Tales, Traditions and Romance of Border and Revolutionary TimesEllis, Edward Sylvester
History
Tales, Traditions and Romance of Border and Revolutionary Times
Ellis, Edward Sylvester
Frontier and pioneer life -- United States -- Anecdotes; United States -- History -- Revolution, 1775-1783 -- Anecdotes
trees, overgrown with wild vines, into which he threw himself with the
energy of desperation. Fortune favored him; he discovered the rotten
trunk of a fallen tree, whose hollow butt, hidden and screened by the
deep shadow of the surrounding foliage, offered an asylum from the
impending death which seemed so near. The approaching steps of the
savages quickened his movements, as he crawled head first into the
recess, which was barely large enough to admit his person. Here he lay
within hearing of the efforts made to discover his hiding-place, until
they died away in the distance. Conscious, however, that the Indians
would search long and anxiously for him, he lay in this situation for
two days and nights. When he ventured out he knew not which way to turn,
but striking off at random, he soon emerged upon a clearing near
Cobbleskill—a distance of twenty-five miles from his place of starting.
The brave fellow had earned his liberty; and the Indians never ceased to
recur to the race, with grunts of approbation at the white man's power
of endurance.
Another race for life, not so lengthy, but equally exciting while it
lasted, is related in the historical records of Kentucky—that State
whose infancy was "baptized in blood." William Kennan, a brother spirit
of Kenton, Hunt, and Boone, a ranger renowned for strength and courage,
had joined the expedition of St. Clair against the Indians. In the
course of the march from Fort Washington he had repeated opportunities
of testing his surprising powers, and was admitted to be the swiftest
runner of the light corps. This expedition of St. Clair was organized
after the disastrous defeat of Harmar by the Indians, in 1779.
Washington, who was at this time President, determined to employ a force
sufficient to crush out the savages. This force was to have been two
thousand regular troops, composed of cavalry, infantry and artillery,
and a large number of militia which were ordered to move from the
several States in which they had been enlisted, toward Fort Washington,
now Cincinnati, where the men rendezvoused in September. The object of
the campaign was to establish a line of posts, stretching from the Ohio
to the Maumee, to build a strong post on the latter river, and by
leaving in it a garrison of a thousand men, to enable the commander of
the fort to send out detachments to keep the Indians in awe. But there
was difficulty about organizing the army, St. Clair being very unpopular
in Kentucky; the season was far advanced before he took the field, and
when he did, he had only about two thousand men all told, and from
these, desertions were continually taking place. The Kentucky levies
were reckless and ungovernable, the conscripts from the other States
were dissatisfied, and to make matters worse, the mountain leader, a
Chickasaw chief, whose knowledge of Indian tactics would have been
invaluable, losing faith in the success of the whites, abandoned the
enterprise with his band of warriors.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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