A family by the name of Dykeman, living five miles or more from Wilkesbarre, were murdered or carried away into captivity by the Indians, and then it was that we were needed, for at once every man and woman remaining in the settlement set about making preparations for defence, by building stockades here or there where it seemed probable they might be needed. On the instant we were called upon to man this fort of logs, or that fortified house, that the others might work in safety, and thus, without drill or study, as it were, did we become, in our own eyes at least, veritable soldiers. Our third station was at Fort Jenkins, about two miles above Wintermoot’s Fort, and there we had been asked to go because of word brought in that a party of twelve or fifteen, white men and Indians, had lately been seen entering this resort of the Tories. We were to the northward of all the other fortifications belonging to our friends,--meaning those who were loyal to the American Cause,--and while opposite our station, directly across the river, were the three Pittstown stockades, we could have no communication with them save by crossing the rapid-running stream, which would require, owing to the current, some considerable time. In other words, we lads, at whom the people of Wilkesbarre laughed, because we had proposed to set ourselves up as soldiers, were really holding, or pretending to hold, the entrance to the valley, and to do which we had not above twenty rounds of ammunition apiece. As I have said, it was rumored that white men and Indians had been seen entering Wintermoot’s Fort stealthily, and therefore they could well be considered enemies. Whether they had left that place or not I was determined to find out, because it stood us in hand to know in what force were our neighbors. We Minute Boys were the sole occupants of the fort, and if the Tories took it into their heads that we might in time prove dangerous, there was every reason to believe we would speedily be beset. I talked the matter over with Elias Shendle during the first hour after our arrival at the fort, and before we were fairly settled down. He was of my opinion, that our first duty consisted in ascertaining how many of those whom we had every reason to consider enemies were in the vicinity, and because it would not look well for the captain of a company to _order_ one of his men to do a certain piece of work, since he might be charged with not daring to perform it himself, I proposed alone to make what military men would call a reconnaissance. To this Elias made most emphatic protest, claiming that because of having been given command of the company I had no right to leave it in order to do the work of a scout, and he wound up his argument by declaring that he himself would undertake the work.