The address contained two or three additional paragraphs in reference to other subjects. Captain Gregg recovered, and resumed his duties; and having served to the end of the war, lived many years afterward.
Another tragic incident occurred at nearly the same time. About noon, on the 3d of July, the day being perfectly clear. Colonel Willet was startled from his siesta by the report of musketry. Hastening to the parapet of the glacis, he saw a little girl running with a basket in her hand, while the blood was trickling down her bosom. On investigating the facts, it appeared that the girl, with two others, was picking berries, not two hundred yards from the fort, when they were fired upon by a party of Indians, and two of the number killed. Happily, she who only was left to tell the tale, was but slightly wounded. One of the girls killed, was the daughter of an invalid, who had served many years in the British artillery. He was entitled to a situation in Chelsea Hospital, but had preferred rather to remain in the cultivation of a small piece of ground at Fort Stanwix, than again to cross the ocean. [FN]
[FN] Willett's Narrative.
By the middle of July, the Indians hovering about the fort became so numerous, and so bold, as to occasion great annoyance. Large parties of soldiers could only venture abroad on the most pressing emergencies; and even one of these was attacked, several of its numbers killed and wounded, and the officer in command taken prisoner. The force of the garrison, at this time, consisted of about five hundred and fifty men—ill-supplied, as we have already seen, both with provisions and munitions of war. Fortunately, however, on the 2d of August, the very day of the investiture of the fort by the advance of St. Leger's army under Thayendanegea and Bird, Lieutenant Colonel Mellon, of Colonel Weston's regiment, arrived with two hundred men, and two batteaux of provisions and military stores. Not a moment was lost in conveying these opportune supplies into the fort. Delay would, indeed, have been dangerous; for at the instant the last loads arrived at the fort, the enemy appeared on the skirt of the forest, so near to the boats, that the captain who commanded them became their prisoner. [FN]
[FN] Willett's Narrative.
The command of Colonel Gansevoort now consisted of seven hundred and fifty men, all told; and upon examination it was ascertained that they had provisions for six weeks—with fixed ammunition enough for the small arms. But for the cannon they were lamentably deficient—having barely enough for nine rounds per diem during the period specified. A besieging army was before the fort, and its garrison was without a flag! But as necessity is the mother of invention, they were not long thus destitute. Stripes of white were cut from ammunition shirts; blue from a camblet cloak captured from the enemy; while the red was supplied from such odds and ends of clothes of that hue as were at hand. [FN] And, thus furnished, commenced the celebrated defence of Fort Schuyler.
[FN] Idem.