A Child of the Sea; and Life Among the MormonsWilliams, Elizabeth Whitney
History
A Child of the Sea; and Life Among the Mormons
Williams, Elizabeth Whitney
Beaver Island (Mich.); Latter Day Saints -- Michigan; Strang, James Jesse, 1813-1856
Soon shots were fired, I cannot say how many. All was confusion, women
were screaming, some were praying. Men were talking, trying to quiet
them. I never took my eyes from the Mormon boats, and when the smoke
cleared away I saw the men hurriedly push their boats off and jump into
them, taking their oars and pulling with all their might. Then I saw our
men coming towards the house carrying a man who seemed to be dead, as
blood was streaming down. The form looked familiar to me. I ran to the
door and saw it was my brother Lewis. They carried him home, laying him
down and examined his wound. He was shot in the calf of the leg. It was
a flesh wound. The place was small where the bullet went in, but the
flesh was badly torn where the bullet came out. Excitement was great;
the men wanted to follow the Mormon boats. At the river there were but
two boats at the time, our own, which was too small, and Captain
Morrison's, which was a large, heavy boat.
GIVING CHASE TO THE MORMONS.
The men concluded at last to take that boat and give chase to the
Mormons, as the delay would be too great in getting a boat from the
fishermen's landing. So the boat was manned by a double crew to row. One
man was placed in the bow with his rifle to shoot into the Mormon's
boats and sink them if possible. Every bullet he shot seemed to take
effect. Our men were powerful oarsmen, and in spite of the distance the
two boats had made before our men had got started, our boat was gaining
on them fast. Soon one of the Mormon boats was sinking, and they made
some delay by getting out of the sinking boat into the other. Our men
were straining every nerve to overtake them, which they soon would have
done had not the Mormons hurried toward a large vessel which lay
becalmed just ahead of them. It was getting dusk, but everything could
be plainly seen.
MORMONS SAVED BY "BARK MORGAN."
The Mormons rowed with all their might to the vessel, telling the
captain that they were fishermen and that the Mormons were chasing them
and begged to be saved from their enemies. Of course the captain could
do no less than let them get aboard his vessel, which they soon did. Our
men came as near to the vessel as they could and told the captain how
it was. He told them he could not do anything, and it was best for them
to go quietly home, which they did. The vessel was the "Bark Morgan." It
was stated in "The Northern Islander," a paper edited and printed at the
island, that seven were killed and five wounded of the Mormons at the
battle of Charlevoix. A man who boarded with me several years after this
happened told me that this was the correct number. As he was in the boat
and one of the wounded, he being shot in the shoulder. He was very young
when he was in training with these bad men. He also told us that Pierce,
the leader, was very angry and had planned to come back and drive us
away or murder us all. They wanted to settle there themselves, which
they did as soon as we left.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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