USA > Massachusetts > Berkshire County > History of Berkshire County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of its prominent men, Volume I pt 1 > Part 21
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41
The detachment sent by Berkshire in December remained till March 16th, and was followed by another which served from April 25th to May 22d. Between that time and the evaluation of the fort by the Americans there appears to have been no Berkshire militia at Ticonderoga But in the interval the county responded to a call which required about one seventh of its enrollment to aid in replenishing the depleted ranks of the continental army.
Rev. Thomas Allen was at Ticonderoga from Juge Faith to thesearch
168
HISTORY OF BERKSHIRE COUNTY.
ation, as post chaplain ; and he has left a diary which reflects the sentiment of Berkshire concerning that event and three which pre- ceded it.
Burgoyne's army delaked above the fort on the evening of July 1st, mustering, rank and file. 3.724 British soldiers. 3.016 Germans, and 250 provinciale; beside which there were 473 picked querys, with " the finest park of artillery which had ever been attached to any arny."
All these forces were perfect in soldiership and appointments, and were commanded by carefully selected and exceptionally able officers. full of ambition and fully conscious that the whole henry of their sever- eign was with this expedition, and that he would not be niggardly in rewarding every man who should conspicuously contribute to its sourcess.
In addition to this splendid array of civilized warriors were the pat age auxiliaries upon whom King George and his lieutenant both implicitly relied for spreading terror through the unhappy region they were approaching. thus far rapidly and without opposition worthy allies of His Most Gracious Majesty preceded their civilized con freres, and in what manner they performed the part assigned them is shown by the two paragraphs from Mr. Allen's diary of June 20th : which also show that although there may have been no body of Berkshire militia at the post at that time. yet there were Berkshire men thore, per haps attached to corps from other sections. The paragraphs are as follows :
" June 26 .- This day, as John Whiting and John Bitte were returning from Lake George Landing, they were fired upon by a number of Indians; the former of whom was shot through the head, and then stabbed in his throat, breast, and belly, and, in addition to all, he was scalped. He was a likely lad of about eighteen years and belonged to Lanesboro.
" The other, John Batty, had two balls pass through his thigh, one through the small of his back, and one obliquely through his breast, and His scalp was taken on. during all which he was quite sensible and was obliged to feign himself dead during the stripping him of his arms and taking off his scalp which caused him great pain He was living the day before the retreat, and. it is said. was left lichind "
When the British fleet first came in sight Rev. Mr. Allen had and dressed the garrison in a speech, of which the following notes were fejl among his papers. We give them, as showing the style of the elequente which so greatly stirred the hearts and influenced the conduct of the people of Berkshire, as well as an interesting and instructive pant of the immediate events :-
" Valiant Soldiers,-Yonder are the enemies of your country, who have come to lay waste and destroy; to spread havoc and desolation through this pleasant land. They are mercenaries, hired to do the work of death, and have no motives ti animate them in their undertaking. You have every consideration to reduce you to play the men, and act the part of valiant soldiers. Your country looks up to you for its defense: you are contending for your wives, whether you or they shall enfor them; you are contending for your children whether they shall be yours or theiri;
GENERAL HISTORY.
for your houses and lands, for your flocks and herds, for your freedom, for future generations, for everything that is grand and noble, and on account of which life is of any worth, You must, you will abide the day of trial. You cannot give back while animated by these considerations.
" Suffer me therefore, on this occasion, to recommend to you to break off your sins by righteousness, and your iniquities by turning to the Lord. Tuin ye, Lain ie. ungodly sinners; for why will ye die? Repent, lest the Lord state you with i curie Our camp is filled with blasphemy and resounds with the language of the internal regions. Oh, that officers and soldiers might fear to take the Holy and tremendous name of God in vain. Oh, that you would now return to the Ford, lest destruction come upon you, lest vengeance overtake you. Oh, that you were wise, that you would consider your latter end.
" I must recommend to you the strictest attention to your duty, and the most punctual obedience to your officers. Discipline, order, and regularity are the strength of an army.
" Valiant Soldiers,-Should our enemies attack us, I exhort and conjure you to play the men. Let no dangers appear too great, let no suffering appear too severe for you to encounter for your bleeding country. Of God's grace assisting are, I am determined to fight or die by your side rather than flee before our enemies, or resign myself up to them. Prefer death to captivity; ever remember your unhappy bref. ren made prisoners at Fort Washington, whose blood now cries to heaven for ven geance, and shakes the pillars of the world, saying, ' How long. oh Lord, boly and true, dost thou not avenge our blood on them that dwell upon the earth?' Rather than quit this ground with infamy and disgrace I should preter leaving this body of mine a corpse upon the spot.
" I must finally recommend to, and urge it upon you again and again, in time of action to keep silence. Let all be hushed and calm, serene and tranquil, that the word of command may be distinctly heard and resolutely obeyed, And may :he God of Heaven take us under his protection, cover our hearts in time of battle, and grant unto us his salvation."
The fall of Ticonderoga, in the strength of which their confidene. had become by long contemplation almost morbid, produced in the people of Berkshire a feeling of sorrow, indignation, and alarm akin to that which followed the retreat from Canada. The alarm, however, did not amount to consternation, but while it revived the courage of the loyal ists inspired the patriots with a sterner determination and a more un qualified spirit of self-sacrifice. In the three months which intervened between the evacuation of Ticonderoga and the surrender of Burgoyne they did memorable service for the liberties of the country and the poor tection of their own homes: and especially in the last two, after the British army had begun to emerge from the swamps forests in subdning which they had wasted their strength and exhausted their provisions.
The excited people bitterly charged St. Clair and his brigadiers" with cowardice, and the malignant enemies of Schuyler revived against him the thrice refuted allegation of treachery ; but they had now slight hold upon the popular mind of that of the Revolutionary committees. even in radical Pittsfield. On the 9th William Williams in behalf of the
170
HISTORY OF BERKSHIRE COUNTY.
selectmen of that town, and Deacon Josiah Wright for the committee. wrote to General Schuyler a letter which, while severely condemning the evacuation, proffered him all the aid the town could possibly give. Schuyler, from the headquarters at Fort Edward. replied on the follow. ing day. He stated that he had heard, from Colonel Williams, of White Creek, that he was charged with ordering the evacuation, which he cup phatically denied, and averred that. on the contrary, it was made in diceet opposition to his instructions. None of the officers had yet reported to him and he was still ignorant of their reasons for it. The enemy had ap peared at Fort Ann, but none of them remained "except a few liking Indians or white men disguised as such." of whom he was told they had many for the purpose of intimidation. He closed by saying that he hoped that, if properly supported by the militia, he should be able to stop the proz ress of the enemy at Fort Edward as soon as Generals St. Clair and Nivon should arrive with their troops. He would therefore thankfully accept all the aid they could give. He specified three things of which he was greatly in need : carriages, however few in number, he would be glad to get : men, and the more the better ; and " lead with despatch, as he was straitened in that necessary article." Some carriages of carts were soff ; of lead they had little, but they promptly transmitted the request. all indeed Schuyler's letter in full, to the General Court. Pittsfield sont men, as Great Barrington and other towns in the county did. whenever a detachment was called for as emergencies arose. Shortly afterwant formal demand for all the carriages to be had in the counties of Berk- shire and Hampshire was made on the authority of the General Courtsoul responded to.
The communication of Messrs. Williams and Wright to the General Court opened by saying that. " as the unparalleled. infamous, ign min- ious, and cowardly evacuating of Ticonderoga and Mount In leperolens and hasty retreat therefrom. must give astonishment to all humanity : so must it also give the utmost perplexity and remorse to the United hide pendent States of America and greatly reproach their general officers. To think that out of four there was not one of so much firmness and resolution as to confine the others there when all the field officers and men would have stood by him for the support and maintenance of the Key of North America, supplied with ammunition and provisions sulli cient for thirty or forty days siege, and within reach of 20,000 men. who might, in all probability, have been with them in twenty days." They add, however. .. It gives us no small pleasure to see no countenance changed unless it be with a spirit of resentment and indignation."
They thoughtfully suggested that if it was true that Sol ammon had been lost at Ticonderoga there could be few at headquarters, and it would be well for some of the brigades to take along with them " some of the field pieces paraded at Springfield." The following paragraph is import- ant in connection with the after conduct of the militia and people of the county :
171
GENERAL HISTORY.
" You will pardon us if we unburden ourselves by letting you know what is heavy on our minds, as the keeping of officers of whom ever the common soldiery have a jealousy, especially such as have shown the greatest cowardice. They will never follow them with cordiality, fearing that they will leave them to theumrelves, or, to regain their credit, charge them with impetuosity to needless ruin and destruction. And we are apprehensive, that if those officers who made the late inglorious flight ate not brought to trial, and then not justifying themselves, are not brought to condign punishment, officers will run at a very low ebb; and it will not be worth while the attempt any great things in the future. We shall be glad it our ebulition of resent- ment against the late northern conduct has not run us oito hedecek y Grimperti- nence. But we trust that you will forgive us as it comes from hearty well atsheri to the common cause of America."
It is curious to notice that the style of this composition, so pro nounced in its devotion to the patriotic canse, unmistakably proclaims it the work of Col. William Williams, the whilom tory and tinsted friend of Governor Hutchinson, but who had now so well established himself in the confidence of probably the most vehement whigs in Massachusetts that they had made him chairman of their selectmen and the judge of their local temporary court of justice. Colonel Williams, as a military man of experience and sound judgment. would certainly in General St Clair's place have done precisely as he did ; but this is only a common in stance of the erroneous judgment visited by critics at home upon others under peculiarly trying circumstances in the field.
Nevertheless the paragraph quoted is significant Together with the recent memory of the unhappy Canadian campaigns, and of the trent ment in them of the two Berkshire officers most distinguished for brilliant and valuable service, by Schuyler and his successor. Gates, it afords a key to the fact that the militia of the county, even in a crisis so moment. ous to themselves as Burgoyne's invasion brought, did not serve under either with cheerfulness, confidence, or good will.
Still they did respond to Schuyler's calls promptly. In some cases they even anticipated any call The moment news reached them that Burgoyne was advancing ou Ticonderoga Captain John Strong and Lient. Caleb Goodrich, on the 30th of June, led a company of fifty four Pills- field men to its relief. At Fort Ann they learned that the post was de- sorted ; but if tradition is correct they took part in Colonel Long's sun guinary and almost successful fight. Militia from other Berkshire towns were almost certainly with this detachment, as well as in that which, in receipt. July 8th, of the news of the fall of Ticonderoga, started to win force the army at Fort Edward. Capt. William Francis and Lient. Ster phen Crofoot commanding the Pittsfield company of forty.
General Schuyler, on the 26th of July, dismissed one half of the mili tia of New England and of Albany county. New York, which. although his own home, was in accord with the New Englanders : " Now England ets," in this connection meaning almost exclusively Berkshire county men. In about a month he sent almostall the text home. His pretense
172
HISTORY OF BERKSHIRE COUNTY.
for the first dismissal, while he proclaimed the severest need for men, was that the Berkshire and Albany militia were so impatient to return to their fields, that he permitted half of them to do so lest he might lose all. And then he sent home the other half. According to Bancroft, the reason he gave in private was that he considered every one of the Southern soldiers whom he was importuning Washington to send from his own already too meager force to be worth two of the men of New Enghont The truth was that, even yet he had not been able to get rid of the " nonchalante" of these free spoken Berkshire boys, who took little pains to conceal their distrust and contempt for him. Therefore, it was that he was imploring the commander-in-chief for his old plausible frien l. Arnofil, ant Souslo ern troops, when, had he been what the commander of the Northern Do. partment ought to have been, he might have had from the first Brown and Easton, with the heroes of Bennington and others like them. With the memory of his course toward them still fresh he could not well ask help from Brown and Easton ; perhaps he was still too much prejudiced against them to wish it. They, certainly, still smarting under wrongs. could not be expected to be in haste to again place themselves under his command, while there was any other in which they could serve their country ; and that other soon offered itself.
In the meanwhile Burgoyne's triumph ended with the capture of Ti conderoga and success in a few encounters with the retreating garrison. Thenceforward followed blunders, trust in bad advice and false reports. marches through tangled thickets and mirey swamps with the poorest means of transportation, a loss of men ill supplied by royalist recruits. and an enormous consumption of supplies until he found himself, on the 30th of June, at Fort Edward with an exhausted army and surrounded by an ever increasing complication of difficulties. He had sent a congjun ating column by way of Oswego and the Mohawk, and he now learned that it was before Fort Stanwix. The defeat which it there met was not within his purview of possibilities, but he considered it of the first im portance to hasten down the Hudson to form a junction with this corps before his occupation of Albany, which, with his customary assurance. he had fixed for the 22d or 23d of August. But he had no means of transportation worthy the name, and all the subsistence he could get from any quarter was barely a daily supply.
His necessities were imperious, and he was prepared to listen to any suggestion which promised relief. He had promoted Major Skene, of Skenesboro, to be colonel, and made him titular governor of the regions thereabout, which were waiting to be conquered. He put the greatest trust in his information and advice : which was in this case that the Americans had accumulated great stores, including many horses, at Bon- nington, Vermont : and that they might easily be captured by surprise. The veteran Generals Phillips and Reidesel protested, but Burgoyne not only adopted the scheme but enlarged its soupe.
The final written instructions to Lieutenant Colonel Baum. the Ger-
GENERAL HISTORY.
man officer to whom the command of the expedition was assigned, a fined its purposes to be-to sent the country with Peters corps of losal. ists and the Indians, from Rottingham to Otter Creek : to ge cable and horses and mount Roideset's dragoons : to go down the river as far as Brattleborough, and return by the great bad, which passed through the extreme northwestern corner of Berkshire county, to Alleny, there to rejoin the army of Burgoyi ; to endeavor to make the county bolien that it was the advance guard of the general's army that was to epass din Connectiont and proceed to Boston by way of Springfield to matice prie oners of all civil as well as military officers holding under Congress ; to tax the towns where they halted for whatever they mente 1. nullius het ages for their performances : to bring all horses fit to moins the dragoons or for battalion service, with all the saddles and brilles that could to. found. The number of horses, besides those for the dragons, ought. it was the British general's modest opinion, to be 1,300 ; but if mole war obtained, so much the better.
Verbal orders were given to at once send back the spoils of Reming ton for the use of the army. The extension of the raid beyond that point was partly to divert the attention of Schuyler from the advance of the main body upon Albany, but chiefly to carry out that system of terror devised by Burgoyne, his royal master, and the most infamous of bis ministers, as the expedient most likely to restore the mbellions people to their allegiance.
Nothing, surely, could be better adapted to inspire terror, if fear was not cast ont by indignation, than a raid of mercenary troopers, instructed to live upon the country, ignorant of its language, and with practically unlimited power to make prisoners, supplemented by a scouting of In- dians and exasperated tories. That Burgoyne should believe that a com munity capable of furnishing the number of horses mentioned would pers mit them to be quietly taken, and the remainder of this programme for a pleasant surprise party carried out by such a detachment as he sent ont for that purpose, betrays that pitiable misconception of the people with whom he had to deal which was his ruin. But in fact he looked upon the whole region as virtually subdued and only needing to be made aware of it by a smart application of the rod. Thus far there was nothing in the opposition which he received to disabuse him of his illusion. There was even no harrassing of his flanks or attempts to ent off detached parties ; but he was now rashly plunging into a region where quite another rule prevailed.
The province of New Hampshire had raised two brigades to proceed to the " new State." Vermont, and " check the advance of Burgoyne" Gen. John Stark was offered the command of one, and when in colored service, by virtue of seniority, of both. Hevaccepted, on the indispone able condition that he should be responsible solely to the Legislative of New Hampshire, and in no way subject to the comomental generales up- Continental Congress having, as he conceived, done him ujustice. The
174
HISTORY OF BERKSHIRE COUNTY.
Legislature consented to this. That demand and that compliance fought and won the battle of Bennington. Stark had hardly reached Manches- ter when General Lincoln came to the same place with orders from Schuyler to bring all the militia in that section to the west side of the Hudson, where he was collecting an army to oppose Burgoyne. Belier ing, as Washington did, that the true policy was to hang heavily on the enemy's flank and rear and, if possible, cut off detached parties, Stark flatly refused to go, and on the 9th established his headquarters at Ben- nington.
Burgoyne, for the sake of closer communication with the expedition moved his army down the Hudson to a point on the eastern side nearly opposite Saratoga ; and, as a still further precaution, advanced Lienten- ant-Colonel Breymen to Batten Kill, twenty two miles northwest of Bett. nington, with two cannon of larger caliber than those with Baum, and a force consisting of German regulars, Brunswick grenadiers, light infantry. and chasseurs. Baum was already at this point, and leaving Breymen "there he set out on his march early on the morning of the 13th, with a force of 400 dismounted Brunswick dragoons, a detachment of Hanan ar. tillery with two field pieces. Captain Frazier's English marksmen, all the French Canadians, and a considerable body of the Queen's Royal Rangers (Peters' corps of tories).
The German mercenaries were cumbered with most ponderous armor, and their marching was quite as cumbrons. The British officers affirmed that in forest roads where the mire was almost unfathomable their German confrères halted their men ten times an hour "to dress their ranks." The idea of a surprise by such a body as this was ludicrous.
The distance from the mouth of the Batten Kill to Bennington is a little more than thirty miles. Stark, learning on the afternoon of the 13th that a party of savages were committing their usual outrages at Cambridge, twelve miles from Bennington, sent out a party to check and chastise them. But during the following night word came to him that the Indians were only the advance of a large body of troops pushing di rectly for Bennington. He at once put the whole of his own force under arms, sent express to General Lincoln, who was at Manchester with the Vermont regiment which Col. Seth Warner had raised for the continental service (or rather what was left of it after the sanguinary battle of Hub bardstown) and sent swift and trustworthy messengers in all directions to summon the local militia.
At the time of the battle of Bennington the militia of Berkshire was divided into three regiments. The southern was commandled by Col John Ashley, of Sheffield : the central by Col. John Brown, and the northern by Col. Benjamin Simonds, a veteran who had been one of the garrison taken with Fort Massachusetts when it was destroyed by the French and Indians in 1746, and who afterward became a prominent eiti- zen of Williamstown, and a noted Berkshire patriot and soklies.
Stark's messenger reached Colonel Simonds early on the morning of
175
GENERAL HISTORY.
the 14th, and he immediately dispersed the call throughout the country. The response was general so far as the news reached. By the rolls in the State archives over 500 hundred men volunteered from the county. Some of them, however, seem not to have reached Bennington till after the battle was fought.
Ordinarily when calls were made upon the militia of the county a certain proportion was taken from each regiment and each company and combined in one detachment under whomever changed to be the superior officer ; but in the haste of this emergency the men seem to have gone all without regard to this. In truth all the militia in the county in 1977 seem to have been practically minute men, ready tomarch at the briefest possible notice when there was necessity for haste. At any rate, although there was a pouring rain when the summons to Bennington field chipe, and the roads were as bad as they well could be, there was no hesitation or delay. The patriotic soldiery got on as they best could and as rapidly. There was no dressing of ranks on that march. Parson Allen went to war like the heroes of scripture story-in his chariot-the old gig in which he made his parochial visits.
Of the several Berkshire regiments the number of men who reached Bennington in season for the fight was naturally in proportion to their distance from it. Col. Simonds' was the most fully represented, and he commanded the whole. "In Williamstown," said Rev. Mr. Nable, in his centennial address. "every man except a cripple on crutches shont- dered his gun and walked to the field of conflict." Col. Brown was absent from home. and Lieut. Col. Rossiter of his regiment was second in command to Col. Simonds. Col. Ashley did not reach Bennington. He had been ill a short time before, and probably had not recovered. The Berkshire detachment came along from time to time during the night, company by company, squad by squad. and sometimes man by man, Having trudged according to the location of their homes from fifteen to fifty miles, they reported to Gen. Stark in the emily morning of the now famous day, thoroughly drenched and clogged with mire, but with their powder dry, and full of heart for immediate action.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.