USA > New York > Erie County > Centennial history of Erie County, New York : being its annals from the earliest recorded events to the hundredth year of American independence > Part 22
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Before leaving Buffalo McClure called out the men of Gen- esee, Niagara and Chautauqua counties en masse, and on arriv- ing at Batavia, on the 22d of December, he turned over the command to Major General Hall, the commander of this divi- sion of militia. That officer, who manifested no lack of zeal, sent forward all the troops he could raise, and proceeded to Buf- falo himself on the 25th, leaving McClure to organize and for- ward reinforcements. Hall, however, assumed no command
244
COMING EVENTS.
over the regulars, and there seems to have been a bitterness of feeling on the part of their officers which would, perhaps, in the demoralized state of affairs, have made it impracticable for him to do so.
The events of the following week form so important a portion of the history of Erie county that they will be made the subject of a separate chapter.
245
NUMBER OF TROOPS.
CHAPTER XXV.
SWORD AND FIRE.
Number of Troops .- The Enemy's Approach. - Movements in Defense .- Chapin's Wrath. - Attack and Repulse. - Another with same Result .- Blakeslie's Ad- vance .- Battle of Black Rock .- The Retreat .- The Flight. - Wilkeson and Walden .- Universal Confusion .- The Chapin Girls .- A Side-saddle Express. The Pratts' Silver .- "The Indians! the Indians!"-Job Hoysington. - Alfred Ilodge .- William IIodge .- Attempt at Defense .- Chapin's Negotiation. - Mrs. St. John .- " Prisoners to the Squaws."-A Guard Obtained .- The Vil- lage in Flames .- Mrs. Dr. Johnson's Sleigh-load .- Murder of Mrs. Lovejoy. -The Enemy Retire .- The Slain .- Israel Reed .- Calvin Cary .- McClure to Blame .- The Flight in the Country .- The Buffalo Road .- The Big Tree Road. - Successive Vacancies. - Exaggerated Reports .- Return of the Brit- ish .- More Burning .- Hodge's Tavern .- Keep and Tottman .- The Scene at Reese's .- Rebuilding .- Harris Hill .- Relief.
On the 27th of December General Hall reviewed the forces at Buffalo and Black Rock, which were thus described in his report :
At Buffalo there were a hundred and twenty-nine mounted volunteers under Lieutenant-Colonel Seymour Broughton, of Ontario county ; four hundred and thirty-three Ontario county volunteers under Lieutenant-Colonel Blakeslie ; a hundred and thirty-six " Buffalo militia " under Lieutenant-Colonel Chapin ; ninety-seven Canadian volunteers under Lieutenant-Colonel Mallory ; and three hundred and eighty-two Genesee county militia under Major Adams.
At Black Rock, under Brigadier-General Hopkins, were three hundred and cighty-two effective men in the corps of Lieuten- ant-Colonels Warren and Churchill ; thirty-seven mounted men under Captain Ransom ; cighty-three Indians under “Licuten- ant-Colonel Granger," and one piece of field artillery, with twen- ty-five men, under Lieutenant Seeley. The aggregate force at both places on the 27th, according to the report, was seventeen hundred and eleven. Colonel Churchill, above mentioned, com- manded a detachment from Genesee county. The remainder of the main body at Black Rock, under Colonel Warren, was
246
THE ENEMY AT TONAWANDA.
composed of his own regiment from the south towns of Erie county, and Major Hill's detachment from Clarence, still tem- porarily consolidated with it. The Buffalo militia, which prop- erly belonged in Hill's regiment, seem to have acted indepen- dently under Chapin, at least around Buffalo.
About this time, a body of the enemy came up the river from Fort Niagara as far as Tonawanda, or farther, burning everything along the river shore. At Tonawanda they burned the guard house, and what few dwellings there were in the vicinity with one exception. In that a Mrs. Francis was sick up stairs, and remained while every one else fled to the woods. Three separate companies came along and applied the torch, and three times the woman crawled out of bed and extinguished the flames.
On the 27th Gen. Hall received information which made him certain that the enemy intended to cross. The 28th passed quietly away. On the 29th there arrived a regiment of Chau- tauqua county militia, under Lieutenant-Colonel McMahan, numbering about three hundred men, bringing the aggregate force to a trifle over two thousand.
Besides Seeley's field-piece there were seven other cannon at the two villages, but none of them mounted on carriages. Sev- eral of them were in a battery at the top of the hill overlooking Black Rock, and with them was Major Dudley, with a part of Warren's regiment. The rest, with Churchill's detachment, were in the village of Black Rock. As near as I can estimate from the official report and Gen. Warren's statement, Dudley had about a hundred men, Warren a hundred and fifty, and Churchill also a hundred and fifty.
Capt. John G. Camp was quartermaster-general of the whole force.
Patrols were constantly kept out. The excitement among the people was of course intense, yet few believed that an attack would be successful, looking on the two thousand defenders now' assembled, and remembering that three hundred men had driven back a considerable body of assailants the summer before.
Near midnight of the 29th a detachment of the enemy landed a little below Scajaquada creek. Immediately afterwards a horse- patrol discovered them, was fired on, and retreated. The news was at once carried to Colonels Warren and Churchill, at Black
247
THE BRITISH CROSS THE NIAGARA.
Rock, and then to Gen. Hall, at Buffalo. The latter ordered out his men, but, fearing that the enemy's movement was a feint, and that he would land in force above Buffalo and march down, he did not at first send any considerable force down the river.
Meanwhile, Gen. Hopkins being absent in Clarence on busi- ness, the two colonels at Black Rock turned out their men and consulted as to what should be done. Though Warren was the senior in rank he seems not to have been formally invested with the command at Black Rock, another evidence of the loose way in which everything was done. However, the two officers agreed that they would endcavor to reach Scajaquada creck before the invaders, and hold it against them.
Warren's regiment being ready first, he set out in advance. After marching about half-way he sent two scouts ahead. In a short time he heard firing at the creek, and as they did not re- turn he naturally concluded they were killed or taken. In fact, both were taken. Presently Capt. Millard, (afterwards Gen. Millard, of Lockport,) aide to Gen. Hall, galloped past, also in search of information. Hc, too, was saluted with a shower of bullets at the bridge, and captured.
Warren halted till Churchill came up, when they agreed that, as the enemy had evidently got possession of the Scajaquada bridge, and of what was called the "Sailors' Battery," situated there, it would be impracticable to dislodge him in the darkness. They determined to take position at a small run, a little way be- low the village of Black Rock, and there oppose the further ad- vance of the British. Thither they accordingly returned, placed their single piece of artillery in the road, with a regiment on each side, and awaited developments.
The enemy did not advance, but in the course of an hour or so Colonel Chapin arrived with a body of mounted men. His force is not described as mounted in Hall's report, but he must have obtained horses for at least a part of Captain Bull's com- pany. General Warren is positive that the force with which Chapin came to Black Rock was mounted, and Bull was cer- tainly present in the reconnoissance which followed.
The irascible doctor furiously damned the two colonels and their men for not having driven away the British, and delivered General Hall's order that they should immediately make an at-
248
HORSEMEN STAMPEDED.
tack. They replied with equal anger, and declared themselves as ready as he to meet the British. Chapin then led the way with his mounted men, in "column of twos ;" Warren followed with his battalion, and then Churchill with his.
The men under Chapin and Bull advanced nearly to Scaja- quada creek, without receiving any warning of the whereabouts of the enemy. All was silent as death. Suddenly from the darkness flashed a volley of musketry, almost in the faces of the head of the column. Undisciplined cavalry are notoriously the poorest of all troops, and Chapin's men probably acted pre- cisely as any other mounted militia would have done, if led in column, in the darkness, against an unknown force of hostile in- fantry. They instantly broke and fled, rushing back through the ranks of Warren's footmen, who became utterly demoralized by the onslaught without receiving a shot. As the horsemen stampeded through them, they broke up, some scattering into the woods and some retreating toward Buffalo. Finding him- self without men, Warren retired to the main battery, to endea- vor to rally some of the fugitives. Churchill, with at least a part of his men, remained below the village.
When General Hall received news of this failure, he ordered Major Adams with his Genesee militia, and Chapin with such force as he could rally, to march against the enemy. This movement was equally futile ; in fact it is doubtful if the force got within reach of the enemy's guns.
The general then ordered Colonel Blakeslie, with his Ontario county militia, to advance to the attack. This sending of suc- cessive small detachments to assail an unknown force in the darkness, instead of concentrating his forces in some good de- fensive position, shows clearly enough that General Hall had little idea of the proper course to be taken, but he seems to have labored zealously according to the best light he had.
On the departure of Blakeslic, Hall gathered his remaining forces, of which McMahan's Chautauqua regiment constituted the main part, and took the hill road (Niagara street) for Black Rock. As he approached that village the day began to dawn, and he discovered the enemy's boats crossing the river in the direction of General Porter's house. A smaller number were crossing farther up, opposite the main battery.
249
THE BATTLE OF BLACK ROCK.
Blakeslie's command was ordered to meet the approaching force at the water's edge. That force consisted of the Royal Scots under Colonel Gordon, and was estimated at four hun- dred men. The invasion was under the general superintendence of Lieutenant-General Drummond, but the troops were under the immediate command of Major-General Riall. The artillery in battery fired on them as they advanced, and Blakeslie's men opened fire when they landed. They returned it, and a battery on the other side sent shells and balls over their heads among the Americans.
For half an hour the forest and riverside reëchocd with the thunder of artillery and ceaseless rattle of small arms. All accounts agree that Blakeslie's men did the most of the fighting, and sustained the attack of the Royal Scots with considerable firmness. Had all the regiments been kept' together and met the enemy at his landing, the result might have been far different.
A portion of the Chautauqua county regiment took part in the fight, and Colonel Warren, having rallied a part of his com- mand at the battery, moved them down to the left of Blakeslie's regiment. Major Dudley was killed during the combat, and probably at this point. Besides the regiments just named, there were squads and single individuals in the fight from all the dif- ferent organizations. Regiments and companies had to a great extent dissolved, and the men who had not run away fought " on their own hook."
Meanwhile the hostile force at Scajaquada creek, consisting of regulars and Indians, moved up the river, easily dispersing Churchill's meagre force, and marched against Blakeslie's right. It is not believed there were then over six hundred men in our ranks, and these, thus assailed on two sides, were entirely unable to maintain their ground. Large numbers were already scatter- ing through the woods toward home, when Gen. Hall ordered a retreat, hoping to make another stand at the edge of Buffalo.
This, as might be supposed, was utterly hopeless ; once the men got to running, there were few that thought of anything else. In a few moments all were in utter rout. A part hurried toward Buffalo, others rushed along the "Guide-board road " (North street) to Hodge's tavern, and thence took the Wil- liamsville road, while many fled through the woods without
17
250
THE AMERICANS DEFEATED.
regard to roads of any kind. If the officers made any attempt to rally their men, they were entirely unsuccessful, and there was nothing for them to do but join in the general retreat.
A few men kept fighting till the last, but they too were soon obliged to retire. The first meeting of two gentlemen, both sub- sequently presiding judges of the Erie County Common Pleas, was at the battle of Black Rock. Samuel Wilkeson, then in the ranks of the Chautauqua county regiment, was loading and discharging his musket as rapidly as possible, when he noticed a small, quiet man near by, who, he said, was firing faster than he was. Presently the stranger looked around and exclaimed : " Why, we are all alone!" Wilkeson also cast his eyes about him, and sure enough all but a very few were rapidly retreating. The person whose acquaintance he thus made was Ebenezer Walden.
Meanwhile, in Buffalo the women and children remained in a feeling of comparative security ; believing that the foe would surely be beaten back, as he had been before. Many, however, had packed up their scanty stores in preparation for a flight if necessary, and all had been anxiously listening to the fateful sounds of battle. All the while scattering fugitives were con- stantly rushing through the village, and striking out for Wil- liamsville, Willink or Hamburg.
Then the noise of battle ceased, and the scattering runaways increased to a crowd. The Buffalonians of Hull's and Bull's companies came hurrying up to take care of their families. They declared that the Americans were whipped, that the Brit- ish were marching on the town, and most terrible of all that the Indians, the Indians, the INDIANS were coming.
Then all was confusion and dismay. Teams were at a pre- mium. Horses, oxen, sleighs, sleds, wagons, carts-nearly every- thing that had feet, wheels or runners-were pressed into service. Some loaded up furniture, some contented themselves with sav- ing their scanty store of silver ware and similar valuables ; most took care to secure some provisions and bedding, threw them promiscuously into whatever vehicle they could obtain, and started. Children were half smothered with feather beds, babies alternated with loaves of bread. Many, who neither had nor could obtain teams, set forth on foot. Men, women and children
251
INCIDENTS OF FLIGHT.
by the score were seen hastening through the light snow and half frozen mud, in the bitter morning air, up Main street or out Seneca, or toward "Pratt's Ferry."
Dr. Chapin, on leaving for the field in the morning, told his two girls, one eleven and the other nine years old, that they must take care of themselves, directing them to go to his farm in Hamburg, ten miles distant. Their only protector was Hiran Pratt, then a member of the doctor's family and but thirteen years old. The girls and their young knight set out through the snow, and on passing the Pratt homestead Hiram per- suaded his sister Mary, eleven years old, to accompany them. At Smoke's creek they were overtaken by a wagon containing the Pratt family, and Mary was taken on board. Nothing, how- ever, could induce Hiram or the Chapin girls to accept of such assistance. They had started to do the heroic, and were bound to go through with it. And go through with it they did, mak- ing the whole ten miles on foot through the snow ; an amazing feat for two girls of that age.
Capt. Hull, as has been mentioned, was a silversmith. His family gathered his small stock into a pillow case, and looked about for some means of transportation. Presently came a man on horseback, astride a side-saddle. He readily consented to take charge of their valuables, and fastened the pillow-case to the horn of his saddle. He rode off, and they saw no more of man, side-saddle nor spoons.
The family of Samuel Pratt, Jr., were equally unfortunate with their silver. They had packed it up ready to carry away, but when they got into the wagon they forgot it. After going a little way, a girl whom Mrs. P. was bringing up, a kind of white Topsy, mentioned the loss and proposed to go back after it. This Mrs. Pratt forbade, but in a short time the girl slid quietly out of the hind end of the wagon and scampered back. She was never heard of by them again. Whether she confis- cated the silver and emigrated to Canada with the returning in- vaders, or fell beneath the tomahawk of the savage and per- ished in some burning building, none ever knew.
Confusion was every moment worse confounded. "The In- dians, the Indians !" was on every tongue. A crowd of teams and footmen-and footwomen too-were hurrying up Main
252
CONFUSION WORSE CONFOUNDED.
street, when suddenly the head of the column stopped and surged back on the rear.
" The Indians" was the cry from the front ; " they are coming up the Guide-board road ; they are out at Hodge's." Back down Main street rolled the tide. Horses were urged to their utmost speed ; people on foot did their best to keep up, and even the oxen, under the persistent application of the lash, broke into an unwilling gallop, stumbling along, shaking their horns and wondering what strange frenzy had seized upon the people.
Turning up Seneca street the crowd sped onward, some going straight to the Indian village, and thence across the reservation to Willink, others making for Pratt's ferry, and thence up the beach to Hamburg. The ferryman, James Johnson, then a young man of nineteen, now a venerable citizen of East Ham- burg, set several loads across, and then began to think it was time to leave, himself. He was a Vermonter, only a few weeks in this part of the country, and found his experience extremely discouraging.
There was good reason for the sudden retreat of the Main street fugitives. While the main body of the enemy marched down Niagara street, the Indians on the left flank pressed up the "Guide-board road." Here it was that Job Hoysington, a resolute volunteer, said to his comrades, with whom he was re- treating, that he would have one more shot at the red-skins, and in spite of remonstrance waited for that purpose. He doubtless got a shot at them, for, when the snow went off in the spring, his rifle was found empty by his side ; but they got a shot at him, too, as was testified by a bullet through his brain, the work of which was completed by the tomahawk and scalping knife. His wife waited long for her husband's return, at their residence at the corner of Main and Utica streets, and finally set out on foot, with her children. She was soon overtaken by two cavalrymen, who took two of the little ones on their horses. For a long time she did not hear of them, but at length discov- ered them, one in Clarence and one in Genesee county.
It was on the Guide-board road, too, that Alfred Hodge, flee- ing from the pursuing savages, and finding himself unable to outstrip them, jumped over the fence, where a turn in the road
253
ALFRED AND WILLIAM HODGE.
among the thick bushes hid him for a moment from their view, near the crossing of Delaware street, and flung himself down behind a log, across which he laid his cocked musket, determined to sell his life as dearly as possible, if discovered. The Indians came up, and two of them stood in the road but a short dis- tance from him, looking in every direction for the fugitive, but luckily the bushes and the log secured him from their eyes. His scalp must have felt somewhat loose at that time. At one time they stood in range, so he thought that he could disable them both at one shot, but before he could take aim they changed their position.
These and other Indians in the vicinity fired several shots at the crowd of fugitives rushing up Main street, and are known to have wounded one if not more at that time. It was doubtless these shots that sent the frightened throng down Main street at double speed. But the fugitives exaggerated a little in saying that the savages had reached " Hodge's," for they soon fell back and closed in on the main body, giving Mr. Alfred Hodge a chance to hurry forward to his residence.
William Hodge, Sr., brother of Alfred, and proprietor of the " brick tavern on the hill," had rejected the idea that the Amer- icans would be defeated, till the last moment, but when he saw the crowds of militiamen hurrying past he began to think it was time for him to move, and directed his hired man to hitch up the oxen, his only team, while he made some hasty arrange- ments in the house. He waited and waited, but no team ap- peared. The man had concluded that an ox-express was too slow for him, had put his own legs into rapid requisition, and was never heard of more.
Unwilling to keep his family longer, Mr. H. persuaded the driver of an army baggage-wagon to halt a few minutes, flung in some bedding and provisions, lifted in his family and sent them forward. Then, determined to save all he could, he yoked up his cattle, piled into the cart as much household stuff as it would hold, and followed at a slower pace. It is probable that none of the enemy went that far up Main street that day, for when Mr. Hodge returned, the next day, not even the liquor in the cellar was disturbed. As he started his oxen up Main street the smoke was already rising from the burning village.
254
CHAPIN'S NEGOTIATIONS.
For, meanwhile, events had come crowding thick and fast in the lower part of the town. As the enemy approached, some twenty or thirty men, apparently without any organization, manned an old twelve-pounder mounted on a pair of truck- wheels, at the junction of Main and Niagara streets. Soon the foc was seen emerging from the forest, on the latter street, less than a quarter of a mile away-a long column of disciplined soldiers, marching shoulder to shoulder, the rising sun bathing them in its golden light and tipping their bayonets with fire.
Colonel Chapin by general consent exercised whatever author- ity any one could exercise, which was very little. Two or three shots were fired from the old twelve-pounder, and then it was dismounted. Chapin then went forward with a white handker- chief tied to his cane, as a flag of truce, asked a halt, which was granted, and began a parley. It was probably about this time that the Indians were called in from the Guide-board road. One account has it that Chapin succeeded in arranging some kind of a capitulation ; but this must be rejected, for, in a state- ment published by himself shortly after, he only speaks of "attempting a negotiation," claiming that while this was going on the people had a chance to escape ; which was probably true.
Just about the time the cannon was dismounted some of our retreating soldiers had reached Pomeroy's stand, at the corner of Main and Seneca streets. Half famished after the fatigues of the night, they besought Pomeroy for something to cat. He told them there was plenty of bread in the kitchen and they rushed in, provided themselves, and pursued their re- treat, each with a piece of bread in one hand and his musket in the other.
Presently they heard a cry from those ahead, "Run, boys, run !" Looking northward they saw a long line of Indians, with red bands on their heads, coming in single file at a rapid "jog-trot" down Washington street. It is needless to say that the injunction, "Run, boys," was strictly obeyed. The warriors, however, never swerved to the right nor the left, but kept on down to the Little Buffalo. Doubtless they had orders to sur- round the town.
A few citizens remained to try to save their property ; among them Messrs. Walden, Pomeroy, Cook and Kaene. But their
255
THOSE WHO STAYED.
success was less than that of one woman. Nearly opposite the site of the Tifft House stood the new hotel built by Gamaliel St. John, whose death by drowning, a few months before, has been narrated. The widow had leased the hotel, though it was not yet occupied by the lessee, and had moved into a small house just north of it, near the corner of Main and Mohawk streets, also belonging to her husband's estate. Directly oppo- site was the residence of Asaph S. Bemis, who had married one of Mrs. St. John's daughters, who still survives, and from whom much of this sketch is derived.
Close by Mr. Bemis' was the house occupied by Joshua Love- joy. Mr. Lovejoy was absent. On the approach of the enemy Mrs L. sent her young son, the late Henry Lovejoy, away across the fields to the woods, but remained at home herself, apparently reckless as to what might happen.
Mrs. St. John, a very resolute woman, had been unwilling to believe the enemy would reach town, and had made no prepara- tion for leaving. Mr. Bemis, who had been sick, determined to take his wife out of the way, and hitched up his team for that purpose. His mother-in-law requested him to take her younger children, six in number, with him, while she and her two oldest daughters remained to pack up her things. He did so, the ar- rangement being that he should take them out a mile or two, and return for the three women and the trunks. But before this ar- rangement could be carried out the enemy were in town.
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