15. The women supplied drinking water at the outset of the attack
Neither side, on the morning of August 16, had given any indication of each other’s awareness of their presence. The Indian force remained hidden in the woods; the men of the garrison acted as if all was well. It was part of the daily routine of the settlement for the women to gather at the spring each morning and carry pails of water to the fort. Each morning the gathering was as much social as necessary to survival. On that morning the women left the stockade in small groups, chatting amiably as they gathered the water, and returned to the stockade in a leisurely manner, unhurried despite what must have been considerable terror.
Girty, believing his force had not been detected, let them pass. He still hoped to achieve surprise when the men left the fort to conduct their daily business. No men appeared. As the day wore on, Girty’s warriors grew impatient. He finally consented to an attack, or rather, two attacks. The first was a ruse directed at one wall of the stockade. The second, with the main body of Indians, was directed at the opposite wall, with Girty believing the settlers inside would move most of their riflemen to the wall already under attack. The attacks failed miserably, with several warriors lost to the deadly fire of the frontier marksmen. That night 16 horsemen arrived as reinforcements.