USA > New York > Livingston County > History of Livingston County, New York, from its earliest traditions to the present together with early town sketches > Part 29
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Congress had been in session a month when this event occurred, the climax of continual tidings of mismanagement. Such was the feeling of impatience aroused by these disasters, that a committee of Con- gress waited on President Madison with the request that General Dearborn be removed from a command which so far had been most unfortunate. The President assented to this request, and another general was appointed to the command of the American forces.
In September, 1813, the Independent Artillery Company of Gene- seo, under command of Captain John Pierce, about 60 strong, vol- unteered for three months' service. When the order came to move, private John Haynes of Lakeville was engaged in clearing a piece of new ground; the other members were likewise engaged in their ordi- mary vocations. They were sent to Lewiston Heights and there assigned to guard duty in Major General Wadsworth's division. They took out a brass six-pounder. All the members save one, who came from Groveland, were from the village and town of Geneseo. Their Lieutenant was John Gray. Their first term of service was without special incident, save that in common with other militiamen they refused to cross the Niagara river. Captain Pierce had been placed in charge of a battalion and the men, after the end of their term, without being formally mustered out, returned to their homes.
In September, 1814, the company again volunteered as minute men and were ordered to the Canada frontier and there detailed for garri- son duty at Fort George, near Lewiston. When the British crossed the river to retake Fort Niagara, a band of Indians and a company of British regulars attempted to capture this company. Unable to withstand the attack of this force, which proved to be much greater than their own, the men were ordered to save themselves. Each therefore made his best speed. Looking around soon after starting, private Haynes saw the enemy close upon their rear and the men striking back with their swords. A private soldier named Jones and another named Hubbard were never heard of after this retreat. In
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the same melee private Timothy Orton was killed by the roadside, a hundred yards east of Lewiston village. Mr. Haynes had been ordered by the Lieutenant commanding to get away as best he could, but encumbered with knapsack, sword and musket he could not readily mount his horse. "Hand me your musket," said the officer. This done, Haynes mounted, and as he did so the cannon passed him, the horses being pushed to the top of their speed. In crossing a ditch one of the horses stumbled and a few feet further along being forced up the steep bank, they both fell. Some one called out, "For God's sake go, they are coming!" He looked back and saw the enemy in full force close upon them; so severing the traces he left the cannon and brought off the horses.
A few days after Orton's death his father and Esquire Fay went out after his remains. He had been buried, but the man who performed this act at once pointed out the grave, for he immediately recognized a strong family likeness between father and son, and he had also re- marked a conspicuous scar on the face of the corpse made by the kick of a horse, thus leaving no doubt as to its identity. The remains were reinterred near Lakeville1 a fortnight after the death, in presence of hundreds of sympathizing friends and neighbors.
The company took part in the battles of Lundy's Lane and Bridge- water, and fifty who were ordered to Fort Erie participated in the battle of Chippewa in the sortie at Fort Erie-one of the most splendid achievements of the war-and in the action that preceded the blowing up of that fort. On the evening preceding the sortie, General Porter came into the fort to obtain reinforcements for the party about to storm the enemy's works which were situated in the swamp near at hand. A muster of the garrison was accordingly ordered. Of the company about SO were present. Stirring speeches were made and the Generals said that the British intrenchments were soon to be stormed and they were short of men to carry muskets. All who had nerve enough for the duty were, therefore, asked to volun- teer. Although the dragoons were not required to carry muskets, 21 of the company stepped forward. Dr. D. H. Bissell, late of Geneseo, and Judge Gilles were among the first to do so; and in the order of march these two men continued on the right of the line up
I. Ile lies in the burial ground on the hill, beside the highway leading from Geneseo. The grave is marked by a stone with this simple inscription : "Timothy Ortou, Died Dec. 19, 1813."
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to the enemy's breastworks. The force marched from the fort to a large oak tree and there halted a moment. One of the generals here asked if any one present had a full canteen of spirits. Dr. Bissel offered his. Each general and staff officer took a drink and returned it nearly empty. Five minutes later they were engaged in a deadly conflict with the enemy.
In December, 1813, General Lewis, having replaced General Dear- born as commander of the American forces, left Colonel Scott in charge of Fort George, at that time our only foothold in that part of Canada after nearly two years' fighting. Eager to share the honors of the capture of Montreal, Scott left the fort under the command of General McClure of the New York militia and joined the force organ- izing for the Montreal campaign. After Scott's departure, the British Lieutenant-General, Drummond, resolved with 1,200 men to retake Fort George. McClure proved no match for Drummond in spirit, if in force, or for Colonel Murray, who brought on the English advance. After a vaporing proclamation to the Canadians, as if they were a conquered people, the General, on the defeat of one of his scouting parties, called a council of war, which resolved to abandon the fort as untenable, although Scott left it well provided with artillery and am- munition, with open communication to one side of the river and complete for resistance. The fort was abandoned and dismantled and McClure, not satisfied with simply abandoning a good position, set fire to the flourishing village of Newark, destroying one hundred and fifty houses and turning more than four hundred women and chil- dren out of doors. On crossing the river he saw from Fort Niagara these people taking shelter from the wintry blasts at Queenstown, opposite and fired red-hot shot at that place to deprive them of shelter there also.
This barbarous conduct inflamed the enemy and gathered a force of British and Indians, after making due preparations they attacked Fort Niagara, which, after a feeble resistance of the garrison, surrend- ered at discretion. Thenceforward until the close of the war the British held this fort. After capturing it, on the 19th of De- cember, 1813, and in retaliation for the burning of Newark, they laid Youngstown, Lewiston, Manchester (now Niagara Falls) and the Tuscarora Indian village in ashes. On the 30th of December the little villages of Black Rock and Buffalo were destroyed in like
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manner. 1 With Fort Niagara the British captured 300 men, an im- mense quantity of commissariat stores, 3,000 stands of arms, several pieces of ordinance and a large number of rifles. Sixty-five of our men were put to death with the bayonet, and the British had reason to feel that they had amply revenged McClure's cruel course.
Turner, in speaking of this event, says: "The citizens commenced their flight soon after the first repulse of our troops at Black Rock ; but few lingered until after daylight. After putting in requisition all the available means of conveyance-even to the last yoke of oxen and sled-many of the women and children were under the necessity of fleeing on foot, wading in the snow at an inclement season, illy prepared for the vicissitudes they encountered. In all the distance from Buffalo to Batavia during the day there was upon the road an al- most unbroken procession of citizens and panic stricken soldiers pressing on in the retreat as if they were hotly pursued; and the wounded and sick, in sleighs or upon litters. Other avenues of flight, especially the south road, through what is now Aurora, Sheldon, Warsaw, etc. to the Genesee river, presented similar scenes. The taverns were soon ex- hansted of their means of feeding the hungry throng and private houses yielded to the importunities of the famishing stinted supplies of pro- visions that had been stored for the winter's use. From the start upon the frontier, the first and second day, the throngs were con- stantly increasing by the addition of families along the roads that would hastily pile a few of their houeshold goods upon sleighs, horse or hand sleds, and join in the flight. After the first day's flight, those who were considerate enough to realize that they were out of danger would take quiet possession of deserted houses without the formality of a lease. Upon the old Buffalo road Batavia was the first stopping place, and the small village was soon filled to overflowing; private houses, offices, out-houses, were thrown open to shelter the wearied and suffering who had been driven from the frontier. As a measure of precaution, the books and papers of the Holland Land Company's
1. When the news that Buffalo was burned reached Conesus, through Captain Tyler of Livonia (who was killed in the war), two brothers, Joseph Richardson, a cripple, and Jonathan Richardson, resolved to take their teams and convey soldiers to the lines. Joseph was killed at Black Rock by a hall, which passed through his heart. The friends sent to Buffalo for his remains and they were buried in Livonia. Jonathan was taken prisoner, carried to Montreal and Halifax, and after six mouth- reached home. On his way to Montreal he was urged forward on the march at the point of the bayonet. While in prison he was nearly starved to death. Joseph Richardson, Jr., sou of the Joseph named above, made his escape before Buffalo was taken.
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Office were removed over the river to Lima. *
* * West * of a north and south line that would pass through the village of Le- Roy more than one-half of the entire population had been driven from their homes by the enemy. or had left them in fear of extended invasion. Entire backwoods neighborhoods were deserted, hundreds of log cabins were desolate, and the signs and sounds of life were mostly the deserted cattle and sheep, lowing and bleating, famishing for the lack of fodder there were none left to deal out to them. Be- tween the boundary that has been named and the Genesee river there had been less of flight; the tide flowing eastward had been partially arrested; many wishing to stop as near their deserted homes as their ideas of safety would allow found friendly shelter for the winter among those who remained undisturbed. The largest portion of the refugees, however, were hospitably provided for east of the Genesee river. '
In the spring of 1814, Captain Enos Stone of Rochester, Lieutenant Claudius V. Boughton of Pittsford and Abell Parkhurst of Lima, Ensign, raised a company of cavalry for short service. Governor Tompkins had received permission from President Madison to organ- ize a few thousand six-months men, and this company was accepted under that authority. The enlistment roll was opened in March and the company was full in April. The men were drawn mainly from Lima, Bloomfield and Pittsford, with a few from Leicester. They rendezvoused at Rochester and were there mustered into Porter's Volunteer Dragoons. This force was ordered to the mouth of the Genesee river, where a command of 2,500 men was collected and stationed along the side hill facing the lake, to prevent the British troops from moving up the river, as they were then threatening to do. Scareely had the dragoons reached Charlotte before several of the enemy's vessels entered the harbor and commenced throwing shot and shell into our lines. Temporary earth works were thrown up and fire opened on the ships which soon hauled away.
Soon after this affair General Porter and several of his officers, among whom was Dr. Bissell, took a trip on horseback through Ontario anid Cayuga counties for the sake of drill and to encourage en- listments. At Aurora, General Porter, Colonel Stone and Captain Boughton plunged into the lake, and the company officers rode in after them and mischieveously crowded them further from shore, to
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the great merriment of the male spectators, but to the annoyance of their superiors and the consternation of the ladies who had assembled.
Captain Stone, soon after entering the service, was promoted to a colonelcy, and Lieutenant Boughton took command of the con)- pany. Colonel Stone was afterwards suspended from command for permitting, as officer of the day, his soldiers to burn the village of St. Davis, opposite Lewiston, in settlement of some animosities be- tween them and the Canadians. He was indignantly disarmed by the commanding officer and discharged, and while on his way home from the army died at LeRoy of a broken heart. He felt that he had been greatly wronged and doubtless was innocent of any intentional im- propriety. The burning of this village occurred just after the battle of Chippewa had been won, and while General Brown was resting in doubt whether to attack Fort George or to follow up and attack Riall. It was the only wrong of the campaign and was promptly punished, though a worthy officer suffered disgrace thereby.
Captain Boughton afterward resided in Victor, Ontario county, and represented that county in the Assembly. Lieutenant Parkhurst died at Lima about the year 1832.
The company entered the service 162 strong and when mustered out numbered only 48 men. The others had either been killed in battle, died of wounds or camp disease, or were taken prisoners. But very few had deserted.
On the 15th of July, 1814, General Porter with his brigade of volunteers, Major Wood of the Engineers and Captain Ritchie with two pieces of artillery, drove in the British pickets at Fort George and formed the brigade within a mile of the fort, in full view of the enemy, with little opposition. Colonel Wilcocke with his American Canadians, Captains Hall, Harding and Freeman, of the New York Volunteers, and a company of Indian warriors, advanced under cover of a copse of trees to within musket shot of the fort and gave Major Wood, with hardly any loss, an opportunity to examine the works; a few of Captain Boughton's New York Cavalry were surprised and captured.
After the battle of Lundy's Lane, on the 25th of July, in which General Drummond was so badly worsted, a whole week elapsed before he was able to move forward. On the 3d of August
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he stationed 4,000 troops two miles east of Fort Erie with a wood between the fort and his encampment. Finding the fort too strong for assault he determined to besiege it. The following day he made an unsuccessful attempt on the American magazines. which General Brown had transferred to Buffalo, prudently guarded by Major Morgan with part of the rifle regiment taken from Fort Erie.
During several days Drummond was busy with preparations to take Fort Erie, while Gaines, who had command of the fort, was equally active in preparations for defense. Both sides were rein- forced and at sunrise of August 13th, Drummond's arrangements being completed, the engagement commenced with a severe cannon- ading. About sunset of the 14th a British shell burst in the magazine of the battery commanded by Captain Williams and blew it up with a tremendous explosion, but without doing any material damage.
At two o'clock on the morning of the 15th. the British troops in three columns of about 1,500 men each moved in obscurity and silence to the assault. Their watchword was "steel," and General Drummond's written orders of attack recommended a free use of the bayonet. Afterward, when the two armies were in deadly conflict. his voice was often heard shouting, with profane brutality, to give the "damned Yankees no quarter." Several instances of revohing cruelty on the part of the British soldiers occurred. To repulse Drummond's attack the American forces had been well disposed. General Gaines' position was on the margin of the lake, where the Niagara river empties into it. The ground was a level plain, a few feet above the water, and was strengthened by breastworks in front, intrenchments and batteries. Fort Erie, small and unfinished, was defended by Captain Williams, supported by Major Trimble's infantry. General Porter, with his brigade of New York and Pennsylvania volunteers, occupied the center. The left was defended by Major McRae, with the 9th Regiment under Captain Foster, and New York and Pennsylvania volunteers under Captains Boughton and Harding. The fight continued until nearly dawn, when the enemy fled in complete disorder and dismay, and our victory was a decided and glorious one.
During the month following this engagement very little was done by either army. At the end of that time General Brown, who had
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again assumed command of the American forces, determined upon a sortie from Fort Erie. The British Army, consisting of three in- fantry brigades of 1,200 or 1,500 men each besides artillery, was encamped in a field surrounded by woods, nearly two miles from its batteries and intrenchments, in order to avoid the American fire. A brigade of infantry attended the artillerists when at work. Two bat- teries were completed and a third was in rapid course of construction, all mounted with heavy guns, one of them a 68 pounder and all well supplied with ammunition. These works General Brown determined to attack. For seven days preceding the sortie there was a continual equinoctial storm of rain, which did not, however, prevent frequent skirmishes, and favored many desertions from the English camp. General Brown decided to attack the enemy's works by day, as being then least guarded, and an attack least expected. He had carefully made himself acquainted with the topography of the vicinity, and had had his soldiers cut roads through the woods, unperceived, close to the enemy. Colonel Jessup with the 25th Regiment remained in charge of the fort, and soon after noon of the 17th of September the men were paraded and got ready for the attack. The left column, destined for Drummond's right, was placed under General Porter, to penetrate circuitously between the British batteries and camp, thus to surprise and overpower the one-third at work before the other two- thirds off duty in camp should come to their help. Of Porter's three columns, Colonel Gibson with two hundred of his rifle regiment and some Indians led the advance. Lieutenant Colonel Wood, with 400 infantry headed by Major Brooke of the 23d, and with the 1st regi- ment, had the right, supported by 500 militia of the regiments of Colonels Dobbin, McBurney and Fleming, which force was to attack the batteries. The rain fell in torrents, hence the free use of fireams was rendered impossible. Porter led his column close up to the enemy's intrenchments, turned their right without being perceived by their pickets and soon carried by storm battery No. 3, together with a strong blockhouse.
In half an hour after the first shot the three batteries and two block- houses were taken, the magazine blown up, all the guns rendered use- less and every object of the sortie accomplished, with considerable loss, indeed, but with a success beyond General Brown's most san- guine expectations
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The Americans retired with 385 prisoners, many of them officers, and the total British loss was reckoned at 1,000. General Brown's loss was about half that number. Owing to the rain, which prevented the free use of rifles and muskets, the most of the battle was fought hand to hand.
This sortie was by far the most splendid achievement of the cam- paign, whether we consider the boldness of the conception, the excel- lence of the plan or the ability with which it was executed. To Gen- eral Brown the whole credit is due, although he had the enthusiastic support of Porter and several of the younger field officers. Brown was advised not to make the sortie, and at a council of officers held the evening before they decided against it, but he did not give up. In his emphatic manner he said, "As sure as there is a God in heaven, the enemy shall be attacked in his works, and beaten too, so soon as all the volunteers shall have passed over."
General Izard joined Brown and Gaines in October 1814. At Wash- ington and everywhere the belief prevailed that Izard would capture Drummond. On the 18th of October 900 men of Izard's second bri- gade under Colonel Bissell, the 5th Infantry under Colonel Pickney, a battalion of the 14th under Major Barnard, the 15th under Major Griedage, the 16th under Colonel Pearce, with rifle companies command- ed by Captains Irvin and Darman and a small body of dragoons, were sent to Cook's mill, twelve miles north of Chippewa, to capture some flour there. The next day the Marquis of Tweedale, with a select corps of 1,209 men from the British intrenchments, attacked Bissell, who defeated and put them to precipitate flight in great confusion.
The Americans abandoned and destroyed Fort Erie November 5, 1814, and crossing the river went into winter quarters at Buffalo, Black Rock and Batavia. On the 15th of February, 1815, the war ended, and the settlers were once more permitted to lay down their arms and return to their homes and the peaceful vocations of their rural life.
No attempt has been made, in this chapter, to give a detailed account of this struggle, and nothing has been said of the operations of our ar- mies in other parts of the country than the Niagara frontier. the writer's aim being simply to give some account of those military operations in which the settlers of the Genesee country were directly interested, and in which they participated. The complete history of the war has al- ready been written by historians with whose works the reader is pre-
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sumably familiar, and it is neither the province of this work nor the desire of the writer to review it. Conscious that the details of this disjointed narrative are very meager, enough has been told to show that the early settlers of this region responded readily when their country was in danger, as they and their fathers had done in the Revolutionary war; and it is seen that the service they were called upon to perform was of the most arduous and dangerous character. In it some gave their lives, while others returned to their homes, to enjoy for many years the fruits of their dearly bought vic- tory. And some until a few years since we still had with us, aged but honored and useful citizens. to whom it was a pleasure to listen as they recounted the trials and sufferings, the reverses and victories of this second war with Great Britain.
The result of this struggle was highly beneficial to the Genesee country. Many of the difficulties with which the early settlers had to contend were removed, and life and property became more secure. The jurisdictional limits of Great Britain were defined and established, and thenceforth there was no interference with the progress of the settle- ments, as there had been previously with Sodus and other places.
Little mention has been made here of individual settlers who partici- pated in the war, but the names of others will appear in the town sketches. Livingston furnished her full quota of troops when men were needed, and her record is one of which we have just reason to be proud. It is said that one town alone (Avon) lost more men in defense of the frontier than the entire county of Niagara. Of the patriotic devotion of the early settlers no more need be said than this.
After the close of the war, the tide of emigration set strongly in the direction of the Genesee country and the growth of the settle- ments was exceedingly rapid. The "cold summer" of 1816 acted as a check for a time, but subsequent favorable seasons with their abun- dant crops gave a new impulse to emigration, and in spite of the great drawback of a lack of markets for their surplus grain settlers came in a steady stream. The wild forests disappeared, well tilled fields be- gan to dot the landscape, and flourishing villages sprang up here and there, where a few years before only dense forests, with the red men as their only inhabitants, had existed.
About the 1st of October, 1814, Jerediah Horsford settled in Mount Morris. This good man was born in the town of Charlotte, Chit-
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tenden county, Vermont, on the Sth of March, 1791. His parents lived in a sparsely settled part of the State, and all about them was a dense forest. At the age of six years he was sent to the district school, two miles distant. The following winter a school was opened about sixty rods from his father's house, but it was not intended by his parents that he should attend, and probably it had not occurred to them that he could go during the winter season when the ground was covered with snow, as he had not up to that period of his life known the luxury of shoes. But he urged his parents to allow him to attend school, and he actually did so for several winters barefooted. Ilis method of surmounting this difficulty was both orig- inal and ingenious. Procuring a thick pine board large enough for him to place both feet upon he heated it thoroughly before the. fire. Taking this in his hand he would start at the top of his speed through the snow, until his feet began to suffer from cold. lle would then stop, stand upon the board until his feet were warmed and then start again, and after two or three such stoppages would reach the coveted goal." It may be imagined that one who evinced such zeal and determination in his efforts to acquire an education, would make the most of his op- portunites. This was true of young Horsford, who, although working on his father's farm every summer and often in winter being required to assist in chopping and preparing the year's supply of wood, kept up his studies and made such good progress that at the age of eighteen he was employed at ten dollars a month to teach a district school, a vocation he pursued for four winters consecutively. With the opening of his first school he united with a dozen young men in his native village in the formation of a debating society, which for several years held meet- ings regularly and proved an efficient aid to Horsford in his intellect- ual advancement.
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