Border fights & fighters; stories of the pioneers between the Alleghenies and the Mississippi and in the Texan republic

Front matter

ii

Border Fights ^ Fighters

" They came on with fixed bayonets without firing."

Prefatory Note

FROM De Soto, who opens the first book of this Fights and Fighters Scries, to Houston, who closes the third, is just three centuries.

The salient incidents of these three hundred years, from the Conquistador to the Pioneer, have engaged the greater part of my attention for a long time, and with the completion of this book they are set before the reader. To me this last book of the series has been the most interesting. It is more thoroughly American and the men come more closely home to us therefore. Two of them come especially close to me, since Captain John Brady was my great-great-grandfather, and Captain Samuel Brady my great-granduncle. It has been a pleasure and pride to me to find them worthy of inclusion in this category of heroes.

As I look back upon the history of America through my studies therein, I seem to catch a glimpse of the great purpose and plan back of it all. The story of our land has been the story of a struggle for the possession of a continent, a story of the rise to domination of that branch of the Germanic Race known as the Anglo-Saxon. Whatever be the continental affiliation of the early or late settler, whether Irish, Dutch, Scots, German, or Latin, he has been modified, changed, absorbed by the dominant racial solvent, primarily into a Germano-Anglo- Saxon, latterly into an American — the new racial type. Our social habits and political practices, like our Ianviii Prefatory Note

guage, law, and religion, are English, with just enough modification to differentiate us and give us an originality of our own.

The struggle by which this has been brought about is the true meaning of our history, and that is the story told in these books. Alien races were compelled either to affiliate or go out; absorption or destruction were the unconscious alternatives, and if they could not be absorbed they had to disappear in one way or another. The French, the Spanish, the Indians, have gone, and so jealous of control have we been that even the ties that bound us to older civilizations of Europe had to be ruthlessly broken.

To anticipate a little, the dominant idea of America for the free Americans persisted through a Civil War of appalling magnitude, and until we had driven the Spanish flag from Cuba and the Antilles; and if I dare venture a prophecy, though I personally am called an Anti- Imperialist, this supreme idea of American Continental Domination will not reach its limit until there is but one flag from the Isthmus of Panama to the Arctic Circle, and that the Stars and Stripes.

One of the greatest questions that troubles the American mind is the ultimate solution of what is known as the race problem. How far modern ethics may modify ancient habit cannot be said, yet the experience of the past presented but two possibilities to the alien, assimilation or disappearance — and we cannot assimilate the negro!

As to the particular volume in which this note appears let me say that to these unfamiliar subjects I have given more thought, study, and investigation, than to both the preceding books. Again, I admit the free use of all

Prefatory Note ix

authentic printed authorities, — among them only citing by name Roosevelt's great Epic, " The Winning of the West," — much old manuscript unprinted and some personal recollections of ancient men, together with family traditions. Many of the incidents depicted, while more or less familiar, are not easy to come at in detail, even in the larger histories accessible to the people.

The period treated of was a most important one in our history, and its masters must be judged according to their tasks. The President in a recent speech well said :

" To conquer a continent is rough work. All really great work is rough in the doing, though it may seem smooth enough to those who look back upon it or gaze upon it from afar. The roughness is an unavoidable part of the doing of the deed. We need display but scant patience with those, who, sitting at ease in their own homes, delight to exercise a querulous and censorious spirit of judgment upon their brethren who, whatever their shortcomings, are doing strong men's work as they bring the light of civilization into the world's darkest places."

And Stuart Edward White, a welcome young apostle of the west, in a recent clever novel writes:

" When history has granted him the justice of perspective, we will know the American Pioneer as one of the most picturesque of her many figures. Resourceful, self-reliant, bold; adapting himself with fluidity to diverse circumstances and conditions; meeting with equal cheerfulness of confidence and completeness of capability both unknown dangers and the perils by which he has been educated; seizing the useful in the lives of the beasts and men nearest him, and assimilating it with marvellous rapidity; he presents to the world a picture

Prefatory Note of complete adequacy which it would be difficult to match in any other walk of life."

In this book I have striven to do the Pioneer justice, as I have striven to lay aside prejudice all through the series and to write fairly even of the enemy, be he Briton, or Indian, or Mexican, or whatever he may. And in addition to a mere recital of heroic incidents I have endeavored to depict the characters of men like Boone, Houston, Crockett, Brady, Sevier, Tecumseh, Bouquet, Santa Anna, and the rest.

More pressing literary engagements will probably prevent the issuance of the fourth volume of the series in 1903, as I had wished, but the next book is already planned under the title of Beyond the Mississippi Fighis and Fighters, and I hope to have it ready in 1904.

C. T. B.

The Normandie,

Philadelphia, Penna.,

Part I PENNSYLVANIA PAGE

HOW HENRY BOUQUET SAVED PENNSYLVANIA . . i

I. A Veteran Soldier and His Problem .... 3

II. The March Over the Mountains .... 8

III. The Battle of Bushy Run 13

IV. The End of Bouquet -19

CAPTAIN SAMUEL BRADY, CHIEF OF THE RANGERS . 21

I. A Family of Fighters 23

II. The First of the Borderers 27

III. The Adventure at Bloody Spring . . . .28

IV. Brady's Famous Leap $3

V. An Expedition with Wetzel and Other Adventures 36

Part II VIRGINIA, TENNESSEE, THE CAROLINAS

I. Andrew Lewis and His Borderers . . . -43

II. The Battle of Point Pleasant 48

III. The Fate of the Participants in the Campaign . 56

Xll

Contents

I. John Sevier a.nd the Watauga Men .

II. "The Rear Guard of the Revolution" .

III. The State of Franklin and its Governor

IV. The Assembling of the Mountaineers V. The Dash to Catch Ferguson

VI. King's Mountain; Launching the Thunderbolt

VII. After the Battle

63 67 68 72 79 83 91

UNPUBLISHED ACCOUNT OF THE BATTLE OF KING'S MOUNTAIN, BY THE REV. STEPHEN FOSTER, A PAR- TICIPANT 95

Part III KENTUCKY

DANIEL BOONE, GREATEST OF PIONEERS

I. The Land Beyond the Mountains

II. The Greatest of the Pioneers .

III. The Exploration of Kentucky

IV. The Settlement of Kentucky V. Adventures with Indians

VI. The Defence of Boonesborough .

VII. The Last Battle of the Revolution .

VIII. The End of the Old Pioneer

III The Women And Children Of Bryan's Station . 149

I. The Wives of the Pioneers 151

II. An Oldtime Frontier Fort 153

III. Ruse against Ruse 155

IV. The Story of the Morgans . . . . . . 163

Contents

Xlll

Part IV THE FAR SOUTH THE MASSACRE AT FORT MIMS

I. The Beginning of the Creek War II. Careless Defenders III. P.wiNG THE Awful Penalty .

JACKSON'S VICTORY AT TOHOPEKA .

I. The Last Stand of the Creeks .

II. The Heroism of Young Sam Houston

WHEN THE SEMINOLES FOUGHT FOR FREEDOM

I. The Injustice of the United States .

II. The Massacre of Dade and His Men .

HI. After the Battle

PAGE

165 167 171

179 181 186

191 193 197

Part V THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY GEORGE ROGERS CLARK AND THE GREAT NORTH

WEST 209

I. The Origin of a Great Idea 211

II. The First Success 218

III. "The Hair-Buyer General" 224

IV. The Terrible March 229

V. The Capture of Vincennes 234

VI. Forgotten ! 238

TECUMSEH AND WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON . . 241

I. The Greatest of the Indians 243

II. The Protagonist of the League 248

III. The Battle of Tippecanoe 257

IV. The Battle of the Thames 264 xiv Contents

PAGE

THE MASSACRE ON THE RIVER RAISIN . . . .269

I. The Army of the West 271

II. A Hazardous Expedition 274

III. The Battle of Frenchtown 280

IV. The Murder of the Wounded 286

GEORGE CROGHAN AND THE DEFENCE OF FORT

STEPHENSON 289

I. A Boy in Command of Other Boys .... 291

II. The Impudence of the Young Captain . . . 296

III. Desperate Fighting . 300

Part VI TEXAS

DAVID CROCKETT AND THE MOST DESPERATE DE- FENCE IN AMERICAN HISTORY . . .305

I. A Typic.-vl American 307

II. The Lone Star Republic 312

III. The Mission del Alamo 314

IV. The Hundred and Eighty against the Five Thou-

sand 316

THE WORST OF SANTA ANNA'S MISDEEDS . . .327

I. The Delay at Fort Defiance 329

II. The Battle of the Coleta 334

III. The Massacre at Goliad 338

I. Some Characteristics of the Man .... 347

II. In the Service of the Texan Republic . . . 353

III. "The Runaway Scrape" 354

IV. Santa Anna is Trapped 357

V. The Battle of San Jacinto 363

INDEX 369

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

FACING PAGE

They came on with fixed bayonets without firing" ....... Frontispiece

That war party was annihilated" . . . .32

Cornstalk received them standing with wide open arms" 58

Ferguson showed himself a very paladin of courage" 88

The Kentuckians stood to their ground manfully and returned the fire" 142

It was indeed a fearful moment for the women" . 158

The major bent his back and pushed like mad" . 174

■ They plunged dauntlessly into the ford, only to be met by the fire from coffee's riflemen on the farther side " 1 88

' i can give you no more orders, lads. do your

• Clark, with tragic intensity, bade them go on

WITH THE dance" 220

' Messengers brought letters . . . appealing for vengeance or protection " 250

XV xvi List of Illustrations

FACING PAGE

" Proctor . . . had a fiery interview with the American commander" 284

"The young subaltern did not scare a little bit". 300

The Mission del Alamo 314

"So he Makes a Fine End!" 324

"She took the family far over the Allegheny Mountains" 348

LIST OF MAPS AND PLANS

PAGB

I. Plan of the Battle of Bushy Run . . .15 II. Plan of the Battle of King's Mountain . . 86

III. Plan and Perspective View of Boonesborough . 126

IV. Plan of Fort Mims 170

V. Map of the Horse-Shoe Bend and Plan of the

Battle 182

VI. Plan of the Battle of Tippecanoe . . . 256

VII. Map of Frenchtown and the Massacre on the

VIII. Map of Fort Stephenson 294

IX. Plan of the Battle of San Jacinto , . .361

Part I PENNSYLVANIA I

How Henry Bouquet Saved Pennsylvania

HOW HENRY BOUQUET SAVED PENNSYLVANIA

" At once there rose so wild a yell Within that dark and narrow dell.

As all the fiends, from heaven that fell Had peal' d the banner-cry of hell / "

I. A Veteran Soldier and His Problem

IN the far western part of the province of Pennsylvania on the night of the 5th of August, 1763, a little party of English soldiers found themselves confronted by as desperate a situation as ever menaced a military expedition. They were encamped upon a low barren hill with a few stunted trees upon it, which was surrounded on all sides by a thick dense forest. Not a fire was burning on the hill, not a light of any kind could be shown. The sky was overcast and no star sparkled like a beacon of heaven above them.

The troops, numbering four hundred and fifty, were ^ posted on the slopes of the hill in a large circle. Within this circle some three hundred pack-horses were tethered. On the very crest of the elevation, in the centre of the cordon of soldiery, a temporary breastwork had been made by piling in a circle bags of flour and meal which had been the burden of the pack-horses. Within the meagre shelter afforded by the enclosure so formed, some thirty-five desperately wounded officers and men were lying. What slight attention the suffering soldiers received was given them in the darkness. There was not a drop of water on the hill.

At irregular intervals a flash of light would lance the darkness of the mass of trees enclosing them like a wall, and the report of a musket, followed by a terrifying war-cry, would break the stillness of the night, apprizing the anxious soldiers that their 'watchful enemies were still there. The pickets crouching down on the slopes and peering into the blackness about them, kept fearful watch while the rest of the exhausted soldiers lay upon their arms full of dismal forebodings for the morrow, vainly endeavoring to stifle the pangs of thirst or to get a little sleep. Across a little ravine in front of the position they held, upon the slopes of a similar hill, the bodies of some twenty-five of their fellow-soldiers lay still and ghastly under the trees. The well-aimed bullet, the brutal tomahawk, and the terrible scalping-knife had done their fell work. There were no wounded there.

The soldiers on the hill were alone in the wilderness. Back at Fort Ligonier, some fifty miles away, there was a little garrison, the major part composed of sixty invalids too weak to accompany their comrades on the expedition. About twenty miles before them another small body of English soldiers, hopefully awaiting for the arrival of the very party in such sore straits, were tenaciously defending Fort Pitt, situated at the confluence of the Monongahela and Allegheny rivers. On all sides of them extended the unbroken wilderness, virgin woods, forests primeval, covering mountain range and valley. The soldiers on the hill, therefore, could hope for no assistance and must depend upon their own endeavors to extricate themselves from their desperate position.

The locality in which they found themselves was pregnant with menacing history. A few miles away, a few years before, twice their number of English troops had been utterly defeated with dreadful loss, and some of the same Indians who had overwhelmed Braddock with such terrible success, lay encamped about these men that night. Still nearer in time as the place was closer in distance, these same red men could recall the disastrous beating they had given Major Grant and his Highlanders. They had never been conquered by the white men — they did not mean to be then.

Every military post on the western Pennsylvania border, except those two mentioned, had been captured by these selfsame savages during the spring; their garrisons had been first tortured and then murdered and the forts themselves burned and destroyed. All over the northwest the Indians had risen, animated by the genius and inspired by the enthusiasm of Pontiac, and they had fed fat their ancient grudge against the hapless English. Not yet glutted by their successes and the ensuing slaughter, they were slowly making their way eastward into the populous and well-settled portions of Pennsylvania.

Such a scene of rapine and murder as had followed the destruction of the military posts has never been equalled. The frontier was left entirely unprotected. In every clearing, where, a few months before, had dwelt the settler in comparative peace and security, tilling the soil, planting his crops and wresting from the wilderness his hard-earned livelihood; and with his wnfe and children devoting himself to the conquest of the country to the arts of peace and to the spirit of civilization, now stood the tottering remnants of a chimney amid the ashes of a home. Unburied bodies by hundreds, the prey of the wild beasts of the forest, the wolves and the vultures, aye, of the very swine that ranged the wilderness, gave mute attestation to the thoroughness with which the border had been swept by the desolating Indian.

The struggling little towns clustering about the walls of some feeble fort, such as Shippensburg, Carlisle, and Bedford, were crowded with terrified fugitives. With their limited accommodations they were able to afford a shelter to but few of those who sought their protection. Their already depleted stocks of provisions were soon exhausted, and famine and privation added their pangs to the troubles of the people. And there were many wounded and ill, some who had been tortured, shot, even scalped, who yet lived, for whom nothing could be done, who must needs suffer without any alleviation of their anguish.

Distracted wives who had been bereft of their husbands gathered their children about them and lay houseless in the fields. Starving children who had lost their parents wandered from group to group, their pitiful wailings almost unnoticed in the general misery. Here a mother mourned a son, there a friend longed for a friend. And there were many haggard desperate men, too, who had seen their dear ones taken from them and submitted to a fate too horrible to mention. These kept watch and ward over the huddled fugitives; and, as they grasped their rifles with nervous hands, with breaking hearts they swore eternal vengeance against the red man.

And the colony of Pennsylvania did nothing to protect its children!

Fortunately, however, there happened to be at the time an officer named Henry Bouquet in command of the king's forces at Philadelphia. He was one of the most accomplished soldiers and gentlemen of his time; an officer, the variety of whose talents was only equalled by his bravery and sagacity. He had for some seven years held a command in America. During this time he had so mastered the tactics of the savage foeman, against whom he most often warred, that in address and cunning he proved himself able to give even the wiliest Indian chief a bitter lesson. Though the service he rendered America was of the utmost importance, though he manifested in the performance of it the steadiest courage, and exhibited the highest skill; though he fought, all things considered, the most brilliant and effective battle which was probably ever waged against the Indians — certainly the most notable engagement in which a British officer commanded — he is a forgotten hero and his services are now but little remembered.

This great and gallant soldier was born in 1719, at Rolle in Switzerland, on the north shore of the beautiful lake of Geneva. Springing from an humble family and possessed of little fortune, he made his way upward by sheer force of natural ability and talent. As did many Swiss, he chose to follow a military career, and entered the Dutch service as a cadet when only seventeen years of age. Shifting his allegiance, as was the habit of soldiers of fortune, he later became adjutant to the King of Sardinia, in whose employ he saw much hard service, in which he greatly distinguished himself. The Prince of Orange made him lieutenant-colonel of the Swiss Guards of Holland in 1748.

After the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle he spent his time in mastering not merely military art but the polite learning of his day as well. In 1756 he was appointed lieutenant-colonel commanding one of the four battalions of the regiment called the "' Royal Americans " which King George III had directed should be raised in America for service in the French and Indian War. This was a regiment composed mainly of Pennsylvania Germans, and it was necessary, as the majority of the men spoke little or no English, that officers who should be conversant with their language should be appointed to command them. A special act of Parliament had been required in order that Bouquet and other foreigners could be commissioned by the English king, a most fortunate act indeed. The regiment performed superb service on many hard-fought battle-fields in the French War; and various detachments, since the Peace of Paris had ended that conflict, had made up most of the garrisons of the different posts in the west and northwest which had just been overwhelmed by the savage onslaught.

II. The March Over the Mountains

Sir Jeffrey Amherst, who commanded all the English forces in America, when he received news of the Indian outbreak, immediately directed Colonel Bouquet to advance to relieve Fort Pitt, and to afford some protection to the distressed inhabitants of western Pennsylvania with whatever forces he could assemble without delay. Bouquet could only gather up about six hundred men and this he did by ordering the remnants of two regiments, the Forty Second Highlanders and the Seventy Seventh infantry, which had just been invalided home from the West Indies, to the front. The men were so broken by their arduous and wearing service in the tropics that they were really fit for nothing but garrison duty. Some of them had to be carried along on the march in wagons on account of their weakness. There were no other troops available, however, and they had to go. They cheerfully undertook the campaign for the relief of the suffering people.

On the 3rd of July, 1763, the expedition arrived at Carlisle, to which point orders had been sent that supplies and transportation should be in readiness. Nothing had been done, owing to the panic of the inhabitants. In fact, so far from finding any supplies, Bouquet, who was a man of extreme sensibility, felt obliged to share the meagre provisions of his little army with the starving women and children. The situation was apparently hopeless, but such was the energy, ability, and tact of the commander that eighteen days after his arrival the expedition left Carlisle with a large number of wagons fully provided. Fort Ligonier, the most westerly post, except Fort Pitt, which still held out, was relieved by a party of thirty of the strongest men, who were sent ahead on forced march and succeeded in breaking through the besieging Indians and gaining the fort.

Bouquet arrived at Fort Bedford on the 25th and on the 28th he reached Fort Ligonier. There, putting what supplies he could on pack-horses, and leaving his wagons and heavy baggage he pushed forward toward Fort Pitt in much apprehension. The little army followed Forbes' road,* which, through neglect, had become almost impassable; and their progress led them through such scenes of desolation that the hearts of the men were in-

♦ See my book Colonial Fights and Fighters: The Struggle for the Valley of the Ohio.

lo Border Fights and Fighters

flamed with an ever-growing desire for vengeance upon the red authors of the ruin.

The army marched with the greatest care. A little body of backwoodsmen scouted before them, followed by a strong advance party, then came the main body, then the baggage train, then the rear-guard, while another party of frontiersmen covered the rear and the flanks. There were only thirty of these valuable adjuncts, however, and the protection they could give and the scouting they could do, was limited. Bouquet had left the weakest of his men in the forts and his force now amounted to about five hundred men all told.

On the 5th of August they had arrived in the vicinity of a little creek called Bushy Run, about twenty-five miles from their goal. Their advance had been subjected to desultory firing from time to time, so that it was perfectly well known that savages were marking their progress.

Early in the afternoon, in a dense wood, they came in touch with the Indians. The firing, which began with startling suddenness, was too heavy for a mere skirmish. The Indians were in great force and had determined to intercept them, having temporarily raised the siege of Fort Pitt for that purpose. The continual rattle of arms and the wild yells which rang through the wood, apprized the experienced leader that the engagement was fast becoming serious. In fact twelve out of the eighteen men who led the advance were shot down almost instantly. Ordering the baggage and convoy to halt where they were on the top of the hill mentioned, and leaving the rear company to look after it. Bouquet hurried to the front followed by the main body of his soldiery. Advancing his troops and deploying them into such a line

How Bouquet Saved Pennsylvania n

as the forest growth permitted, Bouquet charged through the woods with the bayonet. The Indians at once gave way before the onrush of the Highlanders and the Hght infantry, but when Bouquet haUed the charge and recalled his men lest they should become scattered, and he lose control of them, the savages crept back through the trees and resumed the engagement.

As they had done years before to Braddock's men, so now they extended themselves through the wood on either side and endeavored to attack the British on the flanks. But whatever they did the soldiers met them. There was no panic this time on the part of those weak and feeble half-invalid soldiers. Bouquet was an entirely different man from Braddock and he had won the confidence of his men. They trusted him entirely and they had seen and heard too much of the Indian customs on their march not to know that to break and run meant destruction.

Bouquet carefully manoeuvred his men through the trees, skilfully checking and driving back the advancing Indians from time to time by well-delivered volleys or short rushes with the bayonet. The battle was going favorably when firing in the rear told him that the Indians, who much outnumbered the English, had engaged the rear-guard. Still keeping his front to the enemy Bouquet withdrew his troops and posted them around the hill in rear of the first position, thus affording protection to the convoy and the baggage.

It was late in the afternoon now and until night fell the battle was kept up. The Indians surrounded the camp and fought from behind the trees. There v;as no more volley firing by the British, but they lay on the ground availing themselves of all possible cover, firing slowly and endeavoring to make every shot tell. Whenever the impatient Indians, growing bolder as they apparently saw their prey within their grasp, left cover and advanced they were driven back to the woods with the deadly bayonet.

Presently the welcome night came and the attack ceased. The situation of the British was indeed deplorable. A line of dead men from the first hill where the first onset had been met, back to the camp, showed how faithfully they had fought and how resolutely they had been attacked. There were no wounded out in the forest glades either. The Indians ruthlessly butchered and scalped all who fell. Some sixty of the English had been killed or wounded.

They were surrounded by a large force of savages and it appeared likely that the terrible experiences of the past would be repeated upon them on the morrow. Bouquet wrote to Amherst that night, commending in brief soldier-like words, the steadiness and valor of his men, but preparing him for the worst possible results of the expected action, which he realized would take place on the morrow. He was too good a soldier not to recognize the peril of their situation and too brave a man not to admit it.

With almost any other commander in the English service in a similar situation, the result would have been certain. Bouquet, however, was in himself a host. He knew that his only chance of escaping annihilation would be in bringing the savages to a stand, where he could deliver with his veterans such a decisive blow as would completely defeat them, otherwise he was doomed. The Indians could keep him on that hill picking ofif his men until they died of hunger or thirst, if nothing else. To retreat was impossible.

III. The Battle of Bushy Run

There was no sleep for the anxious commander that night. As he walked around the circle among his exhausted men lying on their arms, as he passed the heavy cordon of sentries who kept watch over those who sought to snatch a few moments of needed rest, as he thought of the helpless wounded stifling their groans with heroic resolution in the little enclosure on the crest of the hill, as he recalled the wretched women and children, the terrified inhabitants of the forts and towns who were looking to him for protection, and praying God for the success of his expedition which was the only barrier interposed between them and the red scourge sweeping through the forests from the westward, he sustained a weight of responsibility which would have crushed a man less stout of heart. In his desperation he concocted a plan whereby he fondly hoped he could extricate his forces from their deadly peril, and at the same time deliver a crushing blow upon the Indians.

It was a plan worthy of the keenest warrior that ever endeavored to conquer his foe by savage subtlety and woodland stratagem. Feverishly he waited for the morning and prayed for a favorable time and opportunity to put the plan from which he hoped so much, upon which so much depended, into execution.

The night was marked by one instance of conspicuous heroism. From a little brook hard by the hill, practicallygone dry in the summer weather and therefore neglected by the besieging Indians, one of the frontiersmen named Byerly, unobserved by the savages, succeeded in the darkness in bringing in his hat from a hidden pool which he had discovered, a few mouthfuls of precious water which was given to the most severely wounded. A slight rain which fell toward morning also refreshed them somewhat, but most of the men suffered greatly from thirst during the night; they had had no water since noon of the day before.