USA > New York > Saratoga County > History of Saratoga County, New York : with historical notes on its various towns > Part 11
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Little did that sleeping hamlet then dream of the impending war-cloud destined to burst upon them with awful fury in the cold gray dawn of the morning. For no one had come to warn them of their danger.
V. - THE ATTACK.
At length, about 2 o'clock, the enemy was in motion ; the main body, under M. Marin, following the western shore of the river, and the Abenakis and Nippissings, under Rou- ville, and a few French volunteers taking the eastern shore.
The attack was to have been made simul- taneously on either side at daybreak, in the morning, upon the firing of a gun by M. Marin as a signal.
But as soon as the main body came in sight of the first dwelling the Indians could no longer be controlled. Rushing forward they began
firing and surrounding the houses. The de- fenseless inhabitants, taken entirely by sur- prise, rushed from their homes into the arms of their savage foes. Some were killed on the spot and all the survivors taken prisoners. The houses were pillaged and set on fire, the lurid flames lighting up the horrible scenes of devastation and terror.
The main part of the village lying on the north side of Fish Creek being thus destroyed and pillaged, there remained only the Schuy- ler mansion and the fort situated on the south side of the creek, to be invested.
I shall now let the adjutant of the little French army describe what followed in his own words, which I quote from the " Journal of the Campaign," found among the papers of Gen. Philip Schuyler, in manuscript :
November 28. * * * M. de Beauvais having told M. Marin that we were discovered, he di- rected us to follow him We passed a very rapid river [Fish Creek] for which we were prepared, and came to a saw-mill which two men (a negro and a Dutchman) were running, and in which there was a large fire. M. de St. Oues and M. Marin's son were disputing the posses- sion of the negro with an Indian, although another In- dian said it was Marin that had captured him. His father, with whom I was, told him this was not the time to dispute about prisoners, and that it was necessary to go on and take others. A large party attacked a black- smith's house on this side of the river, when a native unfortunately killed a child twelve or fourteen years old. It was doubtless the darkness of the night and the fear of the river that separated us. Coming out of the mill, we went to the house of a man named Philip Schuyler, a brave man, who would not have been seriously incommoded if he had only had a dozen men as valiant as himself. M. Beauvais, who knew and liked him, en- tered the house first, and, giving his name, asked him to give himself up, saying that no harm would be done him. The other replied that he was a dog, and that he would kill him. In fact he fired his gun. Beauvais re- peated the request, to which Philip replied by several shots. Finally Beauvais, being exposed to his fire, shot and killed him. We immediately entered and all was quickly pillaged. This house was of brick, pierced with loop-holes to the ground floor The Indians had told us it was a sort of guard-house where there were sol- diers. In fact I found there twenty-five pounds or more of pow ler, but no soldiers. We made some servants
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prisoners, and it was said that some people were found who had taken refuge in the cellar.
We burned no more houses before reaching the fort, as this was the last. We captured everything, and had no longer any cause to fear lest any one should go and warn the fort of our approach. It was quite a consider- able distance from the house where we had been.
We found no one in it. It was regularly built, and some thought one hundred men would have been able to defend it against five hundred. I asked M. Marin if he wished to place a detachment there. He replied he was going to set fire to it, and then told me I might go and do my best. This permission gave several of us the pleasure of taking some prisoners, and it did not take us long to get possession of all the houses below the fort, breaking in the doors and windows in order to get at the people inside. However, everyone surrendered very peaceably. We had never counted on the facility with which all the houses were taken and the pillage accom- plished. We set fire to everything good and useful, for instance more than ten thousand planks and joists, four fine mills, and all the barns and stables, some of which were filled with animals. The people who were in the fields were in great part killed by the French and Indians. In short, according to our estimation, the Dutch will not repair the damage we caused short of two hundred marks. The barns were full of wheat, Indian corn and other grain. The number of prisoners amounted to one hundred and nine, and about a dozen were killed and burned in the houses.
Our achievement would have been much more widely known and glorious if all the merchants of Saratoga had not left their country houses and gone to spend the win- ter at Albany ; and, I may add, if we had met with more resistance."
Such was the miserable fate of fair Saratoga. For Saratoga of the old time, in the savage warfare of the wilderness, met a fate at the hands of her merciless foes quite as tragic and terrible as that of Schenectady, of Cherry Valley, or even of the far-famed Wyoming. The houses and forts were all burned to the ground, the cattle were all killed or burnt alive in their stalls, a large amount of property was utterly destroyed or carried away ; only one or two of the inhabitants escaped by the light of their burning homes to tell the awful tale of desolation, captivity and death.
On their return to Fort Edward a solemn Te Deum was sung by the victors, and as the notes of the solemn chant were dying away in
the dim forest aisles, the captives, strongly guarded by the French, took up their dread- ful march along the frozen ground, with bleed- ing feet, over the mountains to Crown Point.
CHAPTER XIII.
FRENCH AND INDIAN WARS (Continued) -THE SECOND INVASION OF SARA- TOGA, IN 1747.
I :- SITUATION OF FORT CLINTON.
After the complete destruction of Old Sara- toga by the French and Indians, in the year 1745, scarcely two years elapsed before the place was again invaded by them.
During these two years the fort had been enlarged and refitted and its name changed to Fort Clinton, in honor of George Clinton, governor of the province.
The fort was situated on the west bank of the Hudson, above the mouth of the Fishkill, and was built entirely of wood logs and hewn timber. It was one hundred and fifty feet in length by one hundred feet in width. It had within six block-houses which served as bar- racks and store houses, one in each corner and one in the center of each main curtain. It had been enlarged one-half since the visit of Sieur Marin, two years before.
Peter Kalm, the Swedish naturalist, in his account of his travels, mentions the ruins of a fort at Saratoga, situate on a hill to the east of the Hudson. Following the lead of Kalm, all our historians, from Cadwalladen Colden up to the present time, have located the old fort at Saratoga upon the hill below the Bat- tenkill, a mile east of the Hudson. But the hamlet of Old Saratoga was situate on the west side of the river, and it would have been absurd to locate a fort for its protection across a wide, deep river, and a mile beyond it, in the top of an almost inaccessible liill. Of a truth the documentary evidence refutes this
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supposition, and shows beyond a doubt that the fort at Old Saratoga was located on the west bank of the Hudson, below the Fishkill, within fifty rods of the Schuyler mansion, and that after it was rebuilt and named "Fort Clinton," it was situated north of the Fishkill, in the angle between that stream and the Hud- son. The conflicting accounts found in our histories regarding the location of "Fort Sar- atoga," without doubt arise from the fact, gen- erally overlooked, that there were two forts there-that is to say, one on each side of the Hudson. The first one was built on the west side of the river, and was the one attacked by the French and Indians in 1745, and again in 1747, when it was called Fort Clinton. The other was the stockaded fort built on the east side of the river, "opposite Saratoga," by Maj. Peter Schuyler, in command of the van-guard of the expedition against Canada of 1709, in Queen Anne's war. This fort on the east side is the one whose ruins were found by Peter Kalm.
II. - FRENCH AND INDIANS ATTACK FORT CLINTON.
This expedition was in command of M. de La Corne St. Luc, who had under him M. de Carqueville and M. St. Oues June. The forces consisted of twenty or more Frenchmen and two hundred Indians of different nations, Iro- quois of the Saut, Hurons, Nippissings, and Abenakis.
Sieur de St. Luc, with his command, left Crown Point in canoes at midnight, on the 23d of June. Their route lay up Lake Cham- plain and the Wood creek to the "Great Car- rying Place," near Fort Anne, where they landed on the 26th and marched to the East bank of the Hudson. Here they encamped for the night.
In the morning St. Luc crossed the river in a little piroque. M. de Carqueville and St. Oues, remaining in charge of the men, made six canoes of elm bark, by means of whichi the whole force was set across by three o'clock in the afternoon.
They continued their march down the west bank of the Hudson, and at early dawn on the morning of the 28th they were at Sara- toga, above the fort.
It was a desolate landscape upon which those Frenchmen and Indians cast their eyes at Old Saratoga in the misty dawn of that June morning. The only habitable structures were the barracks within the fort, forming walls of the fort. The only inhabitants of the place were the soldiers of the little garrison.
On every side were strewn the charred and blackened remains of the ruined homesteads of the unfortunate settlers of two years before, the uncultivated fields covered with a rank growth of luxurious weeds and young forest trees.
As St. Luc was marching through the deserted fields the Abenakis came to him and told him "that he was exposing his men very much, and they wished to form an ambuscade on a little island in front of the fort, in order to try and break somebody's head." St. Luc told them that they must go to the fort. He then addressed the Iroquois of the Saut, and the Hurons and the Nippissings, and they with one accord made answer " that they had no other will but his and that of Onnontio."
St. Luc then sent seven Indians of the Saut and Nippissings to see what was going on at the fort. They soon returned and reported that "forty or fifty English were fishing in a little river [the Fish creek] which falls into that of Orange [the Hudson], on this side (endeca) the fort."
He then sent Sieur de Carqueville with a Nippissing and an Abenaki to examine where the fort could best be approached.
M. de St. Luc again addressed his men ; said "he should give his gun, which was a double barrel, to the first one who should take a prisoner," and told them that after the first volley they should charge, axe in hand.
Sieur de Carqueville arrived and said that the English had retired into the fort.
St. Luc then sent St. Oues to see where the
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OF SARATOGA COUNTY.
Fishkill could be crossed and to watch the movements in the fort. St. Oues found a place to cross the Fishkill and remained on the other side all day. On the 29th the whole body of the enemy crossed the Fishkill and spent the day reconnoitering the movements of the English at the fort in force. St. Luc sent twenty men on the road to Orange (Albany), who, supposing they were discov- ered, returned. Passing near the fort they made a feint to draw them out.
At one time during the day all the Indians became panic-stricken. The chiefs crowded around the officers and implored them to re- treat. They said that they were surrounded by four hundred men who had just come out of the fort.
The French officers told the Indians that it was not the custom of the French to retire without fighting when so near the enemy, and that they were able to defend themselves even against that number of the English, should they be so bold as to attack them.
The intrepid bearing of the Frenchmen at once revived the sinking courage of the In- dians. The young braves of the Iroquois, the Hurons and the Nipissings promised not to abandon St. Luc. They said they were ready to die for the French, and would give him proof of it. The Abenikas even, who had shown the most cowardice, were constrained by the example of the others to say the same.
St. Luc then "demanded of the chiefs six of their swiftest and bravest men ; commanded them to lie in ambush, on the banks of the river, within eight paces of the fort, at daybreak, to fire on those who should come out of the fort, and to try and take a scalp, and if the fort re- turned their fire, to pretend to be wounded, and to exhibit some difficulty in getting off, so as to induce the enemy to leave the fort."
In conformity with the orders of St. Luc six warriors placed themselves in ambush on the river bank near the fort, to await the day- break.
In the meantime St. Luc had placed his 5
whole force in ambush not far from the fort, to await the result of his stratagem.
On the morning of the 30th, at the early dawn, two Englishmen came out of the fort, and were fired upon by the six scouts who were lying in wait for them.
After firing upon the English, the Indian scouts retreated. About one hundred and twenty men marched out of the fort in pursuit, formed in the order of battle. The English halted at a spot where the Indian scouts had abandoned one of their muskets and a toma- hawk, which was in close proximity to the main body of the French and Indians lying in am- bush to receive them.
Then St. Luc arose from his hiding place, and discharging his piece, called upon all his men to fire. Some did so, and the English fired a volley in return. The fort also opened a heavy cannonade with grape and cannon balls, spreading consternation among the In- dians and Canadians.
The French and Indians then rushed, axe in hand, upon the English, as St. Luc had previously ordered them. The sudden onset completely surprised and routed the English, who fled in all disorder toward the fort. Not more than twenty-five or thirty of them ever reached its shelter.
The French took forty-five prisoners, and killed and scalped twenty-eight. The French pursued the English.to within thirty paces of the fort. Many of the English, unable to reach the fort, ran down the bank into the river, and were killed with the tomahawks or by gun- shots. The lieutenant in command of the English, and four or five other officers, were killed.
The French loss was only one Indian of the Saut killed, and four or five others wounded.
In the autumn following this disaster, Fort Clinton, of Sarotoga, was dismantled and burnt by the English, and Albany became once more the extreme northern outpost of the En- glish colonies in the valley of the Hudson, with no military force between her palisaded walls
.
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and the uplifted tomahawk of the ever-frown- ing north.
In May of the following year (1748) peace was again declared, which lasted for seven years, until the last French and Indian war broke out in the year 1755, when the old north valley became the pathway of large armies.
III. - VISIT OF PETER KALM.
It was in the summer of 1749, during this short peace, that the celebrated Swedish bot- anist, Peter Kalm, the friend of the great Lin- neas, traveled through the northern wilds in the interest of natural science.
In his report of his journey he graphically describes the ruins of the old dismantled forts at Saratoga, Fort Nicholson and Fort Anne, which were then still remaining in the centers of small deserted clearings in the great wilder- ness through which he passed. He made many discoveries of rare and beautiful plants, before unknown to Europeans, and in the swamps and lowlands of Saratoga county blooms a modest flower, the Kalmia glauca, in perpetual remembrance of his visit. But he heard of no mineral springs in Saratoga.
CHAPTER XIV.
THE LAST FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR - CAMPAIGNS OF 1755, 1756, 1757, 1758 AND 1759.
I. - CAMPAIGN OF 1755-JOHNSON AT LAKE
GEORGE.
We have at length come to the great and final struggle between France and England for the mastery and the possession of the con- tinent of North America.
This war is known in European history as the "Seven Years' War," which ended in the peace of Paris in 1763.
During its progress France not only suffered the loss of her American colonies, but was
badly crippled in Europe. On the other hand England in it laid the foundation for her vast colonial dependencies, greatly augmented her commercial supremacy, gained India, and made herself mistress of the seas.
To the English colonies in America its re- sults were most important still, for it surely paved the way for their independence of the British crown.
The peace of Aix-la-chapelle, concluded in 1748, which closed the war of the Austrian suc- cession in Europe, settled nothing in America.
The French claimed all America from the Alleghanies to the Rocky mountains, and from Mexico and Florida to the North Pole, except the English possessions in Labrador and in Hudson's Bay.
England claimed virtually the same terri- tory, together with her long lines of sea coast colonies.
Canada was, so to speak, the citadel of New France, lying securely behind her mountain fastnesses. To Canada there were but three ways for approaching : one was by the way of the mouth of the St. Lawrence, but this was defended by an almost impregnable fort at Quebec; another way was by the head of the St. Lawrence and Lake Ontario; yet this was obstructed by numerous impassable rapids. The third and more feasible way led up the valley of the Hudson and down Lake George and Lake Champlain. This last named route was the key to the situation, and became the battle ground of the bloody conflict.
The English colonists were, in a measure, shut in between the mountains and the sea, with no road to the great inland valleys.
At the beginning of this war the white pop- ulation of the English colonies from Maine to Georgia numbered about eleven hundred and sixty thousand.
By the census of 1754 the population of Canada was only fifty-five thousand. To these add those of Acadia and Lousiana, and the whole white population under the French flag might somewhat exceed eighty thousand.
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OF SARATOGA COUNTY.
The Seven Years' War began in an obscure skirmish in the American wilds, which, spread- ing across the Atlantic, soon set all Europe in a blaze.
This skirmish occurred in the month of May, 1754, on the western slope of the Alleghenies, in the valley of the Youghiogheny, a branch of the Monongahela, between a lurking de- tachment of French soldiers, under command of Ensign Coulon de Jumonville, and a small body of provisional provincials led by George Washington, then a youth scarce twenty-two. It resulted in the killing of Jumonville and nine others, and the capture of the rest of the French save one Canadian, who alone escaped.
A strong self-control, great coolness of judg- ment, joined with a deep and abiding sense of public duty even at that early day in this bor- der warfare, marked the future father of his country.
The war thus begun continued into the summer with disaster to the English.
The English colonies in the meantime were slowly arriving at a sense of their danger, but in consequence of the constant bickerings and jealousies arising between the governors of the English colonies, who represented the royal authority, and their legislative bodies, representing the people, no steps were taken in the field against the French until early in 1755.
In the beginning of the year 1755 the Brit- ish ministry came to the aid of the struggling colonies, and a plan of military operations, on a more extensive scale than had ever before been projected, was adopted by the British ministry for dispossessing the French upon the English territory. Three expeditions were fitted out; that of Braddock against Fort Du Quesne, another under Shirly against Niagara, and a third under Johnson against Crown Point. To carry out this latter expedition five thousand provincial troops were raised, of which number eight hundred were furnished by New York. This army assembled at Al- bany on the last of June, where it was joined
by King Hendrick with a large body of Mo- hawk warriors. Early in July about six hun- dred men were sent up the Hudson river to erect a fort at the Great Carrying Place, on the site of old Fort Nicholson. This fort was first called Fort Lyman, in honor of the officer commanding the advanced corps. In a few years it was changed to Fort Edward, in honor of Edward, Duke of York, grandson of the reigning sovereign, George the Second. It stood upon the bank of the Hudson on the north side of Fort Edward creek. Other de- tachments of the army soon followed, one of which, under command of Colonel Miller, built a fort at the rapids above Saratoga. It was named Fort Miller. Colonel Miller also cut a military road upon the west side of the Hudson to Fort Edward, and thence through the forest to the head of Lake George.
On the 8th of August, Major-general Wil- liam Johnson left Albany with the artillery and took command of the army in person. The latter part of August he advanced with the main body of his forces to the head of Lake George, with the design of passing to the outlet of the lake at Ticonderoga and erecting a fort there to aid in the operations against Crown Point, but the French reached Ticonderoga in advance of him, and strongly fortified themselves there. Aware of John- son's enterprise against Crown Point, Baron Dieskan, the commander of the French forces on Lake Champlain, had collected about three thousand men for its defense. Expecting an immediate attack he selected a force of two hundred grenadiers, eight hundred Canadian militia, and seven hundred Indians, proceeded up the lake and landed at the head of Southi bay to embarrass Johnson, who was then lying with his army at the head of Lake George. He resolved to capture Fort Edward, thence drop down the river and menace Albany. Accordingly, on the 7th day of September, he marched south into the edge of Kingsbury, where he halted about seven miles north of Fort Edward. The French and Indians
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opposed the idea of assaulting Fort Edward, dreading the cannon, but were willing to at- tack Johnson at Lake George. Dieskan there- fore changed his course, marching toward Lake George, and encamped over night near the southern extremity of French mountain.
Johnson, learning of the approach of Dies- kan, on the morning of the 8th sent out Colonel Ephraim Williams with a thousand troops, and Hendrick with two hundred Indians, with orders to oppose the progress of the French. They had gone but four miles when they en- countered the enemy. Dieskan, informed of their approach, had halted and prepared for their reception, forming his forces in a semi- circle, the ends of which were far in advance of the centre, and concealed from view by the forest. Into this ambuscade the detachment under Colonel Williams marched, wholly un- conscious of their danger. Suddenly the war- whoop resounded all around them and a galling fire was opened all along the front and left side of the column. Colonel Williams hastily changed his position and ordered his men to ascend the rising ground on their right, but this brought them on the other wing of the French forces.
Williams and Hendrick, with numbers of their followers, fell, and the detachment re- treated in great confusion. A large part of these troops were from Western Massachusetts, and few families there were but mourned the loss of relatives or friends cut off in "the bloody morning scout at Lake George." When this advance was proposed, it was opposed by King Hendrick. He remarked in the laconic language of his race, "If they're to fight, they are too few; if they're to be killed, they're too many." And when it was suggested that the detachment should be divided into three bodies, he gathered three sticks from the ground, "Put these together," he said, "and you cannot break them ; then take them one by one, and you can break them readily."
Just before Williams began his march, Hen- drick mounted a stump and harangued his
people. With his strong masculine voice he might have been heard at least half a mile. One who heard him, but did not understand his language, afterward said : "The anima- tion of Hendrick, the fire of his eye, the force of his gestures, his emphasis, the inflections of his voice, and his whole manner, affected him more than any speech he had ever heard."
Williams, who gallantly took his position upon a rock, which is now the base of his own monument, fell early in action. Hendrick fell nearly at the same moment. The English forces, reaching Dieskan, doubled up and fled pell-mell to their entrenchments. They were soon relieved, however, by Lieutenant-Colonel Whiting, and fought with more valor under cover of a party of three hundred men, com- manded by Colonel Cole, who had made their appearance. The detachment then retreated in good order to their camp. As soon as the stragglers began to come in, showing that the enemy was at hand, a barricade of logs was hastily thrown up in front of the English en- campment. In a short time Dieskan's troops made their appearance ; they advanced with great regularity, their burnished muskets glit- tering in the sun. We can readily imagine that no small trepidation was caused among the English at the advancing platoons. A short pause was made by the French before commencing the attack; this enabled John- son's men to recover from their panic, and when once fairly engaged they fought with the calmness and resolution of veterans. John- son's camp was assailed by the grenadiers in front, and by the French and Indians upon both flanks. A few discharges of artillery against the Indians caused them to fall back and secure themselves behind logs and trees, from which they afterwards maintained an ir- regular fire. General Johnson being wounded early in the engagement, the command devol- ved upon General Lyman, who stationed him- self in front of the breast-works and directed their movements.
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