Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1857-02-19
Gales If If tie frontier,
From Gham's Magazine.
sa',s5'. TIL Z
KNIFE AND T0MAHAWK.
BY A WESTERN MAN.

About thirty miles below the present city
Of Pittsburg, stood an ancient fort, known
as Fort Mcintosh. 1t was built by q revolu-
tionary general of that name, in the sum-
mer of ITS: 1t was one of a line of forts,
which was intended to guard the people who
lived south of the Ohio river, from the in
zcursions of the savages to the northward.-
This fort was one of the favorite resorts of
the great Indian spy aud hunter, Captain
Samuel Brady. Although his usual head
quarters was Pittsburg, then consisting of a
rude fort and a score or two of rough from
tier tenements.
Brady had emigrated westward, or rather
had marched thither in 177S, as lieuten-
ant in the distinguished Eighth Pennsylva-
MIA Regiment, under the command of Cen
eral Richard Broadhead, of Easton. When,
in the spring of 1779, Mcintosh retired from
command in the West, Broadhead succeed
ed him, and remained at Pittsburg until
@17s1. Shortly after his advent to the west,
Brady was brevetted Captain.
* Brady had served at the siege of Boston,
fought at Long Island and White Plains,
gone through the whole of the terrible cam
paign of Trenton and Princeton, suffered at
Valley Forge, distinguished himself at Ger
mantown and Brandywine, and narrowly es-
capped death at Paoli. But his tastes led him
to the erratic mode of warfare known upon
the frontier. Indeed, his early education
upon the upper Susquehauua had inculcated
and developed those tastes from the very
earliest boyhood. Hating an Indian with
that instructive hatred, which is begotten in
the bosom of the white race, by long years
of contest and outrage, bitter intensity was
impaired to the feeling in his case by the
murder of his father and younger brother by
'the Indians, under trying and terrible cir
cumstanees.
Having promised this much by way Of
introduction, it brings us to the opening of
our story. On the 2lst day of August, 1779,
Brady set out from Fort Mcintosh, for Pitts.
burg. He had with him two of his trusty
and well-tried followers. These were not
attached to the regular army, as he was, but
were scouts and spies, who had been with
him upon many an expedition. They were
Thomas Bevington and Benjamin Biggs -
Brady resolved to follow the northern bank
of the Ohio. Biggs objected to this, upon
the ground as Brady we'll knew, that the
:, woods were swarming with savages Brady,
however, had resolved to travel by the old
Indian path, and having once made up his
mind, no consideration could deter him from
carrying out his determination. Bcvington
had such implicit faith in his ability to lead,
that he never thought of questioning his
will.
Quite discussion arose between Biggs
and his captain at the mouth of Beaver river,
about mile above the fort, and where they
must cross the Ohio, if they continued upon
the northern side. Biggs finally yielded his
objections, and they crossed Beaver, and
proceeded with the habitual caution of woods.
men who fully understand their business
They had started early, and by rapid trav-
elling they had reached, ere noon came, the
last piece of bottom land on the north side
of the river, just below what is known as the
Narrows. Upon this bottom pioneer, more
daring than most others, had built cabin
and opened small spot of cleared land
He had planted it in corn, and it gave prom
ise of most abundant harvest.
"But, as they approached the edge Of the
! clearing, just outside of the fence, Brady
discovered "Indian signs" as he called them