The Plymouth Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1878-1901, 1901-07-18

hidden enemy. For three hours the
slaughter continued. Sixty-three
officers out of eighty-six and more
than seven hundred men out of twelve
hundred lay dead or wounded along
the road and at the margin of the
river. Four out of every five of the
provincials lost their lives, SO deSper-
ately did they fight in the effort to
protect the dastardly regulars and
rally them for retreat. Through
it all rode Washington, calm, un-
daunted and uninjured, doing all
within his power to still the tumult,
and gradually, as their officers fell
and their formations were lost. the
backwoodsmen gathered about him
and pushed to the front to retard the
pursuit they expected. Sammy John
was among the foremost and his
steady bearing and fated aim had al
ready marked him among the infur-
lated demons in the thicket, as Wash
ington was also marked. He passed
over to the calm Young giant on
horseback and said, Colonel, our
ammunition is expended and our
fight is over: four or five of us will
hold this road for a few minutes
longer while you lead the rest across
the river" and while he was Just
yet speaking he lunged heavily against
the horse, the horse fell a moment
later and carried him down, both in
stantly killed. and Washington rose
to his feet with two bullet holes
through his clothes. The fight was
over for Sammy John and his noble
soul had pasSe across the river where
all is peace.
The survivors, now, as if moved by
a commonIimpulse, rushed tumultuous-
" from the bloody field, unable to
care for the wounded, and the Ind
ians, unhindered by the French,
scalped, mutilated and robbed until
darkness settled down upon. the land.
There was no pursuit, the harvest was
already rich enough, but the senseless
terror of the routed troops did not
abate even when Dunbar's division
was met and it likewise was infected
Destroying or abandoning the provis-
ions. stores. wagons and heavy guns,
they ''all fled together, eager to es-
cape from the shadows of those awful
woods, whose horrors haunted their
On. on, to Philadel-
phia the disgraceful flight continued,
leaving the border settlements de-
fenseless against the bloodthirsty saw
ages, who devastated the frontier with
reeking knife and flaming torch that
terrible season of havoc and deSOla-
ton.
There was one who did not flee
eastward with the scarlet mob. When
Angus Corbly realized the extent of
the disaster that had befallen the adj
vance he began search for his friend
and master. Eagerly he scanned
every face, earnestly he asked for in
formation, but group after group of
wild-eyed men hurried by and no one
would attend to his inquiries. Anx-
lousy he waited until the wounded
began to struggle helplessly along and
a great dread seized his heart: he stag
gered for moment as though he
would fall, then set himself resolutely
on the road toward the scene of bat
tie. Rapidly and tirelessly he pur-
sued his way, scarcely stopping to
sleep i'm the woods or drink at the
mountain brooks, guided by the cast
off accouterments of the fleeing sold
iers and by the dead and wounded at
the roadside; all of whom he scrutini-
zed as he passed, and at last he reach
ed the ford and crossed it. He knew
then that he had come to the ground
of the massacre, for there lay the
heaps of bloody, mangled dead, strip
ped and Scalped, fostering under the
hot July sun, and he felt that some
where in those awful heaps lay the
object of his search, that body
which he dreaded to find yet could
not forbear seeking. Sadly
picking his way further up the road,
dazed and almost overcome by the
multiplying evidences of remorseless
butchery, he passed into the narrow
part under the deep shadows of the
trees without observing
several figures that darted into the
tangled underbrush little ahead and
while he was peering into the dis
torted faces of the dead, one after
he was startled by sudden
seizure and found himself within the
power of grinning Indian, who was
instantly joined by several others.