FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107  
108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   >>   >|  
n, the nearest point of which was at least three hundred miles distant! He forthwith set about raising a company--and, at the end of three days, found himself invested with the command of _sixteen men_! With these, on the first of October, he started on a journey of more than one hundred leagues, through the vast solitudes of the prairies and the thousand perils of the forest, to take a military station, occupied by a detachment of British soldiers! After a long and toilsome march, they reached the banks of the St. Joseph's river, on which the object of their expedition stood. Awaiting the security of midnight, they suddenly broke from their cover in the neighborhood, and by a _coup de main_, captured the fort without the loss of a man! Thus far all went well--for besides the success and safety of the party, they found a large amount of stores, belonging to traders, in the station, and were richly paid for their enterprise--but having been detained by the footsore, on their homeward march, and probably delayed by their plunder, they had only reached the Calumet, on the borders of Indiana, when they were overtaken by three hundred British and Indians! They were forced to surrender, though not without a fight, for men of that stamp were not to be intimidated by numbers. They lost in the skirmish one fourth of their number: the survivors were carried away to Canada, whence Brady, the leader, escaped, and returned to Cahokia the same winter. The twelve remained prisoners until seventeen hundred and seventy-nine. Against most men this reverse would have given the little fort security--at least, until the memory of the disaster had been obscured by time. But the pioneers of that period were not to be judged by ordinary rules. The very next spring (1778), another company was raised for the same object, and to wipe out what they considered the stain of a failure. It was led by a man named Maize, over the same ground, to the same place, and was completely successful. The fort was retaken, the trading-station plundered, the wounded men of Brady's party released, and, loaded with spoil, the little party marched back in triumph! There is an episode in the history of their homeward march, which illustrates another characteristic of the ranger--his ruthlessness. The same spirit which led him to disregard physical obstacles, prevented his shrinking from even direful necessities. One of the prisoners whom they had liberated, bec
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107  
108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

hundred

 

station

 

object

 
British
 
security
 

reached

 
prisoners
 

homeward

 

company

 

Against


physical
 

seventy

 

obstacles

 

seventeen

 

reverse

 
disregard
 

disaster

 

obscured

 

prevented

 
memory

remained

 
Canada
 

carried

 

liberated

 

fourth

 

number

 

survivors

 
leader
 

direful

 

twelve


winter

 

necessities

 

escaped

 

returned

 

Cahokia

 

shrinking

 

period

 

ground

 

triumph

 

failure


trading

 

plundered

 

wounded

 

released

 

retaken

 

completely

 
marched
 

successful

 

skirmish

 

spring