Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1879-08-06

waste powder. A number of the saw
ages were killed, and they saw that
nothing could be doue by fighting in
that manner. A party Of them, there
fore, pushed up to the fort, and endeav-
ored to thrust their guns through holes
in the logs and fire at the whites. But
this was an unfortunate attempt. The
whites killed nearly all the attacking
party, and then the whole army Of
Indians, fell back, yelling, into the
woods.
The men in the fort now held con-
sultatiou. They knew too much about
Indians to believe that they were going
to give up the struggle. Their retreat
into the woods they felt pretty sure,
was only make-believe, and they would
make another attack very soon. Thev
therefore prepared for this, but found
to their dismay that scarcely any gun
powder was left in the fort. They had
forgotten the keg Of powder in one Of
houses near, as l have told you, and
now they found that they had scarcely
any. What was to be done? They
must have more powder or they could
not fight. and they and the children
would be murdered. The only thing to
do was to try and ge. the keg which
had been left behind but this would be
almost certain death to anybody who
attempted it. The house in which the
keg was. stood only sixty yards from
the gate OF the fort but they knew
that although they could not see the
Indians they were on the watch. As
soon as man left the fort he would
probably be killed before he had gone
ten yards; but they had to have the
powder. and somebody must run the
risk.
Colonel Shepherd told his men exact
ly how the matter was. He would not
order any man to go and get the powder,
he said, as the Indians were almost
sure to kill him 4; but if any one choose
to volunteer, that is, offer to go himself,
he would accept his offer. At this
three or four young men and boys
stepped forward and said they were will
ing to go. But the Colonel replied that
he could not spare three or four men
there were too few in the fort. One
would do, and they must agree among
themselves which it was to be. This
caused quite dispute. One said he
would 90, bat another said he would
and they went on disputing and losing
time until there was danger that the
Indians would renew the attack before
they came to any arrangement.
AT this moment a young lady among
the women in the fort came forward
and said she was ready to go. Her
name was Elizabeth Zane, and she had
lust come home from boarding school in
philadelphia, where she had gone to be
educated. This made her brave offer
all the more remarkable, as she had not
been trained up in the fearless life Of
The border so you see that she must
have been q noble girl. OF course the
men would not hear of such thing
1t was their place, they said, to expose
their lives, not the place of women and
girls but Elizabeth went on urging that
she ought to be allowed to go. She
was told that she would almost certainly
be killed, and therefore man ought to
90 for the powder. But this, she said,
was the very reason why she offered
herself. They could not spare man, as
they had so few, and the loss Of a girl
would not amount to much. And 50, at
length. they reluctantly agreed that
she should go for the keg Of powder.
The honse containing it stood, as l
have said, about sixty yards from the
fort, and Elizabeth hoped to run and
bring the powder back in very min
utes. She said she was ready, and then
the gate of the fort was opened, and
she passed through, running like a deer
toward the house.
As have told you, Girty had ordered
the Indians 10 fall back into the woods
to protect themselves from the bullets
OF the whites and this they had done,
yelling as they went of, carrying upon
their shoulders the dead bodies of their
warriors who had been shot. And here
I will tell you, for fear of forgetting it,
that this was always the custom with
the Indians. They were strange people,
and had their own ideas Of what was
proper aud dlgniied. To be able to
say that they had conquered their
enemies was a great thing with them,
and they were just as much mortified
lwhen the whites could say they had
conquered them. So, whenever their
warriors were killed, they would not
leave them on the battlefield for their
enemies to count, and boast of the
number they had killed. They always
carefully bore of the dead bodies and
this they did on the present occasion, as
they fell back into the woods.
When Elizabeth Zane ran out from
the fort, however. a few struggling
Indians were observed lodging about
among the log houses of the town,
which stood about three or four hundred
yards east Of Fort Henry. The saw
the girl, for the people in the stockade
observed them looking at her but for
some reason they did not fire a. her.
Why they did not it is difficult TO say.
They may have supposed that she was
only running to the house to get her
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