The Senecas claim to have lost in that engagement thirty-three of their chiefs, and their feelings in view of it are said to have been sad in the extreme. [Footnote: "The mourning was excessive, and was expressed by the most doleful yells, shrieks and howlings and by inimitable gesticulations."—Mrs. Jemison's Narrative.]
The charge of cowardice applied by the young warriors to Red Jacket, upon their first starting out on this campaign, was one frequently made during the war. His views were at different times expressed in opposition to it, and his arguments as often repelled by the young braves, who could not endure his invectives. The reply was easily made, and hence in more frequent demand, than if it had imposed a greater tax upon their intellects. The epithet has often been applied to him since, and though his tastes did not lead him to seek the fame of a warrior, still it is believed he was not so devoid of courage, as has sometimes been represented.
His views of the war, were not those of a partisan, hence his conduct was often censured by those who had entered heartily into the contest.
Brant has charged him with being the occasion of trouble to him, in his efforts to arrest the march of Sullivan, and his army, into the Indian country. Particularly at Newtown, where considerable preparations had been made for defense. Says Col. Stone,—"Sa-go-ye-wat-ha was then twenty-nine years old, and though it does not appear that he had yet been created a chief, he nevertheless seems to have been already a man of influence. He was in the practice of holding private consultations with the young warriors, and some of the younger and less resolute chiefs, for the purpose of fomenting discontents, and persuading them to sue for what Brant considered, ignominious terms of peace.
"On one occasion as Brant has alleged, Red Jacket had so far succeeded in his treachery, as to induce some of the disaffected chiefs to send a runner into Sullivan's camp, to make known dissensions he himself had awakened, and invite a flag of truce, with propositions of peace to the Indians."
Though charged with acting criminally, it is here expressly asserted, that it was to obtain peace. Peace he most earnestly desired for his people, who were doomed to be wasted in a contest not their own.
Nor, in view of his feelings respecting the war, is it surprising he should have incurred the displeasure of Cornplanter, while endeavoring to bring his countrymen to make a stand against a portion of the invading army, on the beach of Canandaigua lake, where was an Indian village of some size. Not finding in Red Jacket an ardor for the undertaking which corresponded in any degree with his own, he turned to the young wife of the orator and exclaimed,—"Leave that man, he is a coward; your children will disgrace you, they will all be cowards." [Footnote: Col. Wm. Jones.]
The epithet thus applied occasioned uneasiness to none less than to the orator himself. Whenever he chose to notice it, he would make a good return for what he had received.—In a war of words, he was on his own chosen ground. He was a match for their greatest champion, and in cross- firing, it could easily be seen that his missiles were directed by one who was perfect master of the art. He could handle at will the most cutting sarcasm, and while maintaining a good natured, playful mood, deal his blows with such power and effect, as to make the victim of his irony resort to some other means of defense, than the tongue. It is said that frequently by his cool, good natured railery, he has caused the victim of his sport to turn upon and strike him. He would answer it by a hearty laugh, unless the blow was of such a nature as to demand of him a different reception. [Footnote: Wm. Jones, Seneca chief.] He seemed to be armed at every point, as with a coat of mail, against the arrows of his assailants. Their most powerful weapons would be turned aside by his presence of mind, and matchless skill, and leave him apparently unharmed.
A circumstance illustrating this point, once occurred between him and Little Billy, a chief of some note among the Senecas, who was frequently in the orator's company. This chief, with Red Jacket and one or two others, were once passing from their settlement on Canandaigua lake, to the old Seneca Castle, near the foot of Seneca lake. On their way they encountered a large grizzly bear. Little Billy and the others in the company, were frightened and began to run. Red Jacket who was distinguished as a hunter, and an excellent marksman, drew up his rifle, and brought the monster to the ground.
It so happened, on one occasion sometime afterward, that Little Billy was very pertinacious in calling Red Jacket a coward. The orator did not appear to notice him at first; but finding that he persisted in the charge, he turned to him and coolly and sarcastically said,—"Well, if I am coward I never run unless it's for something bigger than a bear." [Footnote: Conversation with Seneca chief, Wm. Jones.]