ot within about two hundred yards of it, they halted: the firing still continued. Ten of the men, thinking the enterprise too hazardous, refused to go any further, and retreated. Rice and two other men crept silently along towards the fort; but had not proceeded far before they came close upon an Indian in his concealment. He gave the alarm yell, which was instantly passed round the lines with the utmost regularity. This occasioned the Indians to make their last effort to take the place and make their retreat under cover of the night. Rice and his two companions returned in safety to Lamb's fort.

About ten o'clock next morning, sixty men collected at Rice's fort for the relief of the place. They pursued the Indians, who kept in a body for about two miles. The Indians had then divided into small parties and took over the hills in different directions, so that they could be tracked no farther. The pursuit was of course given up.

A small division of the Indians had not proceeded far after their separation, before they discovered four men coming from a neighboring fort in the direction of that which they had left. The Indians waylaid the path, and shot two of them dead on the spot: the others fled. One of them being swift on foot, soon made his escape: the other being a poor runner, was pursued by an Indian', who after a smart chase came close to him. The man then wheeled round and snapped his gun at the Indian. This he repeated several times. The Indian then threw his tomahawk at his head, but missed him. He then caught hold of the ends of his belt which was tied behind in a bow knot. In this again the Indian was disappointed, for the knot came loose, so that he got the belt, but not the man, who wheeled round and tried his gun again, which happened to go off and laid the Indian dead at his feet.

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CHAPTER X.

EXPECTED ATTACK ON DODDRIDGE'S FORT.

WILEN we received advice, at my father's fort, of the attack on Rice's block-house, which was but a few miles distant, we sent word to all those families who were out on their farms, to come immediately to the fort. It became nearly dark before the two runners had time to give the alarm to the family of a Mr. Charles Stuart, who lived about three quarters of á mile off from the fort.

They returned in great haste, saying that Stuart's house was burned down, and that they had seen two fires between that and the fort, at which the Indians were encamped. There was therefore no doubt that an attack would be made on our fort early in the morning.

Α

In order to give the reader a correct idea of the military tactics of our early times, I will give, in detail, the whole progress of the preparations which were made for the expected attack, and, as nearly as I can, I will give the commands of Capt. Teter, our officer, in his own words.

In the first place he collected all our men together, and related the battles and skirmishes he had been in, and really they were not few in number. He was in Braddock's defeat, Grant's defeat, the taking of Fort Pitt, and nearly all the battles which took place between the English, and the French and Indians, from Braddock's defeat until the capture of that place by Gen. Forbes. He reminded us, "that in case the Indians should succeed, we need expect no mercy: that every man, woman and child, would be killed on the spot. They have been defeated at one fort, and now they are mad enough. If they should succeed in taking ours, all their vengeace I will fall on our heads. We must fight for ourselves and one another, and for our wives and children, brothers and sisters. We must make the best preparations we can; a little after daybreak we shall hear the crack of their guns."

He then made a requisition of all the powder and lead in the fort. The ammunition was accurately divided amongst all the men, and the amount supposed to be fully sufficient. When this was done, "Now," says the captain, "when you run your bullets, cut off the necks very close, and scrape them, so as to make them a little less, and get patches one hundred finer than those you commonly use, and have them well oiled, for if a rifle happens to be choked in the time of battle, there is one gunand one man lost for the rest of the battle. You will have no time to unbritch a gun and get a plug to drive out a bullet. Have the locks well oiled and your flints sharp, so as not to miss fire."

Such were his orders to his men. He then said to the women, "These yellow fellows are very handy at setting fire to houses, and water is a very good thing to put out fire. You must fill every vessel with water. Our fort is not well stockaded, and these ugly fellows may rush into the middle of it, and attempt to set fire to our cabins in twenty places at once." They fell to work, and did as he had ordered.

The men having put their rifles in order, "Now," says he, "let every man gather in his axes, mattocks and hoes, and place them inside of his door; for the Indians may make a dash at them with their tomahawks to cut them down, and an axe in that case might hit, when a gun would miss fire."

Like a good commander, our captain, not content with giving orders, went from house to house to see that every thing was right.

The ladies of the present day will suppose that our women were frightened half to death with the near prospect of such an attack of the Indians. On the contrary, I do not know that I ever saw a merrier set of women in my life. They went on with their work of carrying water and cutting bullet patches for the men, apparently without the least emotion of fear; and I have every reason to believe that they would have been pleased with the crack of the guns in the morning.

During all this time we had no sentinels placed around the fort, so

confident was our captain that the attack would not be made before daybreak.

I was at that time thirteen or fourteen years of age, but ranked as a fort soldier. After getting my gun and all things else in order, I went up into the garret loft of my father's house, and laid down about the middle of the floor, with my shot pouch on and my gun by my side, expecting to be waked up by the report of the guns at daybreak, to take my station at the port-hole assigned me, which was in the second story of the house.

I did not awake till about sunrise, when the alarmn was all over. The family which we supposed had been killed, had come into the fort about daybreak. Instead of the house being burnt, it was only a large old log, on fire, near the house, which had been seen by our expresses. If they had seen any thing like fire between that and the fort, it must have been fox fire. Such is the creative power of imagination, when under the influence of fear.

CHAPTER XI

COSHOCTON CAMPAIGN.

THIS campaign took place in the summer of 1780, and was directed against the Indian villages at the forks of the Muskingum.

The place of rendezvous was Wheeling; the number of regulars and militia about eight hundred. From Wheeling they made a rapid march, by the nearest route to the place of their destination. When the ariny reached the river a little below Salem, the lower Moravian town, Col. Broadhead sent an express to the missionary of that place, the Rev. John Heckewelder, informing him of his arrival in his neighborhood, with his army, requesting a small supply of provisions, and a visit from him, in his camp. When the missionary arrived at the camp, the general informed him of the object of the expedition he was engaged in, and inquired of him whether any of the christian Indians were hunting, or engaged in business in the direction of his march. On being answered in the negative, he stated that nothing would give him greater pain than to hear that any of the Moravian Indians had been molested by the troops, as these Indians had always, from the commencement of the war, conducted themselves in a manner that did them honor.

A part of the militia had resolved on going up the river to destroy the Moravian villages, but were prevented from executing their project by Gen. Broadhead and Col. Shepherd of Wheeling.

At White-eye's plain, a few miles from Coshocton, an Indian prisoner

was taken. Soon afterwards two more Indians were discovered, one of whom was wounded, but both made their escape.

The commander, knowing that these two Indians would make the utmost dispatch in going to the town, to give notice of the approach of the army, ordered a rapid march, in the midst of a heavy fall of rain, to reach the town before them, and take it by surprise. The plan succeeded, The army reached the place in three divisions. The right and left wings approached the river a little above and below the town, while the centre marched directly upon it. The whole number of the Indians in the village, on the east side of the river, together with ten or twelve from a little village some distance above, were made prisoners without firing a sin gle shot. The river having risen to a great height, owing to the recent fall of rain, the army could not cross it. Owing to this, the villages with their inhabitants on the west side of the river escaped destruction.

Among the prisoners, sixteen warriors were pointed out by Pekillon, a friendly Delaware chief, who was with the army of Broadhead.

A little after dark, a council of war was held to determine on the fate of the warriors in custody. They were doomed to death, and by the or der of the commander were bound, taken a little distance below the town, and dispatched with tomahawks and spears, and scalped.

Early the next morning, an Indian presented himself on the opposite bank of the river and asked for the big captain. Broadhead presented himself, and asked the Indian what he wanted. To which he replied, I want peace." "Send over some of your chiefs," said Broadhead, "May be you kill," said the Indian, He was answered, "They shall not be killed." One of the chiefs, a well looking man, came over the river and entered into conversation with the commander in the street; but while engaged in conversation, a man of the name of Wetzel came ap behind him, with a tomahawk concealed in the bosom of his hunting shirt, and struck him on the back of his head. He fell and instantly expired.

About eleven or twelve o'clock, the army commenced its retreat from Coshocton. Gen. Broadhead committed the care of the prisoners to the militia. They were about twenty in number. After marching about half a mile, the men commenced killing them. In a short time they were all dispatched, cxcept a few women and children, who were spared and taken to Fort Pitt, and after sometime exchanged for an equal number of their prisoners.

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CHAPTER XIL

CAPTIVITY OF MRS. BROWN.

ON the 27th day of March, 1789, about ten o'clock in the forenoon, as Mrs. Brown was spinning in her house, her black woman, who had stepped out to gather sugar water, screamed out, "Here are Indians."She jumped up, ran to the window, and then to the door, where she was met by one of the Indians presenting his gun. She caught hold of the muzzle, and turning it aside, begged him not to kill her, but take her prisoner. The other Indian in the mean time caught the negro woman and her boy about four years old, and brought them into the house. They then opened a chest and took out a small box and some articles of clothing, and without doing any further damage, or setting fire to the house, set off with herself and son, about two years and a half old, the black woman and her two children, the oldest four years and the young, est one year old, After going about one and a half miles they halted and held a consultation, as she supposed, about killing the children. This she understood to be the subject by their gestures and frequently pointing at the children, To one of the Indians who could speak English, she held out her little boy and begged him not to kill him, as he would make a fine little Indian after awhile. The Indian made a motion to her to walk on with her child. The other Indian then struck the negro boy with the pipe end of his tomahawk, which knocked him down, and then dispatched him by a blow with the edge across the back of the neck and scalped him.

About four o'clock in the evening, they reached the river, about a mile above Wellsburg, and carried a canoe, which had been thrown up in some drift wood, into the river. They got into this canoe, and worked it down to the mouth of Brush run, a distance of about five miles, They pulled up the canoe into the mouth of the run, as far as they could, then went up the run about a mile, and encamped for the night, The Indians gave the prisoners all their own clothes for covering, and added one of their own blankets. Awhile before daylight, the Indians got up and put another blanket over them.

About sunrise they began their march up a very steep hill, and about two o'clock halted on Short creek, about twenty miles from the place whence they had set out in the morning. The place where they halted had been an encampment shortly before, as well as a place of deposit for the plunder which they had recently taken from the house of a Mr. Van