Part 14 (1/2)
[Illustration: ATTACK ON BOONESBOROUGH]
ATTACK OF BOONSBOROUGH
On the tenth of March, 1778, Daniel Boone, having been taken prisoner by the Indians, was conducted to Detroit, when Governor Ha, for his ransoreat was the affection of the Indians for their prisoner, that it was positively refused Boone's anxiety on account of his wife and children was incessant, and the more intolerable as he dared not excite the suspicions of his captors by any indication of a wish to return ho for a violent attack upon the settlements in Kentucky Early in June, four hundred and fifty of the choicest warriors were ready to h, painted and armed in a fearful manner Alarmed at these preparations, he determined to make his escape He hunted and shot with the Indians as usual, until thean early start, he left Chillicothe and directed his steps to Boonesborough The distance exceeded one hundred and sixtywhich he eat only one arrison like one risen from the dead He found the fortress in a bad state, and lost no ti it ates, and posterns, formed double bastions, and coust, the enemy appeared The attack upon the fort was instantly co which, an alust, the enereat hly creditable to the spirit and skill of the pioneers
THRILLING INCIDENTS OF BATTLE
There is ain East Dixfield, Oxford county, ed froewater, in the war of 1812, and, while biting off the end of a cartridge, for the purpose of loading his gun, was struck by a ball, which entered on the left side of his face, knocking out eight of his teeth, cut off the end of his tongue, and passed into his throat He raised it, went to the hospital, staid out the remainder of his enlistment, and returned home with the bullet in his pocket
The New Orleans Picayune, one of whose editors was an eye-witness of theparagraph, and appends to it the following relation:
We can relate an incident even e of Monterey, in 1846, and, while General Worth's troops were advancing to storm the small fort, known as La Soldada, ato Ben McCulloch's Rangers, caught a large grape-shot directly in his h, uneven in shape, and, in its course, coer, and part of the jaw, cut off the four lower teeth, as with a chisel, split his tongue in twain, carried away his palate, went through the back of his head, and, striking a tendon, glanced down, and lodged under the skin on the shoulder-blade, where it was extracted by a surgeon, and safely placed in the pocket of Waters for future reference
No er could live, he could s neither food nor water We saw hihts afterward, in a room in the Bishop's Palace, which had been converted into a hospital, sitting bolt upright a--for the nature of his terrible hurt was such that he could not lie doithout suffocating His face ollen to more than twice its ordinary size--he was speechless of course--his wants were only made known bya wet sponge to his ht quench the fever and intolerable thirst under which he was suffering By his side lay young Thomas, of Maryland, a me after, and as now dying Wounded men, struck that afternoon in Worth's advance upon the Grand Plaza, were constantly being brought in, the surgeons were a the hurts of the crippled soldiers by a pale and sickly candle-light, and the groans of those in grievous pain added a new horror to the scene, which was at best frightful We recollect, perfectly well, a poor fellow struck in both legs by a grape-shot, while advancing up one of the streets He was begging lustily, after one of his liht be spared hiallant a spirit as ever lived, finally breathed his last; we brought Waters a fresh cup of water hich to moisten his wounds, and then left the room to catch an hour's sleep; but the recollections of that terrible night will not soon be effaced froht of the 23d andthe early part of theinto the old St Charles, in this city, ere accosted with a strange voice by a fine-looking h he had ahimself We recollected the eye as one we had been fah in no way disfigured, for the life of us, we could not , half-indistinct, and forced orously ”I' as well and as healthy as ever, without showing the least outward sign that he had ever caught a grape-shot in his rowth of mustaches completely covered his upper lip, and concealed any scar the iron ht have made; an imperial on his under lip hid any appearance of a wound at that point; and, with the exception of his speech, there was nothing to show that he had ever received the slightest injury about the face His tongue, which was terribly shattered, was still partially benu articulation both difficult and tireso more and more the use of it, and, in his oords, he was soon to be ”just as good as new”
It is needless to say that ere glad to see hiain in such excellent plight Any one who could have seen hi in that apartravity of countenance, which would have been ludicrous, even to the causing of laughter, had it not been for his own precarious situation, and the heart-rending scenes around, would have been equally as ain so unexpectedly beholding him
A correspondent of the ”Inquirer” has sent us the following, which is quite as re:
Very extraordinary incidents have been published lately, of shot having been caught in the mouths of soldiers, in the course of battle, in the war of 1812, and in the Mexican war; but an incident, perhaps more remarkable, for the coolness of the individual on the occasion, occurred at the battle of Fort Drane, fought, in August, 1837, under the command of the late Col BK Pierce This was one of the ements of that bloody war The Seminoles, under their renowned chief, Osceola, had taken a very coar field, near the stockade, strengthened on the east side by a dense ha the battle, and the enemy were finally driven fro the hottest of the battle, a soldier belonging to the detachment under the command of Lieut Pickell, whose position was a little in advance of the tings, of the na just fired, received a shot froh the outer parts of his pantaloons, and lodged in his right-hand pocket Feeling the slight sting of the half-spent ball, he thrust his hand in his pocket, drew out the bullet, and dropped it into the barrel of his e of powder he had just before put in; then, with the unerring aihtning, his adversary was round The wound was fatal--the warrior survived the shot but a few minutes
The above is one of the many incidents that occurred in the recent ith the Florida Indians which, for peril and brave feats, on the part of the American soldiers and officers, has scarcely ever been equaled
The above incident is stated as it actually occurred
A FAMILY ATTACKED BY INDIANS
On the night of the eleventh of April, 1787, the house of ain Bourbon county, Kentucky, became the scene of a deplorable adventure
She occupied as called a double cabin, in a lonely part of the county One roorown sons, and a ed daughter with an infant The other roohters froirl
The hour was eleven o'clock at night, and the fa nature had engaged the attention of the youngof a decided character took place At length hasty steps were heard in the yard, and quickly afterward several loud knocks at the door, accoood English
The young hted travelers were at the door, hastily arose, and was advancing to withdraw the bar that secured it, when hislived upon the frontier, and had probably detected the Indian tone in the de out of bed, and ordered her son not to ad that they were Indians
She instantly awakened her other son, and the young ed, prepared to repel the ene it ian to thunder at the door with great violence, but a single shot froed them to shi+ft the attack to some less exposed point, and, unfortunately, they discovered the door of the other cabin, which contained the three daughters The rifles of the brothers could not be brought to bear on this point; and, by means of several rails taken froes, and the girls were at the es One was instantly secured, but the eldest defended herself desperately with a knife she had been using at the loom, and stabbed one of the Indians to the heart, before she was toirl, who had been overlooked by the eneerness to secure the others, ran out into the yard, and e of the darkness, and fled; but instead of looking to her own safety, the terrified little creature ran round the house, wringing her hands, and crying that her sisters were killed
[Illustration: THE INDIANS KILLING THE WIDOW'S DAUGHTER]