Two women captives, Marie LeRoy and Barbara Leininger, were unfortunate enough to be on the other side of the Allegheny River from Kittanning when the attack commenced and so had no chance of being saved by Armstrong's party. When they were taken back across to the ruins of the town later they had "the mournful opportunity of witnessing the cruel end of an English woman, who had attempted to flee out of her captivity and return to the settlements with Col. Armstrong."

This is where it gets a little gruesome (I think this is also described in even greater detail in Alan Eckert's book Wilderness Empire).

She managed to endure this torture from about 9 AM until around sunset, which at that time of year would have been about 7:30 PM. At last, a French officer who was at the town took pity on her (what a kind soul....it only took him 8 or 10 hours) and shot her. After she died, an English soldier who had deserted to the French side cut a piece of flesh from her body and ate it. Finally, the Indians chopped her body in half down the middle and let her lie in the middle of the burnt out village until dogs came and devoured her.

If your stomach is strong enough, here is the second item:

Three days later an Englishman who had also tried to escape captivity during the attack was recaptured and brought back to the camp. He was burned at the stake in the remains of Kittanning. "His torments, however, continued only about three hours; but his screams were frightful to listen to." (One would suppose so.) Because it was raining very hard that day, the Indians could not keep up the fire, so they began to set gunpowder charges off against his body. Finally, when the dying man called out for a drink of water, they brought molten lead and poured it down his throat. This instantly killed him.

These descriptions were taken from Indiana County 175th Anniversary by Clarence D. Stephenson (1978), but the places where I used quotes were taken from the descriptions provided later by the two women. Mrs. McAllister was identified later by another prisoner, Hugh Gibson.

Before I close up shop on this particularly ugly little chapter of PA and Scotch-Irish history, I wanted to mention one more thing. While these tortures were no doubt depraved and unnecessary, they were no worse than many actions taken by the Europeans, both French and English. One of the great disappointments reported about Blanket Hill was that, because the soldiers got dispersed after the battle and had to hike cross-country to get back, some of the scalps taken during the battle (by the English, not natives) were lost before they could be taken to the governor.

I also recall reading a journal entry from the siege of Ft. Pitt about 6 years later, that describes how blankets infected with smallpox (it may have been malaria, but I think smallpox) were ordered by the fort commander to be traded to the Indians who were maintaining the siege in exchange for food.

I suppose the moral is that people who live in glass log cabins shouldn't throw stones when it comes to cruelty.