USA > New York > Schoharie County > History of Schoharie county, and border wars of New York > Part 44
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No sooner did the prisoner seize the glass, than a ray of hope entered his bosom, and with the frail assistant he instantly set about regaining his liberty. He commenced severing the rope across his breast, and soon it was stranded. The moment was one of intense excitement ; he knew that it was the usual custom for one or more of an Indian party to keep watch and prevent the escape of their prisoners. Was he then watched ? Should he go on, with the possibility of hastening his own doom, or wait and see if some remarkable interposition of Providence might save him ? A monitor within whispered, "Faith without works is dead," and after a little pause in his efforts, he resumed them, and soon had parted another strand ; and as no movement was made, he tremblingly cut another ; it was the last, and as it yielded he sat up. He then was enabled to take a midnight view of the group around him, in the feeble light reflected from the moon through a small window of a single sash. The enemy still ap- peared to sleep, and he soon separated the cord across his limbs. He then advanced to the fire and raked open the coals, which re- flected their partial rays upon the painted visages of those mis- guided heathen, whom British gold had bribed to deeds of damn- ing darkness ; and being fully satisfied that all were sound asleep, he approached the door.
The Indians had a large watch dog outside the house. He cautiously opened the door, sprang out and ran, and as he had anticipated, the dog was yelling at his heels. He had about twenty rods to run across a cleared field before he could reach the woods: and as he neared them he looked back, and in the clear light of a full moon, saw the Indians all in pursuit. As he neared the forest, they all drew up their rifles and fired upon him, at which instant a strong vine caught his foot and he fell to the ground. The volley of balls passed over him, and bounding to his feet, he gained the beechen shade. Not far from where he entercd, he had noticed the preceding evening a large hollow log, and on coming to it, he sought safety within in. The dog, at first, ran several rods past the log, which served to mislead the
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HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY,
party, but soon returned near it, and ceased barking without a vi- sit to the entrance of the captive's retreat.
The Indians sat down over him, and talked about their prison- er's escape. They finally came to the conclusion that he had either ascended a tree near, or that the devil had aided him in his escape, which to them appeared the most reasonable conclusion. As morning was approaching, they determined on taking an early breakfast and returning to the river settlements, leaving one of their number to keep a vigilant watch in that neighborhood for their captive until afternoon of the following day, when he was to join his fellows at a designated place. This plan settled, an Indian proceeded to an adjoining field, where a small flock of sheep had not escaped their notice, and shot one of them. While enough of the mutton was dressing to satisfy their immediate wants, oth- ers of the party struck up a fire, which they chanced, most unfor- tunately for his comfort, to build against the log, directly opposite their lost prisoner. The heat became almost intolerable to the tenant of the fallen basswood, before the meat was cooked-be- sides, the smoke and steam which found their way through the worm holes and cracks, had nearly suffocated him, ere he could sufficiently stop their ingress, which was done by thrusting a quantity of leaves and part of his own clothing into the crannies. A cough, which he knew would insure his death, he found it most difficult to avoid : to back out of his hiding place would also seal his fate, while to remain in it much longer, he felt conscious, would render his situation, to say the least, not enviable.
After suffering most acutely in body and mind for a time, the prisoner (who was again such by accident,) found his miseries al- leviated when the Indians began to eat, as they then let the fire burn down, and did not again replenish it. After they had dis- patched their breakfast of mutton, the prisoner heard the leader caution the one left to watch in that vicinity to be wary, and soon heard the retiring footsteps of the rest of the party. Often during the morning, the watchman was seated or standing over him. Not having heard the Indian for some time, and believing the hour of his espionage past, he cautiously crept out of the log ; and find-
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ing himself alone, being prepared by fasting and steaming for a good race, he drew a bee-line for Fort Plank, which he reached in safety : believing, as he afterwards stated, that all the Indians in the state could not have overtaken him in his homeward flight.
The events of the year 1781, are among the most important during the war, and gave the seal to American independence. In the early part of the year, the southern states became the thea- tre of war, and Gen. Greene, who had succeeded Gates after his southern disasters, aided hy Morgan, Lee, Marion, Sumpter, and other brave officers, fought many battles with skill and alternate success to the American arms. On the 19th of January, Gene- rals Greene and Morgan met and defeated, with an inferior numeri- cal force, mostly militia, Col. Tarleton with the flower of the Brit- ish army. Not long after, Lee and Pickens-the latter a militia officer-fell in, by accident, near the branches of the Haw river, with a body of royalists on their way to join Col. Tarleton, and killed upwards of two hundred of their number. On the 15th of March, Gen. Greene met Lord Cornwallis near Guilford Court House, and although victory several times perched upon the spangled banner, the Americans were finally compelled to retreat-with a loss, however, less than that of the victors. On the 25th April, the battle of Camden was fought, between the armies under General Greene and Lord Rawdon, when fortune again showed herself a fickle goddess-siding, in the latter part of the action, with the foes of freedom. The killed and wounded on each side was be- tween two and three hundred. The vigilance of the prudent though daring Greene, and the spirit with which the British were every where met at the south by the yeomanry of the land, caused them, by the early part of June, to abandon nearly all of their line of military posts in the Carolinas, and concentrate their forces. Probably in no other section of the union were the friends of lib- erty and royalty more equally divided : or was a spirit of bitter acrimony and rancorous hostility more vividly manifested during the war, than in the Carolinas in the summer of 1781. Indeed, many of their most valuable citizens were sacrificed in a spirit of partisan strife or retaliation. The last important engagement in
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HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY,
South Carolina, took place on the 8th of September, at Eutaw Springs, between the troops under Gen. Greene and Lieut. Col. Stewart. This was one of the most bloody battles during the war for the numbers engaged, and was fairly won by the Ameri- cans ; but in their retreat, a body of the British entering a large brick house, kept their pursuers in check until the officers could rally the fugitives : who returned to the charge, and in turn com- pelled the Americans to retreat ; which was done in good order, and the wounded borne from the field. The armies were each 2000 strong when the action began. The Americans lost in killed and wounded 550 men, and the enemy about 700.
Early in the season the traitor Arnold was sent with an army into Virginia. In this expedition, Arnold destroyed, by confla- gration and otherwise, much property, public and private, at Rich- mond, Westham, Smithfield, and some other places. While the traitor was thus serving his new master, Washington concerted a plan for his capture-but the French fleet not co-operating with Gen. Lafayette, to whom was entrusted the enterprise, it proved abortive. Arnold was soon after superseded by Gen. Phillips, who sailed up James river, destroying much property at Boswell's Fer- ry, City Point, Petersburg, and Manchester.
In May, a project was formed by Gen. Washington and other officers assembled at Wethersfield, Connecticut, to attempt the re- covery of New York city. The French fleet, under Count de Grasse, expected to co-operate by water, arriving in Chesapeake bay, the contemplated siege of New York was abandoned, and the capture of Lord Cornwallis, who was strongly fortified at Yorktown, undertaken. The seige of the place began about the 1st of October, and on the 19th, Cornwallis and his army of eight or nine thousand men, surrendered themselves prisoners of war to the American and French armies, with a park of 160 pieces of artillery, mostly brass. The enemy's naval force in the harbor was assigned to the Count de Grasse, and the land forces to Gen. Washington. The loss of a second entire army inclined Britain to think of making a peace. This great victory was celebrated
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throughout the Union with festivals and rejoicings, and a day of national thanksgiving was appointed.
The destination of the American army was so judiciously con- cealed from Sir Henry Clinton, commanding at New York, that Washington was treading a southern soil when that officer sup- posed him in his own neighborhood.
A fact attendant on the capture of Cornwallis, deserves a no- tice. It was the usual custom in the Revolution, when one army was vanquished by another, to have the standards borne by lieu- tenants and transferred to officers of the same rank. At the sur- render of the troops at Yorktown, it was observed that the British flags were in the hands of orderly sergeants. Two officers of that grade, James Williamson of the New York, and a man named Brush, of the Connecticut troops, were quickly selected to perform this honorable duty, in consideration of services rendered during the seige, to evidence which each wore on his person the soldier's mark of honor. The British army passed between files of Ame- rican troops, and as the standards reached Williamson and Brush, they received, furled, and laid them down. When the first stan- dard-bearer reached Williamson (from whom these facts were de- rived) he was ordered by him to halt. " Sir," said he, " I will receive your standard." The British orderly at first hesitated, and seemed not a little surprised that he was to deliver it to a knotted officer, but with a very graceful salute he presented it and passed on. The old veteran remarked that he had quite a pile of British flags when the vanquished army had all passed. It was after- wards supposed that the enemy designed, by delivering their en- signs through non-commissioned to subaltern officers, to cast a slur upon the stars of America .*
* The following anecdotes were attendant on the march of the American army to and from Yorktown. At Baltimore, one Gregg, who belonged to Col. Cortlandt's regiment of New York troops, was flogged eight hundred lashes. Several complaints having been rendered to the colonel that the soldiers were stealing from each other ; in order to stop the habit effectually, he gave or- ders that the first one guilty of theft should receive fifty lashes for the value of every shilling stolen. A missing shirt was found shortly after in Gregg's knapsack, which two of his fellow soldiers adjudged to be worth two dollars. Poor Gregg was literally flayed. He lingered a long time between life and
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HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY,
Chagrined at the turn affairs had taken at the south, Clinton sent the traitor Arnold on an embassy of destruction to New Lon- don, Ct. Fort Griswold, situated on elevated ground in Groton, on the east side of the Thames, nearly opposite, commanded the
death, but finally recovered. It turned out in the end that a rascally soldier had stolen the garment, and placed it in Gregg's knapsack on purpose to see him flogged .- James Williamson.
Cady Larey one day stole a turkey, and put it in the knapsack of a fellow soldier named Berrian, expecting, no doubt, to feast on it. It was discover- ed, and Col. Cortlandt sentenced Berrian to receive a severe whipping for the theft. His back was bared, and as the lash was about to descend upon it, Larey, conscience-stricken, advanced into the ring and confessed the crime- declaring that if any one deserved a flogging it was himself. The act of con- fession was so manly, that Col. C. forgave them both .- Williamson.
All classes could safely be trusted with secrets in the Revolution. A cheese having one day disappeared in an unaccountable manner in a New England regiment, great search was made for it, but in vain. Among others examin- ed was a faithful negro waiter to one of the officers, who was interrogated, and replied much as follows : "Jack, have you seen any one steal a cheese?" " No, massa ; me no see any one steal chee." " Have you seen a cheese in the hands of any one ?" " No, massa." " Well, Jack, have you seen any cheese?" "Why, ye-ye-yes massa, me see a chee go by, but nobody wid em."- Capt. Eben Williams.
At Baltimore the regiment of Col. Cortlandt embarked in a vessel, and af- ter the troops were all on board, the colonel gave strict orders that no one should go on shore without his permission. The night following, Larey and Berrien, the two soldiers mentioned in another anecdote, yielding to a tempta- tion to violate their officer's commands, which their love of liquor prompt- ed, swam ashore. While returning to the ship, Larey was drowned, but his equally boozy companion was discovered floundering in the water, taken on board, and instantly cited before his commander. He confessed his guilt, and at the mention of his companion's name began to cry. " Why do you cry?" demanded the colonel. "Because poor Larey was drowned," he replied ; "for about his neck was tied a canteen-eh ! of as good brandy as ever a man tasted-eh." The colonel finally forgave Berrian because of his penitence and great sorrow for the loss of his companion and the precious jewel about his neck-but admonished him and his fellow soldiers never to be guilty of another act of disobedience, if they would not share the fate of poor Larey, who could never drink his own brandy .- Williamson.
On the return march of Colonel Cortlandt's regiment from York Town, a gentleman near whose house it had encamped, complained in the evening to Colonel C., that his watch had been stolen by a soldier. Secrecy was en- joined until the troops were paraded to march in the morning, when a rigid search was made of the person and knapsack of every soldier in the regiment, but the search was in vain, and the army moved forward. Some days after, the watch was discovered on the person of a soldier, who was publicly whip-
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city ; and in order to rifle the latter it became necessary to cap- ture the former. For this object, a large body of men under Lt. Col. Eyre were dispatched; but they were repelled with spirit by its inmates, about 120 men, mostly militia, assembled in its vicini- ty. The Americans were too few to resist so large a force, and the works were finally carried; but not until, according to Ar- nold's official account, 48 of the assailants were slain, and 145 wounded, many mortally. Numbers were killed with cold shot thrown from the ramparts. The Americans lost but a few men until after the works were carried and they had grounded their arms, when about seventy of their number were brutally massa- cred, and nearly all the rest wounded ; several are said to have escaped injury by hugging British soldiers, so as to endanger the lives of the latter if those of the former were attempted. One man, who fled from the fort as the enemy entered, was shot at with some others also escaping, and falling uninjured, he remain- ed in the grass feigning himself dead, until the enemy withdrew, when he joined his friends. As Maj. Montgomery entered the fort, (Col. Eyre, his superior, being wounded) he asked who com- manded it. The brave Lt. Col. William Ledyard responded very civilly, "I once had that honor, the command is now yours :" presenting at the same time the hilt of his sword. The brutal major seized it, and with the spirit of a demon, passed it through the vitals of the unarmed giver. An American officer next in command to Ledyard, and standing near him at the time, re- venged the act by cutting down Montgomery, but was in turn slaughtered. The command of the enemy then devolved on Maj. Bromfield. The dastardly example of the officers was followed by an indiscriminate slaughter of the unresisting soldiery. We talk of the savage massacres of Cherry-Valley and Wyoming- here was a more than savage massacre, for it was committed by
ped for its theft. Exhibiting it exultingly afterwards, he exclaimed-" Who would not take a flogging for such a watch as this ?"
When asked how he had managed to conceal the watch, the rogue said he was about to bake a bread-cake as he obtained it, and putting it within the dough, baked it in. The bread was in his knapsack when searched, but no one thought of breaking the loaf to find a concealed treasure .- Williamson.
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a people claiming to be civilized. In vindication of the British character, it has been stated that the Americans continued the fight after they had struck their colors. This however is not true : the flag-staff upon the walls was more than once shot off by the enemy, but the flag was waving above them when they car- ried the fortress. A regiment of militia under Col. Gallup, who witnessed the whole transaction at a distance of one mile from the fort, would not march to its rescue. Had he led his men into the fort, as a sense of duty should have prompted, the British could not have taken it. Ledyard sent a messenger to Gallup to march into the fort to his assistance when the enemy were landing, but the latter pretended not to have received the message. Gallup was tried by court martial for his want of bravery on the occasion, and broken of his office.
The enemy while in possession of the fort, loaded an ox-cart which chanced to be near, with wounded Americans, and started it down the declivity with the intention of running it into the river, but it struck a large apple-tree after gaining considerable velocity, and thwarted their merciless intention. The shock when it struck was tremendous, and several of the bleeding soldiers were killed outright. One Stevens who was in it at the time with a broken thigh, and was nearly killed by the shock, afterwards stated no one could conceive the acuteness of his suffering when the cart struck the tree. The enemy after burying their own dead, spik- ing or destroying the cannon, and laying a train of powder to the magazine, left the fort. The explosion was however prevented, as has been stated by some previous writer, by a wounded soldier who crawled upon the train, and saturated it with his own life- blood so that it did not communicate with the magazine. The British burnt New-London, destroyed some shipping in the har- bor, and embarked for New-York. Soon after they left the fort, the Americans in the neighborhood entered it. The former had buried their dead but slightly, with their clothes on. The Ame- ricans, who found it difficult to obtain clothing, dug up their dead foes ; divested them of their apparel ; dug deeper graves, and again buried them ; interring also their fallen countrymen. Facts
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from Mr. Ephraim F. Simms, of Otsego county, who obtained them at the request of the author, from Capt. Peckham Maine, a former resident of that county. The latter, then a lad, entered Fort Griswold soon after the enemy left it, and aided in stripping and burying the dead.
A patriotic old lady is still living in the vicinity of this fort, or was but recently, who was in it at the time it fell into the hands of the British, of whom the following anecdote is related. As the enemy were approaching the fortress, one of the guns was about to become useless for the want of wadding; when our heroine loosening a flannel petticoat on her person, threw it to the cart- ridge-man with the exclamation, " this will enable you to fire a few shots more !" The garment was torn up, and the gun con- tinued its fearful execution upon the foeman. In consequence of the patriotic deed related, this old lady has been visited by many distinguished individuals, among whom, if I mistake not, are num- bered several Presidents of the United States .- Rev. J. M. Van Buren.
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CHAPTER XVII.
Although the preceding year had closed with a cessation of hos- tilities, predatory border enterprises were continued during the summer of 1782.
Christopher P. Yates, Esq., who was one of the best informed and most efficient patriots in the Mohawk valley, in a letter dated " Freyburg, 22d March, 1782," written to Col. H. Frey,* a broth- er-in-law, respecting timber, thus observes :
" We have already had three different inroads from the enemy, which you have doubtless heard before. The last was at Bow- man's kill, from whence they took three children of McFee's fami- ly. If they act upon the same principle as the last year, which from their conduct is evident, their intention in coming to the creek so early was to clear it of all inhabitants, that they might pass unobserved. I fear that in the course of the present year they will infest us chiefly on the south side of the river, and in small parties : for this reason I think our bush to be in more danger than it has yet been. God grant that I may be wrong."
* Col. Stone in the Life of Brant, speaking of the acts of the first meeting of the Palatine district, thus observes-" The original draft of the proceed- ings of that meeting is yet in existence, in the hand-writing of Colonel Hen- drick Frey, a patriot who lived to a great age, and is but recently deceased." " This," says the memoranda of H. F. Yates, " is a total and entire mistake. The draft was made by Christopher P. Yates, and is in his hand writing. Col. Stone meant John, instead of Hendrick Frey. The latter was a tory, and was one of the disaffected sent by the Tryon County Committee to Hart- ford, Connecticut. The whole of those papers, [the early correspondence of the Tryon County Committee, ] were drawn and written by C. P. Yates. He was the only scholar among them ; and was a man of strong mind, much reading, and a very forcible writer. He was the competitor at the bar of Montgomery County, of the late Abram Van Vechten, from the year 1787, till the Legislature by law, prevented the clerks from practising law in their re- spective counties."
As in the Schoharie, so it was in the Mohawk valley in the Revolution.
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HISTORY OF SCHOHARIE COUNTY, ETC.
In the spring of this year, a party of fifteen Indians proceeded by a circuitous route through the Schoharie settlements, without committing any hostile act to Beaver-dam, Albany county, where was a small settlement, a grist-mill, &c. The settlers were most- ly tories in this vicinity, except the Dietzes and Weidmans. To destroy the family of Johannes Dietz, an old gentleman who lived between the mill and a Scotch settlement at Rensselaerville, was the especial object of the invaders in making their tedious jour- ney. The family consisted of the old gentleman and his wife, his son Capt. William Dietz and wife, four children of the latter, a servant girl, and a lad named John Bryce, whose parents lived at Rensselaerville.
The enemy arrived at Dietz's just before night, and surprised and killed all the family, except Capt. Dietz and young Bryce, then 12 or 14 years old. Robert Rryce, a brother of John, 11/ years old, had been sent on horseback that day to the mill at Bea- ver-dam with a grist, in company with several other lads on the same errand. Their grain was ground, but as it was nearly sun-
Many of the most influential families were not only related to each other, but were often divided in their political opinions ; and not unfrequently members were found in hostile array. Major Frey had a brother named Bernard, who joined the enemy, and with some of his former neighbors of the Mohawk valley, doubtless assisted in desolating portions of it. Colonel Hendrick Frey married a sister of General Herkimer, and his patriot brother, Major Frey, married another relative of the General. The wife of Christopher P. Yates was the youngest sister of the Freys named. The Finks, Coxes, Klocks, Bellingers, Parises, Feeters, Nellises, Foxes, Groses, Eckers, Wagners, Seebers, Helmers, Eisenlords, Snells, (seven men of this name were killed in the Oriskany battle .- Jour. of N. Y. Congress,) Nestells, Sprakers, Zielies, Van Alstynes, Roofs, Van Slycks, Dievendorfs, Fondas, Veeders, Visschers, Harpers, Putmans, Quackenbosses, Van Eppses, Wemples, Hansons and Groats were also among the patriotic German and Dutch citizens of the Mohawk valley ; not a few of whom were connected by ties of consanguinity.
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