History of Livingston County, New York, from its earliest traditions to the present together with early town sketches, Part 15

Author: Doty, Lockwood R., 1858- [from old catalog] ed; Van Deusen, W. J., pub. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1905
Publisher: Jackson, Mich., W. J. Van Deusen
Number of Pages: 1422

USA > New York > Livingston County > History of Livingston County, New York, from its earliest traditions to the present together with early town sketches > Part 15

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risks like this; risks for which he had a relish. Though when the troops had safely accomplished that night's march. Sullivan, it is said, declared he would not repeat it for the honor of a command. Several of the cattle had been killed, and a number of pack horses lost in the mazes of the swamp. The men, however, all arrived safely, those who had dropped out coming in with Clinton in the morning. The army halted here until the second day to rest from the unusual fatigues. Catharine's Town, it was found, consisted of thirty houses, several of which were quite good. These were destroyed together with the orchards and growing crops of corn, beans and other vegetables.

An incident here occurred which proves the absence of personal hatred on the part of the army, however ready they were to destroy the towns and crops of the Indians, as a military necessity. An old Cayuga squaw of great age had been left in Catharine's Town by the Indians in their precipitate flight, and was found in the neighboring woods. The soldiers at once provided for her present wants, and treated her with kindness during their stay. Before leaving, the town having meanwhile been burnt, they erected a hut for the old woman, and gathered a quantity of wood for her use. They also left her a supply of provisions, which she was found using on the army's return. Such unexpected usage drew grateful tears from her venerable eyes, and made her quite communicative. She assured the officers that the squaws generally were anxious for the Indians to remain in their vil- lages and make peace with the Yankees.

On the 30th of August, Sullivan addressed an order to the army, in which, reflecting severely on the Colonial authorities for neglect in fur- nishing supplies of food and horses, be requested the officers to ascertain if the troops were willing to draw half rations of flour, meat and salt, until the leading purpose of the expedition should be accomplished. The necessity of this measure, so essential to success, since the sup- plies, never sufficient in quantity, were now much reduced by loss in various ways, was fully appreciated, and the suggestion was received with cheers by the whole army, resolved as they were to execute the orders of Congress for the devastation of the Indian country at any personal sacrifice. But they really suffered nothing from hunger. since vegetables, common to the country through which they were passing, were found in profusion, and their wants were thus supplied from day to day by the several localities. Hominy or paune, made

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from corn, the camp kettles serving as graters, was especially palata- ble, but caused bowel complaints to such an extent that its use was discontinued for a time. On the 8th of September, a captain and fifty men were detached with all the sick and lame, and ordered to return to the garrison at Tioga.

The work of destruction to Indian property was pursued relentlessly, and desolation marked the army's route. Grains and crops were destroyed. Orchards of apple, pear and peach trees, raised in most instances from the seeds and stones, under advice of the Jesuit mis- sionaries. met the fate common to other species of property. In one place fifteen hundred peach trees, bending under the ripened fruit, were cut down. This is much to be regretted. Indeed, the Indians themselves, in their incursions upon the white settlements, were in the habit of sparing fruit trees the growth of many years; and some of the officers desired Sullivan to mitigate his orders in this regard, but his instructions from Washington were specific, and he insisted that they should be literally carried out. This was effectually done. "The blow must be sure and fatal," said Sullivan, "otherwise the Indians will derive confidence from our ineffectual attempts and become more inso- lent than before."

Washington's specific orders were thus stated: "The immediate objects of the expedition are the total destruction and devastation of their settlements. It will be essential to ruin their crops now in the ground and prevent their planting more. * I would recommend that some post in the center of the Indian country should be occupied with all expedition with a sufficient quantity of provis- ions, whence parties should be detached to lay waste all the settle- ments around, with instructions to do it in the most effectual manner, that the country may not be merely overrun but destroyed. * *

After you have thoroughly completed the destruction of their settle- ments, if the Indians show a disposition for peace, I would have you encourage it. *

* But you will not by any means listen to over- tures of peace before the total destruction of their settlements is effected."

Between Cayuga and Seneca lakes the enemy fled so suddenly before the army that the advance guard occasionally found kettles of corn boiling over the fire. At the Indian village of Kanadaseaga, or (Ga- nun-da-sa-ga) just west of Geneva, a fine white child about three years

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old was discovered by the army. It was entirely alone, nearly famished and quite naked, the only article on its person being a string of glass beads about its neck. When first seen it was playing at the door of a hut with a number of small sticks. On being spoken to it replied "Sago" (How are you ?) and used a few other Indian words. It evi- dently was of Dutch parentage, and probably had been captured the year before, on the Pennsylvania border. 1 A number of deer and bear skins were also found at the place, showing that the enemy had quit in haste. The army reached Kanandaigua Lake on the 10th, and fording its outlet marched a mile farther to the town of Kanan- daigna, consisting of twenty-three fine houses, some of them framed, others log, but large and new, pleasantly situated about a mile from the west shore of the lake partly on the site of the present Canan- daigna. At this place the rear guard of the enemy remained so long that their fires were found burning. The torch was soon applied to the buildings and the army advanced a mile farther, where the corn- fields were, and encamped, when fatigue parties were detailed for the destruction of the crops, which was pretty thoroughly accomplished before dark.

On the morning of Saturday, the 11th of September, the army re- sumed its march at six o'clock, moving for a mile through a thicket and swamp before the main path was gained. The infantry, owing to this cause, was considerably dispersed, and the movement forward was thus delayed. After marching three miles, the foremost ranks reached a. spot of rising ground. The rich country through which they were about to pass could be seen stretching for miles to the westward, a broken forest, mainly of oak and hickory, with intervals of fields covered here and there with remarkably high wild grass. At one o'clock they descended to a beautiful valley, and after a march of thirteen hours, in a nearly southwest direction, substantially on the

1. General Sullivan took no small interest in the little fellow's welfare during the return march. It wa' placed in a rough pannier or basket across a horse, balanced by an equal weight of baggage on the opposite side. On one occasion in crossing a stream, much swollen by a storm, the water was freely spattered over it. Ohserving this, Sullivan rode up, and taking out his hand- kerchief carefully dried the child's face. Captain Machin, of the Engineer party, became the child's godfather, and had it christened Thomas Machin. An excellent milch cow, which accom- panied the expedition from fir .. to last, and which, on the return of the army to Tioga point, was carefully returned with the officer's horses to Wyoming, afforded nourishment for the little stranger. After the return of the a. my the child' was taken to Major Logan's house at New Windsor, near Newburgh, where it soon caught the small-pox and died. Its birthplace and par- entage remain alike unknown.

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line of the present road through Bristol to the foot of Honeoye Lake. a distance of sixteen miles from Kanandaigua, encamped at the Indian town of Han-ne-ya-ye, which contained about twenty houses, and was near the site of present Honeoye, at the foot of Honeye Lake, about half a mile east of the outlet, and south of Mill Creek. Around it were several large cornfields and orchards of apples and other fruit trees. There was left at this point a garrison of fifty men, under Captain Cummings, of the Second Jersey Regiment, to- gether with "the sick, the lame, and the lazy, " amounting to three hundred men all told. The garrison was directed to remain at this temporary post, and guard until the army's return the extra stores of ammunition and four, which otherwise would encumber the move- ment forward, now to become more active.

The Captain took possession of one of the houses as a fort. Lieu- tenant Beatty in his journal gives the following description of the work. "They was encamped round the house where we had left our Stores and the camp was abateed in, and round the house they had made a small fort of kegs, and barrels of flour and had three pieces of artillery in it, and the house they had made full of loop holes, so as to fight out of it in case of necessity, and upon the whole I think they was very safe."

ITere Sullivan was informed by two prisoners that the Indians, a few rangers and some British soldiers, had labored diligently during the previous season about the Genesee river, in planting crops to serve for their support while they were marauding along the frontier. These men had acted under the immediate orders of Walter Butler, who had passed several months of the summer along the Genesee, making his headquarters at the cabin of Mary Jemison, the White Woman. He was supplied with port wine by the barrel, and found amusement in his leisure hours in fishing and hunting. This infor- mation communicated to the army, gave additional stimulus and de- termined men and officers alike to make thorough work when they should reach the richer planting grounds near the river.

On Sunday morning, the 12th of September, it rained heavily, and the troops did not move until nearly noon. They forded the outlet near Honeoye Lake, and took a west course nearly on the line of the present east and west road leading west from the village of Iloneoye to the summit of the dividing ridge, and thence in a south-

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west course, crossing the outlet of Hemlock Lake at its foot, and continuing over the hill on the same course to the present Roots Corners, in the Town of Conesus, where the army encamped for the night on level ground, two miles north of the Indian Town Adjutoa- called also Adjuton-or Kanaghsaws. 1 Early on Monday morning. the 13th of September, the army marched from their evening's bivouac to Kanaghsaws, where they made camp and breakfasted. This Indian Town, consisting of eighteen houses, was located about a mile northwest of Conesus Center on the north and south road that passes through the McMillan farm. Between the town and the lake, on Henderson's Flats, were the cornfields. The village appears to have occupied grounds in the vicinity of the McMillan residence, and ex- tended north across the creek and southward to the plateau now covered by an orchard, which was probably an ancient palisaded site of the town. A local tradition exists that General Hand with the light troops followed the road through Union Corners, and encamped on the night of the 12th on the Charles C. Gray farm, formerly L. B. Richardson's, southwest of Conesus Center, at the False Faces, 2 but nothing of the kind is found in any of the journals. On a manuscript map, however, in the Congressional Library, made to represent the route of the army, it appears that a portion of the army did take the route described. The journal of Sergeant-Major George Grant says a fine stream of water ran through the town, and that "Captain Sun- fish, a negro, a very bold, enterprising fellow, commanded the town." Several journals also mention the fact that Big Tree, the noted Indian warrior, also made this his home. Here Sullivan, finding that the enemy had on its retreat destroyed the bridge over the inlet, a few feet from the present one, detailed a portion of the army to aid the pioneers in its reconstruction, and to repair the roadway over the low grounds leading to it. The remains of this rude bridge, com- posed of trunks of elm and white wood, were plainly visible in 1806 when James Scott came into this region ; and the abutments, stringers and some few of the logs that constituted the track-way could still be seen as late as 1813, and were removed, for the most part in June of

1. Dr Gah-nyuh-sas.

2. From the circumstance that for many years after the country was settled, there stood on the Richardson farm about fifty rod- east of the residence, on either side of the old Indian path. two oak trees upon which had been out in the bark rude representations of the human face

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that year, for the purpose of repairing the more modern bridge and its approaches, and because it had become an obstruction to the highway. John White, of Groveland, then lived in that road district and assisted in its removal. A tradition is extant that the army, in crossing here on their way to the Indian village on the Genesee, threw a three pounder brass cannon into the stream, because of their inability to

transport it farther. But Sullivan makes no mention of the loss of a field piece here, although his official report is quite particular, especially in reference to ordnance and ammunition. It seems most unlikely that so formidable a weapon intended for use in this region, would be abandoned at this stage of the expedition, after surmounting more serious obstacles, especially as the army, having little to fear from the enemy, moved leisurely across the bridge. Moreover, had the piece proved burdensome, it could easily have been sent during the morning, while the army lay inactive here, back to Han-ne-ya-ye, where Captain Cummings would have welcomed it as additional arma- ment to his little fort. So strong, however, was the popular belief in this story that, when in April, 1865 the rebels evacuated Richmond, and the whole country was alive with excitement, a rumor reached Scottsburg and traveled along the line of the inlet, that this abandoned cannon had been recovered and was being fired in honor of the great event of the day. Firing was certainly heard in the direction of the lake, and scores of people flocked thither to see the old gun and listen to its brazen voice; but they reached the spot to learn that the sound proceeded from a blacksmith's anvil, improvised for the occasion.

As late as 1770, the principal Genesee town, called Chenussio, was located near the confluence of the Canaseraga creek with the Genesee river, and here it was marked on the most recent maps to which General Sullivan had access. He was not aware of the fact that its location had been changed to the west side of the river, and seems to have known nothing of another town two miles farther up the Canaseraga.

When, therefore, General Sullivan reached his encampment on Sunday evening he supposed he was near the great Genesee Castle, which was the objective point of his expedition. In order to secure more accurate information, he ordered Lieutenant Thomas Boyd of the rifle corps to take five or six men with him, make a rapid recon- noissance, and report at headquarters as early as sunrise the next

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morning. Major Adam Hoops, third aide-de-camp on Sullivan's . staff, was present in the General's tent, and heard the instructions to Boyd. These were verbal, of course, but quite specific. "The country before us," said Major Hoops, "was unknown. We had heard of an Indian castle on the Genesee, which, by our reckoning. might be a few miles ahead of us." Sullivan called this castle, or village, the capital of the Indian country; and toward it Boyd was to take his course. On leaving his commander's tent he proceeded at once carefully to select his scouting party. Instead, however, of the smaller number, he took twelve riflemen, six musket men of the Fourth Pennsylvania Regiment, and eight volunteers, making, with himself and Hanyerry, the Oneida Indian guide, and Captain Jehoiakim, a Stockbridge Indian, twenty-nine men in all, 1 a force by no means as likely to effect the purpose as that which he had been directed to take with him. "Too few," says Minor, "if battle were intended; too many, if secrecy and celerity were prime requisites of the enterprise." Hanyerry (or Han Yost > acted as guide. Timothy Murphy, a private soldier, of marvelous coolness and boldness, famous alike as a border fighter and scout, whom Boyd found at a camp fire, filling the eager ears of his fellow soldiers with stories of his Indian hand-to-hand fights, was also a member of the party. They set out at eleven o'clock in the evening on the trail leading to the Great Town.

From Kanaghsaws the trail led southwesterly across the low grounds, following the line of the present road near the inlet and crossing it at, or very near, the site of the present bridge, about three- fourths of a mile from the head of the lake. North of the bridge the banks of the inlet are low and marshy, in many places impassable for infantry, and at all points impassable for artillery and packhorses; while south of the bridge is a wet swamp almost impenetrable from the thick growth of underbrush. West of the lake and inlet is a steep hillside, the face of which, cut up by numerous ravines, is so steep that with considerable difficulty only could an army march directly up it. The trail after leaving the bridge, according to General Clark, con- tinued southwesterly up the hill, nearly on the line of the present high-

I. There is a disagreement among the journal of the expedition concerning the unmber comprising the scouting party that cannot be harmonized. The version of the Rev. David Craft. who has given careful study to the subject and has written a most comprehensive and accurate account of the Sullivan Expedition, has been adopted.

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way to the summit of the bluff, and thence turning northwest. followed along the edge of the ravines for a mile and thence directly west to Gathtsegwarohare. West of the bridge. between two very deep ravines, is a space nearly half a mile in width which continues up the hill on very favorable grounds for the advance of the army. It appears to be the only point where it could advance in the order of march laid down, requiring a space of nearly half a mile in width for the several columns. Other authorities, however, place the point of ascent farther to the north, and the well-established fact of a nIndian trail up the hill north of the point indicated by General Clark will jus- tify the statement hereinafter made, as to the course of the scouting party and the army.

Noon was advancing. and yet the scouting party had not returned from its hazardous mission, though four of the little band dispatched by Boyd, including Captain Jehoiakim, had at daybreak brought a brief report to the General. A council of officers was now summoned at Sullivan's tent, which occupied the future site of the house of the old negro fisherman Harkless Williams.

This assembly was striking. The leading personage, Major-Gen- eral John Sullivan, commander of the expedition, was a man of daunt- less resolution and genuine Revolutionary fire. One of the very first to strike for the cause of liberty, he held throughout the great struggle a conspicuous place; and after the war, in all measures tending to secure the adoption of the Federal constitution and the pacification of the country, he took an earnest and often important part. Three times its chief magistrate, he continued to enjoy other high civil dignities in his native State, down to the close of his life. Webster, at Bunker Hill monument, in addressing Lafayette, refers to him as an immediate companion in arms of the immortal Frenchman, and groups him with Washington, Gates and Lincoln.1 He was an attached friend of John Adams, and enjoyed the intimate companion- ship of Lafayette. At the moment appointed for the meeting, he enters the tent from a tour of personal inspection of the camp. His bearing is dignified and the expression worn on his sunburnt face is grave and even anxious: for the expedition is now on the very

1. "Monument- and eulogy belong to the dead. We give them this day to Warren and his associates. On other occasions they have been given to your immediate companions in arms, to Washington, to Greene, to Sullivan, to Lincoln."-Webster's Bunker Hill Oration.

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threshold of its final work. His piercing eye moves from one to an- other; for he would gather the present feeling of each officer. Ami- able in personal intercourse, he salutes, as he takes his camp stool, the officers severally with warmth and native kindness. Forty years of age, erect in stature, five feet nine inches in height, his chest full, already inclining to corpulency, his eyes keen and dark, his hair black and curly, he presents a form and demeanor that challenge re- spect. The business of the council at once begins: for Sullivan is always impatient of delay. As the conference proceeds we may glance at his career. Born at Somersworth, then part of Dover, New Hampshire, 1 on the 17th of February, 1740, he passed his early years on his father's farm. After reading law in the office of Judge Livermore, of the supreme court of his native State, he was admitted to practice, and for several years before the war was a leading member of the New Hampshire bar. He early showed a military taste, and received in 1772 a provincial commission as major of militia. His father, the humble founder of one of the most distin- guished of New England families-a family that has furnished two governors, several high military and a long list of civilian officers -- was a school master of Irish birth; he still retained the family name of O'Sullivan, 2 possessed a good education. a warm heart, and small earthly possessions. Deriving his mental activity and warmth of temperament from an Irish ancestry, Sullivan inherited, no doubt, from the same source, a jealousy of Great Britain. Not unfamiliar with political science, and alive to the bearings of public questions, the people turned to him at the first mutterings of that storm which culminated in the Revolution; and in 1774 he and Nathaniel Folsom were appointed delegates from New Hampshire to the first Continental

1. The State of Maine is uniformly given as General Sullivan's birthplace; but this is an error. When in 178; he was a candidate for Pre-ident of New Hampshire, as the office of gov- ernor was then called, for a second term, the opposition eudeavored to prejudice his cause hy urging that he was a foreigner-a uative, not of New Hampshire but of Maine, and therefore not deserving of support; for, it was asked, "Are there not New Hampshire men competent to fill her Gubernatorial chair ?" But the story availed his opponents nothing, for his father and mother. then both living, -et the fiction at rest hy asserting that Somersworth was in truth his birthplace -a fact which the people were thus made to believe-and they honored him with a reelection in 17%; and again in 1759. The General's brother, James Sullivan, Governor of Massachusetts, was a native of Berwick, Maine, where he was horn after the parents removed from New Hampshire.

2. The Irish prefix, ()' was omitted by his children, however. The father lived to be more than a hundred years old, and was in the hahit of visiting the General every year on horseback. from Maine.

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Congress. In December of that year he, John Langdon and Captain Thomas Pickering, "led a force against Fort William and Mary, near Portsmouth, took possession of one hundred barrels of gunpowder (afterwards used at the battle of Bunker Hill), fifteen cannon, and all the small arms and other stores, and carried them up into the country, concealing a portion of them under the pulpit of the Durham meeting house. This was the first act of armed hostility committed in the colonies. "1

In June, 1775, he was appointed one of the eight brigadier-generals, and was assigned to a command on Winter Bill, at the siege ot Boston. Dispatched soon after with reinforcements to the northern army in Canada, he displayed great military skill and resolution in the retreat. Commissioned as major-general, "he served under Put- nam on Long Island, and by a combat of two hours in the woods, aided by Stirling's vigorous defence on the right, contributed to the preservation of the American army. He was taken prisoner, but being exchanged for General Prescott, was with Washington at Westchester during the autumn. After General Lee's capture, Sulli- van took command of his division, and led the right at Trenton on Christmas night, 1776." He commanded the right wing at Brandy- wine, and defeated the British left at Germantown, driving them two miles. In 1778 he personally directed the siege of Newport, but not receiving the expected aid from the French fleet, the siege was aban- doned. In 1779 he was assigned, as we have seen, to conduct this expedition.

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History of Livingston County, New York, from its earliest traditions to the present together with early town sketches, Part 15

Author: Doty, Lockwood R., 1858- [from old catalog] ed; Van Deusen, W. J., pub. [from old catalog] Publication date: 1905 Publisher: Jackson, Mich., W. J. Van Deusen Number of Pages: 1422

Author: Doty, Lockwood R., 1858- [from old catalog] ed; Van Deusen, W. J., pub. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1905
Publisher: Jackson, Mich., W. J. Van Deusen
Number of Pages: 1422