Page:John Brown (1899).pdf/91

 I attacked them from a wood with thick undergrowth. With this force we threw them into confusion for about fifteen or twenty minutes, during which time we killed or wounded from seventy to eighty of the enemy—as they say—and then we escaped as well as we could, with one killed while escaping, two or three wounded, and as many more missing. Four or five Free State men were butchered during the day in all. Jason fought bravely by my side during the fight, and escaped with me, he being unhurt. I was struck by a partly spent grape, cannister or rifle shot, which bruised me some, but did not injure me seriously. 'Hitherto the Lord has helped me,' in spite of my afflictions. . . . May the God of our Fathers save and bless you all!"

This fight was the one commonly called "the battle of Osawatomie," though there were two other fights at or near that place. Brown's methods were