Wau-nan-gee; Or, the Massacre at Chicago: A Romance of the American RevolutionRichardson, Major (John)
General
Wau-nan-gee; Or, the Massacre at Chicago: A Romance of the American Revolution
Richardson, Major (John)
Chicago (Ill.) -- Fiction; Fort Dearborn Massacre, Chicago, Ill., 1812 -- Fiction; Massacres -- Fiction
one Indian at least for every American that had fallen beneath his
tomahawk and rifle. Acting promptly on this suddenly-formed resolution
he at once abandoned his adopted father, and his Indian wife and
children, and hastened to Gen. Wayne, to whom he offered his
services. By that officer he was gladly employed, principally as
a scout, almost up to the close of the war; and during its
continuance many were the daring feats he performed. One example
must suffice.
A short time previous to the great battle of 1794, Wells, on whom
General Wayne had conferred the rank of captain, took with him a
subaltern and eleven men, for the purpose of watching the movements
of his old companions in arms. His men were all well trained to
the peculiar duty they were called upon to perform, and, after
having marched three days with a caution and knowledge of the forest
scarcely surpassed by the Indians themselves, found that they were
on the fresh trail of the enemy, although how many in number they
could not tell. They followed leisurely until night, when having
seen but one large encampment, Capt. Wells came to the determination,
if the disparity of numbers should not be too great, of attacking
them. Every disposition was made. The party crept cautiously near
them and then lay down in ambush, while their leader, as had been
arranged, entered their camp fearlessly and as a friend, and sat
himself down on the right of the circle, rapidly counting their
numbers as he did so. There were found to be twenty-two warriors
with one squaw. On being interrogated he stated that he had just
come from the British Fort Miami, and was on his way to stir up
the Indians to fight General Wayne. As he declared himself very
hungry the squaw hospitably put some hominy on the fire to warm
for his supper, of which he had intended to partake abundantly had
not a misapprehension on the part of his men hastened the moment
of action, and embittered all the satisfaction he would otherwise
have derived from his success. A motion of his hand was to have
been a signal to fire, each selecting his man; and the party,
conceiving that he had given this, acted prematurely, not only
depriving him of his supper, which was not yet ready, and of which
he stood in great need, but killing the unfortunate squaw who was
standing up stirring it at the time, and whom he had intended to
save. The next moment the formidable and dreaded tomahawk of the
captain went to work among the survivors, and out of the twenty-two
warriors but three escaped; he himself receiving a wound from a
ramrod shot through his wrist, and his lieutenant being hit by a
bullet in the thigh. The greatest havoc committed on this occasion
was by Wells himself, and it was his boast that in Wayne's war he
had slain a far greater number of Indians than he had killed
Americans throughout the contest with St. Clair; and cool indeed
must have been the determination of the man who could composedly
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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