on,
therefore I resolved to write it down as the lad himself would have
spoken, being able, because of the letters, to put myself very nearly in
his place.

I would it had been possible to say more concerning Thayendanega and Sir
John Johnson, for they played important parts in the making of Mohawk
Valley history; but Noel's own account was of such length that I did not
feel warranted in adding to it.

To the best of my knowledge and belief, the tale of the "Minute Boys of
the Mohawk Valley" is no more than a narration of facts, as can be
verified by reference to any of our standard histories of the beginnings
of this nation.

If the reader can find in the reading one-half the pleasure I have had in
interpreting Noel Campbell's odd speech, and smoothing down his too
vigorous language, then will he be richly repaid for the perusal.

James Otis.

List of Illustrations

"An Indian strode gravely into the encampment"
"'You have done well to get back alive'"
"Sergeant Corney waved the bit of fringe slowly to and fro"
"'Tire 'em out, lads!' the General shouted"
"Three or four hundred Indians were dancing wildly around a huge fire"
"With upraised hands, stepped out from amid the screen of foliage"
"The painted villain sank down upon the ground"
"Keep a-movin' unless you're achin' to have a bullet through the back'"

Chapter I.

Young Soldiers

It sounds like an unreasonable tale, or something after the style of a
fairy-story, to say that a party of lads, drilling with wooden guns, were
able, without being conscious of the fact, to frighten from his bloody
work such a murderous, powerful sachem as Thayendanega, or Joseph Brant,
to use his English name, but such is the undisputed fact.

It was the month of May in the year of our Lord 1777, when we of Cherry
Valley, in the Province of New York, learned that this same Thayendanega,
a pure-blooded Mohawk Indian, whose father was chief of the Onondaga
nation, had come into the Mohawk Valley from Canada with a large force of
Indians, who, under the wicked tutoring of Sir John Johnson, were ripe for
mischief.

Col. Samuel Campbell, my uncle, was one of the leading patriots in that
section of the province, and it was well known that the Johnsons,--Sir
John and Guy,--the Butlers, Daniel Claus, and, in fact, all the Tories
nearabout, would direct that the first blow be struck at Cherry Valley, in
order that my uncle might be killed or made prisoner; th