# A Tale of the Rebellion of 1745, or, The Broken Heart (n.d., Glasgow)/Singular Adventure of a British Soldier in a Campaign in North America

​ 19
SINGULAR
ADVENTURE OF A BRITISH SOLDIER.
In a Campaign in North America.
In the year 1779, when the war with America was conducted with great spirit upon that continent, a division of the British army was encamped on the banks of a river, and in a position so favoured by nature, that it was difficult for any military art to surprise it. War in America was rather a species of hunting than a regular campaign. “If you fight with art,” said Washington to his soldiers, you are sure to be defeated. Acquire discipline enough for retreat and the uniformity of combined attack, and your country will prove the best of engineers.” So true was the maxim of the Ame- rican General, that the English soldiers had to contend with little else. The Americans had in- corporated the Indians into their ranks, and had made them useful in a species of war to which their habits of life had peculiarly fitted them. They sallied out of their impenetrable forests and jungles, and with their arrows and tomahawks, committed daily waste upon the British army,— surprising their sentinels, cutting off their strag- glers, and even when the alarm was given and pursuit commenced, they fled with a swiftness that the speed of cavalry could not overtake, into rocks and fastnesses whither it was dangerous to follow them. In order to limit as far as possible this ​ 20 species of war, in which there was so much loss and so little honour, it was the custom with every regiment to extend its outposts to a great distance beyond the encampments; to station sentinels some miles in the woods, and keep a constant guard round the main body.
upon the confines of a boundless savannah. Its particular office was to guard every avenue of approach to the main body; the sentinels, whose posts penetrated into the woods, were supplied from the ranks, and the service of this regiment was thus more hazardous than that, of any other. Its loss was likewise great. The sentinels were perpetually surprised upon their posts by the In- dians, and were borne off their stations without communicating any alarm, or being heard of after. Not a trace was left of the manner in which they had been conveyed away, except that upon one or two occasions, a few drops of blood had appeared upon the leaves which covered the ground. Many imputed this unaccountable disappearance to treachery, and suggested as an unanswerable argument, that the men thus surprised might at least have fired their muskets, and communicated the alarm to the contiguous posts. Others, who could not be brought to consider it as treachery were content to receive it as a mystery which time would unravel.
stationed as usual over night, the guard went out at sun-rise to relieve a post which extended a con- siderable distance into the wood. The sentinel was gone! the,'surprise was great; but the cir- cumstance had occurred before. They left another man and departed wishing him better luck. “You need not be, afraid,” said the man with warmth, I shall not desert! ​ 21 The relief company returned to the guard-house. The sentinels were replaced every four hours, and at the appointed time the guard again marched to relieve the post. To their inexpressible astonish- ment the man was gone! They searched round the spot, but no traces could be found of his disap- pearance. It was necessary that the station, from a stronger motive than ever should not remain un-occupied; they were compelled to leave another man and return to the guard-house. The supersti- tion of the soldiers was awakened, and the terror ran through the regiment. The Colonel being ap- prized of the occurrence, signified his intention to accompany the guard when they relieved the senti- nel they had left. At the appointed time, they all marched together; and again, to their unutter- able wonder, they found the post vacant and the man gone! Under these circumstances, the Colo- nel hesitated whether he should station a whole company on the spot, or whether he should again submit the post to a single sentinel. The cause of these repeated disappearances of men, whose courage and honesty were never suspected, must he discovered; and it seemed not likely that this dis- covery could not be obtained by persisting in the old method. Three brave men were now lost to the regiment, and to assign the post to a fourth seem- ed nothing less than giving him up to destruction. The poor follow whose turn it was to take the sta- tion, though a man in other respects of incomparable resolution, trembled from head to foot. "I must do my duty,” said he to the officer, “I know that; but I should like to lose my life with more credit." "I will leave no man,” said the Colonel, “against his will." A man immediately stept from the ranks, and desired to take the post. Every mouth com- mended his resolution. "I will not be taken alive," said he, "and you shall hear of me on the least ​ 22 alarm. At all events I will fire my piece if I hear the the least noise. If a crow chatters, or a leaf falls, you shall hear my musket. You may be alarmed when nothing is the matter: but you must take the chance as the condition of the discovery.” The Colonel applauded his courage, and told him he would be right to fire upon the least noise which was ambiguous. His comrades shook hands with him and left him with a melancholy foreboding. The company marched back, and waited the event in the guard-house.
the rack for the discharge of the musket, when, upon a sudden, the report was heard. The guard immediately marched, accompanied, as before, by the Colonel, and some of the most experienced officers of the regiment. As they approached the post, they saw the man advancing towards them, dragging another man on the ground by the hair of his head. When they came up to him it appeared to be an Indian whom he had shot. An explanation was immediately required.
should fire if I heard the least noise. The resolu- tion I have taken has saved my life. I had not been long on my post when I heard a rustling at some short distance; I looked and saw an American hog, such as are common in the woods, crawling along the ground, and seemingly looking for nuts under the trees and among the leaves. As these animals are so very common, I ceased to consider it for some minutes; but being on the constant alarm and expectation of attack, and scarcely know- ing what was to be considered a real cause of apprehension, I kept my eyes vigilantly fixed upon it, and marked its progress among the trees; still there was no need to give the alarm, and my thoughts were directed to danger from another quarter. It ​ 23 struck me, however, as somewhat singular, to see this animal making, by a circuitous passage, for a thick coppice immediately behind my post. I there- fore kept my eye constantly fixed upon it, and as it was now within a few yards of the coppice, hesitated whether I should not fire. My comrades, thought I, would laugh at me for alarming them by shooting a pig. I had almost resolved to let it alone, when, just as it approached the thicket, I thought I ob- served it give an unusual spring. I no longer hesi- tated; I took my aim; discharged my piece; and the animal was instantly stretched before me with a groan which I conceived to be that of a human creature. I went up to it, and judge my astonish- ment, when I found that I had killed an Indian. He had enveloped himself with the skin of one of those wild hogs so artfully and completely; his hands and feet were so entirely concealed in it, and is gait and appearance so exactly correspondent to that of the animal, that, imperfectly as they were always seen through the trees and jungles, the disguise could not be penetrated at a distance, and scarcely be discovered upon the nearest aspect. He was armed with a dagger and a tomahawk.”
the cause of the disappearance of the other senti- els was now apparent. The Indians, sheltered in this disguise, secreted themselves in the coppice; watched the moment when they could throw it off; burst upon the sentinels without previous alarm, and too quick to give them an opportunity to dis- charge their pieces, either stabbed or scalped them, and bore their bodies away, which they concealed at some distance among the leaves. The Americans gave them rewards for every scalp of an enemy which they brought. Whatever circumstances of wonder may appear in the present relation, there are many now alive who can attest its authenticity.