USA > New Hampshire > Sketches of the history of New-Hampshire, from its settlement in 1623, to 1833: comprising notices of the memorable events and interesting incidents of a period of two hundred and ten years > Part 15
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The people of the "New-Hampshire Grants," forming the present State of Vermont, viewed the Declaration of Inde- pendence as "reducing them to a state of nature," and leav- ing them destitute of government. To the pretensions of New-York they were determined not to yield ; they indeed could not, without making their land titles invalid. After due deliberation, they concluded to organize themselves into a distinct and independent State. A Convention of Delegates from the several towns west of Connecticut river, met at Westminster, early in 1777; which declared the said territory to be an independent jurisdiction by the name of VERMONT, and made application to Congress for the admission of their Delegates to seats in that body. The opposition of New- York at first, and afterwards that of New-Hampshire, defeat- ed their application, and several years elapsed before the recognition of their independence by the other States. In the mean time they maintained the ground they had taken, and exercised all the powers of an independent government. , Three regiments were raised in New-Hampshire on long enlistments, commanded by Colonels Cilley, Hale, and Scam-
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mell, and sent on to Ticonderoga at the opening of the season, 1777. The whole constituted a brigade under the command of Gen. Enoch Poor. On the approach of the British Gen. Burgoyne with a powerful army from Canada, Ticonderoga was judged to be indefensible, and was abandoned. The British pursued the retreating Americans, overtook Col. Hale's regiment, which formed the rear-guard, and made prisonors of the Colonel and one hundred of his men. In another skirmish on the retreat, Capt. Weare, son of President Weare, was mortally wounded. Under the command of General Schuyler, the American army retired to Stillwater, and thence to the Mohawk-taking care to obstruct the roads by felling trees and destroying bridges, so as to impede the advance of the enemy. The report of the evacuation of Ticonderoga, the Gibraltar of the north, struck New-England with aston- ishment and alarm. Vermont lay open to the ravages of the British. By the Committee of Safety of that State, an urgent application was made to New-Hampshire, advising that unless speedy and powerful aids were afforded, they should be over- run by the enemy and driven from their habitations.
On the reception of this intelligence, the Legislature was immediately convened, and in a session of only three days adopted measures worthy of the crisis. They organized the whole of the militia into two brigades, under Generals Whip- ple and Stark, and detached the latter with a concidorable force to arrest the progress of the enemy-authorizing him to act in conjunction with the troops of other States, or inde- pendently,as he might think proper. Funds were indispensable to meet the expenses of this expedition, and where to obtain them' they knew not. In this emergency, Mr. Langdon, Speaker of the House, offered to loan the country three thou- sand hard dollars, together with the avails of his plate and of a quantity of West India produce then on his hands, remarking, that if the American cause were sustained he should get his pay-if otherwise, that the property would be of no value to him. He also engaged in the service as a volunteer, and other distinguished citizens followed his patriotic example .- Gen. Stark collected his troops at Bennington on the ninth of August, and soon ascertained the approach of a large body of Hessians under Col. Baum, whom Burgoyne had detached to collect, in Vermont, horses and cattle for the use of his army. Stark sent forward a party under Col. Gregg to skirmish with the enemy, and marched with his whole force the next morn- ing to support him. On his way, he met Gregg retreating before a superior force : but the enemy, as soon as they dis-
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covered Stark's main body, halted and declined an engagement that day. The next day was rainy, and nothing important was done. On the day following, having received small reinforcements of Massachusetts and Vermont militia, making his whole force sixteen hundred, the American General at- tacked the Hessians, and after an obstinate conflict of two hours, forced their breastwork and compelled them to retreat with loss, leaving behind them two pieces of brass cannon .- Soon after his men had dispersed themselves in pursuit of plunder or fugitives, Capt. Bradford discovered the approach of a largo reinforcement of Hessians under Col. Breyman, in- creased by the remnants of Baum's division which had escaped the scene of their defeat ; and he immediately communicated the fact to his Commander. Happily, Warner's Vermont Regiment arrived on the field from Manchester in season to check the enemy, till Stark rallied his men, renewed the battle, and again put the foe to flight. Two hundred and thirty Hessians lay dead on the field, and more than seven hundred were made prisoners ; among the latter was Col. Baum, their Commander, who was mortally wounded. A body of Indians who had attended his march, finding as they said "that the woods were full of Yankees," deserted him the day before the battle. This decisive victory, achieved by the bravery of the New-Hampshire militia, gave a turn to the affairs of the war, relieved the surrounding States from their gloomy apprehensions of being overrun by the enemy, and paved the way for the capture of Burgoyne's whole army.
The principal officers who held subordinate commands in this important battle, were Colonels William Gregg of Lon- donderry, Moses Nichols of Amherst, and Thomas Stickney of Concord. In a letter from Jefferson to Stark, written many years afterwards, it was justly remarked that the victory of Bennington was "the first link in the chain of successes which led to the capitulation of Saratoga." It might have been ad- ded, that this capitulation was the first guarantee of the final at- tainment of American Independence.
In the arrangement of officers the preceding year, Gen. Poor, a junior officer had been promoted over Stark, and his letters of remonstrance to Congress, not receiving due atten- tion, he retired in disgust from the service. He was now acting under the authority, not of Congress, but of the Legis- lature of New-Hampshire, and felt under no obligation to correspond with the former body. They heard of his victory, and expected despatches from him ; but waited in vain. In answer to the enquiry why he did not write them, he replied M*
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that as his former letters hadbeen neglected,his correspondence with that body was at an end. His merit and brilliant success enforced the justice of his complaint, and he was appointed a Brigadier General in the army of the United States.
Volunteers from all parts of New-England flocked to the army under Gen. Gates, which was opposed to that under Burgoyne. Gen. Whipple, with a strong reinforcement of New-Hampshire militia, repaired to the scene of action. The British General, transporting his provisions and artillery with extreme difficulty, and annoyed by the New-Hampshire and Vermont militia, hanging, according to his own repre- sentation, "like a black cloud on his left," opened his way to Stillwater, where the opposing armies came in contact .- After the fierce encounter of the 19th of September, in which Lieut. Colonels Adams of Durham and Colburn of New- Marlboro' were slain-and the no less bloody combat of the 7th of October, which proved fatal to Col. Conner, a volunteer from Pembroke-the British General found it impossible either to advance or retreat. Every part of his camp was exposed to the American fire ; even into his own apartment, at a moment when he and his chief officers were engaged in consultation, a cannon ball is said to have entered, passing across the table around which they were sitting. On the 17th of October he surrendered his army of 7000 men prisoners of war, who were sent under the direction of several officers, of whom Gen. Whipple was one, to their destined quarters near Boston. This great event not only filled America with joy, but decided the French Court to acknowledge our inde- pendence, and aid us in the conflict.
The love of liberty is one of the most powerful stimulants of human exertion. It was this which inspired the people of this State to make efforts, so powerfully contributing to over- whelm Burgoyne. By a little incident which happened to Gen. Whipple on his march to join the army, the efficacy of this principle was finely illustrated, He had an intelligent negro servant named Prince. On some occasion he said to him, "Should we be called into action, I hope you will behave like a man, and fight bravely for your country." Prince repiied, "Sir, I have no inducement to fight, but if Ihad my liberty I would endeavor to defend it to the last drop of my blood." Struck with the justness of the sentiment, the General said to him, "Prince, you shall have your freedom ; from this time you are your own man."
On the surrender of the British army, the New-Hampshire regular troops marched forty miles in fourteen hours, and
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forded the Mokawk near its mouth. Their object was to attack a British force from New-York, which had come up the Hudson to aid Burgoyne, and had been ravaging the coun- try below Albany. On learning the fact of his surrender, the enemy did not await an attack, but hastened down the river. The troops continued their march to Pennsylvania, and joining the army under Washington, took part in the battle of Ger- mantown, in which Maj. Sherburne, aid to Gen. Sullivan, was slain.
Near the close of the year, ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION were agreed to by Congress, and were afterwards ratified by the States. These articles united them in a league of friendship and alliance, and served for more than eleven years as the the basis of a General Government. The commencement of 1778 found American affairs in a gloomy state. As Congress did not possess the necessary powers to command the resour- ces of the country, the army was ill paid, ill fed, and ill clad. Many of the soldiers, in the depth of winter, were destitute of shoes and blankets ; many sickened and died. The bills of credit,which constituted the chief currency of the States, had fallen to one fourth their nominal value. A depreciation so great could have no other than distressing results. Fraudulent debtors discharged their obligations with a currency, that gave the honest creditor but a small part of the just value of his claim ; the articles of living rose to an enormous price ; a door being opened wide to every kind of speculation, the simple and unsuspecting became the prey of the cunning. Laws were enacted, but in vain, against monoply and extortion .- Numerous Conventions were holden to regulate the prices of labor and provisions :- but modes of evading such regulations were easily found out. The paper currency continued to de- preciate till near the close of the war, when it had fallen so low that an hundred dollars in paper were worth but one in silver. As loans and supplies from Europe had introduced a metalic currency, the paper ceased to circulate ; but not till it had involved in absolute ruin many individuals, who, in ex- change perhaps for their farms, had been compelled to receive it, when almost worthless, at its nominal value.
Several citizens of New-Hampshire engaged in the enter- prise of annoying the commerce of the enemy by privateering. Not content with scouring the Atlantic, they in some instances rounded the North Cape of Europe, and penetrated into the dreary expanse of the Arctic Ocean, in quest of British vessels. At least one American privatcer visited a port in Lapland, and
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held some communication with the inhabitants of that remote and frozen region.
Early this year, the daring and celebrated naval Commander, John Paul Jones, sailed from Portsmouth in the RANGER, a privateer of that port destined to act against the British com- merce. He landed both in England and Scotland, and plun- dered the house of the Earl of Selkirk. After landing his plunder in France, he again put to sea and sailed to the Irish coast. Having learned that the British ship of war Drake was then lying in Waterford harbor, he sent to her Captain a chal- lenge for a combat, which was accepted. The ships met and fought-after an action of an hour and a quarter, the Drake, having had an hundred and eighty of her men killed or woun- ded, struck her colors to the Ranger. The loss of the American vessel was only twenty. After this victory Jones left the Ranger for another ship, the Bonne Homme Richard, in which his exploits rendered him the terror of the British seas.
In the early stages of the contest a number of individuals, attached to the royal cause, had left the State and cast them- selves on the protection of the British. The Legislature made out a list of seventy eight persons of this description, who were proscribed as enemies to their country. They were called refugees : the estates of many of them were confiscated, and they were forbidden to return. If they returned a second time the penalty was death.
The New-Hampshire Brigade under Gen. Poor, bore a conspicuous part in the battle of Monmouth, fought on the twenty-eighth of June, in which Colonels Cilley and Dearborn particularly distinguished themselves. So intense was the heat of the day, that almost an hundred men, including the victims in both armies, died of exposure to it-the tongues of some of them being so swollen as to protrude out of the mouth. In July, a powerful French fleet, destined to co-operate against the British, arrived on the coast. It was concluded, after due consultation, to make a combined attack by sea and land on the forces of the enemy stationed at Newport in Rhode-Island. The French were to execute the naval part of the enterprise ; the superintendence of the military part was committed to Gen Sullivan. He collected from this State, Massachusetts, and Connecticut a large body of troops, transported them to Rhode-Island, and encamped in the vicinity of Newport, with the design of attacking the place. The New-Hampshire militia was under the command of Gen. Whipple. On the approach of a British fleet, the French Admiral put to sea to attack it ; but while the parties were preparing for a decisive battle, a
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furious storm arose and shattered both fleets. Contrary to the earnest remonstrances of the Americans, the Frence deter- mined to sail to Boston to refit. Thus deserted by the fleet, the army was left in a critical situation, as the enemy could then at their pleasure pour into Newport reinforcements from New- York ; and Sullivan found it necessary to break up his camp on the 28th of August, and retreat to the north end of the Island. Early on the next morning the British pursued and attacked his troops ; but were compelled after a sharp conflict of half an hour to retire. He kept up a bold face through the rest of the day-and having deceived the enemy into a belief that he was preparing to attack them, he effected in the ensu- ing night his retreat across the narrow sheet of water, which divides the island from the main. This was done with great secrecy, and without loss. On the morning of the 30th, sev- eral American officers being at breakfast in the General's quarters, a party of British discovered from an eminence their horses standing, and the guard set round the door ; and imme- diately pointed a cannon at the spot. The ball shattered the leg of John S. Sherburne, at that time aid de camp to Gen. Sullivan and afterwards a member of Congress and Judge of the United States' Court for the District of New-Hampshire, in such a manner that amputation became necessary.
At this time the State was seriously agitated by a disposition in the western section or it to secede from New-Hampshire, and form a union with Vermont. Most of the settlers in that section were from Connecticut, and were more assimilated in their manners and feeling to the people of Vermont, than to those of the eastern parts of New-Hampshire. They wish- ed to form a State, whose centre and seat of government should be in their own vicinity, at some town on Connecti- cut river. Fifteen towns in the west part of the County of Grafton, together with Cornish in the present County of Sul- livan, applied to the Vermont Assembly for admission into that State, and were admitted by a small majority. A re- solve was passed for the admission of other towns on the east side of the river, which might make a similar applica- tion. The seceding towns justified their course on the follow- ing grounds : that the original grant of New-Hampshire was limited by a line drawn sixty miles from the sea; that the lands west of this line were annexed to that Province merely by the royal authority ; and that as this anthority ceased at the Declaration of Independence, the inhabitants of those lands had reverted "to a state of nature," and might form such polit- ical connections as were most convenient, The towns of
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Vermont, west of the mountains, were adverse to the recep- tion of the towns east of the river ; while those on the east of the mountains, forming a small majority of the whole State, were mostly in favor of it. To erect a State whose centre should fall in their own vicinity, was the grand object of the towns adjacent to the river, on both sides. They preferred to effect this object by uniting the western part of New-Hamp- shire and the eastern half of Vermont, into a distinct jurisdic- tion ; or if this were found impracticable, they were willing to dissolve the existing government of Vermont, and unite the whole State to New-Hampshire. Either of these arrange- ments would, as they supposed, lead to a location of the seat of government accordant with their wishes. The eastern and central parts of New-Hampshire and the western divisions of Vermont would of course strenuously oppose these plans.
The sixteen towns informed the government of New-Hamp- shire of their secession, and requested an amicable correspon- dence. President Weare, whose prudence and sound practi- cal wisdom eminently fitted him to manage so critical an af- fair, immediately wrote to Gov. Chittenden of Vermont, as- serting the right of New-Hampshire to all the territory on the east side of the river ; and also solicited the interposition and advice of Congress. At the autumnal session of Vermont Assembly at Windsor, these towns requested to be organized Into a distinct cvumny. That Assembly had just learnt, that Congress were unanimously opposed so this encroachment on the territory of New-Hampshire, and a. majority declined to grant the request. On this repulse the representatives of the seceding towns, with a considerable number from towns west of the river, withdrew from the Vermont Assembly, in dis- gust, and agreed to call a convention of delegates from the towns on both sides of the river, to meet at Cornish in De- cember. This body, when assembled, was in favor of form- ing the county adjacent to the river, including the whole re- gion between the Masonian line on the east and the Green Mountains on the West, into an independent State. They pro- posed to New-Hampshire either to agree on a boundary line, or submit the dispute to Congress, or to arbitrators mutually chosen. The plans of this Convention, however, proved abor- tive, and the sixteen towns, having been joined by several oth- ers in the County of Cheshire, resumed their connection with Vermont.
This encroachment on New-Hampshire was unhappy for Vermont-diminishing, as it did,the attachment of her friends abroad, and producing dissenison among her citizens at home,
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It aroused New-Hampshire not only to unite with New-York in opposition to her admission into the Union, but to revive her claim of jurisdiction over the whole of her territory. To the seceding towns themselves it was a source of unhappiness. In each of them existed a minority, in some instances a large minority, opposed to the separation. Each party sought of course the protection of the government it preferred, and Jus- tices and Sheriffs appointed by the respective States, attempt- ed, at the sanie times, and in the same places, to exercise their conflicting jurisdictions over the same persons-a state of things that could not fail to engender confusion and animosity. As both New-Hampshire and New-York claimed the whole of their territory, the Vermonters suspected, possibly not without reason, that a plan was on foot to divide it between their neighbors, making the Green Mountains the boundary line ; and they sought to defeat it by extending their own claim eastward into New-Hampshire, and westward into New-York, as far as to the Hudson. Congress made efforts to induce all the parties to submit the matter to their decision ; but Vermont declined to submit her claim of Independence to the arbitrament of any power whatever. The towns which had separated from New-Hampshire, did not return to their former connection for three or four years.
As the temporary form of government, hastily drawn up in the first year of the war was found to be, almost of necessity, defective and inadequate, a Convention of Delegates from the several towns met in 1779, and having chosen Mr. Langdon to be their President, agreed on a Constitution, chiefly drawn up by Judge Livermore :- but the people rejected it, as being too imperfect. The military transactions of the year offer to our notice no enterprise of consequence, in which the troops of this State took part, except the expedition under Gen. Sulli- van into the Indian country. In this enterprise the New- Hampshire brigade took an important part. At that day, the western region of New-York, now smiling with cultivated fields and beautiful villages, was a vast wilderness occupied by the "Six Nations" of Indians. These savages, in connection with a band of tories, had ventured the preceding year to lay waste the flourishing settlement of Wyoming in Pennsylva- nia, and had slaughtered some hundreds of the inhabitants. It was determined to inflict on them a signal chastisement. Sullivan with 4000 men penetrated into their country, attack- ed their camp on Seneca Lake, and put them to flight. Having wasted their settlements, burnt their habitations, cut down their numerous apple and peach orchards, and destroyed the
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standing corn to the amount of 160,000 bushels, he returned in October with trifling loss. This dreadful, but merited in- fliction effectually prevented their future incursions. At the close of the year, the troops of this State went into winter quarters, and Gen. Sullivan retired from the service.
Several causes concurred at this period to overspread the public mind with gloom. Much had been expected from the co-operation of the French: but little had been re- alized. The floods of paper money which had been emitted, together with the circulation of great quantities of counterfeit - bills by British agents, with the design of destroying its cred- it, accelerated its depreciation with astonishing rapidity. It finally became impossible to purchase with this currency the necessaries of life. The army was distressed beyond mea- sure: "four months pay of a soldier would not buy his family a bushel of wheat, and the pay of a Colonel would not pur- chase oats for his horse." Nothing but the patriotism of the soldiers, and the almost unlimited influence of Washington, both directed by the favorable disposals of Divine Providence, could, under circumstances so distressing, have kept the army from dissolution.
The nineteenth of May, 1780, was the memorable dark day. Over New-England and some adjacent tracts of New-York and Canada, such was the obscuration, that in many places people could not read or dine at mid-day without candles. It continued several hours, imparting to surrounding objects a tinge of yellow, and awakening in many a breast apprehensions of some impending calamity. All was wrapped in gloom- the birds became silent, domestic fowls retired to their roosts, and the cocks crowed as at break of day. The darkness of the following night was so intense, that many who were but a little way from home, on well known roads, could not without extreme difficulty retrace the way to their own dwellings.
The Free Will Baptists date from this period their origin as a distinct religious community. Elder Benjamin Randall, the founder of this denomination, collected at New-Durham in the County of Strafford, the first society of the name in this State. They have since increased to more than eighty church- es, including about 6000 communicants ; and are connected by the bonds of ecclesiastical fellowship with numerous kin- dred societies in Maine, Vermont, and New-York.
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