USA > Connecticut > The Connecticut River and the valley of the Connecticut, three hundred and fifty miles from mountain to sea; historical and descriptive > Part 17
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A few days after, twenty of a troop of horse who had arrived to reinforce the fort, loitered out to see the place where Put- nam was killed, and were caught in an ambush. Captain Stevens rushed men from the fort to their aid, as they were fighting against odds, when the assailants fled, but not be- fore a number of the troopers had been killed or captured. In June several of the men of another troop of horse, come to relieve the first troop, also fell into an ambush almost immediately upon their arrival, when in the meadows after their horses. They fought the foe off, however, without serious hurt. At length in July the fort was besieged for two days. Through the rest of the summer it was blockaded and all were obliged to take refuge within the pickets. So close was the investment that one man incautiously step- ping out was killed within a few feet of the fort. At night a soldier crept to this dead comrade with a rope, and the body was secretly drawn into the enclosure and buried. In August the investing enemy destroyed all the horses, cattle, and hogs in the settlement and soon after appar- ently withdrew.
In the autumn, weary with watching, and fearful of the dangers of the forest when winter set in, all evacuated the place and fell back to the lower settlements. Meanwhile in August an army of eight hundred of the enemy under General Rigaud de Vaudreuil (son of the late Governor de Vaudreuil and subsequently himself governor) had oper- ated on the lower frontiers, taking Fort Massachusetts, after which a detachment had raided Deerfield with a loss to that much-enduring town of five men killed and one more of the many carried into captivity.
Number 4 lay deserted till spring, when in March, after the snow had gone, Captain Stevens again returned, now with thirty rangers. He found the fort uninjured and
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received a joyous welcome from two inmates that he en- countered - an old spaniel and a cat left behind at the evacuation. Making things comfortable and strengthening the defences, he awaited developments, for attacks were threatened at different points on the frontiers. Before the close of March Captain Eleazer Melvin of Northfield, famous among the scout leaders of this war, came up with sixty rangers, but they were soon off on scouting expeditions.
On the 4th of April the enemy appeared. It consisted of a body of trained French soldiers and Indian warriors, variously estimated at from four hundred to seven hundred, led by General Dabeline, an experienced captain. They made an ambuscade near by, and their presence was scented by the dogs of the garrison. Then followed the siege of which Captain Stevens was the hero.
Rising from their ambush, General Debeline's men began the attack with a furious assault upon all sides of the fort. But Captain Stevens and his thirty men stood firm each at his post, and beat them back with sharp plays of musketry. Five full days the siege lasted, and " every stratagem which French policy and Indian malice could invent was practiced to reduce the garrison," but without success. Says the captain's crisp report to Governor Shirley :
" The wind being very high, and everything exceedingly dry, they set fire to all the old fences, and also to a log house about forty rods distant from the fort, to the windward, so that in a few minutes we were entirely surrounded by fire -all which was performed with the most hideous shouting from all quarters, which they continued in the most terrible manner till the next day at ten o'clock at night, without intermission, and during this time we had no opportunity to eat or to sleep. But notwithstanding all these shoutings and threatenings, our men seemed to be not in the least daunted, but
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fought with great resolution, which undoubtedly gave the enemy reason to think that we had determined to stand it out to the last degree."
Fire-arrows were also discharged, which set several parts of the fort ablaze. But some of the soldiers, while others were fighting, had dug trenches at the bottom of the stockade, and through these they passed with buckets of water and extinguished the flames. Eleven such trenches were dug, so deep that a man " could go and stand up- right on the outside and not endanger himself." Thus they were enabled to wet all the outside of the fort, and keep it so, which they did through the five nights of the siege. The fire-arrows failing to accomplish their purpose the besiegers filled a cart with fagots, and setting them on fire, a number of Indians began rolling this fiery engine toward the timbered structure. Suddenly, however, it was checked in its course, the besiegers calling a cessation of hostilities till the next morning, proposing then to come to " parley."
At this parley General Debeline promised that if the fort were immediately surrendered and the men should lay down their arms and march out, they should all have their lives, and liberty to take sufficient quantity of provisions to supply them on their way as prisoners to Montreal. But before Captain Stevens could reply the French officer broke in with the threat that upon refusal he would " imme- diately set the fort on fire and run over the top, for he had seven hundred men with him." """The fort,' said he, 'I am resolved to have or die. Now do what you please, for I am as easy to have you fight as to give up.'" This the captain, undaunted, met with the quiet remark that inas- much as he was sent here to defend the fort it would not be consistent with his orders to give it up unless he was
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better satisfied that the Frenchman was able to perform what he had threatened. "Well," the other retorted, " go into the fort and see whether your men dare fight any more or not, and give me an answer quick, for my men want to be fighting." Without further words the captain did as he was bid. Assembling his men he "put it to vote which they chose, either to fight on or resign; and they voted to a man to stand it out as long as they had life." So, the captain's report continues, "I returned the answer that we were determined to fight it out. Then they gave a shout, and then fired, and so continued firing and shout- ing till daylight next morning."
At about noon of this day the last stage was reached. Calling out " Good Morning," the besiegers advised a ces- sation of arms for two hours, and another parley. Two Indians came with a flag of truce in place of the com- mander. The proposal now was that "in case we would sell them provisions they would leave and not fight any more." To this the captain made shrewd answer. He could not sell them provisions for money, for that would be " contrary to the laws of nations"; but "if they would send in a captive for every five bushels of corn" he " would supply them." The messengers retired to report to their general, and pretty soon after, " four or five guns were fired at the fort and they withdrew, as we supposed, for we heard no more of them."
So ended this remarkable battle of seven hundred against thirty, with the complete discomfiture of the seven hundred. Of the besiegers many were slain; while the besieged suffered no loss in killed, and but two were wounded. The record of their valorous defence reads like a story of prowess in the old heroic days. Said the orator on a commemorative occasion in the village that has
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evolved from " Number 4," lying now "peacefully in its fertile savannahs," -"except for that self-immolation, I cannot see that the prowess of Leonidas and his three hundred is worthy of higher admiration than that of Stevens and his thirty."
An " express " carried the news of the battle to Boston with Captain Stevens's report, which was received with high satisfaction by the governor and council. His gallant defence also won for the captain the admiration, expressed in the gift of " an elegant " sword, of Sir Charles Knowles of the British Navy, then in Boston. In consideration of Sir Charles's generosity the knightly sailor's name was subsequently bestowed upon the settlement, - as Charles- town. One might without prejudice hold that the soldier who saved the fort rather than the knight who rewarded the act was the more entitled to this distinction.
One more attack was made on Number 4 in this war. That was in the spring of 1748, after a few of the settlers had returned and were living within the stockade with the soldiers. The men of the garrison were without snow- shoes, and so helpless in pursuit. This fact being learned by the enemy, a party of twenty Indians came down the Valley in the deep snow and ambushed near the fort. Their most serious assault at this time was upon a bunch of eight men going to the forest to cut wood. One they killed, and another they took into captivity. The one killed was a son of Captain Stevens.
Indian depredations continued in the Valley for some months after the peace, reached in October, 1748, but not proclaimed in Boston till May, 1749. Notwithstanding the dangers, however, the settlers were returning to the new townships, and by the following year most of them
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were reoccupied, to be held till the renewal of hostilities four years later in the final French and Indian War.
In 1751 the proprietors of the townships on the east side of the River above Northfield applied to New Hamp- shire for new grants in place of their Massachusetts char- ters. Accordingly in 1752 Governor Benning Wentworth issued charters for Chesterfield, Westmoreland, and Wal- pole; and for Charlestown in 1753. In 1752, also, he gave out charters for Westminster and Rockingham on the west side; and in 1753, for Hinsdale, and for the west side towns of Brattleborough, Dummerston, and Putney.
This was the beginning of the "New Hampshire Grants."
XVI
The "New Hampshire Grants "
Governor Benning Wentworth's great Scheme of Colonization - Collision with New York over his Grants for Townships on the present Vermont Side of the River - Captain Symes's Plan for laying out the Coos Country killed by Indian Threats - A great Powwow at "Number 4" -Captain Powers's Exploring Expedition - Interruption of Wentworth's Scheme by the Out- break of the last French and Indian War - Settlers again fall back on the Fortified Places - The River Frontiers now Established.
G OVERNOR Benning Wentworth's scheme of coloni- zation at the outset contemplated the occupation of the "Coos country " of the Upper Valley, and of the domain on the west side of the River now embraced in Vermont. He was stimulated at the close of the Old French War promptly to move on the Coos lands through apprehension that the French, who had already begun to encroach upon territory claimed by the British crown, would step in and possess this valuable region. His motive in hastening to establish footholds in the country west of the River was evidently to sustain the questioned extent of New Hampshire's bounds westward to twenty miles east of the Hudson, in line with the west bounds of Massachusetts and Connecticut.
The initial move was in the western domain, when, in January, 1749, the governor made a grant for a township at its tip end, which became Bennington, so called in allu- sion to his own Christian name. This act brought him into quick collision with New York, and then began the bitter controversy over the "New Hampshire Grants"
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A River Island-Chase's Island, Looking North.
محمر
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which lasted for forty-two years with its attendant troubles in border towns on both sides of the River.
The dispute opened, however, most politely, with a diplomatic correspondence between the governors of the two provinces. This was begun by Governor Wentworth in November following his Bennington grant, when he acquainted Governor Clinton of his commission from the king with his instructions to make grants of the unim- proved lands within his government to intending settlers ; and asked a statement as to the exact eastward bound of the New York province, "that he might govern himself accordingly." To this Governor Clinton replied, under date of April, 1750, with the opinion of his council that the bounds of their province extended eastward quite to the Connecticut, citing in evidence the letters-patent of Charles II to the Duke of York, which expressly granted " all the lands from the west side of the Connecticut River to the east side of Delaware Bay." Governor Wentworth made answer, the same April, that this opinion would be entirely satisfactory to him "had not the two charter governments of Connecticut and Massachusetts-Bay ex- tended their bounds many miles to the westward of said River." He then announced that, in accordance with the opinion of his council, he had, before his excellency's letter had come to hand, granted one township in the territory in question, presuming that his government was " bounded by the same north and south line with Connecticut and Massachusetts-Bay before it met with his Majesty's other governments." With the assurance that it was far from his desire " to make the least encroachment or set on foot any dispute on these points," he would ask to be informed by what authority the Connecticut and Massachusetts governments claimed so far to the westward as they had
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settled. In the meantime he should " desist from making any further grants on the western frontier" of his govern- ment that might have " the least probability of interfering with the government of New York." Governor Clinton responded, in June, with the information that Connecti- cut's claim was founded upon an agreement with New York in or about the year 1684, afterward confirmed by King William ; and that Massachusetts presumably possessed it- self of the lands west of the River "by intrusion, and through the negligence of this government have hitherto continued their possession." He expressed surprise that Governor Wentworth had not waited for his previous letter before making a grant in this territory, and remarked that he had reason to apprehend that the same lands or part of them, had been already granted in New York. If it were still in Governor Wentworth's power to recall his grant his " doing so would be a piece of justice to the New York government." "Otherwise," Governor Clinton signifi- cantly observed, "I shall think myself obliged to send a representation of the matter to be laid before his Majesty." Governor Wentworth replied anticipating the other's move with the statement that his council were "unanimously of the opinion not to commence a dispute with your excel- lency's government respecting the extent of the western boundary of New Hampshire, till his Majesty's pleasure should be further known." Accordingly he should make a representation to the king, taking it for granted that Governor Clinton's government would acquiesce in the king's determination of the question. As to his grant, it was impossible now to vacate it, "but if it should fall by his Majesty's determination in the government of New York it would be void, of course." In July Governor Clinton wrote approving the reference to the king, and
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proposed an exchange of copies of each other's representa- tions. In September Governor Wentworth assented to the latter proposal.
So the issue was joined. And here the matter rested till after the last French and Indian War, 1754-1763, the intervention of which prevented any determination of it by the crown. But bold Governor Wentworth had gone right on issuing his grants west of the River, and between the springs of 1751 and 1754 he had given out grants for thirteen townships on that side.
The move into the Coos country began upon a quite ambitious plan matured in the spring of 1752. In March Captain William Symes of North Hampton, New Hamp- shire, sent a memorial to Governor Wentworth offering to raise a company of four hundred men to explore the region, and cut a road from Number 4 to the Cowass meadows sixty miles above, with a view to its settlement, his men to have four townships.
From Captain Symes's memorial the plan developed. It was proposed to lay out a line of townships between the two points, one on each side of the River, and opposite to each other; to erect in each township a stockade with lodgments for two hundred men, encircling a space of fif- teen acres; and to set up in the middle of this space a " citidel" to contain the public structures and granaries, and large enough to receive all the inhabitants and their movable effects in case of invasion or other necessity. To render these new plantations inviting to settlers it was provided that they should have courts of judicature and other civil privileges among themselves. They should be under strict military discipline, so that each plantation would be at once a settlement and a military post.
Toward the end of spring a party were sent up to
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" view the meadows of Cowass" and survey the proposed townships. But before work had begun a delegation of six warriors of the St. Francis tribe appeared at Number 4 and asked for a conference with Captain Phinehas Stevens who remained in charge there. They had come from their tribe to protest against the movement, and did so with alarming vehemence. "For the English to settle Cowass was what they would not agree to." The land was theirs, and if its occupation were attempted "they must think that the English had a mind for war." If that were so, they would " endeavor to give them a strong war." There were " four hundred Indians now a-hunting on this side of the St. Francis River," and if the English scheme were not abandoned they at Number 4 might "expect to have all their houses burnt." This interview Captain Stevens reported by an "express " to Captain Israel Williams at Hatfield, who in turn reported to Governor Shirley at Boston; and Governor Shirley lost no time in communicat- ing it to Governor Wentworth at Portsmouth. The threat was sufficient. The design was discouraged, and it was relinquished as " under the circumstances impracticable."
Trouble, however, followed close upon the Indian pro- test. Their blood was up, and roving bands, perhaps from the four hundred hunters, were committing petty depreda- tions here and there. Preparations, too, were making for the next French and English struggle. In the spring of 1754 Governor Wentworth heard reports that the French had actually begun a settlement in the Coos country, and were building a fort there. To ascertain if these reports were true he sent out another expedition. This comprised a company mostly of soldiers under Captain Peter Powers, of Hollis, New Hampshire, a "brave and experienced offi- cer." They started from Rumford (Concord) and followed
An Island View-Near Hanover.
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the course of the previous party, striking the River at the present Piermont, next south of Haverhill. Thence they marched up the Valley alongside of the Fifteen-Miles Falls, through the Lower and into the Upper Coos, as far as Northumberland, at which point it had been said the French had placed their fort. No fort was found, nor any sign of a settlement. But there were significant evidences of a recent Indian encampment on the River side, and of the making of canoes. They returned as they had come, unmolested, but Indians were close on their heels.
Then, soon after, Indian hostilities were openly threat- ened with the outbreak of the last French War, and plans for warfare took the place of colonization projects.
Again the few up-river plantations were mostly aban- doned, their settlers falling back upon the fortified places about the Massachusetts line. Number 4, now Charles- town, however, retained its inhabitants, increased at this time to about thirty-two families; and at Walpole the Kilburn family remained, with Colonel Benjamin Bellows, the township's chief proprietor, and some farm hands also there. New Hampshire as before would afford no protec- tion for her River frontiers, and Massachusetts at first proposed to confine her defences to her northern line, thus leaving all the posts above exposed. Later, however, the holding of Number 4 from the enemy being of first impor- tance, Massachusetts undertook its maintenance, reporting New Hampshire's dereliction to the king. As affairs grew graver New Hampshire made slight provision for the defense of Walpole, ordering a handful of men there to Colonel Bellows's charge, moved to this action, doubtless, by Colonel Bellows's associate proprietors in the township, - Colonel Theodore Atkinson, the province secretary, and Colonel Josiah Blanchard of Dunstable (Colonel
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Bellows's brother-in-law), both influential men in provincial affairs.
New Hampshire's attitude in this matter of River pro- tection was not as censurable as would appear. It was due not so much to indifference, or to assurance that Massachusetts would have to care for her own protection, as to the fact that her abilities were taxed to the utmost in furnishing troops for the Provincial army at the fight- ing line on the Canadian border.
XVII
The Last French War in the Valley
"Number 4 " and the Charlestown Settlement constantly Imperilled - Capture of the Johnson Family the Morning after a Neighborhood Party ;- Mrs. Johnson's graphic "Narrative " of their March to Canada and After Expe- iences-On the Second Day out she gives Birth to a Daughter - Fortunes of the Willard Family - The Johnsons after their Return from Captivity: a Remarkable Record - Attacks on the Lower Frontiers -The gallant " Kil- burn Fight " at Walpole - Cutting out the "Crown Point Road " from "Number 4" - Exploits of Robert Rogers's Rangers.
C CHARLESTOWN as the outmost post, with no settle- ment within forty miles of it, again bore the brunt of war, and throughout the troubled period, 1754-1760, suf- fered many hardships, while raids upon its inhabitants were the most frequent and tragic in the Valley. Lying in the line of march of the colonial troops of Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Hampshire passing to and from the Canadian points about which this war centered, it was a constant military rendezvous, and wore the aspect more of a military camp than of a peaceful farming community.
It received the first sharp shock of the outbreak sud- denly, on a late August morning of 1754, when a band of Indians, who had stealthily entered the town, burst into the house of Captain James Johnson, seized the seven in- mates, just roused from slumber, and hurried them all off, together with a neighbor, on the dread march to Canada.
The story of the adventures of these captives, as told in Mrs. Johnson's "Narrative," is in incident and pathos second only to that of "The Redeemed Captive" of Deerfield.
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The Johnson farm was then the most northerly place on the River. The substantial log house stood at what is now the north end of the village main street on the east side, about a hundred rods above the fort. The nearest habitation was Captain Phinehas Stevens's block-house on the meadows. Captain Johnson was a leading townsman and a considerable trader in the Valley. Mrs. Johnson was a daughter of Lieutenant Moses Willard, a first settler with the Farnsworths, his half-brothers ; earlier, with his kinsman, Colonel Josiah Willard, he had been a grantee of the lower township of Winchester. The Johnson house- hold comprised Captain Johnson and his wife Susanna, then a young matron of twenty-four, their three children, Sylvanus, Susanna, and Polly, aged six, four, and two re- spectively ; Mrs. Johnson's sister, Miriam Willard, a maid of fourteen ; and two "hired men," Ebenezer Farnsworth and Aaron Hosmer. The settlers of the village had been uneasy for some time over reports that the Indians were out for their destruction, but discovering no signs of evil in the neighboring woods, they were going about their affairs as usual.
The evening before the attack there had been a party of several neighbors at the Johnson house, gathered to wel- come Captain Johnson home from a trading trip down in Connecticut, and to look over the choice things he had brought back with him. The time had been spent "very cheerfully" with watermelons and flip till midnight, when all the company left except a " spruce young spark " who lingered a while longer to "keep company" with Miriam Willard. At length the household had retired with " feel- ings well tuned for sleep." So they rested " with fine com- posure " till sunrise, when a loud knock was heard on the outer door. This was the peaceful summons of Neighbor
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Peter Labaree, who had come to begin a day's work at carpentering by appointment with the captain. Then -
Mr. Johnson slipped on his jacket and trousers and stepped to the door to let him in. But by opening the door he opened a scene - terrible to describe. "Indians ! Indians!" were the first words I heard. He sprang to his guns, but Labaree, heedless of danger, instead of closing the door to keep them out, began to rally our hired men up stairs for not rising earlier. But in an instant a crowd of savages, fixed horribly for war, rushed furiously in.
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