USA > New York > Niagara County > A brief history of old Fort Niagara > Part 4
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Parkman also considers this siege an error.2
But Niagara had been captured, to the glory of the British army. Johnson at once set to work to put Niagara in a defensible condi- tion, and remained there for ten days.
On July 28th, Gen. Prideaux and Col. Johnson of the Provincial troops were buried in the fort chapel with great ceremony. Sir Wil- liam himself being chief mourner.3
This reference to the chapel, and the fact that a priest was among the prisoners taken, shows that the French always paid attention to the spiritual need of their soldiers, though probably not purely for religious reasons; and, further, that the priestly influence in state councils was still powerful.
Johnson made plans, also, for the building, at Niagara, of two ves- sels, of from 16 to 18 guns each, considering them necessary for the military protection of Fort Niagara and Oswego. He also sent for a number of carpenters to repair Niagara.
In the fort there remained a few French officers and privates, pris- oners who were not able, by reason of wounds or sickness, to be
1 Winsor Narrative and Crit. Hist. of Am., vol. V., page 600. 2 Parkman, Montcalm and Wolfe, vol. II., page 253. 3 Stone's Life of Sir William Johnson, vol. II., page 395, he copies the latter's diary.
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moved. Orders were given by Johnson to have all possible care taken of them, not to allow any Indians to have any communication what ever with them, and when they were recovered to have them sent safely to Oswego.
As to the Indians found friendly to the French they were to be civilly treated ; inducements to trade, at prices better than the French had given, were to be held out to them ; but not more than twenty of them at a time were to be admitted to the fort.
The artillery and stores were to be put in proper order and the artillery placed to the best advantage.
On August 4th Johnson embarked for Oswego, leaving Fort Nia- gara in charge of Col. Farquhar of the 44th Regiment, with a garrison of 700 men, which was afterwards reduced to a peace-footing of 200.
For several years after the capture of Fort Niagara, Sir William Johnson was - so far as the Indians living within a radius of 300 miles of that fort were concerned -the most important and the most trusted man in America. He had held that position for some time toward all the tribes east of the Senecas, and now that the French were beaten he logically and naturally extended his influence over those who sided with the French, and now looked for favors from the victors.
The real seat of his influence, though he resided much farther east, was at Niagara. There after the capture he had met many warriors and some sachems of recently hostile tribes, and had paved the way for bringing them under English influence and trade. His orders to Col. Farquhar as to his treatment of these Indians were ex plicit. He was in frequent communication with the officers at Niagara, and it was on his advice and through his personal influence that England extended and maintained her power over the tribes in all directions.
In the fall of 1760, Major Robert Rogers, sent by Gen. Amherst to officially visit several of the former French Posts, arrived, with two companies of his Rangers, in whale boats, at Niagar; and, after a brief visit, taking So barreis of provisions from the stores here, pro ceeded on his way West.'
In 1761, Sir William Johnson stayed several days at Niagara onthis way to, and also on his return from, Detroit, and busied himself with directions as to the Indian trade, and took pains to walk over and examine his old encampment of 1759.
i Journal of Major Robert Rogers.
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In 1761, the English re-established a dependency of Fort Niagara at the upper end of the portage above the falls.
Near where Fort Little Niagara, burned in 1759 as noted, had stood, they erected a fortification, and named it Fort Schlosser, after Captain John Joseph Schlosser, who had charge of its erection. He was a German, who had served in the English army at the capture of Fort Niagara.1
Shortly before the siege the French had prepared the frame work for a chapel at Fort Niagara. It is uncertain whether it was set up or not, but probably it was. The English, in 1761, took this frame work over the portage to Fort Schlosser, set it up there and used it for a mess house.
In 1762, the English built the present " bake house."
THE BAKE HOUSE.
In 1762, the Indians became dissatisfied, because some of the English traders had commenced building dwelling houses along the portage, which was in violation of existing agreements, and later on in that year the commandant at Fort Niagara was ordered to put a stop to any settlement on the carrying place.
1 Col. Docs. N. Y., vol. X , page 731.
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Fort Niagara was still the spot where, and its commander the man to whom, all Indian grievances were brought, and through him all such disputes were settled, and by him all decisions were enforced.
Such was Fort Niagara when the English first controlled it. It was the head centre of the military life of the entire region, the guar dian of the great highway and portage to and from the west ; and hereabouts, as the forerunners of a coming civilization and frontier settlement, the traders were securing for themselves the greatest advantages.
To the rude transient population - red hunters, trappers, Indian- ized bush rangers-starting out from this center, or returning from their journeys of perhaps hundreds of miles to the West ; trooping down the portage to the fort, bearing their loads of peltries, and assisted by Indians, who here made a business of carrying packs for hire, Fort Niagara was a business headquarters. There the traders brought their guns and ammunition, their blankets, and cheap jewelry, to be traded for furs; there the Indians purchased, at fabu lous prices, the white man's " fire water," and many. yes, numberless, were the broils and conflicts in and around the fort, when the soldiers, under orders, tried to calm or ejected the savage element which so predominated in the life of the garrison.
On February 10, 1763, peace between France and England was formally concluded, and by it France ceded to England all her Canadian possessions.
THE DEVIL'S HOLE MASSACRE.
In the fall of 1763, Pontiac had organized his great conspiracy. and the Senecas, whose hostility to the English had been noted by Sir William Johnson two years before, and which was partly due to their bitterness at their loss of the business at the portage -English- men now monopolizing that business, and employing carts, instead of Indian carriers - were ready to, and did, co-operate with him, urged on thereto, no doubt, by French influence and intrigue, in what they hoped would prove the means of driving the English from Fort Niagara. This hostility of the Senecas had made it necessary to maintain a garrison at the foot as well as at the head of the portage; and for large or valuable trains, guards of soldiers were furnished from the fort.
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On September 14, 1763, a new portage road had been finished between Lewiston and Schlosser, and a train of 25 wagons and 100 horses and oxen, guarded by troops from Fort Niagara, variously stated at from 25 to 300, set out for Schlosser.1 At the Devil's Hole, the Senecas, to the number of 500, ambushed and pillaged the train, threw the wagons and oxen down the bank, and slew all but three of the escort and drivers. Hearing the firing, the garrison at Lewiston, consisting of two companies, hastened to help their comrades. But the Senecas had prepared an ambush also for this expected action, and all but eight of this force were killed. Some of these eight carried the news to Fort Niagara, whence the commander, with all the soldiers, leaving a sufficient guard for the fort, hastened to the scenes of the slaughter. The Senecas had fled, but over 80 scalped corpses, including those of six officers, bore bloody witness to their hatred of the English.2
In November, 1763, these savages still haunted the neighborhood, and killed two of the garrison at the lower end of the portage, as they were cutting wood in sight of their quarters.
Fort Niagara needed to be maintained and well garrisoned.
On the collapse of Pontiac's bold and partly successful scheme, the Senecas, fearful of receiving at the hands of the English the punishment they so richly deserved, sent, in April, 1764, four hundred men to Sir William Johnson at Johnson Hall to beg for peace.3
Now was the time for England to make the Senecas pay off the Devil's Hole debt, and Sir William Johnson was the man to force the settlement.
Yet he was too shrewd to think of demanding life for life, or any galling condition that would have involved England in a war for the extermination of the Senecas.
No, he desired most of all that the Senecas should be the friends of the English, and so he made them pay for their past misdeeds in land.
England already had the occupation of this territory along the Niagara River. She wanted also the unquestioned fee. Here was Sir William's chance, and he improved it. He insisted that, beside other conditions, the Senecas should cede to England ( as if they had not already deeded it to her three or four times ) all the land
1 Holland Land purchase, page 229. Narrative of Mary Jemison, 1826, page 142. 2 Stone's Life of Sir William Johnson, vol. II., page 208. 3 Stone's Life of Sir Wm. Johnson, vol. II., page 215.
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on both sides of the Niagara River from Lake Ontario to Schlosser, thus taking in Fort Niagara and her two dependencies (at Lewiston. which was really only a camp, and at Fort Schlosser) and the port- age. The Senecas assented, provided the land be always appro- priated to the king's sole use, and provided that a definite treaty be had within three months, and that the lines be run in presence of Sir William Johnson and the Senecas, so as to preclude any subsequent misunderstandings. Eight chiefs signed the agreement, which, by the way, they never intended to keep, although they left three of their chiefs with Johnson as hostages.1
THE GREAT TREATY OF 1764.
Before this visit of the Senecas, arrangements had already been completed by the British to prevent the recurrence of another con- spiracy like that of Pontiac. All the tribes whose friendship, with a reasonable expectation of its permanency, could be obtained by pres ents and good treatment were to be secured in this way.
Against all others, armies were to be sent to crush and overiwe them.
The occasion when the above treaty with the Senecas was to be ratified was a general meeting of all Indian tribes who desired peace, at Fort Niagara in July, 1764, to which Johnson had already invited them, in order to readjust their relations with the English Govern- ment.
Two military expeditions were planned, one for the West, under General Bradstreet, 1,200 strong, which assembled at Oswego in June. 1764, where it was joined by Sir William Johnson, with 550 Iroquois. They reached Niagara July 3, 1764, and found there such a scene of life and activity as one can hardly conceive of to-day.
In this expedition was Israel Putnam, a lieutenant-colonel of the Connecticut Battalion."
Over one thousand Indians, representing many tribes, extending from Nova Scotia to the head waters of the Mississippi, whose num bers but a few days later were increased to 2,060, were assembled to meet and treat with Johnson.3
Such a representative concourse of Indians had never before been seen.
1 Col. Docs. N. Y., vol. VII., pages 621, 622, 623. 2 Turner's Holland Purchase 1849, page 234 3 Stone's Life of Sir William Johnson, vol. II , page 219)
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Their wigwams stretched far across the fields and to this pictur- esque scene were now added the white tents of Bradstreet's men.
Many reasons had induced this great assemblage of Indians. Some came to make peace because the aid expected from the French had not been forthcoming; some because they were tired of war ; some because they needed clothing, ammunition, etc., and could get them in no other way; some to protest their friendship for the English; some by an early submission to avert retribution for past offenses ; some came as spies, and some, no doubt, because they knew that at such a time "fire water" would be easily obtainable.
Alex. Henry, the trader, tells how the Great Turtle, the Spirit that never lied, on being consulted as to what course the Ojibways should pursue, told them the English soldiers were on the war-path already, and also said, "Sir William Johnson will fill your canoe with presents, with blankets, kettles, guns, gunpowder and shot, and large barrels of rum, such as the stoutest of the Indians will not be able to lift, and every man will return in safety to his family."'
The Ojibways accepted Johnson's invitation and were present.
Henry himself came to Niagara at this time, and accompanied Bradstreet westward.
Though this assemblage consisted of peace-desiring savages, their friendly disposition was not certain. Several straggling soldiers were shot at, and great precautions were taken by the English garrison to avert a rupture. "The troops were always on their guard, while the black muzzles of the cannons, thrust from the bastions of the fort, struck a wholesome awe into the savage throng below." 2
But among all the throng the Senecas were not represented, in spite of their promise to ratify their agreement at this time.
They were at home, considering whether they would keep it, for they had already made an alliance with other tribes against the Eng- lish. Notice was sent to them, that unless they at once fulfilled their agreement, the army then at Niagara would forthwith march against them and burn their villages. A large body of this war-like tribe, overawed by this menace, at once went to Niagara.
It took all the diplomacy, shrewdness and influence of Sir William Johnson to preserve order and peace among the savages, many who had been hostile to each other, and but lately fighting against the
1 Henry's Travel, 1809, page 171. 2 Parkman, Pontiac, vol. II., page 170.
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English, and the business of the assemblage detained him at the fort for a month.
The council-room (which was located in the castle) was crowded from morning till evening; but the tiresome formalities which had to be observed on such occasions, the speeches made and the replies thereto, the smoking of pipes, the distribution of presents, the judici- ous serving out of whiskey, the terms of each treaty, the tax on the memory of remembering what each belt of wampum given by and received from each tribe meant, while fatiguing, were finally success- fully brought to an end.
One point of policy was rigidly adhered to. Johnson would hold no general conference ; with each tribe he either made a separate treaty, or where satisfactory treaties were already in existence he merely brightened the chain of friendship. By this course he made the best of terms, by promoting a rivalry among the tribes. He also thus discouraged a feeling of union and of a common cause among them.1
First of all he met the Senecas, and, till their agreement had been ratified and the lines of the land to be deeded to England had been settled, Sir William would transact no other business.
The Senecas ratified their former agreement, and on August 6th they deeded to the English crown a strip of land four miles wide on each bank of the Niagara River from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario, thus adding to their former agreement all the land from Schlosser to Lake Erie, on both sides of the river. Gen. Bradstreet had asked Johnson to try and get this extra cession, in order that England might have title to the land where Fort Erie, at the source of the Niagara River, on the Canada side, now stands. He was anxious to build a depot for provisions there. Johnson asked for it. The Senecas were ready to do anything asked of them while that English army was on the ground, so they readily assented. They specially excepted from their grant, and gave to Sir William Johnson person- ally, as a gift, all the islands in the Niagara River, and he promptly gave them to his Sovereign.2
This was the first tract of land in the limits of the present Western New York to which the Indian title was absolutely extin- guished, and this remarkable land deal, so vast in the amount of ter- ritory involved, so beneficial to the whites in the power it gave them
1 Parkman, Pontiac, vol. II., page 174. º Col. Doc. N. Y., vol. VII .. page 647.
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for trade, and the settlement of the country, and of such enormous subsequent value in view of very recent developments along this frontier, was closed 132 years ago, within the historic fortifications of Fort Niagara.
From this time on, for fully 30 years, especially during the Revolution, the Senecas were allied with and espoused the cause of the English.
The treaties with the many other tribes were then arranged with- out difficulties. On August 6th, Sir William Johnson seems to have completed the formalities by having a separate treaty with each tribe, with which a new treaty was desired, officially signed.
So fearful was Johnson that some unforeseen occurrence might prevent the successful carrying out of this stupendous negotiation, and so anxious was he about rumors of an attack on Fort Niagara by this savage assemblage, that Gen. Bradstreet's army, now increased to over 2,000 English and Canadians and 1,000 Indians, was detained at Fort Niagara till August 8, 1764.
By that date the Indians, having made their peace and secured their presents, had started for their homes, the great assembly had melted away, the danger of any attack, that the garrison was not strong enough to resist, was past ; and Gen. Bradstreet, leaving an addition to the garrison at Fort Niagara, marched his army to Fort Schlosser, there to embark for the west.1 The cost of this Indian congress at Niagara was considerable. The expense of provisions, for the Indians only, was £25,000 New York currency, equal to about $10,000, while £38,000 sterling, or $190,000, was expended for the presents made to them .? It was money well spent by England.
1764-1776.
During Sir William Johnson's administration of Indian affairs after 1759, the Common, now the Military Reserve on the Canadian side, was used as an Indian camping ground, and there annually the Six Nations and the Western tribes congregated within gunshot of the fort, to receive their annual gifts and allowances from the British government.
Let us note that when the French built the first stone house at Niagara, in 1725, they did not build it close to the water, either of the
i Mante, History of Late War in N. A., page 511. 2 Montresor Journals, N. Y. Ilist. Soc, 1831, page 275.
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river or the lake. In those days, all through the eighteenth century, and during the first third of this century, a large tract of land, that has now been washed away, existed at the foot of the bluff, extending to the northwest for some thirty rods right out into the lake; and in the memory of men now alive1 a fruit orchard stood on this land, where now is a depth of ten or twelve feet of water. Quite a strip of land also extended out beyond the present shore line into the river, opposite the castle and above it.
As evidence of this, turn to Pouchot's plan of the fort, on page 33, where this large area is shown as existing in 1759. The French Mess House, or Castle, was originally built, not on the edge of the bluff, but probably one hundred feet from both the lake and river side.
A further evidence of the existence of this, now washed-away land is the fact that on the lake side of the fort, just opposite the angle of the wall, where stand the three poplar trees, plainly visible when the water is low, and generally visible from the wall, though overgrown with water moss, are the perfectly traceable remains of a half-moon battery used in those early days, undoubtedly part of the north demi- bastion, which was re-established in 1789, and used in 1759. The English are said to have added a story to the " Castle."
The first story was built by the French in 1725, as noted before, and the second was probably built by them soon afterwards.
It is not certain, but probable, that the roof of the Castle had been adapted to defensive purposes, and the stone walls carried up beyond the roof, to serve as a breastwork for gunners there. The extra story that the British added to the Castle, was probably the present timbered roof through which so many chimneys pro- trude.
The two square stone block-houses now standing within the forti- fications were built by the French,' and the walls carried up beyond the roofs. Sheltered by these walls, batteries were placed on the roofs, and were used as late as the War of 1812. The present roofs on these two block-houses are modern affairs.
The present roof over the old French magazine is also a modern one, being merely a cover over the great stone arch, which is the real roof of the building.
1 Notably Mr. Thomas Brighton of Youngstown, N. Y. . Hough's Puuchot, vol. I., page 168. 3 Turner's Holland Purchase, page 189. + Rochefoucault's Travels. 17)}, vol. I., page 257.
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In 1767 Captain Jonathan Carver, a well-known English traveler, visited the fort, which, he said, "was defended by a considerable gar- rison." 1
One of the traditions that has clung to the fort, and that started in the days of English occupation, is, that in the dungeon of the Mess House, before referred to, where there is a well, now boarded over, at midnight could be seen the headless trunk of a French general, clothed in his uniform, sitting on the curbstone of this well and moan- ing, as if beseeching some one to rescue his body from the bottom of the well, where, after his murder, it had been thrown. This well was subsequently poisoned and its use necessarily discontinued. The well inside the earthworks, and near the sally port, is possibly the well referred to in the list of buildings left by the French when they dis- mantled the fort in 1688, though I think this is improbable, and that it belongs to a much later period.
From 1767 on till the opening of the war of the Revolution one finds but little public history in connection with the fort, though its importance was in no way diminished, but rather increased.
DURING THE REVOLUTION.
While the war from 1776-1783 never reached this spot in actual hostilities, Fort Niagara was the spot where heartless Britishers and still more blood-thirsty savages studied, planned and arranged those terrible attacks on defenseless settlers that on so many occasions spread death and devastation through prosperous settlements and regions, and carried off, most frequently to this fort, wretched cap. tives whose term of captivity in the hands of the savages was usually only a living death. The history of Fort Niagara during its entire existence has no blacker nor fouler page, nay none nearly so black nor inhuman, as that which embraces the years 1776-1783.
Far away from the actual seat of war, feeling perfectly safe from attack, its British Commandants seem to have given free scope to every form of Indian warfare that, regardless of its inhumanity, would in any way aid in crushing out the colonists.
During this period portions of several regiments of British Reg- ulars in succession garrisoned the fort. It was necessary for England to maintain it with a strong garrison, in order to impress the savages by show of force, and to keep them continually aroused to the 1 Carver's Travel, 1781, page 170.
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necessity of aiding the English by constant expeditions, organized and sent out from here, of devastation and death.
Sir William Johnson had lost a part of his influence over the Indians during the few years prior to his death, which occurred in 1774.
Had he been alive, I would do his memory the justice to believe that the inhumanities planned at and executed from Fort Nrigara, during the Revolution, would never have been allowed, to the extent at least that they attained.
In all his domination over the Indians, and he exercised a one-man power for many, many years, he recognized that a hation, to be thor- oughly successful, must not forfeit the public confidence of the world by too great atrocities.
The atrocities perpetrated from Fort Niagara during the Revolu- tion only added to the determination and exertions of the colonists to throw off the British yoke; and the stories of these atrocities gave France an extra excuse to extend the friendly and needed aid that she furnished, at first secretly, afterwards openly, to those who were struggling for their freedom from the rule of her hated rival and her recent conqueror in North America.
On the commencement of hostilities in 1776, a great council of Indian tribes was called to meet at Fort Niagara, and here in Sep- tember gathered representatives of the Six Nations and ten other tribes, favorable to the English. The assembled chiefs all signed a manifesto in favor of the Crown, and appealed to the Oneidas and Tus- caroras, who were not fully represented, to join them.' Some of these afterwards complied. Then, after the customary distribution of pres- ents and " fire water," the braves were sent back to gather together their tribes for the war-path, to put on the war-paint and to sharpen their tomahawks.
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