USA > New York > Saratoga County > History of Saratoga County, New York : with historical notes on its various towns > Part 14
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BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY
John McCrea, was given the important post of colonel commanding the 13th, or Saratoga regiment, but the Jones' adhered to the royal cause. One of them, John, was married, and when the war broke out, was settled three miles north of Sandy Hill, at what is now called Moss street, near whose house General Frasier was encamped at the time of the tragedy. In the fall of 1776 Jonathan and David Jones raised a company of fifty men, under pretext of reinforcing the American garrison at Ticon- deroga, but on their march they passed by the American fort, and joined the British at Crown Point, fifteen miles further down the lake. In the winter following, Jonathan and David Jones both went to Canada, and were commis- sioned in the British service - Jonathan as captain, and David as lieutenant, in the same company - and at the time of the invasion they accompanied the army of Burgoyne as pilots and guides against their own countrymen.
In the summer of 1777 Jeannie McCrea was about twenty-three years of age, of medium stature, finely formed, distinguished for the profusion of her dark hair, and celebrated for more than common beauty. Tradition says that between her and David Jones a tender intimacy had sprung up before they left New Jersey, which was continued after they had settled on the Hudson, and rudely interrupted by the stern events of partisan warfare. The reader will bear in mind that Burgoyne had broken up his headquarters at Whitehall on the 25th of July, and on the 26th his advanced corps was encamped on the "Pitch Pine Plains," four miles north of Fort Edward.
It should also be borne in mind that at that time all inhabitants in the vicinity of Fort Edward had either moved down the river, or if remaining, had sought protection of Bur- goyne, and that there then was only a small garrison of American troops left at Fort Ed- ward, who also moved down the river after Jeannie's death.
But Jeannie, although admonished by her brother, Colonel John, to go down the river,
still remained near Fort Edward. Her heart was with the young lieutenant in the ranks of the rapidly advancing invaders, and woman- like she lingered to await his coming. On the day before her death she proceeded up the river, and crossed over at Jones' ferry. The old ferryman, after the war, often spoke of how well she looked, dressed, as he expressed it, in her wedding clothes. After crossing the river, Jeannie went to the house of Peter Freel (the old " Baldwin House"), which stood close under the walls of the fort, where she remained over night. After breakfast the next morning she went to the house of Mrs. McNiel, which stood about eighty rods north of the fort, on the main road leading to Sandy Hill. Mrs. McNeil had been a warm friend of Jeannie's father in New Jersey, and was a cousin of Gen- eral Frasier, of the British army, and was doubtless then about to seek his protection, otherwise she would have many days before gone down the river.
On the fatal morning, Sunday, the 27th day of July, our people at the fort had sent out a scouting party of fifty men, under command of Lieutenant Palmer, to ascertain the posi- tion and watch the movements of the enemy. This party had followed the plain to a deep ravine, about a mile north of the fort, when they fell into an ambuscade, or met a party of about two hundred Indians, who were on a marauding excursion. The Americans at once turned and fled for their lives toward the fort. The Indians pursued, and shot down and scalped eighteen of their number, including Lieutenant Palmer. The Americans rushed off from the plain, down the hill and across the marsh, near the river, and such as escaped re- turned to the protecting walls of the fort. The Indians shot Lieutenant Palmer near the brow of the hill, and killed the last private still nearer the fort.
At the foot of the hill the main body of the Indians halted, and six of them rushed forward across the low ground to the house of Mrs. McNiel. There the Indians found Mrs. Mc-
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Niel and Jeannie, and seizing them both, hur- ried them as captives across the low ground over which they had come to the foot of the hill, where they joined the main body of sav- ages. At the foot of the hill they placed Jean- nie on a horse, and began their march with the two captive women and the scalps of eighteen soldiers toward Frasier's camp. All their mo- tions were intently watched by the people at the fort, and the Indians had scarcely reached the hill when the report of some guns was heard, and Jeannie was seen to fall from her horse. It was but the work of a moment for the scalping knife, and the dark, flowing locks of poor Jeannie were dangling, all blood- stained, at the belt of an Indian chief. Her body was stripped and dragged out of sight of the fort, and the Indians, with Mrs. McNiel, proceeded on their way to the British camp. That day no one dared to leave the fort. The next day the Americans evacuated Fort Ed- ward, and passed down the river. Before go- ing, however, they sent a file of men in search of the body of Jeannie, and found it near the body of Lieutenant Palmer, about twenty rods from where she had fallen the day before. The bodies were both taken to the fort, and then sent with a small detachment of men in ad- vance of the main body of retreating Ameri- cans to the right bank of the small creek, about three miles below Fort Edward, where they were buried in rude and hasty graves. It is but just to say that another version of the ac- tual manner of Jeannie's death has come down to us, which finds, however, few advocates at the present day. It should be remembered that at the time of her death party spirit ran wild, and both sides did not scruple to exag- gerate facts in their own favor. While Gen- eral Gates seized upon the incident of this tragedy to inflame the passions of the whigs, the loyalists endeavored to make as light as possible of the matter. The other version of the matter above alluded to seems to have originated with those who at the time sympa- thized with the royal cause, and of course,
wished to extenuate the matter as much as possible. The other account is that the In- dians were in turn, after they had taken the two women from the house, pursued by the American troops from the fort, and fired on ; that Jeannie was struck by two or three balls from the American guns, and not shot by the Indians at all. That after she fell, pierced by American bullets, she was scalped by the In- dians, and left dead, as above related. But this account seems to lack confirmation of those, especially eye-witnesses, among the re- treating party of savages themselves. Mrs. McNiel did not know that Jeannie was killed until she had reached Frasier's camp. On their way to Frasier's camp the Indians stopped at William Griffin's, and showing their scalps, said they had killed Jeannie. But what seems the strongest evidence of the truth of the ver- sion first given is the manner in which Gen- eral Burgoyne treated the subject. Upon hearing of the affair, Burgoyne was very an- gry. He called a council of the Indians, de- manded that the Indian who had killed Jean- nie should be given up, that he might be pun- ished as his crime deserved. Now, if the In- dians had not killed Jeannie, and she had been accidentally shot by pursuing Americans, they, the Indians, would have said so. In truth, there would have been no culprit among them to punish. They themselves were the only ones Burgoyne could learn the facts of the case from, and after hearing their version, Burgoyne demanded the culprit to hang, but Burgoyne's officers, fearing the defection of the Indians, pursuaded him to change his mind, and let the culprit go.
The death of this maiden seemed to work, in the hands of a wise Providence, a turning point, as it were, of a new era in the world's des- tiny. For from that hour the fortunes of Bur- goyne began to wane, and the Americans, aroused to vengeance by the spilling of her in- nocent blood, began at once their march to glory and to victory. It was but ten days after, on the 6th of August, that General Her-
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kimer and his gallant band of Tryon county men fought the bloody battle of Oriskany, and thereby arrested the progress of Colonel St. Leger in the Mohawk valley, thus preventing his union with Burgoyne. And it was only ten days after Oriskany that Colonel Baum was beaten at Bennington. On the 6th of August the German troops marched from Fort Ann and encamped at the cross road two miles above Fort Edward.
On Sunday, August 10, the 53d regiment was ordered back to garrison Ticonderoga, and the 62d to join Lieutenant-Colonel An- struther at Fort George. In Hadden's jour- nal is an entry as follows : " On August 13th- General orders- The army marches to-mor- row by the right in one column to Fort Mil- ler." On the same day General Frasier marched forward to the mouth of the Batten Kill, nearly opposite Saratoga. Then came the following entry in Hadden's journal : "August 20. - A deserter shot, and a reward of one hundred dollars offered for the discovery of an emissary of the enemy enticing men to desert." On the 3d of September the park of artillery came in from Fort George, and the additional com- panies, about three hundred men, arrived in camp from Canada. Again we find in Had- den's journal : "Saturday, September 13 .- The advanced corps and right wing of the army, with all the artillery, crossed the Hud- son river on a bridge of batteaux, near Batten Kill, and encamped at Saratoga. We began our march at two in the afternoon, the left wing remained on the opposite side of the river, occupying General Frasier's old fort near the Batten Kill." The army remained at Sar- atoga until the 15th. Hadden's journal con- tinues : "September 15 (continued. )- Agree- able to this day's order, the army marched and the bridge was broken up. We halted and encamped in one line at a farm called Dovegat, nearly three miles from our former ground. Wednesday, September 17th .- The army marched to Sword's farm (three and a half miles). The army being arrived at Sword's
farm encamped enpotence, the left flank being secured by the river."
During the 18th the army remained at Sword's farm, two miles north of Freemen's farm, where the decisive battles of the cam- paign took place on the 19th and on October 7th. The next entry in Hadden's journal chronicles the advance of the army into bat- tle : "Friday, September 19th. - Between nine and ten o'clock in the forenoon the army advanced in three columns, agreeable to for- mer orders."
II. - THE AMERICAN ARMY.
Now let us leave for the moment Burgoyne and his army of invasion, and see what the Americans under General Gates had been do- ing all this time by way of defense. As above stated, the American army, after leaving the mouth of the Mohawk on the 8th of Septem- ber, marched up the Hudson and encamped at Bemus Heights, at a point about four miles south of Sword's farm, where Burgoyne re- mained over the 18th. At Bemus Heights the bordering hills crowd down almost to the bank of the Hudson, leaving but a narrow de- file to be defended, and this point was selected by Kosciusko as the best for defensive opera- tions. Under his direction a line of entrench- ments was thrown up, reaching from the river half a mile westerly, over the hills to what is now called the "Neilson House." The right wing occupied the hillside near the river, protected in front by a marshy ravine and an abatis.
The left wing, in command of General Arnold, occupied the height to the west - Bemus Heights proper. The headquarters of General Gates was near the center, a little south of the Neilson house. Thus were the two armies situated, about four miles apart, on the morning of the battle.
On the 23d of August Colonel Morgan's reg- iment of riflemen had arrived from Virginia. The army was largely made up of men from New England.
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OLD BATTLE WELL, FREEMAN'S FARM. DESPERATE FIGHTING FOR POSSESSION, SEPTEMBER 19TH AND OCTOBER 7TH, 1777.
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III. - THE BATTLE GROUND.
Between the two hostile armies thus quietly sleeping on that pleasant autumn morning, stretched about four miles of primeval forest, with four or five little clearings of a dozen acres in extent, in the centre of which was the deserted log cabin of the settler. Down the slope of the hill ran several small streams into the river, each of which had worn through the yielding clay banks of the hills a deep ravine, in its passage through the forest. Their ravages made it difficult for an army to march over the ground. Freeman's farm was one of the little clearings above spoken of, situate about a mile west of the river, mid-way between the two armies. To reach it, Bur- goyne had to cross two ravines and the Amer- cans one. There were two log huts in the clearing on Freeman's farm. On the morning of the 19th, while the British columns were in motion, these log dwellings were occupied by a detachment of Morgan's riflemen. It was the intention of General Gates to remain quietly in his camp and await the attack of the British ; but Arnold was impatient to meet the enemy in the woods, half way. Arnold's importunity prevailed, and he was sent off at the head of a part of the infantry and Mor- gan's rifle corps to meet the advancing British.
IV. - THE BATTLE OF SEPTEMBER 19.
About one in the afternoon the centre col- umn of the British under Burgoyne fell in with the pickets at the log house on Freeman's farm. This was the beginning of the action. The pickets were driven back, and Arnold, at the head of his men, advanced to sustain them. On his way Arnold met Frasier, who had marched around from the British right with his grenadiers and light infantry to the westward of Freeman's farm, and a bloody battle ensued, which lasted for more than an hour. At some places on the field, it is stated, the blood was ankle deep, suchi was the car- nage. At length Frasier was reinforced, and Arnold retired. . In the meantime the troops
of Burgoyne's division formed in order of bat- tle on the field of Freeman's farm, and a large body of the Americans advanced to attack them. At three o'clock the action became general, close and bloody. The struggle of the com- batants was for the possession of the clearing. The 20th, 21st and 62d regiments under Brig- adier General Hamilton were headed by Bur- goyne in person. For six times in succession on that bloody afternoon were detachments of Con- tinentals hurled against the British column, and as many times driven back under the protection of the surrounding woods. Thus the battle swayed back and forth across the bloody fields like the waves of the stormy sea till dark- ness put an end to the contest. Each side was repeatedly reinforced; toward night the timely arrival of the Germans saved the Brit- ish from defeat. Captain Pausch, in com- mand of the German artillery in this action, in his journal, translated by Col. William L. Stone, gives this account of it: "Under a shower of the enemy's bullets I safely reached the field just as the 21st and the 9th were about to abandon it. Nevertheless I continued to drag my two cannons up the hill, while Gen- eral Phillips exhorted the English regiments and the officers their men to face the enemy. The entire line of the regiments faced about, and by their faithful assistance one cannon was soon on top of the hill. I had -shells brought me and placed by the side of the can- non, and as soon as I got the range I fired twelve or fourteen shots in quick succession into the foe."
The British forces of Burgoyne's central division were eleven hundred strong when they went into the field. More than five hun- dred of these were among the killed, the wounded, and dying. The American loss was between three and four hundred.
After the battle of Freeman's farm the Brit- ish under Burgoyne remained masters of the field, yet after all the real victory was with the Americans. They had forever barred the fur- ther progress of the British. Almost without
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discipline, without necessary equipment, want- ing in almost everything which goes to the effectiveness of an army in the field, save brawny arms and brave hearts, the American troops, fresh from the workshop and the plow, had, by their wondrous fighting qualities, when engaged in close conflict with veteran European soldiers, covered themselves with glory. After each assault upon the British column the Americans carried their dead and wounded from the field, except the last. Those who fell in the last onset were left on the ground until the dawn of the next day. In the early morning light the Indians, who were still with the British, went out, plundered and scalped the American dead, doubtless with their tomahawks killing the wounded and dying, thus, by their atrocious barbarity, in- tensifying the ghastly horrors of the bloody field.
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE WAR OF THE REVOLUTION (Contin- ued) - BURGOYNE'S FATAL DELAY AF- TER THE BATTLE-THE BATTLE OF THE 7TH OCTOBER -THE BURIAL OF FRASIER- BURGOYNE'S RETREAT.
I .- GENERAL BURGOYNE'S FATAL DELAY.
On the morning of the 20th the Americans expected another attack. Had it been made, Burgoyne would, without doubt, have achieved an easy victory. The left wing of the Ameri- cans, under Arnold, had expended all their ammunition in the battle of the 19th. This was a secret, it seems, only known to General Gates. A supply was hastily sent for, which arrived the next day from Albany, and the in- tense anxiety of the General was relieved.
But the British army was too much shat- tered by the battle of the 19th to make an- other attempt so soon to turn the American intrenchments on Bemus Heights; so Bur- goyne determined to simply hold his position
and await events. This was his fatal error. During his long delay until the 7th of October, the American army was reinforced by thous- ands, and soon became too formidable to be successfully resisted by Burgoyne. So Bur- goyne remained in the field and threw up a line of intrenchments about a mile long, ex- tending from the Hudson, at what is now called Wilbur's Basin, westerly up to and sur- rounding the battle-field on Freeman's farm. These works of the British were made to cor- respond in shape and position to the American works on Bemus Heights.
Thus the two armies lay about two miles apart, hidden from each other's view by a dense primeval forest, broken by almost im- passable ravines, continually harassing each other, and both in continual alarm.
But the situation of the British army grew every moment more critical, waiting in vain for the anxiously expected relief from the lower Hudson, which never came. On the 3d day of October it was placed on short rations.
Through the dense wilderness the British army could go neither to the right nor to the left. To retreat was quite impossible. To advance was to meet a formidable army whose pulse they had already felt to their sorrow. The order of Burgoyne was still imperative : "This army must not retreat."
In the meantime the Americans had not changed the order of their encampment since the last battle. But a disagreement had taken place between Gates, Arnold and Wilkinson. On account of this, Arnold, who had distin- guished himself above all others in the last fight, was suspended from his command by Gates.
In his sore emergency on the 5th day of October, Burgoyne called a council of war. It was a gloomy meeting of those British offi- cers around the council board. The oppres- sive silence of the grim old wilderness sur- rounding them was broken only by the frequent firing of the American pickets as they har- rassed the British lines, and by the dismal
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SARAT CA ..
: RITISH RECOUEN
TO COMMEMORATE
JOHN HARDIN OF MORGANS RIFLE COR
WHO LEDA SUCCES6
RECONNAISSANCE
SEPT. 18.1777-WHO ALSO
& STINGUISHED HIMSELF N THE BATTLES FOUGHT IN THIS GROUND SEPT. 19 AND OOT 7 AND OF WHOM HAS COMMANDING OF IGEN
HLVER LIVED - A BETTER MAN HAS RARELY DIED
ECTED BY HUIS CRFAT ORA
MARTIN D. HARDIN
BALCARRA'S REDOUBT. SUCCESSFULLY ASSAILED BY MORGAN'S RIFLEMEN, OCTOBER 7, 1777. THE GIFT OF MARTIN D. HARDIN.
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OF SARATOGA COUNTY.
howling of the wolves as they gathered in packs to feast on the flesh of the dead. Rie- desel and Frasier advised falling back to their former position on the east side of the Hud- son. Phillips declined an opinion. This gave Burgoyne the casting vote, and he reserved his opinion, he said, " until he could make a reconnoisance in force, to gather forage, and ascertain definitely the position of the enemy and whether it be advisable to attack him."
II .- THE BATTLE OF THE 7TH OF OCTOBER.
On the 7th day of October, 1777, the morn- ing dawned cheery and bright in the old wil- derness of the Upper Hudson valley, but the autumn was swiftly advancing, and already the woodlands had put on their golden and crim- son glories.
At 10 o'clock on this bright morning Bur- goyne left his camp on his reconnoisance in force. He took with him one thousand five hundred men, ten cannon, and Generals Rie- desel, Phillips and Frasier. He marched south- westerly about half a mile from Freeman's farm, and deployed in line on the southern slope of the rise of ground just north of the middle ravine. The road now running north- erly from the Neilson house to Freeman's farm crosses the center of his position. After the British troops formed in line of battle they sat down, and the foragers began to cut a field of grain in their rear. Burgoyne then sent forward to the American camp on Bemus Heights Captain Frasier's Rangers, with a body of Canadian Indians. This scouting party had a smart engagement in front of the American intrenchments, near the Neilson house, of a quarter of an hour, and then retired. This was the only fighting done close up to the in- trenchment on Bemus Heights.
In the British line the grenadiers, under Major Ackland, were posted on the left near- est Freeman's farm; the artillery, under Major Williams, was in the centre, and the extreme right was covered by Lord Balcarras' light in- fantry, under General Frasier.
As on the 19th of September, the faithful sentinel posted by General Gates on Willard mountain soon discovered the movement of the British, and again the Americans marched out to meet them half way.
At half-past two in the afternoon the New York and the New Hampshire troops, under General Poor, marched across the middle ra- vine and up the slope towards the British line, and for half an hour were engaged in a hand- to-hand conflict with the grenadiers under Major Ackland. Then, Major Ackland being badly wounded, the grenadiers broke and fled, leaving their dead upon the ground, " as thick as sheaves upon the fruitful harvest field."
In the meantime Morgan had fallen upon and driven in the British extreme right, and Frasier fell back in the rear and came to the relief of the retreating grenadiers. Inspired by General Frasier, the British rallied, the fierce onslaught of the Americans was re- pelled, and the British again advanced with a loud cheer. De Fonblanque, in his Political and Military Episodes, says:
"It was at this moment that Arnold appeared on the field. He had remained in the camp after being de- prived of his command and stripped of all authority ; and when the Americans prepared for battle he asked permission to serve as a volunteer in the ranks. Gates refused his request, and now his restless spirit chafed as he saw others advancing upon the enemy at the head of those troops which he had formed and led. Eagerly gazing to the front, he listened to the din of the battle until unable to curb his instincts longer, he sprang npon his charger and rushed into the field. In vain did Gates dispatch messengers to recall him. The adjutant-gen- eral, who attempted in person to check his progress, was warned aside by a decisive wave of his sword; and call- ing upon the soldiers, by whom he was known aud trusted, to follow him, he theu himself fell upon the ad- vancing line of British with the reckless fury of a man maddened with thirst for blood and caruage. General Frasier's quick eye saw the danger. Conspicuous wher- ever the fight was thickest, his commauding figure had already become the mark of the American riflemen, and as he rode forward to sustain the staggering column, Colonel Morgan, their commander, called one of his best marksmen, and pointing to the English general, said: 'That is a gallant officer, but he must die. Take post in that clump of bushes and do your duty.' The order was but too well obeyed Frasier was mortally wounded."
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Then it was that the American troops went pouring, in ever-increasing masses, upon the British line. Then, too, the contest became a hand-to-hand struggle. Bayonets were crossed again and again. Guns were taken and re- taken. Again Arnold, at the head of a fresh column of troops, charged upon the British center, carrying all before him.
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