"Massacre"  
Using a six-pound cannon for cover, the soldiers mounted a breastwork defense. By 2 p.m., their artillery had given out. Fifty mounted black warriors now rode onto the
battlefield wielding axes and knives. According to Ransom Clarke, one of two white men to survive the day, the blacks commenced,
"[S]plitting open the heads of all who showed the least sign of life … and accompanying their bloody work with obscene and taunting derisions, and with frequent cries of 'what have you got to
sell?'" *
  
Sources:
Cohen 72 citing the "Statement of Ransom Clarke." Clarke was one of three men to survive the massacre by feigning death. Indians shot one
survivor as he tried to escape. The third died in an army camp before he regained his
speech.
©
Part 2, War: l
*According to Porter (Black 43) this was a question that soldiers often posed to blacks at military posts. |
