USA > New York > Essex County > Westport > Bessboro: A history of Westport, Essex Co., N.Y. > Part 18
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*Here is doubtless the germ of the legend still told in our town of ships hidden on North Shore, sometimes referred to the time of Arnold's battle with Carle- tond, and sometimes to this war. The writer has been in the habit of telling the story with no less than two frigates, full rigged, always hidden away in Par - tridge Harbor, the tall masts being made invisible by green branches lashed upon them. After I one day observed a "laker" lying inside the harbor, with her mn ists not reaching the tops of the trees on the pro:nontory which hides the ha bor from the lake, I omitted the branches as unnecessary, adding a carronade to the spir deck of one of the frigates and an interesting middy to the crew of the other to make up for the loss. And now { am become a drudging historian, weekly ac. cepting this one small sloop, with no masts at all, since she was just launched, in place of all that brave fiction!
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were on the march to intercept their retreat, they pre- vipitately embarked in their boats and made for the Lake. On ascertaining that the enemy were shaping their course towards the mouth of the river Lt .- Col. Nobles directed his march towards that point, and I approving of his plan of operation, I directed him to cross the wood and post his men on the bank of the River, which was done with the greatest promptness, in time to arrest the progress of the enemy's gallies, the crew of which were so disabled as to oblige them to hoist a flag of distress, when a sloop came to their as- sistance and towed her off." The Americans had two men slightly wounded. Their position during the fight was extremely favorable, firing upon the boats from the top of the river bank, which is high an steep near the mouth of the Boquet. The guns in the galley could not be pointed high enough to reach them, most of the canon balls striking the bank. The report concludes: "I hope and expect that Commodore Macdonough will in the course of a few days be able to assume the com- mand of the Lake, which will relieve the anxiety of the inhabitants residing on its borders.""
The next day Macdonough's squadron sailed out from
"It was not until this report was found among the papers of Governor Tomp- kins and published by the Essex County Republican in IS96, this and other docur- ments being furnished by Henry Harmon Noble, that the details of this engage- ment were known to the present generation. The account given in Watson's History of Essex County, published ISog, shows the absence of such definite in- formation as we now possess. He refers the incident to the year 1813, greatly un- derestimates the force of the British, and adds that they "retired after a slight skirinish with a body of Militia under General Wadhams." Mr. Watson was writing some fifty years after the event, and did not stop to reflect-possibly did not know-that Wadhams was not a General during the war of 1Siz, nor for a
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the tranquil Otter into the Narrows and away to the north, the flock of white sails watched breathlessly from Northwest Bay and Barber's Point and from many a highland farm that commanded a view of the lake. At Basin Harbor, where officers and men had become fa- miliar visitants, with some friendships formed which were never broken, the event was of stirring moment. All that summer Macdonough cruised upon the lake, drilling his men, strengthening his crews by the ad- dition of salt water sailors of experience, and showing no fondness for the boatmen of the lake, as military material. I never heard of one of our boatmen as fighting on Macdonough's fleet, which seems a little curious at first. And all the summer our people saw soldiers and supplies passing down the lake toward the frontier, until in September the decisive battle was fought.
It must have been the last day of August that Gen. Izard with an army of four thousand troops came marching along the new state road southward through Pleasant Valley,ordered from Plattsburgh to the Niagara frontier. Scarcely had the tramp and the music of the ranks died away in the distance when mounted officers came riding in hot haste by the same road, and by every by-way of the whole town, with orders warning
number of years afterward, but 2nd Major in the 37th regiment of which Ransom Noble was atthe time Lieut .- Col. Commandant, he, with every other man in the field that day, being under the direct command of Brigadier-General Daniel Wright. The General says in his report, "It would be invidious to distinguish particular officers and soldiers who acted in this encounter. With pleasure I can assure you that every man engaged conducted himself with the cool deliberation of a veteran."
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out the militia to repel a British invasion from the north. Gen. Wright, at home on his farm on the rugged slope of the Split Rock mountains, received his division or- ders by the hand of a horseman, one of his own staff, from Essex, to whom they had been brought by horse or boat from Plattsburgh. We can imagine the old general standing in the road and listening to the sound of horse's hoofs coming nearer and nearer over the rough and uneven road, until the horse burst out of the forest into the clearing, and the headlong rider drops a paper into the general's hand. It was endorsed on the outside "Express. Will Major McNeil or John Gould, Aide, at Essex, see that this order is delivered immedi- ately." Opening it, he read ;
"DIVISION ORDERS, PLATTSBURGH, AUGUST 31, 1814.
Brig. Gen. Daniel Wright will assemble immediately the whole of the Militia under his command in the county of Essex and march directly to Plattsburgh to repel an invasion of the State of New York.
Companies as fast as they assemble will march to this place or to some place of rendezvous in the vicin- ity thereof, without waiting for others, those near the arsenal will supply themselves with arms from thence which the commisary is hereby directed to issue. Others will be furnished when they arrive here.
By order of Major Gen. BENJAMIN MOOERS. R. H. WALWORTH, Aid-de-Camp."
And so it had come. The fourteen thousand British troops, many of them yeterans of European wars, gath-
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ered upon the Canadian frontier, had actually invaded the State, while the main body of our own army was that moment marching away to the south under Izard. Gen. Wright's mind must have gone back thirty-five years to the time when he, a young fellow of twenty- one in a New Hampshire regiment, saw Burgoyne's splendid conquering army come sailing up the lake to Ticonderoga, with its banners and music and parks of artillery, the emblem of pride and confidence, driving St. Clair from his entrenchments by the sheer power of what it was able to do. He had gone with the American army in its bumiliating retreat, and such things are not forgotten. But he had seen, too, the sur- render at Saratoga, and neither was that forgotten. So he turned and went into the house and told the family that he had got his orders, and his wife Patience and his daughter Jerusha cried a little as they helped him into his uniform aud buckled on his sword and brushed his cocked hat and filled the flask which is still cherished by a great-grand-daughter. Then he mounted his sad- dle-horse, which a little grandson had been sent to catch up out of the pasture, and rode away out of their sight. It is to be hoped that his son-in-law, Elias Sturtevant, felt it his duty to stay for the protection of the women and children on that lonely farm, and let his musket and powder horn hang peacefully over the fireplace, except when wolf or bear showed itself too near the door.
Gen. Wright's brigade, the 4th, in Maj. Gen. Mooers' division, consisted at this time of three regiments, the
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9th, Lt .- Col. Martin Joiner, the 37th, Lt .- Col. Ransom Noble, and Major Reuben Sanford's independent or un- regimented battalion which had been set off from the 9th. In the 37th, as we have seen, were most of our militia men, in the companies of Capt. Levi Frisbie and Capt. Jesse Braman, with some in the cavalry company of Capt John Lobdell. It is told that when Capt. Bra- man's company gathered at the Falls, early one morn- ing, ready to start for Plattsburgh, he gave them all breakfast at his own expense. Maj. Wadhams was also in the 37th.
On Friday, Sept. 2nd, the first detachment marched away, for many of the men the third time they had march- ed to Plattsburgh. The next Tuesday came the first act- ual fighting, early in the morning of the 6th. Mooers had taken them across the river to meet a column of British troops which was moving upon Plattsburgh, not with the intention of giving battle, but, as he says, "to check and thwart his movements," and also, (which he does not say) glad to try the mettle of his green troops, the men who had left farms, mill and forges a few days before, carrying flint- lock muskets which had never been leveled at anything but the wild beasts that threatened the farmer's sheep. There was some sharp fighting as the militia retired to the river, and Mooers says, "Some part of the militia behaved on this occasion, as well as since, with the greatest gallantry, and were not sur- passed in courage and usefulness by the regulars on that day." And he was also obliged to remark, "There was a portion of the militia that could not be rallied,
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and some of these retired immediately to their homes," -that is, ran at the first fire, and never stopped run- ning until they reached a place which they considered safe.
The day of the Battle of Plattsburgh fell upon Sun- day, Sept. 11, 1814. The day before, as it happened, was the one appointed for the regular "church and cov- nant meeting" (which all Baptists are accustomed to hold upon Saturdays, in preparation for the commun- ion service the next day) at Northwest Bay, and you may read to-day upon the word and yellowed pages of the old church book, -
"Sept. 10. Usual time for holding Church meeting, but on the account of an Alaram it was omitted." The "Alaram" was the news that the British fieet had ap- peared below Plattsburgh, and that a battle was immi- nout. The entry must have been made later, as the clerk of the church, Tillinghast Cole, is believed to have marched with his company to fight the next day. Deacon Abuer Holcomb, tes, who was wont to lead the meetings, was in the service more or less throughout the war, although he must have been au exempt by reason of bis age." And so at Northwest
*On the Thursday before this the members of a Congregational church at Fair- field had a similar meeting. Their minister, the Rev. Benjamin Wooster, had been a soldier in the Revolution, and a warlike spirit being discovered among his church members, a company was formed then and there. with the Rev. Benjamin as Captain. They crossed the lake, and on Sunday aided the militia under Gen. Strong in the final repulse of the British across the ford. Gov. Tomp- kins afterward presented the valiant volunteer captain with a large family Bible in recognition of his peculiar services, On the morning of the battle, the Friends (or Quakers) of Grand I-le attempted to hold their regular First Day meeting, but were obliged togive it up, as the proper state of mind could not be maintained
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Bay there was no quiet Sunday gathering in the little school house, but terror and suspense in every home as the sound of furious cannonading, ten times as heavy as anything heard in the week preceding, was borne distinctly up the lake, beginning between eight and nine o'clock in the morning and continuing two hours and a half. Then it all stopped, and not for days was certain news received of the issue of the fight. Haunah Hardy at the Falls used to tell her grandchildren how the women listening at home fancied sometimes that the boom of cannon was coming nearer, as though the British were approaching up the lake.
Meanwhile the men were taking part in one of the battles of history, so far as the naval battle is con- cerned, although the engagement upon the land scarcely rises above the importance of a skirmish. The hostile fleets met in Plattsburgh bay on a beautiful, placid September morning, with the blue lake only rippled by a gentle breeze from the south, and a few white clouds floating in a blide sunshiny sky. Commodore Downie had his flagship, the Confiance, 36 guns, the Linnet, 16 guns, the Chubb, 11 guns, and the Finch, 11 guns, with twelve gunboats managed by sweeps. Commodore Macdonough had his flag-ship the Saratoga, 26 guns,
while the cannon fire between the fleets was going on outside below their very windows. The next year John Conily, a Friend preacher, came all the way from Pennsylvania to visit the Friends in this region, and wrote one day in his diary. "I had a meeting at Friends' meeting house on the west side of the Island, and nearly opposite where a bloody battle was fought on the lake, about a year ago, during meeting time. It must have been an awful shocking scene !" He also Wrote, "In passing through Plattsburgh, the ravages of the battle on the lake were plainty visible.".
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the Eagle, 20 guns, the Ticonderoga, 17 guns, and the Preble, 7 guus, with ten gunboats. They fought for over two hours, and when the British had lost one-fifth of their men, Commodore Downie and a number of his officers being among the first slain, with scarcely a mast left on any vessel sound enough to raise a sail upon, the British colors struck to the stars and stripes, and a great shout of victory went up from the Amer- ican sailors. *
. As Downie's fleet opened fire upon Macdonough's, the British land forces under Sir George Prevost ad- vanced to the attack of the American position. Gen. Macomb with his 1500 regulars occupied strong fortifi- cations ou the south bank of the Saranac, between the river and the lake. In the central and most important redonbt, Fort Moreau, was the 29th regiment, Col. Melancthon Smith, in which Platt R. Halstead was 2nd Lieutenant. The troops lined the parapet in double ranks awaiting the attack of the enemy, but as the British gever crossed the river, the fighting was all done at long range with the artillery.
The enemy attempted the passage of the Saranac by
*Palmer quotes the remark of a British marine to the effect that the battle of Trafalgar was "but a flea bite" to the battle of Plattsburgh. When one considers that at Trafalgar forty fighting ships on one side and thirty on the other, some of them carrying more guns than did Macdonough's whole fleet, fought two by two, with guns almost mouth to mouth, the Victory, which carried a hundred guns. completely crippling the gigantic Bucentaur with one broadside in two minutes, the comparison is seen to be quite absurd. It can only be explained on the theory that the British sailor was, for some reason, not so much in the thick of the fight at Trafalgar as he was at Plattsburgh, since it is well known that one cannon ball coming directly your way is a more interesting object than a thousand which seem more likely to be met by some other fellow.
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two bridges in the village' and by a ford three miles up the river. The militia under Gen. Mooers, about 700 in number, were entrusted with the defense of this ford, and here was Gen. Wright with his brigade. Gen. Mooers, says in his report to the Commander in Chief,. "On the morning of the 11th the action began with the Heet, the enemy at the same time opening all his batter- ies npon our forts. About an hour afterwards the enemy presented themselves in considerable force to effect a passage of the Saranac at a fordable place, one of my cantonment, where the Essex militia and some few de- tached volunteers were posted. In disputing the pas- sage of the river a sharp contest ensued. The militia under the command of Majors Sanford and Wadhams, two excellent officers, stood their ground during a num- ber of well-directed fires, and until the enemy had effected the passage of the river and ascended the bank, when a retreat was ordered and effected in good order before a force evidently far superior, carefully improv- ing every goes position to continue our fire upon them." They fell back to a small battery about two miles from the ford, and there made a stand, and with the help of the guns stopped the enemy's advance. At this point a man on horseback was seen galloping up, waving his hat. It was Major Walworth, one of Gen. Mooers' staff, who had been sent to the shore of the lake to watch the naval battle and report its progress. The waving hat meant "Victory !" and so the quick-witted Yankee men understood it. They pressed upon the enemy with exultant .cheers, and a large body of Ver-
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mont volunteers under Gen.' Strong having come up they drove the British back across the river with con- siderable loss. That night, under cover of darkness and storm, the British retreated-"decamped very sud- .den and unexpected," says Mooers, - leaving their wounded and their stores behind them .*
In Gen. Movers' report we find "Majors Reuben San- ford and Luman Wadhams mentioned above are enti- tled to notice for their gallantry and good conduct, as also Brigade Major David B. McNeil and Brigade Quarter Master Wm. D. Ross for their activity and at- tention in the line of their duties." Major Reuben Sanford lived in Wilmington and conducted a large business there. His grand-son, Henry Clay Avery, was for many years a merchant at Wadhams Mills, and his great-grandson, Harry Avery, is now a young lawyer in New York. Majors Wadhams and McNeil afterward became residents of Vestport, the former becoming prominent in the town life, and rising to the rank of General. William Daniel Ross dealt in lumber, iron and ship-building in Essex ; his wife was a sister of Capt. John Gould, Aid on Gen. Wright's staff, and his brother, Henry H. Ross, (afterward Gen. Ross,) was adjutant of the 37th at the battle of Plattsburgh. The militia were disbanded immediately after the battle,
*Readers of Mrs. Catherwood's charining romance of "Lazarre" will be pleased to recall that the real Eleazar Williams, whether or no he was the rightful King of France, was certainly present at the battle of Plattsburgh and was wounded in his right side. Perhaps our Dr. Diadorus may have helped to bind up the wound. To be sure, he was more likely to be occupied with wounded militia men, but it is a poor imagination which could not contrive some succession of events which would bring them together.
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since the citizen soldiers were never kept from their homes longer than was positively necessary, but many of them yielded to the temptation of staying a little longer to celebrate. Their families were no longer in danger, and the women of 1814 were quite equal to milking the cow and splitting the kindling wood, while the scene of the recent camp of the British was a fascinating spot. Tents, camp equipage, ammunition, clothing, private papers, even money had been left be- hind by Prevost, aud spoil from this camp, rather than from the battle field, was scattered through two coun- ties, with many a boat-load taken to Vermont. For years the militia trainings were gay with uniforms and swords from the camp of Prevost.
We can imagine the home-coming of the men, all con- quering heroes in the admiring eyes of their womenfolk. All the stories, I have ever heard the old people tell declare that no news of the battle was received until after several days, which would seem to argue that no deserters came home early with tales of disaster. Per- haps there were no deserters among our men, and if there were, perhaps they had the discretion to keep out of the way of the women until the other men came home. Some came back wounded, like Capt. Frisbie, who lost a leg. When the news of the victory and of his wound came to the Point, the families there had had their household goods loaded into wagons since the cannon- ading first begun, feeling themselves to be in a place peculiarly exposed in case of a descent of the British soldiery. It was necessary that some one should go to
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Plattsburgh to take care of the wounded captain and bring him home, and as his wife was not able to go at the time, his sister, "the widow Barber," went and brought him home in a sailing boat.
There has been preserved a letter written upon the day of the battle by Mary, wife of Capt. Jared Pond and daughter of Platt Rogers. The Ponds were then liv- ing at Basin Harbor, Mrs. Pond being mistress of the house. A woman who could sit calmly down and write a letter in the midst of such confusion as she describes, in a house full of women and children, with the doors bolted and barred, must have had something of forti- tude in her nature. She writes on Sunday afternoon.
BASON HARBOR, Sept. 11, 1814.
Dear Husband, I sit down to address a few lives to you, (if it please God that you are still in the land of the living,) to inform you of our situation at present." She is soon interrupted, but resumes her pen again in the evening. "Sunday evening. I was called away by company coming in. There is some alarm here among women and children about an Indian that was seen yesterday in the woods near Panton. To-day at Mich- ael Gage's he got some bread and butter and came ou this way. The neighbors have been out to look for him, but have discovered nothing more of him yet. A person just knocked at the door; I inquired who was there ; was answered "Friend !" I unfastened the door and let in a young man whom I found to be Lyman Chamberlain. . He tells me he saw you yesterday, and that you informed him you should not return till you
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saw which way it turned." It is plain that she would like very much to have him at home again, which is not to be wondered at, and she alludes to "all our neighboring men, generally speaking, going to the army, leaves us in rather a tried situation. However I wish not to complain, and shall endeavor to bear my part with becoming patience and fortitude, with the assist- ance of, Divine Grace. There have been a number of cannon heard to-day. We are anxious for the safety of husbands, friends and fellow countrymen. I hope the prayers of God's people are continually offered up to Him who is able to protect our army and give suc- cess to our arms in driving back our enemies to their own borders. May our Almighty Father protect and defend you, and return you in safety to be a blessing to your family. M. P. (Mary Pond.) Perhaps I shall write more before this goes.
Daybreak Tuesday morning. Since writing the above I have experienced a multiplicity of scenes. Our house and barn have been filled since Monday night with soldiers from the South. I yesterday experienced an excess of joy for a few moments on account of the vic- tory, but was soon damped by the news of Mr. Barron's death, which also gave new cause of anxiety for your fate. Before night we received news of your being among the slain, by way of Vergennes. But the Lord is still good and gracious. I was enabled to stand the shock with a degree of fortitude, and declared in the midst of my trouble in this manner: "I do not believe it." I Had so fervently commended you into
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the hands of our Heavenly Father that I felt as though it could not be. It would be difficult to describe the anguish of our poor children on hearing the news. But in an hour we heard that after the action you were seen and spoken with, were well and in good spirits. This almost overpowered my poor feeble frame-so sudden a reverse ! Blessed and praised forevermore be our Eternal Father, for such I feel Him to be. Do re- turn as soon as possible. I can't express my joy and satisfaction on reflection that you have been pre- served, and so far have done a duty that every true friend to their country ought to do. Our poor friend Ida Barron is with us. O how heartrending are such scenes. May the Lord support her and sanctify it to her soul. Once more I beseech the Almighty to return you in safety, but am still anxious. We heard cannon- ading last night, which appeared to be nearer than Plattsburgh. God only knows what will be the next news. Farewell."
"Our goor friend Ida Barron" means, I think, the wife of Joseph Barron, the pilot of Macdonough's flagship, who was killed just at the close of the action, after the enemy's flag had been struck, by a stray shot from one of the craft. He was just returning his watch to his pocket, having taken it out to determine the duration of the battle. He must have been an inmate of the house, more or less, for several years, as there are old deeds of various dates, made out there, which I have seen, signed by "Barron, Jr.," as a witness. Lt. Hal- stead mourned him as one of his dearest friends."
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