Pate found and fought.
Captain Pate's position at Black Jack was a very strong one. It afforded shelter for his men, and, except by a force coming up the ravine or stream from the timber at Hickory Point, had to be approached over an open prairie, sloping up from the place where the Missourians were posted. When the alarm was sounded, Captain Pate drew up his men in line behind the breastwork of wagons. [130]When they neared the enemy's position, Captain Brown wished Shore to go to the left and get into the ravine below them, while he, with his force, would get into the upper or prairie part of the ravine, in the bottom of which was long grass. As the ravine made a bend, they would thus have got in range of the enemy on both sides, and had them in cross fire, without being in their own fire. Captain Brown, with his nine men, accordingly went to the right. Captain Shore, with more bravery than military skill, approached the foe over the hill, to the west of their camp, marching over the prairie up within good range, fully exposed, and with no means of shelter near them.
“Who comes there? What do you want?” cried Captain Pate.
“When I get my men in line, I'll show you,” cried the gallant Captain Shore; and, true to his word, without waiting for or wanting any humbug parley, the gallant band poured in a volley on the Missourians, who were drawn up behind the wagons: the latter instantly returning it.
Volley after volley pealed through the air, and echoed through the ravine at Black Jack, away up to the dense timber of Hickory Point.
Meanwhile, Captain Brown had hurried into the ravine on the right of Captain Shore; and posting his men well, began to discourse the music of the spheres from that quarter.
“We're whipped! We're whipped!” yelled the Missourians, before the battle had lasted ten minutes; and, breaking from the wagon, they retreated to the ravine, [131] and concealed themselves there, some seven or eight of them being wounded. One was shot through the mouth by a Sharpe's rifle bullet. He had been squatted behind the wagon wheel; the ball hit one of the spokes, shivering it, and the border ruffian, in trying the juggler's feat of catching it in his mouth, got it lodged somewhere away about the root of the tongue or the back of his neck. Another, was shot in the upper part of the breast, or the lower part of his neck, the bullet descending and lodging in his back. Another, a citizen of Westport, as he was galloping off, received a very severe wound in the groin. He, with several others, who were also wounded, left their camp by the eastern side and escaped.
After Pate's men retreated to the ravine, he endeavored to rally them, and a fire was kept up from the spot where they lay concealed, although the bullets were whistling over their heads at a fearful rate. And soon the position of Captain Shore was found to be hazardous and critical: fully exposed to an enemy who could shoot at his men almost without running risk, they began to give way; and soon they had nearly all retreated some two hundred yards up the slope, to the high ground, where they were out of range. Captain Shore, however, and two or three of his men, went over and joined Brown, where the force lay in the long grass, firing down the ravine. While this firing was going on, to little purpose on either side, Captain Brown went after the boys on the hill. Some few of them had gone off after ammunition; one or two of them were sitting in the grass, fixing their guns. [132] Finding that they could not be brought up again to a charge, he led them rather nearer the enemy, and induced them to shoot at their horses, which were over the ravine, at long shot. This he did to get up their spirits — as most of them were mere boys — and to intimidate the enemy. He returned to the ravine; the firing was still kept up. It is proper to state that Brown and Shore's men had but four guns of long range; there were only three or four Sharpe's rifles in both companies.
