So, you think YOU had a bad day?!
Context: This is an extraction from Jeptha Simms, History of Schoharie County,
amidst the Johnson/Brant raids upon the Schoharie Valley.
"...Col. Johnson had with him a small mortar, and a field-piece - the latter a brass six pounder. The carriage for the cannon was carried in parts, and required screwing together. They were made ready to fire, at the stand he had chosen in Becker's orchard, and a cannonading and bombardment commenced, while a constant firing was kept up with small arms, but generally at too great a distance for the latter to take effect. Three shells were well thrown from this position by the enemy at the fort, and many cannon-shot were fired but with less precision, the most of them passing entirely over the destined object.
The first shell fired, sung in the air like a pigeon, and exploded directly over the house; and as its fragments fell upon the roof, Mrs. Richtmyer, an old lady, then in an upper room, who had been an invalid, and unable to rise alone from her bed for a long time, was so frightened that she sprang from it, and went below, surviving the effect but a short time. The second shell fell within the pickets near the well, and while the fuse was burning off and the ball dancing in a mud hole, every person exposed to its explosion had ample time to gain a respectful distance, and it scattered its fragments without injuring any one.
The third shell fell through the roof of the main building, and lodging on a pile of feather-beds in the chamber, which were deposited upon several chests of bedding, it exploded tearing the beds in pieces, doing little other mischief, except that of frightening Christian Richard, an old bachelor, who chanced to be in the room, almost to death. The explosion completely filled the room with feathers, and groping his way down stairs, Rickard made his appearance below, where many of the women and children were, covered with feathers, and spitting down from his mouth, which sudden fear had caused him to open too widely for such an atmosphere. When asked what had happened, he replied in Low Dutch, (as kindly rendered by a Dutch friend, at my elbow) "Ik donk de duyvel is op de solder, de veri vliegen so rondt dat ik niet zien con." - I think the devil is in the chamber, for the feathers fly around so that I cannot see. The beds were set on fire but were easily extinguished, as water had been provided for such emergency."