The Second War with England, Vol. 1 of 2Headley, Joel Tyler
History
The Second War with England, Vol. 1 of 2
Headley, Joel Tyler
United States -- History -- War of 1812
battle with his thousand mounted riflemen. But just as he was about to
order the charge, he discovered that the ground was too cramped to
admit of a rapid and orderly movement of the entire force, and he
therefore divided it into two columns, and putting his brother,
Lieutenant Colonel James Johnson, at the head of the one that was to
advance on the British, he led the other against the Indians. These
two battalions moved slowly forward for a short time parallel to each
other, the infantry following. The column advancing on the British
was checked at the first fire--the horses at the head of it recoiling.
Their riders, however, quickly recovered them, and sending the rowels
home, plunged with a yell of frenzy full on the British line. A few
saddles were emptied, but nothing could stop that astonishing charge.
Those fiery horsemen swept like a whirlwind through the panic-stricken
ranks, and then wheeling, delivered their fire. Nearly five hundred
rifles cracked at once, strewing the ground with men. It was a single
blow, and the battle was over in that part of the field. Scarcely a
minute had elapsed, and almost the entire British force was begging
for quarter. A charge of cavalry with rifles only, was probably a new
thing to those soldiers. Proctor, with forty men and some mounted
Indians, fled at the first onset. His carriage, private papers, even
his sword, were left behind, and goaded by terror he was soon lost in
the distance. He remembered the massacre at Raisin, and knew if those
enraged Kentuckians, whose brothers, fathers and sons he had given up
to the savage, once laid hands on him they would grant him short
shrift. Cruelty and cowardice are often joined together.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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