All torn as we were, it seems certain to me,
I would not chatter to you about battles,
And you and your children would not have been free.
DONALD M’DONALD.
The affair on which this lyric is founded is entirely different from the attack on the fort at Schoharie by Johnson and Brant. It was a raid by a party of loyalists and Indians, led by a Tory partisan, Donald M’Donald. He was an active and relentless leader; but not so bloody as Walter Butler. He should not be confounded with the loyalist general of the same name in North Carolina. He commanded part of the loyalists in the fight near Conewawah during Sullivan’s expedition.
M’Donald died from wounds received in a very singular conflict. A German, named Schell—the name usually spelled Shell—had founded a little settlement about five miles north of Herkimer, which was known as Shell’s Bush. Here he built a block-house, the upper-story projecting all around. One August afternoon, while the people were at work out-of-doors, M’Donald, with sixty men, made a descent on the Bush. The inhabitants generally fled to Fort Dayton. Schell saw the enemy almost too late, but managed to escape to the block-house, with two of his sons—two others were taken. With the aid of Mrs. Schell, who loaded the guns, the little garrison made a vigorous defence. M’Donald, failing in an attempt to burn the block-house, tried to open the door with a crow-bar. A shot from Schell wounded him in the leg, and he was unable to stand. Schell opened the door, dragged in M’Donald, and closed it. Then he stripped his prisoner of all the cartridges he had. Schell felt he had an insurance against fire while his prisoner was inside. But the enemy, enraged at the loss of some of their number, made a rush to the house, and five of them put the ends of their pieces through the loop-holes. Mrs. Schell bent the barrels with the blows of an axe, and Schell and his sons fired down on them. At dusk Schell called to his wife from the second story, and told her that Captain Small was coming from Fort Dayton. Presently he gave directions loudly to imaginary troops, and the enemy taking fright ran away. M’Donald’s leg was taken off next day at Fort Dayton, but he died soon after the operation.
COLONEL HARPER’S CHARGE.
As eastward the shadows were steadily creeping,
Fair wives were at spinning, stout husbands at reaping.
Loud chattered the children with no one to hush them;