Strange Stories From History for Young People

Part 1

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STRANGE STORIES FROM HISTORY FOR YOUNG PEOPLE

GEORGE CARY EGGLESTON

Author of "Red Eagle," "The Big Brother," "The Wreck of the Red Bird," "The Signal Boys," Etc.

Illustrated

New York Harper & Brothers, Franklin Square

HARPER'S YOUNG PEOPLE SERIES.

Illustrated. 16mo, Cloth, $1.00 per volume.

THE ADVENTURES OF JIMMY BROWN. Edited by W. L. ALDEN. THE CRUISE OF THE CANOE CLUB. By W. L. ALDEN. THE CRUISE OF THE "GHOST." By W. L. ALDEN. THE MORAL PIRATES. By W. L. ALDEN. TOBY TYLER; OR, TEN WEEKS WITH A CIRCUS by JAMES OTIS. MR. STUBBS'S BROTHER. A sequel to "Toby Tyler." By JAMES OTIS. TIM AND TIP: OR, THE ADVENTURES OF A BOY AND A DOG. By JAMES OTIS. LEFT BEHIND: OR, TEN DAYS A NEWSBOY. By JAMES OTIS. RAISING THE "PEARL." By JAMES OTIS. MILDRED'S BARGAIN, AND OTHER STORIES. By LUCY C. LILLIE. NAN. By LUCY C. LILLIE. THE FOUR MACNICOLS. By WILLIAM BLACK. THE LOST CITY; OR, THE BOY EXPLORERS IN CENTRAL ASIA. By DAVID KER. THE TALKING LEAVES. An Indian Story. By W. O. STODDARD. WHO WAS PAUL GRAYSON? By JOHN HABBERTON, Author of "Helen's Babies." PRINCE LAZYBONES, AND OTHER STORIES. By Mrs. W. J. HAYS. THE ICE QUEEN. By ERNEST INGERSOLL. CHAPTERS ON PLANT LIFE. By Mrs. S. B. HERRICK. STRANGE STORIES FROM HISTORY. By GEORGE CARY EGGLESTON.

PUBLISHED BY Harper & Brothers, NEW YORK.

Any of the above works will be sent by mail, postage prepaid, to any part of the United States or Canada, on receipt of the price.

Copyright, 1885, by HARPER & BROTHERS.

PREFACE.

In calling the tales in this volume "Strange Stories" I have sought simply to indicate that, in the main, they are unfamiliar to youthful readers, and that most of them relate deeds and occurrences some what out of the common. In choosing the themes I have tried to avoid the tales that have been often used, and to tell only those of which young readers generally have not before heard.

Of course, a book of this kind can make no pretension to originality of matter, as the facts used in it are to be found in historical works of recognized authority, though many of them have been drawn from books that are not easily accessible to the majority of readers. If there is any originality in my little volume it is in the manner in which the tales are told. I have endeavored to tell them as simply as possible, and at the same time with as much dramatic force and fervor as I could command, while adhering rigidly to the facts of history.

It would be impossible for me to say to what sources I am indebted for materials. The incidents related have been familiar to me for years, as they are to all persons whose reading of history has been at all extensive, and I cannot say with any certainty how much of each I learned from one and how much from another historical writer. Nor is it in any way necessary that I should do so, as the recorded facts of history are common property. But a special acknowledgment is due to Mr. James Parton in the case of the tale of the Negro Fort, and also for certain details in those relating to the New Orleans campaign of 1814-15. In that field Mr. Parton is an original investigator, to whose labors every writer on the subject must be indebted. I wish also to acknowledge my obligation to Mr. A. B. Meek, the author of a little work entitled "Romantic Passages in Southwestern History," for the main facts in the stories of the Charge of the Hounds and the Battle of the Canoes on the Alabama River; but, with respect to those matters, I have had the advantage of private sources of information also.

Most of the stories in the volume were originally written for Harper's Young People; one was first published in Good Cheer, and a few in other periodicals. I owe thanks to the editors and publishers concerned for permission to reprint them in this form.

CONTENTS.

PAGE HISTORY STORIES.

THE STORY OF THE NEGRO FORT 13

A WAR FOR AN ARCHBISHOP 26

THE BOY COMMANDER OF THE CAMISARDS 38

THE CANOE FIGHT 55

THE BATTLE OF LAKE BORGNE 67

THE BATTLE IN THE DARK 77

THE TROUBLESOME BURGHERS 88

THE DEFENCE OF ROCHELLE 99

THE SAD STORY OF A BOY KING 111

Part 2

TWO OBSCURE HEROES 120

THE CHARGE OF THE HOUNDS 130

THE STORY OF A WINTER CAMPAIGN 140

YOUNG WASHINGTON IN THE WOODS 151

THE STORY OF CATHERINE 163

THE VIRGINIA WIFE-MARKET 175

BIOGRAPHY STORIES.

BOYHOOD OF DANIEL WEBSTER 185

THE SCULLION WHO BECAME A SCULPTOR 193

BOYHOOD OF WILLIAM CHAMBERS 200

HOW A BOY HIRED OUT, AND WHAT CAME OF IT 206

THE WICKEDEST MAN IN THE WORLD 212

A PRINCE WHO WOULD NOT STAY DEAD 228

ILLUSTRATIONS.

PAGE

Breakfast and Battle 23

Vladimir Besieging the City Containing his Archbishop 35

Cavalier Personating the Lieutenant of the Count Broglio 47

With a Single Blow he Knocked over the Indian with whom Austill was Struggling 63

Boarding the Gun-boats 73

General Jackson at New Orleans 79

The Burghers Prepare to Defend their City 95

Richelieu Surveying the Works at Rochelle 103

The Parting between King Richard II. and Queen Isabella 117

Martin Preaching to the People on the Duty of Fighting 125

"Just at the Moment when Matters were at their Worst, he Rode up" 137

Capture of the Dutch fleet by the Soldiers of the French Republic 149

Washington as a Surveyor 157

Part 3

"She Went Boldly into his Tent" 171

"'To the End of the Twelfth Book of the AEneid,' answered the 'Idle' Boy in Triumph" 189

THE STORY OF THE NEGRO FORT.

During the war of 1812-14, between Great Britain and the United States, the weak Spanish Governor of Florida--for Florida was then Spanish territory--permitted the British to make Pensacola their base of operations against us. This was a gross outrage, as we were at peace with Spain at the time, and General Jackson, acting on his own responsibility, invaded Florida in retaliation.

Among the British at that time was an eccentric Irish officer, Colonel Edward Nichols, who enlisted and tried to make soldiers of a large number of the Seminole Indians. In 1815, after the war was over, Colonel Nichols again visited the Seminoles, who were disposed to be hostile to the United States, as Colonel Nichols himself was, and made an astonishing treaty with them, in which an alliance, offensive and defensive, between Great Britain and the Seminoles, was agreed upon. We had made peace with Great Britain a few months before, and yet this ridiculous Irish colonel signed a treaty binding Great Britain to fight us whenever the Seminoles in the Spanish territory of Florida should see fit to make a war! If this extraordinary performance had been all, it would not have mattered so much, for the British government refused to ratify the treaty; but it was not all. Colonel Nichols, as if determined to give us as much trouble as he could, built a strong fortress on the Appalachicola River, and gave it to his friends the Seminoles, naming it "The British Post on the Appalachicola," where the British had not the least right to have any post whatever. Situated on a high bluff, with flanks securely guarded by the river on one side and a swamp on the other, this fort, properly defended, was capable of resisting the assaults of almost any force that could approach it; and Colonel Nichols was determined that it should be properly defended, and should be a constant menace and source of danger to the United States. He armed it with one 32-pounder cannon, three 24-pounders, and eight other guns. In the matter of small-arms he was even more liberal. He supplied the fort with 2500 muskets, 500 carbines, 400 pistols, and 500 swords. In the magazines he stored 300 quarter casks of rifle powder and 763 barrels of ordinary gunpowder.

When Colonel Nichols went away, his Seminoles soon wandered off, leaving the fort without a garrison. This gave an opportunity to a negro bandit and desperado named Garcon to seize the place, which he did, gathering about him a large band of runaway negroes, Choctaw Indians, and other lawless persons, whom he organized into a strong company of robbers. Garcon made the fort his stronghold, and began to plunder the country round about as thoroughly as any robber baron or Italian bandit ever did, sometimes venturing across the border into the United States.

All this was so annoying and so threatening to our frontier settlements in Georgia, that General Jackson demanded of the Spanish authorities that they should reduce the place; and they would have been glad enough to do so, probably, if it had been possible, because the banditti plundered Spanish as well as other settlements. But the Spanish governor had no force at command, and could do nothing, and so the fort remained, a standing menace to the American borders.

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