Our ancestors were brave
and fought against the Red Men many times,
many scalps and burned their forts. The Red Men lived in stick forts at night
and walked by day.
brave warriors set up ambushes on trails between the forts and fell
upon the Red Men when they passed, firing many arrows.
men had fire sticks (smooth bore flint locks) and some
braves were killed, but the Red Men fell like leaves from
the trees before they could raise their weapons. Some escaped to the woods, but
few ere drew warm hearth again.
Braves took the fire sticks and our friends (French)
taught us to load and fire them. Many soldiers fell in
ambushes to their own guns. Others rode their horses fast out of there
toward the next fort. Another band of warriors were waiting for them
along the road, and 200 were already in the woods around that fort.
Our warriors dipped arrows
in pitch and set them on fire, and shot them onto the roof of the fort.
The Red Men fired back from their
towers and put out the fires. We fired at the Red Men on
the roof, but it was a long way and only two fell.
to the Red Man's forts gained by trickery:
On another raid the
moon before young braves dressed like the Indians that lived next to the
fort and played a game we learned from the French. Lacrosse was played with sticks that had a net on one end and
fur ball wrapped around rawhide. Our young men played where the fort
soldiers could see them, while our braves hid nearby in the woods,
Closer and closer they came to the gate while more red men watched from
The fort soldiers opened the gate
and some came closer to watch. While the gates were open the young men drew axes and knives from inside our shirts and from
where we had hidden them under darkness the night
We killed the guards on
the gate before they could close it. Our
warriors rushed in from the woods and killed many more. Six red men escaped
into the woods and the rest all died. We followed those
who escaped into the woods until darkness stopped the
hunt. Then we returned and burned the fort.
guessed that those who escaped would try to make it to
the next fort about twenty five miles away. More braves
came and picked up the fire sticks left behind. Other
braves set up an ambush on one side near a curve in the
road. With the fort burning behind us we ran many miles there and hid behind trees on both sides of the road.
French taught us to shoot from both sides of a curve
in the road without hitting each other. The first Red
Men, four men strong, swiftly on horseback came and they were allowed to
They were riding fast in
the direction we came to save the
burning fort, but we knew that some red men would soon pass afoot. We
could hear their drums growing closer. They waited without sound for
soldiers afoot to come.
In the dark we heard them far, quick step
marching on the road, four by four marched they, thirty two men in all. And when they reached the big oak
tree, our firing lit the night. Twenty fell at once,
several moaning in the grass. A dozen more shots fired we
as they scrambled off the road without firing a shot.
braves who had no guns lay beside the road, with axe and
knife dispatched all who fell into their hands. Four back
up the road did ran, and arrows found their mark.
Twenty eight Red Men died upon the road and in the woods
beside. The missing four never made it home, nor did
those on horseback ride who had no place to go.
knives, powder and food took we all. Down the road we charged to burn the other
fort, but the alarm had been spread. Too many Red men were
there to fight, the gate this time would not be open, Brush we did on blind side pile,
but flintlocks sticking
from the holes did not a target find. To the wood we went to rest and
fight another day.
brush and sprinkled powder brightly burned and water fell
and turned to steam. Those who emerged in the brightness of the fire
did not last long, but long enough to save
their fort. More would come and well we knew, a good
nights work did we, then quietly slipped away.
Hundreds more would follow soon and we would pay a price.
Things would never be the same for them, once we decided
to fight. Other's came and other's died and up and down the line their forts did
the red men left our land, and never did return.
Perhaps each story teller exaggerated,
added more burned forts,
another hundred enemies killed, still the story has the ring of truth.
Although those two stories
found no support from my research, history does tell us that
the British had troubles elsewhere, with French around the great lakes, Indians and settlers
too, and could not man all of their forts on the frontier.
Several of their forts were burned, and
hundreds of soldiers lost. I never found a specific record of two forts
burned in one day, but it could have happened. It also seems certain that
the term "Red Men" as used by the Indians, were in reference to
British soldiers many of whom wore red coats as part of their military.
Copyright Don Kelly
1997 - 2001