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
Hall further says: "In reference to all these (Indian) wars, it has
never been sufficiently urged, that they were but a continuation, and a
protracted sequel to the War of Independence. For years after the United
States had been acknowledged as a nation, Great Britain continued to
hold a number of military posts within her Northwestern limits, and _to
urge a destructive warfare through her savage allies_. It was against
_Britain_ that St. Clair, Harmar, Wayne and Harrison fought; and they,
with others, who bled in those Western wilds, contributed as much to the
purchase of our independence, as those who fought for our birthright at
an earlier period."
Oh, _mother_-country; how very like the worst personification of a
stepmother thou hast ever been, and still art, to this fairest of thy
children.
The Indians are remarkable for fleetness of foot and endurance. Trained
from childhood to the forest and chase, to run without tiring is one of
their most esteemed virtues. They have been known frequently to run down
the deer. We have seen them, on the western plains, exhaust the horse in
the contest for strength of "wind." One savage of the Osages used to run
from one village to another, a distance of fifteen miles, in one hundred
minutes, for a swallow of "fire-water," and his squaw once performed the
feat in the space of two hours, for the price of three yards of red
ribbon. The stories now related of Ellerson and Kennan prove that, in
speed and endurance, the white man sometimes excels even the savages. We
shall, in the course of these pages, have occasion to mention other
instances of running for life.
MOLLY PITCHER AT MONMOUTH.
The battle of Monmouth was one of the most severely contested
engagements of the Revolution. From the rising to the setting sun, on
that sultry Sabbath in June, two armies strove for the mastery of that
ensanguined field, until heaps of dead and dying strewed the plain,
marking the path of the serried ranks as the ebb and flow of battle
changed their relative positions. Both armies fought with a desperate
determination to conquer, and instances of personal bravery and daring
were innumerable; yet, when night drew her sable mantle over the earth,
shrouding from sight the soul-sickening scene, neither party could claim
the meed of victory. Of the many thrilling incidents of that eventful
day, that which brought into conspicuous notice the heroine of our story
was not the least interesting.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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