USA > New York > Oswego County > History of Oswego County, New York, with illustrations and Biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 6
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These were all placed under Colonel Bradstreet, a vigilant officer of the quartermaster's department, then rapidly rising into prominence.
Soon, however, the governor was relieved from military duty, though neither the Earl of London, who was to com- mand in chief, nor General Abercrombie, who was to have charge of the northern army, had yet arrived from Europe. Even after his removal, Shirley held a council of war at Albany, at which he recounted what he had done to strengthen Oswego and obtain complete possession of Lake Ontario, and urged that four companies of scouts, of sixty men each, should be raised to keep open the communication with his favorite post. In modern phrase, the governor of Massachusetts had Oswego on the brain. But he spake to deaf ears and dull brains.
Meanwhile De Vaudreuil, the governor-general of Canada, and De Montcalm, the commander of the forces, kept ears and eyes wide open, and brains and hands very busy. As soon as spring had fairly opened, the Sieur de Villiers, a captain in the colonial service, was sent with seven hundred men to keep watch of Oswego, furnish information regard- ing it, harass its communications, and capture supplies. This De Villiers was the same enterprising officer who had previously been operating in the vicinity of Fort Duquesne, and who had compelled the surrender of Fort Necessity by Major George Washington two years before. He was a brother of Jumonville (brothers frequently had different names in France, derived from their estates), who was killed by Washington's troops in the skirmish that brought on the war. Captain De Villiers played a very important part in Oswego County during the summer of 1756, and as he was the only man who ever fully conquered Wash- ington, his proceedings are invested with peculiar interest.
Monsieur De Villiers established his headquarters on Niaoure bay, now called Henderson bay, in Jefferson county, and was soon busy ; sometimes sending detachments under his subordinates, and sometimes marching himself with his main force. Scalping-parties of Indians, or of Indians and French combined, frequently penetrated the wilderness, throughout this and previous wars, and harassed the settle- ments on the Mohawk. They took various routes, but French writers mention that a favorite one was up the Famine, or Salmon, river.
About the 12th of May one of De Villiers' detachments attacked a party of ship-carpenters at work only three hun- dred yards from Fort Oswego, killing nine and capturing three. A body of soldiers was instantly sent out, but the wily assailants retreated into the forest so quickly that not even a sight of a living Frenchman was obtained, though the pursuers found one dead one, whom they sealped and threw into the river. Scalping seems to have been the fashion on both sides at that time.
A few days later a very large amount of supplies came through in two hundred bateaux and two hundred whale- boats, managed by about a thousand men, probably under command of Bradstreet, though there is no record to that effect. In passing over the falls two bateaux and two whale-boats were lost, and four men drowned. Pursuing their toilsome way, most of them soon reached the post, but some were detained at the reefs, two miles above. On the
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HISTORY OF OSWEGO COUNTY, NEW YORK.
morning of the 17th a lieutenant named Blair, with twenty- four men, was sent up to guard the boats at the reefs. He was yet on his way when he was attacked by one of De Villiers' scouting-parties. Wounded at the first fire, the young officer continued to encourage his men, but was soon struck by a second bullet and slain. The men, under a sergeant, maintained their ground, and in a short time were relieved by a force from the fort. One soldier was killed and another wounded, besides a Mohawk Indian killed and a ship-carpenter wounded. Two French Indians were also killed, who were duly scalped and flung into the river.
Notwithstanding that nearly two years of actual warfare had passed, war was not formally declared by England against France until the 18th of May, 1756; followed by a counter-declaration on the part of France on the 9th of June. These public declaratious involved no perceptible change in the proceedings.
Near the last of May, the three vessels on which the carpenters had been at work throughout the spring not being ready for use, Commodore Barclay, the naval com- mander, went out with some small ones on a voyage of exploration towards Niagara, from which point there were some expectations of an attack. Being met by continuous western winds, they returned after a fruitless voyage of twelve days.
On the 10th of June De Villiers left Niaoure bay with his whole force, arriving in the vicinity of Fort Ontario on the 15th. He then arranged to make a demonstration against that fort the next morning with a few men, hoping to provoke a sortie, when he expected to destroy the sally- ing party by an ambuscade. All his men, and particularly his Indians, were carefully instructed not to fire until the English made a sortic. At daybreak the next morning the combined force of French and Indians moved forward. Early as it was, they found eight men at work a little dis- tance outside. This was too much for the Indians. With a yell that rang far over lake and forest, and brought every man in both garrisons to his feet, a host of the savages rushed forward, fired their muskets on the unfortunate squad, and the next moment had torn the bleeding scalps from five who lay dead upon the ground.
The garrison of Fort Ontario, which consisted of Colonel Schuyler's New Jersey regiment, sprang to arms and opened a brisk fire on the enemy when they appeared on the edge of the forest. But it was in vain that De Villiers, by showing a small force, endeavored to provoke a sortie; the terrific yell and tremendous fusilade with which the un- lucky workmen had been greeted had put every one ou his guard, and the conflict soon became a mere exchange of shots between the assailants and the defenders of the post. After an hour and a half of such firing, De Villiers drew off his men and retreated eastward. Schuyler lost but a few meu in addition to those surprised at the first onslaught, and the French loss was also small.
About the 23d of June Commodore Barclay again went on a cruise with his flotilla, consisting of his flag-ship, the " Oswego," carrying four four-pounders, one three-pounder, and forty-five seamen and sailors ; the " Ontario," Captain Lafory, carrying the same number of guns; and a little schooner with six little swivels and thirteen men. On their
return, after a four-days' trip, they were chased by four of the enemy's vessels, two of whom the French called " barks," and two " corsairs." Considering the great im- portance of his little squadron to the welfare of Oswego, the commodore thought it best to make all sail for that port, where he arrived safely with his two larger vessels, while the little schooner was seized by the foc.
On the 1st of July, 1756, Colonel Bradstreet arrived at Oswego with six hundred bateaux, bringing sixteen car- riage-guns, and sixteen swivels for the new vessels, which were still unfinished, besides an immense amount of ammu- nition and other supplies. Two hundred soldiers also came through to join the garrison, and Colonel Mercer, the com- mander, did his best to put the new fort on the hill in a proper state of defense. Through the foresight of Governor Shirley and the exertions of Colonel Bradstreet, Oswego was now amply supplied with provisions and ammunition ; the only question being whether there were meu enough to defend it against an attack in force.
Bradstreet's right-hand man in this expedition, as in other enterprises, was a slender, fair-faced young soldier of twenty-three, ever active, but never flurried, a descendant of one of the oldest families of Albany, and destined to make his family name one of the most illustrious in the annals of America. This was Captain Philip Schuyler, afterwards the celebrated major-general of the Revolutionary army, who had been selected by the clear-headed Bradstreet as his chief assistant, and who then held the important post of commissary of the expedition of relief.
On the third of July Colonel Bradstreet started on his return, with his well-armed and partially-disciplined bateau- men in their empty boats, arranged in three divisions. Strict orders were given that they should keep close to- gether, but the roughness and rapidity of the river prevented complete obedience. When Bradstreet himself, being near the head of his command, was about nine miles above Os- wego, and near the small island now known as Battle island, the report of a hundred muskets rang out from the dense forest on the eastern shore, and several of his men fell killed and wounded around him. And then
" At once there rese so wild a yell, As all the fiends from Heaven that fell Had pealed the banner-cry of Hell !"
while the dark forms of a host of naked savages were seen half concealed amid the trees.
De Villiers had arranged a more complete ambuscade, but had been disappointed by the impatience of his Indians, who fired at the first bateaux they saw, instead of waiting for the whole line of boats to come abreast of them. Secing that concealment was no longer possible, the French commander ordered his Canadians also to open fire.
Confusion spread rapidly among the bateau-men, but Bradstreet was fully equal to the emergency. Ordering the main body to set their bateaux to the western shore and effect a landing, he himself, with a few of those nearest him, sprang to the island before mentioned, and returned the enemy's fire, in order to cover the movement of the others. One of this gallant band was Captain Schuyler. A squad of Indians, carrying their guns and ammunition above their heads, dashed through the water and attempted
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HISTORY OF OSWEGO COUNTY, NEW YORK.
to clear the island. Bradstreet and Schuyler stood their ground, and the assailants were beaten back, but did not leave the island.
Both parties were reinforced till the English had about twenty, and the Indians numbered twice as many. The latter made another attack, but were again unsuccessful, though they succeeded in wounding eight of their foes. A dozen more batean-men came to Bradstreet's aid, and the Indians were likely to be destroyed, when De Villiers placed himself at the head of fifty Canadians, and waded through the stream to the relief of his allies.
A very sharp conflict now ensued between the detach- ments under the two commanders, and the bullets flew thick among the trees on the little island. Whenever a man fell, if his slayer could reach him, he was forthwith scalped, and a yell of triumph arose from the throat of the victor. Among those who fell wounded was a French Canadian, whom an enraged batean-man at once lifted his tomahawk to dispatch. Captain Schuyler interposed, saved his life, and bade him consider himself his prisoner. As Bradstreet and his men acted on the defensive, and rarely left the shelter of their trees, they were enabled a third time to drive back the assailants, and De Villiers soon re- treated to the main-land. As the French report puts it, he rescued the endangered Indians and retired ; but, from a perusal of both accounts, we have no doubt that he was really defeated at every point, though he captured a few prisoners. The conflict on the island lasted about an hour.
Meanwhile the batean-men had fastened their boats to the western shore, had been formed in line by their sub- ordinate leaders, and were exchanging shots with the enemy across the river. Leaving a detachment thus engaged, De Villiers marched with his main force to ford the river a mile farther up, and fall on Bradstreet's rear. The latter perceived the movement, and at once transferred his force from the island to the main-land to frustrate it. There was but one bateau available, and this was crowded with English wounded. Schuyler's disabled prisoner begged to be taken with them, but was refused.
" Then," he exclaimed, in accents of despair, " then fling me into the river, so I may die quickly ; do not leave me here to perish of hunger and thirst."
The gallant and humane Schuyler could not endure this distressing appeal. Giving his coat and weapons to a com- rade, he supported the wounded Frenchman with one arm, and with the other swam across the rushing current to the main-land. He gave the wounded man in charge of Dr. Kirkland, the surgeon of the expedition, under whose care he finally recovered. Twenty years afterwards, when Major-General Philip Schuyler was commander of the northern department of the Continental army, a portion of which was invading Canada, the poor Canadian, though earing little for the political questions involved, yet joined the American forces, that he might once more meet the man who had twice saved his life on Battle island.
On reaching the main-land, Bradstreet, still accompanied by Schuyler, at once set forth with two hundred and fifty men to meet the French. Captain John Butler, afterwards the celebrated Tory leader during the Revolution, was left
in charge of the remaining men to guard the bateaux. On Bradstreet's arrival at the destined point, he found that De Villiers had already forded the river, and taken possession of a pine swamp on the west side, at the outlet of Lake Neahtawanta. Bradstreet engaged them, and an action an hour long took place, all fighting from behind trees, Indian fashion. Finally, the commander of the Americans led his men into the swamp and drove the enemy to the river, where many of them were killed in crossing it.
The French and Indians then fled in great haste, bearing twenty-six scalps, taking along a few prisoners, and having wounded twenty-six bateau-men, but without destroying a single one of the bateaux, and leaving the ground strewn with abandoned muskets and blankets. It was reported that a patrol from Oswego found seventy-four French and Indians killed, but that was probably an exaggeration ..
While the bateau-men were congratulating themselves on the victory. the drums of advancing infantry were heard, and a company of grenadiers of Shirley's regiment marched up from the south, being on their way to strengthen Oswego.
A report of the facts being forwarded to Colonel Mercer, the latter sent up two hundred men, with whom and the grenadiers Bradstreet proposed to pursue the enemy the next morning. A severe rain, however, prevented, and it would probably have been useless, as the foe was doubtless by that time in his boats and on his way to Henderson bay. The English supposed that the French had a per- manent camp abont twelve miles east of Oswego, but this was a mistake. De Villiers' headquarters were all the while at Henderson bay.
Bradstreet hastened back to Albany, where he arrived about the 10th of July, and immediately importuned Gen- eral Abercrombie, who had arrived in the month of June, to send reinforcements to Oswego. Sir William Johnson, also, who had lately persuaded the Six Nations to consent to the laying out of a military road to that post, declared that his influence over them would be gone if Oswego should be taken. Governor Shirley, too, who, though de- prived of military rank, still remained near the border, re- iterated the necessity of sustaining his darling fortress. All was useless. Abercrombie billeted his troops at Albany and began fortifying that town, as if expecting that the far inferior forces of the French would soon be at its gates.
On the 29th of July his excelleney the Earl of Loudon, commander-in-chief of his majesty's forces in America, ar- rived in Albany to begin his campaign. He, too, refused to aid Oswego, and made some feeble preparations to attack Crown Point. At length, however, the representations of everybody who knew anything of American matters in- duced him to order Colonel Webb, with a brigade of troops, to march to the relief of the endangered fortress.
During all this time that vigilant chief, Field-Marshal the Marquis de Montcalm, was doing all that lay in human power to take advantage of the blunders of his foes, and to remedy by his genius the smallness of his force. Every exposed point of his own was guarded, every exposed point of the enemy was watched, and his communications were kept up, so that he could strike at whatever locality might show the best prospect of success.
Determined to destroy, if possible, the long-detested
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HISTORY OF OSWEGO COUNTY, NEW YORK.
Choueguen, he made his preparations at onee to carry out this purpose and to conceal it from the English. Rigaud de Vaudreuil, governor of the Canadian department of Three Rivers, was sent with a fresh body of colonial troops and Indians to take command of De Villiers' camp, on Henderson bay, where he must have arrived about the time that vigilant partisan returned from his attack on Brad- street. The battalion of Bearn was recalled from Niagara to Frontenac. Colonel De Bourlamaque, at the latter post, was ordered to make preparations for forwarding an army. Descombles, an engineer, was sent forward with an escort to reconnoitre Oswego, and then on the 27th of June the marquis set out from Montreal for Crown Point and Ticon- deroga.
Here he was very active for a few days, and his presence soon became known to the English, and was probably one of the inducements for the dull-witted Abercrombie to for- tify Albany. Having made the necessary preparations for the defense of the Lake Champlain route, and sufficiently advertised his presence there, De Montealm set out for Montreal on the 15th of July. Urging his sinewy oarsmen to their best endeavors, his bateau sped down Lake Cham- plain and the river St. Johns, and on the 19th he reached the capital of Canada. One 'day was devoted to a final conference with the governor-general. On the 21st the commander-in-chief was again afloat. Despite the rapids which made the St. Lawrence so tedious to ascend, he reached Fort Frontenac on the 29th. In six days he or- ganized his army, made sure of its complete equipment, and set forth with the first division. On the 6th of August they arrived at Henderson bay, which had been designated as the final rendezvous, and on the 8th were followed thither by the second division.
Despite all his endeavors, the marquis could muster hardly three thousand men for this important expedition. The English afterwards exaggerated the number to five or six thousand, to cover the disgrace of their defeat, but French writers state it at scant three thousand, and from the details they give we have no doubt that that is substan- tially correct. Of these the three European battalions of La Sarre, Guienne, and Bearn numbered about thirteen hundred, the Canadians nearly a thousand, and the Indians probably about five hundred. De Montcalm, however, had taken good care that there should be in addition an excel- lent train of artillery, which, with its equipments and the supplies, occupied eighty of the strongest bateaux.
The same day (August 8) that the last division arrived at Henderson bay, the marquis sent forward the vanguard, under Rigand de Vaudreuil. They rowed all night, in order to conceal themselves from the English, and early the next morning reached their temporary destination, a place called "L'Anse aux Cabanes,"-Cabin cove. This point is stated by a French writer to have been three French leagues (seven and a half miles) from Oswego, and the attendant circumstances show that the statement was nearly correct. That would fix the locality at one of the indentures in the shore, in the northwest corner of the town of Scriba. The editor of the Documentary History of New York locates "L'Anse aux Cabanes" at Sandy Creek bay, but that is entirely out of the question. The
first division, however, under De Montcalm in person, went from Henderson bay to Sandy Creek bay the night of the 8th, and bivouacked at the latter place all day of the 9th. At nightfall they again set forth, and reached Cabin cove at two o'clock the morning of the 10th. They had four cannon with them, but the most of the artillery was with the second division, which followed more slowly.
At six o'clock, the morning of the 10th, the vanguard set forth through the woods, reaching the lake again at a cove which the French accounts locate only a mile and a half from Fort Ontario, and consequently just within the present limits of Oswego city. There is a projection into the lake, however, just east of the city limits, and it is probable that behind that projection was the cove that shel- tered the invaders. Here the vanguard remained perfectly quiet all day, without the English having apparently the slightest suspicion of their presence. After dark De Mont- calm, with the first division, rowed cautiously along the shore, reaching at midnight the cove where the vanguard waited ready to cover their lauding. The four cannon were at once landed, and formed in a battery looking out upon the lake, the bateaux were fastened to the shore, and the wearied soldiers flung themselves down on the beach for a few hours' rest.
At three o'clock in the morning, Descombles, the chief engineer, went forward to the edge of the forest to recon- noitre the forts, the object of all this preparation. Return- ing ere it was fairly light, he was mistaken by an Indian for an Englishman, shot, and instantly killed. The French movement could no longer be concealed. As day began to break the Canadians and Indians were pushed forward to within two hundred rods of Fort Ontario, forming a curved line of investment from the lake to the river. Many of the Indians skulked among the stumps of the clearing, and opened fire on the astonished soldiers as they appeared on the walls of the fortress.
This seems to have been the first indication that the English had that a French army was anywhere this side of Montreal. The fire was returned from the garrison, but even yet they did not know but that the assailants were merely some of De Villiers' rangers renewing their old tricks. Sieur Desandronius, the only surviving engineer, designated the route for a road for the cannon through the woods, and the laborers began work on it at eleven o'clock. At noon Commodore Barclay with his three vessels sailed out of port. Discovering the right of the French camp near the landing-place, he fired a few fruitless shots at it, but was easily driven off by the battery before mentioned. All the afternoon the soldiers worked at the road for the artillery, and continued their labors far into the night to complete it.
The force in the three fortifications which the Marquis de Montcalm was about to attack had been somewhat in- creased during the spring, and now numbered about fifteen hundred men. Of these, the main strength was in the regiments known as "Shirley's" and "Pepperell's." They were otherwise designated as the first and second royal American regiments, being a portion of the British regular army, but raised principally in America. Their colonels, whose names they bore, were Governor Shirley and Sir
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HISTORY OF OSWEGO COUNTY, NEW YORK.
William Pepperell, but, as was the case with most colonels in the British army, they did not serve with their regiments. Pepperell's was commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Mercer, who was also commander of the post, and Shirley's by Lieutenant-Colonel Littlehales. These two regiments had seen service in Europe, but had been sent to America on the outbreak of hostilities here. They had been much de- pleted, but numbered together about nine hundred men fit for duty.
There was also a weak regiment of New Jersey militia under Colonel Schuyler, a relative of Captain Philip Schuy- ler, containing about two hundred men ; two or three inde- pendent companies, numbering perhaps a hundred more, besides some three hundred carpenters, laborers, sailors, etc., who were trained to manage the guns and otherwise aid the defense.
It was not until the morning of the 12th that the second division of De Montcalm's army arrived with the numerous bateaux laden with the artillery and provisions. A large part of this artillery had been captured from the unlucky Braddock the year before. Both artillery and supplies were unloaded during the forenoon, right under the eyes of Commodore Barclay, who was cruising off shore with his three vessels. The commodore showed a very apathetic spirit throughout the whole affair. He might have done the French great, perhaps irreparable, damage while they were landing, and ought to have risked the destruction of his vessels to do it. But they were allowed to carry on their preparations withont interruption from the ships, Montcalm pushing them forward with indefatigable energy.
As engineer Desandronius was a young, inexperienced man, Captain Pouchot, of the Bearn regiment, who was also an engineer, was directed to take charge of the opera- tions. This was the same able officer to whose memoirs of the war of 1754-60 we are largely indebted for information regarding the operations in Oswego County.
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