This attack was the work of Simon Girty, one of the most
detestable characters that the drama of American history
ever brought upon the stage. He was the offspring of crime,
his parents being irredeemably besotted and vicious. Of
their four sons, two, who were taken prisoner by the Indian
at Braddock's defeat, developed into monsters of wickedness.
James was adopted by the Delawares, and became the fiercest
savage of the tribe. Simon grew into a great hunter among
the Senecas,--unfortunately a hunter of helpless human
beings as much as of game,--and for twenty years his name
was a terror in every white household of the Ohio country.
He is spoken of as honest. It was his one virtue, the sole
redeeming leaven in a life of vice, savagery, and cruelty.
[Illustration: INDIAN ATTACK AND GALLANT DEFENCE.]
In the summer of 1777 this evil product of frontier life
collected a force of four hundred Indians for an assault on
the white. His place of rendezvous was Sandusky; his
ostensible purpose to cross the Ohio and attack the Kentucky
frontier settlements. On reaching the river, however, he
suddenly turned up its course, and made all haste towards
Fort Henry, then garrisoned by Colonel Sheppard, with about
forty men.
The movements of Girty were known, and alarm as to their
purpose was widely felt.
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