Daniel Boone: The Pioneer of Kentucky
to their own country. Every night they bound him very strongly. As they
became better acquainted, and advanced farther from the settlements of
the pioneers, they in some degree remitted their vigilance. One evening
when they had arrived near the Ohio, McConnel complained so earnestly of
the pain which the tightly bound cords gave him, that they more loosely
fastened the cord of buffalo hide around his wrists. Still they tied it,
as they supposed securely, and attached the end of the cord to the body
of one of the Indians.
"At midnight, McConnel discovered a sharp knife lying near him, which
had accidentally fallen from its sheath. He drew it to him with his
feet, and succeeded noiselessly in cutting the cords. Still he hardly
dared to stir, for there was danger that the slightest movement might
rouse his vigilant foes. The savages had stacked their five guns near
the fire. Cautiously he crept towards them, and secreted three at but a
short distance where they would not easily find them. He then crept
noiselessly back, took a rifle in each hand, rested the muzzles upon a
log, and aiming one at the heart, and one at the head of two Indians at
the distance of a few feet, discharged both guns simultaneously.
"Both shots were fatal. The three remaining savages in bewilderment
sprang to their feet. McConnel instantly seizing the two other guns,
shot one through the heart, and inflicted a terrible wound upon the
other. He fell to the ground bellowing loudly. Soon however he regained
his feet and hobbled off into the woods as fast as possible. The only
remaining one of the party who was unhurt uttered a loud yell of terror
and dismay, and bounded like a deer into the forest. McConnel was not
disposed to remain even for one moment to contemplate the result of his
achievement. He selected his own trusty rifle, plunged into the
forest, and with the unerring instinct of the veteran hunter, in two
days reached the garrison at Lexington to relate to them his wonderful
escape."
CHAPTER X.
_British Allies._
Death of Squire Boone.--Indian Outrages.--Gerty and McGee.--Battle of Blue
Lick.--Death of Isaac Boone.--Colonel Boone's Narrow Escape.--Letter of
Daniel Boone.--Determination of General Clarke.--Discouragement of the
Savages.--Amusing Anecdote of Daniel Boone.
It was in the autumn of the year 1780 that Daniel Boone, with his
family, returned to Boonesborough. A year before, the Legislature of
Virginia had recognized essentially what is now Kentucky as one of the
counties of Virginia, and had established the town of Boonesborough as
its capital. By this act Daniel Boone was named one of the trustees or
selectmen. Town lots were ordered to be surveyed, and a very liberal
grant of land was conferred upon every one who would erect a house at
least sixteen feet square, with either brick, stone, or dirt chimney.
For some reason Colonel Boone declined this office. It is probable that
he was disgusted by his own experience in the civil courts.
There was little danger now of an attack upon Boonesborough by the
Indians. There were so many settlements around it that no foe could
approach without due warning and without encountering serious
opposition. On the sixth of October Daniel Boone, with his brother
Squire, left the fort alone for what would seem to be an exceedingly
imprudent excursion, so defenceless, to the Blue Licks. They reached the
Licks in safety. While there they were discovered by a party of Indians,
and were fired upon from ambush. Squire Boone was instantly killed and
scalped. Daniel, heart-stricken by the loss of his beloved brother, fled
like a deer, pursued by the whole band, filling the forest with their
yells like a pack of hounds. The Indians had a very powerful dog with
them, who, with unerring scent, followed closely in the trail of the
fugitive. For three miles this unequal chase continued. The dog,
occasionally embarrassed in his pursuit, would be delayed for a time in
regaining the trail. The speed of Boone was such that the foremost of
the savages was left far behind. He then, as the dog came bounding on,
stopped, took deliberate aim, and shot the brute.
Boone was still far from the fort, but he reached it in safety, leaving
upon the Indians the impression that he bore a charmed life. He was very
deeply afflicted by the death of his brother. Squire was the youngest of
the sons, and the tie which bound the brothers together was unusually
tender and confidential. They had shared in many perilous adventures,
and for months had dwelt entirely alone in the wilderness, far away
from any other society.
The winter of 1780 was one of the saddest in the annals of our country.
The colonial army, everywhere defeated, was in the most deplorable state
of destitution and suffering. Our frontiers were most cruelly ravaged by
a barbarian foe. To add to all this, the winter was severely cold,
beyond any precedent. The crops had been so destroyed by the enemy that
many of the pioneers were compelled to live almost entirely upon the
flesh of the buffalo.
Virginia, in extending her jurisdiction over her western lands of
Kentucky, now, for the sake of a more perfect military organization,
divided the extensive region into three counties--Fayette, Lincoln, and
Jefferson. General Clarke was made commander-in-chief of the Kentucky
militia. Daniel Boone was commissioned as Lieutenant-Colonel of Lincoln
County. The emigration into the State at this time may be inferred from
the fact that the Court of Commissioners to examine land titles, at the
close of its session of seven months had granted three thousand claims.
Its meetings had been held mainly at Boonesborough, and its labors
terminated in April, 1780. During the spring three hundred barges,
loaded with emigrants, were floated down the Ohio to the Falls, at what
is now Louisville.
As we have stated, the winter had been one of the most remarkable on
record. From the middle of November to the middle of February, the
ground was covered with snow and ice, without a thaw. The severity of
the cold was terrible. Nearly all unprotected animals perished. Even
bears, buffalo, wolves, and wild turkeys were found frozen in the woods.
The starving wild animals often came near the settlement for food. For
seventy-five years the winter of 1780 was an era to which the old men
referred.
Though the Indians organized no formidable raids, they were very
annoying. No one could safely wander any distance from the forts. In
March, 1781, several bands entered Jefferson County, and by lying in
ambush killed four of the settlers. Captain Whittaker, with fifteen men,
went in pursuit of them. He followed their trail to the banks of the
Ohio. Supposing they had crossed, he and his party embarked in canoes,
boldly to continue the pursuit into the Indian country. They had
scarcely pushed a rod from the shore when hideous yells rose from the
Indians in ambush, and a deadly fire was opened upon the canoes. Nine of
the pioneers were instantly killed or wounded. The savages, having
accomplished this feat, fled into the wilderness, where the party, thus
weakened in numbers, could not pursue them.
A small party of settlers had reared their log-huts near the present
site of Shelbyville. Squire Boone had been one of the prominent actors
in the establishment of this little colony. Alarmed by the menaces of
the savages, these few settlers decided to remove to a more secure
station on Bear's Creek. On their way they were startled by the
war-whoop of they knew not how many Indians concealed in ambush, and a
storm of bullets fell upon them, killing and wounding many of their
number. The miscreants, scarcely waiting for the return fire, fled with
yells which resounded through the forest, leaving their victims to the
sad task of burying the dead and nursing the wounded. Colonel Floyd
collected twenty-five men to pursue them. The wary Indians, nearly two
hundred in number, drew them into an ambush and opened upon the party a
deadly fire which almost instantly killed half their number. The
remainder with great difficulty escaped, leaving their dead to be
mutilated by the scalping knife of the savage.
Almost every day brought tidings of similar disasters. The Indians,
emboldened by these successes, seemed to rouse themselves to a new
determination to exterminate the whites. The conduct of the British
Government, in calling such wretches to their alliance in their war with
the colonies, created the greatest exasperation. Thomas Jefferson gave
expression to the public sentiment in the Declaration of Independence,
in which he says, in arraignment of King George the Third:
"He has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers the
merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare is an
undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes, and conditions."
There were two wretched men, official agents of the British Government,
who were more savage than the savages themselves. One of them, a
vagabond named Simon Gerty, had joined the Indians by adoption. He had
not only acquired their habits, but had become their leader in the most
awful scenes of ferocity. He was a tory, and as such was the bitterest
foe of the colonists, who were struggling for independence. The other,
Colonel McGee, with a little more respectability of character, was
equally fiendlike in exciting the Indians to the most revolting
barbarities. Thus incited and sustained by British authority, the
Indians kept all the settlers in Kentucky in constant alarm.
Instigated by the authorities at Detroit, the warriors of five tribes
assembled at Old Chilicothe to organize the most formidable expedition
which had as yet invaded Kentucky. These tribes were the Shawanese on
the Little Miami, the Cherokees on the Tennessee, the Wyandotts on the
Sandusky, the Tawas on the Maumee, and the Delawares on the Muskingum.
Their choicest warriors, five hundred in number, rendezvoused at Old
Chilicothe. This Indian village was built in the form of a square
enclosing a large area. Some of their houses were of logs, some of bark,
some of reeds filled in with clay. Boone says that the Indians
concentrated their utmost force and vengeance upon this expedition,
hoping to destroy the settlements and to depopulate the country at a
single blow.
Not far from Boonesborough, in the same valley of the Kentucky, there
was a small settlement called Bryant's Station. William Bryant, the
founder, had married a sister of Colonel Boone. On the fifteenth of
August, a war party of five hundred Indians and Canadians, under the
leadership of Simon Gerty, appeared before this little cluster of
log-huts, each of which was of course bullet-proof. The settlers fought
heroically. Gerty was wounded, and thirty of his band were killed, while
the garrison lost but four. The assailing party, thus disappointed in
their expectation of carrying the place by storm, and fearing the
arrival of reinforcements from other settlements, hastily retired.
Colonel Boone, hearing of the attack, hastened to the rescue, joining
troops from several of the adjacent forts. The party consisted of one
hundred and eighty men, under the leadership of Colonel Todd, one of
"nature's noblemen." Colonel Boone seems to have been second in command.
Two of his sons, Israel and Samuel, accompanied their father upon this
expedition.
The Indians, led by British officers, were far more to be dreaded than
when left to their own cunning, which was often childish. As the little
band of pioneers, rushing to the rescue, approached Bryant's Station and
were informed of the retreat of the invaders, a council of war was held,
to decide whether it were best for a hundred and eighty men to pursue
five hundred Indians and Canadians, through a region where every mile