第16章

"Let the creek here be the Licking River.The Kentuckians, some on foot and some on horse, but all tired and disordered and hurrying along, had just reached the bank.Over on the other side--some distance back--the Indians were hiding in the woods and waiting.No one knew exactly where they were;every one knew they counted from seven hundred to a thousand.The Kentuckians were a hundred and eighty-two.There was Boone with the famous Boonsborough men, the very name of whom was a terror; there was Trigg with men just as good from Harrodsburg; there was Todd, as good as either, with the men from Lexington.More than a fourth of the whole were commissioned officers, and more fearless men never faced an enemy.There was but one among them whose courage had ever been doubted, and do you know what that man did?

"After the Kentuckians had crossed the river to attack, been overpowered, forced back to the river again, and were being shot down or cut down in the water like helpless cattle, that man--his name was Benjamin Netherland--did this: He was finely mounted.He had quickly recrossed the river and had before him the open buffalo trace leading back home.About twenty other men had crossed as quickly as he and were urging their horses toward this road.

But Netherland, having reached the opposite bank, wheeled his horse's head toward the front of the battle, shouted and rallied the others, and sitting there in full view and easy reach of the Indian army across the narrow river, poured his volley into the foremost of the pursuers, who were cutting down the Kentuckians in the river.He covered their retreat.He saved their lives.

"There was another soldier among them named Aaron Reynolds.He had had a quarrel some days before with Colonel Patterson and there was bad blood between them.During the retreat, he was galloping toward the ford.The Indians were close behind.But as he ran, he came upon Colonel Patterson, who had been wounded and, now exhausted, had fallen behind his comrades.

Reynolds sprang from his horse, helped the officer to mount, saw him escape, and took his poor chance on foot.For this he fell into the hands of the Indians.

"That is the kind of men of whom that little army of a hundred and eighty-two was made up--the oak forest of Kentucky.

"And yet, when they had reached the river in this pursuit and some twenty of the officers had come out before the ranks to hold a council of war and the wisest and the oldest were urging caution or delay, one of them--McGary--suddenly waved his hat in the air, spurred his horse into the river, and shouted:

"'Let all who are not cowards follow me!'

"They all followed; and then followed also the shame of defeat, the awful massacre, the sorrow that lasts among us still, and the loss to Kentucky of many a gallant young life that had helped to shape her destiny in the nation.

"Some day perhaps some historian will write it down that the Kentuckians followed McGary because no man among them could endure such a taunt.Do not believe him.No man among them even thought of the taunt: it had no meaning.

They followed him because they were too loyal to desert him and those who went with him in his folly.Your fathers always stood together and fought together as one man, or Kentucky would never have been conquered; and in no battle of all the many that they ever fought did they ever leave a comrade to perish because he had made a mistake or was in the wrong.

"This, then, is your lesson from the battle of Blue Licks: Never go into a battle merely to show that you are not a coward: that of itself shows what a coward you are.