Editing Daniel Boone (section)

===Capture and court-martial===
While Boone recovered, the Shawnee kept up their attacks outside Boonesborough, killing cattle and destroying crops. With food running low, the settlers needed salt to preserve what meat they had, so in January 1778, Boone led a party of 30 men to the salt springs on the [[Licking River (Kentucky)|Licking River]]. On February 7, when Boone was hunting for meat for the expedition, he was captured by Blackfish's warriors. Because Boone's party was greatly outnumbered, Boone returned to camp the next day with Blackfish and persuaded his men to surrender rather than put up a fight.{{sfn|Faragher|1992|pp=154–159}}

Blackfish intended to move on to Boonesborough and capture it, but Boone argued the women and children would not survive a winter trek as prisoners back to the Shawnee villages. Instead, Boone promised that Boonesborough would surrender willingly the following spring. Boone did not have an opportunity to tell his men that he was bluffing to prevent an immediate attack on Boonesborough. Boone pursued this strategy so convincingly some of his men concluded he had switched sides, an impression that led to his court-martial (see below).{{sfn|Bakeless|1939|p=167}}{{sfn|Faragher|1992|pp=156–157}} Many of the Shawnee wanted to execute the prisoners in retaliation for the recent murder of Shawnee Chief [[Cornstalk (Shawnee leader)|Cornstalk]] by Virginia militiamen. Because Shawnee chiefs led by seeking consensus, Blackfish held a council. After an impassioned speech by Boone, the warriors voted to spare the prisoners.{{sfn|Morgan|2007|pp=226–230}}{{sfn|Faragher|1992|pp=159–160}} Although Boone had saved his men, Blackfish pointed out that Boone had not included himself in the agreement, so Boone was forced to [[running the gauntlet|run the gauntlet]] through the warriors, which he survived with minor injuries.{{sfn|Faragher|1992|pp=160–161}}{{sfn|Morgan|2007|p=231}}

{{external media| float = right| video1 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?201703-1/boone-biography Presentation by Robert Morgan on ''Boone: A Biography'', October 15, 2007], [[C-SPAN]]}}
[[File:Boone adoption.png|thumb|upright|Illustration of Boone's ritual adoption by the Shawnee, from ''Life & Times of Col. Daniel Boone'', by Cecil B. Hartley (1859)]]
Boone and his men were taken to Blackfish's town of [[Chalahgawtha|Chillicothe]]. As was their custom, the Shawnee adopted some of the prisoners to replace fallen warriors. Boone was adopted into a Shawnee family at Chillicothe, perhaps into Blackfish's family, and given the name Sheltowee (Big Turtle).{{sfn|Morgan|2007|p=237}}{{#tag:ref|Biographers usually state that Boone was adopted by Blackfish, but historian John Sugden believes Boone was probably adopted by another family.{{sfn|Sugden|1999|p=873}}|group=note}} In March 1778, the Shawnee took the unadopted prisoners to Governor Hamilton in [[Detroit]]. Blackfish brought Boone along, though he refused Hamilton's offers to release Boone to the British. Hamilton gave Boone gifts, attempting to win his loyalty, while Boone continued to pretend that he intended to surrender Boonesborough.{{sfn|Morgan|2007|pp=238–241}} Boone returned with Blackfish to Chillicothe.<ref>Glenn Tucker reports, that Boone became [[Tecumseh]]’s brother by adoption: "Blackfish was as fascinated with Boone as with a new trinket, though Boone had killed the chief’s son in an earlier raid. By the time he reached Detroit Blackfish had determined not to part with Boone at any price. Hamilton gave Boone a horse and trappings, paid Blackfish and the warriors a thousand dollars in provisions for the ten others and soothed Blackfish by allowing him to keep Boone. Boone rode his new horse to Old Chillicothe, which he and the Shawnee reached on April 10. There he and one of the salt-makers who had stayed behind, a youth named Benjamin Kelly, became Tecumseh’s brothers by adoption." Glenn Tucker: Tecumseh: Vision Of Glory</ref>

On June 16, 1778, when he learned Blackfish was about to return to Boonesborough with a large force, Boone eluded his captors and raced home, covering the {{convert|160|mi|km}} to Boonesborough in five days on horseback and, after his horse gave out, the majority on foot. Biographer [[Robert Morgan (poet)|Robert Morgan]] calls Boone's escape and return "one of the great legends of frontier history."{{sfn|Morgan|2007|p=249}}

Upon Boone's return to Boonesborough, some of the men expressed doubts about Boone's loyalty, since he had apparently lived happily among the Shawnee for months. Boone responded by leading a preemptive raid against the Shawnee across the [[Ohio River]], and then by helping to successfully defend Boonesborough against a [[siege of Boonesborough|10-day siege]] led by Blackfish, which began on September 7, 1778.{{sfn|Morgan|2007|pp=251–273}} After the siege, Captain [[Benjamin Logan]] and Colonel [[Richard Callaway]]—both of whom had nephews who were still captives surrendered by Boone—brought charges against Boone for his recent activities. In the [[court-martial]] that followed, Boone was found "not guilty" and was even promoted after the court heard his testimony. Despite this vindication, Boone was humiliated by the court-martial, and he rarely spoke of it.{{sfn|Faragher|1992|pp=199–202}}{{sfn|Lofaro|2012|pp=105–106}}