USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : containing carefully prepared histories of every city and town in the county, Vol. I > Part 14
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The crowning disaster of this disastrous war
occurred in 1711. In June a large land and naval force designed for the reduction of Quebec arrived at Boston from England. The army was com- manded by Brigadier-General Hill, the fleet, by Sir Hovenden Walker. The troops were Marl- borough's veterans, and numbered five thousand men. The regiments were Kirke's (2d), Queen's Own (4th), Hill's (11th), Desney's (36th), Wind- ress's (37th), Clayton's and Kane's (disbanded in 1713), and Churchill's marines. In addition to these were Walton's and Vetch's provincial regi- ments, which increased the whole number to about seven thousand. These troops were landed, and encamped on Noddle's Island, now East Boston, which was covered by their tents and enlivened by the stirring strains of martial music. It was by far the most splendid military pageant New England had seen.
In the basin which formed the usual anchorage rode fifteen men-of-war and forty transports. On the 20th of July the troops were embarked, and on the 30th the whole fleet put to sea. A land force, marching from Albany upon Montreal under Colonel Nicholson, was to co-operate with the at- tack on Quebec. In appearance everything prom- ised a prosperous issue to the undertaking ; but when the fleet entered the St. Lawrence it encoun- tered violent gales which drove nine transports on the rocks, with the loss of a thousand soldiers. The expedition was then abandoned, and this mag- nificent armament, which the queen had meant should inflict signal chastisement on French power in America, precipitately quitted the St. Lawrence without having fired a shot. Quebec was again saved.
The Peace of Utrecht, in 1713, brought with it a cessation of Indian hostilities. At this time it was estimated that six thousand young men, the very flower of the colony, had been killed in bat- tle, or died by disease contracted in the service, since 1675. The short and terrible struggle with Philip, the abortive winter campaign of Sir Ed- mund Andros, the ten years' conflict ending with the Peace of Ryswick, the decade of bloodshed concluded at Utrecht, constituted nearly a quarter of a century of warfare the most destructive, the most deadly. Moreover, the province finances were in a really deplorable condition; but by the continued issue of paper money the extraordinary expenses of war had been met and the inevitable crash, for a time, postponed. In considering the heavy drain npon the resources of Massachusetts,
99
QUEEN ANNE'S WAR TO THE FALL OF LOUISBURG.
her blood, and treasure, the wonder is that, in the face of such difficulties, alone, and almost single- handed, she maintained her lofty and nndaunted inien, and exhibited such remarkable capacity for resistance. We trace the course of desolation with a shudder, and we acknowledge that the times were indeed such as tried men's souls.
On the expiration of his term of office, in 1715, Dudley was succeeded in the government by Colo- nel Samuel Shute, who had served under Marl- borough, in Flanders. He arrived at Boston in October, 1716. His administration was embit- tered by continued warfare with the house of rep- resentatives upon questions of privilege, in which the governor usually had the support of the coun- cil. Of these differences a fixed compensation for the royal governor, to be paid by the province, became one of the most vexatious, and soon de- veloped into a chronic grievance, to be inherited by succeeding administrations. By voting only such sums as they pleased, the house held a power over the governor which they were determined to exercise, and did exercise, whenever the chief magistrate's construction of their charter preroga- tives clashed with their own. These antagonisms finally drove Shute from the province.
In.1721 the General Court sat in Cambridge, on account of the prevalence of small-pox at the capital. It was at this time that inoculation was first tried with success, against a popular clamor in which most of the physicians of the day joined. Such was the power of prejudice that the house of representatives passed a bill prohibiting inoculation. The council, however, did not con- cur.
In 1722 war again broke out with the Eastern Indians, who had been in a condition of feverish agitation ever since they knew the English meant to reoccupy their old settlements in Maine under the provisions of the late treaty. Their dissat- isfaction was privately stimulated by Vaudreuil, governor-general of Canada, and by the Jesuits resident among them. The Penobscot and Cape Sable Indians promised to help those living on the Saco and Kennebeck in the endeavor to drive the English from their hunting-grounds. It was not long before the work of slaughter, with its attendant horrors of pillage, burning, and captiv- ity, began anew.
One of the Abenaki villages, situated at Nor- ridgewock, on the Kennebeck, was a perpetual thorn in the side of the English. They determined
to destroy it. In August, 1724, an expedition as- cended the Kennebeck as far as the falls, in the present town of Winslow, where they left their hoats under a strong guard and began their march for the Abenaki village. They found it unguarded, and had surrounded it before being discovered. The warriors ran to their arms, but were swept away by the close, deadly volleys which the English poured into them. Men, women, and children fell beneath this withering fire. Rale, the Jesuit father, whose fatal ascendency over the tribe had brought this storm upon it, fell pierced with balls. The tribe was cut to pieces, its dreaded chieftains Mogg and Bomazeen slain, and the village burned to ashes.
Groton, Oxford, and Rutland had been disturbed by small bands of the enemy who were still at their old work of picking off the unwary English from some deadly ambush. In September two citizens of Dunstable were suddenly made captives. The savages were pursued by soldiers, of whom eight were killed from an ambuscade. One grave in the ancient burial-ground of Dunstable contains their remains.
In the following April, John Lovewell, a hardy and experienced ranger of Dunstable, whose scalp- ing exploits had already noised his fame abroad, marched with forty-six men for the Indian village at Pigwacket, now Fryeburg, Maine. At Ossipee he built a small fort designed as a retreat in case of disaster. This precaution undoubtedly saved the lives of some of his men. He was now within two short marches of the enemy's village. The scouts having found Indian tracks in the neigh- borhood, Lovewell resumed his route, leaving one of his men who had fallen sick, his surgeon, and eight men to guard the fort. His command was now reduced to thirty-four, officers and men.
It was soon evident that the Indians had dis- covered and were watching their movements. On the morning of the 8th of May the leader called his men about him and told them they must quickly decide whether to fight or retreat. The answer was prompt and decisive : "We came to see the enemy." Lovewell then prepared for action. The rangers threw off their knapsacks and blankets, looked to the primings of their guns, loosened their axes and knives, and cautiously moved on, with their scouts in front.
On the border of the beautiful pond in Fryeburg the scouts discovered a solitary Indian, who was fired upon. He immediately returned the fire, severely
100
HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY.
wounding Lovewell and one other. This Indian was then shot dead.
Meanwhile the enemy, who were stealthil: dog- ging the march of the English, found and possessed themselves of their packs. Paugus, their chief, silently placed his warriors in ambuscade. When Lovewell's men returned to the spot where they had left their packs, the enemy rose, and poured in a destructive volley in front and rear. The
English quickly returned the fire, and then charged the enemy in their front with determined bravery ; until, seeing themselves surrounded on every side, the order was given to fall back to the pond, where they took refuge behind trees, and fonght on.
Lovewell was killed and two of his lieutenants wounded at the first onset. Nearly or quite one third of the rangers had fallen, yet they undauntedly continued the battle until nightfall, when the enemy drew off, leaving them in possession of the bloody field. Only defeat or want of ammunition could have made the savages relinquish their prey. The survivors, under command of Ensign Wyman of Woburn, who bore himself intrepidly on this day, made their way back to the fort. Instead of help for the wounded and the aid of eight trusty rifles, they found it deserted, the guard having fled on the report of a runaway from the field that their comrades were all cut to pieces. This was the crowning misfortune of the expedition. The rang- ers now became a band of panic-stricken fugitives. After incredible hardships less than twenty starv- ing, emaciated, and footsore men, half of them badly wounded, straggled into the nearest English settle- ments.
Many instances of individual heroism are related of this battle, and it has been made the theme of many familiar ballads and nursery tales. Indeed, of all the encounters between the white and red men in New England, this is perhaps the most celebrated, the best known. Of the thirty-four rangers who went into battle seven each were from Groton, Concord, and Dunstable, five belonged in Woburn, two in Billerica, and one was from Weston. All the officers were from Middlesex. When the survivors eame silently together in the darkness that succeeded the conflict, only nine were unhurt. Eleven were badly wounded, but were re- solved to march with their comrades though they died by the way. Threc more were alive, but had received their deathi-wounds. One of these was Lieutenant Robbins of Chelmsford. Knowing that he must be left behind, he begged his comrades to
load his gun, in order that he might have one last shot when the savages returned to wreak their ven- geance on the wounded.
The loss of the Indians could only be guessed, but the battle led to the immediate abandonment of their village, from which so many war-parties had formerly harassed the English. Paugus, the renowned chief, fell, slain, it is said, by Jolin Cham- berlain of Groton. The foemen met on the shore of the pond to which both repaired to cleanse their foul guns. Both coolly washed and loaded their weapons while exchanging mutual defiance and taunts. Whoever first loaded held his enemy at his mercy. Chamberlain's superior dexterity gave him this advantage. " Chief, I said I should kill you," exclaimed the fearless ranger, sending his bullet through the heart of Paugus. Though the story has obtained large credence, its authenticity is doubtful.
With this fight the war closed. It is not en- titled to a place in history beside the heroic defence of Wadsworth, in Philip's War, or many other fierce encounters since that time. Lovewell's was not an expedition undertaken solely to secure the common safety by severely chastising an insolent and dreaded foe, but a hunt for Indian scalps, for which the province had increased the premium to one hun- dred pounds. His men were all volunteers drawn together by their captain's previous reputation and good fortune in obtaining this hideous bounty. Therefore, while we extol a valor never surpassed on any field, we may not award to Lovewell's band the praise due to men who fought for a higher and a nobler motive. We forbear to express our sense of the cruel policy which legalized the introduction of such warfare, and, in effect, put Christians and savages on the same level in their way of conduct- ing it.
Governor Burnet, son of the friend and coun- sellor of King William, was appointed to succeed Shute, who, contrary to the general expectation, did not return, but who left as a legacy to the new incumbent his quarrel with the house of repre- sentatives. Burnet was of sterner mould than his predecessor. Moreover, the king administered harsh reproof and warning to the provincial legis- lature for the intractable spirit which marked its proceedings upon the question of compensation. While the court was sitting at Cambridge, to which place it had been adjourned, Burnet was taken sick, and died in September, 1729. He was succeeded by Jonathan Belcher, a native of New England.
101
QUEEN ANNE'S WAR TO THE FALL OF LOUISBURG.
The principal event of Beleher's administration was the rectification of the northern boundary of the province, by which Massachusetts lost all she claimed. By her extravagant and forced construc- tion of the charter, the chance of obtaining what a wiser and more moderate policy would have secured was thrown away. Even if her claim to New Hampshire and Maine had been an equitable one, which we cannot believe, the determined hos- tility of the people of those provinces in general to be swallowed up by Massachusetts constituted a serious objection to the union, especially when their cause found favor and support with the Church party in England, at the head of which the Bishop of London exercised great influence over the affairs of the colonies. By this decision Mid- dlesex lost a large fraction of her territory lying in old Dunstable and in Dracut.
Another principal occurrence of Governor Bel- cher's gubernatorial incumbency was the inaugu- ration of the Land Bank Scheme,1 which was designed to supply £ 150,000 in bills of credit, based upon mortgage of real property by subserib- ers to the bank. The operations of this associa- tion were productive of great mischief in still further unsettling values in the province; its op- ponents procured the passage of an act of Parlia- ment dissolving it. Governor Belcher was removed from office in 1740.
William Shirley's administration began in 1741. He had first to deal with the difficult question of the province finances, which for twenty years had been growing more and more complicated. The crown had instructed its governors not to consent to any reissue of bills of credit after they had ma- tured, which policy, if carried out, would have compelled the redemption of all outstanding paper money in 17+1. Governor Shirley departed from his instructions, which looked to a thorough refor- mation of the finances, by consenting to a new issue of bills of credit, in order to tide over the difficulties of the case. Perhaps, also, he wished to conciliate the Land Bank party whieli had ac- tively interested itself in Belcher's removal and was still strong throughout the province. Al- though it pretended to restore the long-forgotten relation between the precious metals and paper money, the seheme which gained Governor Shir- ley's approval did not by any means do this ; nor
could legislation prevent the natural and legitimate depreciation of what had never any other fixed value than the aet declaring it money gave to it.
But the administration of Shirley was destined to be crowned with an achievement the most brilliant that illuminates the annals of the province. War again broke out between the crowns of England and France. Next to Quebec the strongest for- tress in Canada was Louisburg, on the island of Cape Breton. The fortifications were the work of skilful engineers, and were very extensive, but were now reported out of repair and weakly garrisoned. Shirley conceived the audacious idea of getting possession of the place. His plan was heard and considered in secret session by the General Court. The members were confounded at the hardihood of the proposal. It was first rejected, a second time brought forward, and finally agreed to by a ma- jority of one. An embargo was immediately laid on all the ports of the province. Prompt measures were taken to raise men and material for the expe- dition. Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island promised each a contingent.
Shirley went to work organizing an army and navy ; for Louisburg could not be reduced without the co-operation of a naval force sufficient to keep French cruisers from breaking the blockade when it should once be established. The governor's in- dustry tas marvellous ; his energy triumphed over every obstacle. Ships were bought or hired, can- non borrowed, sailors impressed. Provisions, cloth- ing, and warlike stores were taken, with or without their owners' consent. The effect of this activity was seen in the departure of the province flotilla on the 24th of March, 1745, with three thousand two hundred Massachusetts, and three hundred New Hampshire troops on board. All this had been accomplished in two months.
William Pepperell · of Kittery was general-in- chief. His personal popularity and extensive ac- quaintanee secured for him the appointment. Samuel Waldo of Boston was first, Joseph Dwight second, brigadier. Edward Tyng of Boston com- manded the province fleet. Roger Wolcot, deputy- governor of Connecticut and second in command, arrived at Boston with five hundred men on the day after the fleet sailed. His transports fortu- nately escaped from a French cruiser on the coast, and joined the remainder of the army at Canso. Here, too, the combined forces were joined late in April by Admiral Warren, with the British West India squadron. Within a week from the arrival
1 For an account of this project see Hutchinson's History of Massachusetts, II., 352, 353. We have not room to present it intelligently to the reader ..
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IIISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY.
of these ships the land forces disembarked before Lonisburg. The place was formally invested.
Louisburg surrendered after a siege of forty-nine days; but not before our raw and inexperienced soldiers had suffered much from sickness and want
-
of proper shelter. The good news reached Bos- ton on the 3d of July. It was received with salvos of artillery, and pealed from steeple to steeple, throughout the length and breadth of the province.
XIII.
TO THE DEATH OF GEORGE II.
A CONSIDERABLE accession of towns marked the period embraced in the preceding chapter. Fram- ingham and Dracut, Lexington and Weston, Hop- kinton and Littleton, Holliston and Sherburne, Bedford and Westford, Wilmington, Townsend, Tewksbury, and Waltham were incorporated in the order named. The succeeding thirty years, which brings our history to the stirring scenes of active hostilities with the mother country, witnessed the addition only of Pepperell and Shirley, of Lincoln, Natick, and Ashby .. By the formation of Worces- ter County, in 1731, out of the old Nipmuck re- gion, any further expansion of Middlesex on the west was prevented. She was now restricted within boundaries little altered during the suc- ceeding century.
The French and Indian War, of which the siege and capture of Louisburg was the great deed of arms, concluded with the Peace of Aix-la-chapelle, in 1748. During this war the incursions of the Indians were more frequent than in previous times, but Middlesex was no longer to be the scene of midnight conflagration and slaughter. Her fron- tier was now no longer, as in times past, the ex- treme limit of reclaimed territory, but settlement had extended itself more and more into the wilder- ness with the steady advance of a hardy and adven- turous people. At this time the garrisoned towns upon the Connecticut River were further protected by a line of forts crected along the river as far as Charlestown, New Hampshire, where, directly in the path of an enemy invading from the direction of Montreal and Lake Champlain, was the impor- tant post Number Four. Another line of block- houses stretched along the northern boundary of the province, from the Connecticut to Fort Massa- chusetts, in the beautiful valley of the Hoosac,
where is now the town of Adams. The latter fort confronted an enemy's advance from the same direction by the east bank of the Hudson, the val- ley of the Hoosac, and over the great mountain ridge into the valley of the Deerfield. Although parties of the enemy occasionally penetrated it, their principal efforts were directed against this line of defence, which equally opposed their ad- vance or menaced their retreat. Garrisons were, however, posted in the frontier towns of Middlesex to repel any small predatory parties from north of the Merrimack; but except at Groton, where a solitary incident commemorates it, the county escaped the ravages of this war.
While opposing an active and implacable foe on this side, Massachusetts was suddenly summoned to meet the gravest danger war had yet menaced her with. France was preparing to obliterate, at one blow, the detested focus of the Louisburg dis- aster, of the armaments against Quebec, - the heart and brain of New England. Boston being destroyed, the work of blotting out the seacoast towns might go on at leisure. France was in deadly earnest this time. She was getting ready a formidable fleet and army. Fourteen heavy ships of war, twenty to thirty smaller ones, fire-ships, bomb-vessels, tenders, transports for eight thou- sand regular troops, were collecting at Brest and Rochelle. England was not more alarmed at the arrival of the Armada on her coasts, in 1588, than was the New England capital upon report of this French fleet being in American waters.
The Duke d'Anville sailed with this fleet in June, 1746. For nearly two months he was so battered and buffeted by tempests, that he arrived at Chebneto (Halifax) on the 12th of September with only his own ship and a few transports.
103
TO THE DEATH OF GEORGE II.
The rest had been scattered far and wide. Only three more transports had forlornly reached the rendezvous, when, on the 16th, D'Anville, pos- sessor of one of the proudest names of France, died, - of apoplexy say the French, of poison say the English. Briefly, a shattered remnant of this noble armament succeeded in attaining the rendezvous, but all thought of prosecuting the original purpose was now abandoned. Sick- ness was thinning out the soldiers and sailors by scores and hundreds. There were hot disputes among the chiefs. Some were for returning to France; others for striking a blow for reputa- tion's sake ; D'Estournelles, vice-admiral, ran him- self through the body in a fit of delirium. The fleet dispersed, to encounter fresh disasters while crowding sail to escape from a pursuing English squadron. This was the end of the gallant array of nearly a hundred sail, which only a few weeks before caused New England to tremble as she had never trembled before.1
Governor Shirley bravely prepared to mect the emergency. Six thousand men were encamped on Boston Common to defend the capital against D'Anville. Middlesex furnished her full share of these levies, while also contributing to the forces garrisoning the border. Unexampled activity and ardor prevailed from seacoast to far frontier. The drums that beat in Queen Anne's war were heard in every village and hamlet of the province. With the news of D'Anville's disaster these mar- tial preparations ceased. Shirley relaxed his ef- forts ; the province troops were allowed to return home; the great dread which rested on men's minds was lifted away.
The next period of war embraces the term from 1754 to 1760, when England seriously undertook the subjugation of Canada. In this campaign the great military operations were carried on within the enemy's country ; but two thousand Massa- chusetts soldiers fought in the ranks of the impe- rial army, from Lake George to Cape Diamond, under the leadership of Amherst and Wolfe. All
1 A fleet with flags arrayed Sailed from the port of Brest, And the Admiral's ship displayed The signal, " Steer southwest."
For this Admiral d'Anville Had sworn by cross and crown To ravage with fire and steel Our helpless Boston town. LONGFELLOW.
Canada fell into English possession. The imperial eusign floated over every stronghold from Louis- burg to Crown Point; and when its great rival was at last lowered from the battlements of Mon- treal, it announced to New England the termina- tion of thirty-five years of war since the accession of William and Mary to the throne of England. Fifteen years later, while the memory of Louis- burg, Lake George, Quebec, and Havana werc still freshi in the minds of the living, the martial spirit and prowess of New England were to be scri- ously questioned by the reigning sovereign in Old England. Well might it be said of the House of Hanover, as it subsequently was of the Bourbons, Ils n'ont rien appris, rien oublié.
In the year 1752 the Gregorian Calendar was, by act of parliament, adopted in the British do- minions. The new year now began on the 1st of January, instead of, as formerly, on the 25th of March. The old and new methods of computa- tion took, respectively, the designation of Old and New Style.
Franklin was now making those discoveries in the management of natural electric currents by
Benjamin Franklin.
means of his ever-famous kite. Shirley, in order to provide the sinews of war, procured a stamp act from the provincial legislature, laying a duty upon vellum, parchment, and paper for two years. The same year, 1755, the Boston Gazette news- paper first appeared. Its later influence and position, as the official vehicle of revolutionary
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