USA > Massachusetts > Berkshire County > Pittsfield > The history of Pittsfield (Berkshire County), Massachusetts, from the year 1734 to the year 1800 > Part 30
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The morning of the 16th of August dawned bright and clear; and Stark prepared to make good his promise of action. A close reconnoisance, together with the report of sconts, showed that the enemy were carefully, if not at all points skilfully, posted. The artillery, protected by Baum's dragoons and Frazer's sharp- shooters, occupied the hill which rose from the Wallamsac, just within the borders of New York. The Loyal Rangers and French Canadians were stationed behind the first line of breastworks,
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in front of the hill, and on the same side of the river with the Americans. The little stream was, however, fordable at all. points, and exercised but small influence upon the Fortunes of the day which made it famous. The hill was quite abrupt upon its south- eastern face, but fell off more gently to the north and west; a fact of which Stark promptly availed himself, sending Col. Nichols with two hundred men, and Col. Herrick with three hundred, to simultaneously assail the right and left rear of the dragoons and sharp-shooters. The manœuvre was successfully executed, not- withstanding the outlying of the Indian scouts, who, finding themselves between the two detachments, and terrified by the experience of the two past days, broke through the lines and fled, although not without leaving a considerable number of dead and wounded on the field. Bancroft affirms that Baum mistook the militia, stealing behind him in their shirt-sleeves and with fowling- pieces, for loyalists of the country seeking the protection of his lines.
In the mean time, as Nichols and Herrick were marching to the real point of attack, small detachments made diversions in other quarters.
The Berkshire militia were with the reserve of some three hundred, who, under Stark in person, were slowly approaching the Tory breastworks by marches and countermarches, and getting familiar with the noisy terrors of the Hanau artillery ; while the commander impatiently awaited the rattle of Nichols's musketry, which was to be the signal for his advance.
In the morning, the Berkshire men would not leave their en- campment until Mr. Allen had prayed to the God of armies that he would " teach their hands to war, and their fingers to fight." The prayer was offered with that fervent earnestness for which its author was remarkable; and it inspirited the men like the harangue of a trusted commander. There were many who at- tributed the glorious success of the following day to the efficiency of the Berkshire parson's morning prayer. And who that, even in these days of less faith, trusts in the effectual fervent prayer of the righteous man, shall rebuke them for superstition in so believing ?
As the regiment to which he was attached approached the Tory outworks in its countermarching, Mr. Allen, who knew that some of his old neighbors must be there, was moved by a sense
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of duty which he could not resist, although conscious of the extreme danger, to go still nearer, and, standing in full view upon a fallen tree, to conjure them to come out from the enemies of their country, and save the effusion of blood, while he warned them of the consequences of persisting in their hostility.
The answer was what might have been expected. "There's Parson Allen : let's pop him!" exclaimed some one who perhaps still smarted from the lash of the minister's plain preaching; and, although a few were of a more merciful mood, a shower of bullets whistled around him, riddling the tree on which he stood, but sparing his person - a piece of good luck which he owed more to the nervous markmanship of the musketeers than to their merciful compunctions. The undaunted parson, having satisfied his con- science, and no doubt feeling that the blood of the traitors would now be upon their own heads, turned coolly to his brother, Lieut. Joseph Allen, who had followed him under cover of the tree, and said, "Now give me a musket : you load, and I'll fire !" And fire he did, - the first gun in that glorious fray, -it must be confessed a little in advance of orders.
In a few moments, however, Stark heard the welcome sound of Nichols's attacking musketry , the word was given, and his men rushed eagerly to the attack, pouring in, as they advanced, a con- tinuous fire, which soon rendered the first line of entrenchments too hot for its defenders. Panic-stricken, the unhappy Tories, expecting little mercy at the hands of their incensed countrymen, attempted to gain the protection of the works above by scaling the steep face of the hill, which had been rendered extremely slippery in digging for the earthworks during the heavy rains of the pre- ceding days. Hardly able to maintain a precarious foothold at the best, constantly exposed to the relentless and unerring aim of the forest-trained militia, the wretched fugitives were indeed in pitiable plight. Linus Parker, afterwards the famous Pittsfield hunter, then a volunteer from Lenox, describes the scene as horribly ludicrous when a glimpse was caught, through the veil of smoke, of the black figures scrambling desperately up the smooth acclivi- ty, and, one after another, killed or wounded, tumbling helplessly back to its base. "I could not," he said, " have kept from shaking with laughter if I had known that I was to be shot dead the next minute." The horror of the scene did not strike him at the moment as it did when he reviewed it in memory. The conflict
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soon became general, and " lasted," says Stark in his official report, " two hours, and was the hottest that he" - he who could remem- ber, not only Bunker Hill and Trenton, but the fierce fights before Ticonderoga in the old French and Indian Wars - "had ever seen : it was like one continued clap of thunder."
The German dragoons and the English sharp-shooters defended their position gallantly, but the impetuous daring of their assail- ants was irresistible. The American musketeers rushed madly up the steep ascent to within a few paces of the cannon's mouth, the more surely to pick off the cannoneers. Attacked in front and rear, and his ammunition nearly expended, Baum ordered his dragoons and infantry to cut their way through the militia, who were almost destitute of bayonets. The charge was bravely made, but was as bravely met. The British commander fell, mortally wounded; and those of his men who survived were mostly made prisoners.
The soldiers of Stark now dispersed in various directions. Some were detailed to guard the numerous prisoners; others were em- ployed in tending the wounded, and in seeking and caring for the dead; many, exhausted with the fatigues of the day, went in search of refreshment; and not a few betrayed the instincts of irregular troops, and devoted themselves to the plunder of the British camp. Even those who cared nothing for the spoils as booty desired to have some trophy of the great militia battle-field. It was while the victors were thus variously occupied that Col. Breyman approached with a body of troops which had been despatched by Burgoyne in response to Baum's demand for re-enforcements, but had been delayed by the inability of heavy German troops to act efficiently as light infantry in a pitched fight with American forest-mire.
It was impossible readily to recall a large portion of the seat- tered militia, and there was great danger that the fortunes of the day would be reversed.
Col. Rossiter distinguished himself by coolness, zeal, and cour- age in his exertions to collect the men and restore order; but all would have been in vain, had not Col. Seth Warner's regiment, which had not previously been engaged, arrived at the critical moment.
They had been stationed with the militia which Gen. Lincoln was collecting at Manchester; but, on Stark's application, had
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promptly been despatched to his aid, and had arrived, on the 15th, near Bennington, where they had been delayed by the con- dition of their arms and the scantiness of their ammunition. They now came fresh from repose; and, although they had been reduced to less than one hundred and fifty men by the Battle of Hubbardston, proved adequate, with the aid of what militia Stark could bring into action, and the captured cannon, to rout the force of Breyman, although that, too, was accompanied by two field-pieces.1
The rout was complete and precipitate. The enemy abandoned his artillery and many of his wounded; and, during the pursuit, the Americans took a considerable number of prisoners and a large quantity of small arms. Darkness preserved the broken remnant, who were received, with what feelings may be imagined, by Burgoyne, who was advancing to their relief with the Forty- seventh British Regiment.
The victory was perfect. In all the engagements, the Ameri- cans had lost only about thirty killed and forty wounded; while the loss of the enemy, in killed, wounded, and prisoners, was more than a thousand. The prisoners alone were at least six hundred and ninety-two, of whom four hundred were Germans, and one hun- dred and seventy-five were Tories. They exceeded in number the whole force which Burgoyne acknowledged to have been sent out in Baum's party.
The material fruits of the victory were four brass cannon, nine hundred dragoon swords, one thousand stand of excellent arms, and four ammunition-wagons, besides what the militia secured individually.
After the battle, Rev. Mr. Allen found a German surgeon's horse, loaded with panniers full of bottled wine. The wine was at once administered to the wounded and exhausted soldiers; but Mr. Allen retained two of the large square bottles as trophies of his three days' "tour ; " and they were long kept as heirlooms in his family, some branch of which probably still have them in their possession.
The prisoners were sent, under charge of Gen. Fellows, to Bos- ton ; but a portion were left on the way, in Berkshire and Hamp- shire Counties; and these, except one servant to every officer who
1 For an account of the Battle of Bennington, by Rev. Mr. Allen, see Appendix.
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chose to have one at his own expense, were ordered by the Gen- eral Court to be consigned to the care of the committees of some of the towns in those counties, and to be permitted to hire out to labor on such terms as the committee might think equitable. Quite a number did so, to the relief of the great scarcity of labor- ers ; and some became permanent settlers of the country.
No battle in the Revolution took a more powerful and perma- nent hold upon the hearts of the people than that of Bennington. To this end a variety of circumstances combined. The dark back- ground which it relieved contributed much to the effect. At the moment when the news of its glorions success flashed over the country, the aspect of affairs, to the popular eye, was one of almost unbroken gloom. The serene mind of Washington, indeed, con- templated the star behind the cloud; but he was, with a far infe- rior force, vainly combating the passage to Philadelphia of the superb army of Sir William Howe, by a system of tactics which, although it commands the admiration of posterity, had no splendor for the multitude in that day, and was even denounced as too " Fabian " by eminent statesmen.
Burgoyne, almost utterly unopposed, was advancing upon Albany with an army whose power and terrors were studiously magnified by every art in the reach of its general. Marauding parties upon the Hudson indicated that the fleet and forces below only waited the arrival of Burgoyne at Albany, to advance to the same point, and complete the armed barrier which was to divide the East from the South and West.
On this night of gloom, the eye of Washington, eagerly watch- ing for the morning star which his trusting spirit prophesied, did indeed recognize it in the noble exploit of Herkimer's New-York militia, and that most mirth-provoking termination to the siege of Fort Stanwix. But the connection of St. Leger's column with Burgoyne's scheme was too remote to be comprehended by the masses; and, in fact, his success was not essential to that of his principal. Herkimer's gallant exploit, therefore, both for this reason and because of its incompleteness, although to Washington's eye "it first relieved the gloomy scene of the northern campaign," had not the effect on the country which he desired and confidently expected from the cutting-off of some detached body of Bur- goyne's army, - the restoration of lost spirit and courage. That remained to be effected by the Battle of Bennington.
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This had in it all the elements which seize upon the popular mind. Standing out from the dark background we have rudely sketched, it glowed with the perfect halo of victory. It impressed itself upon the imagination also in other ways. It occurred in a region which, romantic in itself, had just become associated with the thrilling tragedy of Miss McCrea. The wounded and the slain of the enemy were the abettors of her savage murderers; perhaps among them were the miscreants themselves. The victors were her avengers. The defeated, also, were a portion of the most boastful and arrogant army which the king had sent over. The victors were militia,- the most popular branch of the military service,1 and of a portion of the militia, which to those at a dis- tance especially, was invested with a sort of quaint fame. A large portion were the Green-Mountain boys who had once been led by Ethan Allen. All were men of the mountains, and were led by Stark, the story of whose exploits in the old wars now passed - nothing lost in the telling - from mouth to mouth. Hardly a less prominent figure in the well-wrought scene, as it was pictured by a thousand firesides, was that of the bold parson who went with his flock to share the dangers of the battle-field; satisfied that the war which was holy enough for him to advocate from the pulpit was righteous enough for him to take part in with his musket.
Such were some of the elements which enabled the Battle of Bennington to obtain and keep so large a place in the national heart.
But the first great thrill of joy and hope, that went all over the land, was inspired by the fact that a large detachment of that proudest of armies had been utterly routed by a hastily collected body of husbandmen, half armed, and imperfectly organized ; that no small quantity of munitions of war had been acquired; and that the march of Burgoyne had been seriously interrupted.
In effects like these the Battle of Bennington may justly be classed, and not in any particular as inferior, with those of Lex- ington and Bunker Hill, Princeton and Trenton ; and no prouder rank could be accorded it among the battle-fields of the Revo- lution.
In addition to the moral effect, the material loss inflicted upon
1 Although in form and organization militia, the Pittsfield volunteers were, it ought to be stated, individually almost all veterans; some of them having served in two wars. But few, if any, of them had never been under fire.
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Burgoyne was serious. Out of his small force, more than a thou- sand men - a majority of them among his best troops - were gone, besides those he had lost in the skirmishes of July. ITis scanty transportation was still more diminished ; and, although the captured arms and ammunition would not be much missed from his plentiful supply, it was a serious consideration that they went to replenish the depleted armories of the Americans, who, consequent upon the evacuation of Ticonderoga, had lost no less than 128 pieces of cannon, and an immense quantity of warlike stores.
Three days after the Battle of Bennington, Schuyler was suc- ceeded, or rather supplanted, in the command of the northern army, by Gates, - a man with few of his noble qualities, but with many of his weaknesses. The new commander was, however, governed by a selfish ambition, which sometimes, at a pinch, stood him in the stead of personal courage and the spirit of a resolute commander.
Emboldened now by the recent disasters to the enemy, and by the angmenting strength of his own forces, Gates, upon the 9th of September, turned the faces of his men again towards the invaders, and moved his camp northward to a strong position which com- manded the passage of the Hudson at Stillwater.
In the mean time, Burgoyne, by the most arduous exertions, had succeeded at length in bringing from Lakes George and Cham- plain one hundred and eighty boats, which, laden with one month's supplies, to that extent made every thing ready for the long- delayed advance upon Albany.
But now the occupation of Stillwater by the Americans had made that movement impracticable, unless they were first dislodged from that commanding position. To accomplish this, Burgoyne could at the best muster less than six thousand men, rank, and file ; and, in order to swell his numbers to the utmost of his capacity, he resolved to draw in the garrisons stationed at Skenesborough, Fort Edward, and Fort Miller, and abandon his communication with the lakes.
The necessity of such a measure on the part of the British general had been foreseen ; and a plan to take advantage of it had been arranged between Gates and Gen. Lincoln, who still com- manded the depot for militia at Manchester.
The execution of this scheme, so congenial to his tastes, was committed to Col. Brown, who, with a detachment from his militia
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regiment, had left Pittsfield on the 6th of September, and was stationed at Pawlet, to which place Lincoln also removed his head- quarters. It is probable, that, when setting out for this rendez- vous, he contemplated something of an adventurous nature; for the Pittsfield company which attended him, under the command of Capt. John Strong and Lieut. James Easton, is recorded to have gone "every man with a horse and a bag of meal."
From Pawlet, Gen. Lincoln sent out three detachments of five hundred picked light troops each. To one of these Col. Brown was assigned, with directions to proceed to Fort George, to destroy the British stores collected there, and release the American pris- oners for whom that post had been made a depot. While this attempt was making, Col. Johnson was ordered to create a diver- sion at the northern end of the lake, and, if opportunity offered, to attack Mount Independence.
With so much discretion and spirit was Col. Brown's expedition conducted, that, leaving Pawlet on the 13th of October, by the morning of the 18th, he had not only accomplished the objects designated in the general's orders, but, passing up Lake George, he had surprised all the outworks between its northern landing- place and the main fort of Ticonderoga, including Mount Hope, Mount Defiance, an isolated block-house, and the old French lines. Besides these, an armed brig, several gunboats, and two hundred bateaux, had fallen into his hands. He had made two hundred and ninety-three prisoners; embracing four companies of regular in- fantry, and nearly as many Canadians, besides the officers and crews of the flotilla. Five cannon, and small arms in proportion to the number of captured soldiers, were among the spoils ; and, to complete the gratifying character of the achievement, one hun- dred American soldiers were released from captivity, and the Continental standard, which had been left behind in the unseemly haste of the late evacuation, was recovered.
Having accomplished this, Col. Brown summoned the com- mandant of Ticonderoga to surrender; but he had neither siege- artillery nor men to enforce a compliance; and, after making demonstrations against the works for a few days, he withdrew his forces, and, destroying the captured vessels, returned safely with his trophies to headquarters, having lost in killed and wounded only nine men.
Meantime the conflict went on between the armies of Gates
20
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and Burgoyne at Saratoga and Stillwater; and, in compliance with the order of the General Court requiring one-half of the Berkshire militia to take the field, Capt. William Francis with thirty men marched on the 30th of September to Stillwater, where they remained until the 10th of October. What part they took in the battles which ccurred in that interval is not stated. Dr. Timothy Childs, who accompanied the detachment as surgeon, remained with the army until the capitulation of Burgoyne; which was signed on the 17th, when five thousand seven hundred and ninety-one men, including officers, laid down their arms. Eighteen hundred and fifty-six, previously made prisoners of war, were not included in the articles of capitulation.
The army of Burgoyne marched through Berkshire to Boston, - twenty-five hundred of them by way of Pittsfield.1 The march of these long-dreaded and now but half-humbled enemies through the country impressed itself strongly on the memories of the people, and still mingles largely in their vague traditions. It is indicative of the almost total absence of specie in those days, that the possession of gold and silver, in what seemed profusion, by the passing prisoners, and their readiness to spend it for such luxuries as the impoverished country afforded, was what took the most powerful hold of the imagination of the Berkshire folk; and this to such a degree as to tinge some of the legends, which they handed down, with superstitions akin to those which attach to the piratical hoards of Capt. Kidd. Men, at a not very remote date, have been known to engage in the search for hidden treasure along the route of Burgoyne's men.
Upon the surrender of the British army, the garrison of Ticon- deroga withdrew into Canada : the excitements and alarms which had so long pervaded the territory of which Berkshire formed a part ceased, and comparative quiet reigned. The exultation of the people over the successes of 1777 are quaintly expressed by some ingenious writer of that day in the following verses, which were found among the papers of Gen. Stark after his death : -
1 Rev. Mr. Allen's diary.
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GEN. BURGOYNE'S OVERTHROW AT SARATOGA, OCTOBER, 1777.
Here followeth the direful fate
Of Burgoyne and his army great,
Who so proudly did display The terrors of despotic sway. His power and pride, and many threats, Have been brought low by fort'nate Gates, To bend to the United States.
British prisoners by convention 2,442
Foreigners by contravention 2,198
Tories sent across the lake 1,100
Burgoyne and suit, in state
12
Sick and wounded, bruised and pounded Ne'er so much before confounded
528
Prisoners of war before convention
400
Deserters come with kind intention 300
They lost at Bennington's great battle,
Where glorious Stark his arms did rattle S
1,220
Killed in September and October 600
Taken by brave Brown, some drunk, some sober, 413
Slain by high-famed Ilerkiman 300
On both flank, on rear and van
Indians, sutlers, and drovers,
Enough to crowd large plains over,
And those whom grim death did prevent,
From fighting against our continent ; 4,413
And also those who stole away,
Lest down their arms they should lay,
Abhorring that obnoxious day.
The whole make fourteen thousand men, ? Who may not with us fight again' S 14,000
This is a pretty just account Of Burgoyne's legions' whole amount, Who came across the northern lakes To desolate our happy States. Their brass cannons we have got all, - Fifty-six, - both great and small ; And ten thousand stand of arms,
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To prevent all future harms ; Stores and implements complete, Of workmanship exceeding neat; Covered wagons in great plenty, And proper harness no way seanty, Amongst our prisoners there are Six generals of fame most rare ; Six members of their Parliament, - Reluctantly they seem content ; The British lords, and Lord Balcarras, Who came our country free to harass. Two baronets of high extraction Were sorely wounded in the action.
CHAPTER XVII.
LAST YEARS OF THE REVOLUTION.
[1777-1783.]
Battle of Stone Arabia. - Death of Col. Brown. - Major Oliver Root defends Fort Paris. - Pittsfield Militia. - Pittsfield Soldiers in the Continental Army. - Action of the Town in filling Quotas. - Hosea Merrill. - Interesting Inci- dents. - Material Contributions of Pittsfield to the War of the Revolution. - Collection of Taxes. - Curious Papers relating thereto.
F ROM the year 1777 to the close of the war, the military record of Pittsfield is meagre, as compared with that of the earlier years of the Revolution. While the patriotism of its people continued as ardent, and they were as prompt as before to respond to the calls of their country, the war was in a great measure turned from the neighboring frontier; the demand for extraordinary service ceased; the contributions of men were mostly to the regu- lar Continental army, and we can rarely follow them in their scattered and distant service. Even could we trace them from field to field, we should find, in the story of their conflicts, that the exploits of the few were merged in the achievements of the many ; and that not only was the individual lost in his company, and the company in its regiment, but that, in most instances, the corps hid the regiment.
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