I'm going to continue a little again with tales of the early forts, settlements an counties and today want to cover Bullitt County from the writings of Lewis Collins in his History of Kentucky. I recommend so highly Collins' two volumes history! I will be abstracting from Collins below. "The first forts and stations erected in the county [Bullitt] were Fort Nonsense, Mud Garrison, Breashear's Station, Clear's Station and Whitaker's Station." There were many Indian skirmishes in this area due to the salt licks. Near Bullitt's lick, on a high knob [hill] called Cahill's knob", the Indians whipped to death an old man whom they caught while copping wood for the salt works. In May of 1778, a flat boat was loaded with kettles which were to be used for manufacturing salt at Bullitt's Lick. The ship left Louisville KY with 13 people aboard - twelve armed men and one woman. The boat and cargo was owned by Henry Crist and Solomon Spears and the remaining passengers included Christian Crepps, Thomas Floyd, Joseph Boyce, Evans Moore, an Irishman named Fossett, five others who were unnamed and a woman. Collins said he couldn't recollect the other's names. The boat was to descend the Ohio River (which was running high at that time) go to the mouth of Salt River, ascend the latter and make it to a place near the licks called later Mud Garrison. This was a temporary fortification which only included two rows of small stockades and the space between them filled with mud and graves from the river bank. The whole fort covered about two aces and was located halfway between Bullitt's lick and the falls of Salt River where the town of Shepherdsville now stands. The occupants were the families of the salt makers and some hunters to keep them in food and also to act as scouts for the Indians. On the 25th of the same month, the boat entered the Salt River. Since they were in danger of being seen by the Indians, they sent out scouts to scour the area. Crist and Floyd went ashore that evening to check along the banks o the river again. They found a fresh Indian trail but due to the darkness, couldn't determine how many were in the party. They came back to the boat and the next morning, heard gunshots which they assumed was the Indian party hunting game. They started rowing again and made it about eight miles below the mouth of the Rolling Fork. They rowed back into shore on the north side (now in Bullitt County) - intending to rest and eat their breakfast there. They heard what they thought was the sound of turkey gobbling. The men jumped off the boat with their guns, ready to kill some turkeys for their food supply. The others remaining warned them to be careful, but they were so excited to kill a turkey or so, that the warnings were unheeded. The men were still almost in sight when rifle fire broke out following what the warhoops of the Indians. It sounded as if the woods were full of Indians. Those remaining on board barely had time to reach down and find their weapons when Fossett and the other man with him came running back to the boat, pursued by a party of Indians. Crist stood up in the boat and took aim. But almost immediately he saw that the Indian he had drawn a bead on was instead a white man. He had been told that there was a party of surveyors in the woods. He lowered his gun. He saw the white man had raised his rifle and was aiming right at his head. They seemed to have fired at the same time and the white man on the bank dropped to the ground dead. Fossett's hunting partner made it to the boat and dove in, taking cover in the bow of the boat. Some of the Indians rushed the boat, shot at Fossett and his companion while they had been struggling to get in the boat. Many Indians were killed and the remaining retreated back into the woods, each Indian behind a tree where they kept fighting. Spears and several others on the boat were killed. Those in the boat kept trying to unloose the boat - they had used a cable which was secured to a tree near the shore - they had to get the boat farther out. But if anyone tried to reach out to get the cable loosened, they were be exposed to the Indian fire. In the battle, Fossett's right arm was broken and he could not longer handle a rifle. But he was not about ready to give up. He took a long pole and then flattened himself in the boat. Finding a small hole area between the kettles, he poked out the pole and kept jabbing at the cable, trying to disengage it. It didn't work. He then saw where a small limb had been cut from the pole, leaving a little knot about an inch long. He finally placed the knot against the hook, jerked it towards rapidly and the chain fell off. The boat started drifting slowly away from shore. One of the men, possibly Fossett, grabbed an oar and tried to oar father away from shore, the oar was over his head and he had no vision of where he was rowing. The battle had been raging for over an hour and those on the boat knew the odds were 10-1 against them. As they drifted out more, those on board tried to determine their status. Five of their men were dead in the boat. Spears, Floyd, Fossett and Boyce were wounded - Crepps, Crist and Moore remained unhurt. Spears' wound was considered mortal and they knew he would live only a few more moments. He urged them to run the boat to the opposite side of the river and leave him behind. Crepps and Crist refused to leave him. To be continued next week. Sandi (c) Copyright 20 May 2004, Sandra K. Gorin Colonel Sandi Gorin SCKY Links: http://www.public.asu.edu/~moore/Gorin.html SCKY surname registry sites: http://www.rootsweb.com/~kyclinto/reg.html http://www.rootsweb.com/~kyclinto/forms/SCKYreg.html Gorin Publishing: http://ggpublishing.tripod.com/