Sustained honor: The Age of Liberty EstablishedMusick, John R. (John Roy)
History
Sustained honor: The Age of Liberty Established
Musick, John R. (John Roy)
United States -- History -- War of 1812 -- Fiction
Some historians of good authority state that Johnson shot Tecumseh with
his pistol, just as his own horse fell dead under him;--that as the
colonel's horse was sinking under innumerable wounds, he discovered a
large Indian, whose regal feathers denoted his rank, coming toward him
with uplifted tomahawk. He drew a pistol and shot him through the
heart. This has been denied. [Footnote: Seventeen years ago an aged man,
who was in the conflict, informed the author that he saw Tecumseh fall,
that he was shot through the head by a private soldier; "a big
Kentuckian."]
Fernando accompanied the army of General Harrison to Niagara to join the
army of the centre; but Harrison, becoming offended at General
Armstrong, secretary of war, resigned and quit the service. Fernando
with his detached party, seven only of Captain Rose's original company,
joined the army under Gen. Boyd on November 10th, 1813, was with them on
the next day, the 11th, when they fought the enemy five hours at
Chrysler's farm in Canada. The Americans were driven from the field with
a loss of three hundred and thirty-nine.
The writer must pause a moment to mention some of the stirring incidents
in which Fernando did not participate. On March 4th, 1813, Mr. Madison
was inaugurated for his second term. Terrence, who chanced to be in
Washington, greeted the president with: "Now Misther Prisident, we'll
whip the British sure."
The Emperor of Russia having offered his services as mediator between
the United States and Great Britain, the president, on March 8th, 1813,
appointed commissioners to treat for peace. On the 10th of April, the
British attacked Lewiston, Delaware, but after several days bombardment
abandoned the siege. On April 27, the Americans under General Pike
besieged upper York under General Sheaffe. The British, deserted by
their Indian allies, who fled before the roar of artillery, took post
with the garrison near the governor's house and opened a fire of grape
and round-shot on the invader. The battery was silenced and all thought
the British had surrendered. General Pike was sitting on the stump of a
tree talking with a captive British officer, when a tremor of the earth
was felt, 'immediately followed by a tremendous explosion near by. The
British, unable to hold the fort had fired a magazine of gunpowder on
the edge of the lake. The effect was terrible. Fragments of timber and
huge stones, of which the magazine walls were built, were scattered in
every direction over a space of several hundred feet. When the smoke
floated away, the scene was appalling. Fifty-two Americans lay dead, and
one hundred and eighty others were wounded. Forty of the British were
also slain. General Pike, two of his aides and the captive officer were
mortally hurt. The dying general was taken to one of Chauncey's vessels.
His benumbed ears heard the shout of victory, when the British ensign
was pulled down at York. Just before he died, the captured British flag
was brought to him.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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