USA > Texas > Border fights & fighters; stories of the pioneers between the Alleghenies and the Mississippi and in the Texan republic > Part 10
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gate in safety with no one killed, though Squire Boone was severely wounded.
Concealment and pretence were now at an end. The Indians poured a furious fire upon the fort, which was returned with deadly effect by the Kentuckians. A ren- egade negro slave who had stolen an extra long-range rifle amused himself by ascending a tall tree and from there picking off the exposed garrison. Boone by an extraordinary shot brought him down.
The Indians besieged the fort for nine days, using every stratagem and artifice of which they were capable to effect the capture, and finally resorted to the unheard- of expedient of attempting to undermine the stockade. Their endeavor was detected by the great quantities of mud which they threw in the river and Boone at once began a countermine.
Tradition has it that much rude banter was exchanged between the combatants. "'What are you red rascals doing there?' an old hunter would yell in Shawnese from the battery to the unseen Indians on the river bank below. 'Digging,' would be the return yell. 'Blow you all to deveil soon; what you do?' 'Oh !' would be the cheerful reply, 'we're digging to meet you and in- tend to bury five hundred of you.'"
The little garrison was constantly on the walls, its efforts being seconded by those of the women, who moulded bullets, loaded rifles, and in many instances even joined in the actual fighting, when one face or the other was assaulted. On one occasion the Indians set fire to the roofs of the cabins with blazing arrows and torches, but a fortunate rain which had saturated the logs pre- vented the spread of the fires and saved the fort.
The rain flooded the badly constructed mine the be-
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siegers had made, the bank caved in, and their whole work was ruined just as they had carried it within striking distance of the gate. In utter discouragement they raised the siege on the 16th of September and retired, having sustained a very heavy loss. Exactly what, how- ever, is not known, although the Kentuckians counted at least thirty-seven killed outright beside many wound- ed. Two of the defenders had been killed and four were wounded.
So furious had been the fire that after the battle they picked up one hundred and twenty-seven pounds of lead bullets from the ground around the fort, and this takes no account of the vast number which had buried them- selves harmlessly in the trunks of the trees. The gal- lant defence undoubtedly saved the fort from being over- whelmed and the settlement wiped out at this juncture. Indeed it may be said to have saved Kentucky, and the sturdy little band of backwoodsmen desperately defend- ing the fort in the wilderness deserve as well of their country as the men of Bunker Hill and Valley Forge.
VII. The Last Battle of the Revolution
After the repulse of the Indians from Boonesborough Boone, who was a major in the county militia, was promptly brought to trial before a court-martial, first for surrendering at the Salt Licks, and second for the par- leying and treatying at the fort. He was immediately acquitted, being able to show that the motive for his actions had been the protection of the settlement and had resulted for the best in both cases, and he was at once promoted in rank to a lieutenant-colonel. Here- after he is invariably styled Colonel Boone.
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The disastrous repulse of the Indians and the spring- ing up of other stations nearer the Ohio combined to render Boonesborough secure from any further attacks. The fort was still maintained, but the constantly increas- ing number of settlers flowed out of its constricted area and built their cabins in its vicinity. Soon a thriving town grew up around the battle-scarred enclosure and then Boone, who had gone to North Carolina and brought his family back to Kentucky, felt it necessary to move on.
Abandoning his land claim, to which, indeed, he found through some carelessness he had no complete title, and having lost nearly all his movable property by robbery, he moved across the Kentucky River and settled in the wilderness again at a place which he called Boone's Sta- tion, another small frontier fort where he resumed his occupation of hunting and trading.
On the 16th of August, 1782, a mounted messenger came dashing up to the station, his horse in a lather of foam, carrying the news that Bryan's Station, a very im- portant point further westward and five miles from the present city of Lexington, had been attacked by an over- whelming force of Indians and white men, and that the place was in desperate straits. Boone himself happened to be at Boonesborough at the time, but the men at the station immediately mounted their horses and galloped to the succor of their brethren.
Meanwhile the messenger was despatched to Boone and the next day found the old pioneer on the march with all the men of the vicinity to the relief of Bryan's Station. The siege there had been raised by as desperate a defence as was ever exhibited in a frontier fort, when the rescuing parties arrived. Messengers had been sent
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in all directions and on the evening of Saturday, August 17th, pioneers to the number of one hundred and eighty- two had assembled at Bryan's Station, and several hun- dred men under the command of Colonel Benjamin Logan were hourly expected.
There was a great preponderance of officers among the men already at the station, and long and anxious were the councils which were held to determine their course. It was a principle of border warfare that no savage foray should be allowed to go unpunished, al- though it was known that the allies, who were com- manded by Campbell and McKee, renegades from the American cause with the infamous Simon Girty and a large party of Wyandottes, among the fiercest warriors on the continent, greatly outnumbered the Kentuckians, and it was finally determined to pursue them at once, without waiting for the advent of Logan.
Early on the next morning the party, consisting of horse and foot under the command of Colonels John Todd, Stephen Trigg, and Daniel Boone, set forth. The Indians and Canadians had marched very deliberately and had taken particular care that their trail should be easily followed, even to the extent of blazing it, by gash- ing the trees as they passed. This itself was a very seri- ous indication, but the backwoodsmen were indifferent to odds and the Kentuckians dashed on rapidly, so rapid- ly that they marched thirty-three miles the first day. In the two days that had elapsed the allies had marched thirty-eight miles, so that the two forces encamped for the night but five miles from one another.
The next morning they took up the march again and in a short time came to the Licking River, a stream easily fordable, at a place called Blue Licks, one of the
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salt springs which from time immemorial had been the haunt of the buffalo and deer. The river here makes a loop enclosing a piece of land shaped like a sugar-bowl. The trail, a buffalo "trace," led straight across the river and up an open ridge, the sides of which were heavily timbered, and cut by ravines running at right angles to the ridge. It was the place where Boone had been capt- ured when with the salt party years before. With that wonderful topographical instinct which had enabled him to find his way in the densest wilderness, every detail of the position was fresh in his memory.
A few Indians were seen on the other side of the river upon the ridge. As the Kentuckians approached them they leisurely disappeared. A party of scouts was sent forward but found nothing. Their inspection must have been perfunctory, for the woods and ravines were filled with Canadians and Indians in ambush, waiting just such an opportunity as this. There was something very sus- picious about the whole situation, however, and the place was so dangerous that the assemblage was halted while a council of war was held.
Boone, as the most experienced Indian fighter and as the man of the highest importance among them, was asked for his opinion. He pointed out that the situation was grave indeed. He felt certain that the Indians were ambushed on the other side of the river, and that the Kentuckians should at once select a defensive position on their own side and hold it until the arrival of Colonel Logan and his men. Only a man of Boone's courage could have offered such counsel and their only salvation, as it happened, would have been in its acceptance. But with all his reputation and powers Boone does not seem to have been a leader of men. His prowess was individ-
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ual and his reputation likewise, so his counsel was disre- garded by the majority and it was determined to attack.
Boone then proposed that a party should be detached to march secretly up the river and fall upon the rear of the Indians and Canadians, at a prearranged signal, while the main attack was delivered in front. While this dangerous proposition was being discussed,-for there was enough military talent among the allies to have enabled them to overwhelm one detachment before the other arrived, if the manœuvre were detected, which would almost cer- tainly happen,-a Major McGary, a man of headlong and impetuous valor, but without discretion, disgusted with the apparent hesitation of the Kentuckians, and, as he states, chafing under the taunt of cowardice which had been flung at him the day before when he had suggested waiting for Logan, suddenly broke up the council, after much bickering, by turning his horse to the ford of the river and dashing across it shouting, " Let all who are not cowards follow me!"
It was one of those foolish appeals which always pro- duce disaster and the consequences of which are usually terrible. Large parties of the men immediately broke after McGary and the wiser and older officers found themselves committed to a course of action entirely at variance with their knowledge and experience. McGary ought to have been shot by someone before he entered the river, but the authority of the officers was of a very in- definite character. The men were all equals and they obeyed just about as it pleased them, or nearly so. There was nothing for Boone, the Todd brothers, Trigg, Harlan, and the rest, to do but follow and endeavor to restore such order as they could in the mob into which their men had degenerated.
"The Kentuckians stood to their ground manfully and returned the fire."
Albert de Ford Pitney
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The force passed the river unmolested, and advanced up the broad buffalo trail toward the top of the ridge. Some semblance of order was restored as they pro- gressed. McGary led the advance party of twenty-five men, Trigg took command of the right, Boone of the left, and Todd of the centre. Preferring to fight on foot a majority of the troops dismounted and left their horses on the bank. The bare ridge was about three hundred and fifty feet long and the thin attenuated line barely covered it. As they approached the top a rifle shot rang out, followed by a stunning volley. Of the twenty-five men in the advance twenty-three were instantly shot down, McGary being one of the two who escaped. Fate must have been asleep at that moment, for if ever a man deserved death it was he.
Following the first volley the Canadians appeared in force on the ridge, while on either flank the Indians opened a deadly fire from the ravines. The Kentuckians stood to their ground manfully and returned the fire, in- flicting quite a heavy loss, but in an instant the open was black with men. Boone and his men, however, advanced gallantly and drove the Indians back on the left, but only temporarily. The Indians, especially the Wyandottes, were as fearless and as reckless as the Iroquois, and after the first volleys they came bursting through the smoke tomahawk in hand.
The Kentuckians with unloaded rifles and knives were no match for the Indians with tomahawks, especially when outnumbered three to one. Nearly every officer of rank was instantly killed. The Indians overwhelmed the right wing and extended their lines around that flank, the centre then gave back before the tremendous press- ure and the advancing left became isolated. In another
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moment the Kentuckians would have been entirely sur- rounded and a massacre would have ensued. Sauve que peut became the order of the day at once.
The Kentuckians fled pell-mell in wild confusion to the river, those mounted galloping madly down the buffalo trail, others seeking to gain their frightened horses and escape. Boone, fighting desperately with knife and clubbed rifle in defence of his life, his horse having been killed, found himself far in advance of his line, cut off by the Indians who had gathered between him and the river. His son Isaac, a private in his com- pany, lay dying at his feet.
Seizing the boy in his arms with superhuman strength he burst through the encircling foemen and by his knowledge of the place gained shelter in a ravine through which, still carrying the wounded lad, he made for the river. Although he had escaped observation for the moment his discovery was certain. The Indians and Canadians were ranging the woods and butchering everybody they came across. The helpless wounded upon the field were immediately killed. As it chanced, the poor boy died in his father's arms and Boone put his body in a sheltered recess in the rocks and finally succeeded in escaping across the river.
Major Netherland, who was better mounted than the others, gained the opposite bank of the river. With cool hardihood he stopped every man who came across until he had gathered quite a party about him. Charging their rifles they waited until the main battle came roll- ing toward the stream. The Kentuckians in advance plunged into the water, the Indians close after them. Netherland's force by steady firing checked the pursuit at the bank of the river until their exhausted comrades
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got over, when they immediately scattered in the woods. The Indians attempted little or no pursuit on the other side of the river.
Sixty-seven Kentuckians were killed outright or were murdered on the field after the battle. Seven were capt- · ured, of whom four died by torture, and many of those who escaped were wounded in some way or other.
Half way to Bryan's Station the fugitives met Colonel Logan with four hundred men coming to their support. In the face of this disastrous defeat, in which over forty per cent. had been lost, and ignorant of the number of the allies, which rumor had magnified to an extraordi- nary degree, Logan deemed it prudent to retire to Bryan's Station.
The return of the defeated brought desolation and sorrow to the whole territory. A few days after the battle the army, greatly re-enforced, marched out to the battle-field, which was, it may be imagined, a scene of horror. The Indians had carried away their dead, the Canadians had buried theirs, and their loss was never certain. Compared to that of the Kentuckians, how- ever, it was inconsiderable. Logan and Boone buried the dead on the field, covering their remains with a huge mound of stones.
What must have been the thoughts of the old pioneer whose advice, if they had taken it, might have prevented this fearful slaughter! He had lost his brother, two of his brothers-in-law, and two of his sons in battles with the Indians. Certainly he had paid a heavy price for his part in the settlement of Kentucky !
He accompanied George Rogers Clark in the expedi- tion which was organized after the battle of the Blue Licks, which devastated the Indian country, and did
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good service there. But the Indians came no more to Kentucky. The treaty of peace which closed the Revo- lution deprived them of their British backing, and left the United States free to deal with them, and it is a nota- ble fact that this sanguinary and disastrous engagement was the last battle of the Revolution. The contest which began at Lexington, Massachusetts, ended at the Blue Licks, Kentucky, a place that had never been dreamed of when Pitcairn shot down the minute men, so rapid even under adverse circumstances had been the growth and expansion of our country.
VIII. The End of the Old Pioneer
After the war Boone's carelessness in complying with the legal requirements caused him to be dispossessed of his second attempt at land claim, and in 1795 he re- moved to Missouri, then a part of the Spanish territory of Louisiana. Here, with his children and grandchildren around him, he passed the remainder of his days, his pas- sion for hunting existing to the very last. Long past the age of threescore and ten the old hunter and pioneer made excursion after excursion through that yet unex- plored west which still rose before him with all the allure- ments that it held in the days of his youth. There, in 1813, his faithful wife died. She had been a helpmeet to him indeed.
" A dirge for the brave old pioneer! A dirge for his old spouse! For her who blest his forest cheer And kept his birchen house. Now soundly by her chieftain may The brave old dame sleep on. The red man's step is far away, The wolf's dread howl is gone."
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When Louisiana passed to the United States Boone again found that he had neglected to secure his land title from the Spanish government and was again dispossessed of his claim, so that he who had spent his lifetime in dis- covering, acquiring, protecting, the vast territory of the United States west of the Alleghenies, found himself at last without a rood of ground to call his own. In his extremity he appealed to the legislature of Kentucky, and at their urgency the government of the United States through Congress granted him a tract of land in Mis- souri, where he died on the 23rd of September, 1820, in the eighty-sixth year of his age.
As was fitting and proper, his remains with those of his wife were brought back in 1845 to rest in the soil of Kentucky, which justly cherishes his memory as one of the fathers of the commonwealth. Not often has there been in our history so admired and beloved a pioneer. He stands for a class which has vanished, and which circumstances will never permit to reappear, but a class which performed great services in the develop- ment of this country, and which will always be held in grateful remembrance. The hunting shirt and the axe, the long rifle and the powder horn, the handful of parched corn, and the coon-skin cap, these should be incorporated in our escutcheon, for these were the means by which was won to us that great country between the Alleghe- nies and the Mississippi.
PART III KENTUCKY
II The Women and Children of Bryan's Station
THE WOMEN AND CHILDREN OF BRYAN'S STATION
I. The Wives of the Pioneers
I N discussing Border Fights and Fighters, the battles, sieges, and adventures whereby was brought about that great winning of the west justly so celebrated in song and story, the attention of the historian is usually given particularly to the men, and well it may be. But in many instances the women played as brave a part as their husbands or fathers, and the chronicles and tradi- tions of the rude times teem with thrilling instances of sturdy courage and heroic daring on the part of the femi- nine pioneers. Generally speaking, the wives of the frontiersmen indeed showed themselves worthy help- mates to their cool and adventurous husbands. If some of the things that these women did were set down for modern delectation they would be regarded as utterly incredible, and the most exuberant imagination of the most daring dime novelist of other days could scarcely match the truth.
For instance, in 1787, there was Mrs. John Merrill of Nelson County, Kentucky, who, when her husband des- perately wounded staggered into his cabin and fell on the floor at her feet, succeeded in shutting and barring the door upon the assaulting Indians, and when they broke into the house through a shivered plank of the door, killed four of them in succession with an axe-the axe,
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strange to say, being the favorite weapon of the women, as the rifle was that of the men! And when the savages gave over that attempt and tried to enter by the chimney, with ready wit she emptied her feather bed on the flames and smoked them away, keeping them at bay till help came and her loved ones were saved.
Then there was Elizabeth Zane, a young miss just come from boarding school in Philadelphia to her father's house on the frontier in 1777. The people of the settle- ment being besieged by Indians and rangers under Girty, in Fort Henry, where Wheeling now stands in West Virginia, suddenly found themselves without powder and facing certain capture. Not a man could be spared from the weakened garrison which had already lost over half its members, but the brave girl volunteered to run to an outlying cabin, her father's, and bring back thence a keg of powder which had been left there. She succeed- ed in her desperate undertaking in spite of a heavy fire poured upon her by the Indians, delivered the powder to the garrison, and saved the fort! *
I recall the story of two other women who held their cabin against an overwhelming force, the husbands of the two weltering in gore upon the floor-one dead, the other dying, in fact. The Indians repeatedly tried to set the cabin on fire and the women put out the flames again and again, first with their scanty supply of water, and when that was exhausted, by the use of raw eggs, and when the store of these in turn was gone, with the blood- stained garments of their husbands, saving their children and themselves from a fate too horrible to dwell upon. And there are hundreds of similar instances that might be mentioned.
* See my book Woven with the Ship : Saved by Her Slipper.
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But the women of Bryan's Station exhibited a greater degree of heroism than perhaps any other body of women in the new settlement of Kentucky. Bryan's Station was situated about five miles north of the present city of Lex- ington. It was originally founded by the Bryan brothers, their families and friends. One of these brothers had married a sister of the famous Daniel Boone, as had an- other of the settlers, and both men lost their lives in Indian conflicts. Boone's wife, by the way, was a sister of these Bryans.
II. An Old-Time Frontier Fort
The station was a rude log fort enclosing about forty cabins. It was about six hundred feet long, two hun- dred feet wide and twelve feet high. The cabins were placed at intervals around this parallelogram, and the spaces between filled with a heavy palisade, the outer walls of the cabins, with the palisades, composing the walls of the fort. There were two entrances closed with two heavy wooden gates. In each corner a two-story block-house was built which projected four feet beyond the walls, giving the defenders an enfilading fire. The roofs of the cabins sloped inward from the edge of the palisades, or outer walls, so that a small person crouching upon the inner edge of the roof would not be visible from outside of the stockade.
Like almost every other frontier fort in Kentucky there was no water in the enclosure, a terrible mistake, but accounted for by the fact that the springs were gen- erally on low ground not suitable for defensive works- still they might have dug wells in the forts, but the fact remains they rarely did. A short distance from the
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northeast corner of the fort there was a bountiful spring from which the garrison could get water when there was nobody there to prevent.
There had been terrible doings on the frontier during the spring and summer of 1782. The British and Indians had made raid after raid through the land. Two years before a certain Colonel William Byrd of Westover, Vir- ginia, a Tory, who seems to have been a gentleman and a soldier, led some eight hundred Indians with a detach- ment of soldiers and some artillery into Kentucky. None of the forts was proof against artillery, nor was there any in the territory except that in the possession of George Rogers Clark, which was not available. Two stations, Martin's and Ruddle's, were attacked in succession and easily captured. Their garrisons and inhabitants were murdered and tortured with shocking barbarity. It is to the eternal credit of Colonel Byrd, that, finding him- self unable to control the Indians, he abandoned his ex- pedition and withdrew, otherwise the whole land would have been desolated. The bulk of the invading Indians were Wyandottes, who were easily first among the sav- ages of the northwest for ferocious valor and military skill. The opposing forces being exactly equal, a de- tachment of them defeated a certain Captain Estill by a series of brilliant military manœuvres which would have done credit to a great captain, being indeed upon a small scale Napoleonic in their conception and execution.
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