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Updated: May 2, 2025
He declared that there were no less than twenty dead savages lying nearabout the place when he started for the fort, while as many more, badly wounded, were putting forth every effort at escaping beyond range of our gun.
I asked, giving words to the question which had been in my mind ever since we came to a halt. "Our only chance is to keep movin' nearabout Thayendanega's camp, an' trustin' to accident for comin' across him."
"But surely there is no danger of meetin' any of the savages now," I said, like a simple, and he replied, with a laugh: "True for you, lad; but General Herkimer was to begin an advance on the mornin' after we left camp, and he should be nearabout. To run upon his sentinels in the darkness might not be agreeable."
"Then I shall try my fist at it," and the old man went up to my comrade, taking him gently by the hand, and leading him into the thicket just beyond view of the encampment. There the two seemingly conversed for a long time, and I was left comparatively alone, until the soldier who had told us of General Herkimer's doings nearabout Johnson Hall, came up.
As I figger it, we had best bear off to the westward, strikin' the fort on that side nearabout where the fragment of a bush stands, than to push on for the main gate. It seems reasonable the enemy will watch that part of the works closer than any other, in order to guard against a sortie, an' if Colonel Gansevoort has been told of our signals, every sentinel will be on the alert for us." "Well?"
Samuel Campbell, my uncle, was one of the leading patriots in that section of the province, and it was well known that the Johnsons, Sir John and Guy, the Butlers, Daniel Claus, and, in fact, all the Tories nearabout, would direct that the first blow be struck at Cherry Valley, in order that my uncle might be killed or made prisoner; therefore, at the time when we lads frightened Joseph Brant without our own knowledge, we were in daily fear of being set upon by our enemies.
He strode off in advance, with never a glance backward to see if I was following, and in silence we went on toward the danger-point at a swift pace, until the old man halted to say, in a whisper: "There should be sentinels nearabout, unless Thayendanega believes he has killed all the decent men in the Mohawk Valley; so have your wits about you, lad, for a mistake now will cost us dearly."
At first I believed it was a wounded Indian, who was so crazed with pain or fear as not to be aware of the direction in which he was proceeding, and then a cry went up from the soldiers nearabout me: "Reuben Cox! Reuben Cox!" "Was he one of the deserters?"
"Look at the Indian encampment; do you think there's anybody nearabout that place who's keepin' an eye on this 'ere fort?" "Even the squaws have gone over to the British quarters; they've been paddlin' across the river for the last half-hour," Jacob replied, and as a matter of fact I failed to see a living being outside the lodges, search with my eyes as I might.
Leger's force had resulted in breaking up the combination between the British and the Indians, in which case Thayendanega would not be able to ravage the country nearabout Cherry Valley, as he had doubtless counted on.
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