USA > New York > Saratoga County > History of Saratoga County, New York : with historical notes on its various towns > Part 10
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Proceeding up the Hudson to Stillwater, Colonel Schuyler halted there and built a stockaded fort, which he named in honor of
the governor, Fort Ingoldsby. Leaving a sup- ply of provisions at Stillwater, Colonel Schuy- ler moved his command up to Saratoga. Here he found a settlement surrounding a wooden fort on the west side of the river. The fort stood on the high ground which extends for some distance down the river, below the mouth of Fish Creek.
Colonel Schuyler built a stockaded fort at Saratoga, on the east side of the river, some distance below the mouth of the Battenkill.
Proceeding on his march up the river to what is now Fort Miller falls, he built a fort there. Here he forded the river and proceeded to cut out a road to what is now Fort Edward, then called the "Great Carrying Place." Fort Mills was known as the "Little Carrying Place."
At what is now known as Fort Edward vil- lage, lying across the Hudson from Saratoga county, Colonel Schuyler built another fort, which he named Fort Nicholson, in honor of Gen. Francis Nicholson, then chief in com- mand. On the return of the expedition against Canada two years later (171I), Fort Nicholson was burned.
In 1721 Governor Burnet repaired the old fort, built a block-house there, and stationed there a detachment of soldiers to protect the interests of the English fur trade with the In- dians of the great wilderness.
In 1732 John Henry Lydius established him- self at the "Great Carrying Place," made a clearing around the old fort, and built him a fortified dwelling, often called "Fort Lydius." When the French and Indians came down in November, 1745, to attack Saratoga, a full account of which is given in a following chapter, Lydius was then living there. In Colonel Johnson's expedition against Crown Point by way of Lake George, in 1755, he re- built the fort and first called it " Fort Lyman," in honor of his second in command, and the next year changed it to Fort Edward, in honor of Prince Edward, Duke of York, which name it still bears.
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From Fort Nicholson Colonel Schuyler went across the Great Carrying Place to the Wood Creek, which runs into Lake Champlain.
Halting at the mouth of Half-Way Creek, Colonel Schuyler built a fort there which he first named Fort Schuyler, but soon changed it to Fort Anne, in honor of the Queen.
Here he built one hundred bark canoes and a hundred and ten larger boats, which would hold from six to ten men each.
Upon the arrival of General Nicholson with the main body, the force at Fort Anne was in- creased to eleven hundred and fifty men. Fort Nicholson was garrisoned by four hundred and fifty men, including seven companies of regu- lars in scarlet uniforms from Old England. At Fort Miller Falls were forty men, and at Still- water seventy men.
News of the approach of this expedition against Montreal and of the threatened ad- vance of a large force by sea against Quebec filled Canada with alarm.
Governor Vaudreuil in the meantime moved his army up to Chambly to watch the invaders. He sent Ramsey, governor of Montreal, up Lake Champlain with a force of fifteen hun- dred French and Indians, to oppose General Nicholson's advance. Ramsey proceeded as far as what was afterwards known as Crown Point, when he got separated from his com- mand and lost in the woods.
When Ramsey was at last found and re- turned to the lake shore, his troops had become panic-stricken at the supposed loss of their commander, and at the appearance of a small detachment of English scouts, had retreated down the lake to Chambly.
Vaudreuil attempted no further advance, and as no enemy appeared Canada slowly lost her fears of an invasion.
In the meantime Colonel Vetch went to Bos- ton to await the coming of the expected squad- ron of ships from England. But he waited out the summer in nervous impatience and no ships ever came. England had more urgent
need for her ships and soldiers in her Euro- pean wars, and so failed to send them.
As the expedition against Montreal de- pended for cooperation upon that by sea to Quebec, the former also failed in consequence of the failure of the latter.
While at Fort Anne a fatal sickness broke out in General Nicholson's camp. The fort be- came a charnel house, and the little clearing around the fort, along the banks of the streams that met there, was soon filled with nameless new-made graves.
The men died as if poisoned, and it was charged that it was caused by the treachery of the Indians, who threw the skins of their game into the swamp above the camp. Char- levoix, the Canadian historian, is authority for this report.
It is probable, however, that the sickness was a malignant dysentery caused by the ex- treme heat, improper food, and the malaria of the swamps, incident to the clearing up of all new countries.
This terrible scourge lasted through the last days of summer and well into the autumn. At length it became too apparent that no ships with troops on board would be sent from En- gland against Quebec that season, and Gen- eral Nicholson left his pestilent camp at Fort Anne in October, and returned with his crip- pled forces to Albany.
II .- CAMPAIGN OF I7II.
Again, two years later (in 1711), an expedi- tion like the one above described was planned for the conquest of Canada. The command of the army that was to proceed by way of the Upper Hudson against Montreal was given this time also to Gen. Francis Nicholson. It was made up of three regiments, as follows : first, Colonel Ingoldsby's regulars ; secondly, Colonel Schuyler's New York troops ; thirdly, Colonel Woodin's troops from Connecticut. The whole force consisted of about three thous-
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and men. On the 24th day of August the army left Albany, and on the 28th was well on the march to Stillwater. Leaving a garrison in Fort Ingoldsby, at Stillwater, the army pro- ceeded to Saratoga. Thence by way of what is now Fort Miller at the "Little Carrying Place," where they forded the Hudson, the army marched to Fort Nicholson, and thence across the "Great Carrying Place" to Fort Anne, on the Wood Creek.
Soon after his arrival at Fort Anne, Gen- eral Nicholson received intelligence that Her Majesty's fleet, which this time had sailed from England, had been shattered by storms in the gulf of St. Lawrence, with the loss of a thousand troops, in consequence of which the expedition had been abandoned.
General Nicholson then moved his army back to Albany.
Thus the third attempt of the English to conquer Canada proved abortive.
The peace of Utrecht, between England and France, of 1713, brought the war in Eu- rope to an end, and there was peace once more for a time in the old American wilder- ness, so far as the valley of the Hudson was concerned.
During this period of peace, which lasted more than thirty years, the French were not idle in the Champlain valley. In the year 1731 they built Fort St. Frederick at Crown Point. This fort soon became a menace and a terror to all the inhabitants of the Upper Hudson valley, including Saratoga.
Under the protecting guns of the fort at Crown Point, a little French village grew up, and the valley of Lake Champlain became in fact as much a part of New France as the valley of the St. Lawrence.
Neither were the Schuylers idle during this time of peace at Saratoga, on the Hudson, for a hamlet grew there around the fort, of more than thirty dwellings, with mills and out- houses.
Thus things remained till November, 1745.
CHAPTER XII.
FRENCH AND INDIAN WARS-THE SACK- ING AND BURNING OF SARATOGA IN 1745-THE EVENTS WHICH LED TO THE WAR.
I .- THE CAUSE OF THE WAR.
One of the most tragic occurrences in the long history of Saratoga was the sacking and burning in November, 1745, of "Old Sara- toga"-now Schuylerville on the Hudson, since famous as the scene of the Burgoyne surrender.
But in order properly to comprehend its historic meaning, we must bear in mind the main events which preceded and led up to this dire catastrophe in the Old World as well as the New.
The intelligent reader will remember that in the autumn (October 20th) of 1740, Charles VI., emperor of Germany, the last of the Hapsburgs of the male line, died, leaving his throne to his beautiful and accomplished daughter, Maria Theresa, the wife of Francis Stephen of Lorraine.
But his vast dominions were in these days, like nearly all of Europe, subject to the con- ditions of the "Salic Law," which prohibited succession by inheritance in the female line.
Therefore, during all the latter years of his reign it had seemed to be the sole object of Charles to overcome the "Salic Law," and thereby to secure to his heiress the succession to all the hereditary dominions of his house.
For this purpose, by large cessions of terri- tory to various princes of Europe, he obtained a general acknowledgment of the compact known in history as the " Pragmatic Sanction," which secured the succession of the empire with all its dependencies in the female line.
But scarcely had the emperor closed his eyes before the work of his life fell in pieces. The Pragmatic Sanction was disregarded, and
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many claimants raised pretensions to the whole or various parts of his empire.
The chief competitor, however, of the Em- press Maria Theresa was Charles Albert, elector of Bavaria. Over this question the principal nations of Europe became involved in a general war known as the "War of the Austrian succession."
It was her own eminent abilities and the en- thusiastic efforts of her Hungarian subjects and faithful allies, rather than by the life-long exertions and vast sacrifices of her father in her behalf, that Maria Theresa retained her im- perial throne and transmitted the same to her posterity, with the most of her dependencies, while Albert lost his own dominion, Bavaria.
In this contest George II. of England was the ally of Maria Theresa, while France sup- ported the other side. The consequence was that in 1744 France declared war against Eng- land. The American colonies soon became involved, and the long peace of thirty years in this part of the old wilderness, which had lasted since the end of Queen Anne's war in 1713, was broken by the war-cry of the Indian strik- ing terror in the homes of the settlers in the valley of the Upper Hudson.
II .- CAPTURE OF LOUISBURG.
This war in America was known as "King George's War." The most important event in this war in the colonies was the capture by the English of Louisburg, a strongly forti- fied French post on the Island of Cape Breton in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
During the long thirty years of peace this port had been fortified by the French at an ex- pense of five million dollars, and such was its strength that it was called the "Gibraltar of America." From this secure retreat the French cruisers could sail forth at any time, prey upon the shipping of New England, and drive her commerce and fisheries from the seas. Thus Louisburg became a menace and a terror to New England, as the French
fort at Crown Point, built at the same time, was a menace and a terror to the Upper Hudson valley. Early in the year 1745, England and France being then at war, Governor Shirley, of Massachusetts, devised a plan for the cap- ture of this important post, which was carried into execution by the New England colonies. Massachusetts furnished thirty-two hundred and fifty men, Connecticut five hundred and sixteen, and New Hampshire three hundred and four.
The expedition, commanded by William Pepperell, embarked in one hundred New England vessels, and was supported by a British squadron under Commodore Sir Peter Warren. They landed near Louisburg on the 30th of April, and laid immediate siege. The place was garrisoned by sixteen hundred French soldiers, commanded by Duchambon.
On the forty-ninth day of the siege, being the 17th of June, the French surrendered. Great were the rejoicings at this achievement throughout New England, in New York and in Philadelphia. Even in London the news of the victory was received with bonfires and illuminations. The influence of this conquest, planned and mainly carried out by the col- onists, was strongly felt in the American camp, even thirty years after, at the beginning of the war of Independence. The same old drums that beat in triumph at Louisburg on the 17th of June, 1745, beat again at Bunker Hill on the 17th of June, 1775. There was scarcely a family in all New England but what the father or the sons were at the taking of Louis- burg.
And many an early New England settler in the valley of the Upper Hudson was in after years proud of the distinction of having been a soldier at the siege of Louisburg. Yet by the peace of Aix-la-Chappelle, in 1748, Louis- burg was restored to France. The port was again invested in 1758 by General Amherst, in command of fourteen thousand men, aided by twenty ships of the line and eighteen frigates. It again surrendered to the English, the village
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and fort were reduced to ruins and the people transported to France in English ships. Such were the fortunes of war.
III. - THE FRENCH RETALIATE.
Smarting under the loss of Louisburg the Governor General of Canada, in retaliation, planned an expedition in the autumn of the same year against the New England settle- ments in the valley of the Connecticut river. As the sequel shows, owing to the lateness of the season, the expedition was diverted from its original object and the blow fell upon the unsuspecting inhabitants of Old Saratoga, in the valley of the Upper Hudson.
This expedition was intrusted to the com- mand of M. Marin.
It was late in the autumn before all things were ready.
Let us now trace the long journey of the in- vading foes on their march to the encounter.
On the fourth day of November, 1745, (new style), at 2 o'clock in the afternoon, M. Marin set out from Montreal. He was accompanied by eight officers, the others having gone with the troops up the Sorol river to camp St. Theresa, at Chambly, where M. Marin was to join them. M. Marin crossed the St. Law- rence river to La Prairie de Madeline, on the southern shore. From La Prairie, M. Marin and his officers proceeded across the country on horseback, arriving at Chambly late in the evening.
At 2 o'clock in the morning a courier arrived at the camp with a letter from the command- ing general to M. Marin saying in substance that were not the army already on the way, owing to the lateness of the season, he would stop the expedition, but as it was he left it in the discretion of M. Marin to continue on his way or to return. M. Marin decided to pro- ceed.
The next morning a canoe arrived at Cham- bly with nine Abenakis and one English pris- oner. . The Abenakis had been on the war-trail
into Arcadia, and on their return had captured an Englishman in the valley of the Connecti- cut. M. Marin examined the English pris- oner very minutely, but learned little more than that all was tranquil there at the upper forts.
Before leaving Chambly the forces under M. Marin were made up as follows, viz .: Twenty-two officers, twenty-three cadets, two hundred and thirty-five French Canadians, ninety Abenakis, one hundred Iroquois, twen- ty-three Nippissings and sixteen Hurons, in all five hundred and nine officers and men.
This little army proceeded up Lake Cham- plain in regular order in two divisions of two brigades each.
The first brigade was under M. de St. Pierre, an officer of great experience, who fell while second in command under Baron Dieskau, just ten years later, at Lake George.
The second brigade was under M. De May, who was afterward commander at Detroit.
The third under M. de Lorimier and the fourth under M. de la Columliere. With this fourth brigade second in command was the celebrated partisan warrior M. de la Corne St. Luc, who was afterwards upon the same ground as the commander of Indians under Burgoyne.
The chaplain was the famous Abbe Francois Picquet, the founder of the mission of La Pre- sentation at Ogdensburg.
Thus organized the army proceeded on its way up the eastern shore of Lake Champlain.
On the 7th the Iroquois got word from Os- wego that seven of their nation had been hung by the English for some offense. At this news they became gloomy and sullen, and when the evening encampment came they began to sing their war-songs.
The next day M. Marin tried to console the Iroquois. He dried their tears with four belts of wampum, and announced a great war-dance and festival for their benefit. Then they were happy and began to sing and dance as usual. On the 9th the war-dance came off with great
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pomp and ceremony. The ball was opened by M. Marin's son, for his father, two hundred Indians engaging in the festivities. The In- dians told M. Marin that they distrusted two of their number. M. Marin sent them back under pretense of carrying a message, and they were put in prison at Montreal.
On the 10th they embarked in regular order and arrived at their camping ground on the manor of M. de Levy. There M. Marin told the Indians that he would talk to them about the route at the Isle aux Festes. On the 11th they encamped on the Isle aux Festes, and M. Marin told the Indians he had orders to go by the way of the "River Soutres," -- now Otter Creek.
On arriving at Cumberland Head, the In- dians gave reasons for taking the west shore of the lake. After considerable controversy M. Marin yielded to their wishes. This change was made on the 12th.
At this time the Indians became discon- tented and expressed a desire to give up the expedition and return. But at the earnest so- licitations of M. de la Chauvings, who had great influence over them, they consented to proceed.
On the 13th the French arrived at Crown Point, but a wind had dispersed the Indians, who did not come up till the 17th.
At Crown Point a new difficulty arose with the Indians. The Iroquois represented, in a council called for a settlement of the trouble, that the season was already too late to go over the mountains into the Connecticut valley. Showing a map of the Hudson river they pointed out Saratoga as a very desirable object of conquest. On their map of Saratoga were put down thirty-one houses and two forts.
After considerable deliberation M. Marin decided to take the advice of the Indians and march on Saratoga.
Soon after embarking from Crown Point the army left their canoes and took up their weary march overland along the shore of South Bay, and thence across the mountain to the Hudson
above what is now Fort Edward. They lost their way, and nearly ten days were used up in this toilsome journey.
On the 23d they were delayed by a storm of rain and snow. The Indians came to M. Marin and told him they had not intended any of the time to go over the mountains to the Connecticut valley. The Iroquois promised to give M. Marin all their prisoners. A chief of the Nippissings, however, said to M. Marin in answer to his request :
" My father, we cannot forsee the future and do not know whether we shall take any pris- oners at all, and we are naturally greedy. We love the meat we kill, and we do not like to give it away."
The part of the country they now entered upon in the vicinity of the Hudson river, was then occupied by several roving bands of Mohicans, "Loups," as the French called them. To avoid their wigwams the French made a detour to the southeast. At length, early in the morning of the 27th, they arrived near what is now Fort Edward. The only oc- cupant of the place then was its first settler, John Henry Lydius. His house was at the mouth of Fort Edward creek upon the site of the old fort built there in Queen Anne's war. Here they resorted to a needless stratagem - the main body remaining concealed in the woods, and a single man advanced unarmed, as though on a friendly visit. But Lydius was away from home, and no one was in the house but his little son and a hired man.
From Fort Edward the main body marched down on the east bank of the river to what is now Fort Miller. M. Marin had preceded it in a canoe to find a suitable fording place. While following the old road below Fort Ed- ward they met a man and his wife going home in his wagon with some bags of flour. These they took prisoners. The woman told them, in hopes of frightening them back, that there were two hundred English soldiers in the fort at Saratoga.
At Fort Miller the main body waded across
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to the west side of the river, and, benumbed with wet and cold, built fires in the ravines to dry themselves and warm their freezing limbs.
It was now just past midnight on the 28th, and, being only three or four miles from their destination, they passed the weary hours wait- ing for the signal to march.
In the meantime M. Beauvais, a French scout, made a reconnoisance of the sleeping hamlet. It lay quiet in the starlight, all un- conscious of the terrible fate awaiting it.
IV .- SARATOGA AS IT THEN WAS.
While the enemy is lying in wait to pounce upon the sleeping hamlet, let us, as near as we can, draw in our mind's eye a picture of Old Saratoga as it appeared at the time of its great calamity.
The reader will bear in mind, as is stated in a preceding chapter, that in the year 1683 the Mohawk Sachems gave a deed of their hunt- ing ground called Sa-ragh-to-ga to several gentlemen of Albany.
That the proprietors cast lots for their re- spective shares of this purchase, and that "Lot No. 4," being on the south side of Fish Creek, and including what has since been widely known as the "Schuyler property," was drawn by Johannes Wendel.
Johannes Wendel died in 1691, leaving by his will his share at Saratoga to his son, Abra- ham. In 1702 Abraham Wendel sold the Saratoga lot to Johannes Schuyler, the grand- father of Gen. Philip Schuyler, of the Revo- lution.
Johannes Schuyler continued the iniprove- ments on his lot south of Fish Creek, begun by Wendel, by the erection of mills and the opening up of farms. But previous to 1742 Johannes Schuyler had given the property to his sons, Philip and John, jr.
Philip Schuyler, who was the uncle of Gen- eral Schuyler, took up his residence at Old Saratoga, in a brick house his father, Johannes, had previously built there.
It has also been seen that at the time of the burning, the village of Old Saratoga on the west side of the Hudson where Schuylerville now stands, contained about thirty houses, with barns and outbuildings, two or three mills, and a large wooden fort.
That for a -mile or more on each side of Fish Creek there stretched broad, cleared fields up and down the west bank of the river. Through these cleared fields ran a single roadway, ex- tending north and south, along which the dwellings were scattered in a way to accom- modate the several farms.
The Schuyler mansion was the only one built of brick. It was large and strongly for- tified with loop-holes all around, to be used in case of attack. It stood a little to the south- east of what is now known as the "Old Schuy- ler Mansion," on ground now mostly taken up by the canal, and in the rear of some old lilac bushes still growing there.
It has been seen that the large wooden fort stood on the west bank of the Hudson, south of the mouth of Fish Creek. Below the fort stretched broad, level meadows, in which were numerous stacks of hay and grain and several dwellings.
On the east side of the Hudson opposite there was also a large clearing, in which were several dwellings, one of which was doubtless strongly fortified, and called the fort. But the main village and the principal fort were then on the west side of the river.
Near many of the dwellings were long stables filled with rows of sleek cattle tied in their stalls, and around the mills were huge piles of lumber awaiting a market down the river.
Profound peace had reigned in the old wil- derness for more than a generation, and the fertile soil had filled the smiling land with fatness.
The fatal morning occurred on the 17th day of November, Old Style, as the English then reckoned, but on the 28th, New Style, as then observed by the French. There were then in
*
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this little wilderness settlement about one hun- dred and thirty inhabitants, men, women and children, all told. There had been a detach- ment of soldiers at the fort, but they had been ordered away, and another company was daily expected to arrive from Albany, but never came till all was over.
The Colonial Assembly, apprehensive of danger, had the year before asked Governor Clinton to strengthen this fort by sending troops there. The governor promised, but failed to do so. He gave as a reason that the fort needed repairs, and was unfit for their oc- cupancy. There was no oven in the fort, the block-houses had no floors, the roof leaked so that there was no place to keep the powder dry.
A rain had been falling for several days pre- vious, which had turned into snow. But on that day the weather was doubtless clear and the ground frozen.
The evening meal had been partaken of, the mother had sung her lullaby over the cradle ; the fires were all "raked up" on the hearth- stones, and all had gone to rest save two or three men at the mills.
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