Narrative of the Suffering & Defeat of the North-Western Army, Under General Winchester: Massacre of the Prisoners; Sixteen Months Imprisonment of the Writer and Others with the Indians and BritishAtherton, William
History
Narrative of the Suffering & Defeat of the North-Western Army, Under General Winchester: Massacre of the Prisoners; Sixteen Months Imprisonment of the Writer and Others with the Indians and British
Atherton, William
River Raisin, Battle of the, Monroe, Mich., 1813; United States -- History -- War of 1812 -- Personal narratives; United States -- History -- War of 1812 -- Prisoners and prisons
Thus, ill clad, worn down by fatigue and starvation, and chilled
by the cold wintry blasts of the north we were compelled to
brave--there was no alternative--our condition made it necessary
for us to fall upon some other plan to reach the Rapids, where we
expected to meet supplies. Under the impulse of this hope we went
to work and made sleds sufficient to carry the baggage. But as
these were not sufficient to take the sick, many of them had to
be left behind. On the 25th, as above stated, we bid adieu to
this memorable place, camp No. 3, where lie the bones of many a
brave man. This place will live in the recollection of all who
suffered there, and for more reasons than one. There comes up
before the mind the many times the dead march was heard in the
camp, and the solemn processsion that carried our fellow
sufferers to the grave--the many times we were almost on the
point of starvation--and the many sickening disappointments which
were experienced by the army from day to day, and from week to
week, by the failure of promised supplies, which were daily
expected: and, also, that here we parted with the sick, some of
whom we were to see no more.
Thus poorly equipped, deeply affected, and yet overjoyed, we took
up the line of march. The reader may ask how such a number of
sleds could be drawn, seeing there was not a supply of horses.
Some of them were drawn by the _men themselves_--five men were
hitched to a sleigh, and, through snow and water, dragged them on
at the rate of about ten miles a day. But to our great disadvantage
during our march, there was an immense fall of snow. It seemed that
the very elements fought against us. But notwithstanding all, we
moved slowly on towards the destined point. What the men suffered
by day, was comparatively nothing to what they experienced by
night. The reader can form but a faint idea unless he had been on
the spot, and had seen and felt what we saw and felt. Some time was
required to arrange the encampment, during which time the men were
compelled to keep their places in the lines, and thus become so
chilled as to be almost unfit for the necessary exertion of
preparing a resting place for themselves. The snow, which was about
knee deep, had first to be cleared away, then fire to be struck
with flint and steel, and when no lynn bark could be had, brush was
substituted in its place, which formed our bed. Hard and
uncomfortable as it was, yet such was our fatigue that we generally
slept soundly. To give a detailed account of individual suffering
during this march, from camp No. 3 to the Rapids, would swell this
sketch beyond its intended limits; and perhaps facts would be
related which the present generation, who have but little knowledge
of these things only from report, would scarcely believe.
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