Brown was unable to move from the pallet where he was lying in the trading post, but he now had an opportunity for revenge against some of those who had tormented him five years earlier, not more than a mile from this same spot. He examined the list of prisoners and carefully selected thirteen of them, whose names he had long ago memorized. Claiming that he was following the policy of Cruger and Governor Wright, he declared that all of these were men who had been captured and paroled, violated their oaths not to take up arms, and had already been sentenced to death. Warrant Officer Baker received the list and examined it closely. He could see that several of the men had never before been captured and were not violating parole. He was not surprised at this but was amazed that Bostick was not included. When Baker left to separate the condemned men, Brown sent for Chief Sunoma and gave him a folded slip of paper on which was written one name.

The Ranger commander lay on his back and watched without comment or a change of expression while, one by one, the condemned militiamen were hanged from the banisters of the stairwell. When later informed of the event, Governor James Wright said that the hangings should “have a good effect.” These men actually turned out to be the fortunate ones. The Indians had lost seventy men and demanded control over other prisoners. Sunoma delivered one of the white men to them, and Bostick was slowly tortured, then killed and scalped.

•  •  •

A week after Colonel Cruger helped Brown save Augusta, the two leaders finally resolved differences in the wording of their report to Lord Cornwallis, by accepting the most glowing exploits of both men and exaggerating the formidable nature of their adversaries under Elijah Clarke. Now, with the report completed and signed by both men, they were sharing a bottle of good rum on the veranda of the trading post where Brown had been under siege.