The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1879-07-17
old man, straight too, although then SO

old man, straight too, although then SO
years of age.
I had hitched my horse in front of
his house, and gone in to find shelter
from a severe shower at about 4 o'clock
in the afternoon, and just then he came
in from outside, quite muddy, and an
CRY besides, Because" he said, he
"had gotten SO old and infrm he
couldn'5 stand up well any longer" His
looks were quite peculiar. Although so
old, he had piercing black eyes, Ro-
man nose, almost like beak, and his
fiery expression generally showed what
he must havesbeen in his prime.
Ispent the night under his roof, and,
during the evening, he detailed the ter
rible events Of the frightful massacre he
had witnessed, and with wonderful mi.
nuteness and force. telling me many
adventures of his own with the Indians
in his advance scouting before the con-
fiict, so disastrous at last, occurred.
Coming to the latter, he described the
terrible fate of prominent individual
officers whom he knew, Majors and
Captains, as they were overtaken in
succession by the swarming host of saw
ages and tomahawked and scalped. He
said, further, that during the retreat, or
flight, when it was certain that all was
lost. he himself was mounted and might
have gotten off without difficulty, but,
seeing Capt Someone, particular
friend of his own, with his ankle broken,
and hearing his earnest appeal for help,
he got down, aided his friend up behind
the saddle, at the same time telling a
comrade to hold his rifle for an instant
but, when they had ridden some dis.
lance on the line of the retreat, and In
dams and all were pressing on, he
then learned, to his angry surprise, that
his comrade had thrown the rifle, "a
vorite weapon that he had had for years,
into tent near where the halt and the
mounting took place. He told them he
was determined to have it or die; and,
dismounting, he went back, on foot,
furious at his comrade for serving him
so. But he said that, although he met
numbers Of savages coming on, not one
molested him, and he reached the tent
and his gun, sure enough; and, by hard
running, finally got off safely with it.
He said that, in rejecting afterward
upon the remarkable forbearance of the
Indians, he concluded that they must
have thought him stark crazy to be run
ming right the contrary way to the re-
treat, and, as it were, into the very jaws
OF death; and they never injure a crazy
man! l suppose his fierce looks must
have justified such a conclusion. He
added that he was considered the swift
est runner in st. Clair's command; and,
indeed, he looked it. Even in his ex-
IRENE age, nearly six feet two inches
high. and with scarcely any stoop to his
shoulders, he must truly have been
nervous and feet-footed in the prime of
his early manhood.
Besides the story I have related, he
recounted great many Indian fights in
which he had participated, but seemed
to be greatly impressed with one TRACE
dy, particularly, which he described
graphically-the slaughter of several
emigrant families, which happened on
the shore of the Ohio river, and just
below where Maysville is now situated.
1t appears that the emigrants were voy-
aging down the river in fatboats, and
were captured, the boats beached, and
men, women and children all murdered,
party, of which he was one, getting to
the spot a day or two afterward. He
said it was such dreadful sights as that
which caused such deadly enmity be-
tween themselves and the Indians, max
ing them eager to Stay the last one of
their merciless foes.
CHICAGO, Ill.