USA > Massachusetts > Berkshire County > History of Berkshire County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of its prominent men, Volume I pt 1 > Part 18
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HISTORY OF BERKSHIRE COUNTY.
Shoreham to make some preliminary arrangements, leaving Col. Ensstou in command.
That evening mischief came among the party in the ill-omened shape of Benedict Arnold. This man, who had led a company of men from Con- nectient to Cambridge, had there obtained from the committee of safety a commission as colonel and commander of forces not to excel four hun- dred, to be raised for the reduction of Tieonderdan. It was his intention to raise his forces in Berkshire, but when he reached the county he found himself forestalled by the expedition already moving toward the fort. In the evening of the 8th he was at Rupert. from which place (spelling the name incorrectly; he sent a call to the committees in the southern towns, mostly in Berkshire, to send forward recruits. The letter which is preserved among the historical papers in the Berkshire Atheneum is as follows:
" REUPORT, 8th May. 1775
"Gentlemen,-By the best information I can get, there is one hundred men. o: more, at Ticonderoga, who are alarmed and keep a good lopkog !. I aix also-in- formed, the sloop has gone to St. Johns for provisions; that she had six guus muuni- ed and twenty men. We have only one hundred and fifty men gone or, which are not sufficient to secure the vessels, and keep the lakes; this ought by all means to be done, that we may cut off their communication, and stop all supplies going to the fort, until we can have a sufficient number of men from the lower towns.
" I beg the favor, gentlemen, as far down as this reaches, to exert yourselves, and send forward as many men to join the army here as you can possibly spare: There is plenty of provisions engaged, and on the road for five hundred men six or eight weeks. Let every man bring as much powder and ball as he can, alsb a Milanket. Their wages are forty shillings per month, I humbly engage to see paid; also the blankets.
" I am, gentlemen, Your humble servant.
" To the Gentlemen in
the Southern Towns."
BENEDICT ARNOLD, Commander of the Forces."
From some expressions in this letter it might be inferred that the mysterious warnings conveyed to Captain Mott at Bennington were in spired by him, but his commission was not signed until the 3d of May. and he did not leave Cambridge until the 4th. It is evident. however. that he early had a confidential agent in the vicinity who may have been the anonymous messenger. Otherwise the motive for the false reports is inexplicable But, setting this aside, it is apparent from the letter that Arnold's scheme for the capture was by a regular siege to be maintained by a force of four or five hundred raw recruits without artillery : his en tive dependence being upon starving out the garrison, a method requiring an indefinite length of time ; but weeks at the shortest, Nothing could be more unlike the plan so happily devised at Hartford, perfected at Cinsel. ton on the very day the letter was written, and successfully carried out the next morning at Ticonderoga. The men of Berkshire and Vermont were throughout the Revolution impatient of dilatory movements of tactics
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which long subjected them to military discipline. But that was not the reason which caused them to resist when Amold, on reaching Castleton. undertook to assume the command of the expedition on the ground that it's officers had, as Captain Mott expressed it. " no orders."
Captain Mott and his associates were " shockingly surprised :" for the troops enlisted by Connectient, receiving her pay, and operating be vond the bounds of Massachusetts. owed no more allegiance to the roni mittee at Cambridge than Captain De la Place's garrison at Ticonderoga did. They utterly refused to surrender to him the troops which they had raised, and Arnold pushed on to overtake Colonel Allen. It seems the party did not yet fully know what manner of mas they had for a leader : for, lest Arnold should prevail on Ethan Allen to yield to him. the mo ment he started, they all followed pell-mell. leaving Captains Mott auml Phelps with a single helper to care for the pack houses and baggage as best they could.
If Arnold's conduct shocked the leaders, it bred a mutiny among i the soldiers. "almost frustrating the plan they were upon." Says Capa tain Mott. "They were for clubbing their muskets and marching home : bu: were prevented by Colonels Allen and Easton, who told them that Arnold should not have command over them, if he had their pay should be the same as if they were under their own command. But they wonti damn the pay and swear they would be commanded by no others fort those they had engaged with." And so Arnold. perceiving the folly of issning commands which none would obey, consented, although still med itating mischief, to join the expedition as a volunteer, marching by the side of Colonel Allen.
The expedition reached Shoreham late in the evening, but none of the expected boats had arrived, and Captain Phelps, who had visited the fort in disguise, was detained with the baggage. No time, however. was to be lost. Nathan Beman, a boy of the neighborhood. acquainted with every nook and cranny of the fort. was engaged as guide, and availing themselves of such scant ferriage as could be had they began to cross the. lake. Barely eighty-three men had crossed when the day began to dawn. and there was no safety but in an immediate advance, while the bouts were hastily dispatched for the rear division. Colonel Allen, after a brief, earnest harangue, such as he well knew how to address to his mien. led them rapidly and in dead silence up the steep ascent. Before smtplist he entered the gate, the sentinel snapping his fusee, which missed fire. in his face. The surprise was complete. Puisning the flying guard the Americans were led directly to the parade ground, where a second son tinel made a bayonet thrust at Colonel Easton : for which courtesy to his friend. Colonel Allen rewarded him by a blow on the head with his sword which induced him to beg for quarter.
The victors were then drawn up on the parade and gave three rousing cheers, which not suficing to arouse the post commander. Capital Dodia Place, Colonel Allen mounted the flight of stairs which, outside the bar
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racks, led to his apartment, and with thundering raps of his sont hilt brought him to the door. Then, in the full view of all. occurred the famous scene of his surrender. The captain, however gallant, could not! well resist a man who spoke in the name of Almighty God and the Con tinental Congress, and was moreover backed by more than 100 loaded muskets.
The Connecticut commission, reporting to the Massachusetts Congress. thus recognized the services of Messrs. Easton and Brown :
" Col. James Easton was of great service, both in council and in action; raIsing men for the expedition and appearing to be well qualified, not only for colonel of militia at home, but for service in the field.
"John Brown, Esq., of Pittsfield, we recommend as an able counsellor, and tull of spirit and resolution. We wish they may both be employed in the service of their country in a situation equal to their merits."
Col. Allen in his report to the congress wrote:
" The soldiery were composed of 100 Green Mountain Boys and near Gfty sol. diers of Massachusetts Bay. The latter were commanded by Col, James Easton, who behaved with great zeal and fortitude, not only in council but in the asianl: The soldiery behaved with such resistless fury that they so terrified the king's troops that they durst not fire on the assailants; and our soldiery were agreeably disappointed The soldiery behaved with uncommon rancor when they leaped into the font and it must be confessed that the colonel has greatly contributed to the taking of that fortress as well as John Brown, Esq., who was personally in the attack."
Colonel Easton in his report highly complimented Captain Israel Dickinson and John Brown.
John Brown was sent to give an account of the capture to the Conti mental Congress, and Colonel Easton to the Provincial. Both, it need hardly be said, were cordially received. The Congress at Cambridge passed suitable resolutions, and dispatched him with them to Hartford, where he was again received with enthusiasm and handsomely en tertained by the authorities. It will be observed throughout this attein that Connecticut having retained her ancient charter, her authorities. elected by the people, acted for the people and not for the King. It affords a good illustration of the difference between a colonial and pros vincial government.
Every friend of the American cause was inspirited, even exhilarated. by the splendid achievements, which, without the cost of a life, but with conspicnous daring, was of vast solid military advantage, and had, at the same time, much of the charm of romance. It added also to the public admiration that all parties engaged in the achievement acted toward each other with consideration, magnanimity and selfalmegation, All except Arnold, whose connection with it was forced and detrimental : if it could be considered a connection at all, unless as an ulcer is attached to healthy flesh. This embryo traitor was pouring complaints into headquarters. and flooding the Massachusetts Congress, the public press, and inthe ential individuals with letters vilifying in the most malignant terms the
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heroes who had just met the approval of soglotions a shows. It was this which gave to Col. Easton's mission to the Legislatures of Mass- chusetts and Connecticut something more than a merely formal or con gratulatory character. It was in counteracting the efect of these vie missives that Colonel Easton required all his tart, temper, and energetic ability. By successfully exercising these qualities he incurred the hitter enmity of Arnold, which was extended in still greater westme to 1.Jin Brown, and which finally drove both from the continental army. but not from the service of their country. The Americans were no sooner in poz session of Ticonderoga than Arnold renewed his pretensious to command. on the ground that Ethan Allen was acting under no proper authority. To remedy this Captain Mott, in the name of the colony of Competient. drew up and signed a commission, placing him in command of the ax- pedition, and directing him to keep possession until further orders from the colony or the Continental Congress.
In the meantime, under the call sent from Rupert. a considerable body of levies from the Berkshire militia reached Arnold. With these he took the king's sloop upon which he had laid so much stress, and also a sloop belonging to the loyalist. Major Skene. He was this enabled jo establish a rival command npon the lake, while he still claimvol that of Ticonderoga and Crown Point. Various complications followed. Finally the Provincial Congress and the committee of safety sent a joint e numit- tee to investigate the state of affairs and take such measures as in their judgment were called for in regard to it. The committee found Amoll at St. Johns, and handed him their instructions which authorized them "to continue him in the service of Massachusetts with such orders as they saw fit. provided he and his men were willing to remain at one or both of the lake posts under such chief officer as Connecticut might appoint." Then the spirit of Arnold was manifested. In a rage he declared .. bo would not be second in command to any person whomstover." and after brooding over the matter for awhile, disbanded the men he had mised and threw up his commission. The committee at once appointed Colonel Easton to fill the vacancy, and gave him John Brown for his major. Al- nold's petty spitefulness in disbanding his men who had been brought to Lake Champlain at the public cost caused some annoyance ; but the new officers were popular in Berkshire, and found no ditlienlty in raising all the soldiers needed. Colonel Hinman, of Connectient, who hold the chief command with 1,000 men, was also an officer popular for his ability as well as for his frank and genial manner. The detachment which ru- sponded to Arnold's call of May Sth consisted of fifteen men from each of the military companies in and near Pittsfield. under the command of Captain James Noble, a brother of the captain of the Pittsfield and Rich mond men. He being entrusted with Glob for advance may, almost all of them consented to remain. With an incident in regard to his troutment of this company we close this first part of the story of the derfings of Benedict Arnold with Berkshire soldiers.
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The reader will remember his " humble engagement to see paid " the men who came at his call from Rupert. The records of the General Court show how that promise was kept. On the 5th of November, four months . after he had shamefully disbanded and deserted them, the committee on Colonel Arnold's accounts reported to the House of Representatives that they found a balance of $36, 55 .. 5d., due Noble's company : that Arnold had drawn this amount from the treasury, and that he was now in the continental service and could not then be come at to pay it, and as Noble and his men were in great want of money, the House voted to pay it again. It further resolved to send the charge to General Washington that it might be deducted from Arnold's pay.
On the 9th of May Rev. Thomas Allen wrote to General Pomeroy at Cambridge :
"Should the expedition succeed, and should the Council of War send up their orders for the people this way to transport by land twenty or thirty of the best can non to headquarters I doubt not but the people of this county would do it with cx pedition. We could easily raise a thousand yoke of oxen for the business "
Rumors of a probable and formidable invasion from Canada via Lake Champlain caused an opposition to the removal of the cannon. The fortifications of Fort Ticonderoga were found to be in such condition as to be indefensible, and much of the ordnance was removed to Crown Point for safety, and work for the repairs of both works was soon com menced. A considerable number of the cannon were also found in bad condition. In January. 1776, however, some of the cannon and mortars best adapted to siege service were transported to Cambridge, by way of Albany, Great Barrington, Monterey (then part of Tyringham), and West- field ; but not in the manner suggested by Parson Allen. Says Mr. Tay lor in his history of Great Barrington : " This expedition was in chargeof Gen. Henry Knox, who, with extraordinary labor, removed the artillery from Ticonderoga to Fort George, and thence with ' near 124 pair of horses' with sleighs brought it to Albany. General Knox passed through Great Barrington January 9th, and arrived at Monterrey. having, as he writes, 'climbed mountains from which we might almost have seen all the mountains of the earth.""
Cannon supposed to be sufficient for the defense of the repaired forti fications at Ticonderoga against any invasion then probable were, how . ever, left. Thus both the object proposed by Mr. Brown for the capture and that of the Connecticut authorities were served ; the latter perfectly. and it was only by a stupid neglect in subsequent engineering that the fort did not afford a serious check to the advance of Burgoyne in 1777.
The ambitions and restless spirits who met in the expedition against Ticonderoga looked further than merely to its capture, brilliant as was the eclat acquired by that exploit. To the imagination of each that was but the gateway of a grand campaign soon to open, in which they saw unwanted opportunities for distinguishing themselves.
John Brown, in his first visit to Canada, observed that the presence
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of a sympathizing military force from below was essential to the presetsa. tion and increase of the embryo party there, which was in league with the patriots of the more southern colonies ; and he considered the earliest possible moment the best for a march upon Montreal. And so did Ethan Allen and Easton. Probably all three were to some degree influenced by the memory, so deeply impressed upon all Western Massachusetts minds. that the complete subjugation of Canada in 1761 alone put an end by the hostile raids from that section. The renewal of these raids was the su- preme dread of Western Massachusetts. Vermont, and what was then Northern New York, from the beginning of the revolution to the suren- der of Burgoyne. All three were also fond of daring and dashing adven- ture, Brown and Allen almost to the point of rashness.
Arnold, widely as he differed from the others in purity of chargeter and methods of procedure, was quite as daring, and of too quick percep- tion not to have the same anticipations. It was not for a merely local command that he contended so bitterly, after all the glory to be acquired by the capture of the fort had been already won by others.
The first formal recommendation of the invasion of Canada on record is that of Ethan Allen to the New York Congress, on the 2d of June. But Col. Easton was certainly quite as early in advising the measure, for in a letter of June 6th to the Massachusetts Congress -- referring to a pre- vious communication, probably made orally during his visit to Water- town in the middle of May-he wrote: "I still retain my sentiments that policy demands that the colonies should advance an army of two or three thousand men into Canada and environ Montreal." In truth Allen. Brown, and Easton were united in pressing this movement. AArnolil's ambition also looked to Canada. but, after his experience at Lake Cham plain, he chose another route.
In June Gen. Schuyler was appointed commander of the Northern Department, where he found a garrison of 1,000 Connecticut mon under Col. Hinman, and Col. Easton's small Berkshire corps composed of six incomplete companies. Col. Easton and Major Brown were absent taking measures to fill up their regiment. To Schuyler, a thoroughly educated officer, the garrison appeared " good looking people, not lacking in con - age but with a shocking laxity of discipline." He thought he could make excellent soldiers of them " as soon as he could get the better of that nonchalance of theirs." This he never succeeded in doing; but, for all that, in active service their discipline improved, and with or without it they did make excellent soldiers.
It was well understood that Gen. Carleton, who commanded the Brit ish forces in Canada, was meditating an early attempt to regain possession of Lakes Champlain and George, preparatory to an invasion of the conn- try below, and the inhabitants there feared that his movement was only delayed in order to perfect his alliance with the savages. Calls were therefore made upon Gen Schuyler from every side for an immediate
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advance to anticipate such an invasion before preparations for it could be completed.
Men and material for such an enterprise were. however, scantily sup- plied, and the general was greatly perplexed by the differentty of obia- ing reliable information from the proposed field of operation, in which all reasonable hope of success depended upon complitons of which Ja was . profoundly ignorant. On the 21st of July he wrote the Continental Con- gress that the only man upon whom he could rely forobtaining this neos- sary information had suddenly fallen sick. At this moment Major Brown fortunately returned, and immediately set out on his second recontacter ing visit to Canada. He reached the border after six tedious days than! through a dismal swamp in the dark recesses of which his party of five encamped for three nights. He penetrated the country in the guise of a horse buyer, and remained four days. He speaks of the kindness of the French Canadians as " indescribable," and confesses that but for their aid, several times, he must have fallen into the hands of the enemy. The shrewd country people nevertheless did not fail to observe that " he was an odd sort of a jockey who never found a nag to his liking." come ill disposed persons gave information to the military who surrounded the house where he lodged at night. He escaped through a back window, and although hotly pursued for two days by two squads of fifty men each he evaded them by the information given by friendly Canadians and popout of the country August 3d.
He reported to General Schuyler at Crown Point on the 10th. ont; one day later than that which he had fixed for bis return, having not only accomplished the prime object of his mission but having upewni a correspondence with James Livingston, of Chamblee, on the Sorel. an in telligent, active and patriotic gentleman, who thereafter furnished the most correct, timely, and important information to the American com manders.
What he had learned in Canada made Major Brown and his com- mander both still even more anxious than they had been for the earliest possible advance : but the last of Angust found his army still weak and ill appointed. Colonel Easton's regiment consisted of barely 200 men. one-third of whom were reported sick. Nevertheless information received by Major Brown precipitated a movement. Immediately after his nistor from Canada, he had been placed in command of the flotilla on the lake. He now ventured on a personal scont as far as the Ile aux Noix, a few miles below St. Johns, where, by sending messengers to his friend. Liv ingston, he obtained information that the vessels which were before known to be building by the British on the Sorel were in such a state of forward- ness and were so formidable in their armament that muess the American army moved within ten days it would be necessary to fortify at Ile aux Noix or at Windmill Point : "otherwise there would be the most it minent danger that the British foot would sweep the lake, and compal the abandonment of the expedition against Canada for that year at least.
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Major Brown communicated these facts to General Montgomery, who was acting as Schuyler's lieutenant, in a letter for the dietatorial style of which he made the exigency of the occasion his apobegy. Accordingly. on the 31st of August, the little army embarked, consisting of barely 1,200 men, all of them from Connecticut and Berkshire except a few from the New Hampshire Grants. The army having been overtaken by Gen eral Schuyler appeared before St. Johns September Guy, 9.000 strong,
The siege proved tedious. Schuyler, prodaldy wochened by illness. began to show the irresolution and timidity in meeting difficulties of the military situation which, in spite of his undoubted personal bravery and skill as an officer, so often marred his northern cangoigus, and finoklis led the jealous people of Berkshire to distrust his fidlolity rather than his capacity. The army landed under an ineffectual fire from the garrison. and had a slight skirmish with a party of Indians. Everything appented to be going well. But in the evening one of those mysterious visitors. such as came to Captain Mott's party at Bennington, visited the general He was "a man who appeared to be friendly and intelligent." and he stated that all the British force in Canada, except fifty, were in garrison at St. Johns, which, as well as Chamblee, he represented to be strongly fortified and well prepared for a siege : that 100 Indians were in the fort. and a large body under Sir John Johnson hovering near ; that a sivivon gun vessel was at St. Johns, ready to weigh anchor : that not a single Canadian would join the insurgent standard. Almost all this terrifying story afterward proved to be false ; but the general gave it full credence. and a council of war, to which it was submitted, determined to fall back to the Isle aux Noix, await reinforcements, and prevent the passage of the sixteen gun ship into the lake where she would have cut them off
While all this was going on Major Brown and Ethan Allen were in Canada, where they had gone by Schuyler's orders to disseminate his ad dress to the inhabitants assuring them of his friendly intentions, This dangerous service having been performed they found Livingston, who had collected a small body of Canadian reernits, with which they at- tempted to return to the army, but were deferred by learning that a large body of Indians lay in wait for them. Major Brown, nevertheless, made his way through with a demand from Livingston for a party to ent off communication between St. Johns and the country, promising that they should be joined on their arrival by a considerable number of Canadians. Colonel Ritzema was ordered to respond to this call ; but a series of dis- graceful panics prevented the execution of the plan.
On the 16th General Schuyler was compelled by long i'll health to re- turn to Ticonderoga, leaving Montgomery in command. But a second advance of the army had previously been arranged for the 16th ; und. In anticipation of it. Major Brown was dispatched with 100 Americans wul SO Canadians toward Chamblee to keep up the spirits of their friends he that quarter. This little detachment was the first of the Am Bate aux which can properly be said to have entered Canada, and with it Major
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