USA > New Hampshire > Hillsborough County > Peterborough > Historical sketches of Peterborough, New Hampshire : portraying events and data contributing to the history of the town > Part 28
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Returning to Peterborough he en- tered the law office of James Wilson as a student, in 1799 or 1800. At the September term of Court, 1803, he was examined and recommended for admission to the bar of Hillsboro County, and at the May term in 1806 was admitted to practice in the Supe- rior Court. The year following his examination, in 1804, he opened an office in Greenfield and continued in active practice for four years, serving in the Legislature in 1807. This was the only elective office that he ever held.
But his military inclinations still asserted themselves. While in Green- field he joined the Hancock artillery and was made captain of the company. His efficiency as a disciplinarian and drill master, and his thoroughness in all the details of military duty, at- tracted the attention of Brigadier- General Pierce, and through him he was appointed Major in the 4th U. S. Infantry in 1808 .. His career as a lawyer was now at an end and he had found a vocation fitted to his talents.
His life for the next twelve years has been many times told, and of it nothing of importance which is new can be said. Immediately upon his appointment he joined his regiment, though his commission bears date of March, 1809. For two years he was stationed in Boston Harbor, and was then ordered to Vincennes, Indiana. His regiment was at the battle of Tip- pecanoe in 1811, but General Miller himself was absent on account of ill- ness. In May, 1812, he was ordered to join General Hull at Urbana, Ohio, when the army proceeded to Detroit. After the declaration of war in June he was with the forces that invaded
Canada and had command of the army when it crossed the river to Sandwich. With Col. Lewis Cass, he was the first to raise the American flag on the Ca- nadian side of the Detroit river. The surrender of Detroit soon followed. The story of that campaign is one of the most humiliating chapters of Amer- ican history, and shows to what re- sults the policy of unpreparedness for military defense surely leads. Only a week before the capitulation, Gen- eral, then Major, Miller had been placed in command of 500 men to go to Raisin river and obtain supplies for the Detroit troops. When the column was ready to march he addressed the men:
"Soldiers we are going to meet the enemy and to beat them. The re- verse of the 5th inst. must be repaired. The blood of our brethren spilt by the savages must be avenged. You shall not disgrace yourselves nor me. Every man who shall leave the ranks without orders shall be instantly put to death. I charge the officers to execute this order." Then turning to his own regi- ment he added: "My brave soldiers, you will add another victory to Tippe- canoe, another laurel to that gained at Warbash last fall. If there is any man in the ranks of the detachment who fears to meet the enemy let him fall out and stay behind." Not a man did so.
On the second day out the force was suddenly attacked by an equal num- ber of English and Indians from am- bush. General Miller formed his line, and with the command, "Charge, boys, charge," led his columns against the enemy. After fierce fighting for several hours, the enemy were driven from the field, the Americans losing 150 men during the action, General Miller was unhorsed and narrowly escaped the scalping knife of the sava- ges. Still he did not seek to be re-
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lieved, but kept the field until. the enemy were repulscd. He sent back to Detroit for re-inforcements, and in- stead of receiving them 'was ordered to the Fort, and a few days later was a prisoner of war. For his skill and bravery in this action he was brevet- ted Lieutenant Colonel.
So unsatisfactory had been General Hull's management of the campaign that some of the officers plotted to remove him and place General Mille.I in command, but he refused even to consider it. At the fall of Detroit a loud cry of wrath and indignation went up all over the country. For the mismanagement of the campaign and the surrender of the place, the administration at Washington, which was culpably guilty of the surrender, to save its face had to find a scapegoat for General Hull's capitu- lation, and ordered his arrest. He was tried by court martial on threc charges,- treason, cowardice, and ne- glect of duty. The charge of trcason was dismissed but he was convicted on the other two. It has been as- serted that General Hull was con- victed on the testimony of Generals Miller and Cass, but as to General Miller the allegation is untrue. On his examination before the Court he testified positively, - "I saw no act of the General's on the morning of the 16th (the day of the surrender) which I can say might not have proceeded from the fatiguc and the responsibility he was under, and that I can mention no act of General Hull's which I could then or since impute to personal fear." But his opinion of the surrender is not on record and we may well believe from his subsequent career that had he been in command the place would have been defended to the last.
On being taken prisoner General Miller was at once paroled but was ' not exchanged until the following
Spring. While on parole he reviewed two regiments of the Peterborough militia which were mustered for in- spcction and review in front of Cyrus Blanchard's house, across the way, in October, 1812. It was a great event in the minds of the young people and they looked upon him in his uniform with feelings akin to awe. They ad- mired the regimentals of the Company and field officers, but General Miller was far and away the greatest of them all. In the following Spring he re- joined his regiment in Canada. He had a conspicuous part in the capture of Fort George in May, 1813, where he led the 6th regiment, 300 strong, giving effective support to General Scott's men in their assault upon the bluffs whereon the Fort stands. His conduct for skill and courage in this action was so conspicuous that he was promoted Colonel by brevet and placed in command of the 21st Infan- try. He was not in the battle of Chip- pewa, as has sometimes bcen asserted, not reaching the field until the morn- ing after the action. In the battle of Niagara, on the 25th of July, 1814, he was in command of his regiment. His part in this action has been told in de- tail many times. The battle began late in the afternoon and continued until near midnight. The enemy's battery of 7 guns stationed on a hill commanded the field. Finding that the Americans could not succeed with- out its capture, about nine o'clock in the evening» General Brown turned to Miller and said, "Colonel, take your regiment, storm that work and take it." General Miller's modest re- sponse is a classic phrase in American history. The enemy's cannon were supported by a strong linc of Infantry. About two rods down the hill in front of the guns was a fence and line of shrubbery. General Miller at the head of his regiment of 300 men ad-
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vanced silently up the hill. He was supported on his right by a column under General Ripley, which went up half way, faltered, and turned back; and on his left by the regiment of Col. Nichols, which went up, nearly reached the top and gave way, leav- ing General Miller without support on both his right and left flanks. Pay- ing no attention to the failure of his supports, General Miller, in whispers, ordered his men to rest their muskets on the fence and aim at the gunners who stood at the guns with lighted matches ready to fire. At the Ameri- can volley, every gunner fell and then the line charged into the battery where they were met by a destructive fire from the enemy from the front and flank. Bayonets and the blaze of the opposing muskets crossed, and the combatants fought hand to hand, but the British were finally pushed back and the cannon remained in the hands of the Americans. Three times the British charged General Miller's command, but the ground was held and reinforcements arriving, his po- sition was made secure. At a later hour when the enemy had withdrawn from the field, the American forces retired and abandoned the guns Gen- eral Miller had so bravely won. For his gallantry in this action he was pro- moted to the rank of Brigadier-Gen- eral.
There were few battles of the Civil War where the percentage of loss equalled that at Niagara. The Amer- ican casualties were 33% of the num- bers engaged, and on the other side it was over 23%. English officers who had fought in Egypt and on the Pen- ninsula declared it to be the most desperate battle they had ever wit- nessed, and the British commander, who was taken prisoner, told General Scott that "he knew the Americans
were brave, but he had no idea he would find them desperadoes."
At the sortie from Fort Erie, on the 17th of the next September, General Miller added another laurel wreath to his fame. Fort Erie stood at the head of the lake of that name, con- trolling its waters and commanding the line of invasion to New York State. The Americans had captured Fort Erie earlier in the war, and the British commander resolved to retake it. The enemy laid seige with a heavy force and tried to carry it by an as- sault, which failed. They then en- circled the land side of the fortress with a chain of redoubts and General Brown determined to drive them back. He organized two columns of attack, one directed to the enemy's right, led by General Porter, the other, commanded by General Miller, at the head of the brigade, who was to as- sault the British center. General Miller led the attack with consumate skill and courage, and fully executed his orders. He captured the batteries in front of him, together with the enemy's entrenchments, and com- bined with the success of the other attacking column, the British were defeated and the Fort was saved. Buf- falo, on the opposite shore, then a mere straggling village, but containing vast quantities of army stores, was pro- tected and the great state of New York was made secure from invasion. For his conduct in this battle, Con- gress gave him a vote of thanks and a gold medal, and the state of New York presented him with a beautiful sword and accompanied it with expressions of approval and gratitude. The medal was presented to General Miller by Daniel Webster at City Hall Park in New York City, sometime later.
The battle of Fort Erie was the last of the war in which General Miller had prominent part, though he was in ac-
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tive service until its close. He was one of the few General officers who came out of the struggle with an un- tarnished reputation for skill, effi- ciency and courage. He never lost a battle; was never driven from any position he had taken; he repulsed every assault. In every engagement he showed all the qualities of a great commander - coolness in action, and ability to seize the advantage of a mil- itary situation; possessed of an iron resolution and unflinching courage, he executed every order, and his fame constantly grew. Entering the war with the rank of Major, before it closed, two and one-half years later, he had attained the rank of Brigadier- General, and his promotion was richly earncd.
His military reputation was very dear to him. "I am very happy, my dear Ruth," hc writes to his wife, soon after the battle of Fort Erie, "that you have no cause of mortification in the conduct of your husband so far. I hope it may continue. I do not in- tend it shall ever be said of you, 'There goes the wife or widow of a coward."
Gencral Miller remained in the army until 1819 when, on his appoint- ment as governor of Arkansas Terri- tory, hc resigned his commission. It was a step he subsequently regretted, though his health was impaired by the hardships and exposures of his cam- paign. He resigned the governorship after three years service, and returned to his farm in Temple, which he had purchased in 1815. The malarial cli- mate of the Territory had increased his sufferings and he retired much broken in health.
In 1824, he was elected to Congress from his district, receiving 6,923 votes, more than 1,000 above his highest com- pctitor. Before taking his seat hc was tendered the appointment of Col- lector of the Port of Salem and Bev-
crly, which he accepted. He retained his position for twenty-four ycars, when, having suffered a shock of pa- ralysis, he resigned in 1849 and re- turned to Temple. Two years later he had another shock, and on the 7th of July, 1851, he passed away, honored and beloved by all who knew him.
He died for his country as truly as if he had fallen on the field of battle. Inheriting a robust constitution, and possessed of great physical strength and endurance, his Western and Can- adian campaigns, followed by the ma- larial influence of the climate of Ar- kansas Territory, undermined his physical powers. He was a semi- invalid for the rest of his life, and the maladies thus contracted were the primary causes of his death.
His qualities as a soldier exemplified his character. He knew the duty of obedience, and was cheerfully sub- ordinate to his superior officers. The history of the war of 1812 is marred by the jealousies and mutinous con- duct of the General and Field officers of the army, but no such stains are on the record of General Miller. An or- der once given him he obeyed without questioning its wisdom or the possi- bility of its execution. The element of fear was not in him. He was a born fighter, and when he struck it asw with the "mailed fist.' His famous an- swer to General Brown, when ordered to charge the hill at Niagara, and the manner of his obedience, were charac- teristic of the man. Those words, "I'll try, sir," so appropriately in- scribed on this tablet, would adorn the coat of arms of the bravest knight in the annals of chivalry.
It seems a paradox that the stern, relentless traits of the successful sol- dier should be united with a gentle, affectionate disposition, but such is often true and was notably so in the case of General Miller. In his family
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and in all the relations of private life he was one of the most amiable and tender hearted of men, and his letters to his wife during his army service showed the intimate alliance of. love and war. Wherever he was his family were always in his thoughts. "This evening," he writes to his wife under the date of July 17, 1811, "the other officers are engaged in a splendid ball to which I had an invitation - but my enjoyment is much greater when I anticipate the pleasure you will take in receiving this." Again he writes her, "I found in my pocket an old letter from you which I preserved as a sweet morsel; and notwithstanding, it contained but a few words, it has been a comfort to me on this long journey only to see the name of Ruth written by her own hand." Again he tells her, "My only anxiety and trouble is that I am so far from the companion of my own heart. Oh! My dear! Nothing but time can sep- arate us. I should not think of fatigue if I was ten thousand miles from you, to start on foot and alone. I could walk without thinking of fatigue until I reached your welcome arms." And again, "Kiss little Kate and Ephriam with all the love of a father and mother for you and me." Here is revealed the heart of the man. His domestic life was a poem, and his love and affec- tion for his wife and children run like golden threads through it from the beginning to the end. He delighted in finding pets for his children, and preferred the society of his family and friends to attending evening enter- tainments. In conversation, he was full of pleasantry and sentiment - an unspoiled man, natural, of generous feeling and untarnished honor. Nor were his activities limited to official duties. "He took the lead in all that was doing for the social and civic bet- terment of the community where he
resided," said one who knew him in- timately, for he was the all-round good citizen, publie spirited and upright.
In his introduction to "The Scarlet Letter," Hawthorne has written a sketch of General Miller as he ap- peared to the great novelist in the last . years of his life at the custom house.
"Looking at the old warrior with affection I could discern the main points of his portrait. It was marked with the ,noble and heroic qualities which showed it to be not by a mere accident, but of good right, that he had won a distinguished name. His spirit could never, I conceive, have been characterized by an uneasy ac- tivity; it must, at any period of his life, have required an impulse to set him in motion; but, once stirred up, with obstacles to overcome, and an adequate object to be attained, it was not in the man to give out or fail. What I saw in him were the features of stubborn and ponderous endurance, which might well have amounted to obstinacy in his earlier days; of in- tegrity, that, like most of his other endowments, lay in a somewhat heavy mass, and was just as unmalleable and unmanageable as a ton of iron ore; and of benevolence, which, fiercely as he led the bayonets on at Chippewa or Fort Erie, I take to be of quite as genuine a stamp as what actuates any or all the polemical philanthropists of the age. He had slain men with his own hand for aught I know, - cer- tainly they had fallen, like blades of grass at the sweep of the scythe, be- fore the charge to which his spirit im- parted its triumphant energy; but, be that as it might, there was never in his heart so much cruelty as would have brushed the down off a butter- fly's wing. I have not known the man to whose innate kindliness I would more confidently make an ap- pcal. A trait of native elegance, sel-
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dom seen in the masculine character after childhood or early youth, was shown in the General's fondness for the sight and fragrance of flowers. An old soldier might be supposed to prize only the bloody laurel on his brow; but here was one who seemed to have a young girl's appreciation of the floral tribe."
In all the qualities of his mind and heart General Miller was a type of the race to which he belonged. His sen- timent at the centenial, "may we en- courage literature, revere religion, and love one another," summed up the thoughts and aspirations of his desires and will. Yet there was in him the strong military instincts of his people, - an uncompromising fidelity to duty a fearlessness, and a loyalty to great
principles for which the Scotch-Irish have ever been distinguished. The two qualities have often been found united - gentleness and courage, rev- erence and resolution, a love of peace, but when country, justice and honor are at stake, a readiness to draw the sword and stand fast - these are the salient features of his character. The time demands a resurrection of these great virtues. In these days when Europe is a vast battle field of con- tending nations and the rights and honor of our own nation are seriously menaced, let us follow the high ex- ample he has left us, and when the summons to do our duty comes, an- swer the call in the noble words of Peterborough's most distinguished son ' "I'll try, sir."
[From page 231 to here was published in the Peterborough TRANSCRIPT Sept. 9, 1915.]
RECOLLECTIONS OF PETERBOROUGH CHURCHES IN THE EARLY FORTIES OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY
ADDRESS DELIVERED AT UNION MEETING IN UNION CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, SUNDAY EVENING, AUGUST 22, 1915.
BY ELIAS H. CHENEY.
/
I have been young, and now am old; possibly older than I look. They say so. Nature is very kind to me. I own to having feared I would not be equal to the present effort. If I falter, kindly charge it to Old Father Time. I would have done better even two years ago.
But when your good Deacon Howe opened the way, I confess to a strong desire to come and tell you of some of my recollections of early church life in Peterborough.
.
The period of which mainly I speak - 1840 to 1845 - was an unusually interesting one. I find I cannot con- fine myself absolutely thereto, but must make a few allusions to the next following decade.
Both Dea. Howe and myself had one other purpose in view. He wanted to hear, as I was glad to read some lines of mine, to which a goodly num- ber elsewhere had listened with inter- est, based on considerable study and contemplation of the stars, down in my tropic home of eighteen years. I have surmised that my experience in trying to be wholly good in a naughty world, with a heart naughtily inclined, is a common experience; that the stars have lessons for us; that the recital of some of my experiences may help some discouraged brother, "seeing to take heart again."
David, old, had never seen the righteous forsaken nor his seed beg- ing. He was an oriental speaking to
orientals. They would not under- stand him to mean that no good man is ever poor; only, rather, that it pays to be good. Thirteen years older than David I can say in good plain English, that I have never seen a Christian suc- ceed in living fully up to his ideals. If we could look for that in any man I have thought we might have expected
it in such a man as the late Edward Everett Hale. Now witness Dr. Hale's dissatisfaction with himself. In a pre- cious Psalm he left us, written only a little while before he went home, oc- curs this line:
"O God, that I might serve Thee as the Stars serve Thee."
My poem, if so it may be called, simply elaborates Dr. Hale's thought, although it was mostly written before he wrote his Psalm. I have seen many who tried, and failed; never one who at life's close regretted that he tried. Not one.
But I am to talk historically of the churches that were here when I was a boy and are here still; not of the new churches which changed population have necessitated.
Churches are not composed of fault- less men and women. Rather of con- fessed imperfect beings, aspiring to right and lofty living, and finding it mutually helpful to keep company with each other. A bundle of sticks is stronger than any stick. Two can walk more easily arm in arm than
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alone. Churches were imperfect then, they are imperfect still.
And what would Peterborough - what would any town do without its churches? Who would want to live here? What would your house be worth ? £ Those churches are worth, and have always been worth what they cost. What one who belonged to one of them 65 years ago recalls of. what was happening in them each and all, during the previous ten years, ought to interest the present member- ship, and this community. That is my excuse for putting my waning strength to its severest test to tell it.
I was not born here, but was here from three to thirteen years old; then away four years and back again, here most of the time the following twelve years. All my common school edu- cation was in the little brick school house up in "Winny Row," with the Scotts, the Crosses, the Washburns, the Steeles, the Wilders, the Grays, the Carleys, the Keyses, the Goulds, the Hadleys, the Morrisons, the Robbs the Johnsons, the Boyces, the Sim- monses, the Pierces, the Todds, the Holbrooks, the Howes, and others, under such teachers as Oren B. Che- ney, Albert S. Scott, Favor Clark, Mary Brigham, Elizabeth Swan, Miss Snow, Miss Abbott, and others like them whose names do not occur to me now. I have seen sixty scholars at a time in that house. Pardon this al- lusión to the schools; churches and schools are so intimately connected. Peterborough was spending during this period about $1,000 a year for common schools, in twelve districts, each a separate body empowered to impose taxes for school purposes. But tuitions at the Academy were low: three dollars per term for common branches, four dollars for higher bran- ches. Pastors' salaries probably from about $250 to $500.
Here I awoke very early to a sense of my relations to my Maker. I was in a peculiarly religious atmosphere, at a period of unusual religious inter- est. My father was a Free Will Bap- tist deacon of the strictest sort; his grandfather, and I think his father, a Congregational deacon. A healthy religious fervor characterized all these four churches. It appealed to me.
"Soon as I heard my Father say, Ye children, seek my grace, My heart replied without delay, I'll seek my Father's face."
I sought, and found that true: "They that seek me early shall find me." My father's big kitchen was where Christians of every name met to sing and pray, at West Peterboro. Baptist, Methodist, and probably Presbyterian ministers, with occasion- ally a visiting Free Will Baptist, held meetings there. When there was no minister he led himself. In Free Bap- tist churches in those days it was the custom for the minister at the close of the sermon to say: "Where the spirit 'of the Lord is there is liberty." Then anybody might talk. My father would rise and talk often at the close of a sermon in the Baptist church. It was always to clinch a point in the ser- mon. Sometimes I used to wish he wouldn't. But nobody ever objected. It was Deacon Cheney; he could state a point in a few words. When it was done he sat down. It often helped to fix the leading thought of the sermon. People often said he should have been a minister. He did once think of it; but no call came; he would not go un- sent.
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