USA > New Hampshire > Colony, province, state, 1623-1888: history of New Hampshire > Part 20
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In the middle of this winter a desperate battle was fought in the immediate vicinity of Ticonderoga, which, for numbers engaged, was one of the most bloody of the war, and in which Lieutenant John Stark won his commission as captain.
On the 15th of January, 1757, Captain Rogers, with Lieu- tenant Stark and Ensign Page with fifty Rangers, left Fort Edward to reconnoitre, in more than usual force, the situation and condition of the enemy at the northerly end of the lake. The snow was four feet deep on a level. They halted at Fort William Henry one day to secure provisions and snow-shoes, and on the 17th, being reinforced by Captain Spikeman, Lieutenant Kennedy, and Ensigns Brewer and Rogers, with
* Gen. George Stark.
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about thirty Rangers, they started down Lake George on the ice, and at night encamped on the east side of the first narrows.
On the morning of the 18th some of the men who had been overcome by the severe exertions of the previous day's march were sent back, thus reducing the effective force to seventy- four men, officers included. This day they proceeded twelve miles farther down the lake, and encamped on the west shore. On the 19th, after proceeding three miles farther on the lake, they took to the west shore, put on their snow-shoes, and travelled eight miles to the north-west, and encamped three miles from the lake. On the 20th they travelled over the snow all day to the north-east, and encamped three miles from the west shore of Lake Champlain, half-way between Ticonderoga and Crown Point. The next day, January 21st, being now in the very heart of the enemy's country, they proceeded to watch the passage of parties on Lake Champlain, going and coming between the forts, and soon discovered a convoy of ten sleds passing down the lake from Ticonderoga to Crown Point. Lieutenant Stark was ordered, with twenty men, to capture the leading sled, while the main body attempted to prevent the
others from going back. They succeeded in taking seven prisoners, six horses, and three sleds. The remainder of the sleds made good their escape, and gave the alarm at the fort. Valuable information was obtained from these captives, and it was also learned that the French garrisons had been recently considerably reinforced, and were on the alert to cut off all English scouting parties. The heavy French garrison at
Ticonderoga being now informed by the fugitives of this auda- cious reconnaissance in their immediate vicinity, Rogers wisely decided to retire with all expedition. But he unwisely departed from the usual custom of the Rangers to return by a different route from that on which they came, and, in defiance of the counsels of his officers, retreated on his tracks.
The day was rainy. On reaching the fires that they had kin- dled and camped by the night before, the Rangers halted to dry their guns and otherwise prepare for the expected conflict. It
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was past noon when the little battalion had completed their prep- arations. Forming in single file, with Captain Rogers in front, Captain Spikeman in the centre, and Lieutenant Stark in the rear, supported by their snow-shoes on the deep snow, they silently took up their homeward march. Their path lay over hilly ground and through thick woods, from whose dark depths they had reason to believe they were watched by the savage scouts of the enemy ; a belief but too soon verified, for on rising the brow of the hill, not a mile from the fires of their late camp, they received a volley of two hundred bullets, fired from the guns of the unseen enemy in ambush, at distances from five to thirty yards away. Rogers was wounded in the head, and sev- eral of the men were killed or wounded by the volley ; but fortunately the marksmanship of the enemy was, in this instance, faulty, and the effect comparatively slight. The habitual tactics of the Rangers,- to scatter when suddenly attacked by a supe- rior force, and to rally again upon some supporting point,- now stood them in hand. They had been under fire too many times to be thrown into a panic. Each man was for the time being his own commander. Each took his own way to the ra.
point, exchanging shots with the enemy as he ran. That rally- ing point was John Stark, with his rear guard. Gathering around him, they awaited their pursuers. The surrounding trees of the thick forest were of large size. Each Ranger en- deavored to so place himself that a tree covered him partially from the shots of the enemy, and thus they awaited the second onset. No soldiers ever had more at stake. The French offi- cials at Montreal paid $11 each for English scalps, and $55 each for English prisoners -sufficient inducement to excite the savage cupidity of their Indian allies into desperate efforts to kill or capture ; and oftentimes the alternative fate of a prisoner was torture at the stake. The backwoodsman learned to give no quarter, and to expect none, in fighting this savage foc.
All through the afternoon of this 21st of January, 1757, this woods fight raged. The Ranger measured carefully his charge of powder, rammed home the ball in a greased patch, and woe to the enemy who exposed his body or limbs to these expert marks-
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men. Two hundred and fifty of the enemy went into that day's fight, and only one hundred and thirty-four came out of it alive, one hundred and sixteen having been killed on the spot or died of wounds. The Rangers lost fourteen killed, six wounded, and six taken prisoners.
As darkness came on, the surviving French and Indian force, although still outnumbering the English, retired to the cover of Ticonderoga. Captain Rogers having been disabled by two wounds, and Captain Spikeman killed, early in the action the command devolved upon Lieutenant Stark, who, as soon as the enemy ceased to press him, carefully looked after the wounded, secured the prisoners, and, taking both wounded and prisoners with him, commenced the tedious march homeward. Encumbered by the care of the wounded, and fatigued with the exertions of the day, their movements were necessarily slow, and the entire night was consumed in reaching the shore of Lake George, near where they left it on the 19th. The wounded, who during the night march had kept up their spirits, were by eight o'clock in the morning so overcome with cold, fatigue, and loss of blood that they could march no further. The nearest English post was forty miles away, and the enemy was less than ten miles in their rear, and might again attack them at any time. In this emergency Lieutenant Stark volunteered, with two Ran- gers, to make a forced march to Fort William Henry for succor, while the command, under the junior officers, undertook to de- fend and care for the wounded until help arrived. Without waiting for rest or refreshment after their all-day fight and all- night retreat, these three hardy volunteers continued on their march, and reached the fort the same evening. Hand-sleighs were immediately sent out, with a fresh party, to bring in the wounded, and reached them next morning. No greater feat of hardihood and endurance was ever performed ; a day of desper- ate fighting, followed by an all-night retreat, encumbered with the wounded, and then, without rest, these three volunteers making a forced snow-shoe march before night. Truly this school of war was a fitting preparation for the subsequent strug- gle of the Revolution. The decision, prudence, and courage of
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Stark admittedly saved the detachment from complete destruc- tion, and he was immediately promoted to be a captain, filling the vacancy caused by the death of Captain Spikeman.
Rogers was wounded twice and lost some twenty of his men. The French, as was subsequently ascertained, lost one hundred and sixteen. The proximity of Ticonderoga rendered vain the continuance of the contest, and he availed him of the shelter of the night to return to Fort William Henry.
For this exploit he was highly complimented by General Abercrombie, and, at a later period of this same year, was ordered by Lord Loudon to instruct and train for the ranging service a company of British regulars. To these he devoted much time and prepared for their use the manual of instruction now found in his journals. It is clearly drawn up in twenty- eight sections and gives very succinctly and lucidly the rules governing this mode of fighting.
Captain Stark continued with the army during the succeeding campaigns of 1758 and 1759, his corps being constantly em- ployed in their accustomed service, and winning credit and com- mendation from the generals in command.
The conquest of Canada, in 1760, put an end to military op- erations in North America, and Captain Stark, not being desir- ous of continuing in the British army, tendered his resignation, which was accepted.
Lord Loudon was succeeded in the early part of 1758 by General Abercrombie and plans were matured for capturing the Lake forts, Louisburg and Fort Du Quesne. By the close of November, the two last, with the addition of Fort Frontenac, were ours. The movement against Crown Point and Ticonde- roga did not succeed. In the assault upon the latter Rogers and his Rangers fought in the van and in the retreat brought up the rear.
In the spring of this year (1758) Rogers went down Lake George at the head of about one hundred and eighty men, and near the foot of it had a desperate battle with a superior body of French and Indians. He reported on his return one hundred and fourteen of his party as killed or missing. Why he was not
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annihilated is a wonder. General Montcalm, in a letter dated less than a month after the encounter, says : "Our Indians would give no quarter ; they have brought back one hundred and forty-six scalps." For his intrepidity on this occasion he was presented by General Abercrombie with the commission of Major of Rangers, before alluded to.
Mr. Pitt proposed in the campaign of 1759 the entire con- quest of Canada. Bold as was the undertaking it was substan- tially accomplished. Ticonderoga and Crown Point were abandoned in July, Fort Niagara capitulated the same month, and Quebec was surrendered in September.
Their violation of a flag of truce in this last month now called attention to the St. Francis Indians, who had been for a century the terror of the New England frontiers, swooping down upon them when least expected, burning their buildings, destroying their cattle, mercilessly murdering their men, women and chil- dren, or cruelly hurrying them away into captivity. The time had now come for returning these bloody visits. The proffering of this delicate attention was assigned by Major General Am- herst to Rogers. In his order, dated September 13, he says : " You are this night to set out with the detachment, as ordered yesterday, viz., of 200 men, which you will take under your command and proceed to Missisquoi Bay, from whence you will march and attack the enemy's settlements on the south side of the river St. Lawrence in such a manner as you shall judge most effectual to disgrace the enemy, and for the success and honour of his majesty's arms. *
" Take your revenge, but don't forget that tho' those villains have dastardly and promiscuously murdered the women and children of all ages, it is my orders that no women or children are killed or hurt."
In pursuance of these orders Major Rogers started the same day at evening. On the tenth day after he reached Missisquoi Bay. On the twenty-third, with one hundred and forty-two Rangers, he came, without being discovered, to the environs of the village of St. Francis. The Indians had a dance the evening following his arrival and slept heavily afterwards. The
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next morning, half an hour before sunrise, Rogers and his men fell upon them on all sides, and in a few minutes, ere they had time to arouse themselves and seize their arms, the warriors of that village were dead. A few, attempting to escape by the river, were shot in their canoes. The women and children were not molested.
When light came it revealed to the rangers lines of scalps, mostly English, to the number of six hundred, strung upon poles above the doorways. Thereupon, every house except three containing supplies was fired, and their destruction brought death to a few who had before escaped it by concealing them- selves in the cellars. Ere noon two hundred Indian braves had perished and their accursed village had been obliterated.1
The operations of the next year (1760) ended this long and fierce struggle. The attempted re-capture of Quebec by the French was their final cffort. The army of the Lakes em- barked from Crown Point for Montreal on the sixteenth day of August. " Six hundred Rangers and seventy Indians in whale- boats, commanded by Major Rogers, all in a line abreast, formed the advance guard." He and his men encountered some fight- ing on the way from Isle a Mot to Montreal, but no serious ob- stacle retarded their progress. The day of their arrival Mon- sieur de Vaudveuil proposed to Major-General Amherst a capit- ulation, which soon after terminated the French dominion in North America.
The English troops, as will be remembered, entered Montreal on the evening of the eighth of September. On the morning of the twelfth Major Rogers was ordered by General Amherst to proceed westward with two companies of Rangers and take possession of the western forts, still held by the French, which, by the terms of the capitulation, were to be surrendered.
He embarked about noon the next day with some two hun- dred Rangers in fifteen whale-boats, and advanced to the west by the St. Lawrence and the Lakes. On the seventh of No- vember they reached the mouth of the Cuyahoga, where the beautiful city of Cleveland now stands. The cross of St.
1 J. B. Walker.
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George had never penetrated the wilderness so far before. Here they encamped and were soon after waited upon by mes- sengers from the great chieftain, Pontiac, asking by what right they entered upon his territory and the object of their visit. Rogers informed them of the downfall of the French in America, and that he had been sent to take possession of the French forts surrendered to the English by the terms of the capitula- tion. Pontiac received his message, remarking that he should stand in his path until morning, when he would return to him his answer. The next morning Pontiac came to the camp and the great chief of the Ottawas, haughty, shrewd, politic, ambi- tious, met face to face the bold, self-possessed, clear-headed Major of the British Rangers. It is interesting to note how calmly the astute ally of the French accepted the new order of things and prepared for an alliance with his former enemies. He and Rogers had several interviews and in the end smoked the pipe of peace. With dignified courtesy the politic Indian gave to his new friend free transit through his territory, pro- visions for his journey and an escort of Indian braves. Rogers broke camp on the twelfth and pushed onward towards Detroit. By messenger sent forward in advance he apprized Monsieur Belletre, commandant of the fort, of his near approach and the object of it. The astonished officer received him cautiously. Soon satisfied, however, of the truth of the unwelcome news thus brought, he surrendered his garrison. On the twenty- ninth of November the British flag floated from the staff which ever before had borne only the lilies of France.
On the tenth of December, after disposing of the French force found in the fort, and having taken possession of the forts Miamie and Gatanois, with characteristic ardor Rogers pushed still farther westward for Michilimackinac. But it was a vain attempt. The season was far advanced. Turning eastward, after a tedious journey, he reached New York on the fourteenth of February, 1761.
From New York, there is reason to suppose that he went this same year as Captain of one of his Majesty's Independent Companies of Foot to South Carolina, and there aided Colonel
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Grant in subduing the Cherokees. From this time onward for the next two years we lose sight of Major Rogers, but he re-ap- pears at the siege of Detroit in 1763.
The next glimpse we get of Major Rogers is at Rumford (now Concord) where he had a landed estate of some four or five hundred acres. A year or so after the surrender of Mon- treal he was married to Elizabeth, daughter of Rev. Arthur Brown, rector of St. John's Church, in Portsmouth, which he considered his residence. For three or four years, between 1762 and 1765, he trafficked a good deal in lands, buying and selling numerous and some quite extensive tracts. Some of these lands he seems to have purchased and some to have received in consideration of military services. In 1764, Benning Went- worth, as governor of New Hampshire, conveyed to him as "a . reduced officer " a tract of three thousand acres, lying in the southern part of Vermont.
One conveyance made by him and bearing date December 20, 1762, arrests our attention. By it he transferred to his father-in-law, Rev. Arthur Brown, before mentioned, some five hundred acres of land in Rumford (now Concord), together with " one negro man, named Castro Dickerson, aged about twenty- eight ; one negro woman, named Sylvia ; one negro boy, named Pomp, aged about twelve, and one Indian boy, named Billy, aged about thirteen." If the object of the conveyance was to secure it as a home to his wife and children against any liabilities he might incur in his irregular life, the end sought was subse- quently attained, as the land descended even to his grand- children.
The old " Rogers House," so called, is still standing upon the former estate of Major Rogers, on the east side and near the south end of Main Street, in Concord. It must be at least a hundred years old, and faces the south, being two stories high on the front side and descending by a long sloping roof to one in the rear. It was occupied by Arthur, son of Major Rogers, who was a lawyer by profession and died at Portsmouth, in 1841.
Major Rogers did not prove a good husband, and seventeen years after their marriage his wife felt constrained, February 12,
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1778, to petition the General Assembly of New Hampshire for a divorce from him on the ground of desertion and infidelity.
Major Rogers was an author as well as soldier. He seems to have been in England in 1765, and to have there published two respectable volumes of his writings. One is entitled " Journals of Major Robert Rogers ;" the other is called "A concise view of North America."
In 1770 he sailed for England, and there, strange as it may seem, the stalwart, fine-looking, wily ex-commandant was lionized.
We see nothing more of Major Rogers until July, 1775, when he again appears in America as a major of the British Army, retired on half-pay.
On the second day of December, a little more than a month later, in shabby garb, he calls upon President Wheelock, at Hanover. Later, at Medford, Massachusetts, he addressed a letter to General Washington, soliciting an interview ; but his reputation was such that the Commander-in-Chief declined to see him.
In August, 1776, he accepted a commission of lieutenant colonel commandant, signed by General Howe, and empower- ing him to raise a battalion of Rangers for the British army. To this work he now applied himself and with success.
On the twenty-first of October, 1776, Rogers fought his last battle on American soil. His regiment was attacked at Mam- aronec, New York, and routed by a body of American troops.
The next year he returned to England, where he is said to have died in the year 1800.1
I J. B. Walker.
1
CHAPTER X.
ROYAL PROVINCE, 1760-1775.
HAMPSHIRE GRANTS -TAXATION BY PARLIAMENT - STAMP ACT - ITS REPEAL - RESIGNATION OF GOVERNOR BENNING WENTWORTH - GOV- ERNOR JOHN WENTWORTH - HIS POPULARITY - EARLY SETTLERS - THEIR CUSTOMS - GILMANTON - MARLBORO - CANAAN - ENFIELD - LYME - OXFORD - BATH - LEBANON - HANOVER - GOFFSTOWN - NEWPORT - PLAINFIELD - DANVILLE - PETERBOROUGHI - Bow CON- TROVERSY - SUNCOOK - CANDIA - WILTON - NEW IPSWICH - LISBON - GILSUM - LANCASTER - CLAREMONT - WENTWORTH - SALISBURY - MILAN - BERLIN - HILLSBOROUGH - FITZWILLIAM - ANNALS OF PORTSMOUTH - PAUL REVERE - CAPTURE OF FORT WILLIAM AND MARY - HOLDERNESS AND THE LIVERMORES - WHITEFIELD - WHITE MOUNTAIN NOTCH - COLONIAL LAWS.
T HE result of a series of wars for nearly three quarters of a century had given the English undisputed possession of the northern part of the Western Continent. During the last war the seasons were fruitful, and the colonies were able to supply their own troops with provisions. Then followed two years of scarcity. Added to the drought of 1761 a forest fire devastated Barrington and Rochester, and spread into Maine. A contro- versy had already commenced between the governors of New York and New Hampshire in regard to jurisdiction over the territory now included within the State of Vermont. As early as 1750 Governor Wentworth had granted the township of Bennington, and had continued to grant townships within the disputed territory until the breaking out of the last French and Indian war in 1754. In 1761 he granted no less than sixty townships on the western side, and eighteen townships on the eastern side, of the Connecticut river. The whole number of
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grants on the western side of the river amounted to one hundred and thirty-eight. In each the governor reserved a tract of five hundred acres for himself, clear of all fees and charges. The new townships were mostly filled with emigrants from Massachusetts and Connecticut. The western boundary of New Hampshire was determined in July, 1764, to be the western bank of the Con- necticut river and the jurisdiction of New Hampshire was with- drawn from the Hampshire grants and confined to its present limits.
At this time commenced in the Colonies a series of events which was destined to lead to an open rupture with the mother country and finally to the independence of the American colo- nies and the formation of a republic. The war with the French had greatly added to the public debt of Great Britain ; and the home government, in 1763, attempted to impose taxes on the colonies without their consent. The colonies had borne their share of the expense of the war in America and had been fairly reimbursed for their outlays ; but a new ministry coming into power sought to draw the money from the colonies again in the shape of taxation. The first act of oppression was that restricting the intercourse which the American colonies had enjoyed with the West India Islands, quickly followed by the Stamp Act, similar to the one in force during the late Re- bellion. Petitions and remonstrances were drawn up and sent to England. Economy rendered the first Act of little value to England, while the Stamp Act could not be enforced. In 1765 the Assembly of Massachusetts proposed a congress of deputies from each colony to consult upon our common interest, as had been customary in times of common danger. The house of burgesses of Virginia passed spirited resolves asserting the rights of their country, and denying the claim of parliamentary taxation. In the English parliament those op- posed to the Stamp Act spoke of Americans as "Sons of Liberty ;" and the phrase was quickly adopted by associations in every colony. George Meserve was appointed to distribute the stamps in New Hampshire, but he resigned upon dis- covering the opposition to the Act in his native Province.
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Although New Hampshire sent no delegates to the colo- nial Congress which met in New York in 1765, the Assem- bly endorsed the measures and resolutions which were adopted there, and sent similar petitions to England to be presented to the King and parliament by their agent, Barlow Trecothick, and John Wentworth, a young gentleman of Portsmouth who was then in England.
A movement inaugurated in New Hampshire to do away with the courts, on account of their not complying with the provisions of the Stamp Act, was quickly suppressed.
Governor Wentworth had received no official notification of the Stamp Act and had taken no active part in enforcing it. He was now in the decline of life, had made his fortune, and had occupied his office for twenty-five years. He did not deem it wise to oppose the popular will.
The colonists, however, took the most effectual measures to procure the repeal of the obnoxious tax by agreeing to import no goods until its repeal. "The Sons of Liberty " became an organized and effective political body in 1766; but at that time were not disloyal to the home government. During the year attacks were made upon Governor Wentworth to unseat him from his office. Charges were preferred, but were not invest- igated ; and he was allowed to resign his office in favor of his nephew, John Wentworth, who arrived in the Province the following spring.
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