[The Winning of the West, Volume One by Theodore Roosevelt]@TWC D-Link bookThe Winning of the West, Volume One CHAPTER V 51/54
When animated by a common and overmastering passion, such a body would be almost irresistible; but it could not hold together long, and there was generally a plentiful mixture of men less trained in woodcraft, and therefore useless in forest fighting, while if, as must generally be the case in any body, there were a number of cowards in the ranks, the total lack of discipline not only permitted them to flinch from their work with impunity, but also allowed them, by their example, to infect and demoralize their braver companions. 51.
Haywood, DeHaas, Withers, McClung, and other border annalists, give innumerable anecdotes about these and many other men, illustrating their feats of fierce prowess and, too often, of brutal ferocity. 52.
McAfee MSS.
The story is told both in the "Autobiography of Robert McAfee," and in the "History of the First Settlement on Salt River." 53.
Incidents of this sort are frequently mentioned.
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