The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1883-08-30
BRAVE HADEN AND HIS DOGS.
An Incident of the Creek War.

was at that time in the midst of the sec
ond war with Great Britain, and for a
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
Ito 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
30th 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 thou
sand warriors behind him, and after five
hours of terrible fighting destroyed it,
killing above five hundred men, women
and children.
This was the news that startled the
settlers in the region where the Alabama
and Tombigbee Rivers come together.
1t was 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 timbers endwise in the
ground, and the people hurried to these
places for safety. Leaving their homes
to be burned, their crops to be destroyed,
and their cattle to be killed or carried
off by the Indians, the settlers hastily
got together whatever food they could.
and took their families into the nearest
forts.
One of the smallest of these stoekade
forts was called Sinquefeld. 1t stood
in what is now called Clarke County,
Ala, and, as that region was very thin
ly settled, there were not enough men
to make a strong force for the defense of
the fort. 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
persons, found it was not easy to 90 to
Sinquefield 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 a house 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
party was sent out to bring in the
bodies
The next day all the people in Fort
Sinquefield went out to bury their dead
friends IN a valley at some little dis
lance 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 matter of fact, there was large
body of Indians not only very near
them, but actually looking at them all
the time. The celebrated Prophet
Francis was in command, and in his sly
way he kept as near the fort as posi-
bic to look for a good chance to attack
it. Making his men lie down and
crawl ike snakes, he had reached
a point only few hundred wards
from the stockade without alarm
ing the people; and now while they
stood around the graves of their friends
without arms to defend themselves with,
host of their. savage enemies lay look
ing 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 dash at the gates. He
had seen that the men outside were I'M
armed, 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 with
out arms TO fight with.
The fort people were quick to see
what his purpose was, and the men hur-
ried forward with all their might, hop
ing to reach the fort before the savages
could get there. BY running at the top
OF their speed they did this, and closed
the gates in time to keep the Indians
out. But to their horror they then saw
that their wives and children were shut
out too. Unable to run so fast as the
men had done, the women and chill
dren had fallen behind, and now the In
dams 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
butchering these helpless creatures in
the sight of their husbands, fathers and
brothers.
1t was moment Of terror. There
were not half enough white men in the
fort to master SO large force of In
dians, and if there had been it was easy
to see that by the time they could get
their rifles and go to the rescue it would
be too late.
At that moment the hero of this bit of
history came upon the scene. This was
young man named Isaac Haden. He
was notable huntsman, who kept a
famous pack of hounds-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 cool head and a
very daring spirit. He was in the habit
of taking in a situation at glance, de-
Gliding quickly what was to be done, and
then doing it at any risk that might be