The Minute Boys of the Mohawk Valley Part 26

During that night we buried our dead,--four and twenty men,--committing them to the dust under cover of darkness lest the enemy see how much injury he had inflicted, and, thank G.o.d, never a member of my company who could not answer to the roll-call.

There were forty-one so seriously wounded that it was necessary a certain force be told off from among the garrison to play the part of nurses, and, when to the number of disabled is added those who were to care for them, it can be seen that St. Leger struck us a severe blow, even though he did not succeed in his purpose.

We buried our comrades in the horn-works, just under the stockade they had defended so gallantly, and threw over the fence of logs fifty-two of Thayendanega's wolves who would take no further part in murder and rapine.

It is positive that there must have been many wounded among the Indians, some so severely that it would have been impossible for them to accompany their fellows in the retreat; but yet we found none that had any life in them when we searched among the ghastly evidences of the fight for our own people.

Peter Sitz declared that he had seen one of the wounded savages deliberately kill himself with a knife, when it was seen that the a.s.sault had failed, and I doubt not but that several did the same rather than fall into our hands. Then, also, it is possible, in the heat of battle, and remembering what these human wolves had done to the women and children of the settlements which had been attacked, some of our men had sent more than one of the helpless wretches to the Happy Hunting Grounds. I count myself as tender-hearted as any other, and yet it would not have troubled my conscience had I put a few wounded villains out of the world, rather than let them live to commit yet more murders.

On the morning after the a.s.sault a white flag was raised over the fort, and when St. Leger sent in hot haste a messenger to learn what we wanted, thinking, most like, we had made up our minds to surrender, he was informed that Colonel Gansevoort was willing to grant an hour's truce that the British and Indian dead might be buried.

This the enemy accepted, and I was surprised to see that never one of Thayendanega's beauties came forward to carry off the slain of his tribe.

I had always heard it said that the redskins would brave any danger rather than allow a dead Indian to fall into the hands of an enemy; but certain it is that on this day the rascally Tories dragged away the bodies, with not even a squaw to help them.

Within the time set we were rid of the ghastly evidence of the battle, which might have proven a menace to the health of the garrison had the corpses been allowed to remain unburied while the weather was so warm, and during all the coming night we could hear distinctly cries of lamentation from the Indian camp. It was as if every brave, squaw, and papoose howled his or her loudest in token of sorrow, and three of us within the fort had a very good idea of what would have been our fate had we not been rescued before the a.s.sault.

"This would have been our last night on earth, had the Minute Boys not come to the rescue," Peter Sitz said to me, as we stood near the sally-port for an instant, listening to the wild cries, and, strong man though he was, I took note of the fact that his face shone pale in the faint light.

It did not need that I should strain my imagination very much to paint a mental picture of our condition at that time, if we had remained in the power of the savages. Of a verity we would have tested their keenest torture before death came to our relief.

"It would seem as if that company of ours had been formed to some purpose, an' not all of them were children," I said, minded that he who had laughed most heartily at what he was pleased to call our "pretensions," should give credit where it was due.

"If I live to see home again, there is never a man in Cherry Valley who shall not hear from me what I owe to you lads!"

"Don't forget that I had no part in the rescue, Master Sitz, for surely I was trussed up as stoutly as either you or Sergeant Corney."

"Yet but for your persistence we would never have thought of enlisting the boys to aid in our defence, therefore must you take your portion of the praise, an' more especially since it is said by Sergeant Corney himself that you have proven yourself a man at every time when danger threatened."

"Sergeant Corney has no idea how my knees shook beneath me when, as he believed, I was stout-hearted," I replied, with a careless laugh that served to cloak the feeling of pride which rose in my bosom when he gave good words to the Minute Boys.

While weeping over our dead, and rejoicing because of having beaten back the enemy when it seemed as if the a.s.sault was about to be successful, fear regarding the safety of Colonel Willett and Lieutenant Stockwell lay heavily upon our hearts. It was the belief of nearly all the garrison that the two officers had been captured, and, if such had been the case, there could be no question but that they suffered a terrible death at the stake while the savages were mourning over their loss.

Those among us who felt convinced that the messengers had succeeded in their attempt, and Colonel Gansevoort was one of the hopeful ones, insisted that if the Indians had tortured any prisoners to death, we must have heard yells and shouts of triumph; yet the night wind had brought to our ears nothing more than the cries of sorrow.

Viewing the situation in the brightest light possible, many days must of a necessity elapse before we could hope for any good results from their brave venture, and if in the meantime the enemy pressed us sharply, we would be in hard straits, more particularly since so much of our ammunition had been expended in defending the fort against that first a.s.sault.

When a large number of men are confined in a limited s.p.a.ce, and exposed to danger, it needs but the lightest word to make cowards of the more faint-hearted, as we soon had good proof.

On the day following the truce, after the enemy had buried their dead, work on the parallels was continued, and it gave me no little satisfaction to see that the Tories were forced to perform the greater portion of the labor.

As I have already said, these trenches extended within an hundred and fifty yards of the fort by this time, and we knew only too well that it was not within our power to prevent their being advanced as near as the enemy saw fit to carry them.

After a certain time mining would probably be begun, and then, if our supply of ammunition had not been replenished, the end must be near at hand, when St. Leger would have opportunity to carry into execution his threat of allowing Thayendanega's murderers to work their cruel will.

All this was talked over and commented upon by our people as the days wore on, and the more timid seemed to find delight in picturing what would take place if the fort was captured.

"Why must they keep harpin' on that possibility all the time?" I asked, angrily, of Sergeant Corney, when I had turned away in disgust from a group of men who were painting horrible word-pictures, and the old soldier had followed me to the parade-ground beyond sound of such words.

"It is all as plain as the nose on your face, lad," the old man said, grimly. "Look about, an' you'll see that them as are makin' the howl over what the Injuns may do are the faintest-hearted among us. It's all done for one purpose."

"What can that be?" I asked, in surprise. "How do they suppose any good can come of conjuring up everything horrible?"

"They're of the same kidney that drove General Herkimer into the ambush, an' are tryin' to force the colonel to surrender."

"That can't be possible!" I cried, sharply. "There's never one among them who does not know full well what the result will be if Colonel Gansevoort surrenders the fort! St. Leger's promises would be as the idle wind when Thayendanega's followers wanted victims for the stake!"

"True for you, lad, an' yet these cowards are ready to howl for capitulation rather than fight as men should, in the presence of such an enemy, to the last ditch," the sergeant replied, bitterly.

I could not believe that among the entire garrison might be found one soldier who would willingly consent to a surrender, and said as much to the old man, who replied, grimly:

"I haven't been around here for the past four an' twenty hours with my eyes shut an' my ears filled with moss. Take a turn about the works, listenin' to all that is said, an' you'll find I'm not wrong in my figgerin'. The colonel knows as well as do I what's in the wind, an' I'll agree never to eat sweet-cake agin if he ain't makin' ready for trouble inside the fort as well as outside."

I remained silent a full minute, horrified by the bare possibility, and then asked, in a voice which trembled despite all my efforts to render it steady:

"Think you they can force him against his will, as the militia did General Herkimer?"

"It is my belief that he'd shoot down a round dozen before consentin' to give us all over to death; but there's no knowin' what a man may be forced into when pressure enough has been brought to bear upon him."

At this moment Jacob came up, looking like his old self now that his father was safe, at least, for the time being, and to him I put the matter much as I had had it from the sergeant.

"Within the hour I have heard the same word from my father. He believes there are a full hundred of the garrison who, when they have worked themselves up to just such a pitch, will howl for surrender."

Even then I refused to believe in what was as yet no more than a suspicion, and Sergeant Corney said, impatiently:

"It won't cost you much time to find out for yourself, lad. Take a couple of turns around, an' I'll guarantee you'll agree that Peter Sitz an' I are not tryin' to make mountains out of mole-hills."

"I'll go with you," Jacob said, promptly, and straightway we set out, keeping our ears open whenever we came within speaking distance of a group of men who appeared to be talking earnestly upon some particular subject.

It was not necessary that we should go twice around the inside of the fortification, for before we completed the first circuit I had heard enough to convince me that Sergeant Corney, instead of exaggerating the matter, had not made his statements strong enough by one-half.

As it seemed to me, a full third of the garrison were arguing in favor of surrender, giving as their reasons the scanty supply of powder for the cannon, and the probability that St. Leger's army would constantly increase as the Tories from the Mohawk Valley got wind of what was going on.

I was sick at heart and literally faint with fear when this knowledge was forced in upon me, for I knew only too well how idle would be all the promises of St. Leger if the savages were inclined to ma.s.sacre the prisoners that were surrendered on promises of fair treatment.

Chapter XIV.

Mutiny

I had thought that we would never again be called upon to witness such a scene as that in General Herkimer's encampment on the morning when those who, later, were the first to show the white feather, literally drove him into a place where he, as a soldier, knew it was not safe to venture until all the arrangements for a sortie from the fort were completed.

Now, however, it seemed to me that we were to be treated to a second dose of mutiny, and this one more serious than the first, for, in case these fools in the fort succeeded in badgering Colonel Gansevoort as the others had the general, then would nearly a thousand men be given over to the savage foe, whom we knew full well would show no mercy.

To me the strange part of it all was that these very simpletons who were howling so loudly for surrender would be among those counted as prisoners, and I failed utterly to understand how they could figure themselves as being better off in the power of Thayendanega's wolves, than in the fort where they had a chance of fighting to the death.

Even to this day it seems so strange that I would not dare set it down as a fact unless those gentlemen who write history had spoken of it so plainly.