The Farmer Boy, and How He Became Commander-In-ChiefHeady, Morrison
History
The Farmer Boy, and How He Became Commander-In-Chief
Heady, Morrison
Washington, George, 1732-1799
dreamed possible! Crowded and huddled together in the narrow road, he
saw them dropping down under the Indian bullets, helpless as a herd of
frightened deer beset by a band of unseen hunters.
By this time, the Indians, still hid from view by the grass and
bushes, had stretched their lines along either side of the road, from
the hollows among the hills to some distance down the rocky slope, and
were pouring in a murderous fire upon the affrighted English; yelling
and whooping the while like a legion of devils at some infernal
frolic. Two bayonet charges had been made to drive them from their
hiding-places, but in vain. The regulars, notwithstanding their
officers' orders to the contrary, kept up a hurried but random firing,
which had little or no effect upon the enemy, as nothing could be seen
of him but the puffs of rifle-smoke that rose and hovered in little
blue clouds over his place of ambush. The English, it is said, were
less appalled by the whistling bullet; of the unseen savages than by
their unearthly yells,--a sound that none of them had ever heard
before, and many a poor fellow of them never heard again. The Indian
war-whoop has been described as a sound so wild and terrible, that,
when once heard in battle, it rings in the listener's ears for weeks
thereafter, and is never forgotten even to his dying day.
But the English officers, on the contrary, behaved themselves with a
gallantry that filled Washington with astonishment and admiration.
Heretofore he had seen them only in camp or on the line of march,
where their habits of ease and self-indulgence had led him to doubt
their having the courage and firmness to face, without shrinking,
danger in such appalling forms. Unmindful of the bullets that whistled
continually about their heads, they galloped up and down the broken
and bleeding lines, in the vain endeavor to rally their men, and bring
them again to something like order. Mounted on fine horses, and
dressed in rich uniforms, they offered a tempting mark to the unseen
rifles that were levelled at them from behind every tree and bush, and
tuft of grass; and, ere the work of death was finished, many a gallant
steed, with dangling reins and bloody saddle, dashed riderless about
the field. And, as if this were not enough, many of them must needs
fall victims to the unsoldierly conduct of their own men, who,
forgetful of all discipline, and quite beside themselves with terror
and bewilderment, loaded their pieces hurriedly, and fired them off at
random, killing friends as well as foes. Nor did this most shameful
part of the bloody scene end here: many of the Virginia rangers, who
had already taken to the trees and bushes, and were doing good service
by fighting the Indians in their own fashion, were shot down by the
blundering regulars, who fired into the woods wherever they saw a puff
of smoke, unable to distinguish whether it rose from a red or a white
man's rifle. Upon these brave rangers the brunt of the battle fell;
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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