Short stories; United States -- History -- Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775 -- Fiction
On that same evening about two hundred and fifty men and boys gathered
in Hadley street. Of this number fifty-six were soldiers from the
garrisons of Hadley, Northampton, Springfield, Hatfield, and Westfield.
The rest were volunteers, among whom was Jonathan Wells, of Hadley,
sixteen years old, whose adventures and miraculous escape have been
preserved.
The party was under the command of Captain William Turner, and the
expedition which it was about to undertake was inspired by a daring
amounting to rashness. The plan was to attack the Indian camp, which
contained four times their number of well-armed braves. Defeat meant
death, or captivity and torture worse than death. The march began after
nightfall so as not to attract the attention of the Indian scouts, and
the little band made its way safely through swamps and forests, past the
Indian outposts, and at daybreak arrived in the neighborhood of the
camp. Here the horses were left under a small guard among the trees,
while the men crept forward to the lodges of the enemy.
The surprise was complete. The panic-stricken savages, crying that the
dreaded Mohawks were upon them, were shot down by scores, or, plunging
into the river, were swept over the falls which now bear Captain
Turner’s name. The backbone of Philip’s conspiracy was broken, and he
himself was driven to begin soon afterwards the hunted wanderings which
were to end in the fatal morass.
But the attacking party, though victorious, was not yet out of danger.
It was still heavily outnumbered by the surviving Indians. While the
soldiers were destroying arms, ammunition, and food, or scattered in
pursuit of the fleeing enemy, the warriors rallied, and opened fire upon
them from under cover of the trees. Captain Turner became alarmed and
ordered a retreat. The main body hastily mounted and plunged into the
forest, seeking to shake off the cloud of savages who hung upon their
flanks like a swarm of angry bees.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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