The Attack on the Bozarth Cabin

Here is another interesting anecdote from Wither's Chronicles of Border Warfare.  While we often applaud examples of heroic Christian manhood from our history, we should be mindful not to forget the ladies either!  Here is a story of how one woman showed strength and courage in the face of a certain and horrible death.

     The alarm which had caused the people in the neighborhood of Pricket's fort [in modern day West Virginia], to move into it for safety, induced two or three families on Dunkard creek to collect at the house of Mr. Bozarth, thinking they would be more exempt from danger when together, than if remaining at their several homes. About the first of April [1779], when only Mr. Bozarth and two men were in the house, the children, who had been out at play, came running into the yard, exclaiming that there were "ugly red men coming." Upon hearing this, one of the two men in the house, going to the door to see if Indians really were approaching, received a glancing shot on his breast, which caused him to fall back. The Indian who had shot him, sprang in immediately after, and grappling with the other white man, was quickly thrown on the bed. His antagonist having no weapon with which to do him any injury called to Mrs. Bozarth for a knife. Not finding one at hand, she siezed [sic] an axe, and at one blow, let out the brains of the prostrate savage. At that instant a second Indian entering the door, shot dead the man engaged with his companion on the bed. Mrs. Bozarth turned on him, and with a well directed blow, let out his entrails and caused him to bawl out for help. Upon this, others of his party, who had been engaged with the children in the yard, came to his relief. The first who thrust his head in at the door, had it cleft by the axe of Mrs. Bozarth and fell lifeless on the ground. Another, catching hold of his wounded, bawling companion, drew him out of the house, when Mrs. Bozarth, with the aid of the white man who had been first shot and was then somewhat recovered, succeeded in closing and making fast the door. The children in the yard were all killed, but the heroism and exertions of Mrs. Bozarth and the wounded white man, enabled them to resist the repeated attempts of the Indians, to force open the door, and to maintain possession of the house, until they were relieved by a party from the neighboring settlement. – The time occupied in this bloody affair, from the first alarm by the children to the shutting of the door, did not exceed three minutes.  And in this brief space, Mrs. Bozarth, with infinite self possession, coolness and intrepidity, succeeded in killing three Indians. ¹

Christ, not man, is King!

Dale

1)   Alexander Scott Withers, Chronicles of Border Warfare (Cincinnati, OH: Stewart & Kidd Company, 1912), p. 279-80.