Boone: A Biography (40 page)

About noon on Tuesday Pompey approached the gate and shouted that Blackfish and the Shawnees wanted to look at the women in Boone’s family. They had heard that Jemima was a great beauty. Boone replied that since her kidnapping Jemima and the other women were very much afraid of Indians. Pompey answered that they would only need to come to the gate where the warriors could see them. Hoping it would buy more time, Boone persuaded Jemima and several of the other women to step outside the fort. From the distance, where Blackfish and the other chiefs stood, Pompey yelled for them to let down their hair. “
They took out the combs
,” Jemima’s granddaughter later said, “and let their hair flow over their shoulders.” The Indians appeared to enjoy the sight and then moved away.

Those inside the fort seem to have understood the request to see the women as a gesture on the part of Blackfish to show his appreciation and common humanity. The only resentment came from some of the men who were angry that Pompey was present. The huge black man had already irritated them with his strutting manner. As the translator, he knew he was essential, indispensable. It appeared he tried to infuriate them with his assurance and independence. They threatened to shoot him when he came within range again. Late in the day Pompey called out to the fort that it was time for an answer. Blackfish and Moluntha and the Shawnees had waited long enough. Boone and Smith and several others filed out to meet the Indians. Boone told his Shawnee father that the people inside the fort had decided to fight as long as one of them was alive. Blackfish appeared to be shocked, speechless, and then he told Boone that his answer put the Shawnees in an awkward position. Hamilton had told him to avoid a massacre. All wanted a peaceful resolution to this standoff. Blackfish suggested that they talk further, bringing chiefs from all the Shawnee towns to the meeting. Boone was surprised by the proposal and later told
Filson the added day of negotiation “
sounded grateful in our ears
.” All along Boone had been hoping for some negotiated settlement, as had Blackfish. The two men understood each other and had a great deal in common. Boone agreed that several leaders from the fort would meet with the council of Shawnee chiefs the next day. The battle had been forestalled one more time.

On Wednesday, September 9, the women of Boonesborough prepared a large meal of venison and buffalo tongue, fresh corn and beans and squash and other vegetables, bread and milk. Tables were carried out to the meadow in front of the fort and the Shawnees were invited to the feast. The settlers hoped that with a lavish show of frontier hospitality they could demonstrate the confidence and affluence of the fort. If need be, they were prepared for a long siege.

After the feast was eaten, the Shawnee chiefs and the chosen leaders from the fort met at a spot chosen by Blackfish sixty yards from the fort, near the great elm, the Divine Elm, where the first Kentucky Convention had met three years before. The site was near the rim of the bank of the small stream that ran through Sycamore Hollow. During the previous night, Blackfish had hidden several of his best riflemen in the brush nearby. Nine of the leading men of Boonesborough were included in the delegation. Boone had instructed the riflemen in the fort to cover them from the loopholes. At the first sign of trouble they were to fire into the group without fear of hitting the settlers, “
as they would be more likely, two to one
, to hit an Indian than a white man.”

Daniel Bryan described to Draper the seating arrangement. “
They all met at the appointed place
and seated in the following manner one white man and two indians one whiteman and two indians; on the back seat one indian behind every whiteman.” Bryan said that each Indian who stood behind a white man carried a concealed tomahawk to prevent the whites from escaping. One chief present was named Black Hoof, another Black Bird. The Indians’ faces were painted red and black for war.

After a round of formal introductions Boone pointed out that many
of the Shawnees were not chiefs but young warriors. Blackfish sent some away, but Indians still outnumbered whites two to one. “
Blackfish said that there was indians
in that Army from twenty-four Different towns and that there must be one indian from every town.” Both an American and a British militiaman kept minutes of the meeting, but the documents were later lost. Blackfish began by proposing to withdraw his army if the settlers would agree to abandon Kentucky in six weeks. This proposal was quickly rejected and Blackfish angrily demanded, “
By what right did you come and
settle here?” Boone replied that the region had been purchased from the Cherokees by Richard Henderson at Sycamore Shoals. Blackfish pretended he knew nothing about the Sycamore Shoals treaty and turned to a Cherokee present and asked if Boone’s statement was true. The Cherokee answered that what Boone said was correct. Acting surprised, Blackfish said, “
That entirely alters the case
; you must keep it, and live on it in peace.” Captain Smith later remembered that Blackfish proposed that both sides agree that the Ohio River was the proper boundary between them, but after a cooling-off period either side would be free to cross the river to hunt in the other’s territory. Boone later told Rev. John Mason Peck that Blackfish’s proposal was contingent on both sides swearing allegiance to the British Crown, “
only submitting to the British authorities
in Canada, and taking the oath of allegiance to the King.” Blackfish had to return to Detroit with something for Hamilton.

Boone and the other men from the fort appeared to agree to the proposal. At the very least it gave them six weeks to strengthen the defenses and hope for the arrival of the militia from Virginia. It is interesting that in this instance Richard Callaway and the others seemed willing to play the same stratagem Boone had played at Chillicothe and Detroit, to pretend to be willing to submit to the Crown. It must have appeared necessary at the moment to prevent bloodshed. Who knew what would happen in the future if Blackfish withdrew his warriors across the Ohio? The Indians might never be able to assemble such a force again. “
That Boone and his friends should have
signed a treaty,
in which the main condition was subjection to the . . . King of Great Britain, appears at first view a little more questionable,” John Mason Peck commented. It is almost certain neither side had any intention of observing the terms of the treaty.

Blackfish then said he must explain to his warriors the intricate details of the agreement. He stood up and turned toward the Indians assembled at a distance. In a voice of great eloquence, sounding, some said, like a preacher, others, like a skilled orator, Blackfish addressed his army. Boone was only able to follow a few sentences of the speech, but they sounded consistent with what the chief had proposed. When he finished his address, Blackfish turned to the whites and said, “
Brothers, we have made a long
and lasting treaty, and now we will shake hands.” Even though there were two Indians for each white, he told Boone and the others not to be alarmed, “when they were very loving, they took as near the heart as they could.” He stepped up to Boone, his son, and embraced him. The other chiefs extended their arms to embrace the other Americans. The Shawnees said they would shake hands “Indian-style,” with an Indian taking either arm of each white man. “
This stratagem to captivate the whites
had been foreseen by Boone, & according to his directions, as soon as the indns: commenced to grapple, & endeavor to secure the white men, a party in the fort, poured a full and heavy fire on them in the lump,” Josiah Collins later told Draper. Boone and the others said later that they saw at that instant the whole treaty proposal had been a ploy. “
But treachery took place
,” Nathan said, “and a scuffle ensued. My father threw Blackfish flat on the ground.” The plan seemed to be to grab the men from the fort and wrestle or drag them over the nearby bank out of rifle range of the fort and hold them as hostages. When Blackfish “
in that manner gave the word go
the[y] all started to drag his man behind the clay Bank where they could murder them without any danger from the fort.” With the leaders in custody under threat of torture and scalping and death by fire, the settlers would have to surrender the fort to the large Shawnee army. Boone had instructed his men in the fort to
fire at the first sign of trouble, and they did. Blackfish had planted his marksmen nearby the night before, and as soon as the struggle began the Indians commenced firing too.

Some historians have suggested that Blackfish did not premeditate this attempt to take hostages, that he was negotiating the treaty and embracing the white leaders in good faith. Their argument is that had he planned to attack, he could have attacked earlier. It is more likely that his patience had simply worn out. Before, he had hoped Boone would surrender the fort without a fight. By the third day he knew the settlers would not surrender and that hostage taking was his only real chance to force a surrender. He knew the odds were long against him taking the fort by siege, without artillery, and he could not let his warriors return home empty handed, nor tell the British at Detroit that he had simply failed. Taking Boone and the others hostage seemed the only way to fulfill his complex obligations.

Richard Callaway was the first to throw off the Indians embracing him. As firing erupted from the fort and then from Indian rifles in the brush, the chief struggled with Boone and was thrown to the ground. A warrior nearby swung his pipe tomahawk and slashed Boone’s back. All the Americans were powerful men and in the rage of the moment they overcame the warriors. Even so, it seemed a miracle that they freed themselves, since the whites were outnumbered two to one. John Mason Peck was as curious about the event as the historians following him would be: “
Particular inquiries were made, by
the author, of Stephen Hancock and Flanders Callaway, how it was possible for nine white men to overpower eighteen Indians. The reply was, that, expecting mischief, they were on their guard, and that Indians rarely possess physical powers equal to white men; but each declared he never could recollect how the feat was achieved. They felt assurance of success.” According to Kentucky folklore, one Indian warrior was the equal of four regular soldiers, and one Kentuckian a match for two Indians. The clash in front of Boonesborough was often cited as evidence of this claim.

Boone later credited the sharpshooters from the fort for hitting enough Indians so he and his men were able to escape. “
As Father used to say, it was
this timely volley from the fort that saved the whites in council; and it was his opinion that when he threw Black Fish down, the other Indians thought he had fallen from a shot from the fort, and this, Father thought, probably added to their dismay and confusion.” Squire Boone was hit by a rifle ball in the shoulder, but he was able to stagger back to the fort.

Boone had told the negotiators to leave their loaded rifles just inside the gate of the fort. As soon as they rushed inside they grabbed their arms and made ready for battle. The siege they had dreaded and prepared for had begun. The gate of the fort was closed and bolted.

1778–1779

After Boone and the other negotiators escaped from the treaty site and reached safety inside the fort, the firing from the fort and from the Indians in the field began in earnest. Young Ambrose Coffee lay exposed on the southeast blockhouse, watching the events unfold. Suddenly bullets began peppering around him, and when he dropped under cover and examined his clothes he found many bullet holes, though his body was untouched. “
No less than fourteen bullet
holes were made in his clothes, when he tumbled down into the bastion unhurt.”

Suddenly the firing on both sides was deafening. The air filled with the stench of burned gunpowder. Children cried and women screamed, thinking the fort was about to be stormed. Dogs began howling in the compound and cattle bawled and horses ran to and fro, whinnying in terror. Cattle stampeded from one side of the enclosure to the other.

Squire Boone took his position at a loophole but found the pain from his wound so intense he could hardly shoulder his rifle. When things calmed down a little Daniel cut the bullet from Squire’s shoulder, but the wound was so deep Squire was forced to retire to his bed. However, he kept an axe beside the bed to defend himself should the fort be taken. Luckily the tomahawk wound on Boone’s back was neither deep nor serious. He took his place, directing both the fire and defensive activity. That afternoon the Indians made a charge toward the
stockade, as if they planned to scale the walls, but under heavy rifle fire they retreated. The many trees, including the Divine Elm and stumps near the palisade, afforded the attackers ample cover. The banks of Lick Branch near the fort provided a blind where Indians could conceal themselves, as did an especially large sycamore log lying at the edge of the hollow.

As the firing continued, the men in the fort saw another weakness of their location. The ridges on both sides of the river were high enough to provide a view into the enclosure. An ambitious marksman from either side of the river could fire into the fort and could, of course, spy on the inhabitants. John Gass later said, “
They shot into it from off both hills
.” The ridges were too far away for shooting with any accuracy, especially the south ridge, but the random shots killed livestock and added to the panic. It was real luck that the British had not supplied the Shawnees with swivel guns or cannon. Even one piece of artillery might have doomed the settlers.

Though primarily concerned with defending their lives and their families during the siege, the people of Boonesborough knew that a good deal depended on what happened there. With the new state government far away, engaged in a desperate war for survival and independence, the settlers were on their own. Boonesborough was the best known of the Kentucky settlements. If it fell, Harrodsburg and Logan’s Station and the smaller enclaves in the wilderness would likely go also. If the forts were lost, Kentucky would be lost, and the British would control the Ohio Valley and be within striking distance of the settlements on the Holston and Clinch and Watauga rivers. Otis K. Rice says, “
The determined defenders of Boonesborough
did more than preserve their own station and others of central Kentucky; they enabled highly secret plans conceived earlier in 1778 by George Rogers Clark to reach fruition.” Those inside the fort did not know that Clark, after taking Kaskaskia and Cohokia along the Mississippi, and the British fort at Vincennes in the Illinois country, planned an attack on Detroit, to break the British hold on the region.