USA > Connecticut > The history of Connecticut, from the first settlement of the colony to the adoption of the present constitution, vol. II > Part 4
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* Holmes, ii. 63. + Trumbull, ii. 366.
# Trumbull, Holmes, Graham.
38
HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
Meanwhile, Baron Dieskau, who had received intelligence that Fort Edward was fortified with cannon, and that the camp upon Lake George was but ill prepared to withstand a sudden attack, abandoned his first design, and hastened to- wards the camp of the main army, where he was confident of an easy victory.
Scarcely had Colonel Williams with his detachment left the borders of the lake, on his way to relieve Fort Edward, when the advanced parties sent out by Baron Dieskau, dis- covered them and made known the fact to their leader, who immediately ordered his whole force to lie in ambush and surround them. Wary as the Mohawks were, and practiced as they had long been in the tactics of the French, and their Indian allies, they allowed themselves to be caught off their guard, and fell with Williams and his men into the snare. Rising as one man from behind their leafy screen, the whole party of French and Indians poured into the lines of the un- suspecting English a deadly volley of musketry. Colonel Williams, Hendrick, the Mohawk sachem, and many other brave officers and men, fell dead upon the spot .* Had a thunderbolt fallen from a cloudless sky, it could not have been more sudden and blinding than this storm of bullets that swept over the ranks of the provincial soldiers. Panic- stricken as they were at the yells of the Indians, the sound of their guns, and the sight of their superior numbers as they bristled around them in such deadly array, Colonel Whiting, the next officer in command, found it no easy task to rally them and bring them into some manageable condition so that he could extricate them from the dangerous defile, and set their faces towards the camp. The best he could do, was to sound a retreat ; but he in vain sought to bring them off in good order. At first a few individual soldiers took to their heels and ran in defiance of all discipline, with- out waiting for their companions ; and then whole companies, following their example, broke their ranks and fled.
As the firing began at the distance of only about three
* Holmes, ii. 64.
39
THE AMBUSCADE.
[1755.]
miles from the camp, it was plainly heard there, and as the pursuers and pursued drew nearer, each successive discharge was more fearfully distinct. Thus forewarned of the ap- proaching enemy, General Johnson addressed himself eagerly to the work of defense. A few pieces of ordnance had been brought on from Fort Edward, but they had been deposited on the lake shore at the south landing a good half mile from the camp. Parties of athletic men were sent out to bring in such of the lighter arms as could be moved. The most nimble footed of the retreating detachment soon came running into the camp, followed by the fragments of the broken companies, in a comparatively defenseless condition; and in the rear, appeared the ranks of Dieskau's veteran troops in good order pressing hard behind the fugitives, and making, with as much dispatch as was consistent with discipline, toward the centre of the camp. At the distance of thirty rods, they halted and began the attack, opening a brisk fire, by platoons.
The Canadians and Indians screened the flank of the regu- lar troops, and commenced a dropping and irregular fire that burst along their whole line, each marksman following his own impulse and loading and firing as he chose. This waver- ing fire from the flank, making a jarring contrast with the steady volleys of the regulars, the suddenness of the onset, the uncertain rumors that had floated through the camp as to the numbers who had fallen in the ambuscade ; the effect wrought upon the imagination by the shadows of the woods, that might perhaps conceal as many of the enemy as it gave to view ; all added to the general consternation that perva- ded the camp to such a degree that the officers could hardly keep their soldiers in their places. But the French had com- menced their fire before they had come within fair musket range of the English. After receiving a few rounds of shot and finding that they had sustained little harm, the courage of the besieged provincials was restored. They returned the enemy's fire with spirit, and in a few minutes the two armies were engaged in a determined and bloody conflict .*
* Trumbull.
40
HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
A few cannon had been hastily mounted, and were now brought to bear upon the invaders. It was never a part of Indian discipline to withstand the fire of artillery, and their friends, the Canadians, scarcely less savage and unschooled, were little more disposed to encounter the heavy globes of metal that tore up the earth and rived the trunks of the forest trees that they relied upon as their only breastwork. They all fled into the woods, out of the reach of the engines that were so terrible to them, and of course too far from the camp to harm the English or lend any further aid to the French .*
Finding the flank of his army now exposed to a murder- ous and well-sustained fire, and perceiving that he could make no impression upon the centre of the camp, Baron Dieskau moved first to the left and then to the right, looking sharply for an assailable point where he could force an entrance. But the friendly shelter of the redoubt, where the ground was dry and the footing sure, enabled the English to keep up their fire that did fatal execution along his whole line, raking both front and flank of his exposed and defense- less troops-who had no embankments, not even the cover of a few fallen trees, to thwart the unerring aim of the pro- vincial marksmen. With a sad heart, he abandoned the attempt in despair.
No sooner did the English army see that the fire had abated, than they leapt over their breastworks and made such a determined attack upon them from every side, that they fled like wild deer when the circle of huntsmen is first seen to have surrounded them.
At the beginning of the action, the French army number- ed two thousand men. Of these, seven hundred now lay dead upon the field, and about thirty were taken prisoners. The brave Baron Dieskau was himself found entirely alone a little way off from the field, dangerously wounded, and trying to hold up his sinking frame by grasping the stump of a tree.Į
* Holmes, ii. 64.
# In this position, and while feeling for his watch to surrender it, one of the
41
THE PROVINCIALS VICTORIES.
[1755.]
The loss in the provincial army was only about two hun- dred; and most of these were of Colonel Williams' regiment, and were killed in the woods before they could reach the camp. About forty of them were Indians, at the head of whom, as I have already said, fell Hendrick, the bold and noble sachem of the Mohawks. Of the provincial officers who fell in the woods, besides the gallant Colonel Williams, were Major Ashley, six captains, and several subalterns. At the camp fell Colonel Tidcomb, who had distinguished him- self at the siege of Louisbourg. General Johnson also, and Major Nichols, were wounded .*
Thus was the provincial army victorious rather from the force of circumstances and the false moves of the enemy, than from any cause that was subject to its own control. Had Baron Dieskau marched directly to Fort Edward, as he would have done but for the messenger who told him of the defenseless state of the camp, the fate of the fort would have been sealed. Even the ambuscade that cost New England some of her best officers, contributed to the overthrow of the French, as the firing in the woods gave General Johnson the opportunity of dragging up from the landing the cannon that frightened from the field the Canadians and Indians, who were the best marksmen in the invading army, and upon whom Dieskau relied for the protection of his flank.
This battle stimulated the colonies to fresh exertions. Connecticut, as usual, did more than could have been expected of her. Just before the battle, General Johnson had written to Governor Fitch, begging him to send on more troops. In answer to this request, a special assembly was called on the 27th of August, and it was voted to raise two regiments and send them forthwith into the field. The officers were appointed at the same session, as follows: colonels-Samuel Talcott, and Elihu Chauncey; lieutenant colonels-Eliphalet Dyer,
soldiers, supposing he was searching for his pistol, poured a charge through his hips. The baron was carried to England as a prisoner of war where he died of his wounds.
+ Trumbull, ii. 368.
42
HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
and Andrew Ward, Jr .; majors-Joseph Wooster, and Wil- liam Whiting; physicians and surgeons-doctors Timothy Collins of Litchfield, Jonathan Marsh of Norwich, and Samuel Ely of Durham; chaplains-Rev. Benjamin Troop of Norwich, and Rev. John Norton of Middletown .*
These regiments, consisting of seven hundred and fifty men each, were mustered, equipped and on the march, within a little more than a week after the alarm was given. The colony now had in active service between two thousand and three thousand men.t
Although so complete a victory had been gained over the French at Lake George, yet the surprise of the party under Colonel Williams, and the danger to which the fort and the camp had both been exposed, awakened the most lively solicitude throughout the northern colonies. It was clear to every mind possessed of any military prescience, that nothing but the most strenuous efforts on the part of the army, rein- forced as it was, would avail against such enemies as they must meet in this protracted frontier war, without the benefit of strong fortresses that would furnish secure retreats where stated garrisons might be kept, where provisions, guns and ammunition might be safely lodged, and where detachments might be sent as the emergencies of the campaign called for their assistance. It was resolved, therefore, that Fort Edward should be made thoroughly defensible, and that a fortification should be erected at the south landing near the spot where so many Frenchmen had fallen, before the army ventured to cross Lake George. In this way a communication could be kept open with Albany, and the rigors of war would be mitigated to the sick and wounded. It was quite obvious that these preliminary labors would consume the autumn, and that it would be impossible to advance to Crown Point until the opening of a new campaign. The utmost zeal was mani- fested in constructing the works. By the end of November a good fort had been built at the south landing and the old one was fairly completed. The soldiers who were not need-
* Colonial Records, MS. + Trumbull.
43
CLOSE OF THE CAMPAIGN.
[1755.]
ed to garrison the two fortifications, returned home to spend the winter with their families.
Although the main object of the expedition had not been accomplished, yet much had been done. The colonial army had penetrated far into a pathless wilderness, had cut down the trees and made convenient roads, had constructed a large number of boats and batteaux, had built two forts, manned and furnished them with necessaries for the winter, and had gained over veteran enemies a complete victory with little loss to themselves. Hence, they were gratified with the approval of the colonies, and with the commendation of the king, who conferred upon their leader the title of baronet as the just reward of his valor .* The parliament also voted him five thousand pounds.
The expedition against Niagara did not thrive as well. Governor Shirley, who was at the head of it, did not march from Albany with his first division until about the middle of July, and did not arrive at Oswego until the 18th of August. On the news of Braddock's defeat, so many of his boatmen deserted him that he could not carry on provisions enough for his troops. He was on this account unable to cross the lake to Niagara. He therefore spent the rest of the season in erecting two new forts-one on the eastern bank of Onon- daga river, about four hundred and fifty yards from the old fort that had been built there in 1727, commanding the entrance of the harbor, and called Fort Ontario; the other, about the same distance west of the old fort, and was named Fort Oswego.
Colonel Mercer, with seven hundred men, was left at Oswego to garrison these forts, and on the 24th of October, the rest of the army decamped and returned to Albany.t
* General William Johnson now became Sir William Johnson. He was a native of Ireland, but came to America in 1734, and took up his residence upon the Mohawk, about thirty miles west of Albany. He learned the Indian language, and acquired a wonderful influence over the surrounding tribes. In 1759, he commanded the expedition against Niagara, and took six hundred men prisoners. He died in 1774, aged 60.
t Trumbull, ii. 371
44
HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
Thus the campaign of 1755, proved to be only a prepara- tion for future struggles. Not a single fortress along the whole line to which the French had so ambitiously laid claim, had been taken from them, nor had they been compelled to yield possession of a foot of land along the northern or south- ern frontier. On the other hand, owing to a want of coopera- tion between the colonies of Virginia, Maryland, and Penn- sylvania, and on account of local disturbances and quarrels between the rulers and the people, a comparatively small number of French and Indians were allowed to burn, murder, and pillage the settlements of the south with atrocities that even now, after the expiration of one hundred years, take such a vital hold of the nerves of the reader that he shud- ders, as he reads their details .* As they are foreign to my subject, I will not attempt to depict them ; but hurry forward to the delineation of scenes less remote but not less revolting.
* Trumbull, ii. 371, 372.
CHAPTER II.
CAMPAIGNS OF 1756 AND 1757.
ALTHOUGH England and France had been in a state of actual war so long, still there had as yet been no formal manifesto of the hostile intentions of the two nations. The British ministry still continued to indulge the hope so conso- nant with its own weak views and vascillating policy, that a firm basis of peace might be obtained by friendly negotia- tions. The French court, relying upon its old resources of intrigue and duplicity, had fed this hope with assiduous delicacy, to keep it alive as long as it could serve their purposes. But each successive inroad made by the French upon the English dominion, every attack made upon the southern and western settlements, every barbarity added to the long list of Canadian murders and Indian scalpings, did its part in goading the thick skin of the British ministry +4+ into a surface warmth that finally penetrated deep enough to quicken its pace.
On the 18th of May, 1756, Great Britain made a formal declaration of war against France,* who soon returned the compliment with the most hearty good will, as it would give her an opportunity of making a diversion in favor of her American subjects by attacking the German possessions of King George, where, as was generally believed, his affections were fixed much more strongly than upon any other portion of his almost boundless realms.
Two months before this, a reinforcement had sailed for America under General Abercrombie, who, in place of Shirley,
* Wade, 446 .- In the royal declaration, the grounds of hostilities are alleged to be, the encroachments of the French on the Ohio and in Nova Scotia ; the non- evacuation of the four neutral islands in the West Indies, agreeably with the treaty of Aix-la-chapelle ; and the invasion of Minorica.
46
HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
had succeeded to the command of the British forces .* An act of parliament was passed, giving the king power to grant the rank and pay of military officers to foreign protestants residing in the colonies or naturalized there .; Another act, authorized the king's officers to recruit their regiments from the indented servants of the colonists, with the consent of their masters.
There had already been held in New York a council of colonial governors, who had mapped out the plan of the cam- paign for the year 1756. The attempt upon Crown Point was to be renewed with an army of ten thousand men ; six thousand of whom were to march to Niagara, and three thousand were to try what could be done toward wiping out the stains that had, in defiance of the advice of Colonel Washington, been allowed to fall upon the British banner at Fort Du Quesne.#
It was further determined that two thousand men should go up the Kennebeck river, destroy the French settlements upon the Chaudiere, and, following that river to a point where it loses itself in the St. Lawrence, within three miles of Que- bec, do what they could to distract the attention and divide the forces of the enemy. To render Crown Point the more assailable, it was also decided that Ticonderoga should be seized in the winter, while the lakes were frozen over.§
General Winslow was appointed to the command of the expedition against Crown Point.| When he came to review his troops, he found that instead of ten thousand that had been allotted to him, he had but seven thousand, and from this small number it was necessary to take men enough from active service to supply the garrisons at the forts. The im- portance of this expedition, and the difficulty of bringing it
* General Abercrombie brought over with him from England the thirty-fifth regiment, and the forty-second, or Lord George Murray's regiment of Highland- ers. These two regiments, together with the forty-fourth and forty-eighth, four independent companies from New York, four from Carolina, and a considerable body of provincials, now composed the British troops in North America.
+ Twenty-ninth George II., chap. 5.
# Holmes, ii. 69.
§ Holmes, ii. 69 ; Graham, iii. 409.
| Colonial Records, MS.
47
SITUATION OF CROWN POINT.
[1756.]
to a successful issue, rendered this deficiency of force very discouraging .*
Crown Point had been, as early as the year 1731, very skillfully selected by the French as the key to Lake Cham- plain-that gate through which all communication between Canada and the fort must necessarily pass. Over the waters of this long, stream-like lake, and under the beetling summit of Crown Point, had passed all those stealthy hordes of maraud- ing and scalping parties of French and Indians, that had then for many years stolen from Canada, and like vampires from the grave, made their nocturnal visits to the frontiers of New York and New England, where they sated themselves with blood and withdrew, ere the morning light dawned upon the settlements that they had desolated, beyond the vigilance of their pursuers. This fortress, from its position, standing midway between Canada and the English colonies, interposed a perpetual barrier to the reduction of Canada from that quarter, while it afforded to the French a stronghold to which they might retire-a magazine for their ammuni- tion and stores, a hospital where they might receive and recruit their sick and wounded, and an observatory whence they might look along the gray waters or shadowy shore for the first appearance of danger from the east. Could this post be reduced, the frontier of the northern Eng- lish colonies would be safe from surprise, and the enemy would be compelled to retire into those regions lying north of the lakes, so that the way would be open to the very heart of Canada.
On the 25th of June, General Abercrombie proceeded to Albany with the British regiments, for which he had been so long waiting. This new force swelled the numbers of the army to the original estimate of ten thousand. Of the seven thousand provincials, Connecticut had herself raised two thousand five hundred effective troopst-more
* Holmes, ii. 69.
t The quotas of the other colonies were as follows : Massachusetts, three thou- sand five hundred; New York, two thousand; Rhode Island, one thousand; New Hampshire, one thousand.
48
HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
than double the number that she had been called upon to furnish.
While the arrival of Abercrombie with the British regi- ments made up the complement of men that had been thought requisite for this expedition, it proved to be the fruitful theme of jealousy and dispute between the colonial and the British officers, growing out of the order made by the crown in relation to military rank. The act of parliament author- izing such a step, had awakened much ill-feeling in America, not only among officers, but among the common soldiers, who chose to be governed by their own countrymen. Even Winslow, when inquired of by Abercrombie, did not hesitate to express his sentiments on this delicate matter with all frankness. If the colonial soldiers were placed under British officers, he said, it must cause general dissatisfaction, and he had no doubt that a large number of them would desert their colors and quit the service .*
This difficulty was finally settled by an agreement that the provincials should march against the enemy, while the British regulars should man the garrisons.
Scarcely had the discordant elements that had so long kept the army in a state of fermentation, been composed, when it was again disturbed by the arrival of a new digni- tary, who delayed the expedition by another set of negotia- tions. The new party to this dispute was the Earl of Lou- doun, who had been appointed governor of Virginia, and a kind of viceroy to superintend the whole plan of military operations in America. He did not set sail until May, when he ought to have been in America and ready to commence the expedition, if he would have aided in its effective con- summation.t There never was a more untoward appoint- ment than this. His lordship was to have the supervision of every movement, and was to direct all the complex arrange- ments both north and south, that were to be made to deliver the English colonies from their embarrassing condition. He
* Holmes, ii. 69, 70; Graham, iii. 409, 410.
t See Graham, Trumbull, Holmes.
49
THE EARL OF LOUDOUN.
[1756.]
arrived at Albany on the 29th of July, ignorant of the coun- try and of the army, and brought with him all the captious- ness and tenacity that made British rule so odious to the Americans.
It was a sore affliction that brought Abercrombie to Albany to delay the provincial troops, who, had they been led on by Winslow, would probably have taken Crown Point without British aid ; but the functionary who now presented himself with his dogmatical persistency and almost unlimited commission, was quite too heavy a clog upon the activities of the campaign. No sooner had he arrived, than he demanded of the officers of the New England regiments whether they or the men who were under them were willing to join with the British regulars and obey the commander-in- chief whom the king had appointed ? To this interrogatory those gentlemen responded with one voice, that they would obey his lordship and act in conjunction with the king's troops ; but, inasmuch as the New England soldiers had enlisted for that campaign with the express understanding that they should be under the control of their own officers, they humbly begged that his lordship would permit them to act separately as far as was convenient with the interests of the public service. With a pompous condescension, the viceroy yielded to this request. It is quite certain that the troops from Connecticut would not have consented to any other arrangement without strenuous opposition, for this was one of the few points that the colony would never yield even for the common good .*
While this fine army was thus passing the summer in shameful inactivity, settling points of etiquette and waiting for leave from its officers to do what at an earlier day Major Treat, or at a later day, Putnam, would have done in six weeks with six thousand effective men, the enemy was gain-
* The Assembly of Connecticut, as if to guard against the annoyance of kingly officers, usually guaranteed to those who might enlist, that they should have the privilege of selecting their own company officers, and that the officers of a higher grade should be filled by the assembly.
36
50
HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
ing every advantage by the delay. Not only had they time to provide against any attempt that the English could make upon them ; but they had even leisure to project and execute a complicated plan of offensive operations. They had already reduced a small fortress in the territory of the five nations, who were known allies of the English, and murdered in cold blood its little garrison of twenty-five soldiers. At the same time the woods were filled with their spies and scouting parties, who kept a sharp eye on all the motions of the English army.
Having learned that a large convoy of provisions was on the way from Schenectady to Oswego, a party of French and Indians secreted themselves in a thicket on the northern bank of the Onondaga river, to intercept them. Finding that the convoy had already passed this point, the French resolved to await the return of the detachment. This body was under the command of Colonel Bradstreet-an officer of keen sagacity, who was in hourly expectation of an attack, and was well prepared for it. As he was sailing along the current of the Onondaga with his company, in three divis- ions, with no sound to break the silence of the wooded shores save that of the waves that rippled against the banks and sank, after a momentary disturbance from the oar, into their old repose, the war-whoop of the Indians rang out from the covert with a distinctness that almost drowned the voice of musketry that accompanied it. The north shore was on a sudden alive with Indians, who immediately forded the river and attacked the English. Bradstreet, who, with a part of his men, had taken possession of a small island, made such a desperate defense that they were compelled to with- draw. Learning that there was another body of French and Indians farther up the river, he landed on the south shore and advanced with about two hundred men to meet them. He attacked them so suddenly and with such energy that many fell dead upon the spot and the rest in their dismay leapt into the river, where many of them were
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