USA > New York > Livingston County > A history of Livingston County, New York: > Part 15
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Washington's specific orders were thus stated : "The immediate objects (of the expedition) are the total destruction and devastation of their settlements. * *
* It will be essential to ruin their crops now
in the ground and prevent their planting more. * * I would recommend that some post in the centre of the Indian country should be occupied with all expe- dition with a sufficient quantity of provisions, whence parties should be detached to lay waste all the settlements around, with instructions to do it in the most effectual manner, that the country may not be merely overrun but destroyed. * *
* After you have thoroughly completed the destruction of their settlements, if the Indians show a disposition for peace, I would have you encourage it. * * * But you will not by any means listen to overtures of peace
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before the total destruction of their settlements is effected."
Between Cayuga and Seneca lakes the enemy fled so suddenly before the army that the advance guard occasionally found kettles of corn boiling over the fire. At the Indian village of Kanadaseago, just west of Geneva, a fine white child, about three years old was discovered by the army. It was entirely alone, nearly famished and quite naked, the only article on its person being a string of glass beads about its neck. When first seen it was playing at the door of a hut with a number of small sticks. On being spoken to it replied "Sago," ("How are you ?") and used a few other Indian words. It evidently was of Dutch par- entage, and probably had been captured the year before, on the Pennsylvania border .* A number of deer and bear skins were also found at the place, showing that the enemy had quit in haste.
On the morning of Saturday, the 11th of September, the army resumed its march at six o'clock, moving for a mile, through a thicket and swamp, before the main path was gained. The infantry, owing to this cause, was considerably dispersed, and the movement forward was thus delayed. After marching three
* Gen. Sullivan took no small interest in the little fellow's welfare during the return march. It was placed in a rough pannier or basket across a horse, balanced by an equal weight of baggage on the opposite side. On one occasion in crossing a stream, much swollen by a storm, the water was freely spattered over it. Observing this, Sullivan rode up, and taking out his handkerchief carefully dried the child's face. Captain Machin, of the Engineer party, became the child's godfather, and had it christened Thomas Machin. An excellent milch cow, which accompanied the expedition from first to last, and which on the return of the army to Tioga point, was care- fully returned with the officer's horses to Wyoming, afforded nourishment for the little stranger. After the return of the army the child was taken to Major Logan's house at New Windsor, near Newburgh, where it soon caught the small-pox and died. Its birth-place, and parentage remain, alike unknown.
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miles, the foremost ranks reached a spot of rising ground. The rich country through which they were about to pass could be seen stretching for miles to the westward-a broken forest, mainly of oak and hick- ory, with intervals of broken fields covered here and there with remarkably high wild grass. At one o'clock they descended to a beautiful valley, and, after a march of thirteen hours, encamped at Honeoye, an Indian town, situated on a fine plain, half a mile from the lake. This consisted of twelve houses of hewn logs. Around it were several large cornfields, and orchards of apples and other fruit trees. There was left at this point a garrison of fifty men, under Captain Cumming, of the Second Jersey Regiment, together with such soldiers as were not able to march. The garrison was directed to remain at this temporary post, and guard, until the army's return, the extra stores of ammunition and flour which otherwise would encumber the movement forward, now to become more active. Captain Cumming at once set about erecting a small fort at Honeoye, the works consisting of bags of flour with abatis of apple-trees. A three-pounder field-piece, and some of Colonel Proctor's artillery, were also left here, and were duly disposed within the works.
At Honeoye, Sullivan was informed by two prison- ers that the Indians, a few rangers, and some British soldiers, had labored diligently during the previous season about the Genesee river, in planting crops to serve for their support while they were marauding along the frontier. These men had acted under the immediate orders of Walter Butler, who had passed several months of the summer along the Genesee, making his head-quarters at the cabin of Mary Jemi- son, the White Woman. Here he was supplied with port wine by the barrel, and amused his leisure hours
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in fishing and hunting. The information communi- cated to the army gave additional stimulus, and de- termined men and officers alike to make clean work when they should reach the richer planting grounds near the river.
On Sunday morning, the 12th of September, it rained heavily, and the army did not move until nearly noon. A defile which they had to cross, prevented the usual order of march, and otherwise retarded movements. After traveling five miles they came to Hemlock Lake, which was forded at the mouth, where the water was knee-deep and about ten yards over. Soon they as- cended an acclivity. Before them now lay a broad country in full view, covered generally with a large growth of oak and walnut. Moving forward, they, by turns, crossed tracts of marsh and alluvium, suit- able, as the farmer-soldiers saw, for the finest meadows. The traveling, however, was indifferent, and the army moved slowly. By night-fall, General Hand's light corps, having the advance, arrived within half a mile of the little Indian town of Conesus (Gah-nyuh-sas.) It was designed in the morning that the army should pass the night in this village, but the main forces, delayed by the morning rain and other impediments of the roads, were still a full mile in the rear ; and, without attempting to enter the Indian town, they all encamped for the night. Gen- eral Hand's corps was ordered to remain on what is now Dr. McMillan's farm. The particular spot, then heavily wooded, proved to be " exceedingly ill-calcu- lated for that purpose, no water being nearer than half a mile."
It was now Sunday evening, and after the, light corps had encamped, Sullivan ordered Lieutenant Thomas Boyd, of the rifle corps, to report at his head- quarters for special duty. This brave and tried young
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officer was directed to take three or four riflemen, a. guide, and the Indian chief Hanyerry, and reconnoitre the principal Seneca village on the Genesee river, in order, if possible, to effect its surprise. Major Adam Hoops, third aide-de-camp on Sullivan's staff, was present in the General's tent, and heard the instruc- tions to Boyd. These were verbal, of course, but quite specific. "The country before us," said Major Hoops, "was unknown. We had heard of an Indian castle on the Genesee, which, by our reckoning, might be a few miles ahead of us." Sullivan calls this castle, or village, the capital of the Indian coun- try ; and toward it Boyd was to take his course. On leaving his commander's tent, he proceeded at once carefully to select his scouting party. Instead, how- ever, of the smaller number, he took twenty-three soldiers who volunteered from the rifle corps, and three from Colonel Butler's Schoharie regiment, thus making the party in all to consist of twenty-six men, a force by no means as likely to effect the purpose as. that which he had been directed to take with him. "Too few," says Minor, "if battle were intended ; too many, if secrecy and celerity were prime requis- ites of the enterprise." Hanyerry (or Han Yost) acted as guide. Timothy Murphy, a private soldier, of marvelous coolness and boldness, famous alike as a border fighter and scout, whom Boyd found at a camp fire, filling the eager ears of his fellow-soldiers with stories of his Indian hand-to-hand fights, was also a member of the party. They set out early in the eve- ning. The service was full of danger, the path was wholly new to them ; but aware that time was essen- tial, they proceeded actively, though with caution, along the trail leading westward from Conesus lake, up the steep aclivity, and over the Groveland hills. Doubtless before quitting the summit for the mazes of
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the dark and fruitless forest, the little band lingered a moment along the damp trail to catch another sight, to most of them a last one, of the camp fires glimmer- ing far over the marshy plain.
Early on Monday morning, the 13th of September, the army marched from their evening's bivouac at the False Faces,* as it afterwards was called, on the farm now owned by Lemuel B. Richardson, near Conesus Centre, westward a mile to the Indian village of Cone- sus, where they made camp and breakfasted. This Indian town was situated on what is now known as Henderson's flats, near the head of the lake. "Here we found," says General Sullivan, " some large corn- fields, which part of the army destroyed, while the other part were employed in building a bridge over an unfordable creek between this and Genesee." This unfordable creek was the inlet of Conesus lake. The margins of this stream fronting the Indian village, now so well cultivated, were then a quagmire, and impassable for horses. Accordingly a strong cover- ing party was detailed early in the morning to con- struct a log bridge over the inlet, and corduroy the approaches. The point selected was about four rods below the present bridge, over which passes the highway across the flat leading from Conesus Centre to the Lakeville road. The remains of this rude struc- ture, composed of trunks of elm and white wood, were plainly visible in 1806, when James Scott came
* The spot where the army encamped is now embraced in a nine acre field, situated three quarters of a mile south-west of Conesus Centre and fifty rods east of Mr. Richardson's residence. For many years after the country was settled there stood in this field on either side of the Indian path, two oak trees upon which had been cut in the bark, the rude represen- tation of the human face ; about this spot Sullivan's camp was formed. The locality was long known as the "False faces," and from the circumstance mentioned, the place took its name. Lemuel Richardson, who afterwards "took up" this farm, was a Revolutionary soldier and accompanied the ex- pedition into this region in 1779.
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into this region ; and the abutments, stringers, and some few of the logs that constituted the track-way, could still be seen as late as 1813, and were removed, for the most part, in June of that year, for the pur- pose of repairing the more modern bridge and its approaches, and because it had become an obstruction to the highway. John White, of Groveland, then lived in that road district, and assisted in its removal. A tradition is extant that the army, in crossing here on their way to the Indian village on the Genesee, threw a three-pounder brass cannon into the stream, because of their inability to transport it further. But Sullivan makes no mention of the loss of a field-piece here, although his official report is quite particular, especially in reference to ordnance and ammunition. It seems most unlikely that so formidable a weapon, intended for use in this region, would be abandoned at this stage of the expedition, after surmounting more serious obstacles, especially as the army, hav- ing little to fear from the enemy, moved leisurely across the bridge. Moreover, had the piece proved burdensome, it could easily have been sent back to Honeoye during the morning, while the army lay. inactive here, where Captain Cumming would have welcomed it as additional armament to his little fort. So strong, however, is the popular belief in this story that, when in April, 1865, the rebels evacuated Rich- mond, and the whole country was alive with excite- ment, a rumor reached Scottsburg, and traveled along the line of the inlet, that this abandoned cannon had. been recovered, and was being fired in honor of the great event of the day. Firing was certainly heard in the direction of the lake, and scores of people flocked thither to see the old gun, and listen to its brazen voice ; but they reached the spot to learn that
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the sound proceeded from a blacksmith's anvil, im- provised for the occasion.
Noon was advancing, and yet the scouting party had not returned from its hazardous mission, though two of the little band despatched by Boyd, had returned in the morning, bringing a brief report to the General .* A council of officers, it is said, was now summoned at Sullivan's tent, which occupied the present site of the old negro fisherman's, Harkless Williams' house. This assembly was striking. The leading personage, Major-General John Sullivan, commander of the expedition, was a man of dauntless resolution and genuine revolutionary fire. One of the very first to strike for the cause of liberty, he held throughout the great struggle a conspicuous place ; and after the war, in all measures tending to secure the adoption of the Federal constitution, and the paci- fication of the country, took an earnest and often important part. Three times its chief magistrate, he continued to enjoy other high civil dignities in his native State, down to the close of a life far more use- ful than the historian has yet accorded it to be ; though Webster, at Bunker Hill monument, in addressing Lafayette, refers to him as an immediate companion in arms of the immortal Frenchmen, and groups him with Washington, Gates and Lincoln.t He was an attached friend of John Adams, and enjoyed the intimate companionship of Lafayette. At
* Sullivan's report says two ; Major Hubley says, " Four men of Lieut. Boyd's party this morning (Monday, Sept. 13) returned, bringing informa- tion of the town of Gaghsuginlaheny (which they took for Genesee) being abandoned;" Major Norris's diary says, " After sunrise Boyd sent four men to report to Gen. Sullivan what he had discovered."
+ " Monuments and eulogy belong to the dead. We give them this day to Warren and his associates. On other occasions they have been given to your more immediate companions in arms, to Washington, to Greene, to Sullivan, to Lincoln."- Webster's Bunker Hill Oration.
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the moment appointed for the meeting, he enters the tent from a tour of personal inspection of the camp. His bearing is dignified, and the expression worn on his sunburnt face is grave and even anxious ; for the expedition is now on the very threshold of its final work. His piercing eye moves from one to another ; for he would gather the present feeling of each officer. Amiable in personal intercourse, he salutes, as he takes his camp-stool, the officers severally with warmth and native kindness. Forty years of age, erect in stature, five feet nine inches in height, his chest full, already inclining to corpulency, his eyes keen and dark, his hair black and curly, he presents a form and demeanor that challenge respect. The business of the council at once begins ; for Sullivan is always impatient of delay. As the conference pro- ceeds, we may glance at his career. Born at Somers- worth, then a part of Dover, New Hampshire,* on the 17th of February, 1740, he passed his early years on his father's farm. After reading law in the office of Judge Livermore, of the supreme court of his native State, he was admitted to practice, and for several years before the war, was a leading member of the New Hampshire bar. He early showed a military
* The State of Maine is uniformly given as General Sullivan's birth place; but this is an error. When in 1787 he was a candidate for President of New Hampshire, as the office of governor was then called, for a second term, the opposition endeavored to prejudice his cause by urging that he was a foreigner-a native, not of New Hampshire but of Maine, and therefore not deserving of support, for, it was asked, " Are there not New Hampshire men competent to fill her Gubernatorial chair ?" But the story availed his opponents nothing, for his father and mother, then both living, set the fiction at rest by asserting that Somersworth was in truth his birth-place-a fact which the people were thus made to believe-and they honored him with a re-election in 1787 and again in 1789.
The General's brother, James Sullivan, Governor of Massachusetts, was a native of Berwick, Maine, where he was born after the parents removed from New Hampshire.
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taste, and received, in 1772, a provincial commission as major of militia. His father, the humble founder of one of the most distinguished of New England fam- ilies-a family that has furnished two governors, several high military and a long list of civilian officers, was a school-master, of Irish birth ; still retaining the family name of O'Sullivan, * possessed of a good edu- cation, a warm heart, and small earthly possessions. Deriving his mental activity and warmth of tempera- ment from an Irish ancestry, Sullivan inherited, no doubt, from the same source, a jealousy of Great Britain. Not unfamiliar with political science, and alive to the bearings of public questions, the people turned to him at the first mutterings of that storm which culminated in the Revolution ; and in 1774 he and Nathaniel Folsom were appointed delegates from New Hampshire to the first continental Congress. In December of that year, he, John Langdon, and Cap- tain Thomas Pickering, "led a force against Fort William and Mary, near Portsmouth, took possession of one hundred barrels of gunpowder (afterwards used at the battle of Bunker Hill,) fifteen cannon, and all the small-arms and other stores, and carried them up into the country ; concealing a portion of them under the pulpit of the Durham meeting-house. This was the first act of armed hostility committed in the colo- nies."+
In June, 1775, he was appointed one of the eight brigadier-generals, and was assigned to a command
* The Irish prefix, O', was omitted by his children, however. The father lived to be more than a hundred years old, and was in the habit of visiting the General every year on horseback, from Maine.
t This bold act was " consumated by the seizure of the King's property and the disarming and imprisonment of his soldiers; and this, too, at a time when the universal language held in public was that of peace and antici- pated reconciliation. It was not until four months afterwards that the first blood was shed at Lexington."
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on Winter Hill, at the siege of Boston. Despatched soon after with reinforcements to the northern army in Canada, he displayed great military skill and reso- lution in the retreat. Commissioned as major-general, "he served under Putnam on Long Island, and by a combat of two hours in the woods, aided by Stirling's vigorous defence on the right, contributed to the pre- servation of the American army. He was taken prisoner, but being exchanged for General Prescott, was with Washington at Westchester during the autumn. After General Lee's capture, Sullivan took command of his division, and led the right at Trenton on Christmas night, 1776." He commanded the right wing at Brandywine, and defeated the British left at Germantown, driving them two miles. In 1778, he personally directed the siege of Newport, but not receiving the expected aid from the French fleet, the siege was abandoned. In 1779, he was assigned, as we have seen, to conduct this expedition.
Seeing that "matters were drawing to a happy conclusion," he resigned his commission on the 9th of November, 1779, much against the wishes of Wash- ington. The expedition, though conducted with emi -. nent success, was keenly criticised in Congress, where political animosity must thus early be gratified, and he felt that certain members, especially of the Board of War, who appear to have blamed him for disasters which were inevitable, had deeply wronged him. His health, too, impaired by rough service and a bilious disorder that had seized him at the commencement and continued during the whole of the march, and his private affairs needed attention. Like other officers of the Revolution, his support had been drawn mainly from private means ; but his personal concerns, less favorably situated than many, had become greatly embarrassed. On quitting the army, he resumed his
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profession ; but the task of righting finances, shattered by long neglect, proved too great, and he died, as for. years he had lived, surrounded by importunate credit- ors. Even death did not close the rugged chapter of a life of rugged fortunes. Under an old provincial statute, a debtor's corpse might be attached and held from burial until redeemed, Availing of this on the day of the funeral, Sullivan's creditors sent an officer to execute the infamous law on his remains. Closing the house, the relatives despatched a messenger for General Cilley, a former comrade in arms, who resided a short distance away. On arriving, the old soldier directed the doors to be opened, and the services to. proceed. Said he, "the funeral of this dear general must not be interrupted." He then drew from his coat two horseman's pistols, carried by him through the Revolution, and, as he cocked them, added "Go on with the ceremonies." Prayer was offered, and the remains were placed on a bier ; the bearers took it up and proceeded to the grave, General Cilley, pistol in hand, following close after. The rites were completed without interference from creditor or civil officer; Cilley then turned sorrowfully away, mounted his horse, and rode slowly homeward.
Brigadier-general James Clinton, the officer next in rank on this occasion, was of that honorable family which gave two generals to the Revolution, two governors to New York, and, we had almost said, two vice-Presidents to the Republic .* Born in Ulster
* George Clinton, brother of the General, was Vice-President of the United States during the second term of Jefferson. In 1812, DeWitt Clin- ton, his nephew, was favored with the nomination of the Republican mem- bers of the New York Legislature, for the Presidency. The Federalists made no nomination, and indirectly gave him their support. He received 89 electoral votes, while Mr. Madison received 128, and was thus re-elected. Before the amendment to the Constitution in 1803, the person, after the choice of the President, receiving the greatest number of electoral votes was
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county, New York, three years earlier than Sullivan, his father was likewise an Irishman, and, on the mother's paternal side, was related to an officer in Cromwell's army. After receiving a liberal education, he served as a captain in the French war under Bradstreet, and, at twenty, took a gallant part in the capture of Fort Frontenac. Seven years later, he held command of the regiments raised to protect the frontiers of Ulster and Orange counties against Indian incursions. In 1775, with the rank of colonel, he went with the chivalric Montgomery to Canada. In 1777, promoted to brigadier-general, he, with his brother, Governor George Clinton, was in command of Fort Clinton and Fort Montgomery, just below West Point. On the 6th of October, the Fort was stormed by the British with 3,000 men, as a diver- sion in favor of Burgoyne, who was moving down from the upper Hudson, and who, a few days later, lost the field of Saratoga, that decisive battle of the Revolution. After a gallant resistance, the garrison of only 500 men were overpowered, but succeeded in making their escape. Clinton, the last to leave the works, was pursued, fired at, and his attending ser- vant killed. Still flying, he was severely wounded by a bayonet, but escaped on horseback ; yet pur- sued, he dismounted, and slid down a precipice a hundred feet to the creek ; whence, covered with blood, he made his way home, a few miles distant. He was stationed at West Point during the greater part of 1778, engaged in throwing the great chain . . across the Hudson, to prevent the ascent of the ene- my's ships. He was in charge of the northern depart- ment during most of the war, and was present at the
Vice-President. Had this provision been continued nine years longer De Witt Clinton would have been Vice-President, as he stood next highest cto Madison in that canvass.
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capture of Cornwallis. In 1779, he was directed to co-operate with Sullivan in this expedition. In order to effect the junction, his force of 1,600 men was con- veyed up the Mohawk in beatteaux, about fifty miles above Schenectady, thence across to Ostego lake, a source of the Susquehanna river. Cooper, our great novelist, has invested the fair region through which he passed, with romantic interest, and has seen in Clinton's expedient of damming the outlet of that beautiful sheet to collect its waters, then tear away the obstruction in order to create an artificial current for floating his boats to the place of meeting with Sul- livan, an episode of romantic interest. Clinton's appearance at this council is deferential, yet soldier- like. He has well endured the fatigues of the great march, for his constitution is like iron. His nature is affectionate and mild, but at the mention of danger ahead, he is roused to interest. His counsel is wise, and is received with the attention due to so experi- enced an officer .*
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