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 34
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1 Above the pedantry of holding up standards of military rules, where it was im- possible to practice them, and the narrow spirit of preferring the modes of his own country, to those proved by experience to suit that in which he was to act, Lord Howe laid aside all pride and prejudice, and gratefully accepted counsel from those whom he knew to be best qualified to direct him. Madame was delighted with the calm steadiness with which he carried through the austere rules which he found necessary to lay down. In the first place he forbade all displays of gold and scarlet, in the rugged march they were about to undertake, and set the ex- ample by wearing himself an ammunition coat, that is to say, one of the surplus soldier's coats cut short. This was a necessary precaution ; because in the woods the hostile Indians, who started from behind the trees, usually caught at the long and heavy skirts then worn by the soldiers; and for the same reason he ordered the muskets to be shortened, that they might not, as on former occasions, be snatched from behind by these agile foes. To prevent the march of his regiment from being descried at a distance by the glittering of their arms, the barrels of the guns were all blackened ; and to save them from the tearing of bushes, the stings of insects, etc., he set them the example of wearing leggins, a kind of buskin made of strong woolen cloth."-Memoirs of an American Lady, p. 176.
2 Col. Cumming, who had been left in charge of a detachment at the head of Lake George at' the time of Abercrombie's advance, received a letter from James Cun- ningham aid-de-camp, dated French advanced guard, July 8, 1758, in which was the following order : "finish all your stockaded forts immediately, and particu- larly the hospital."-Lossing's Life and Times of Philip Schuyler, vol. I, p. 154.
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HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF QUEENSBURY.
consisting of teamsters and an escort of soldiers, while on their way from the station at the Half-way brook, to the camp at the head of the lake. The account here given is as nearly as can be remembered in the language of a Mr. Jones of Connecticut, who was a member of Putnam's company which arrived on the ground soon after the affray took place. In the year 1822 he related the circumstances as here recorded, to the late Herman Peck, Esq., of this place, while on a visit to Connecticut. It is from Mr. Peck that I obtained the narrative, which corres- ponds so completely with the French version of the affair that there can be no question whatever as to its general accuracy and reliability.
A baggage train of sixty carts, each cart drawn by two to three yoke of oxen, accompanied by an unusually large escort of troops, was despatched from Fort Edward to the head of Lake George with supplies for the troops of General Abercrom- bie, who lay encamped at that point with a force of twelve thousand men. This party halted for the night at the stockade post at the Half-way brook. As they resumed their march in the morning, and before the escort had fairly cleared the pick- eted enclosure, they were suddenly attacked by a large party of French and Indians which laid concealed in the thick bushes and reeds that bordered the stream, and lined the road on both sides, along the low lands between the block house and the Blind rock.
The night previously to this ambuscade and slaughter, Put- nam's company of rangers having been to the lake to procure supplies, encamped at the flats near the southern spur of the French mountain. In the early morning they were aroused from their slumbers by the sound of heavy firing in a southerly direction, and rolling up their blankets they sprang to their arms and hastened rapidly forward to the scene of action, a dis- tance of about four miles. They arrived only in time to find the slaughtered carcasses of some two hundred.and fifty oxen, the mangled remains of the soldiers, women and teamsters, and the broken fragments of the two wheeled carts, which constitu- ted in that primitive age the sole mode of inland transportation.
The provisions and stores had been plundered and destroyed. Among the supplies were a large number of boxes of chocolate which had been broken open and their contents strewed upon the ground, which dissolving in the fervid heat of the summer
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JOHN. ANDREW
SCOUTING IN 1778.
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HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF QUEENSBURY.
sun, mingled with the pools and rivulets of blood forming a sickening and revolting spectacle. The convoy had been am- bushed and attacked immediately after leaving the protection of the stockade post, and the massacre took place upon the flats, between the Half-way brook, and the Blind rock, or what is more commonly known at the present day as the Miller place.
Putnam with his command, took the trail of the marauders, which soon became strewed with fragments of plunder dropped by the rapidly retreating savages.
They were followed to Ganaouski bay, on the west side of Lake George, where Putnam arrived only in time to find them embarked in their canoes, at a safe distance from musket shot, on the waters of the lake; and their discovery was responded to by insulting and obscene gestures, and yells of derision and defiance. The provincials returned immediately to the scene of · the butchery, where they found a company from Fort Edward engaged in preparing a trench for the interment of the dead.
Over one hundred of the soldiers composing the escort were slain, many of whom were recognized as officers, from their uniform, consisting in part of red velvet breeches. The corpses of twelve females were mingled with the dead bodies of the soldiery. All the teamsters were supposed to have been killed. While the work of burial was going forward the rangers occu- pied themselves in searching the trails leading through the dense underbrush and tangled briars which covered the swampy plains. Several dead bodies were by these means added to the already large number of the slain. On the side of one of these trails, the narrator of these events saw a new unhemmed ban- danna handcherchief fluttering from the twigs of an old tree that laid among the weeds near the brook. This he found perforated with a charge of buck shot, part of which remained enveloped in its folds.
Following up the trail, he soon found the corpse of a woman which had been exposed to the most barbarous indignities and mutilations, and fastened in an upright position to a sapling which had been bent over for the purpose. All of the bodies had been scalped, and most of them mangled in a horrible manner.
One of the oxen had no other injury, than to have one of its horns cut out ; it was still alive and bellowing with agony. This they were obliged to kill.
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AN AMBUSH.
Another ox had been regularly scalped. This animal was afterwards driven to the lake, where it immediately became an object of sympathy and attention of the whole army. By care- ful attendance and nursing, the wound healed in the course of the season. In the fall the animal was driven down to the farm of Col. Schuyler, near Albany, and the following year was shipped to England for exhibition as a curiosity. Far and wide it was known as the scalped ox. The bodies of the dead were buried in a trench near the scene of massacre, a few rods east of the picketed enclosure. The French version of the affair,1 states the oxen were killed, the carts burnt, the property pillaged by the Indians, one hundred and ten scalps were se- cured, and eighty-four prisoners taken; of these twelve are women and girls. The escort which was defeated consisted of forty men commanded by a lieutenant who has been taken. The remainder of the men who were killed or taken prisoners consisted of wagoners, sutlers, traders, women and children. The English 'tis known feel this loss very sensibly. Some bag- gage and effects belonging to General Abercrombie, as well as his music, were among the plunder. On the news of this defeat, the English general sent a very considerable force in pursuit, under the command of the partisan Robert Rogers, but he was too late. He was on the point of returning, when, on the ad- vice of a colonial gunner, a deserter, he received orders to lay in ambush to surprise a third detachment which the Marquis de Montcalm had just despatched 2 under the orders of M. Marin, a colonial officer of great reputation. This detachment was composed of fifty regulars, one hundred Canadians, and one hundred and fifty Indians. That of the enemy, of about seven hundred men. They met in the woods, about seven o'clock in the morning of the eighth of August, and in spite of superior numbers, M. Marin, made his arrangements to fight the enemy.
He forced them to waver by two volleys, which killed a great many ; but having been supported by the regulars, they rallied, and the firing was brisk on both sides for nearly an hour. M. Marin, perceiving that they were receiving a reinforcement, and
1 M. Doreil to Marshall de Belle Isle. Documents relating to the Colonial Hist. of N. Y., vol. x, p. 818.
2 Since the great day of the 8th, Montcalm has always had some detachments in the fields to watch and harass the enemy. These detachments had likewise for object to place themselves between the enemy's intrenched camp on the ruins of Fort William Henry and Fort Edward to attack and destroy their convoys .- Ibid.
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HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF QUEENSBURY.
the Indians, who feared that they would not be able to carry off some wounded, demanding to retire, he was obliged to think of retreating, which he did in good order, and without being pursued, after having, for an hour longer, kept up a fire with such picked men as he had, who performed prodigies of valor. The Indians, in general, have also behaved well; but of one hundred Canadians, more than sixty deserted M. Marin, no one knows wherefore, at the very moment when the English were wavering." The English loss is reported in this account at up- wards of two hundred killed and two officers taken prisoners. The French loss is stated at ten killed and eleven wounded. The scene of this engagement was near Fort Ann. It was here that Major Putnam was made prisoner.1 Rogers's journal esti- mates the French loss at one hundred and ninety-nine.
About this period a stockade fort with earthworks, trenches, and a palisaded enclosure was thrown up on what was then called Picket brook, a small rivulet which crosses the plank road about one-eighth of a mile south of the upper toll gate by Brown's half way house, and empties itself into a stream known in the earlier annals of the town as Hampshire creek or Rocky brook, but now called Trout brook. This fortification was erected on the south side of the rivulet, to which led a covered way even now to be distinctly traced. It was called Fort Williams,2 and was designed as a depot for provisions and munitions of war, and also as a halting place for the numerous parties of teamsters and soldiers, scouts and patrols continually passing to and fro on the old military highway between Lake George and Fort Edward.
On the sixteenth of July, a detachment of Canadians and Indians, under the command of M. de Courtemanche, a colonial captain, was despatched from the fortress of Carillon, with a view to harass the English camp, cut off its convoys and supplies of provisions and to take scalps and prisoners. They fell, unexpectedly as usual, upon Col. Nichol's regiment then
1 The extraordinary outrages and barbarities to which this gallant and spirited officer was exposed on this occasion, are detailed at length in his biographies. He was carried to Montreal and detained a prisoner until after the capture of Fort Frontenac, when, through the instrumentality of Col. Schuyler, he was exchanged. In Putnam's narrative, the leader of the expedition is mentioned as the famous partisan Molang.
2 Vide Pouchot's Memoirs, vol. II, p. 52, for map of the frontiers of the French and English colonies, originally published in this work, in which Fort Williams is laid down a little to the south of Lake George.
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SCALPS AND PRISONERS.
quartered at the post by the Half-way brook, and killed three captains and twenty men.1 The French account states that they attacked a party of three hundred English, which had taken refuge in a stockaded enclosure lately erected as a depot. They succeeded in taking twenty-four scalps and making ten pri- soners. The impatience of the Indians in making the attack, prevented the massacre from being more complete. Rogers, who was at this time on a scout to South bay, discovered this attacking party on its way up the east side, and estimated the number at one thousand men.2
Another of these picket forts, capable of accommodating about three hundred men, was built somewhere near the site of Rich- ards's steam saw-mill, on the berme side of the Glen's Falls feeder, and east of the bridge on the road leading to Sandy Hill. Like the other picket forts, this was protected by a ditch and palisades, and was used as a halting place by wagoners and small parties of soldiers. Connected with this post was a burial ground, which has been in use so lately as since the re- volutionary war. The old military road, instead of following the present route across the flat, led eastwardly along the margin of the elevated ground, nearly parallel with the canal.
During this season, already memorable by reason of so many bloody affrays, an attack 3 was made by a large party of Cana- dians and Indians, commanded by the infamous and worse than savage partisan, St. Luc, on a convoy of soldiers in charge of a valuable baggage train, which was on its way from Fort Edward to the intrenched camp at the head of Lake George, where Ab-
1 " A few days before, a detachment of five hundred men under the orders of M. de Courte-Manche, had taken forty scalps, and brought to camp five prisoners."- Pouchot's Memoirs, vol. I, p. 123, Hough's Translation.
2 " From these, and other slaughters, this (i. e., the Half-way) brook is sometimes called the Bloody brook."- Rogers's Journal.
" For the narrative as here recorded I am chiefly indebted to the late Samucl Ranger, Esq., of this place, who was a grandson of the John Torrey mentioned in the text.
"July 27. Another party of the enemy attacked a convoy of wagons between Fort Edward and. Half-way brook, and killed one hundred and sixteen men, six- teen of whom were rangers. Major Rogers attempted to intercept this party with seven hundred men, but they escaped."-Rogers's Journal.
M. Daine to the Marshal de Belle Isle.
"17th August, 1758. A courier has just arrived this moment, my lord, from Carillon with intelligence that a detachment of 400 men consisting of Canadians, colonials, and Indians, commanded by M. de la Corne St. Luc, attacked on the Lydius road, the 30th of July last, at one o'clock in the afternoon, a convoy of about 150 men who were conducting 54 wagons loaded with provisions, which
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HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF QUEENSBURY.
ercrombie remained with a force of ten thousand men as late as the month of October. Tradition states that the head of the train had reached the elevated ground near the present rail road crossing, while the rear had not yet crossed the Cold brook. Besides provisions, quartermaster's stores, and the usual muni- ments of war, it is stated traditionally, that this convoy had in charge, a large camp chest filled with silver dollars, which was being transported to the head of the lake, for the purpose of paying off the soldiers. The train was attacked with great im- petuosity near its centre, and such was the momentum and ra- pidity of the onset, that of the entire party only one made his escape, a teamster near the rear of the column, who at the first assault, crept off his load and concealed himself by clinging to the string-pieces of the bridge crossing the Cold brook. The remainder were either massacred 1 or taken prisoners. The cattle were slaughtered and mutilated. One of the soldiers forming the escort, which was composed chiefly of Massachu- setts troops, seeing an Indian cutting out the tongue of a live ox, drew up and shot him, but was speedily killed in turn for his temerity. Among the prisoners was a lad by the name of John Torrey, who had been employed as a wagoner. He was carried to Canada, where he remained something like eighteen months before his exchange was effected. Corroborative of this narration, is the fact that in the early part of the century, and within the memory of a few now living, the entire hill-side between the Cold brook, and the canal crossing, has been dug over, and searched for the chest of specie, which, as the marau- ders had no means of transportation, it is stated and believed, was buried for safe keeping until a more favorable opportunity should present for its recovery. The expulsion of the French, and the conquest of the lake strongholds by Amherst, the fol- lowing year, prevented the accomplishment of this design, and the old military treasure chest probably still remains concealed
they captured and destroyed, not being able to save them ; they killled 230 oxen and took 80 scalps and 64 prisoners, men, women, and children. We lost only one Iroquois ; two others have been slightly wounded."-Colonial Hist. of N. Y., vol. x, p. 817.
In Gen. Montcalm's report the date of this affair is stated as Friday, the 20th of July.
St. Luc's official report varies but slightly from the above. Ibid, p. 850.
1 In repairing the highway between Glen's Falls and Sandy Hill in 1871, parts of two human skeletons were exhumed a few rods east of the rail road crossing.
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END OF THE CAMPAIGN.
in its secret resting place near the borders of the old military highway.
These forays so oft repeated, with such disastrous effect upon the English arms, seems to have resulted in the permanent es- tablishment of a large force at the Half-way brook,1 for on the twenty-ninth of August we find that eight hundred men are stationed there, and although the enemy still keep flying de- tachments in the field,2 no further record of wholesale massacres and butcheries appear in their reports. Toward the very last days of October, General Abercrombie broke camp and aban- doned his position at the head of the lake. The barracks, store houses and other buildings which had been erected for the con- venience of his still large army were burned, the intrenchments leveled and destroyed, the artillery, shells, and shot buried, and a sloop of war of twelve guns sunk in the lake.3
Thus ignominiously ended a campaign, begun with no com- mon energy, supported with unstinted supplies of men and material, prosecuted with great parade and vainglorious antici- pations, but failed for the want of good sense and adaptation to surroundings, which in the past as well as the present genera- tions, have led thousands of brave hearts to their doom through the high stepping, hard bitted adherence to military precedents, and schools of tactics, which great genius only could mould to success, and which to mediocrity are but leaden weights, drag- ing downward to failure and disgrace.
1 Aug. 1st, 1858. A deserter reports 700 men at the Half-way depot. On the 29th 800 reported at the entrepôt .- Journal of events .- Col. Hist. of N. Y., vol. x, pp. 820-855.
2 In a letter of M. Daine to Marshal de Belle Isle, dated Quebec, July 31, he says : ' we have at present several detachments of Canadians and Indians, roving in the neighborhood of Lydius and Fort George."-Col. Hist. of N. Y., vol. x, p. 816.
3 Letter of Montcalm to M. de Massiac. Ibid., p. 888.
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HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF QUEENSBURY.
CHAPTER V.
FRANCE REFUSES AID TO HER COLONISTS-PREPARATIONS FOR THE EN- SUING CAMPAIGN-MAJOR ROGERS DESPATCHED ON A RECONNOIS- SANCE TO FORT ST. FREDERIC-POSTS ERECTED AT HALF-WAY BROOK, AND THE HEAD OF LAKE CHAMPLAIN-ADVANCE OF GEN. AMHERST'S ARMY TO FORT EDWARD AND LAKE GEORGE-CORVETTE HALIFAX RAISED-INVESTMENT AND CAPTURE OF CARILLON AND ST. FREDE- RIC-GRATIFYING TERMINATION OF THE CAMPAIGN.
HE approach of winter found the military operations along the northern frontier practically terminated ; the bulk of the army having been withdrawn into winter quarters ; sufficient garrisons having been left in charge of the few posts at the north; as well as those at the west.
The events of the preceding campaign had been in the main creditable to the English arms, and the success of the expedi- tions at the north, south and west received an additional lustre and eclat, in consequence of the overwhelming repulse of Aber- crombie at the fatal intrenchments of Carillon. The well guarded and massive fortress of Louisbourg had yielded to the indomitable valor and unwearied labor of Wolfe, Amherst and Boscawen ; the forest battlements of Fort DuQuesne had been leveled by the conquering Forbes; and the palisades and ramparts of Fort Frontenac had quietly yielded to the bold genius of the gallant Bradstreet. England, while mourning the loss of her brave sons who fell before the trenches at Ticonderoga, was still exultant in her triple victory, and looked forward with undoubt- ing confidence to the final triumph of the British power over the Canadian provinces. The latter were now girt with four power- ful armies, and the crimson banner of England swung its broad folds from two of the most important posts which the French had possessed in the new world. The shattered regiments of Abercrombie still lined the banks of the Hudson ; Louisbourg and DuQuesne were garrisoned with stout English and provin- cial soldiery ; Fort Frontenac was in ruins; Fort Stanwix was in possession of the great western trail; and the resources of the French were almost exhausted. In this perilous strait an agent
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PREPARATIONS FOR ANOTHER CAMPAIGN.
was despatched by the Canadian government of France for as- sistance. The irritated sovereign obliged to maintain a war at home refused any aid, and without abating one tittle of his claims to the Canadian possessions, left the impoverished habitans to defend, for another campaign, the land of their nativity from the aggressions of the foes of France. De Vaudreuil, the governor of Canada involved in a tissue of embarrassments and difficulties resulting from his own indolence and incapacity, had but little leisure to attend to the dangers which threatened the harassed province, and the control of its military operations again de- volved almost solely upon Montcalm, who, ever active and vigilant, continued to give employment to his scouting parties in the vicinity of the frontiers.
The preparations for the approaching campaign progressed both in the mother country and colonies with all the vigor and activity which characterized the movements of the new ministry. Pitt, who had been chagrined at the result of the expedition against Ticonderoga, resolved for the future not to entrust the execution of his favorite schemes to any but officers of his own selection, who, by their tried valor, and competency to command should have proved worthy of his confidence. With this view, the chief command of the land forces in North America was committed for the coming campaign to General Jeffrey Amherst, (a) who by his judgment, and skill in the con- quest of Louisbourg, had exhibited talents worthy of this most
(a) JEFFREY AMHERST was descended from an ancient Kentish family, and born at Riverhead in England, 29th January, 1717. He early devoted himself to the profession of arms, receiving an ensign's commission when only fourteen years of age: At the age of twenty five he acted as aid-de-camp to Lord Ligonier, in the battles of Dettingen and Fontenoy, and afterwards served in the staff of the Duke of Cumberland in those of Laffeld and Hastenbeck. From that date his promotion was very rapid .. In 1756, we find him in command of a regiment of foot ; and in 1758 he received orders to return to England, being appointed to the American service, with the rank of major general. He sailed from Portsmouth on the 16th of March, having the command of the troops destined for the seige of Louisbourg ; on the 26th of July following he captured that place, and without further difficulty touk entire possession of Cape Breton. After this event, he succeeded Abercrombie in the command of the army in North America. The capture of Fort Du Quesne, Niagara, Ticonderoga, and Crown Point in due time followed. General Amherst, now seeing that the whole continent of North America was reduced in subjection to Great Britain, returned to New York, and was received with all the respect due to his public services. The thanks of the house of commons had already been transmitted to him ; and among other honorable testimonies of approbation, in 1761 he was created a Knight of the Bath. Although he had been appointed com- mander-in-chief of all the forces in America, and governor general of the British
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HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF QUEENSBURY.
important trust. The plan marked out by the comprehensive mind of the minister, for the military operations of the ensuing season was intended to embrace a combined effort by sea and land for the reduction of the remaining garrisoned posts along the Canadian border. The difficulty, however, of fully executing this scheme, through the want of timely cooperation of the several forces employed prevented its accomplishment, although the campaign was brilliant, and its achievements reflected glory upon the English arms. An army of eight thousand men destined for the attack of Quebec was levied, which was en- trusted to the gallant and impetuous Wolfe. Generals Prideaux and Johnson were placed in command of the army at the west, with instructions to proceed to the conquest of the posts on the lakes, while General Amherst with an army of twelve thousand, was ordered to advance to the north for the attack of Forts Carillon and St. Frederic. After the several expeditions had accomplished the labors assigned them, they were directed to unite by their several routes for the reduction of Montreal. While making drafts for new levies to serve during the re- mainder of the war, the governors of the English provinces were instructed to fill the offices of the new regiments with men who, by their experience, bravery, and popularity should secure the entire confidence and affection of the soldiery. New ap- propriations on the part of the colonies were also demanded,
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