The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1902-10-03
I piled only with muskets, waiting for them


to storm.
So it went all day, the gun-proof block
house enduring Its bombardment and
smoke thickening until it filled the stock
ade as waters fills well, and settled like
a fog between us and the enemy. An at
tack was made on the southern angle
where the cannon was masked.
This Is nothing but a feint," Croghan
said to the younger officers.
While that corner replied with musket-
ry, he kept sharp lookout for the safety
Of the northwest blockhOuse.
One soldier was brought down the lad
der and carried through the murky pail
to the surgeon who could do nothing for
him. Another turned from loophole with
blood upon him. laughing at his mishap.
For the grotesqueness and Inconvenience
Of a wound are sometimes more swiftly
felt than it's pain. He came back pres
emily with his shoulder bandaged and re-
sumed his place at the loophole.
The exhilaration OF that powder atmos-
where and it's heat made soldiers throw
off their coats, as If the expanding human
body was not to be confined in wrappings.
In such twilight Of war the twilight Of
Nature overlook US. Another feint was
made to draw attention from a heavy
force of assailants creeping within twen-
ty PAGES, under cover of smoke, to sur
prise the northwest blockhouse.
Musketry was directed against them:
charge, and himself sprang first into the
ditch We saw the fine fellows leaping
to carry the blockhouse, every man deter
mined to be first in making breach. They
filled the ditch.
This was the instant for which Cro-
CHAN had waited. He opened the portfolio
and unmasked his exactly trained cannon.
1t enfladed the assailants. sweeping them
at distance Of thirty feet; slugs and
grapeshot Kissed. spreading fan rays Of
death! BY the flash Of the reloaded six
FOUNDER, we saw the trench filed with
dead and wounded.
| The besiegers turned.
Croghan's sweating gunners swabbed
and loaded and fired, roaring like lions
| The Indians, Of whom there were near
| ly thousand, were not in the charge,
and when retreat began they went in
panic. We could hear calls and yells, the
clatter Of arms. and a humping of the
earth; the strain Of men Juggling cannon
ropes; the swift withdrawal Of a routed
force. O.
Two thousand more Indians approach
ing under Tecumseh, were turned back
| by refugees i,
! Croghan remarked, as we listened to
the uproar. Fort Stephenson can hardly
be called untenable against heavy artil-
lery."
Then arose cries in the ditch, which
penetrated to women's ears. Neither side
|
before the rout was complete, Croghan
had water let down in buckets to relieve
their thirst, and ordered a trench cut I'M
4 der the pockets OF the stockade. Through
this the poor wretches who were able to
crawl came in and surrendered themselves
and had their wounds dressed.
BY 3 o'clock in the morning not Brit
| ish uniform glinmered red through the
dawn. The noise of retreat ended. Pts
Etols and muakets strewed the ground.
Even a sailboat was abandoned on the
river, holding military stores and tn. the
4 clothing Of officers. s..... z2s's<s ss$
"They thought General Harrison was
coming" laughed Croghan, as he sat down
to an early breakfast, having relieved all
the living in the trench and detailed men
) to bury the dead. 1--WE have lost one man
i and have another under the surgeon
hands Now I'm ready to appear before
a. court-martial for disobeying ORDERS
''You mean you're ready for your i'm
mortal page In history"
"Paragraph," said Croghan; land the
dislike of poor little boys and girls who
will stick their fists in their. eyes when
they have to learn it at school,"
Intense manhood ennobled his long, ami
; mated face The president afterwards
! made him lieutenant-colonel and WON
en- and his superior officers praised him
but he was never more gallant than wher
he said:
"My uncle, George Rogers Clark woule
q have undertaken to hold this fort; and BY
heavens, we were bound to try tt!''
The young officers sat at mess will
!. him, hilarious over the outcome, picturinf
General Proctor's state of mind when h
- learned the age eff his conqueror.
- None of them cared a rap that DAME
4 Webster was opposing the war In TIL
7 house of representatives at Washington
,, and declaring that on land it was a fail
n ure.
A subaltern came to the mess room
y door, touching his cap and asking t
l. speak with Major Croghan. ,8l&*<4
" "The men working outside at i tn
h trenches saw a boy come up from tn
v ravine, sir, and fall every few steps, $
d they've brought him In"
r. Does he carry a dispatch?
l. mo, sir. He isn't moro than nine o
j. ten years old. I think he was prisoner.
Il ha a white hnX2',: