After the surrender,
twelve children in one of the baggage wagons were slain by a
single savage.
Mrs. Rebecca Heald, the young captain's wife, like Mrs. Helm was mounted
on a horse. She carried a rifle with which she shot a savage dead.
During the massacre, an Indian, with the fury of a demon in his
countenance, advanced to her with his tomahawk raised. She had been
accustomed to danger and, knowing the temper of the Indians, with great
presence of mind, looked him in the face and, smiling, said:
"Truly, you will not kill a squaw?"
His arm fell powerless at his side. The conciliating smile of an
innocent female, appealing to the magnanimity of a warrior, reached the
heart of the savage and subdued the barbarity of his soul.
Captain Heald and his wife, by the aid and influence of To-pa-na-hee
and Kee-po-tah, were put into a bark canoe and paddled by the chief of
the Pottawatomies and his wife to Mackinaw, three hundred miles distant,
along the eastern coast of Lake Michigan, and delivered to the British
commander. They were kindly received and afterward sent as prisoners to
Detroit, where they were finally exchanged.
Lieutenant Helm was wounded in the action and taken prisoner. He was
afterward taken by some friendly Indians to Au Sable, and from thence
to St. Louis, and was liberated from captivity through the intervention
of Mr.
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