History of Saratoga County, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers., Part 12

Author: Sylvester, Nathaniel Bartlett, 1825-1894
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Ensign
Number of Pages: 780

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THE FLIGIIT OF ST. CLAIR.

Thus on Sunday morning, July 6, 1777, the unfortunate Americans commenced their overland flight. St. Clair, with the main army, directed his course through the Ver- mont towns of Orwell, Sudbury, and Hubbardton, and encamped at evening at Castleton, about twenty-six miles from Ticonderoga. The rear-guard, under the command of Col. Ebenezer Francis, of the Eleventh Massachusetts Regi- ment, left Mount Independence at about four o'clock in the morning, taking the same route as had been taken by St. Clair, and passing onward in irregular order, after a most fatiguing march, rested at Hubbardton, about twenty- two miles from Ticonderoga, and encamped in the woods. These, together with stragglers from the main army, picked up by the way, were left in the command of Cols. Warner and Francis, and there remained during the night, not only for rest but also to be joined by some who had been left behind on the march. The place of encampment was in the northeast part of Hubbardton, near the Pittsford line, upon the farm then owned by John Selleck, not far from the place where the Baptist meeting-house now stands.

As soon as the British perceived the movements of the Americans, Brig .- Gen. Simon Fraser took possession of Ticonderoga, unfurled the British flag over that fortress at daylight, and before sunrise had passed the bridge and Mount Independence, and was in close pursuit of the flying Americans, at the head of a little more than half the ad- vanced corps, and without artillery, which, with the utmost endeavors, it was impossible to get up. Ticonderoga was placed in charge of the regiment of Prince Frederick, under Lieut .- Col. Pratorious, and the Sixty-second British Regiment were ordered to Mount Independence, both regi- ments being under the command of Brig .- Gen. Hamilton, who was directed to place guards for the preservation of all buildings from fire, and to collect all the powder and other stores and secure them.

Without intermission Brig .- Gen. Fraser continued the pursuit of the flying Americans till one o'clock in the after- noon, having marched in a very hot day since four o'clock in the morning. From some stragglers from the American force whom he picked up, he learned that their rear-giard was composed of chosen men and commanded by Col. Francis, " one of their best officers." From some Tory scouts he also learned that the Americans were not far in advance. While his men were refreshing themselves, Maj .- Gen. Riedesel came up with his Brunswickers, and arrange- ments for continuing the pursuit having been concerted, Brig .- Gen. Fraser moved forward again, leaving Riedesel and his corps behind, and during the night of Sunday, the 6th, lay upon his arms in an advantageous situation, three

HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

miles in advance of Riedesel and three miles nearer the rear- guard of the Americans.

THE BATTLE OF HUBBARDTON.

An account of the battle of Ilubbardton, which battle took place on the morning of the 7th of July, is given by Gen. Burgoyne in these words: " At three in the morning Brig-Gen. Fraser renewed his march, and about five his advanced scouts discovered the enemy's sentries, who fired their pieces and joined the main body [of the rear-guard]. The brigadier, observing a commanding ground to the left of his light infantry, immediately ordered it to be possessed by that corps; and a considerable body of the enemy at- tempting the same, they met. The enemy were driven back to their original post. The advanced guard, under Major Grant, was by this time engaged, and the grenadiers were advanced to sustain them, and to prevent the right flank from being turned. The brigadier remained on the left, where the enemy long defended themselves by the aid of logs and trees ; and, after being repulsed and prevented getting to the Castleton road by the grenadiers, they ral- lied and renewed the action, and, upon a second repulse, attempted their retreat to the Pittsford mountain. The grenadiers scrambled up a part of that ascent, appearing almost inaccessible, and gained the summit before them, which threw them into confusion. They were still greatly superior in numbers, and consequently in extent; and the brigadier, in momentary expectation of the Brunswickers, had laterally drawn from his left to support his right. At this critical moment Gen. Riedesel, who had pressed on upon hearing the firing, arrived with the foremost of his columns, viz., the chasseurs company and eighty grenadiers and light infantry. His judgment immediately pointed to him the course to take. He extended upon Brigadier Fraser's left flank. The chasseurs got into action with great gallantry under Major Barney. They [the Ameri- cans] fled on all sides, leaving dead upon the field Col. Francis and many other officers, with upward of two hun- dred men. Above six hundred were wounded, most of whom perished in the woods attempting to get off, and one colonel, seven captains, ten subalterns, and two hundred and ten men were made prisoners. Above two hundred stands of arms were also taken.

" The number of the enemy before the engagement amounted to two thousand men. The British detachment under Brig .- Gen. Fraser (the parties left the day before at Ticonderoga not having been able to join) consisted only of eight hundred and fifty fighting men."

XII .- THE EFFECT OF THE EVACUATION OF TICON- DEROGA.

The fort at Ticonderoga was built by the French in 1756, and taken from them by Gen. Amherst in 1759. Early in 1775 it was taken from the British by Col. Ethan Allen, and upon the approach of Burgoyne was garrisoned by an army of three thousand American troops under command of Gen. St. Clair. It was looked upon as one of the strongest posts in North America, and the colonists confidently hoped and expected that it was a perfect bar to Burgoyne's further progress. But there was a fatal error in its situation, which

had been entirely overlooked or ignored by both the French and American engineers. A little to the south of it was a high rounded eminence-now known as Mount Defiance, then called Sugar Hill-which commanded every corner of the fort. The Americans had supposed it to be impossible to occupy this point with cannon, but the keen military eye of Gen. Fraser, long trained in the artillery practice of Europe, saw at a glance the overshadowing importance of the posi- tion. On the 5th of July, Gen. Fraser, at the head of his light infantry, to the utter astonishment of Gen. St. Clair, appeared in force on the top of Sugar Hill, clearing the ground on the top for the purpose of planting his cannon. The Americans saw at once their fatal error, and compre- hending the full danger of the situation, evacuated the fort in the night time, and at the break of day on the 6th of July the English colors again waved over Ticonderoga.

Bitter was the disappointment of the colonists at the fall of this fort. The order to evacuate was received in the fort with curses and with tears, but there was no alternative. Mount Defiance was already covered with red-coats, planting the batteries that would soon sweep every corner of their works. "Such a retreat," wrote one of the garrison, " was never heard of since the creation of the world." " We never shall hold a post," said John Adams, " until we shoot a general." Burgoyne wrote home: " They seem to have expended great treasure and the unwearied labor of more than a year to fortify, upon the supposition that we should only attack them upon the point where they were best pre- pared to resist." Upon the receipt of the news in England; the king rushed into the queen's apartment, erying, " I have beat them-I have beat all the Americans;" and Lord George Germain announced the event in parliament as if it had already decided the fate of the colonies. After the fall of Ticonderoga, slowly and sullenly the Americans, under command of Gen. Philip Schuyler, retreated towards Fort Edward on the Hudson, fighting the bloody battles of Hubbardstown and Fort Ann on the way. On the 28th of July, Burgoyne arrived at the Hudson river, near Fort Edward, and the Americans evacuated that fort as well as Fort George, at the head of Lake George, and retreating down the river to Stillwater left the whole upper valley of the Hudson above Saratoga in the indisputable possession of the victorious British general. The darkest day of the campaign to the Americans had now come, but it proved to be the darkness which always precedes the early dawn.

Great blame fell upon St. Clair, and greater still upon Gen. Schuyler, and it was not until the fact became apparent that Congress had neglected to garrison and provision Mount Independence and Fort Ticonderoga, that the public clamor against these brave and magnanimous officers subsided. Ticonderoga had been evacuated by the unanimous vote of a full council of war ; yet there were some who boasted that they could tell when that fortress was sold and for how much, while others asserted that Schuyler and St. Clair had both been bribed by Burgoyne, who, it was said, had fired silver bullets into the fort, which were gathered by order of St. Clair and divided between him and Schuyler. One hundred and twenty-eight cannon were lost on that occasion, yet that number, like Falstaff's men, who grew from two to eleven, was exaggerated to three hundred. There were no

HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

artillerymen either slain or captured at that time, but the report was current that not one of them had escaped.

SCHUYLER'S PROCLAMATION.

Soon after Burgoyne had issued his grandiloquent pro- clamation, he on the 10th of July issued another, addressed particularly to the inhabitants of Castleton, Hubbardton, Rutland, Inmouth, Pawlet, Wells, Granville, and of the neighboring districts, also to the people living in the dis- tricts bordering on White Creek, Camdden, Cambridge, etc., calling on them to send from each town a deputation of ten men to meet Col. Skene five days thenee at Castle- ton, in order to secure from him further encouragement, if they had acknowledged allegiance to Great Britain, or, if they had not, to hear the conditions " upon which the per- sons and properties of the disobedient" might yet be spared. In answer to this, Gen. Schuyler, on the 13th of July, ad- dressed a counter-proclamation to the same people, in which, after referring to the scenes which had not long be- fore been witnessed in New Jersey, when the deluded in- habitants, who had confided in British promises, had been treated with the most wanton barbarity, he announced to them that those who should "join with or in any manner or way assist or give comfort or hold correspondence with, or take protection from the enemy," would be considered and dealt with as traitors to the United States.

Many not only refused to notice the warning of Schuyler, but voluntarily remained " within the power of the enemy," and were obliged " to wear a signal in their hats, and put signals before their doors, and also upon their cattles' horns, that they were friends to the king and had stayed on their farms agreeable to Gen. Burgoyne's proclamation." These were known as " protectioners," and in subsequent years suffered many indignities from their neighbors by reason of their Toryism on this occasion.

LETTER TO JOHN WILLIAMS.

Although terribly grieved on account of the failure at Ticonderoga, Gen. Schuyler was indefatigable in his en- deavors to restore confidence to the country which was being foraged and ravaged by Burgoyne's forces, and to learn from prisoners and deserters the condition of Bur- goyne's army. As an instance of the care exercised by this brave soldier, even when surrounded by trials of the severest nature, the following letter, never before published, will serve as a specimen. It was written to Col. John Williams, of White Creek, in answer to a letter of Williams sent by a lieutenant who had in charge a suspicious person named Baker, who had been captured by Williams, and is in these words :

" FORT EDWARD, July 14, 1777.

"SIR,-Your noto of this day has been delivered me by Lieutenant Young. I have examined Mr. Baker and foond him tripping io so many things that I am elearly convinced he is an agent of the enemy, anit sent not only to give intelligence, but to intimidate the inhabitants and induce them to join the enemy. I have closely confioed him, and sball send him down the country. Ile informs me that one John Foster is also gone to the enemy and, as he supposes he will be back in a day or two, I beg be may be made prisoner and sent to me onder a good guard. You must furnish your militia with provisions in the best manner you can, and the allowance will be made for it. I have scouts out in every quarter, and a large body at Fort Ann, and, until

they come away, I am not apprehensive that an attack will be made on White Creck. It would be the height of imprudence to disperso my army into different quarters, unless there is the most evident necessity. . I am, sir, your most humble servant,

" PA. SCHUYLER.

" COLONEL WILLIAMS."

XIII .- BURGOYNE'S ADVANCE.

Slowly and cautiously did Burgoyne proceed in his ad- vance. On the 7th of July his headquarters were at Skenesborough, at the residence of Gen. Philip Skene, where they remained until the 25th of that month, when they were moved forward to Fort Ann. On the 29th they were advanced to the camp at Pitch Pine Plains, near Fort Edward, and the following day Burgoyne watered his horses in the Hudson at Fort Edward, and the best period of his campaign was over.

CHAPTER XV.

THE SECOND PERIOD OF THE BURGOYNE CAMPAIGN.

I .- JEANIE McCREA.

THE second period of the Burgoyne campaign opens in the darkest hour of the American cause. The progress of the British army down along the old war-trail of the great northern valley had thus far been a series of triumphis. The Americans had been dislodged from their stronghold at Ti- conderoga, where they had fondly hoped that the tide of in- vasion could be stayed, and, defeated in every action, and driven from post to post, had virtually abandoned the fiekl of the upper Hudson. Not a single ray of light had yet illumined the gloom that had settled over every American home in the land.

It was in this dark hour of the deepest despondeney that an event occurred on the banks of the Hudson, at Fort Ed- ward, of itself of seeming insignificance,-simply the death of a single maiden caused by savage hands,-yet really one of those important events which, in the hands of a wise, overruling Providence, are destined to mark a turning- point,-the beginning of a new era, as it were,-in the world's destiny.

The defeat of Burgoyne in this campaign resulted in the final success of the American arms and in the independence of the colonies. Burgoyne eoukl date the beginning of his disasters with the murder of the maiden, Jeanie McCrea, near Fort Edward, by his savage allies, at noon on Sunday, July 27, 1777. It was but ten days after, on the 6th of August following, that Gen. Herkimer, on the bloody field of Oriskany, turned back St. Leger in his raid down the Mohawk valley, and it was only ten days after the last event, on August 16, that Gen. Stark captured, near Ben- nington, an important detachment sent from the left wing of the British army on a foraging expedition under Major Baum.

About the year 1768 two Scotch families-the MeCreas and the Joneses-came from New Jersey and settled in the woods on the wild westeru bank of the Hudson, near and below Fort Edward.

HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

The Widow Jones came with a family of six grown-up sons, whose names were Jonathan, John, Dunham, Daniel, David, and Solomon. The Joneses took up the farm now known as the Roger place, in Moreau, nearly opposite Fort Edward, being but a mile and a half or so below, and kept a ferry there, then called, and after the war long known, as the Jones' ferry.

The MeCreas settled three or four miles farther down the river, not far from the line of Northumberland. Jeanie MeCrea was the daughter of a Scotch Presbyterian minis- ter, and her mother having died and her father married again, she came to reside with her brother, John MeCrea, on the bank of the Hudson, and thus became a pioncer in the settlement of the old north wilderness. The McCrea brothers were strong adherents of the American cause, and men of standing and influence in the neighborhood. In 1773 her brother, Daniel MeCrea, was the first clerk of the first court held in Charlotte county, by Judge Duer, at Fort Edward, and when the first two regiments-the Twelfth and Thirteenth of Albany county militia-men-were commis- sioned by the committee of safety, in 1775, her brother, John McCrea, was given the important post of colonel com- manding in the Thirteenth or Saratoga Regiment.

But the Joneses adhered to the royal cause. One of them-John-was married, and when the war broke out was settled three miles north of Sandy Ilill, at what is now called Moss street, near whose house General Fraser 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 Ticonderoga, but on their march they. passed by the American ford aud joined the British at Crown Point, fifteen miles farther down the lake.

In the winter following Jonathan and David Jones both went to Canada, and were commissioned in the British ser- vice, -- Jonathan as captain and David as lieutenant in the same company,-and, at the time of the invasion, they ac- companied the army of Burgoyne as pilots and guides against their own countrymen.

In the summer of 1777, Jeanie McCrea was about twenty- three years of age, of middling stature, finely formed, dis- tinguished for the profuseness of her dark and shining hair, and celebrated for her more than common beauty. Tradition says that between her and young David Jones a tender intimacy had sprung up before they left New Jersey, which was continued after they 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 " P'itch Pine Plains," four miles north of Fort Edward.

It should also be borne in mind that at that time all the inhabitants in the vicinity of Fort Edward had either moved down the river for a place of safety, or, if remaining, had sought protection of Burgoyne, and that there then was only a small garrison of American troops left at Fort Edward, who also moved down the river the morning after Jeanie's death.

But Jeanie, although admonished by her brother, Col. John, to go down the river, still remained near Fort Edward.

Womanlike, 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, Jeanie went to the house of Peter Freel (the old " Baldwin house"), which stood close under the walls of the fort, where she stayed overnight. 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. MeNiel had been a warm friend of Jeanie's father in New Jersey, and was a cousin of Gen. Fraser, 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 seouting-party of fifty men, under command of Lieut. Palmer, to ascertain the position and watch the motions of the enemy. This party had followed the plain to a deep ravine about a mile north of the fort, where they fell into an ambuscade, or met a party of about two hundred Indians, who were on a mauranding excursion. The Americans at once turned and fled for their lives towards the fort. The Indians pur- sued, and shot down and scalped eighteen of their number, including the commander, Lieutenant Palmer. The Amer- icans rushed off from the plain, down the hill, and across the marsh near the river, and such as escaped returned to the protecting walls of the fort. The Indians shot Lieut. 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. McNiel and Jeanie, and seizing them both hurried 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 the savages. At the foot of the hill they placed Jeanie on a horse, and began their march with the two captive women and the scalps of the eighteen soldiers towards Fraser's camp. All their motions were intently watched by the people at the fort, and the Indians had searcely reached the hill when the report of some guns was heard and Jeanie 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 Jeanie 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 morning the Americans evacuated Fort Edward and passed. down the river. Before going, however, they sent a file of men in search of the body of Jeanie, and found it near the body of Lieut. Palmer, about twenty rous 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

HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

in advance of the main body of retreating Americans to the right bank of a 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 actual manner of Jeanie's death has come down to us, which finds advocates at the present day.

It should be remembered that at the time of Jeanie's death party spirit ran wild, and both parties did not seruple to exaggerate facts in their own favor. While Gen. Gates seized upon the incident of this tragedy to inflame the pas- sions 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, sympathized with the royal canse, and of course wished to extenuate the matter as much as possible. The other account is that the Indians 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 Jeanie 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 Indian and left dead, as above related. But this account seems to laek the confirmation of eye-witnesses, especially eye-witnesses among the retreating party of savages them- selves. Mrs. McNeil did not know that Jeanie was killed till after she had reached Fraser's camp. On their way to Fraser's camp the Indians stopped at. William Griffin's, and, showing their sealps, said they had killed Jeanie.

But what seems the strongest evidence of the truth of the version first given above is the manner in which Gen. Burgoyne treated the subject. Upon hearing of the affair Burgoyne was very angry. He called a council of the Indians, and demanded that the Indian who had killed Jeanie should be given up, that he might be punished as his crime deserved. Now, if the Indians had not killed Jeanie, and she had been accidentally shot by the 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 of the case, Burgoyne demanded a culprit to hang. But Burgoyne's officers, fearing the defection of the Indians, persuaded him to change his mind and let the culprit go.

In confirmation of what Gen. Burgoyne did on the occa- sion is the following extract from the testimony of the Earl of Harrington, who was a witness before the committee of the British House of Commons during its inquiry into the failure of the Burgoyne campaign, at London, in the year 1779 :*

"Question. Does your lordship remember Gen. Bur- goyne's receiving at Fort Anne the news of the murder of Miss McCrea ?"

"Answer. I do."

"Q. Did Gen. Burgoyne repair immediately to the In- dian camp and call them to council, assisted by Brig .- Gen. Fraser ?"

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History of Saratoga County, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers., Part 12

Author: Sylvester, Nathaniel Bartlett, 1825-1894 Publication date: 1878 Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Ensign Number of Pages: 780

Author: Sylvester, Nathaniel Bartlett, 1825-1894
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Ensign
Number of Pages: 780