USA > New York > Livingston County > A history of Livingston County, New York: > Part 17
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down his victim. The savages, supposing all danger now passed. rushed heedlessly on with yells of frantic rage. When nearly exhausted, he again turned, and, with the undischarged barrel, fired, and the third pursuer fell. With savage wonder, the other Indians were riveted to the spot; and, ex- claiming that 'he could fire all day without re-loading,' gave over the pur- suit. From that hour, Murphy was regarded by the savages as possessing a charmed life. When Clinton passed along the Mohawk, on his way to Tioga Point, he again joined his rifle corps, to share the dangers of the march into the wilderness."-Treat's Oration.
Murphy was a member of Captain Michael Simpson's rifle company, in Col. Butler's regiment. Lieut. Boyd was also an officer of this company. John Salmon, late of Groveland, likewise served in the same company. In the autumn of 1778, after the battle of Monmouth, Morgan's riflemen, to which Simpson's company belonged, marched to Schoharie to go into winter quarters. It was here that the orders to proceed to the Indian country found them the following spring.
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been completely encircled. "To arms!" was imme- diately sounded. All the light troops of the army, and the flanking division, were at once detached and hurried forward. But relief was then too late; for, after destroying our 'scouting party, the enemy lost no time in vanishing into the great forest. They left behind them, however, a wagon-load of packs, blank- ets, hats, and provisions, thrown off at the opening of the fight, to enable them to act with more vigor. An Indian corpse was also found, accidently left among the fallen Americans.
The enemy's force was commanded on this occasion by Walter Butler. Hunted at length to their homes, and too much weakened for offensive measures, they yet could harass the march of the invader. Accord- ingly, the day before, they had left Beardstown under their skilled leader, for the purpose of annoying our approaching army, as best they might, and after reconnoitering, had chosen a favorable spot crossed by the pathway leading to the Indian villages, and over which the patriot army must necessarily march. Butler's original purpose was to attack the army near the inlet as they crossed the swamp. But the sol- dierly dispositions made by Sullivan, and his con- stant preparation, did not favor this plan. Butler was therefore compelled to remain inactive with his force, and to witness, hour by hour, as he did, from his hiding-place near the brow of the hill, the pro- gress of the work on the bridge, and the measures preparing for the destruction of the Indian villages. His latter well-conceived design was also frustated by the appearance of Boyd's party in the rear. Always on the alert, the savages were doubly watch- ful now that their powerful enemy lay within cannon shot below, and cautiously as the scouting party advanced, their coming was known in time to make
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simple dispositions. Nothing, therefore, but swift destruction awaited our little band. For the fierce warriors at once spread themselves out in a great circle, and then forming smaller circles within, so that when the devoted scouts entered at the opening left by the Indians on the path, and that opening had closed behind Boyd's band, they were absolutely sur- rounded, and their doom fixed. The brave fellows, finding that escape was impossible, resolved, doubt- less, to die a soldier's death on the field, rather than be taken captive and suffer inevitable torture. Hence they asked no quarter, as we know, but fought un- flinchingly to the death. The contest embraced all the elements of sublime heroism ; but narrowed down to an ambuscade, it has escaped the attention which dauntless courage so well merits. Like bravery, ex- hibited on a broader and more conspicuous theatre, would have won for the actors a place in heroic his- tory, and their individual names, now forgotten, might have been preserved and honored in song and story.
Murphy, a private named McDonald, Garret Put- man, of Fort Hunter, afterwards in command of a spirited company of rangers in the Mohawk valley, and a French Canadian, regained the American camp. "The two latter secreted themselves early in the fight under a fallen tree around which was growing a quan- tity of thrifty nettles, and thus escaped observation, although several Indians passed over the log in pur- suit of Murphy."
John Putman, a cousin of Garret's, above named, also from the vicinity of Fort Hunter, lost his life in this affair. "At his burial it was found that he had been shot while in the act of firing, as a ball and sev- eral buck-shot had entered the right arm-pit without injuring the arm." A soldier named Benjamin Cus- tin, who belonged to the troops from Schoharie, at-
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tempted to follow Murphy, but was also overtaken and slain, after he had killed his first antagonist in a hand-to-hand encounter. "Poor Hanyerry, who had performed prodigies of valor in the conflict of Oris- kany, and who had rendered the American cause much real service, fell in this ambuscade, and was found literally hacked to pieces."*
Boyd and Private Parker were hurried forward, im- mediately after the affair, with the retiring enemy to the vicinity of Beardstown. On finding himself a prisoner, the lieutenant "obtained an interview with Brant, who, as well as Boyd, was a freemason. After the magic signs of brotherhood were exchanged, Brant assured him that he should not be injured." "But Brant, not long after, being called off on some enter- prise, the prisoners were left in charge of one of the Butlers, who, placing the prisoners on their knees before him, a warrior on each side firmly grasping their arms, a third at their backs with tomahawks raised, began to interrogate them about the purposes of General Sulli- van, threatening them with savage tortures if true and' ready answers were not given. Boyd, believing the assurances of Brant ample for his safety, and too ยท high-minded in any situation to betray his country, refused, as did Parker, to reply" to questions touch- ing the more immediate purposes of the army. The more than savage Butler was true to his threat; and when the prisoners peremptorily refused to answer, he handed them over to Little Beard and his warriors, who were already full of vindictiveness. The prison- ers were seized, stripped, and bound to trees; then commenced a series of horrid cruelties, directed espe- cially toward Boyd. When all was ready, Little Beard lifted his hatchet, stained with recent blood,
* Mr. Treat's Oration.
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and with steady aim sent it whistling through the air. In an instant it quivered within a hair's thickness of the lieutenant's devoted head. The younger Indians were now permitted to follow the chief's example, and from right, front, and left, their bright tomahawks cleave the air, and tremble about the unflinching persons of the victims. Wearied at length of this work, a single blow severed Parker's head from his body, and mercifully ended his misery. Poor Boyd, however, was reserved for a worse fate. An incision was made in his abdomen, and a severed intestine was fastened to a tree. He was then scourged with prickly- ash boughs, and compelled to move around until the pain became so exquisite that he could go no further .* Again pinioned, his mouth was enlarged with a knife, his nails dug out, his tongue cut away, his ears sev- ered from the head, his nose hewn off and thrust into his mouth, his eyes dug out, and the flesh cut from his shoulders, and, when sinking in death, after these enormities, he was decapitated and his disfigured head raised by the frenzied savages upon a sharpened pole. Thus fell a brave young soldier, whose life possesses more than ordinary material for a romance.t
* " If I mistake not," says Treat's published oration, "it was Judge Jones who informed me that when his father, the late Captain Horatio Jones, visit- ed the spot a few years afterwards, he found the intestines still wound around the tree."
+ Lieut. Boyd was a native of Northumberland Co., Pa. He was of ordinary height, and was a strongly-built, fine-looking young man; very sociable and agreeable in his manners, qualities which gained him many friends in Schoharie. While there he paid his addresses to Miss Cornelia, a daughter of Bartholomew Becker. After his death she gave birth to a daughter, of which he was the reputed father. When the troops under Col. Butler were preparing to leave Schoharie, Miss Becker, in a state of mind bordering on madness, approached her lover, caught hold of his arm, and in tears besought him by the most tender entreaties to marry her before he left Schoharie. He endeavored to put her off with promises; but doubting his intentions, she told him "if he went off without marrying her, she hoped he
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A burying party was ordered out by General Hand, on his reaching the place of the ambuscade, and a few feet from the fatal spot were interred the remains of six of those who had there fallen. The bodies of the others, scattered through the woods, were not now found, but were subsequently placed in a second grave located near the former one.
On the return of General Hand's corps from this duty, the whole army was ordered to take up the line of march westward over the trail traversed by Boyd, for the Indian towns on the Genesee, "through the finest country I almost ever saw," says Colonel Hub- ley, in his diary. The pack horses, loaded with the stores, were moved to the bridge, already guarded by the artillery, to take their turn. The forces then ad- vanced in regular order, and filed past. As the gen- eral and his staff passed over, they were saluted, the guard gathering so closely about that one of the aid- de-camps was jostled against the edge of an axe tied upon a pack horse, and wounded. Before dusk they arrived within sight of "the small castle," or Seneca village, situated near Williamsburgh, on the farm now
. would be cut in pieces by the Indians. In the midst of this unpleasant scene, Col. Butler rode up and reprimanded Boyd for his delay, as the troops were ready to march; and the latter, mortified at being seen by his commander thus importuned by a girl, drew his sword and threatened to stab her if she did not instantly leave him."-Simms' History of Schoharie, p. 300.
Boyd was born in 1757. His father and only sister died before the Revo- lution. His mother sent her three sons into the field, with the parting in- .junction, says Major Van Campen, "never to disgrace their swords by any act of cowardice, or disgrace them by a moment's fear or reluctance when called to the defence of home and freedom." Lieut. Wm. Boyd, the second son of Mrs. Boyd, fell at Brandywine, in 1777. Lieut. Thomas, the young- est, was at the surrender of Burgoyne and at the battle of Monmouth, before joining Sullivan. He went to Schoharie in the autumn of 1778, under Major Posey, whose command consisted, as is believed, of three companies of Mor- gan's celebrated rifle corps, under Captains Long, Pear, and Simpson. Boyd belonged to the latter company.
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occupied by Colonel Abell. A portion of the army, under Clinton, encamped near Fall Brook.
The Indians having thrown themselves into a wood on the opposite side of the river, seemingly determined to fight, the infantry and artillery were pushed to the front. Maxwell's brigade, with the left flanking di- vision, were directed to gain the enemy's right, and Poor's brigade to move round to their left, while the right flanking division and two regiments from Clin- ton's brigade, moved to Poor's right flank. The in- fantry were prepared to rush on in front, supported by the remainder of Clinton's brigade. Thus disposed, the army moved forward and took possession of the town without opposition, the enemy retreating across Canaseraga creek, through a thicket where it was im- possible for the army to follow. Word was now passed to encamp for the night.
On the morning of Tuesday, the 14th, parties were ordered out to destroy the corn, found in great plenty about Canaseraga, which they did by plucking the ears and throwing them into the river. About eleven o'clock, after having fired all the huts in the village, the army resumed march for Little Beardstown. After crossing Canaseraga creek at the fording place, near the site of Colonel Fitzhugh's residence, they moved through a small grove, and then over a " considerable swamp, and formed on a plain on the other side, the most extensive I ever saw," says Colonel Hubley, "containing not less than six thousand acres of the richest soil that can be conceived, not having a bush standing, but filled with grass considerably higher than a man. We moved up this plain for about three miles, in our regular line of march, a beautiful sight, indeed, as a view of the whole could be had at one look, and then came to the Genesee river, at the ford- ing place," (about a mile north of the present village
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.of Mount Morris) "which we crossed, being about forty yards over, and near middle deep, and then ascended a rising ground, which afforded a prospect so beautiful that to attempt a comparison, would be doing injury, as we had a view as far as the eyes could carry us of another plain besides the one we crossed, through which the river formed a most graceful wind- ing, and, at intervals, cataracts, which rolled from the rocks and emptied into the river." The army itself presented a novel appearance as it moved in regular order through the rank grass, which reached a height of from five to eight feet, and grew so thick that motion was slow. Often nothing could be seen but the guns of the soldiers above the grass. Passing next over a rougher section, the advance troops arrived at the "capital town," or Little Beard's village, which was much the largest Indian town met with in the whole route. Here they encamped. The fires in some of the Indian huts were yet fresh. Sullivan says of it: "We reached the Castle, which consisted of one hundred and twenty-eight houses, mostly very large and elegant. The place was beautifully situated, almost encircled with a cleared flat which extended for a number of miles, where the most extensive fields of corn were, and every kind of vegetable that can be conceived."
Just before quartering here, Paul Sanborn, after- wards for many years a resident of Conesus, then a private soldier, on the extreme right of Clinton's brigade, was moving with his detachment, and, as it wheeled quickly around in the direction of the village, discovered the headless corpse of Boyd. The blood was yet oozing from it, so recently had the body been freed from its tormentors. Leaping over this, Sanborn alighted beside that of Parker's, as it lay in the long .grass. At once making known his discovery, the
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remains were placed under guard of Captain Michael Simpson's rifle company, to which both Boyd and Parker belonged, and at evening the mutilated bodies and disfigured heads of these heroic men were buried with military honors, under a wild plum tree, which grew near the junction of two small streams, formally named at a great meeting in Cuylerville in 1841, as Boyd's creek, and Parker's creek. The heads of these two men were at once recognized by their com- panions, to whom Boyd's features were so familiar, and Parker's was identified, beyond doubt, from a scar on his face and his broken front teeth. Major Parr, who commanded the rifle battalion to which Boyd's company belonged, was present at the burial ; and John Salmon, late of Groveland, then a private in Captain Simpson's company, assisted on the occasion. *
BURIAL PLACE OF BOYD AND PARKER.
On Wednesday morning the army set to the work of destroying the orchards (one of which, it is asserted,
* A rude mound now marks the spot of the burial, which is close by the present bridge across Beard's creek, on the road from Geneseo to Cuylerville. An engraving of the mound appears on this page.
Beard's creek is formed by the two streams, Boyd's creek and Parker's creek, referred to above. The Cuylerville grist-mill stands a few rods south- west of the mound.
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contained 1,600 trees,) the crops of corn, beans, pota- toes and other vegetables. The corn was collected and burned in kilns. It is said that ears were here found measuring 22 inches in length. Colonel Hubley says the crops " were in quantity immense, and in goodness unequalled by any I ever saw. Agreeable to a mod- erate calculation, there was not less than 200 acres, the whole of which was pulled up and piled in large heaps, mixed with dry wood taken from the houses, and consumed to ashes."
While the main army were thus engaged, Poor and Maxwell proceeded to Canawaugus and destroyed that town. Returning, they also destroyed Big Tree village. "By three o'clock in the afternoon," says Col. Hubley, "the work was finished, the total ruin of the Indian settlements and the destruction of their crops, was completed." General Sullivan here issued an order during the day, announcing to the "brave and resolute army," that the immediate object of the expe- dition was secured, acknowledging his obligation alike to officers and soldiers, whose virtues and fortitude had enabled him to effect so much, and assuring them that "he would not fail to inform America at large how much they stand indebted to them." The order closed by directing that "the army will this day com- mence its march for Tioga." Eighteen days had now elapsed since it left Newtown on its way thither, during which time forty Indian towns, large and small, had been destroyed, together with 160,000 bushels of corn and a "vast quantity of vegetables of every kind."
Before quitting this spot, a woman with a child seven or eight months old, both nearly starved, came within the lines. She had been captured at Wyoming the year previous. She stated that the enemy had evacuated the town two days before ; that Butler, at the same time, went off with a party of Indians and
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rangers "to get a shot at the Yankees," and that the women had been fretting continually, and were con- stantly begging the warriors to sue for peace.
A few of the leading Indians lingered near their beautiful homes while the work of destruction was in progress. President Dwight relates an incident in this connection. The Seneca chief Big Tree, whom he describes as a man of lofty character and dignified deportment, had strenuously urged his countrymen to observe a strict neutrality, but without success. This chieftain stood, with others, on an elevated spot and saw his own possessions destroyed. "You see how the Americans treat their friends," said some of those around him, favorable to Great Britain. " What I see," calmly replied the chief, "is only the common fortune of war. It cannot be supposed that the Americans can distinguish my property from yours, who are their enemies."
The Indian warriors and their allies, together with 150 British regulars from Niagara by whom they had been re-enforced on the eve of quitting the Genesee, fled to Fort Niagara, which they reached on the 18th of September. Meantime the Indian women, children and old men were flocking thither from their burning towns, and as the plain far and near became covered with knots of fugitives, it strikingly resembled, says an eye witness, the diversified landscape formed by groups returning from an English fair .*
Temporary homes, in a few days, were provided elsewhere for these refugees, but as they still expected that British arms would triumph and their homes would be restored, they refused to quit the protection offered by the Fort. Indeed, the Senecas were now urged to make their future dwelling place in Canada,
* Ketchum's Buffalo, Vol. II, Appendix, p. 339.
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but they continued to remain here until the following Spring, when the larger remnant of the tribe settled near Buffalo creek.
Scanty supplies awaited the fugitive Indians at Niagara, and the winter was remarkably cold, the snow very deep, and multitudes of deer and other animals perished from starvation. The refugees, fed on salted provisions, a diet so new to them caused scurvy, of which they died in great numbers.
The army retraced its course to Conesus, where a halt was made on Wednesday night. The return march was resumed next morning, and continued without special incident to Easton, Pennsylvania, where the troops went into temporary quarters.
The intelligence of the success of the expedition preceded the army, and everywhere it was received with tokens of gratitude. Congratulatory addresses were voted by corporations to officers and men ; mil- itary bodies complimented them ; and the Continental Congress, on motion of Elbridge Gerry, resolved that its thanks "be given to his excellency General Wash- ington, for directing, and to Major General Sullivan, and the brave officers and soldiers under his command, for effectually executing an important expedition against such of the Indian nations as, encouraged by the councils and conducted by the officers of his Britannic Majesty, have perfidiously waged an unpro- voked and cruel war against the United States, laid waste many of their defenceless towns, and with 'savage barbarity, slaughtered the inhabitants thereof." It was further resolved, "that it will be proper to set apart the second Thursday in December next, as a day of General Thanksgiving in these United States, and that a committee of four be appointed to prepare a recommendation to the said United States, for this purpose." The proclamation, in fitting language,
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owns the hand of Providence, in "that He had gone out with those who went out into the wilderness against the savage tribes"; and we may well believe that the hearts of the colonists fully responded, and that they cordially united in the ceremonies of the day thus set apart.
Our whole army was greatly impressed with the beauty of this country and the fertility of its soil ; and the attention of settlers was directed hitherward by the glowing descriptions brought home by the soldiers. That restlessness which follows all great wars, was particularly notable after the Revolution, making the period a favorable one for emigration ; and a decade had not passed away before a number of privates and officers who had formed a part of Sulli- van's army, and others, attracted by their accounts, removed hither, or were preparing to make this region their future home. Thus did the Indian campaign of 1779 directly tend to the settlement of the Genesee country ; while the bloody wrongs inflicted by its aboriginal lords resulted in their expulsion therefrom, and their speedy downtall as a separate nation.
In the spring of 1780 several Seneca families came back, and temporarily settled in the neighborhood of their former villages on the Genesee ; but the greater portion of them never returned. The precaution had been taken by the natives prior to Sullivan's arrival, to bury a quantity of corn, beans, and other seeds, first placing them in mats of black ash bark, then con- cealing them in a "cache," or trench dug in the earth, covering the whole with sand and litter. The army did not find this buried grain, and it was withdrawn by the Indians from its hiding-places on their return, and used by them for the Spring's planting.
CHAPTER VIII.
AFTER THE REVOLUTION. .
The soldiers of the Revolution were quite ready at the close of the great struggle, to return to the pur- suits of peaceful industry. The fertile region which stretches beyond Seneca Lake, and as far westward as the Genesee river, had especially attracted the atten- tion alike of officers and rank and file of Sullivan's army, and the valleys and hillsides so precipitately abandoned by the fugitive red men, were by another decade, to count among their permanent occupants some of those who had first seen them under con- ditions far less pacific.
Years, however, before the continental army had penetrated to these remote homes of the Indians, the country along the Genesee had been made familiar to the eyes of many a score of white prisoners, brought hither by that horde of dusky prowlers who, for nearly a quarter of a century embracing that period of disquiet along the border which ended only with the .colonial war, lost no opportunity of harassing the frontier settlements, and whose predatory enterprises lay so little under the restraints of regular warfare.
During the French war, as well as during that of the Revolution, prisoners taken by the Senecas and other tribes allied with them, were brought to these
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western fastnesses, whose remote situation afforded' them immunity, to be detained in the capacity of artisans or laborers, or surrendered to their friends on the payment of fixed bounties. When permanent peace at length released all, those who were then remaining in captivity were prepared to impart useful information respecting the country to the vanguard of the pioneers.
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