The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1883-08-10
miscellaneous.
THECHARGEOF THE HOUNDS.


"A Terrible Olb Oh news was carried from
mouth to mouth through the region that is
now Alabama at the beginning of September
1878 The country was at that time in the
midst of the second war with Great Britain,
and for long time the British agents had
been trying to persuade the Creeks-a pow.
erful nation of half civilized but very war
like Indians who lived in Alabama-to Join
in the war and destroy the white settlements
in the Southwest
For some time the Creeks hesitated, and it
was uncertain what they would do. But
during the summer of 1913 they broke out
in hostility and on the Both of August their
great leader, Weatherford, or the Red Eagle,
as they called him, stormed Fort Minis, the
strongest fort in the Southwest. He took
the fort by surprise, with thousand warriors
behind him, and after five hours of terrible
fighting destroyed it, killing above five hun
dred men, women and children.
This was the news that startled the settlers
in the region where the Alabama and Tom
bigbee Rivers come together. TWAS certain,
after such a massacre as that, that the Indians
meant to destroy the settlements, and kill all
the white people without mercy.
In order to protect themselves and their
families the settlers built rude forts by setting
timber endwise in the ground and the peo-
ing their homes to be burned, and their crops
to be destroyed, and their cattle to be
killed or carried off by the Indians, the set
tiers hastily got together whatever food they
could and took their families into the near
est forts.
One of the smallest of these stockade forts
was called Sinquefeld. 1t stood in what is
now called Clark County, Ala, and, as that
region was very thnly settled, there were
not enough of men to make a strong force
for the defence of the tort. But the brave
farmers and hunters thought they could hold
the place, and so they took their families there
as quickly as they could.
Two families, numbering seventeen per-
sons, found it was not easy to go to Sinque-
field on the I'd of September, and so, as they
were pretty sure that there were no Indians
in their neighborhood, they made up their
minds to stay one more night at house q
few miles from the fort. That night they
were attacked, and all but five of them were
killed. Those who got away carried the
news of what had happened to the fort, and a
party was sent out to bring in the bodies.
The next day all the people in Fort Sinque-
field went out to bKng their dead friends
in a valley at some little distance from the
fort, and, strange as it seems, they took no
arms with them. Believing that there were
no Indians near the place, they left the gates
of the fortress open, and went out in body
without their guns
AS a matter OF fact, there was a large body
of Indians not only very near them, but ac-
tually looking at them all the time. The
celebrated Prophet Francis was in command,
and in his sly way he kept as near the fort rs
possible to look for good chance to attack it.
Making his men lie down and crawl like
snakes, he had reached point only few
hundred yards from the stockade without
alarming the people; and now while they
stood around the graves oftheir friends with
oIt arms to defend themselves with, host
of their savage enemies lay looking at them
from the grass and bushes on the hill
AS soon as he saw the right moment had
come, Francis sprang up with savage war
cry, and at the head of his warriors made a
dash at the gates. He had seen that the men
outside were unarmed, and his plan was to
get to the gates before they could reach them
and thus get all the people of the place at his
mercy in an open field and without arms to
fight with.
The fort people were quick to see what his
purpose was, and the men hurried forward
with all their might, hoping to reach the fort
before the savages could get there. By run.
ming at the top oftheir speed they did this, and
closed the gates in time to keep the Indians out
But to their horror they then saw that theiI
wives and children were shut out too. I'm
| able to run so fast as the men had done, the
women and children had fallen behind, and
| now the Indians were between them and the
gates
Seeing that he had missed his chance OF
getting possession of the fort, Francis turned
upon the women and children with savage
delight in the thought of butcherlng these
helpless creatures In the sight of their hus-
bands, fathers and brothers.
1t was moment ofterror. There were moi
half enough white men in the fort to master
so large force of Indians, and if there had
been it was easy to see that by the time they
could get their rifles and go to the rescue il
would be too late.
At that moment the hero of this bit of his
tory came upon the scene. This was young
man named Isaac Haden. He was a notable
huntsman, who kept famous pack ofLounds
fierce brutes, thoroughly trained to run
down and seize any living thing that their
master chose to chase. The young man had
been out in search of stray cattle, and just at
| the moment when matters were at their worst
he rode up to the fort, followed by his sixty
dogs.
Isaac Haden had a cool head and very
daring spirit. He was in the habit of taking
in a situation at glance, deciding quickly
| what was to be done, and then doing it at any
| risk that might be necessary. AS soon as he
saw how the women and children were plac
ed, he cried out to his dogs, aud at the head
of the believing pack, charged upon the flank
of the Indians. The dogs did their work will
a spirit equal to their masters. For each tc
seize red warrior and drag him to earth was
the work of a moment, and the whole body
of savages was soon in confusion. For Q
time they had all they could do to defend
themselves against the unlooked-fo assault
of the fierce animals, and before they coult
peat off the dogs the men of the fort came
out and Joined in the attack, so that the wo
men and children had time to make theil
way inside the gates, only one of them
a Mrs Phillips, having been killed.
The men, of course, had to follow the WON
en- closely, as they were too weak in numbers
to risk battle outside. If they had done SC
the Indians would have overcome them quick
ly, and then the fort and everybody in i
would have been at their mercy, so they hur
ried into the fort as soon as the women wer'
4 oafa