USA > New York > Saratoga County > History of Saratoga County, New York : with historical notes on its various towns > Part 12
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For nearly four hours the battle lasted, the
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assailed still standing firm at every point. Dieskan at length ordered a retreat. So has- tily did his men withdraw that the'r leader, having been wounded in the foot, was unable to keep pace with them. Reclining against a stump to obtain temporary relief from his pain, he was discovered by a soldier. Dieskan sought to propitiate the soldier by offering his watch. As he reached for it the soldier, mis- taking his action for an attempt to reach his pistol, discharged his musket and gave him a wound in his left hip, from which he died twelve years afterward. The French retreated to the ground where the forenoon engagement had occurred, and there paused for the night. In the meantime Colonel Blanchard, the com- manding officer at Fort Edward, had sent out two hundred men to range the woods. Hear- ing the discharge of cannon in the direction of Johnson's camp, they knew that a battle was there in progress, and they hastened on to the scene of action. Reaching the French en- campment after nightfall, they distributed themselves in positions from which they could fire with the most security and effect. A body of the French were washing and refreshing themselves from their packs upon a margin of a marshy pool in a hollow. At the first fire such numbers of these fell dead into and along the pool, and it became so discolored with blood that it has since borne the name of " Bloody Pond." The surprise was so sud- den that the French fled at all points, but soon rallied and returned to the charge. They main- tained for a time a sharp conflict, but soon gave way and fled through the woods toward South bay, leaving their packs, baggage and a num- ber of prisoners in the hands of the victors, who conveyed them in triumph to Johnson's camp. With this final rout of the French army, the memorable engagement of the 8th of September, 1755, at Lake George, closed. Seven hundred French were killed and two hundred and thirty English.
This engagement takes rank as one of the most important in our nation's history. It
exerted a great influence on our country's des- tiny. It showed that raw troops, fresh from the plow and workshop, who had never been in the service, if properly officered and led, could compete with veterans of European his- tory. The confidence in their own abilities, which the battle of Lake George gave the provincials, had no small influence upon the issue of this war and in substantially leading our country into and through our Revolution- ary contests. General Johnson now erected a fort at Lake George, which was named in honor of William Henry, Duke of Cumberland, brother of George the Third.
II. - CAMPAIGN OF 1756 .- GENERAL WINSLOW'S EXPEDITION.
Of the three expeditions planned and fitted out by the English against the French in Amer- ica for the campaign of 1755, that under John- son against Crown Point, described above, was the only one which achieved even partial suc- cess. That under Braddock, against Fort Du Quesne (now Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, ) met a fate disastrous in the extreme, while the one under Shirley, against Niagara, was a decided failure.
All this bloody wilderness warfare had been carried on for a year or more before war was formally declared between England and France. But this state of things could not long continue. England declared war on the 18th of May, 1756, and France on the 9th of June following. Then began the greatest con- test of the eighteenth century -the seven years war, which proved so disastrous to France and so advantageous to England, both in the old world and the new.
France was then under the rule of the profli- gate Louis XV., and he in turn was ruled by his vain and ambitious mistress, Madame de Pompadour. It was to their fatuity and folly more than any other cause that England owed her colonial supremacy in America. Louis, guided by Madame de Pompadour, sent a hun- dred thousand men to the aid of his new ally,
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Maria Therese of Austria, against Frederick the Great of Prussia, while he spared but a meagre three thousand to guard his vast American possessions. Had France wisely reversed her policy and sent a few thousands more of her veteran soldiers to Canada, she might yet be mistress of the vast and teeming valleys of the Mississippi, the great lakes and the St. Lawrence.
Yet, if the French army in America was weak in numbers, the marked ability of its commanders in no small measure made up for the deficiency.
Louis XV. sent over, in the spring 1756, to command his forces in America, Louis Joseph, Marquis de Montcalm-Gozon de Saint-Véran, with the rank of a major-general. The Chev- alier de Lévis, afterward marshal of France, was named as second in command, with the rank of brigadier, and the Chevalier de Bowe- lamarque as his third, with the rank of colonel.
The French forces in Canada consisted of three kinds : troops of the line, or regulars, from France ; the troupes de la marine, or col- ony regulars ; and lastly, the militia.
All these troops wore a white uniform, faced with blue, red, yellow or violet, except the battalion of Béarn, whose uniform was of light blue, which our American army has copied.
To the white fighting force of Canada must be added the Indians. These were mostly what were called the Mission Indians. They had been converted to Christianity, and were living within or near the white settlements. Of these, the Hurons of Lorette, the Abena- kis of St. Francis and Batiscan, the Iroquois of Coughnawaga and La Présentation (now Ogdensburg), and the Iroquis and Algonquins of the Mission at the Two Mountains on the Ottawa, were the most trustworthy. Besides these the French had at their call all the wild tribes to the west and north. The Iroquois or Five Nations, of New York, were in a state of vacillation or neutrality, or inclined to be the allies of the English.
Such were the military forces in Canada
when, early in June, 1756, the Indians brought word to Montcalm that the English were pre- paring to attack Ticonderoga.
Montcalm and Lévis at once embarked for the supposed scene of danger, and reached Ticonderoga at the end of June. The fort at Ticonderoga was then nearing completion. It had been begun the year before (1755) by the French engineer, Lotbinière. It was now the most advanced French post on the lake, tak- ing the place of Crown Point in that respect.
But all danger from an attack by the En- glish proved in the end to be remote, and the French officers spent the summer in hunting and fishing instead of war.
In the meantime the English were gather- ing their forces at the head of Lake George for the combat.
Upon Shirley's return from his fruitless ex- pedition towards Niagara, at the end of the year before, he called a council of war at New York, to adopt plans for the then ensuing cam- paign. But in the midst of his planning he was removed from the command. Colonel Daniel Webb was sent first to take his place, who was to be succeeded by Gen. James Aber- crombie, who in turn was to be succeeded by the Earl of London, who was to be commander- in-chief. The two former came in June, while the Earl came in July.
Shirley, before his removal from command, had appointed John Winslow to lead the ex- pedition against Crown Point, in the summer of 1756.
By the end of May the troops from the dif- ferent colonies had assembled at Albany, and moving up the Hudson, about five thousand strong, encamped at the Half Moon. The men were as raw and untrained as those led by Johnson the year before.
From General Winslow's headquarters at the Half Moon a road led up to Stillwater. Here a detachment of provincials was left in charge of the fort, and the army embarked in boats for Saratoga. Leaving another garrison at Saratoga, they went by the road again to Fort
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Miller Falls, where they again took boats for Fort Edward. From thence it was fourteen miles through the woods to the head of Lake George, where they remained all summer, ac- complishing nothing.
While General Winslow's army lay inactive at Lake George, during the summer of 1756, numerous scouting parties of French and In- dians from Crown Point went prowling around the forts at Saratoga, Stillwater, the Half Moon, and even as far south as Greenbush, opposite Albany, killing and scalping or taking prisoners of the stragglers, and keeping the garrisons in continual alarm.
In the meantime the English partizan ran- ger, Robert Rogers, and his lieutenants, Stark and Putnam, with their trusty followers, pen- etrated the wilderness to Ticonderoga and Crown Point, and harrassed the French and captured prisoners in turn.
CAMPAIGN OF 1787-MONTCALM AT LAKE GEORGE.
On the 10th of August, 1756, Montcalm in- vested Oswego. He leveled the fortress to the ground, and Oswego was once more a soli- tude. Upon his triumphant return he at once began his preparations for the campaign of the next year. His emissaries were busy all winter among the Indian tribes of the West and North, and at the beginning of summer, in 1757, more than a thousand savages were in camp at Montreal, lured by the prospect of gifts, scalps and plunder. All were eager to see Montcalm, whose exploit in taking Oswego had inflamed their imagination.
On a visit to the General one day an Indian orator from Michillimackinac, addressed him thus :
"We wanted to see this famous man who tramples the English under his feet. We thought we should find him so tall that his head would be lost in the clouds. But you are a little man, my Father. It is when we look into your eyes that we see the greatness of the pine tree and the fire of the eagle."
On the 9th of July Montcalm visited the Mission Indians of the Two Mountains on the
Ottawa, where he gave them a feast, roasting three oxen whole. The next day he visited Caughnawaga, or Saut St. Louis, where the same thing was repeated. With one voice all the warriors of both missions took up the hatchet.
On the 12th of July Montcalm proceeded up Lake Champlain to Fort Carillon, at Ticon- deroga, accompanied by eighteen hundred and six warriors. In addition to the Indians, the French army was composed of three thousand and eighty-one regulars, two thousand nine hundred and forty-six Canadian militia, and one hundred and eight artillery, in all six thousand two hundred and fifteen men. Gen- eral Webb, who was in command of the En- glish forces, upon the 2d day of August dis- patched Colonel Monroe from Fort Edward with his regiment, to rendezvous at and take command of the Fort William Henry garrison, which then numbered two thousand two hun- dred men, four hundred and fifty of whom oc- cupied the fort, and the remainder were posted in the fortified camp on the ground near the fort. General Webb remained at Fort Ed- ward with the main army, amounting to four or five thousand men, which in a few days began to be augmented by the arrival of mili- tia. Upon the third of August Montcalm arrived with his force before old Fort William Henry, which he soon invested. Colonel Mon- roe sent from time to time to General Webb for assistance, but the pusillanimous Webb lay inactive, and paid no attention to his re- quests. Thus the garrison at Lake George held out day after day, expecting relief and reinforcements, but none came.
On the 8th of June General Johnson ob- tained permission of Webb to march to the relief of the garrison, and Putnam and his Rangers volunteered ; but this force had scarcely begun their march when Webb or- dered them to return to their posts. Giving over all hopes of relief, his ammunition now nearly exhausted, Colonel Monroe, on the 9th day of August, signed articles of capitulation.
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The garrison was to march out with the hon- ors of war, retaining their arms and their baggage, and one cannon. Covered wagons were to be furnished for their baggage, and an escort of five hundred men to guard the gar- rison on their way to Fort Edward. A scene now ensued which beggars description and fixes a stain upon Montcalm which dims the lustre of his triumphs. The Indians fell upon the musketeers and butchered them in the most ferocious manner. It is but just to the French, however, to say that they did every- thing in their power to prevent the fiendish mas- sacre ; as savages, when once they have tasted blood, were not to be appeased or controlled. The miserable remnants of this ill-starred gar- rison, after struggling through the woods, reached Fort Edward in small parties, often sleeping in the open air. The number that was massacred on this occasion was never definitely ascertained. Montcalm soon burned the fort and retired with his forces to Ticon- deroga.
CAMPAIGN OF 1758-ABERCROMBIE'S EXPEDITION.
The famous but disastrous expedition of Abercrombie, in the year 1758, has been so often and fully related in our histories that it seems to need but a passing notice here.
As his expedition proceeded up Lake George, on the 5th day of July of that year, the old northern wilderness had never wit- nessed a more imposing and brilliant specta- cle. With banners flying and bands of music sending forth their inspiring strains, more than a thousand boats moved over the broad waters of the Lake, in which were sixteen thousand men, their officers richly dressed in scarlet uniforms, and all joyous in anticipation of the glory they were about to win. Four days afterward, when this army came back, shat- tered, dismayed and sorrow-stricken, it pre- sented a sad contrast. The boats were now filled with their dead and dying. In one of them was Lord Howe, a young nobleman of the highest promise, the idol of the English
army. Of the different corps of this unfor - tunate army, a Highland regiment, commanded by Lord Murry, suffered the most. Of this regiment one-half the privates and twenty-five officers were killed or severely wounded. After reaching the head of Lake George, load after load of these miserable sufferers were brought to Fort Edward, there to breathe out their dying groans, and to mingle their dust with that of the surrounding plains. Dying, they were placed to rest in unmarked and un- remembered graves. Of all that stricken mul- titude buried at Fort Edward, the name and place of only one grave is preserved to the present day. It is the grave of Duncan Camp- bell, of Invershaw, major of the old Highland regiment. Abercrombie remained for some time at Lake George, and finally returned to Albany, his expedition, like so many others, having proved a failure.
CAMPAIGN OF 1759-EXPEDITION OF GENERAL AMHERST.
In 1759 Major Amherst succeeded Aber- crombie as commander-in-chief of the British army in America. In the month of June, at the head of an army of twelve thousand men, he advanced to Lake George. While here he commenced building Fort George, one of the most substantial fortifications ever reared in ' this direction. When passing down the lake to Ticonderoga, General Amherst with his staff, landed on a Sunday upon the beautiful headland which is now so much admired by every one who crosses these waters. Since that day it has borne the name of Sabbath-day point. The French had scarcely two thousand men garrisoned in the fortresses on Lakes George and Champlain. On the 22d of July Amherst invested Ticonderoga without oppo- sition, and the advanced lines, which had been the scene of so much slaughter two years be- fore under Abercrombie, were immediately abandoned by the French. On the 26th of July the French blew up Fort Carrillon at Ticonderoga, and retired down the lake to
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Crown Point, leaving the heavy artillery and twenty men in possession. Amherst soon ad- vanced against Crown Point. On the Ist of August Crown Point was abandoned by the French, and they withdrew down Lake Cham- plain to its northern extremity.
Three days afterward Amherst moved for- ward with his forces and occupied the fort at Crown Point. . Amherst spent the remainder of the season in rebuilding and enlarging the stupendous fortifications at Crown Point, Ti- conderoga and Lake George. The ruins of these forts at the present day are objects of great interest to the tourist. The works alone at Crown Point, it is said, cost the Brit- ish treasury two millions of pounds sterling. It was during the autumn of this year that Quebec was wrested from Montcalm by the victorious Wolf, and the scepter of France over her long-fought-for and much-prized Canadian possessions, fell from her grasp for- ever.
CHAPTER XV.
THE WAR OF THE REVOLUTION-CAUSES OF THE WAR-SITUATION IN SARA- TOGA COUNTY-CAMPAIGNS OF 1775 AND 1776-THE BRITISH PLAN OF THE CAMPAIGN OF 1777-CAUSES OF ITS FAILURE-BURGOYNE'S ARMY.
CAUSES OF THE WAR.
Of a truth, the independence of the Ameri- can colonies, which was brought about by the war of the Revolution, was the true outcome, the sure result of the spirit of liberty and equality which animated the people of the col- onies from the very beginning.
More especially can the evolution of this free spirit be traced in the line of the Pilgrim Fathers of New England, for the New En- gland people, ably seconded by Virginia and the other colonies, were in the front of the fray, and bore the brunt of the contest.
Its seeds were sown and germinated in the
little Separatist congregation which met in 1607 at Scrooby Manor, in Lincolnshire, En- gland, the birthplace of the Pilgrim Fathers. Under the heavy hand of royal British perse- cution it was carried by this little band to free- dom-loving Holland, where it took deeper root, and thence across the ocean in the May- flower to Plymouth Rock. Our republic is the bright consummate flower.
Yet not less in the other colonies than in New England was this free spirit manifested in colonial times. The long and bitter con- troversies in Virginia, Pennsylvania and New York, which arose between their respective governors, who represented the Royal prerog- ative, and their legislative bodies, who repre- sented the people, bear striking witness to the existence of this free spirit.
But more than this, a hundred years or more before the war broke out, the principal col- onies in their fundamentals and bills of rights, had declared in the clearest terms the princi- ple of "No taxation without representation."
At the close of the Seven Years War by the peace of Paris, in 1763, in which the colonies in America played so important a part, and which resulted in the conquest of Canada, England found herself burdened with a debt which she could scarcely ever hope to pay. In her distress she resolved to tax the colo- nies, and in doing this, Parliament assumed the most arbitrary power over them.
From the year 1764- the very next year after the peace of Paris-to the year 1775, the British Parliament, in many offensive and arbitrary ways, directed its efforts to the end of depriving the colonies of their liberties, and, in violation of their constitutional rights as Englishmen, unlawfully forcing them to contribute to the revenues of the British crown.
The men who at this time managed the po- litical affairs of England, seemed to lack both the wisdom and the moderation which could alone secure to her the benefits of her triumphs in the new world. They were ignorant of the geography of the country, as well as of the
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character of its inhabitants. Neither were they familiar with the history of the country, nor did they comprehend the drift of the opin- ions which prevailed there.
The people of the colonies demanded equal- ity with their fellow subjects, not as a favor, but as a right. Therefore the offensive and arbitrary measures of the British Parliament. met with a most spirited and determined re- sistance on the part of the colonists.
The first offensive measure adopted by Par- liament was what is known as the "Sugar Act," passed May 5, 1764. This act laid a duty on many articles that were imported into the colonies, and among others upon all sugars. This was looked upon as sacrificing the inter- ests of the northern colonies for the benefit of the interests which Parliament had in the West Indies.
But this was soon followed by a still more obnoxious measure. On the 22d day of March, 1765, the "Stamp Act," having before received the assent of both houses of Parliament, re- ceived the royal signature. This measure laid the foundation of the American Revolution.
To give in further detail the events which followed, culminating in open rebellion against the British power, would hardly be within the scope of this work ; suffice it to say in a gen- eral way, that the arbitrary measures of the colonial governors, the arrival of the military force, the misrepresentation of the acts of the colonists abroad, the refusal to hear their pe- tition, the popular combinations against im- porting British goods, the struggle in the Bri- tish Parliament between governmental policy and patriotism, the ever-memorable and ever- glorious protests against oppression by colo- nial legislatures, the collisions of the soldiery with the people, the firm and persistent op- position to the usurpations of chartered rights, the destruction of the tea in Boston harbor, the holding of county meetings and conven- tions, the institution of committees of safety and correspondence ; all these events and others of like import, indicating that a spirit
of nationality as well as a love of civil liberty were taking deep root on American soil, pre- pared the way for the War of Independence.
II .- THE SITUATION IN WHAT IS NOW SARATOGA COUNTY.
At the breaking out of the war, in 1775, what is now the county of Saratoga, the reader will bear in mind, formed a part of the county of Albany. At the time of the first division of Albany county, by the act of the legislature which set off Tryon and Charlotte counties, passed March 24, 1772, the territory which is now Saratoga county was erected into two districts, viz., the District of Half Moon, and the District of Saratoga. The District of Half Moon included the present towns of Wa- terford, Half Moon and Clifton Park. The District of Saratoga included all the other seventeen towns of the county as they now are. In 1775 the District of Saratoga was divided, and the present towns of Ballston, Wilton, Charlton, Galway, Providence, Edin- burg and a part of Greenfield, were made into the District of Balls-town. Thus the county remained divided into three districts until the war was over.
The first committees of safety and corres- pondence for Saratoga county, appointed while it was still divided into two districts, were as follows, viz. : for the District of Half Moon, Guert Van Schoonhoven, Isaac Fonda, Wil- helmas Van Antwerp and Ezekiel Taylor ; for the District of Saratoga, Harmanas Schuy- ler, Cornelius Van Veghten and Cornelius Van- denburg.
1II .- CAMPAIGNS OF 1775-1776.
The succession of events mentioned above as leading up to the contest were followed in the spring of 1775 by open hostilities in the field. The campaign of 1775, as it may be called, was quite advantageous to the Amer- ican cause. Towards the end of the year the royal troops were successfully resisted and the authority of the crown everywhere defied from Canada to Virginia. The uprising in Lex-
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ington and Concord had been followed by Bunker Hill and the vigorous siege of General Howe's army in Boston. Ticonderoga and Crown Point, the key to the Canadian pro- vinces, had been taken and held, Lord Dun- more driven from Norfolk, and Quebec closely invested by land and water.
But the campaign of 1776 changed matters for the worse. In the beginning of the year, Sir Guy Carleton drove the Americans from Quebec, yet his naval expedition up Lake Champlain during the ensuing summer re- sulted in no material success to the British arms. In the south, the British general, Sir William Howe, carried everything before him, and the Americans were saved from almost to- tal disaster by the consummate generalship of Washington at Trenton, near the close of the year. Thus the fortunes of war could hardly be said to favor the Americans at the close of the year 1776, and the campaign of 1777 was looked forward to with great anxiety and many fore- bodings by the struggling colonists.
IV. - THE BRITISH PLAN OF THE CAMPAIGN OF I777.
In the meantime, the British cabinet was al- most exclusively engaged in concerting means and measures for the re-establishment of the royal authority, and to this end had resolved upon the employment, if necessary, of the whole force of the realm.
To further their projects they called into their councils Gen. John Burgoyne, who had already been engaged in active service in America, near Boston and on Lake Cham- plain in 1776, and invited him to submit his views as to the military operations of the sum- mer of 1777.
These views General Burgoyne submitted in a paper entitled " Reflections upon the war in America." His favorite project therein set forth was the one so often foreshadowed in the French and Indian wars : "That of an expedi- tion from Canada into the heart of the disaf- fected districts." His project, with some
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