USA > Massachusetts > Berkshire County > Pittsfield > The history of Pittsfield (Berkshire County), Massachusetts, from the year 1734 to the year 1800 > Part 28
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Their very obedient, humble servant, JOHN BROWN.
Having now rid himself of connection with a service in which its most corrupt, treacherous, and dangerous officer was able to wield so potent and mysterious an influence, Col. Brown returned to Pittsfield, was appointed colonel of the middle regiment of Berkshire militia, and in that capacity sought, and, as we shall see, not in vain, to serve his country faithfully, and win honor for himself.
Three years afterwards, John Brown lay dead on the battle- field, where he fell fighting for the country which had refused him the simplest justice. Benedict Arnold was a fugitive in the army of her enemies ; and all men believed what had been vainly charged upon him in 1777.
CHAPTER XVI. THE INVASION OF BURGOYNE, AND BATTLE OF BENNINGTON.
[1777.]
Pittsfield Soldiers for the Continental Army. - Apprehensions of Invasion from Canada. - A Petition of 1775. - Pittsfield responds to Calls for Men. - Sends Companies to Ticonderoga in December and April. - Burgoyne approaches. - Extracts from Mr. Allen's Diary at Ticonderoga. - He addresses the Soldiers of the Garrison. - Evacuation of Ticonderoga. - Feeling at Pittsfield regarding it. - Correspondence of Gen. Schuyler. - Schuyler and the Berkshire Militia. - Baum's Expedition marches on Bennington. - Met by Stark. - Rally of the Berkshire Militia. - Pittsfield Volunteers. - Anecdote of an Indian Scout. - Anecdotes of Rev. Mr. Allen. - He fires the First Gun at the Bennington Fight. - Anecdote of Linus Parker. - Route of the British Forces. - Effect of the Victory on the Country. - Col. Brown's Lake George Expedition. - His Brilliant Success. - Surrender of Burgoyne. - His March through Pittsfield. - Quaint Patriotic Verses.
ITHE year 1777 was distinguished in the Revolutionary annals of Pittsfield for the extraordinary sacrifices and exertions required of her people, as well as for the brilliancy of the exploits in which they conspicuously shared. At midsummer, after months of incessant anxiety, hostile troops approached nearer to her bor- ders than at any other time since the close of the French and Indian Wars; bringing her within the purposed scope of an invasion characterized in an unusual degree by elements designed and well fitted to spread terror among the non-combatant population. From April to November was a period of continued excitement and alarm; of frequent calls upon her militia, promptly met, although at the most inopportune moment for the farmer; of disasters which only inspired new vigor and patriotic devotion; of successes which flashed hope and light over the nation at the moment of its deepest despondeney and gloom.
1
The feeble remnant of the splendid company, which, under David Noble, had joined Patterson's regiment in 1775, after participating,
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during the last days of its service, in the glories and dangers of Princeton and Trenton, had been dismissed on the last day of 1776. Only six Pittsfield soldiers remained in the Continental service during the succeeding winter; but these formed part of that noble though crippled army with which Washington baffled the superb legions of Howe in New Jersey, and finally drove them from that State.
In the spring, Pittsfield responded to the call made upon her in common with the other towns of Massachusetts, by furnishing to the depleted armies of Washington twenty-four men, - more than one-seventh of the entire number enrolled in her militia. It was also voted by the town to purchase for each a shirt, a pair of shoes and stockings, and "that the assessors take the town's money in the hands of Col. Williams, and purchase the same immediately." Capts. Goodrich and Rufus Allen were also direct- ed to forward the money and clothing collected for the soldiers by Rev. Mr. Allen, who appears to have managed what answered for a Christian and Sanitary Commission.
At the moment when the town was thus so liberally performing its duties as regarded the national armies, it was justly apprehend- ing the approach of an invader which it would tax all the re- sources of the section to which it belonged to resist, and whose success would be fraught with misery, even beyond that which or- dinarily awaits a conquered people.
In the earliest stages of the Revolutionary contest, among the threats with which the Tories had exasperated, while vainly attempting to intimidate, the patriots, the most odious was, that the savages would be brought upon their rear, while the regulars assailed them in front; and the committees obtained evidence that it was really the purpose of the king's commanders to effect an alliance with the Indians, which they suspected to be for the pur- pose of an incursion as well as for the defence of Canada, to which the honorable scruples of Carleton confined it.
John Brown, while a representative from Pittsfield and Par- tridgefield, in February, 1775, presented to the Provincial Congress a petition - of which he was one of the signers, and probably the author -from the committees of the several towns in Hampshire and Berkshire, asking for a better supply of arms to their militia, and stating their reasons in the following paragraph : -
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"The enemies of these Colonies frequently throw out that administration have concluded a bloody plan for mustering great numbers of French Cana- dians and remote tribes of savages, and to bring them against this Province, in order to effect their system of tyranny and despotism of these Colonies; and the inhabitants of these counties apprehend that the first attacks of said Canadians and Indians will be made upon them."
The war carried into Canada postponed the realization of these fears; but the operations with which the British commander fol- lowed the expulsion of the American forces from that Province left no room to doubt that the following spring would be signalized by the long-dreaded irruption. The unfortunate relations between the department commander and the militia within his precinct con- tributed, however, with other causes, to obstruct the measures which ought to have been taken in anticipation of it.
John Adams wrote on the 29th of April from Philadelphia, doubtless relying upon Schuyler's reports, "Every man in the Massachusetts quota ought to have been ready last December; and not one man has yet arrived in the field, and not three hundred at Saratoga. I have been abominably deceived about the troops. If Ticonderoga is not lost, it will be because it is not attacked ; and, if it should be, New England will bear all the shame and all the blame of it." Of the neglect thus charged, Pittsfield was not guilty ; nor probably was Berkshire generally, notwithstanding the distrust in which Schuyler was held in the county. Lieut. James Hubbard, with nineteen men from Pittsfield, was kept at Ticonderoga from December to the latter part of March ; and, on the 25th of April, the town sent Lient. Stephen Crofoot with four- teen men, Richmond and Lenox probably making up the full company.
An average of about one-sixth of the enrolled militia of the town were in the military service of the country from the 1st of De- cember to the 1st of May after which the proportion began to increase, until, in July, it actually exceeded the whole number on the rolls, which was only one hundred and forty, while at one time one hundred and forty-five were returned as in service, including the clergyinan, and others exempt by law.
None of the Pittsfield militia appear to have remained at Ticon- deroga after the 22d of May; but Rev. Mr. Allen was there, as chaplain to a Continental regiment, from the 13th of June until the evacuation ; and has left a diary of what transpired in connec-
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tion with that event, which throws light upon the feeling mani- fested in Berkshire regarding it. 1
The invasion which that summer threatened the portions of New York and Massachusetts which were protected by Ticonde- roga was such as might well have kept alive the most anxious solicitude for the safety of that fortress, and the most lively appre- hension whenever it was endangered. The king and his cabinet, determined no longer to be balked in their purposes by the old- fashioned chivalry of such soldiers as Carleton and Howe, had sent over, in the person of Burgoyne, an officer, who, if he had any nat- ural repugnance to bringing the horrors of savage warfare upon the homes of the rebellions colonists, was willing to yield all weak scruples to the instructions of the royal closet.
Arriving in Canada, and entering upon his schemes of invasion, his deliberate purpose was to inspire the people through whose country he intended to march with the terror of his red allies as well as of his military police.
On the evening of July 1, Bnrgoyne's army debarked before Ticonderoga, mustering, rank and file, 3,724 British soldiers, 3,016 Germans, and 250 Provincials, besides which there were 473 picked cannoneers, with the finest park of artillery which had then ever accompanied any army. In addition to these were the sav- ages, on which the king so strongly relied.
The character of the warfare carried on by these auxiliaries may be learned from the following paragraphs in Rev. Mr. Allen's diary of June 26 :-
" This day, as John Whiting and John Batty 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 of age, and belonged to Lanesborough.
" 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 taken off during all which he was quite sensible, and was obliged to feign himself dead during the stripping him of his armor, and taking off his sealp, which caused great pain. After the Indians retired, he got up, and ran and called for help, and was soon carried in. He was living the day before the retreat, and, it was said, was left behind."
1 Published in The Hartford Courant, Sept. 1, 1777.
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The whole civilized portion of Burgoyne's army was perfect in soldiership and appointments, and was commanded by able and ambitious officers.
The garrison of Ticonderoga, under Gen. St. Clair, consisted of barely 3,300 men, one-third of them not efficient, and only one man in every ten of the rest furnished with a bayonet. Notwith- standing this great disparity, the American soldiers were able to remember, that, twenty years before, an army of twice the num- ber of that of Gen. Burgoyne, and with a reputation nearly as splendid, had been repulsed from before those very walls by a gar- rison not comparatively larger than their own.
Gens. Schuyler and St. Clair expressed the utmost confidence of defending the post; and the former continued to accumulate stores until the last, while the latter, by the orders of his superior, retained his men there until the favorable moment for retreat was passed. Yet Schuyler, at least, was well aware of a not im- probable contingency, which, if it should occur, would render it utterly impossible to hold the works for a single day.
The original selection of Ticonderoga as a military post was made with reference to the exigencies of the old forest-warfare, and its retention had been a matter of tradition, without any skilful re-examination of its position. On the retreat of the Canada expedition in 1776, it had, however, been observed that Mount Independence commanded the old lines; and that elevation had been fortified, in great part by the Berkshire soldiers.
But across the outlet of Lake George from Mount Independence, and across a narrow portion of Lake Champlain from Ticonderoga, the chain of hills which separates the two lakes terminates in an abrupt eminence, six hundred feet high, which in 1776 bore the name of Sugar Mountain.
Its distance from Mount Independence was but fifteen hundred yards; from Ticonderoga, fourteen hundred : but it had been neg- lected by French, English, and American engineers, as too distant to be dangerous, or too precipitous to be occupied. But Col. John Trumbull, when . at Ticonderoga, on Gen. Gates's staff, in 1776, had demonstrated that it was quite practicable for an enemy to occupy it with a battery, and that, if he should do so, Ticon- deroga would become utterly untenable. He had further shown, that a small but strong fort, mounting twenty-five heavy guns, would effectually command the lake passage, then the only one
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by which an invading army could enter New York or Massachu- setts from the north. Col. Trumbull furnished Schuyler and Gates with drawings and specifications explanatory of these facts; and surveys were made for the erection of works in accordance with them upon Sugar Mountain, but nothing came of it. The hope indulged seems to have been, that, as the weak point in the defence had so long escaped observation, it would continue to do so.
It quickly, however, attracted the notice of a lieutenant of Burgoyne's engineers ; and, on the night of the fourth day of the siege, a party of infantry ascended Sugar Mountain, and were so delighted with its commanding position that they at once hailed it Mount Defiance, - a name which it still retains.
When the day broke, the Americans were startled to see a crowd of red-coats busily engaged in levelling the summit for a battery whose guns were already half-way up the steep acclivity. In a few hours, they would command every nook and corner of the works spread out below.
Gen. St. Clair hastily summoned a council of war; which, of course, had no alternative but to resolve upon an immediate evac- uation, and it was ordered for the same night.
What preparations could be made during the day, without at- tracting the attention of the enemy, were effected, and the retreat was begun under cover of the night. The true object of these preparations does not seem to have been at first communicated to the body of the army. Mr. Allen having, in obedience to orders, removed his baggage to Mount Independence, was returning with the intention of taking part in the defence of Ticonderoga, when, meeting his regiment in full retreat, he was astonished and in- dignant to learn the true condition of affairs. Ignorant of the examination made the previous year by Col. Trumbull, he, like the great majority of the army, held to the traditional belief that Ticonderoga was, for all practical purposes, out of artillery range from Sugar Mountain. " All the king's artillery," said he in his diary, " on the high mountain behind us could never have obliged us to evacuate the place; for what they could make reach us would have been falling shot, and never risen after they struck the ground. The distance was judged to be about three miles from Independence, and two from Ticonderoga. Did not our people lie nearer the army at Boston than that, without receiving damage either from bombs or cannon-shot ? Even had they have
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lifted np their eighteen-pounders to the summit of that craggy mountain, we might have sat under our own vines and fig-trees, and not been afraid."
HIad Mr. Allen been informed of Col. Trumbull's thorough in- vestigation of the matter, his opinion would have been changed; but the council of war explained their action to their subordinates, only by the pleas of a scarcity of ammunition, and the danger of re-enforcement to the enemy. The true reason which justified their decision appears only to have been thrown out casually and without authority.
Of the general feeling in the army, Mr. Allen says, " This event was surprising to the whole garrison, and unexpected by us all. Neither officers nor soldiers indulged the most distant apprehension of such a measure. The garrison in general seemed to be filled with astonishment, grief, and indignation. Some vented their grief in tears and lamentation ; others, by execrations and bitter reproaches of this sad catastrophe."
Mr. Allen has left an abstract of an address made to the regi- ment to which he was chaplain, a few hours before the determina- tion to abandon the fortress was made publie ; and from it we may learn how astonished he must have been by such a proceeding. The enemy's fleet in full sight, he said in substance as follows : -
" VALIANT SOLDIERS, - Yonder are the enemies of your country, who have come to lay waste and destroy, and spread havoc and devastation through this pleasant land. They are mercenaries, hired to do the work of death, and have no motives to animate them in their undertaking. You have every consideration to induce you to play the men, and act the part of valiant soldiers. Your country looks up to you for its defence; you are con- tending for your wives, whether you or they shall enjoy them; you are contending for your children, whether they shall be yours or theirs; for your houses and lands, for your flocks and herds, for your freedom, for future generations, for every thing that is great and noble, and, on account of which only, life is of any worth. You must, you will, abide the day of trial. You cannot give back whilst animated by these considerations.
" Suffer me, therefore, on this occasion, to recommend to you, without delay to break off your sins by righteousness, and your iniquities by turning to the Lord. Turn ye, turn ye, ungodly sinners ; for why will ye die ? Repent, lest the Lord come and smite with a curse. Our camp is filled with blas- phemy, and resounds with the language of the infernal 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 Lord, lest destruction
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come upon you, lest vengeance overtake you ! Oh that you were wise, that you understood this, 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 me, I am determined to fight and die by your side, rather than flee before our enemies, or resign myself up to them. Prefer death to captivity ; ever remember your unhappy brethren made prisoners at Fort Washington, whose blood now cries to Heaven for vengeance, and shakes the pillars of the world, saying, 'How long, O Lord, holy 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 prefer leaving this body of mine a corpse on this spot.
"I must finally recommend to you, and urge it upon you again and again, in time of action to keep silence ; let all be hush and calm, serene and tran- quil, that the word of command may be distinctly heard and resolutely obeyed. And may the God of Heaven take us all under his protection, and cover our heads in the day of battle, and grant unto us his salvation ! " 1
The retreat was planned to be made in two divisions. A flo- tilla, commanded by Col. Long, was to pass up the narrow lake to Skenesborough, conveying the wounded, the siek, and the non-com- batants, together with such artillery and stores as could be saved. The main body of the army, under Gen. St. Clair, was to cross to Mount Independence, and thence proceed south by land. A prema- ture discovery of the evacuation transformed the retreat into some- thing very like a flight. Both divisions were compelled to set off in haste. Col. Long was overtaken at Skenesborough, lost his artil- lery and stores, and pushed on southward; but, turning upon his pursuers, he made a gallant and almost successful stand near Fort Ann. Finally compelled to retreat, he reached Fort Edward, where Schuyler had fixed his headquarters.
St. Clair's army, after severe fighting and heavy losses by its
1 In a note to Mr. Allen's abstract of this address, written shortly after his re- turn home, he says, "In about five hours afterwards, the garrison was evacuated, and our vast army fleeing before their enemies with the utmost precipitation and irregularity, leaving behind, for the use of the enemy, an immense quantity of baggage, artillery, ammunition, provisions, and every warlike necessary. How are the mighty fallen, and the weapons of war perished ! "
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rearguard at Hubbardston, plunged into the woods, and, by a circuitous route, reached a point about fifty miles onst of Fort Edward on the 10th. From the 7th, when they had disappeared in the woods, no tidings had been received of them. Reaching Fort Edward, although as way-worn, haggard, and reduced a corps as is often seen, they were received with joy by Gen. Schuy- ler, who had fully shared the apprehension, which everywhere pre- vailed, that they had all been made prisoners.
This suspense had added to the consternation that had fallen upon the whole region which the loss of Ticonderoga laid open to the inroads of the enemy, - a consternation which Burgoyne sedu- lonsly sought to enhance through his proclamations and the Tory emissaries, open or concealed, who ingeniously magnified the num- bers of his army, and enlarged upon the ferocity of the savages, who committed their atrocities under the shelter of his commission.
In the minds of the neighboring people, the mysterious evacu- tion of the traditional stronghold to which they and their fathers had looked for protection could not but create, in addition to the other terrors of invasion, doubts of the ability or integrity of the officers upon whom its defence devolved. St. Clair and his brig- adiers were bitterly charged with cowardice; and the graver allegations against Gen. Schuyler, which his enemies had hardly suffered to slumber, were revived in all their unjust malignancy.
If, however, the people of Pittsfield gave any thought to the suspicions against the department commander, they did not suffer them to impede, in the least, their co-operation in repairing the breach' made in their defences. A letter proffering aid was, on the 9th, sent to Gen. Schuyler, who, the next day, gratefully ac- knowledged it, and specified the modes in which the town could best render him assistance. This communication was forwarded to the General Court, with an explanatory note from the select- men. Both letters are characteristic; and the latter is illustrative of the spirit and feeling of the town at that exciting crisis. We therefore reproduce them here.
[From the Selectmen and Committee of Pittsfield to the General Court.]
TO THE HONORABLE THIE COUNCIL AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES IN GENERAL COURT ASSEMBLED.
As the unparalleled, infamous, ignominious, and cowardly evacuating of Ticonderoga and Mount Independence, and hasty retreat therefrom, must give astonishment to all humanity, so must it also give the utmost perplexity and remorse to the United Independent States of America, and greatly
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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 others, with the men, would have stood by him for the support and maintenance of the key of North America; supplied with am- munitions and provisions sufficient for thirty or forty days' siege, and within reach of twenty thousand men, who might, in all probability, have been with them in twenty days ! But so it is, truly a lamentation, and will be for a lamentation ; and they that have the watch must look out ; and we shall still hope and trust that the All-wise Governor of the world will give that wisdom to the Congress and to the several assemblies of the States to lead us into such measures as that we may surmount all the difficulties that attend us, and, in some measure, rectify the mistakes which have been made. It gives us no small pleasure to see no countenance changed, unless it be with a spirit of resentment and indignation. And as we have just received a letter from Gen. Schuyler, in which he mentions the want of a very necessary article, we thought it our duty to enclose it, fearing that, in his hurry and broken situation, he may have omitted sending to you.
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 even the common soldiery have a jealousy, especially such as have showed the greatest cow- ardice. They never will follow with that cordiality, fearing that they will leave them to themselves, or, to regain their credit, charge them on with impetuosity to needless ruin and destruction. And we are apprehensive, that if those officers who made the late inglorious flight are not brought to trial, and then, not justifying themselves, are not brought to condign punish- ment, officers will run at a very low ebb ; and it will not be worth while to attempt any great things for the future.
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