet in command of the king's forces at Philadelphia. He was one of the most accomplished soldiers and gentlemen of his time; an officer, the variety of whose talents was only equalled by his bravery and sagacity. He had for some seven years held a command in America. During this time he had so mastered the tactics of the savage foeman, against whom he most often warred, that in address and cun- ning he proved himself able to give even the wiliest Indian chief a bitter lesson. Though the service he rendered America was of the utmost importance, though he manifested in the performance of it the steadiest courage, and exhibited the highest skill; though he fought, all things considered, the most brilliant and effective battle which was probably ever waged against the Indians-certainly the most notable engagement in which a British officer commanded-he is a forgotten hero and his services are now but little remembered.
This great and gallant soldier was born in 1719, at Rolle in Switzerland, on the north shore of the beautiful lake of Geneva. Springing from an humble family and possessed of little fortune, he made his way upward by sheer force of natural ability and talent. As did many Swiss, he chose to follow a military career, and entered the Dutch service as a cadet when only seventeen years of age. Shifting his allegiance, as was the habit of sol- diers of fortune, he later became adjutant to the King of Sardinia, in whose employ he saw much hard service, in which he greatly distinguished himself. The Prince of Orange made him lieutenant-colonel of the Swiss Guards of Holland in 1748.
After the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle he spent his time
8
Border Fights and Fighters
in mastering not merely military art but the polite learn- ing of his day as well. In 1756 he was appointed lieutenant-colonel commanding one of the four battalions of the regiment called the " Royal Americans " which King George III had directed should be raised in Amer- ica for service in the French and Indian War. This was a regiment composed mainly of Pennsylvania Germans, and it was necessary, as the majority of the men spoke little or no English, that officers who should be conver- sant with their language should be appointed to command them. A special act of Parliament had been required in order that Bouquet and other foreigners could be commissioned by the English king, a most fortunate act indeed. The regiment performed superb service on many hard-fought battle-fields in the French War; and various detachments, since the Peace of Paris had ended that conflict, had made up most of the garrisons of the different posts in the west and northwest which had just been overwhelmed by the savage onslaught.
II. The March Over the Mountains
Sir Jeffrey Amherst, who commanded all the English forces in America, when he received news of the Indian outbreak, immediately directed Colonel Bouquet to ad- vance to relieve Fort Pitt, and to afford some protection to the distressed inhabitants of western Pennsylvania with whatever forces he could assemble without delay. Bouquet could only gather up about six hundred men and this he did by ordering the remnants of two regiments, the Forty Second Highlanders and the Seventy Seventh infantry, which had just been invalided home from the West Indies, to the front. The men were so broken by
.
How Bouquet Saved Pennsylvania 9
their arduous and wearing service in the tropics that they were really fit for nothing but garrison duty. Some of them had to be carried along on the march in wagons on account of their weakness. There were no other troops available, however, and they had to go. They cheerfully undertook the campaign for the relief of the suffering people.
On the 3rd of July, 1763, the expedition arrived at Carlisle, to which point orders had been sent that sup- plies and transportation should be in readiness. Noth- ing had been done, owing to the panic of the inhabitants. In fact, so far from finding any supplies, Bouquet, who was a man of extreme sensibility, felt obliged to share the meagre provisions of his little army with the starv- ing women and children. The situation was apparently hopeless, but such was the energy, ability, and tact of the commander that eighteen days after his arrival the ex- pedition left Carlisle with a large number of wagons fully provided. Fort Ligonier, the most westerly post, except Fort Pitt, which still held out, was relieved by a party of thirty of the strongest men, who were sent ahead on forced march and succeeded in breaking through the be- sieging Indians and gaining the fort.
Bouquet arrived at Fort Bedford on the 25th and on the 28th he reached Fort Ligonier. There, putting what supplies he could on pack-horses, and leaving his wagons and heavy baggage he pushed forward toward Fort Pitt in much apprehension. The little army followed Forbes' road,* which, through neglect, had become almost im- passable; and their progress led them through such scenes of desolation that the hearts of the men were in-
* See my book Colonial Fights and Fighters : The Struggle for the Valley of the Ohio.
IO
Border Fights and Fighters
flamed with an ever-growing desire for vengeance upon the red authors of the ruin.
The army marched with the greatest care. A little body of backwoodsmen scouted before them, followed by a strong advance party, then came the main body, then the baggage train, then the rear-guard, while another party of frontiersmen covered the rear and the flanks. There were only thirty of these valuable adjuncts, how- ever, and the protection they could give and the scout- ing they could do, was limited. Bouquet had left the weakest of his men in the forts and his force now amounted to about five hundred men all told.
On the 5th of August they had arrived in the vicinity of a little creek called Bushy Run, about twenty-five miles from their goal. Their advance had been subjected to desultory firing from time to time, so that it was per- fectly well known that savages were marking their progress.
Early in the afternoon, in a dense wood, they came in touch with the Indians. The firing, which began with startling suddenness, was too heavy for a mere skirmish. The Indians were in great force and had determined to intercept them, having temporarily raised the siege of Fort Pitt for that purpose. The continual rattle of arms and the wild yells which rang through the wood, apprized the experienced leader that the engagement was fast be- coming serious. In fact twelve out of the eighteen men who led the advance were shot down almost instantly. Ordering the baggage and convoy to halt where they were on the top of the hill mentioned, and leaving the rear company to look after it, Bouquet hurried to the front followed by the main body of his soldiery. Ad- vancing his troops and deploying them into such a line
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.