The Warner weekly sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1885, 1884-06-13
THE CHARGE OF THE HOUNDS.
An Inoident Of the ere,E war.

A terrible lot Of news was carried from
mouth to mouth through the region that
is now Alabama, at the beginning OF
September, 1913. The country was at
that time in the midst of the second war
with Great Britain, and for a long time
the British agents had been trying to
persuade the Creeks-A powerful ma
ton of half civilized but very war-like
Indians who lived in the Alabama-to
join in the war and destroy the white
settlements in the southwest.
For some time the Greeks hessitated,
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,
lWeathersford, or the Red Eagle, as
they called him, stormed Fort MINIS,
Che strongest fort in the southwest. He
book the fort by surprise, WITH thou
sand warriors behind him, and after
five hours Of terrible fighting destroyed
it, killing about five hundred men,
women and children.
This was the news that startled the
settlers in the region where the Alaba-
ma and Tombigbee rivers come together.
It was certain, after sucha 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 what food they could, and
took their families into the nearest
One of the smallest of these stockade
forts was called Sinquefield. 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 defence
of the fort. But the brave farmers and
hunters tho't they could hold the place,
and so they took their families there as
quickly as they could.
Two families, numbering seventeen
persons, found ii was not safe to go to
S~inquefield on the End of September,
and so, as they we're pretty sure that
there were no Indians in their neighbor-
hood, they made up their minds to stay
one more night at a house a few miles
from the fort. That same night they
were attacked, and all but five ofthem
were killed. Those who got away car
ried the news of what had happened to
the fort, and a party was sent out to
bring IN tine bodies.
The next day all the peoplein Fort
Sinquefeld went to bury their dead
friends III a valley at some little distance
from the fort, and strange as it may
seem they took no arms with them. Be
lieving 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 q matter of fact there was a large
body of Indians not only rery 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 neal the fort as possible to look
for a good chance 20 attack it. Making
his men lie down and crawl like snakes,
he had reached a point only a few hun
bred yards from the stockade without
alarming the people; and now while
they stood around the graves of their
friends without arms to defend them
selves with, q host OF their savage enc
Eaies lay looking at them from the grass
and bushes on the hill.
AS soon as he saw the right moment
had come, Francis had sprung up with
D savage war-eTy and at the head of his
warriors made a dash for the gates. He
had een THAT the men outside were UNI
armed aud his plan was to get 10 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
aayages could get there. By running
at the top of theft 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 as