Note M-27 — MEMOIR OF ZEBULON MONTGOMERY PIKE. BY ELLIOTT COUES. (continued 2)

Lossing says elsewhere that one of the officers told him his own life was probably saved by the bulk of this sergeant, who was blown against him. This officer was Lieutenant Fraser, one of Pike's aids, whose own words on the subject are given in Niles' Register, IV. p. 226: "The general had just aided in removing a wounded man with his own hands, and sat down on a stump with a British sergeant we had taken prisoner, whom the general, with Captain Nicholson and myself, were examining, when the explosion took place. The general, Captain Nicholson, and the British sergeant, were all mortally wounded, and I was so much bruised in the general crash, that it is surprising how I survived; probably I owe my escape to the corpulency of the British serjeant, whose body was thrown upon mine by the concussion."