Connecticut as a colony and as a state; or, One of the original thirteen; (1904) (14777710204)

Identifier: connecticutascol02morg (find matches)
Title: Connecticut as a colony and as a state; or, One of the original thirteen;
Year: 1904 (1900s)
Authors: Morgan, Forrest, 1852- ed Hart, Samuel, 1845-1917 Trumbull, Jonathan, 1844-1919 Holmes, Frank R Bartlett, Ellen Strong
Subjects: Connecticut -- History
Publisher: Hartford, The Publishing Society of Connecticut
Contributing Library: New York Public Library
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN



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d rout at once began. The Indians, adding totheir deadly aim in the attack the weird, ominous yell of thewar-whoop, now started in hot pursuit of the fugitives, giv-ing no quarter, and gathering a harvest of scalps for whichthey are said to have been rewarded at the rate of ten dol-lars each by the British. The American officers behaved withgreat bravery, every captain who led a company into theaction having been killed at the head of his company. Twofield officers, Colonel George Dorrance and Major John Gar-rett, were added to the roll of honor. This short and des-perate fight against overwhelming odds resulted in a loss ofone hundred and eighty-two Americans, whose names arerecorded on the Wyoming monument. The loss of theenemy has never been ascertained by historians, but was com-paratively slight. The Indians to whose account stands the record of murdersand tortures which followed the battle were mostly, if not en-tirely, of the Seneca tribe of the Six Nations, under the lead- 134
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CONNECTICUT IN THE REVOLUTION ership of Sayenguaraghton, or Old Chief. The contem-porary accounts, followed by historians down to a very re-cent date, insist that Brant was the leader of the Indians inthis affair; but his own denial, as well as documentary evi-dence published for the first time in 1889, bears out the state-ment that Old Chief, whose name antiquarians have foundspelled in twenty-seven different ways, commanded the In-dian forces at this time. His command appears to have beenalmost if not entirely independent of the leader, Colonel JohnButler, upon whom, however, rests the responsibility of at-taching to his forces a band of Indians whose savage in-stincts could not be restrained. Of the scenes which fol-lowed the battle, it is unnecessary to speak. Those who werekilled on the field were fortunate when compared with thosewho were taken alive and reserved for the fate devised bythe old Indian hag, Queen Esther, who is said to have slainwith her own hands sixteen of these