rods, when one of the inmates of the house attempted to come out
at the door. Gorsuch presented his revolver, ordering him back.
The colored man replied, "You had better go away, if you don't
want to get hurt," and at the same time pushed him aside and
passed out. Maddened at this, and stimulated by the question of
his nephew, whether he would "take such an insult from a d----d
nigger," Gorsuch fired at the colored man, and was followed by
his son and nephew, who both fired their revolvers. The fire was
returned by the blacks, who made a rush upon them at the same
time. Gorsuch and his son fell, the one dead the other wounded.
The rest of the party after firing their revolvers, fled
precipitately through the corn and to the woods, pursued by some
of the blacks. One was wounded, the rest escaped unhurt. Kline,
the deputy marshal, who now boasts of his miraculous escape from
a volley of musket-balls, had kept at a safe distance, though
urged by young Gorsuch to stand by his father and protect him,
when he refused to leave the ground. He of course came off
unscathed. Several colored men were wounded, but none severely.
Some had their hats or their clothes perforated with bullets;
others had flesh wounds. They said that the Lord protected them,
and they shook the bullets from their clothes. One man found
several shot in his boot, which seemed to have spent their force
before reaching him, and did not even break the skin. The
slave-holders having fled, several neighbors, mostly Friends and
anti-slavery men, gathered to succor the wounded and take charge
of the dead. We are told that Parker himself protected the
wounded man from his excited comrades, and brought water and a
bed from his own house for the invalid, thus showing that he was
as magnanimous to his fallen enemy as he was brave in the
defence of his own liberty. The young man was then removed to a
neighboring house, where the family received him with the
tenderest kindness and paid him every attention, though they
told him in Quaker phrase, that "they had no unity with his
cruel business," and were very sorry to see him engaged in it.
He was much affected by their kindness, and we are told,
expressed his regret that he had been thus engaged, and his
determination, if his life was spared, never again to make a
simil