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Massacres
- West Virginia University Press
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62 VII MASSACRES * * * AFTER BRADDOCK’S DEFEAT, many of the back inhabitants gave themselves up for lost. In Pennsylvania and Maryland the frontiers were almost deserted,but the settlers along the Shenandoah were made of sterner stuff. It is true that some did leave, and many considered it; but when in Augusta County the timorous congregations asked for the advice of the Reverend John Craig, he spoke out strongly: Some of the richer sort that could take some money with them to live upon were for flying to a safer part of the country. My advice was then asked for, which I gave, opposing the scheme as a scandal to our nation , a falling below our brave ancestors, a making ourselves a reproach among Vandals, a dishonor to our brave friends at home, an evidence of cowardice, want of faith, and of a noble Christian dependence on God as able to save and deliver us from the heathen. It would be a lasting blot to our posterity. Having thus gently admonished, the Reverend Mr. Craig set his people to fortifying their stone churches. It was not of shadows or of rumors that the settlers were afraid. They had seen things happen. They knew the stark facts which cannot be embroidered, the truth so dreadful that the statement of it stops massacres 63 the mind. The Indians came to Frederick in the spring, when the oak leaves were a little bigger than a mouse’s ear and the ground dried out enough for planting. Eighteen or twenty of them crossed the North Mountain at Mills Gap, found Patrick Kelly plowing, and killed him; found his wife milking, and killed her also. One of the children got away to give the alarm, crouching and running through the underbrush like a little animal. Each family that heard the news rode or ran for John Evans’s fort near Martinsburg. The more improvident had laughed at him when he laboriously cut saplings for a stockade, but they were glad enough to use it now. His own brother did not start in time, for there was enough thin green in the woods around his house to make a little cover and as the Indians burst out of it Tom had barely time to run in and slam the door. He fought them off, and when they went for reinforcements, he took the desperate chance of trying to reach the fort before they got back. His wife ran, carrying the two least children . The man ran, carrying his gun. The other children stumbled after them. The Evanses arrived safely, but Polly Martin was not so lucky. On her way to Strodes she met little Joe Hackney, who told her that everybody had already gone to the fort, but she would not pay attention to him. Beyond the grove she could see a thin column of smoke curling into the blue spring air, and she wanted to reach friends quickly rather than run the uncertain miles alone. She was over the rise when she saw that the smoke came from a burning house instead of from a hearth. And then the Indians were around her, their black masks grinning, and she too frozen with fear to speak or run. She was a likely looking girl, and they took her along. The people crowded into the fort, and nothing happened. A day passed, and a night, and nothing happened. The children grew restless , rolling on the ground like puppies, driving their mothers wild. After a while the men said it was a shame to leave Patrick Kelly lay like a hog, and him a Christian, and they made up a party to go and bury [3.95.231.212] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 12:02 GMT) 64 the shenandoah him. Several hours after they left, a lookout saw the black head of an Indian creeping through the tall dried weeds left from the summer. Then the Indians yelled. Inside the fort everyone was quiet.Even the children did not scream. They just stared, big-eyed, at their mothers, and their mothers looked back with nothing to say to them. It was Mrs. John Evans who saved them. She grabbed up a gun and gave a gun to every woman who could fire one. Those who were skeered o’ shootin’ she set to rammin’ bullets. “You, little Joe Hackney, get that drum, and beat ‘to arms’ on it. Beat as loud as ever you can. Then everybody fire...