The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1932-08-12

the Licking river Most of the Indians, Showing
a characteristic fckleness, declined to go any
farther on the expedition but Caldwell and
Mckee managed to keep together some 800 Wy
andots and Lake Indians and with these and
their Detroit rangers set out to invade Ken
lucky and to attack the five small stockaded
settlements in Fayette county.
On August 10 they appeared before Bryan's
Station, the northernmost settlement in Fayette
county, which was defended by less than so
men. The story of the brief siege Of Bryan's
Station is one of the classics of Kentucky his
tory. Included in it is the story of its heroic
women who took their lives in their hands
to bring pals of refreshing water drawn from
the spring which lay outside the fort and who,
gambling that the Indians would not spoil their
chance for a surprise attack on the fort by
molesting them, went singing down the path
though no enemy were near although they knew
that savage eyes looked out at them from every
bush along the trail. Included in it. too, is the
story of young Aaron Reynolds. When Simon
Girty tried to get the defenders of the fort to
surrender by assuring them that reinforcements
with artillery were on the way and that no
quarter would be given if the sayages stormed
the fort, Reynolds sprang to the top of the
walls and replied to the renegade, telling him
that the people of Bryans Station feared neither
their reinforcements nor artillery but that if
Girty and his followers gained entrance to the
fort Reynolds and his friends would scorn to
use their rifles but would drive them out with
switches.
After the failure of attempts to set fire to
the fort, the enemy withdrew. Meanwhile mes
sengers had been sent to the other stations ask
ing for help and by the evening of August II
force of $50 men had assembled at Bryan's Sta
ton. From Boones Station came that famous
Kentuckian at the head of his men, among them
his youngest son, Israeli from Lexington and
McConnellS and McGee's Stations came the men
under John Todd and from Harrodsburg came
those under Colonel Trigg and Majors McGarry
and Harlan. More were reported coming from
Lincoln county under Colonel Logan, but the
Kentuckians decided to follow the invaders at
once without waiting for Logan.
Then began the pursuit which was to end in
the famous Battle of Blue Licks, fought on the
banks of the Licking river on August 10, 1882.
There the rash counsel of a hot-headed officer
prevailed over the wisdom of Daniel Boone and
precipitated an attack which ended in disaster.
For the flower of Kentucky's manhood fell that
day-out of approximately $50 men, 67 killed
outright or murdered as they lay wounded and
seven captured of whom four died at the tor
ture stake.
For time it seemed that Kentucky could not
recover from this crushing disaster Then
George Rogers Clark, who had seemed to be
suffering from strange lethargy during this
critical year. was aroused to his old-tme energy
he sent out runners to all the settlements call
ing upon all able-bodied men to rally for blow
at the Indians. Again the magic of his name
asserted itself and in a short time he had gath
cred together force of more than a thousand
mounted riflemen. On November 4 he left the
banks of the Ohio and started north On Noyem-
Der 10 he attacked and burned the Miami towns
THE loss to the savages at the beginning of
cold weather was very great" writes Roosevelt
They were utterly cast down and panic-strick-
en- at such a proof of the power of the whites
coming as it did soon after the Battle of
Blue Licks. The expedition returned in triumph
and the Kentuckians completely reganed their
self-confdence; and though for ten years long
er Kentucky suffered from the inroads of small
parties of savages, it was never again threat
ened by a serious invasion"
So the disastrous last year of the Revolution
ended in triumph. But even more important
than the fact of triumph over savage foes was
the Importance of the events of that year to the
future history of America For when it came
time for the peace commissioners to make the
treaty which ended the Revolution it was the
conquests of George Rogers Clark In the Old
Northwest ending with his expedition in 1852
which strengthened the hand of the American
commissioners in demanding that the western
boundaries OF the new nation should be the
mississippi river and the Great Lakes arr
america was assured Of her inland empire
&c by Western Newspaper Union,