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Black Kettle in the sheltered Washita Valley might never have fallen before General Custer had the Cheyennes kept to the high places after the custom of their fathers. But the early white settlers had firearms and skill in building block-houses, so they took to the valleys near wood and water.
On the other two faces of the square stood several block-houses, a style of structure which, from their adaptation to purposes of defence as well as of accommodation, were every where at that period in use in America, and are even now continued along the more exposed parts of the frontier.
His powerful army was before Plattsburgh, only defended by three redoubts and two block-houses; he had been permitted, for three days, to bring up his heavy artillery; he had a force with him ten times greater than that which, under Colonel Murray, took possession of it, in 1813; and yet Sir George Prevost hesitated to attack Plattsburgh, until he could obtain the co-operation of Commodore Downie, commanding the Confiance, of 36 guns, the Linnet, of 18 guns, the Chubb, of 10 guns, the Finch, of 10 guns, and 12 gun-boats, containing 16 guns! because the enemy had a squadron consisting of the ship Saratoga, of 26 guns, the brig Eagle, of 20 guns, the schooner Ticonderoga, of 17 guns, and the cutter Preble, of 7 guns.
In the block-houses the same formidable array of field-pieces and muskets was visible; while from the four angles of the square, as many heavy guns, that had been artfully masked at the entrance of the chiefs, seemed ready to sweep away every thing that should come before them. The guard-room near the gate presented the same hostile front.
The provisions laid in could not be considerable, and so enormous a multitude could not hold out many days. At once the legions were set to work cutting trenches or building walls as the form of the ground allowed. Camps were formed at different spots, and twenty-three strong block-houses at the points which were least defensible. The lines where the circuit was completed were eleven miles long.
And now from Stabroek, where old Mansfeid lay with his army, all the way across the flooded country, ran the great bulwark, strengthened with new palisade-work and block-houses, bristling with Spanish cannon, pike, and arquebus, even to the bank of the Scheldt, in the immediate vicinity of Fort Lille. That fortress and the whole line of the Kowenstyn were held in the iron grip of Mondragon.
It was built of timber cut in the pine woods seven miles distant, and was surrounded by a palisade or high fence of thick pickets set upright. Saw mills were placed in the woods, and the wood-camps were protected by block-houses. Almost one hundred wagons were used, to haul the logs and boards. One hundred miles onward, another fort was started: Fort C. F. Smith.
Once the Ottawa made a movement as if he would have cleared the space that kept him from his warriors; but the emphatical pointing of the finger of Colonel de Haldimar to the levelled muskets of the men in the block-houses prevented him, and the attempt was not repeated.
On the next morning we rode to Fort Leavenworth. Colonel, now General, Kearny, to whom I had had the honor of an introduction when at St. Louis, was just arrived, and received us at his headquarters with the high-bred courtesy habitual to him. Fort Leavenworth is in fact no fort, being without defensive works, except two block-houses. No rumors of war had as yet disturbed its tranquillity.
He felt that so much at least was expected of him on the part of England. 'But now, monsieur, with regard to your own affair. You have been five years in the service of his Highness. And your command? 'At present fifty troopers at the block-houses above Kofn Ford and along the river.
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