Show american I 1 Re heroines I 1 1 by LOUISE JISE na M COMSTOCK mercy Mar harbison bison velt two hundred women most 0 of them wives fivos and mothers followed the array army that gen arthur st clair led out of 0 the bust best in ID 1701 to quell indian uprisings in the ahlo ln in diana territory and the most tragic of st clairs famous defeat lit at tho the hands of niue blue jacket little turtle find and simon girty was the frightful den death i of over fifty of them their at the scene of battle and tile the sufferings many of them wore were forced to endure afterwards there was mercy harbison whose eshand survived the battle but was immediately ely ordered out again to spy upon uon the in n tile the wilderness W early E arly one morning ino when w it en he e had been summoned to tile the nearby blockhouse AIL mercy ircy awoke ce to find a palti ted redskin pulling her out of bed and her cabin filled alth indians hoping to distract the indians attention and make es cripe possible for herself rod and three cliff dren she bagna to talk of the tort fort or of t the he forty able bodied men stationed there all excellent marksmen liel her re account aunt saved the fort rather tb than a n herself rs if for tile the indians alarmed merely hastened their work of pillage and sot set out with their prisoners not even giving alv ig the bewildered woman time to change from tier her nightclothes night clothes tile the second child who whimpered and tiling hung back they slaughtered before f ore the cabin the eldest who was wn s hurt when one of them the horses fell on the second days march they also murdered and fla daunted tinted his scalp before the agonized nin mothers eyes finally exhausted with the long march through the woods with her baby in her arms mercy refused to carry further the large powder horn wl which tell had been assigned her hoping t the h e savages would kill her butr outright ight find and put an end to her sufferings instead the indian who claimed her as his h Is particular prize approved her action net act t I 1 on anti and protected tier her against the rest at length left in charge of two indians who took turns keeping watch for pursuers she made tier her escape while one of her guards slept witt with her baby in a sling one end of which she held tn in her hand the other in her hei teeth while she pushed back bach the undergrowth der growth with her other arm she wn wandered n dered for three days through the forest living on roots and berries in co constant n stant terror test lest her babas cries ill should 0 id reveal her hiding place when sil she e finally readied reached a settlement on th the e alleghany allegheny Alleg hany river where she was nursed bade back to health and later returned to her husband she was in such it a condition that lifelong friends friend 8 from whom she had been parted only Y BS r ix days did not recognize herl her I 1 mary slocum IT T WAS a dream that brought au out t the quality of daring in mary alary slocum and won tier her lasting fame as the heroine of the battle of moores creek at the outset of the revolutionary evolutionary war the british were landing troops at wilmington hoping to enlist the aid of the loyalists settled in the south souta ern states and invade north Par carolina olInn A hand band of supporters of king george immediately assembled to in the high lands and commenced a march to the sea to loin join the british expedition pa rallying froni from the sections above greenborg greenboro Green boro and below new newbern bern under th leadership of lasses james moore rich ard caswell and alexander planned P tanned to halt their march at the nar row bridge over alo moores ores creek among the patriots was ezekial sio cum of wayne county tile the night preceding the battle his wife mary alary had a dream 1 I saw dis ly she wrote afterwards a hotly body wrapped in my husbands guard blonk b bloody I 1 on dy dond dead and others dead and wounded on the ground about him I 1 saw them plainly and distinctly I 1 ut lit a cry and sprang to my feet on the floor and so strong was the int im pres slon on try rov mind that I 1 rushed in the direction the vision hail had appeared anti and came up against the side of the house marys Aff irys only thought was that slip roust must pet get to tier her husband she ran out to tile the stable and saddled a mare leaped to her hack back and tore off down the dark road quite unaware of the dangers she risked when the lawn dawn broke slip she was already thirty miles from home about nine when both slie she and her horse were nearly exhausted she heard the thunder of cannon then only a hundred yards from moores creek bridge she came upon a group of wounded men lying under some trees and among them lay one wrapped in her husbands bloody guard cloak I 1 the th e wounded man it seems was not ezekial eze k fal slocum after all but frank cogwell coga ell a neighbor of theirs and a man noted for his way witt with women mary alary set to work washing his wounds binding them up tip with heart leaves and administering also to the other wounded presently her husband did appear as bluntly blundy as a butcher slip she said later and duly astonished to find his wife there holding cogwell ten derly in her arms ile he had just comp come from the furious charge I 1 that hat had rout ed the loyalists and prevented the brit isal invasion of north carolina and when the battle done richard cas car well came up tip and asked tier her how slip came caine there fary slocum answered oil I 1 thought you ion would need nurses its as well ns 08 soldiers 1 1912 1012 centero newspaper union |