ed his letter, and recriminated by expatiating on the horrid atrocities perpetrated by the Indians who accompanied the armies of General Burgoyne and Colonel St. Leger, and imputed them to Burgoyne. One barbarous act committed by an Indian attached to Burgoyne's army, although it involved only a case of individual suffering, yet made a deep impression on the public mind, and being published in every newspaper in the country, roused popular indignation to the highest pitch.
A young lady, by the name of M'Crea, as distinguished for her virtues as for the beauty of her person, and the gentleness of her manners, of respectable family, and recently affianced to a British officer, was, on the 27th of July, seized by the savages in her father's house, near Fort Edward, dragged into the woods, with several other young people, of both sexes, and there barbarously scalped, and afterwards murdered. Thus, this ill-fated damsel, instead of being conducted to the hymeneal altar, received an inhuman death at the very hands of the companions in arms of that husband she was about to espouse. Such is the usual account; but other authorities state, that her affianced lover, fearing that some ill might betide the object of his affection, as well in consequence of the obstinate attachment of her father to the royal cause, as because their mutual passion was already publicly talked of, had, by the promise of a large recompense, induced two Indians, of different tribes, to take her under their escort, and conduct her in safety to the camp. The two savages went accordingly, and brought her through the woods; but just before they were about to place her in the hands of her future husband, they fell to quarrelling about their recompense, each contending that it belonged entirely to himself, when one of them, transported with brutal fury, raised his bloody tomahawk, and with a single blow, laid the unhappy maiden dead at his feet. [1] No wonder that the minds of the people were embittered against those who could degrade themselves by the aid of such allies. The impulse given to the public mind by such atrocities more than counterbalanced any advantages which the British derived from the assistance of the Indians.[2]
Although Burgoyne, defeated in his expedition against Bennington, and disappointed in the expectation of assistance from St. Leger, was left to his own resources, yet he was unwilling to abandon the arduous enterprise in which he was engaged; but still hoping every day to hear news of Clinton's approach from New York, he flattered himself that he should be able to accomplish the great object of the campaign. In order, however, to procure subsistence for his army, he was obliged to revert to the tedious and toilsome mode of bringing supplies from Fort George;
- ↑ Mr. Lossing, in his valuable "Pictorial Field Book of the Revolution," has devoted several interesting pages to the consideration of the story of Miss M'Crea, from which it appears most probable, that this young lady was killed by a shot fired by a party of Americans in pursuit of the Indians, who had carried her off:—vol. i., p. 96-100.
- ↑ See Appendix II., at the end of the present chapter.
