USA > New York > Warren County > Queensbury > History and biography of Washington county and the town of Queensbury, New York > Part 4
USA > New York > Washington County > History and biography of Washington county and the town of Queensbury, New York > Part 4
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LYDIUS' ESTABLISHMENT.
At some time between 1730 and 1744, ac- cording to all accounts, Col. John Henry Lydius, son of Rev. John Lydius, came to the site of Fort Nicholson and built a fortified house as a trading post, where he enjoyed a large trade with both the Iroquois and the Canadian Indians, as he sold goods cheaper than the French traders. He claimed the vast Dellius tract of land in right of his father, who had purchased the title of Rev. Dellius, the patentee.
The legislature did not recognize Lydius as
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the owner of the land, and in 1740 granted twelve thousand acres of the tract comprising the larger part of the town of Fort Edward to John and Philip Schuyler and others. The next year Samuel Bayard obtained a grant of one thousand three hundred acres, extending into the very heart of Colonel Lydius' settle- ment. The Hoosick and the Rensselaer pat- ents were granted about 1740, and part of these tracts extended into the towns of Cam- bridge and White Creek.
The selfish course of the colonial officials, the war between the governor and assembly, and the likelihood of war breaking out at any time on the frontier, where the tomahawk and scalping-knife of the cruel Indian would play an important part, had prevented any consid- able settlement in the decades succeeding the treaty of Utrecht.
CHAPTER VII.
DESTRUCTION OF OLD SARATOGA - FORT CLINTON-FRENCH EXPEDITIONS-ENG- LISH ABANDONMENT OF THE COUNTY.
DESTRUCTION OF OLD SARATOGA.
The slow progress of settlement was arrested in 1744 by the outbreak of war again between France and England, in Europe, over the Austrian Succession, and which soon extended to the colonies, where it was known by the name of King George's war.
The preceding colonial war had been noted for attempted English invasions of Canada by the way of Lake Champlain, but King George's war was to be distinguished in the upper Hud- son valley only by French invasions and the total abandonment of Washington county in 1747 by the English.
Soon after war was declared, Indian scouting parties lurked about Lydius' post and Fort Saraghtoga, but did no damage. The next
year Colonel Philip Schuyler repaired and strengthened the forts at Saratoga, which were attacked, captured and destroyed on November 28, 1745 (New Style), by M. Marin and a force of three hundred French and as many Algonquin Indians. M. Marin's origi- nal destination was Connecticut, but on his march he changed his plan and attacked Sara- toga, which lay on both sides of the Hudson, with a fort on each side. There were about thirty families in the settlement, and Colonel Philip Schuyler, refusing to surrender, was shot down in his brick house on the west side of the Hudson, according to Lossing and others, while Johnson is strongly of the opin- ion that his residence was on the east side of the Hudson, as well as that most of the set- tlement was on the Batten Kill on the east, and not on the Fish Kill on the west side of the river.
Marin captured one hundred and nine pris- oners and retreated by Lake Champlain to Canada. No attempt at pursuit was made.
FORT CLINTON.
In the spring of 1746, Fort Clinton was built near the ruins of one of the Saratoga forts, to protect the cultivation of the cleared fields of the destroyed settlement. Fort Clin- ton was named for Governor George Clinton (father of Sir Henry Clinton), cost three hun- dred and seventy-five dollars, and was one hundred and fifty feet long by one hundred and forty feet in width, with six wooden re- doubts for barracks, and mounting six twelve- pound and six eighteen-pound cannon.
The location of Fort Clinton has been a matter of some dispute. Johnson says the fort was on the east side, while Sylvester claims that it was on the west side of the Hudson.
FRENCH EXPEDITIONS.
During the year 1746 over twenty small French and Indian expeditions passed over the soil of the county to attack the settlers
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along the frontiers of New York and Massa- chusetts, and one force four hundred and fifty strong, under Monsieur de Mery, camped on Wood creek, into which they felled the trees growing on its banks for several miles up from the mouth, so as to render its navigation im- practicable to any English expedition moving against Canada by that route.
War parties of the French and Indians continued throughout the next year to pass to their work of plunder and murder, but the only one that inflicted any damage in the county was that of Saint Luc, who, in July, 1647, made his way stealthily to the vicinity of Fort Clinton, with twenty Canadians and two hundred Indians. He had six of his warriors in the night approach close to the fort, and in the morning they fired on two men who came out of the fort and then rose up and fled, drawing slowly after them one hundred and twenty of the garrison into an ambush prepared by the French leader. The French and Indians fired, and then closed in with their tomahawks, killing twenty-eight and capturing forty-five on the spot, while many others were drowned or shot while try- ing to swim the river. Saint Luc's loss was one Indian killed and five wounded.
The French leader remained near Fort Clin- ton until he ascertained that there were over one hundred and fifty men yet in the garrison- a force too strong for him to attack while it was behind the walls of the fort-and then retreated leisurely, with his prisoners, to Canada.
ENGLISH ABANDONMENT OF THE COUNTY.
The English continued to hold Fort Clinton until October, when Governor Clinton, upon the plea that the assembly had not voted money enough to keep it up, ordered the can- non and stores removed and the troops with- drawn to Albany. As the last of the garrison withdrew the torch was applied, by the gov- ernor's orders, and the fort was burned to the ground.
Thus the first English occupation was of short duration, not lasting much over ten years at the farthest.
The next year the war was closed by the treaty of peace signed at Aix la Chapelle, and the French and Indian war parties ceased to pass through the county, but the distrust caused by the inefficient action of the New York authorities was sufficient to discourage all attempts at further settlement, until pro- vincial affairs should be in better shape.
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CHAPTER VIII.
BATTLE OF LAKE GEORGE-ROGERS, PUT- NAM, AND STARK'S RANGERS -FALL OF FORT WILLIAM HENRY -ABERCROMBIE AND AMHERST'S CAMPAIGNS.
BATTLE OF LAKE GEORGE.
The last of three peace intervals between the four inter-colonial wars that constituted the great struggle for territorial supremacy between France and England in North Am- erica, lasted but six years. The first two of these wars were fought while Louis XIV., the "Grand Monarque," was on the throne of France. During his minority and early reign, his minister, Cardinal Mazarin, kept peace with England, because Cromwell was too powerful to be encountered, but in his later years, when dictating law to Europe, Louis foolishly refused to acknowledge the Prince of Orange as William III. of England. From that day his power waned and the House of Bourbon was doomed to fall. Under his pro- fligate successor, Louis XVI., the struggle was continued with England, ruled by the
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House of Brunswick. The third war had been fought, and now the fourth, last and greatest of these wars, was about to begin. The first three wars had their origin in Europe, but the fourth, known in this country as the French and Indian war, originated in America in 1754, in the contest of the Virginians and French over the Monongahela valley in southwestern Pennsylvania.
Northward along the entire frontier line the contest spread and raged for two years before a formal declaration of war was made be- tween France and England, although during this time, while Louis XVI. and George II. were expressing friendship for each other, they were sending large bodies of troops to help their respective North American colonies in their great struggle.
During the last peace period the Mohicans, by permission of the Mohawks, had hunting camps in the county, and a dim tradition ex- ists of a settlement beginning in the town of Greenwich on the Schuyler patent, where, in all probability, a few settlers may have strug- gled back to the devastated fields of the Sara- toga settlement.
In 1755 England planned three expeditions against the French in America. The third of these expeditions was placed under command of Maj. Gen. William Johnson, and had for its object the capture of Crown Point. On August 14, 1755, General Johnson arrived at the site of Fort Edward, where General Ly- man had erected Fort Lyman on the site of Fort Nicholson, near the site of Lydius' estab- lishment. By August 25th Johnson had over four thousand troops, consisting of two Con- necticut, three Massachusetts, a Rhode Island, a New Hampshire, and a New York regiment, the latter of which contained three Connecti- cut companies. Two hundred and fifty Mo- hawk braves joined the expedition under com- mand of the celebrated King Hendrick. Gen- eral Johnson, on the 25th, moved with two thousand five hundred troops and his Indians toward Lake George, where he arrived on the
28th, and encamped within the territory of Warren county. A few days later he was joined by Gen. Phineas Lyman, with addi- tional reinforcements, and Colonel Blanchard was left in command of Fort Lyman.
The departure of Johnson was reported to Baron Dieskau, "the Dutch-Frenchman," as a retreat to Albany. The French com- mander, upon this intelligence, resolved to divide his force, and with one part of it cap- ture Fort Lyman. This course of action was resolved upon against the positive command of the governor of Canada. Dieskau, with twelve hundred and eighty Canadians and In- dians, landed at South Bay, on the 4th of September, and the next day took up their march for Fort Lyman, where they arrived on the 7th. His six hundred Indians refused to attack the fort - really on account of its cannon-as property of King George, but offered to attack Johnson (as they supposed he had no cannon), as he was on French terri- tory. Dieskau was compelled to give up the attack on the fort, and seek battle with John- son. Moving toward Lake George the next day he learned that Johnson had started one thousand men, under Colonel Williams and King Hendrick, to relieve the fort, and planted an ambuscade into which the English and Indians fell, at Bloody Pond, in the edge of Warren county. Williams and King Hen- drick were killed, and their force nearly all destroyed. After this signal victory the obsti- nate and rash Dieskau pressed forward to the assault of Johnson's fortified camp, where lic was wounded and captured, and his force de- feated and scattered. The battle of Lake George raged from noon till four o'clock, and was determined by a charge of the English after repulsing several desperate French as- saults. Johnson was wounded early in the fight, and Lyman really won the victory. The French and Indians retreated toward South Bay, but one detachment was sur- prised at Bloody Pond, and routed by a detachment of English sent out from Fort
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Lyman, under Captain McGuinness. From South Bay the remnant of the French and In- dian force returned in their boats to Crown Point.
Johnson ignored General Lyman in his re- port of the battle, and treated him with great shabbiness in changing the name of Fort Ly- man to that of Fort Edward, for Edward, Duke of York. Johnson was made a baron and given a gratuity of five thousand pounds for winning the battle of Lake George -the only English victory of that year, and Lyman, the true hero, went unnoticed alike by the Provincial authorities and the Crown.
Johnson wisely refrained from attacking Crown Point with his force, as the French had as many men as he had, and the advan- tage of their fortifications. Reinforcements came so late in the season that after building Fort William Henry, on Lake George, John- son returned to Albany and disbanded his army.
During the latter part of the year Captains Robert Rogers and Israel Putnam, and Lieu- tenants John Stark and Noah Grant (great- grandfather of General U. S. Grant) led nu- merous successful scouting expeditions toward Ticonderoga.
Dissatisfaction prevailed at Johnson's fail- ure to capture Crown Point, and in 1756, the colonies raised six thousand troops, who were sent to Fort Edward, under command of Gen. Seth Winslow of Massachusetts. There Winslow was soon joined by Gen. James Abercrombie with a body of British regulars. General Abercrombie assumed command and marched to Fort William Henry, where he allowed the daring and intrepid Marquis de Montcalm, the commander of the French forces, to completely outwit him in every way and capture Oswego, on Lake Ontario. Aber- crombie was too slow to attempt anything, and the Earl of London, commander-in-chief. was less energetic, so the army, after laying at Fort William Henry till fall, was marched back to Albany and disbanded. 3a
ROGERS, PUTNAM AND STARK'S RANGERS.
While the imbecility of the English com- manders was inviting defeat at the hands of the French, there were three partisan leaders - Rogers, Putnam and Stark - whose daring scouts and successful fights taught the enemy respect for provincial prowess. In June, 1756, Rogers and Putnam, with two pieces of light artillery and one hundred men, at the narrows of Lake Champlain, ambushed Saint Luc with a force of several hundred French and Indians, and killed a large number, besides sinking many boats. They also passed Crown Point in the night and raided into the edge of Canada. In January, 1757, Rogers and Stark, with seventy-four men, on snow-shoes, suc- cessfully attacked a French party on the ice between Ticonderoga and Crown Point, but one French soldier escaped, and a force of two hundred and fifty men, on snow-shoes, were sent to capture the audacious rangers. A battle of four hours, in snow four feet deep, followed ; the French drew off and the rangers retreated. Rogers was wounded early in the fight, and Stark (second lieutenant) won the victory and conducted the retreat. In March, Captain Stark prevented the surprise and probable capture of Fort William Henry by Vaudreuil and a force of one thousand five hundred French and Indians, who came from Ticonderoga on snow-shoes, along Lake Champlain, and through the towns of Dres- den and Fort Ann. Stark, by a ruse, kept his company of New Hampshire Scotch-Irish from getting drunk on Saint Patrick's day, and thus had sober sentinels, while the regu- lars were all hopelessly drunk. After a few days investment of the fort the French burned a lot of vessels and retreated.
FALL OF FORT WILLIAM HENRY.
During 1757, Abercrombie remained at Al- bany and sent Gen. Daniel Webb, with some regiments of British regulars and several thousand of provincial troops, to Fort Ed-
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ward. Webb had distinguished himself the preceding year by a rapid flight down the Mohawk valley when no enemy was in pur- suit, and hence was not popular with either soldiers or colonists.
Montcalm frightened Webb from all offen- sive operations by two swift and bloody raids. Lieutenant Marin, the daring French partisan, . on July 25th landed at South Bay with two hundred French and Indians and killed nearly all of sixty men of a patrol and guard in sight of Fort Edward, where cautious Webb would not allow any of his regiments to go out and make short work of the butcher. On July 25th, the second raid was made under Lieu- tenant Corbierie, who with fifty French and two hundred Ottawas, came up Lake George to near Sabbath Day point and ambushed the barges, carrying a New Jersey regiment, three hundred strong, under Col. John Parker, kill- ing one hundred and thirty-one and capturing one hundred and fifty-seven, with a loss of only one Indian wounded.
Webb was most terribly frightened, and, going to Fort William Henry, his fears were not lessened any by learning there of an ad- vancing French force. He immediately re- turned to Fort Edward and dispatched a Scotch regiment to reinforce it, while he sent expresses through all the colonies calling for reinforcements, which were promptly raised, to the extent of twenty thousand, and sent, although arriving too late to be of any use.
In the meantime Montcalm swiftly ascended Lake George and surrounded Fort William Henry with seven thousand five hundred troops, of which one thousand eight hun- dred were Indians. General Webb lay quaking in his trenches at Fort Edward, with five thousand men, and informed Colonel Munro, commanding Fort William Henry, that he could not relieve him until the militia arrived, and if he could not hold out till then he must make the best terms of surrender that he could. Putnam and Sir William Johnson on the 8th obtained permission to raise volun-
teers and advance to the relief of Munro, but when they drew out a considerable force to start, Webb countermanded the permission and ordered the troops back. The next day Munro surrendered, with two thousand two hundred men, under stipulations that his troops should retire the next day, with their arms and baggage, to Fort Edward. The re- treat the next day was turned into a flight, and the larger part were massacred by the Indians.
This massacre is the one dark stain on the otherwise bright character of Montcalm, who did not prevent it, while it is alike disgraceful to two thousand troops, with arms in their hands, to allow themselves to be butchered by an inferior force of Indians unless they feared to resist, under the impression if they did so the French would open fire on them.
Webb was relieved of his command by Ly- man, but escaped punishment and even cen- sure, although ordered to England.
The army and the militia returned to Al- bany and were disbanded. A strong garrison was left at Fort Edward, and Putnam and Rogers, with their rangers, were stationed along the northern frontier. Putnam, in No- vember, saved Captain Little's detachment from capture by Levis, who, in that month, made a dash into the neighborhood of Fort Edward with several hundred French and Indians.
Disaster to the English arms had marked the year 1757, but three years of repeated reverses were now to be succeeded by two years of victories, as Pitt had become prime minister; and under his genius success was to be organized. Loudon was removed and Abercrombie given the chief command in his place.
Lord Howe led the advance of Abercrom- bie's army to Lake George, on June 22, 1758, and shortly after this Putnam, with fifty men, was sent by Howe to guard the head of Lake Champlain and prevent French reconnoitering there. Fifteen of his men became sick, and
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with the other thirty-five he crected a stone wall at Fiddler's Elbow, three-quarters of a mile below Whitehall. Ambushing his wall with pine, the sturdy Putnam waited until fate sent no less a foe than the dreaded Marin or " Molang," with five hundred French and Indians. It took Marin nearly twelve hours to dislodge Putnam, and cost him nearly two hundred men, while the rangers had but two men wounded.
ABERCROMBIE'S CAMPAIGN.
On July 28, 1758, Abercrombie's army ar- rived at Fort Edward. He had the 27th, 44th, 46th, 55th and 80th regiments of regu- lars, two battalions of the 60th and 42d High- landers, or the celebrated "Black Watch," six thousand five hundred men, all told, and the flower of the British army. Ten thousand provincial troops and five hundred Iroquois, commanded by Sir William Johnson, -were with him. A magnificent army, if it only had had a commander of any military ability at its head.
On July 7, Abercrombie crossed Lake George and landed unopposed. Montcalm had only three thousand men, but he was an host within himself. In the skirmishing that ensued after the landing, Lord Howe, the idol of the English army, was killed. On the 8th, "Flung with blundering bolt-headness against a rude intrenchment protected by abatis and defended by only three thousand Frenchmen and Canadians, under the fiery Montcalm, the sixteen thousand British and Americans wore out the long, hot summer afternoon in hopeless attacks, and retreated at night with the loss of two thousand men, while that of the enemy scarcely reached three hundred."
Abercrombie retreated after his defeat, and later threw up fortifications at the head of Lake George, which he occupied until fall. He then marched his army back to Albany.
Before Abercrombie retreated from the county, he allowed Colonel Bradstreet to col-
lect a small force and proceed to Lake On- tario, where he captured Fort Frontenac, with some cannon and a large amount of military stores.
Also, while Abercrombie was at the head of Lake George, Saint Luc, on July 30, at the head of a large body of Canadians, de- stroyed a train between Fort Edward and Lake George, taking one hundred and ten scalps and eighty-four prisoners. Putnam and Rogers were selected to make the pursuit, with five hundred men, but they were not soon enough to intercept the French at South Bay. They then divided their force and scouted for a short time, when they re united on information of Marin being in the vicinity with five hundred French and Indians. Marin formed an ambuscade, into which Putnam ran unsuspectingly, but the rangers soon withdrew, and desperate fighting ensued in which Putnam was captured. The French finally retreated and took with them Putnam, whom Marin saved from the stake to which the Indians had tied him, and around which they had built a fire to burn him.
AMHERST'S CAMPAIGN.
In October, 1758, Gen. Jeffrey Amherst su- perseded Abercrombie, and while brave and energetic, yet was a man of no great military ability. The next spring another army moved from Albany, and in June arrived at Fort Ed- ward, where Amherst rested for a few days. He then marched for Lake George with six thousand British and nine thousand provincial troops. Crossing the lake he appeared suc- cessively before Ticonderoga and Crown Point, each of which was abandoned to him, as their garrisons combined only twenty-three hun- dred strong, fell back to aid in the defence of Quebec.
Amherst now showed his lack of general- ship by halting at Crown Point on the first of August, and instead of pressing forward to aid Wolfe at Quebec, actually gave up his cam- paign, and after building a fort or two, re-
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turned to Albany, where he went into winter quarters.
The next spring Colonel Haviland led a small force through Washington county to Canada, while General Amherst went with the main army by the way of Oswego and appear- ing before the walls of Montreal, where he was joined by Murray's army from Quebec. Mon- treal surrendered without offering any resist- ance, and the war was virtually ended in Am- erica, although peace was not declared until three years later. Amherst being in chief command at the close of the struggle was made a baronet, and afterward received the title of lord. "But it has been truly said that if Wolfe had been such a soldier as Amherst, the Gib- ralter of America would not have been cap- tured, and history has justly flung her laurels on the corpse of the hero of Quebec, rather than bind with them the brow of the cautious and successful commander-in-chief."
The French and Indian war of America, known in Europe as the "Seven Year's War," had closed, and its results in America had largely changed the political map of the country. Louis XVI. had able generals, but too few soldiers, in Canada to hold that country against the English. If instead of sending one hundred thousand soldiers to defend his European friends and three thousand to Can- ada, he had sent more regiments to America, New France might not have been swept from the map of the new world. Likewise if France had accepted a water line boundary instead of a mountain one in 1754 the French and Indian war would have likely been de- ferred for some years. The Indian war period lasted eighty years, and the Inter-colonial war period had now closed after fifty-four years of duration. Each of these periods was opened by a single shot upon whose flight hung mo- mentous destinies. The echo of the one shot -Champlain's-died only when Quebec fell ; the echo of the other - Washington's-rung until Yorktown made supreme the cause of American Independence.
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CHAPTER IX.
EARLY SETTLEMENTS-PROVINCIAL AND ARTILLERY PATENTS - NEW HAMP- SHIRE GRANTS.
EARLY SETTLEMENTS.
The capture of Canada and the prospect of peace between France and England led im- mediately to the permanent settlement of the central and southern parts of Washington county.
During the year 1761 settlers came a second time to the Saratoga tract on the Hudson, and James Turner and Alexander Conkey, from Pelham, Massachusetts, located a colony site on the flats where Salem village now stands, while some families settled in Cambridge, and Major Philip Skene brought thirty families and founded Skenesborough (White- hall ) settlement.
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