The Coolidge examiner., 1933-08-04

| linen ColoneI Elllott pretending 10 be fear
full for Ships safety, urged him to return to
| the fort at once. AS he started an Indian sprang
from the bushes and tried to wrest his sword
from him Dixon pretended to drag the savage
away with great dffculty-a bit Of play acting
which did not frighten the young ensign in the
| least Croghan. standing on the walls Of the
| fort and seeing the insult 10 his envoy, immed
| ately shouted Come In, Shipp and Wen blow
em all to HI"
Convinced that the garrison could not be
| bluffed out, the British began their bombardment
which continued at intervals all night, during
which time they landed five sixpounders park.
ing three Of them in battery on hill covered
by trees about 2j0 yards from the stockade
From this position they opened a furious fire
the next morning TO which the Americans made
little reply During the night also Captain Hunt
er, Croghan's second in command anticipating
an assault on the northwest corner OF the stock.
ade, had dragged "Old Betsy" to the blockhouse
on the north wall placing II so il would rake the
ditch The little cannon was filed with half
charge OF powder because Of the short range,
and double charge OF slugs and bullets. The
portfolio was masked so the British would not
suspect the presence of the gun there
Late in the afternoon OF August a storming
party of 300 British rushed for the northwest
corner while party of 200 grenadlers made
tack the south wall Under cover Of a fierce
fire from the batteries the storming party dashed
forward and because of the smoke their pres
ence was not discovered until they were less
than 20 yards from the fort. Immediately
Croghans men poured a deadly rifle fire upon
the attackers who were thrown into confusion
for moment.
Then Lieutenant-Colonel Short sprang to the
head Of the column. Waving his sword in the
air, he rallied his men who rushed forward with
fixed bayonets. AT the edge Of the ditch the Bri-
ton shouted Come on, men! Wen give the
ID Yankees quarterI" and led the way
down into the ditch and up the other side. For
moment they were safe there, for the Amer
leans could not depress their rifles enough to
shoot the enemy in the ditch without exposing
themselves above the palisades to the fire of
the Indians
But just at this moment the masked portfolio
was thrown open and the black snout Of "Old
Betsy" appeared. The next instant she poured
out a blast Of lead at short range which killed
or wounded no less than so men, Colonel Short
received mortal wound and with his last effort
he raised his handkerchief the point of his
sword. pleading for the mercy which but a mo-
ment before he had said he would not give
Keeling back from the slaughter pen in the
ditch, the surviving attackers beat a hasty re-
treat, many of them being dropped by the long
rifles Of the Kentuckians as they ran The at
tack on the south wall had also been beaten off
with heavy loss to the British, but It was that
one terrible blast from "Old Betsy" which had
turned the tide of battle. The British artillery
resumed its bombardment but 1t was only half
hearted and Croghan knew that he had little
more to fear from them
During the night Croghan's men mercifully
lowered buckets of water to the wounded red
coats in the ditch and small trench was dug
under the stockade which allowed those who
were able to crawl inside the fort. Some of
those not badly wounded managed to creep
away across the clearing and rejoin their COM
mand unmoested During the night, also, the
British force retreated going so precipitously
that they left behind boatload of stores and
munitions which fell into the hands Of the
Americans the next morning.
Croghans faith in his ability to hold the fort
was more than justified He had won decisive
victory over greatly superior force, infcting
loss Of more than 100 out Of the 500 enemy
engaged not counting the casualties among the
Indians which unknown His own loss was
exactly one killed and seven wounded! But more
important than this defeat of enemy force
at such cost to them was the fact that in hold
ing Fort Stephenson he had saved the American
supply depOts and freed the state of Ohio from
the fears of hostile invasion with its attend
ant horrors at the hands of the red allies of
the British. More than that, the outcome of the
war might have been different if ProctOr's in
vasion had been successful Just as his dis
tnguished uncle, George Rogers Clark, had done
a third of a century before, so had young George
Croghan done again-he had saved the Old
Northwest to the American flag
tG by Western Newspaper UniOn)