The Minute Boys of the Mohawk Valley Part 25

"It looks to me much as if Colonel Willett an' Lieutenant Stockwell had been captured."

"How do you figure that out?"

"Because an a.s.sault is evidently about to be made. If they are not prisoners, the enemy has learned that they left the fort."

I was still in darkness as to why he arrived at such conclusion, but found the reason exceedingly plain when he said:

"If St. Leger knows that a man of Colonel Willett's rank was eager to take the chances of leaving the fortification to summon a.s.sistance, he must believe the garrison is in sore straits, an' therefore it is that I believe the mistake was made in allowin' him to go out when there were plenty of others here willin' to take the chances."

It grieved me sorely to think that the brave officer might be at that moment in the hands of the savages, or, what amounted to much the same thing, in the custody of the Britishers, for it was charged openly that, in order to keep the Indian allies in good temper, prisoners taken by his Majesty's troops were often delivered over to the red-skinned wolves for torture.

However, there was but little time left me in which to speculate upon this painful matter, for even as Sergeant Corney and I spoke together the British troops, supported by the Johnson Greens, came out into view from amid the encampment, marching directly toward the fort.

"There is more in this than an ordinary a.s.sault," I heard the sergeant mutter, as he looked to the priming of his musket. "St. Leger would not expose his men to the slaughter which must follow without good and sufficient cause. I'm not overly given to praising the Britishers; but we must admit that he who's in command here is a thoroughly good soldier."

Under ordinary circ.u.mstances I would have been conscious of a certain chill along my spine, and felt my knees trembling beneath me at the certainty of soon being engaged in a life or death struggle; but after my experience as a prisoner there was but one thought in my heart, and that of repaying the enemy for some of the sufferings I had undergone.

The desire for revenge was greater than the fear of death.

Before many moments pa.s.sed Sergeant Corney hit upon what I firmly believed was the true answer to my question of why an a.s.sault was to be made at this time.

The Britishers and Tories advanced in good order until facing the northerly and westerly sides of the fort, within musket-shot range, and from that distance poured their bullets into us without doing much execution; but calling for strict attention on our part lest a charge be made, for the ditch was not so wide or deep but that a body of trained soldiers could have overcome the obstacle.

Only twice were the guns, which could be trained in that direction, discharged, and then we inflicted no slight injury upon the foe; but Colonel Gansevoort soon showed that he was far too prudent a commander to shoot away all his powder at one time, even though it was possible to punish the enemy severely.

It looked much as if the king's forces were bent on continuing the battle with small arms at short range, for they discharged their pieces as rapidly as it was possible to reload them, making a great din even though the execution was slight.

Then it was that Sergeant Corney hit upon the meaning of this odd move.

Without a word he leaped down from the wall where he had been stationed, running swiftly toward the unfinished portion of the fortification, and was gone no more than three or four minutes when he returned with more show of excitement than I had ever known him to exhibit.

"Yonder Britishers and renegades are but holding our attention in order to give Thayendanega's wolves a chance to scale the stockade," he said, hurriedly. "The force there is all too small. I will take half of the company, at risk of disobeying orders, to that point, while you go with all speed and tell the commandant what I have learned."

I understood the situation without further explanation, and, realizing the necessity for haste, went as rapidly as my legs would carry me to the northeast bastion, where I had last seen Colonel Gansevoort.

Fortunately for my purpose he was still there, giving directions as to the firing of the guns, and in a twinkling I had acquainted him with the situation as described by Sergeant Corney, at the same time explaining that half the Minute Boys had been withdrawn from near the sally-port.

"The sergeant has done well," the commandant replied. "Ten of your number should be more than sufficient there, if matters are as they seem. Tell Sergeant Braun I will join him as soon as possible."

Then I ran with all speed to my company, and, explaining to John Sammons my purpose, took with me half the number remaining under his command.

With this small force I set off at full speed, and we arrived none too soon at the place where the most desperate fighting was going on.

At the beginning of the action no more than forty men had been stationed in the "horn-works," and it seemed to me as if the entire stockaded portion was surrounded by a dancing horde of howling, maddened Indians, who, bringing with them tree-trunks or stout branches, were throwing up such a heap of odds and ends as admitted of their gaining the top of the logs despite the fire which our people were pouring upon them.

It must be set down here that there were no cannon in this unfinished portion of the fortification. The so-called rebellion against the king had broken out before this very necessary adjunct to the strength of the fort could be completed, and, consequently, it was the weakest portion of our defence.

When I arrived with my comrades at this point, our people were engaged in a hand-to-hand struggle with the savages, three score or more having succeeded in effecting an entrance, and it needed no experienced eye to say that unless the onrush could be speedily checked, the capture of the fort might be effected at a time when we had believed St. Leger was simply making a feint.

Exactly what happened during the next half-hour I am unable to state of my own knowledge, for I had no sooner entered the horn-works than it became necessary to put forth every effort in the saving of my own life.

A gigantic savage discharged his musket with seemingly true aim directly at my head; but, strangely enough, missed the target, and then he came at me, hatchet in hand, with such fury that for an instant it seemed as if I was at his mercy.

So excited was I that my bullet, which should have found lodgment in his heart, went as wild as had his, and then was I forced to use a clubbed musket for defence.

Had any one asked me on that morning if I believed it possible to withstand the attack of an Indian, the two of us using the weapons I have just described, my answer would have been a decided "no," and yet now I held him in good play, although realizing that each moment I was growing weaker and he gaining the advantage.

Already were my eyes becoming suffused with blood; my brain was in a whirl, as I leaped here or there, parrying with the b.u.t.t of the musket the blows of his hatchet, and all the time he continued to press me nearer and nearer toward the wall, where my resistance would have been overcome within a very short time.

I wondered why it was that Colonel Gansevoort delayed in the coming, and could see, without looking in any direction save at my foe, that the number of savages inside the stockade was increasing each moment.

[Ill.u.s.tration: "The painted villain sank down upon the ground"]

Only a brief delay now on the part of the commandant, and they would gain so great an advantage that such portion of the garrison as could be withdrawn from the walls where the Britishers were making the pretended attack, would not be able to dislodge them.

Then suddenly, at the very moment when it seemed impossible I could struggle any longer, the painted villain sank down upon the ground as if having received his death-blow, and I dimly heard Sergeant Corney cry, cheerily:

"That was a narrow squeak, lad, an' we'll hope there'll be many more of 'em before the last one comes! Keep yourself well in hand, for of a verity our work is cut out for us here!"

Now it was I knew that a shot from the old soldier's musket had put an end to the combat in which I was most deeply interested, and I strained every nerve to gather myself together as he had commanded.

By this time I dare venture to say no less than two hundred of the howling demons had scaled the stockade, and we who were defending this weakest portion of the fortification were pressed back and back until we stood ma.s.sed against that opening which gave entrance to the main fortification.

We were in good position for the enemy to mow us down with bullets, and in such close formation that only those in the outermost ranks could use their weapons to advantage.

"It is all over," I said to myself, realizing that within a very few moments we must be killed or disabled under such a fire as Thayendanega's scoundrels were pouring upon us. Then from our rear I heard ringing cheers, the trampling of many feet, and realized that a.s.sistance had come at the most critical moment.

Sixty seconds later we had all been slain like sheep in the shambles!

"Give way, give way, lads in front!" I heard Colonel Gansevoort shout, and, hardly understanding the words, instinctively we surged either side of the pa.s.sage, having hardly done so before a shower of grape-shot came hurtling between our ranks, dealing death to scores of the feather-bedecked wretches.

"Stand to your muskets, you Minute Boys!" Sergeant Corney shouted, and the sound of his voice stiffened my courage wonderfully. "Now is the time to pay back some of our old scores, and every bullet should cut short a life from among those who would harry us of the valley."

He had hardly more than ceased speaking when a great uproar could be heard from the distance, and, without turning my head, I understood that the British regulars and the Johnson Greens were pressing the attack on the west and the front, in order to hold our men at the walls that we might not be able to regain possession of the stockade.

Now the fight was on in good earnest, and a bloodier one or a more desperate struggle I hope never to see again.

After the single cannon which Colonel Gansevoort had caused to be brought in was discharged, the reinforcements betook themselves to their muskets, for our frontiersmen were more accustomed to the use of small arms than big guns, and the tide surged this way and that, with the fate of the fort trembling more than once in the balance, until I had before my eyes only great billows of feathered forms, which rose and fell, advanced and were forced back, until I was well-nigh bewildered.

Before this portion of the fighting had come to an end, fully half the garrison was engaged in repelling the attack of Thayendanega's forces, and during such time the white portion of the enemy's army might have made a successful a.s.sault upon the walls, I verily believe, but for the cowardice displayed by the Tories.

How long we struggled there hand to hand, stumbling now over the lifeless forms of our comrades, and again finding our way checked by the dead bodies of the savages, I cannot say; but certain it is that we finally drove the last of the hated foe over the stockade, and gave Thayendanega's boasting braves such a lesson as they would not need to have repeated for many days.

I was not less wearied with the carnage than those around me. Even Sergeant Corney, to whom such scenes were not strange, leaned against a portion of the earthworks as if for support while he dashed the perspiration from his eyes, and then we knew by the sounds that the battle was being waged severely over against the sally-port.

Then it was I called for the Minute Boys to follow me, as I ran at the best pace possible in that direction, for there was our post of duty.

Now Colonel Gansevoort no longer husbanded his store of ammunition intended for the cannon, and every piece in the northern and eastern bastions was being worked with the utmost rapidity, sending among the Tories such a shower of iron as their cowardly hearts could not hold out against, and, when they turned with cries of fear to flee, the British regulars, understanding that they were too few in number to effect anything against us, joined in the retreat.

The a.s.sault had come to an end, and we of the garrison were triumphant, but at such an expense of life that we could not well afford many more such victories.