USA > New York > Warren County > Queensbury > A history of the town of Queensbury, in the state of New York : with biographical sketches of many of its distinguished men, and some account of the aborigines of northern New York > Part 32
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1 On a manuscript map of Lake George, entitled a plan of Lake George, and the country adjacent, on file in the State Library at Albany, Half-way brook is laid down as Schoone creek. The map has no date but is evidently very old.
Another manuscript map, compiled for the Earl of Loudoun, in 1757, has the Half way brook, marked as Forks creek.
2 In a communication to the author, dated May 20th, 1870, the venerable Dr. Lemuel C. Paine, of Albion, Orleans co. (since deceased), writes as follows : " The scenery about the crossing of the Half-way brook, as it then appeared, is deeply im- pressed upon my mind. The house, as has been previously intimated, was built of logs. The chimney was large and built of bricks from the foundation, and had the appearance of having had at least one building burned around it before this was built. It was what was called a double log house. Before it, on the south side, stood two large trees commonly called in this country the balm of Gilead trees.
303
ENGAGEMENT AT THE HALF WAY BROOK.
During the summer of 1756, a force of six hundred Canadians and Indians attacked a baggage and provision train at the Half- way brook, while on its way from Fort Edward to the garrison at Fort William Henry.1
The oxen were slaughtered, the convoy mostly killed and scalped, and the wagons plundered of their goods and stores. Heavily laden with booty, the marauding party commenced its retreat towards South bay on Lake Champlain. Embarking in batteaux they were proceeding leisurely down the lake when they were overtaken by a party of one hundred rangers under the command of Captains Putnam and Rogers. These latter had with them two small pieces of artillery, and two blunder- busses, and at the narrows, about eight miles north of Whitehall, they crossed over from Lake George, and succeded in sinking several of the enemy's boats, and killing several of the oarsmen. A heavy south wind favored the escape of the remainder.2
Sometime in midsummer, Lord Loudoun visited Fort Edward, and Fort William Henry, and after the surrender of Oswego, moved so large a force in that direction, as to change the plans of the enemy, who had contemplated an attack upon that im- portant post at the head of Lake George.
In Montcalm's official papers,3 and other French accounts of the campaign of 1756, it is stated that on the twenty-second of July in that year, a courier arrived at Isle Royal with the in-
Some half a mile north-easterly of the house, more or less, were Walter Briggs's mills, on the Half-way brook, the pondage of which setting back nearly or quite as far as the bridge near the house. On the east bank of which, and a little north of the house were the remains of the old barracks. (Elsewhere described as the Garrison ground). Here, and in their vicinity I have picked up small pieces of coin, bullets and other things pertaining to an encampment of soldiers quite plentifully. Over the brook north-westerly were the remains of intrenchments running in lines, longer or shorter for a considerable distance. I have walked all through these, and in many places I remember the sides of the ditches were higher than my head." 1
1 Fitch's Historical Survey, p. 916. In Trans. N. Y. State Agricultural Society, for 1848.
2 Rogers's journal contains no account corresponding to this affair, and but for the authority of Dr. Fitch, I should be inclined to look upon the account as apoc- ·ryphal.
3 Vide Documents relating to the Colonial History of N. Y., vol. x, pp. 483, 488, 533. A further account (p. 490) says there were fifty-two soldiers and three officers, and that only one escaped. One account asserts that the attacking party were all Indians, except the commanding officer.
1 Among the manuscript maps in the State Library at Albany, is one without date, but very old on which the post at Half-way brook is represented by E laid down just west of the old military road and north of the creek. This would seem to settle the question of location.
304
HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF QUEENSBURY.
telligence that Lieut. Marin, of the French marine, having been despatched with one hundred men, and a party of Indians to reconnoiter the enemy's camp, they encountered near the head Fof Lake George a force of between fifty and sixty men; that nearly all of them were killed, four being carried away as pri- soners, and only one of the party escaped to carry the news of the disaster to the English commander. As this account makes no mention of baggage or oxen, it is supposed to have been one of the several murderous affrays which have taken place at the Bloody pond; and is not to be confounded with the affair previously narrated. A contemporaneous account esti- mates the English force at the head of Lake George at about nine thousand men.
About the same time a party of the Iroquois, led by a Cana- dian, stopped sixteen English horsemen on their way to Lake George. Of these nine were killed, and seven taken prisoners. The latter, with the plunder and horses, were taken to Carillon. On the second of August, six cadets belonging to the French regulars, fell in with a party of fifteen English near Lake George, of whom thirteen were killed, and two made prisoners. 1
The campaign of 17572 was prolific in scenes of bloodshed
1 Documents relating to the Colonial History of N. Y., vol. x, p. 530-1.
" It was during this year as nearly as can be ascertained that the following events, related by the late Judge Hay, transpired. "During the, French war, .three officers of whom Seth Warner was one while riding on horseback from Lake George towards Fort Edward, were waylayed between the Bloody pond and the upper picket post by Indians. At the only fire, which was a volley, Captain Coon was killed, as was another officer, whose name I have never known. War- ner's arm was broken, and his horse so disabled as to fall ; when its rider extri- cated himself, and on foot pursued Coon's horse nearly two miles to where, at the Meadow run, it stopped to drink. There Warner caught the uninjured horse, and, on his back, arrived, without further molestation, at Fort Edward, where surgical aid could be procured. The Sexagenary, p. 157, has the following version of the same affair.
" While we held undisturbed possession of the posts at the north, it was a very common thing for the different commanders to exchange visits. Colonel Warner of Fort Edward occasionally visited Fort George. On one of these occasions he was returning with two officers, all of them mounted on horseback. As they were passing the Bloody pond, where some hostile Indians had hid themselves behind an old tree, they received a volley of musketry from their concealed ene- mies. The two officers fell lifeless to the ground, and Colonel Warner was wounded as was the horse he rode. He put spurs to the bleeding animal and endea- vored to escape. One of the officer's horses followed him and the Indians pursued. As he rode on, his horse occasionally seemed ready to fall under him, and at other times would revive and appear to renew his strength. The other horse kept up with them, alternately increasing and relaxing his speed to keep pace with his wounded
305
EXPEDITION AGAINST FORT WILLIAM HENRY.
along the frontier. Early in January a plan was matured for the capture of Fort William Henry. A force of fifteen hun- dred, regulars, Canadian soldiers, militia and Indians, under the command of the Sieur de Rigaud de Vaudreuil, governor of Three Rivers, divided in four detachments, left Fort St. John on the twentieth of February, and the three following days. Effecting a junction at Carillon, they advanced on the fifteenth of March, and on the seventeenth arrived within a league and a half of Fort William Henry. Tradition states that their ap- proach was made in the direction of the bold promontory that stretches down into the head waters of the lake, and that it hence derived the name of French mountain. Through the vigilance of Captain John Stark, the approach of the enemy was discovered, and although the investment of the fort was continued until the twenty-second, the Indians being in pos- session of the Fort Edward road, no material lo'ss was sus- tained by the English, beyond the destruction of four brigan- tines and a number of long boats and batteaux. The French loss in this undertaking, according to their own official report, was five Frenchmen killed, and one officer and one Indian wounded.1 " The garrison at the time of this attack was in the command of Major William Eyre, the distinguished military en- gineer, who planned and superintended the erection of the fort. The enemy were provided with three hundred scaling ladders and other appliances for carrying the place by assault ; and with the great disparity of forces, would doubtless have succeeded,
companion. The colonel in vain endeavored to seize the bridle which hung over his neck, an expedient which promised to save him if his own steed should fail. In this manner, and with all the horrid anticipation of a cruel death before him, he managed to outstrip his pursuers until he reached Wing's corner at Glen's Falls. There, as the uninjured horse came along side, he made another attempt to seize his bridle, and succeeded. He instantly dismounted, unslung the saddle, threw it over the fence, mounted the horse and rode off at full speed. He saw no more of his pursuers from this moment, but reached Fort Edward in safety ; over- come, however, by his exertion, fatigue, and the loss of blood. What was also singular, was the arrival of his wounded horse, which lived to do good service in the field." N. B. There was neither fence nor building at Wing's corner then. . . 1 Documents relating to the Colonial History of N. Y., vol. x, p. 545. Another version of the affair as given by M. de Montcalm, Id., p. 549, states that the assail- ants destroyed by fire, " everything outside the fort, over 300 batteaux, 4 sloops, one of which was pierced for 16 guns, a saw-mill, a great pile of building timber and firewood, two magazines full of provisions and military effects, a little stock- aded fort containing a dozen of houses or barracks to lodge the troops and their sick."
39
SKETCH OF FORT WILLIAM HENRY.
This somewhat rude sketch is understood to be a copy of an etching on a powder horn, supposed to have been the property of a provincial soldier, engaged in the campaigns of 1755-6. This interesting relic is now the property of the Maine Historical Society. There are one or two other powder horn pictures of the fort in existences, but none, it is believed, giving a better perspective view of the fort.
307
EXPEDITION AGAINST FORT WILLIAM HENRY.
but for the spirited defense made. Early in the season small scalping parties infested the Lydius road, murdering and scalp- ing such stragglers as might be caught or ambushed from the camp at Fort Edward. This state of things was made the sub- ject of special appeal by Sir William Johnson to his friends and allies the Mohawks, to whom, as appears in his journal under the date of May 20th, he sent four strings of black wampum, to let their people know that the French and Indians had begun to. scalp and take prisoners." 1
On the fifth of June, a detachment of ninety confederate In- dians in the French interest, under the leadership a of French officer attached to these nations who had demanded of M. de Bourlamaque a sergeant and seven soldiers of the line whom he knew, 2 proceeded south, and avoiding the larger force at the head of the lake, attacked on the tenth a detail of pioneers with their escort between Fort Edward and Lake George, out of which they took four prisoners and three scalps, and suc-> ceeded in effecting their return to the stronghold at Carillon without loss, although hotly pursued by the English, and forced to disperse.
As early as the month of June, Montcalm had announced his intention of investing Fort William Henry, and had already gathered upwards of one thousand Indians, some of whom had come a distance of four or five hundred leagues to participate - in the assault upon that important post. On the twelfth of July he left Montreal for Carillon, and stopping to chaunt the war song with various tribes of savages, reached that post on the eighteenth. His presence was the signal for active prepa- rations to advance. One of his first movements was to dis- patch Lieut. Marin of the colonial forces with a detachment of one hundred and fifty men, mostly Indians, on a scout between the head of Lake George and Fort Edward. This partisan ar- rived near the latter post on the morning of July 23d. A patrol of ten men were first encountered, all of whom were killed. An advanced guard of fifty men met a like fate. A. force of four thousand men was then advanced in line of battle and for two hours was exposed to a heavy fire from the enemy concealed in ambush; after which the latter retired with a loss
1 Stone's Life and Times of Sir William Johnson, vol. II, p. 29.
2 Documents relating to the Colonial History of N. Y., vol. x, p. 669. See also p. 579 or another account, in which the officer in command is named as the Sieur d'Anglade.
308
HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF QUEENSBURY.
of one Canadian who died from exhaustion. The marauders bore off thirty-two scalps and one prisoner.1 On the 27th a grand council was held with the Indians; on the 30th portions of the expedition commenced their march ; on the 3d of July the main force of regulars, with a siege train of artillery, debarked near the site of the old Caldwell mansion. The Chevalier de Levis was immediately sent forward in charge of the Indians to secure the Lydius road and the approaches to the fort from the south. During the succeeding six days, pending which, artillery firing, skirmishing, sorties and repulses were of daily occurence, Montcalm had advanced his parallels so near the fort that it was no longer tenable; and on the ninth of August, Col. Monro having previously been informed by a communication forwarded by Montcalm, that he would not receive any assist- ance from General Webb, at Fort Edward, hoisted the white flag and sent a messenger to demand terms of capitulation. * These, if they had been observed, were honorable alike to the victors and the vanquished.
Sufficient provision was made, according to the amenities of civilized warfare, for the protection of the prisoners of war, and the care of the sick and wounded, the munitions of war becom- ing as a matter of course, the property of the conquerors. Mont- calm's journal of the expedition states the French loss at 13 killed and 40 wounded. The English loss he estimates in round numbers at two hundred.
The reduction of Fort William Henry,2 and the surrender of its ill fated garrison, were followed by scenes of slaughter and carnage, which find few parallels in the pages of history. " The war whoop was given, and the Indians began to murder those that were nearest to them without distinction. It is not in the power of words to give any tolerable idea of the horrid scene that now ensued; men, women, and children were dis- patched in the most wanton and cruel manner, and immediately scalped. Many of these savages drank the blood of their vic- tims as it flowed warm from the fatal wound." 3
" My tent had been placed in the middle of the encampment
1 Documents relating to the Colonial History of N. Y., vol. x, p. 503. Montcalm's journal of the expedition Id p. 599 states that 100 were killed, 38 scalped and two taken prisoners.
2 Invariably called Fort George by the French in their official correspon- dence and reports for 1757.
3 Carver's Travels, p. 176.
309
INDIAN CANNIBALS.
of the Outaouacs," writes Father Roubaud, a Jesuit missionary who accompanied Montcalm's expedition. "The first object which presented itself to my eyes on arriving there was a large fire, while the wooden spits fixed in the earth gave signs of a feast. There was indeed one taking place. But, O Heaven ! · what a feast! The remains of the body of an Englishman was there, the skin stripped off, and more than one-half of the flesh gone. A moment after I perceived these inhuman beings eat with famishing avidity of this human flesh ; I saw them taking up this detestable broth in large spoons, and apparently without being able to satisfy themselves with it.
" They informed me that they had prepared themselves for this feast by drinking from skulls filled with human blood, while their smeared faces and stained lips gave evidence of the truth of the story." 1
No sooner had the articles of capitulation been signed, than the roadway and trails leading south were thronged by Indians, lying in wait for their victims. The savages, of whom there were three thousand present 2 representatives of thirty-three dis- tinct tribes, drawn from distances as far as the Ohio, Lake Superior and Lake Michigan on the west, and Acadia on the east, lured hither with the hope of plunder and carnage; in- flamed by long restrained passions, and infuriated by strong drink, which formed a part of their spoils, were in no mood to be robbed of their prey. Besides the stories of barbarity and cruelty, perpetrated on this occasion, tradition has handed down hints concerning valuables, money, jewelry and arms, thrown aside in the heat of pursuit, or abandoned when escape became hopeless, flung despairingly into the swamps and streams on the route of retreat. That Montcalm used his best endeavors to control and remedy the excesses of his savage allies, fair minded historians are willing to admit; but all too late he found he had employed forces beyond his control. He had
1 Kip's Jesuit Missions, p. 155. There is abundant evidence to show that there were several cannibal tribes assembled on this occasion. An official French de- tail of the campaign (Col. Hist. N. Y., vol. x, p. 627), states that among the tribes present, were Foxes from the Mississippi and " Aoais from the Western sea, who never before appeared in the country."
. 2" You know what it is to restrain 3000 Indians of 33 different nations, and I had but too many apprehensions which I did not conceal from the commandant of the fort in my summons." -- Montcalm to Brig. Gen'l Webb 14th of Aug., 1757 Doc'ts relating to the Col. Hist. of New York, vol. x, p. 618.
310
HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF QUEENSBURY.
sown the wind and was reaping the whirlwind.1 Among the number who ran the gauntlet, and finally escaped by running barefooted a distance of seven miles to the Half-way brook was Colonel, afterward General Jacob Bayley of New Hampshire.2
" In the confusion consequent upon the attack an Indian chief seized Colonel Frye, plundered and stripped him of his clothes even to shirt, and then led him into the woods in a di- rection and manner which left no doubt as to the design of the ferocious chief. Arriving at a secluded spot, where the colonel expected to meet his fate, he determined to make one effort for his life, and roused by desperation, with no other arms than those nature gave him, he sprang upon the savage, over- powered and killed him on the spot, and fleeing rapidly into a thick wood, he eluded the search of the other Indians. After wandering in various directions for several days, subsist- ing wholly on whortleberries, he reached Fort Edward, and joined his suffering companions." 3
"Captain John Burk, of Frye's regiment, was seized, and after a violent struggle, stripped of the whole of his clothes, and after- wards escaped into the woods. Straying in various directions, he was overtaken by darkness in the margin of a morass, and unable to direct his course, lay down in the thick grass and passed the night, covered only by the damp vapor of the swamp. The next day he renewed his march, and fortunately arrived safely at Fort Edward.
"At the time Colonel Munroe consented to the delivery of the private baggage to the Indians, Lieutenant Selah Barnard, ano- ther of Frye's officers, having with him a small trunk containing his effects, resolutely determined not to part with it, unless by force. The trunk soon attracted the attention of the savages, and two stout fellows approaching to seize it, the lieutenant threatened them with instant death, and for some time held the
2
1" M. de Montcalm, who, on account of the distance of his tent, did not learn till a late hour what was going on, at the very first news of this occurrence repaired to the spot with a speed which marked the goodness and generosity of his heart. He multiplied himself, he seemed endowed with ubiquity, he was everywhere ; prayer, menaces, promises were used, he tried everything, and at last resorted to force."-Relation of Father Roubaud. Kip's Jesuit Missions, p. 181.
2 Memoir of Stark and Others. p. 328. Ebenezer Dow of Concord, N. H. " was a ranger in the time of the French and Indian war," and " was in the fight at Ticonderoga, Crown Point and Fort William Henry." " He said that at the massacre at Fort William Henry he heard the groans of the dying-praying and cursing-and the yells of savages, all mixed together."-Bouton's Concords, p. 643. $ Hoyt's Antiquarian Researches, p. 191.
311
INDIAN MASSACRE.
trunk from their grasp. Others coming up, he was seized by each arm, plundered, and led off to be butchered. Being re- markably athletic, with his whole strength he sent them in different directions, and by a rapid flight rejoined his fellow sufferers. The savages took possession of the trunk and sub- mitted to his escape, and he reached Fort Edward without fur- ther misfortune."
Speaking of this massacre,1 one of the French officers states as follows : " The English troops surrendered upon condition of not again serving within eighteen months, against his Chris- tian Majesty and his allies, and of being sent to New England. The French were to escort them half-way across the portage of Fort St. George, and they accordingly started with their arms and baggage, marching in a column with the detachment of escort. The Indians, whom curiosity had drawn around them, although strictly forbidden by M. de Montcalm not to molest them, still followed, scattering through the woods of the gorge. As soon as the escort left the English, some of the Indians tried to provoke them, rather to try their endurance than with any other design, and seized a part of their equipage. Seeing that the troops were embarrassed at what was done, and confused by their shouts, they began to strip them, perhaps incited to this by their French interpreters, who could not bear to see the English depart without their getting any such spoils, as they gained in Braddock's affair, and therefore encouraged the In- dians to seize their equipage. They soon attacked them from every side, falling upon their equipage and stripping them. Those who resisted were killed, and the rest were taken pri- soners, to the number of twelve or fifteen hundred." 2
Five days after the capitulation, Montcalm despatched Lieut. Savourin of the La-Sarre regiment, together with the Sieurs de St. Luc de la Corne and Marin with thirty grenadiers and two
1 Dr. James Cromwell of Lake George informs me, that while digging cellars for his house (1860) and vault for ice-house (1867), he exhumed thirteen skulls in a greater or less state of preservation. Other bones were found, but more decayed. These are believed to be the remains of a few of those massacred at this time.
. 2 Pouchot's Memoirs, vol. I, p. 89. Hough's translation. In another paragraph he adds as follows : " The Indians, as they set out to return to their own country, carried with them a disease with which many died. Some of them seeing new graves, disinterred the dead to take their scalps, but unfortunately found that . they had died of the small pox, and the infection was thus given to the Indians. The Poutéotamis nation, one of the bravest and most strongly attached to the French, almost perished of this epidemic. We especially regretted some of the chiefs whom the French highly esteemed.
312
HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF QUEENSBURY.
interpreters as an escort to Lieut. William Hamilton of the 35th foot, and bearing letters to Lord Loudoun and General Webb. On the following day, Captain de Poulharies of the Royal Rou- sillon regiment with an escort of two hundred and fifty soldiers accompanied the survivers of the massacre, with the " one piece of cannon, a six pounder " granted by the ninth article of capitu- lation, as a token of the Marquis de Montcalm's esteem for Lieutenant Colonel Monro and his garrison, on account of their honorable defense, to the post at the Half-way brook, where they met a like detachment from the garrison at Fort Edward, sent by General Webb to receive them. According to the offi- cial statement of Gov. Vaudreuil upwards of four hundred pri- soners were forwarded, by this escort, which were procured from the Indians by threats, promises and rewards.1
An official detail of the events of the campaign of 1757, from the department of war at Paris states that a party of Englishmen were plundered on leaving the intrenchment; four hundred were taken on the road and brought to the camp, the greater portion of the English officers happened to be among these.2
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