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
The attempt to check the strong party assembled round the wagons,
he felt would be unavailing, but resolving to venture, single-handed,
into the encampment of the enemy, where their children had been
left unguarded, he turned his horse's head, dashed past the fort
again at his fullest speed, and with revenge and a threat of
retaliation racking his very heart strings, made for their wigwams.
Alarmed, in turn, for the safety of their squaws and children, the
murderers now desisted from their work and followed as vapidly as
they could on foot, the flight of the Miami leader. Every now and
then they stopped and fired, but at the outset all their shots were
in vain, for the captain, accustomed to that sort of warfare,
throwing himself along the neck of his horse, loading and firing
in that position, baffled all their attempts to bring him down,
while he waved his tomahawk on high, as if in triumph at the
successful issue of what he meditated. As the pursuing Indians
passed the gate of the fort, now filled with plunderers, many
intoxicated, Pee-to-tum, who had been there from the first--his
love of drink being even stronger than his thirst for revenge--came
staggering forth, suddenly aroused to a consciousness of what was
going on without, and demanded to know the cause of this new and
immediate tumult. The young Indians hastily informed him; when the
Chippewa, dropping on one knee, and holding his ramrod as a rest
upon the ground, ran his right and uninjured eye along the sight,
pulled the trigger, and brought down the horse of the fugitive,
which fell with a heavy plunge. A tremendous shout followed from
the band who had lost, four warriors by his fire, and who,
consequently deeply enraged, now made the greatest efforts to come
up with and secure him. Before he could disengage himself from his
horse, under which he lay severely wounded himself, two other
Indians came up from an opposite quarter, and, taking him prisoner,
sought to bear him off before the others could reach him. These
were the chiefs Waubansee and Winnebeg, the latter of whom, seeing
the danger of the captain from the moment when the massacre of the
children commenced, had left Mrs. Headley and Mrs. Elmsley under
the care of Black Partridge, and hastened to be of service to him
if possible. But all their efforts to save him were vain. With
rapid strides, and shouts rendered more savage than ever by the
fumes of the liquor he had swallowed, and with the scalp of the
unfortunate Von Voltenberg--who had been killed while returning to
the fort for a small flask of brandy which he had forgotten--dangling
at his side, Pee-to-tum advanced with furious speed, and, stabbing
the captain in the back, put an end to his misery. No sooner had
he fallen, than, like a vulture, the Chippewa sprang upon the
lifeless body, and, making an incision with his knife upon the
strong and full-haired crown, tore the reeking covering away,
and thus added another trophy to his disgusting spoils. This was
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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