USA > New Hampshire > History of New Hampshire, from its first discovery to the year 1830; with dissertations upon the rise of opinions and institutions, the growth of agriculture and manufactures, and the influence of leading families and distinguished men, to the year 1874; > Part 14
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CHAPTER XXXVII.
THE LAST FRENCH WAR, CALLED "THE SEVEN YEARS' WAR," OR "THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR."
If any thing could show the folly of war for the adjustment of national boundaries, or for the balance of power, it would be that absurd clause of the treaty of Aix la Chapelle, which de- clares that "all things should be restored on the footing they were before the war." Cape Breton, "won by Americans, was given up by England." The conquest of Louisburg was ascribed to divine interposition ; what, then, was the restoration of it to France? The glory of a great victory was forever eclipsed by an inglorious surrender of the prize. The peace, however, was
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only nominal. The fires of war for a season slumbered, only to blaze with intenser heat on a wider theatre. The contest in pre- vious wars had been for the Atlantic coast, for barren islands and unproductive promontories that might serve as safeguards of com- merce. Now, the destiny of a continent hung in the scale. The policy of France was grand and comprehensive. She already possessed the St. Lawrence, the lakes and the adjacent territo- ries. She looked with anxious solicitude toward the great valley of the Mississippi. By planting her colonies in the rear of the English and commanding the great water communications of the north and west, she confidently expected to be mistress of the continent. The French already had settlements in Canada and Louisiana. By establishing a chain of forts from the St. Law- rence to the mouth of the Mississippi, they could then extend their power both east and west.
The colonies of England received grants of territory from sea to sea. The honor of the mother country and the interests of her colonies were at stake. The Earl of Holderness, secretary of state, wrote to the governors of the American colonies re- commending union for their mutual defence. Accordingly seven colonies sent delegates to Albany, to consult for the common welfare and to secure the friendship of the Six Nations. The commissioners from New Hampshire were Atkinson, Wibird, Sherburne and Weare. The Six Nations were represented at the conference and received presents from the convention and private donations from the New Hampshire delegates. A plan of union was adopted, on the fourth of July, 1754, just twenty- two years before the Declaration of Independence. The name of Franklin appears in both. He drew up the plan of union, but it failed. It was rejected in America because it yielded too much power to the king ; in England, because it gave too much to the people ! The English ministry, fearing to allow the colo- nists to control so great a war, resolved to conduct it with their own armies, making the colonial militia their allies.
New England was again called upon to resist the depreda- tions of Indians. They appeared in August, 1754, at Baker's town on the Pemigewasset, and killed a woman and took several captives. They committed similar outrages at Stevens' town and at Number-Four. From this town eight persons were carried into captivity ; Mr. James Johnson, his wife and three children were among them. Mrs. Johnson was delivered of an infant the next day, whom she named "Captive." The fate of Johnson was ex- ceedingly distressing. He was paroled at Montreal, to secure money for the redemption of his family. The severity of winter prevented his return within the limits of his parole. On his ar- rival he and his family were imprisoned, his money confiscated
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and, in addition to these calamities, all the family were attacked by the small-pox. His wife and children were released after eighteen months of suffering. Mr. Johnson was held in prison three years and, strange to say, on his return to Boston was im- prisoned there under suspicion of being a spy !
Number-Four and Fort Dummer again petitioned New Hamp- shire for protection and were refused. They then applied to Massachusetts and received aid. In the spring of 1755, the English planned three expeditions : one against Fort DuQuesne, another against Niagara, and a third against Crown Point. For the last expedition New Hampshire raised five hundred men, under command of Colonel Joseph Blanchard.
Here it becomes necessary to recite the history of some of the prominent actors in those stirring scenes that followed. No history of New Hampshire would be complete without a bio- graphical sketch of General John Stark. His life is identified with the most remarkable events of its records in the eighteenth cen- tury. He was of Scotch descent. His father, Archibald Stark, came to Nutfield (now Londonderry) in 1721. He, about fif- teen years later, having lost his house by fire, removed to a place then called Harrytown, and settled upon a lot a short distance above the Falls of Amoskeag. He had four sons, Wil- liam, John, Samuel and Archibald, all of whom were officers in "the seven years' war." John Stark was born at Londonderry, in 1728. At the age of twenty-four, in company with his brother William, David Stinson and Amos Eastman, he went on a hunt- ing expedition to Baker's river, in the town since called Rum- ney .. Baker's river flows into the Pemigewasset. It was so named from Capt. Thomas Baker, who in 1720 led a scouting party into that region and destroyed a company of Indians. Their chief, Wattanummon, fell by Baker's own hand .* Game was abundant in this region, consisting of beavers, bears, catamounts, wolves and wildcats. In about six weeks of forest life this party had collected furs valued at five hundred and sixty pounds sterling. On the twenty-eighth day of April, 1752, John Stark, while collecting his traps, was surprised by ten Indians. His brother William and Stinson were in a canoe upon the river. The Indians fired upon them and killed Stinson. William Stark escaped, possibly by his brother's hardihood in striking up the guns of the Indians as they fired. For this act of daring they
*The following account of that battle is taken from a published letter of M. B. Goodwin, Esq., dated Plymouth, May 3, 1875 :
From the cupola of this hotel you look down upon the junction of Baker's river with the Pemigewasset, which was the scene of a bloody drama in the early history of this state, the destruction of an Indian village which was planted there one hundred and sixty-three years ago. The first pale-faces of whom history preserves any account, who visited this place, was the company of "Marching Troops against the Enemy at Cohos" under Captain Thomas Ba- ker. 'They left Northampton in the early summer of 1712, struck up the Connecticut to
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beat him severely. He and Eastman were taken to lake Mem- phremagog, the headquarters of the St. Francis tribe. There they were compelled to run the gauntlet. The young braves stood in two lines armed with clubs or sticks, with which they beat the captive as he passed, who carried in his hands a pole six or eight feet long, surmounted with the skin of an animal. Eastman, in his transit, was nearly beaten to death. Stark used his pole with such vigor, swinging it right and left, that he es- caped with slight injury. This feat pleased the old Indians who, as spectators, enjoyed the sport at the expense of their young warriors. They then directed Stark to hoe their corn. He at first carefully hoed the weeds and cut up the corn by the roots ; finally he threw his hoe into the river, saying, "it was the busi- ness of squaws, and not of warriors, to hoe corn." This gave the Indians still greater pleasure and they adopted him by the title of "Young Chief." Afterwards he was a favorite, and in his old age still testified to the uniform kindness of his captors. He was shortly redeemed by Capt. Stevens, who was sent to re- cover Massachusetts prisoners. His ransom was fixed at one hundred and three dollars ; that of his friend Eastman at sixty. The state never repaid either sum.
"Lower Cohos" now Haverhill, thence over the height of lands to the source of what from this expedition took the name of Baker's river, and so down the stream to its junction with "the west branch of the Merrimack" as the Massachusetts records has it -now the Pemige- wasset river. At the confluence of these two streams, in the "Crotch," they found "the Enemy" -"the terrible tawnies, as old Cotton Mather called the "original proprietors." On detecting traces of the savages, Baker sent forward scouts who, on getting near the junction, discovered a sequestered Indian village with their clusters of wigwams in circles upon the interval, the corn of their scanty husbandry freshly springing from the surrounding fields. The budding and blossoming spring was distilling its fragrance, the rule being to put in the crops "when the oak leaf became as large as a mouse's ear." The squaws were busy at their work and the little ones were gamboling like lambs along the banks. But a few war- riors were at home, the most of them being in pursuit of game. The reconnoitering party came back and reported what they had seen.
Captain Baker at once put his company in motion, silently crept upon the unsuspecting vil- lage, and poured upon then their deadly musketry; some fell, the rest fled into the forests. Their wigwams were set on fire, their rich furs, stored in holes like the nests of bank swallows along the shores, were destroyed, and crossing hastily to the southerly shore of Baker's river they pushed with the utmost speed down the Pemigewasset, with the yells of the maddened warriors ringing from the hills behind them. They had destroyed the headquarters of the Pemigewassets, the royal residence of Walternumus their sachem, situated on what is the upper outskirts of Plymouth village. The spot now answers well to the description which history and tradition give; and the multitude of Indian relics which have been found in the locality makes it certain. The town has a pleasant name, but Pemigewasset would have been better.
When Baker had retreated some six miles down the road, the infuriated savages led by Wal- . ternumus were upon them, and they were compelled to give battle in a dense forest at a pop- lar plain in what is now Bridgewater. In the heat of the battle the sachem and Baker were confronted. They both fired at the same instant ; the sachem leaped into the air with a yell, falling dead with a ball through his heart, and Baker's eyebrow being grazed by the sachem's ball. In the dismay and momentary retreat of the Indians at the loss of their chief, Baker pushed down the river with the utmost speed, and the Indians were soon upon the :: heels. When arrived at the brook now known as the outlet of Webster Lake, in Franklin Village, the company, utterly exhausted with hunger and fatigue, came to a halt in despair. A friendly Indian belonging to the company saved them. He directed each man to build a fire, cut a number of sticks, burn the ends as though used for roasting meat, leave them by the fires and hasten forward. Their pursuers were immediately upon the scene, and counting each stick as representing a man they followed no more, concluding the pale-faces too strong for them. Perhaps the original name of Baker's Town, which Salisbury bore, arose from this event.
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In March, 1753, Mr. Stark became the guide of an exploring party to the Coos territory. In 1754 he again guided Capt. Powers with thirty men, sent by governor Wentworth, to the Up- per Coös, to remonstrate with the French who were said to be erecting a fort there. They found no French; but visited the beautiful intervals where Newbury and Haverhill are now sit- uated. They were the first English explorers of this region. Upon the breaking out of "the seven years' war," Stark was made second lieutenant in "Rogers' Rangers " attached to Blan- chard's regiment. These men were rugged foresters, every man of whom, as a hunter, " could hit the size of a dollar at the dis- tance of a hundred yards." They were inured to cold, hunger and peril. They often marched without food, and slept in winter without shelter. They knew the Indians thoroughly. They were principally recruited in the vicinity of Amoskeag Falls. Their early habits had accustomed them to face wild beasts, savage men and fierce storms. In the summer of 1755, Rogers and his men were ordered to visit Coös and erect a fort. A sub- sequent order directed them to Fort Edward, on the east of the Hudson, about forty-five miles north of Albany. They arrived there in August, a short time before the attack made by Baron Dieskau on Johnson's provincial army at the south end of lake George. The French were defeated with the loss of their leader.
The camp of Johnson was attacked on the eighth of Septem- ber. A party from Fort Edward discovered some wagons burn- ing in the road. Capt. Nathaniel Folsom, with eighty New Hampshire men and forty from New York, went out to recon- noitre the place. They found the wagoners and cattle dead ; but no enemy was near. Hearing the report of guns toward the lake, they hastened to the scene of action. On their march they found the baggage of the French under a guard, whom they dispersed. Soon the retreating army of Dieskau appeared in sight, and Folsom, posting his men behind trees, kept up a well directed fire till night. The enemy retired with great loss. Only six of the New Hampshire troops were killed. The French lost their ammunition and baggage, with a large number of men. This regiment then joined the regular army, and its men were em- ployed as scouts.
Another regiment was raised in New Hampshire, commanded by Col. Peter Gilman. These were also employed in the same service. Their familiarity with savage warfare, their skill in the use of arms, their courage and enterprise, rendered them the most efficient soldiers in the army. In autumn these regiments were disbanded and returned home. The three expeditions planned this year all signally failed.
By the operations near Crown Point, which alone could claim
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ore successful battle, the Indians were roused to greater violence. The whole frontier was undefended. As early as 1752 it was in contemplation to extend the settlements of New Hampshire up the Connecticut river to the rich meadows of Cohos, as the region was then called. A party was sent, in the spring of 1750, to explore this region. The Indians watched their movements and suspected their purpose. A delegation of the St. Francis tribe was sent to remonstrate against this proposed occupation of their best lands. They came to Number-Four and complained to Capt. Stevens of this new encroachment. He informed the governors of Massachusetts and New Hampshire of their mis- sion, and they discouraged the new enterprise. It was then laid aside. Two other Indians also came to Canterbury, where they were entertained more than a month. They carried off two negroes, one of whom escaped. This fact revealed their treach- ery. The next year, 1753, Sabatis, one of the two who captured the negroes, with a companion came again to Canterbury, and being reproved for his former treachery he and his friend became insolent and threatened violence. They were treated to strong drink till they became nearly helpless, then were decoyed into the woods and slain. The murderers were arrested and carried in irons to Portsmouth, but were rescued by a mob. This un- punished murder of the two Indians was never forgiven. No treaties, conferences or presents could induce them to say, "the blood was wiped away."
This fresh incentive, added to their natural ferocity, prompted them to renew their old depredations, robberies, burnings and murders in Hopkinton, Keene, Walpole, Hinsdale and other frontier towns. At Bridgman's fort they surprised three families, fourteen in all, and carried them to Canada. One of them, the wife of Caleb Howe, by her sufferings and intrepidity gave rise to a narrative called "The Fair Captive." After the failure of the campaigns of 1755, and the death of Braddock, Governor Shirley was raised to the chief command. He planned another expedition to Crown Point. Another regiment was called for from New Hampshire. Nathaniel Meserve was appointed Col- onel. But before Shirley's plan was executed, he was super- seded by Lord Loudon. He was characterized by a "masterly inactivity." Franklin said of him : " He was entirely made up of indecision. He was like St. George on the signs, always on horseback, but never rode on." The plan of the campaign for 1756 was nearly the same as that of the preceding year. Crown Point, Niagara and Fort du Quesne were the posts to be won. 'Though the two nations had been fighting for a year, war was not declared against France till May 17, 1756. The dilatory motions of Lord Loudon strongly contrasted with the
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activity of Montcalm. In the winter of 1756, Rogers was again called upon to enlist and command a corps of rangers. John Stark was appointed one of his lieutenants. No great military enterprise was undertaken this year. "The rangers were con- stantly on foot, watching the motions of the enemy, cutting off their supplies and capturing sentinels at their posts. They some- times used the scalping-knife, in retaliation for the cruelties of the French and their savage allies." In January, 1757, a detach- ment of the rangers marched from Fort William Henry to in- tercept supplies of the enemy. They were partially successful ; but, on their return, about three miles from Ticonderoga, they were attacked from an ambush, by a force double their own. Then followed one of the most desperate and bloody battles of the entire war. Rogers was twice wounded ; Captain Spikeman was killed ; and Lieutenant Stark, being then senior commander, by his alinost incredible efforts saved the crippled company from annihilation. In the reorganization of the corps, he was appointed captain of one company. Once, by his vigilance and foresight, Stark saved Fort William Henry from capture. It was on the seventeenth of March, 1757. A French army of twenty- five hundred men advanced upon that post, presuming that the Irish troops would be celebrating St. Patrick's day, as they were, but the rest of the army under Stark's command were ready for action ; and the enemy was repulsed with great loss. In the fol- lowing August the same fort"was surrendered to the Marquis de Montcalm, under express stipulations that the garrison should be allowed the honors of war and be safely escorted to Fort Ed- ward. The Indians were dissatisfied with the terms of surrender. They hung upon the rear of the retiring army, which amounted to about three thousand. They at first began to plunder ; soon they raised the war-whoop and rushed like fiends upon the un- armed troops. They butchered and scalped their helpless vic- tims, mingling their inhuman yells with the groans of the dying. Of the New Hampshire regiment, eighty fell in this inglorious massacre. Montcalm made no effort to stay the slaughter. It is difficult to account for his indifference to honor, fame and treaty covenants. His memory can never be relieved from the weight of condemnation which all good men of all time will heap upon it. The very shores of that " Holy Lake" echo to- day with curses upon his inhumanity. Montcalm, in his letter to the minister, as quoted by Mr. Bancroft, did attempt the res- cue of the English, crying out to the Indians, "Kill me," using prayers and menaces and promises, "but spare the English who are under my protection." He also urged the troops to defend themselves, escorted more than four hundred who remained of the captives on their way, and ransomed those whom the Ind- ians had carried off.
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Thus ended the magnificent preparations of this year. Losses and defeats stained the entire records of the English and colo- nial history for three years. The home government was regen- erated by the elevation of "the great Commoner," William Pitt, to the premiership of England. He said, with conscious power, "I can save this country and nobody else can." "His presence was inspiration ; he himself was greater than his speeches." He gave to the colonies equality of military rank in offices be- low that of colonel, and cheered them with the prospect of a reimbursement of their expenses. Near the close of the year 1757 two hundred and fifty recruits were raised in New Hamp- shire, placed under Major Thomas Tash, and stationed at Num- ber-Four. Thus, for the first time, this post was occupied by New Hampshire troops. The state was then in a condition of extreme despondency. Great losses of men, stores and forts discouraged the people. The provisions they had gathered with severe toil, and borne like beasts of burden to their military posts, were possessed by the enemy, who in plenty danced around the scalps of their murdered brethren. But the spirit of Pitt awoke them from their midnight dream of desolation. He called on them for men, as many as their numbers would allow them to raise, promising arms, ammunition, tents, provisions and boats from England, and assuring them that he would earn- estly recommend the parliament "to grant them a compensa- tion " for other expenses. Thereupon the assembly of New Hampshire cheerfully voted to raise eight hundred men for the year. The regiment of Colonel John Hart served at the west, under Abercrombie. Colonel Meserve with one hundred and eight carpenters embarked for Louisburg to recapture a city dis- gracefully given up in 1748. At this place General Amherst commanded. This body of mechanics were seized with the small-pox, which was the common scourge of armies in those days. All but sixteen were rendered unfit for service by it. Colonel Meserve and his eldest son died of this disease. Me- serve was a shipwright by profession, a skillful, energetic and excellent citizen and officer. Lord Loudon presented him a piece of plate while he served in his army, acknowledging "his capacity, fidelity, and ready disposition in the service of his country."
Louisburg was again taken, but the attack on Ticonderoga was unsuccessful. It was one of the saddest defeats of the war. The plan, at the outset, promised success. On the morning of July fifth, 1758, the whole army of sixteen thousand men em- barked in bateaux upon Lake George for Ticonderoga, a place situated on the western shore of Lake Champlain about eighty miles north of Albany. The order of march presented a
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splendid military show. The regular troops formed the centre ; the provincials the wings. Rogers' Rangers played a very im- portant part in the siege. The attack continued for three days ; but resulted in the final defeat of the English, with the loss of Lord Howe and nearly two thousand soldiers killed, wounded and prisoners. England mourned the loss of her brave com- mander and her gallant soldiers ; the colonies wept for sons, brothers and fathers. It was their own soil that drank the blood of their kindred.
But better days were in the future. The sun yet rode in brightness behind the clouds. The next year's labors were crowned with glorious success. The English army felt the stim- ulus of young blood in her commander. They had been re- lieved by Pitt "of a long and melancholy list of lieutenant-gen- erals and major-generals," whose dilatory habits of routine rested like an incubus upon the army. The premier now re- solved on vigorous action. Niagara, Ticonderoga and Quebec were the points of assault. The campaigns were all successful. On the Plains of Abraham, "the battle-field of empire," was fought the battle which decided the destiny of this continent. It was then and there determined whether despotism or democ- racy, catholicism or protestantism, should govern the souls and bodies of men in America. The brave Wolfe and the gallant Montcalm were the representatives of these opposing elements of civilization. They both fell lamented by many brave men ; but progress was decreed for this continent in the eternal pur- poses, and God employed that nation to promote it which time and history have proved to have been best fitted for the work. This was one of the decisive battles of the world. A contrary result would have changed the whole current of human civiliza- tion. Here was a conflict of ideas, and not the mere encounter of brute forces. Pitt himself recognized the divine interposition in his triumph. "The more a man is versed in business," said he, "the more he finds the hand of Providence everywhere." " America rung with exultation ; the towns were bright with illu- mination, the hills with bonfires ; legislatures, the pulpit, the press, echoed the general joy; provinces and families gave thanks to God."
But the war, for New Hampshire, was not ended. The St. Francis Indians remained to be chastised. They were the sav- age rangers of the old French wars with England. They had built a village of forty wigwams at the confluence of the St. Law- rence and St. Francis rivers. To this place they had brought the plunder obtained by numerous savage forays into New Hampshire. A Catholic church had been erected there by French Jesuits. A bell brought from France called the dusky worship-
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