United States -- History -- War of 1812 -- Personal narratives
This is analogous to the custom of the Portuguese, who, in throwing the
knife, always project it with the handle foremost, but it as uniformly
strikes with the point.
These Socs or Sacs were the only genuine unadulterated Indians I ever
saw. They were very fine men, few of them under six feet high, and their
symmetry perfectly faultless. In action they fought all but naked, which
gymnastic undressing gave you the means of seeing their forms to the
greatest advantage.
Their features, too, had not the rounded form or stolid expression of
many Indian tribes, particularly those towards the North. They had
European features, or, more properly, those of the Asiatic. Their Chief
had so strong a resemblance to George the Third that even the tribe
called the head on the half penny Mautass, and he certainly might have
passed for a bronze statue of that worthy and estimable Monarch.
After the action was over, and it was drawing towards dusk, I rapidly
traversed the ground with a strong party to look out for wounded, and
finding only a few of the enemy, I ordered them to be carried to the
hospital, but I preceded them to make preparations for their reception.
When nearing the Camp, I found a party of the band of our Regiment
carrying in a blanket an American officer mortally wounded, who was
greedily drinking water from one of the soldier's canteens. I ordered
them to lay him down, and set myself to dress his wound. He calmly said,
"Doctor, it's all in vain--my wound is mortal, and no human skill can
help me--leave me here with a canteen of water near me, and save
yourself--you are surrounded, and your only chance of escape is to take
to the woods in a northerly direction, and then make your way east for
Queenston,--there is not a man of your army who can escape by any other
means--I am not at liberty to tell you more." I, however, ordered the
men to carry him to a hut belonging to an officer of my own Regiment,
who undertook to sit by him till my return. After he had been put to bed
I left him, and when I returned during the night from my hospital, he
was dead. He proved to be Colonel Wood of the American Engineers--a man
equally admired for his talents and revered for his virtues. His
calmness and courage in the hour of death, with his benevolence and
kindness to myself and others, who were doing any little they could to
render his last moments easy, convinced me that he deserved the high
character which all his brother officers that I afterwards met with
uniformly gave him.
Next morning I discovered what the poor Colonel alluded to. The party
sent down the right bank of the Niagara to take us in rear, on arriving
at the place where it was determined they should cross, saw a body of
troops cooking their dinners on the bank, and supposing their plan was
betrayed, desisted from the attempt.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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