USA > New Hampshire > The history of New Hampshire, from its discovery, in 1614, to the passage of the Toleration act, in 1819 > Part 12
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March 31.
March 29.
April 23. April 24.
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HISTORY OF
CHAP. enemy. An ample supply of provisions was ob- VIII. tained from the prizes which fell a prey to their vigilant cruisers. The armed sloop of New Hampshire took one ship from Martinico, and re- took a transport which had been taken the day before, and had made its escape. By the com- mand of Pepperell the same warlike sloop covered a detachment which destroyed the little secluded village of St. Peters. When the town had been laid waste and the inhabitants scattered, the whole fleet set sail.
Many were the schemes which the inventive genius of New England suggested, at this early day, to supply the place of warlike art. One man produced the model of a flying bridge to scale the walls. It was to be so light that twenty men could carry it on their shoulders to the wall and raise it in a minute. Four blocks and two hundred fath- oms of rope were the apparatus for raising it, and it was to be floored with boards wide enough for eight men to march on it abreast. A covering of raw hides was to guard it from the enemy's fire. This bridge, it was said, might be erected against any part of the wall, even before a breach had been effected, and it was "calculated" by the inventor that a thousand men could pass over it in four minutes. An ingenious clergyman, burning perhaps with honest hatred of the Catholics, pre- sented to the general a plan for encamping the army, opening trenches and placing batteries. He also proposed a caution against subterranean mines. This was, that " two confidential persons, attended by a guard, should, during the night, approach the walls ; that one should, with a beetle,
Bel- knap, p. 274.
Bel- knap.
169
April 30.
NEW HAMPSHIRE.
strike the ground, while the other should lay his ear CHAP. to it, and observe whether the sound was hollow, and that a mark should be set on all places sus-
VIII. ~ pected." Vaughan, when he first conceived the 1745. design of taking Louisburg, had proposed to go over the walls on the drifted snow .* Shirley's plan was, that the whole fleet should make Chapeau- rouge point just at the shutting in of day-from thence to push into the bay undiscovered-the men to be landed in the dark and before midnight-to cut their way through the surf to the shore, then through thicket and bog, three miles, to the city, and some of them a mile beyond it, to the royal battery-to pull down the pickets with grappling- irons, and scale the fortification with ladders ; all this in the space of twelve hours from their first making the land, and nine hours from their de- barkation. Such a scheme could occur only to one unskilled in navigation, unmindful of the tem- pestuous season, and unacquainted with the dan- gerous and inhospitable coast. It was concealed from the troops and never attempted.
The forces proceeded from Canseau with pleas- ant weather and favoring winds. Finally, on the last day of April, at the dawn of morning, the armament of New England, in a hundred vessels, bearing only eighteen cannon and three mortars, entered the bay of Chapeau-rouge, and came in sight of Louisburg. They beheld the walls armed with an hundred and one cannon, seventy-six swivels, and six mortars. Upwards of sixteen hundred men composed the garrison. But so
* In that wintry region the depth of snow is immense, and the winds sometimes raise it in drifts to the height of fifty or sixty feet.
22
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HISTORY OF
CHAP. complete were the fortifications, and so decided VIII. were the advantages of locality, that three hun- dred men were considered sufficient to defend it against five thousand besiegers. The New Eng- land troops were composed of mechanics, husband- men and lumberers. But though unskilled in
war, they were inured to danger. The mechanics had been bred with arms in their hands. The husbandmen had gone armed to their work in the field ; and the lumberer knew the hardships of a winter encampment. Many of them were skilful marksmen, and had trailed the Indians.
They had now come to the reduction of a regu- larly constructed fortress, which none of them, not even their commander, had ever seen. But they were resolute, and animated by an ardent patriot- ism, though they knew better how to confront, than to measure the difficulties and dangers before them. At the sight of Louisburg, they lowered their boats and flew to the shore.
Although the plan of a surprisal had failed, by the fleet failing to reach Chapeau-rouge point in the evening, and the French had seen their white sails on the bay, yet they could hardly believe the ex- tent of the design formed against the place. The first detachments, who came down to oppose the besiegers on the shore, were panic-struck, and fled to the woods. The troops being landed, it was now resolved to invest the city ; and Vaughan, ever ready for the most daring adventure, volun- teered to conduct the first column through the woods and lead on the attack. At the head of four hundred men, chiefly from New Hampshire, May 1. at the dead of night, he marched by the city,
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NEW HAMPSHIRE.
saluting it with three cheers, and took post near CHAP the northeast harbor. There he set fire to the VIII. warehouses containing the naval stores. The 1745. flames and smoke, which were driven by the wind upon the French who had charge of the royal bat- tery, annoyed them to such a degree that they abandoned it, and, having spiked their guns and cut the halliards off the flag-staff, retired to the city. The next morning Vaughan observed from the hill which overlooked the battery, that the fires of the barracks were out, and the staff without a flag. For a trifling reward he induced an Indian to enter at an embrasure and open the gate. Then he wrote to the general these words: "May it please your honor to be informed, that by the grace of God and the courage of thirteen men I entered the royal battery, about nine o'clock, and am waiting for a reinforcement and a flag."
The city had now become alarmed, and a hun- dred men were despatched in boats to retake the battery. But Vaughan, with his thirteen men, resolutely confronted them on the beach, and, in the face of a galling fire from the city and the boats, kept them from landing till a reinforcement arrived. The siege was now prosecuted with en- thusiastic ardor. For fourteen nights successively the New Hampshire troops were employed in dragging the cannon over boggy morasses ; and when the wheels sunk in the mire, Meserve, a New Hampshire colonel and a ship carpenter, construc- ted sledges, on which the cannon were placed, and the men, with straps on their shoulders, and sink- ing to their knees in mud, drew them safely over from the landing place to the camp, within cannon- shot of the enemy's walls.
May 2.
172
HISTORY OF
CHAP. VIII.
In the reduction of Louisburg, although courage and fortitude were often displayed, yet the move- 1745. ments of the assailants resembled the irregular and crazy ardor of a mob, rather than the systematic operations of an army. The whole siege was a scene of confusion and tumult. The men laughed at discipline ; and such were the irregularities and want of system, that the soldiers themselves, when they looked back upon the dangers they had passed, regarded their preservation as scarcely less than miraculous. Though the consultations of the officers preserved all the formalities of a council of war, though the orders of the general were formally issued, and returns made at the several posts, yet the camp was wholly without discipline. While the front of the army presented a formidable array to the enemy, the rear was a scene of confusion and frolic. The men, when not on duty in the trenches, were fishing, racing, wrest- ling, and running after shot from the enemy's guns. For these they received a bounty, and then sent them back to the enemy. Had the mutinous spirit of the garrison been so far subdued that the officers could have trusted the men to make a sortie, the camp of the besiegers might have been surprised and the whole army destroyed.
The garrison numbered at least six hundred regular troops and a thousand Breton militia. But this force was too feeble to admit of making sallies. Hunting parties of the assailants were ever on the watch to prevent surprise by land, and the fleet of Admiral Warren, ever vigilant, guarded the approaches by sea. Still, however, the siege proceeded slowly. Four or five unsuccessful at-
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NEW HAMPSHIRE.
tempts had been made to take the island battery, which commanded the entrance to the harbor. The troops were chagrined by the failure, and 1745. the more it was talked of amongst them, the more their pride and obstinacy revolted against aban- doning the undertaking. At length a party of four hundred men volunteered, from the different regiments, to go, under a chief of their own selec- tion, and attack the battery by night. But this May26. attempt, like the others, was signally defeated. Their approach was discovered ;- a murderous fire struck the boats before they could effect a landing ;- only a part of the forces reached the shore-and these, after a severe contest of nearly an hour, were glad to escape to the boats, leaving behind sixty killed and one hundred and sixteen taken prisoners.
After this failure, it was evident that the expe- dition must be abandoned or the walls of the city scaled ; for, notwithstanding the inefficiency of the garrison, the French were daily making the fortifications stronger, and no breach had as yet been effected. It was now resolved in council of war to make preparations for a general assault. The naval officers agreed to sail into the harbor and bombard the city, while the land forces were to attempt to enter the fortress by storm. To annoy the island battery, the Americans, under command of Gridley, of Boston, erected a battery on the Lighthouse Cliff; while, within two hun- dred yards of the city, trenches were thrown up, and the guns of the royal battery began to play upon the northwest gate of the city. Yet no breach had been effected. The works were of immense
CHAP. VIII.
Ban- croft, III., 462. F. Bel- knap, 278.
174
HISTORY OF
CHAP. strength, and able to resist a much greater force, VIII. had Duchambon been acquainted with his duties.
1745. But in the midst of these hostile demonstrations, May 19. the garrison received intelligence that the Vigilant, a French ship of sixty-four guns, laden with mili- tary stores for the garrison, had been decoyed into the midst of the English fleet, and, after an en- June15. gagement of some hours, had been taken, within sight of Louisburg. When they heard of the loss 16. of their supplies, the garrison became discouraged ; the desponding and irresolute Duchambon sent out a flag of truce ; terms of capitulation were 17. agreed upon; and, on the seventeenth of June, the city, with the fort and all the batteries, were sur- rendered to the English. When they entered, and beheld the extent and variety of the means of defence, the stoutest hearts were appalled at the vast strength of the place, and the utter impracti-" cability of carrying it by assault. They shud- dered at the dangers they had passed, and thought the taking of the city to be a special providence of God.
No sooner was the city taken, and the victorious besiegers sheltered within its walls, than the weather, which had been remarkably dry, changed, and an incessant rain of ten days succeeded. Had this happened during the siege, it would have been fatal to many of the troops. They had no tents thick enough to keep off the fogs, and slept upon the earth in turf and brush houses. But the weather was only in accordance with the general good fortune. The whole siege was a succession of lucky accidents on the part of the English, and of equally unlucky ones on the part of the French.
F. Bel-
knap, 280.
Doug-
lass, 336.
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NEW HAMPSHIRE.
" If any one circumstance," says Douglass, " had CHAP. taken a wrong turn on our side, and if any one VIII. 1747. circumstance had not taken a wrong turn on the French side, the expedition must have miscarried."
Soon after the surrender, the triumphant army held a council of war within the walls, and it was determined to maintain the place, and repair the breaches. The French flag was still kept flying upon the ramparts, and served to decoy many a rich prize into the harbor. With the exception of Quebec, Louisburg was the strongest fortress on the continent. The fall of it, at such a time, could not but fill America with joy, and Europe with astonishment. It was the greatest achievement of the war. Pepperell and Warren each of them received the title of a baronet ; the latter was pro- moted to the rank of admiral, and the former was commissioned as a colonel in the British service. Vaughan sailed for England, and urged his claims to similar distinctions, which, after a year of delay, were coldly rejected, shortly before his death.
Thus, while the successful commanders of the expedition were distinguished by the honors of knighthood, Vaughan, the originator of the enter- prise, and the most gallant spirit of the crusade, remained more than a year in England, in the vain expectation of receiving some token of recognition from the sovereign, whom he had so signally served, and finally died in an obscure street in the metropolis, a disappointed man. Warren claimed the victory to himself, and the English govern- ment awarded it to him. The ministry suppressed the facts which were urged upon them in support of Vaughan's claims. Warren entered the high
Dun- lap's Hist. of N.York, vol. I., p. 354, who quotes Walsh's Eng- land and A- merica.
176
HISTORY OF
CHAP. court of Admiralty in England, and deposed on VIII. oath that, with the assistance of his majesty's ships, 1747. Sept. he, the deponent, " did subdue the whole island of 29. Cape Breton." But it is time to declare that not Admiral Warren, nor yet Sir William Pepperell, was the real hero of Louisburg ; but that what was wanting in the good fortune of the besiegers and the inefficiency of the garrison, was supplied by the fiery valor of Vaughan, the cool intrepidity of Wol- cot, and the hardy courage of Gridley, Meserve and Fernald.
April 6. 1746.
The active mind of Shirley had contemplated, not merely the capture of Cape Breton, but the con- quest of all the French dominions on the western hemisphere. Immediately after the fall of Lou- isburg, he repaired thither, and consulted with Warren and Pepperell on the practicability of such a design. From the captured city he wrote to the British ministry, enforcing his solicitations by the brilliant success at Louisburg. In the follow- ing spring the Duke of Newcastle wrote to all the American governors, as far south as Virginia, call- ing upon them to form companies of one hundred men each, and hold themselves in readiness to march. The plan was, that a squadron of ships of war, and land forces from England, should be joined by the New England forces, at Louisburg, and proceed together up the river St. Lawrence. The troops of New York, and the other provinces at the southward, were to rendezvous at Albany, and march against Crown Point and Montreal.
Besides the conquest of Canada, there were other reasons for this expedition. The Indians, as I shall hereafter relate, were at this time ravaging
177
NEW HAMPSHIRE.
the fields, and carrying the torch and the scalping- CHAP. knife along the whole extent of the frontiers. Was it not an inefficient, as well as a disgraceful mode of warfare, to act entirely on the defensive, espe- cially after the success which had attended the arms of the colonists at Louisburg ? Were scouts and 1744. garrisons sufficient to dispirit the enemy and secure the frontiers from depredations ? Little argument was needed. The design was popular, and the colonies readily furnished their quotas.
VIII. -
June.
The assembly of New Hampshire was immedi- ately convened, and voted* to enlist a thousand men. They were also to keep in pay two armed vessels. The same difficulty occurred about the emission of bills of credit, as on occasion of the Louisburg expedition-and was as easily remedied.t The command of the troops was given to Colonel At- kinson ; and so promptly did the men enlist, that at the beginning of July eight hundred were ready for embarkation. Transports and provisions were also prepared ; but neither orders, nor general, nor fleet arrived from England. Seven times did they leave Spithead, and seven times returned again. Only two regiments ever reached Louis- burg. All summer long, the men of the colonies lingered in suspense, waiting for employment.
But the whole country is now thrown into con- sternation. France has planned the recovery of Louisburg and the desolation of all the English colonies. Report flies, that a large French fleet and army have arrived at Nova Scotia, under com- mand of the Duke D'Anville. The troops des-
* Prov. Rec., Jour. Council and Assembly, 1742-1750. Jour. House, 1742-1747.
* P. R., J. C. and A., 1742-50. J. H., 1742-47.
23
!
e as
178
HISTORY OF
CHAP. tined for Canada are detained at home. The VIII. militia are collected to join them. Old forts on the sea-coast are repaired-new ones are erected. Another battery of sixteen guns, throwing thirty- two and twenty-four pounds shot, is added to fort William and Mary, at the entrance of Piscataqua harbor ; another, of nine thirty-two pounders, is placed at the point of Little Harbor. Military guards are appointed, and for six weeks the people are kept in a state of fear and anxiety. At length
some released prisoners bring the most affecting accounts of distress on board the French fleet. A pestilence has broken out amongst the men. Eleven hundred were buried at Halifax, and hun- dreds more of the dead were buried in the deep sea.
1746.
The officers were divided in their councils, and this, added to the disasters of continued storms and shipwrecks, so dejected the commander-in-chief that he put an end to his life by poison. The second in command, in a fit of delirium, rushed upon his sword and ended his life. By these mel- ancholy events the first plan was disconcerted. They were next to attack Annapolis. But in sailing from Chebuctoo, they were overtaken by a violent storm, off Cape Sable, and the ships which escaped destruction returned singly to France. Thus the French armada had been vanquished without even the sight of an enemy.
F. Bel- knap, p. 284.
When the alarm of the French fleet had passed, Atkinson marched with his regiment to cover the lower part of the frontiers, and encamped on the shores of Lake Winnipiseogee. Here they passed an idle winter, with plenty of provisions, without
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NEW HAMPSHIRE.
CHAP. VIII.
1747. Oct.
exercise, discipline, courts martial, or the punish- ment of offences. The men grew tired of the ser- vice ; but not being permitted to engage in other business, they were employed in scouting, hunting and fishing. Some deserted. The ensuing sum- mer was passed in listless indolence. They re- posed in the expectation of peace, until autumn of the next year, when, by direction of the Duke of Newcastle, the provincial army was disbanded. It appeared to many that England had not desired to drive the French from Canada. It was even sus- pected that England, from motives of policy, deemed it necessary to stimulate the love of the colonies for the mother country, by keeping this dangerous enemy on the frontier. It was sup- posed that the presence of the French was the only force that could urge the colonies to submission. They were forbidden to establish manufactures. They were obliged to ship to England all the sil- ver and gold which they took from the earth. They were not allowed any commerce of their own* with foreign countries, except those under the dominion of England. These, and similar restrictions, cooled their ardor towards the father- land. Old England counted on long years of colonial dependence; but a Swedish traveller,} even then, discovered in the rising colonies the germ of freedom.
During the progress of the Cape Breton expe- 1746. dition and the meditated attack upon Canada, the frontiers were infested by the Indians. While the colonial troops wore away the summer in idly waiting for the armament from England, the In-
* N. H. Hist. Coll., I., 323.
+ Peter Kalm. Bancroft, III., 464.
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HISTORY OF
July 5.
July 10.
CHAP. dians were at leisure to infest the frontiers. This VIII. inactivity was fatal to many a settler. No longer awed, but rather invited by the repose of an army 1745. able to fight, and prepared for the field, yet doing nothing, the Indians took courage and commenced a series of depredations. They first appeared at Great-Meadow,* and next at the Upper Ashuelot,t killing William Philips at the former place and Josiah Fisher at the latter. They approached the fort at Great-Meadow and carried captive the fa- thert of a family. As they were leading him along the river-side, they met his son, before whose eyes the father was hurried away, and died in one of the prisons of Quebec. Many were the heart-rending incidents like this, which marked the war-chil- dren carried captive before the eyes of their pa- rents-husbands slain while defending their wives -and brothers and sisters falling, while fighting at each others' side.
1746. The next spring the enemy appeared at Number Four,§ carried away three captives, cut out the tongues of their cattle, and in April laid a plan to surprise the fort at Upper Ashuelot. On the April 23. twenty-third of April, when night came on, a par- ty of fifty silently approached and hid themselves in a swamp. Here they lay concealed till morn- ing, intending to rush into the fort. But they were discovered as day dawned, and the alarm was given. One man, who bravely defended himself against two Indians in close combat, one of whom he stripped of his blanket and gun, was over- 1746. powered at last and fell. Another man and one
* Now Westmoreland.
# Penhallow. N. H. Hist. Coll., I.
+ Now Keene.
§ Now Charlestown.
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NEW HAMPSHIRE.
woman were slain, and one man carried captive to CHAP. Canada. At New Hopkinton* eight persons, five VIII. April 27. of them children, and one a woman, were carried captive ; one of the men and three of the children were all that ever returned from captivity, and these were sent with a flag of truce to Boston. As usual, the enemy scattered themselves in small parties. At Number Four, and Contoocook, and May 2. the Lower and Upper Ashuelot, they fell upon the May 6. inhabitants, and killed or carried them captive to Canada. As the danger increased, Massachusetts determined to send reinforcements of troops to relieve the distressed towns ; and accordingly Cap- tain Paine, with a troop, came to Number Four. Twenty of them fell into an ambush at the spot where Mr. Putnam had been killed, and a skir- mish ensued, in which five men were killed on each side, and one Englishman taken prisoner. This engagement was succeeded, in less than a month, by another at the same place. The Indians were discovered in ambush by dogs, which gave the alarm to the men, and enabled them to give the first fire. After a sharp encounter the Indians retreated to a swamp, carrying with them the dead, and leaving on the ground a considerable booty of blankets, hatchets, spears and guns. All business was suspended, even the tillage of the fields. Every place was full of danger. If the people Bel- knap, p. 290. July 3. wanted bread, they were obliged to go to the mills with a guard. At Bridgman's fort, near fort June 24. Dummer, at Number Four, and at Winchester, the inhabitants were fired upon, the houses burned, and the roads ambushed.
May 24.
1746. June 19.
Aug. 3. Aug. 6.
* Now Hopkinton.
182
HISTORY OF
CHAP. VIII. June 27.
Such were the sufferings of the upper settle- ments. Nor did the lower towns escape. At Ro- chester the enemy fired upon five men, who were at work in a field, expecting an attack, with their arms near them. After the first fire they rushed upon the men, before they could reload their guns. They retreated to a small deserted house. The Indians tore off the roof, and with their guns and toma- hawks despatched four of the men, and wounded and took captive the other. Both Penacook and Contoocook they attacked, killing some of the peo- ple, and carrying others into captivity. In the midst of alarm and apprehension, slaughter and dread of attack, the summer was passed, until August, when a body of French and Indians attacked fort Massachusetts, at Hoosuck. For want of ammu- nition it could not be defended, and fell into their hands. This success seemed to satisfy the enemy, and during that summer they made no other attack.
Aug.20.
1746.
Amid the ravages of this war, early in 1746, a sale, by Mason's heir, of his whole claim on the soil of New Hampshire, to a company of gentle- men in Portsmouth, terminated the tedious con- troversy between the people and the proprietor. They prudently quit-claimed all the towns granted previously by New Hampshire and Massachu- setts. This concession quieted the inhabitants, and prevented any opposition to the titles to un- granted lands which the purchase gave. They were judicious in making grants, and took care to promote the settlement of their lands. The public mind gradually became reconciled to them, and the public interests were identified with the interest of the Masonian proprietors.
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