Wheeling times and advertiser. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1839-1849, 1845-05-16
THE RANGERS ADVENTURES

oil Massachusetts,, relates the following details
oil am adventure, during the old French war:
AT nineteen years Of age, he joined the ar
my oil the provinces, that in l775 essayed to
take Crown Point from the French. He march
Ell 10 the lakes with Colonel Ephraim Will
Hams, than whom a more gallant man never
breathed the air of New England. The doc
tor fought under his commond at Lake George,
on the memorable eighth of September; saw,
or Imagined he saw, the fall Of his brave lea
der is quite sure that he put a bullet INTO
the French officer, Mons. St. Pierre. The
next year he joined Rogers company of Ran.
gers, and was stationed with a PARTY of them
at Fort Ann, not far from where Whitehall
now stands. But at that day it was a dark
and bloody ground ) a frontier station i'm the
forests, which were filled with rival savages
attached TO France or England.
One duy, In mid-winter, eight rangers, with
q seQeart, We're ordered out on some service;
the doctor did not know what, but probably to
seize some struggling Frenchman about Ticon-
deroga- or Crown Point, and bring him to the
Tort, Tor the sake of obtaining mtelligence.-
he was hsmself of the party. A narrow road.
or rather path, led northward toward Canada,
and they followed it for several hours. There
had Just been a heavy fall of snow all the
pines and hemlocks in the forest were loaded
thick with it; and as the afternoon was still
and clear, only occasional flakes or light mass.
es dropped from the burdened boughs like fea-
tners; these circumstances were STAMPED ON
the old mans mind, seeming like a constantly
recurring dream. The rangers waded i'm Indf-
an hie through the snow, and as danger was
apprehended, a man was placed some rods ;n
advance, one on each flank, and another he
nind. ms last was the doctor himself. .and
this was the gun l carried" said he, taking n
snort heavy piece from a corner. They saw no
signs OF the enemy there was no sound but
the note OF the little "chick- "A -dee-dee.n 40
familiar to the pine woods in winter.
Al length, they descended into a hollow
the frozen sheet of Lake George lay not far on
to the lett, and a steep hill on the right. The
ground a snort distance before them, was low
and swampy, and a little brook had spread it,
sell out ON the path, making a frozen space.
Tree from trees, across which their advanced
man was now slowly trampling, crushing his
boots INTO the Ice and water at every STEP
ne paused suddenly, turned sharply round
and gave the low whistle appointed as the
signal OF alarm. He had seen the tracks of
many moccasined feet in the fresh snow be-
yond. There was not time to think; the loud
report of a gun broke the stiffness. The ran
ger gave a shrill scream, leaped four feet into
the air and fell fiat. Instantly the Indian veil
burst from the woods on our right and left fol-
III Vi UlOIt Ildn lilly
guns, and not a man of the rangers but one
ever moved alive from the spot where he stood
transfixed with surprise at tho sudden death
of his comrade. ~
That man was our hero, whose position. far
behind the rest, saved him. He remembered
the panic felt at the fierce burst of yells and
musketry, and the sudden rush of the savage
swarm from their ambush, upon his fallen
comrades; and, in the next instant, that his
poprnnrX nnu11 rnD.n h.
ward the fort. He heard sharp, sudden yelps
behind him, and g~lancing back, saw two Indi-
ans bounding ON his track. He ran a mile. he
should think, without turning or hearing a SIN
gle sound then turning his head, saw an In
dian ieaplng silent as a spectre, within a few
rods OF him. With admirable GOODNESS. he
turned quickly round, and raising his gun with
a steady hand fred with such good effect that
the Abenah pitched forward to the ground.
enahis-shasea head ploughed up the snow,
for yards, by the impulse Of his headlong pur-
una .s frv ala L---a tho renor, of tl'T y,i,,
or Indians gun followed by the loud hum
ming OF the ball. So alert and attentive
were his faculties, that he observed where tho
bullet struck upon n loaded Dough in front Of
hm; scattering the glittering particles of
snow.
The path now led downward with a steep
descent; at the bottom an ancient pine tree
mad iallen across it, whose sharp broken BRAN
ches rose up perpendicularly from the pros
,Iate trunk iour or five feet from the ground,
1iocking up the way, like a b%ristling chevaux-
de irlse. The rangers had previously turned
aside to avoid it. There was no time to do go
now. The doctors limbs were small and
hight, but as activea as a deer's, and the Indians
tomahawk was close behind. Without hest
tatIng, he ran down and sprang into the air
Ills loot caught, so that he fell on the other
side but he snatched up his gun and ran again
In a moment, he heard a wild and borridcrv
and turning as he ran up the opposite hill. he
saw a sight that has murdered his sleep for
many a night. The daring savage had leaned
ike him, but not so well he had tripped. and
one OF the broken branches had caught and i'm
paled mm on Its upright point, passing up
ward into the cavity of his chest He save
the starting eye-balls, and the painted features
~hideously distorted, and paused to see no more
About sunset the sentinels Of Fort Ann saw
bin emerging from the woods, running as Il
the Indians were still behind him. A strong
party sent out next morning found the bodies
OF the rangers stripped, and frozen in the va
rious positions in which they died, so that thew
appeared like marble statues. On n tree close
by, the French officer who commanded The
Abenakis had fastened a piece of birch bark.
inscribed with an insolent and Triumphant
message to the English. The bodies of the
two Indians had been removed, although the
white snow around the old pine tree retained
ineifaceable marks Of the tragedy that had been
enacted there, and was beaten hard by the mo
casins of a crowd Of savages who had gathered
about that place.
This taste of war was enough for the doctor.
martial zeal. He did not take the field again
TIL twenty years sfterward, when he came ~
W~ashington's camp at Cambridge, armed viii
probe and balsam, instead of a musket and
powder"
NEW TER MS-Kitchen girls are now
termed "youDg ladies' of the lower. parlour. .
People who go about grinding knives. scis.
sors, and razors are termed gentlemen of the
revolution" Folks that dig clans are term.
ed-"Profound investigators.