USA > New York > Warren County > History of Warren County [N.Y.] with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 7
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HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.
ron Indians, after a march of twenty-two days "along the course of West Canada creek" - a route the course of which is to-day shrouded in doubt, but probably west of the lake, through certain narrow valleys, where evidences of ancient pathways were visible but a few years since - fell upon the defenseless hamlet. But two houses were spared, with fifty or sixty old men, women and children and about twenty Mohawks, "in order to show them that it was the English and not they against whom the grudge was entertained." The French made a rapid but disastrous retreat, suffering from the severe weather and the harassing pursuit of their enemies. This and other assaults at other points so disheartened the people at Albany that they resolved to retire to New York; their course was altered only after a delegation of the brave Mohawks had vis- ited them and reproached them for their supineness, urging them to a courag- eous defense of their homes. This heroic conduct of the Iroquois challenges our admiration ; notwithstanding French intrigues and Jesuitical influence, combined with exasperating English apathy which appeared willing to sacrifice these savage yet noble allies, they adhered to their early allegiance.
Repeated incursions by the French and Indians at last awakened the Eng- lish colonists to the conviction that they must harmoniously unite in their efforts against their enemies if they would succeed. A convention was accord- ingly held in New York in May, 1690, constituted of delegates from Massa- chusetts, Connecticut and New York, at which it was resolved to combine their strength for the subjugation of Canada. Massachusetts engaged to equip a fleet and attack the French possessions by sea, while the other two States should assault Montreal and the forts upon the Sorel. The land forces mustered at Lake George in formidable numbers, embarked in canoes and sailed to Ticon- deroga. Embarking again on Lake Champlain, but little progress was made when the expedition was abandoned through failure in supplies and dissensions in the force. The failure of these efforts and the heavy expenses incurred, left the colonies in a more defenseless situation than before.
In the same year, John Schuyler (grandfather of Philip Schuyler, of Revo- lutionary fame) organized a band of about one hundred and twenty "Chris- tians and Indians" for an incursion into the French possessions. He cau- tiously passed down Lake Champlain and landed in the vicinity of Chambly. Leaving his canoes in safety, he penetrated to La Prairie, far within the line of the French fortresses. The unexampled bravery of the little force contributed largely to its remarkable success. They fell upon the French colonists who were unsuspectingly engaged in their harvest, and in the savage spirit that then controlled such movements, committed young and old alike to slaughter. The "scalps of four women folks " were among the trophies.
In the summer following (1691) Major Peter Schuyler collected a body of about two hundred and fifty whites and Indians, and taking the route followed by John Schuyler, made an attack upon the doomed settlement of La Prairie.
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FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR.
He states in his journal that he left Albany June 2Ist, and marched twenty- four miles to Stillwater. Halting till the 24th, on that day he proceeded to Saraghtoga, a distance of sixteen miles; on the 26th he marched to the first carrying-place (Fort Miller), and thence to the second carrying-place (Fort Edward). On the 28th the march was continued to the last carrying-place, and there they began building canoes. July Ist they built eight canoes, capable of carrying from seven to twelve men. July 9th (quoting Schuyler's journal), " came Gerrard Luykosse and Herman Vedder, from a party of eighty Mo- hawks, at a lake right over Saraghtoga [Saratoga Lake], who went by the way of Lake St. Sacrament,' and promised to meet us in six days at 'Chinandroga'" (Ticonderoga). On the 14th "we removed to the Falls [Whitehall], distant sixteen miles, and then encamped." On the 16th " moved from the Falls, and pitched our tents in the narrows of the drowned lands, twelve miles distant." Proceeding on the 17th they " advanced to Chianderoga, and two hours after met the Mohauques, eighty in number ; after which we fell to making canoes, the Christians having broken two of theirs coming over the falls."
This is the first record known of a military expedition passing through Lake George.
The party reached the objective point of their march, La Prairie, at dawn on the Ist of August. After "saying their prayers," they moved cautiously towards the fort. But, in passing a wind-mill, the miller fired a shot (killing an Indian), which was returned by one of Schuyler's white men, killing the miller in his own door. Before reaching the fort they were met by a party of militia, whom they repulsed ; they next encountered a body of regulars, with whom they had a short but sharp engagement. Falling back a short distance, Schuyler drew up his men in a ditch or disused canal, forming an ambuscade into which the pursuing Frenchmen rushed, meeting with considerable loss, but escaping capture. While these movements were enacting, an officer with a force one-half as large as Schuyler's interposed between the latter and his boats. Forming his men and telling them it was either fight or die, Schuyler ordered an advance. The first volley from the French killed and wounded the greater part of those lost in the expedition. But the case was a desperate one, and a vigorous charge dislodged the French from their position, and the men reached their boats, embarked and arrived at Albany on the 9th of August. The losses were twenty-one killed and twenty-five wounded. The result of
1 Saint Sacrament, literally the Lake of the Blessed Sacrament, which name it obtained in 1646, from Father Jogues, because he passed through it on the Festival of Corpus Christi .- E. B. O'CALLAGHAN. The common impression that the name of the lake was suggested by the singular purity of its water, is erroneous. By the aborigines, it was in one dialect called Caniadere-Oit, or the Tail of the Lake, in reference to its relation to Lake Champlain. - SPAFFORD'S Gazetteer.
By the Iroquois it was named Andiatarocte, " There the lake shuts itself." - Relations.
" Honiton," although redolent with beauty, seems to be a pure poetical fancy. The various names attached, as well to tribes as to places, in the difficult Indian language, often lead to confusion and error. - WATSON.
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HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.
the expedition was fruitless, except so far as it aided in keeping the French settlers in a state of terror.
The Iroquois continued their incursions against the French and were, per- haps, more dreaded by the latter than the English. The French were pre- vented from tilling their lands and a famine ensued, "The poor inhabitants," says Colden, " being forced to feed the soldiers gratis, while their own children wanted bread." The French fur trade was also nearly ruined by the Iroquois, who took possession of the passes between them and their western allies, and cut off the traders. These terrible incursions by the Five Nations exasperated Count de Frontenac, governor of New France, to the last extremity and he determined, if possible, to end them.1 He planned an expedition against the Mohawks to be undertaken in midwinter of the year 1693. He collected a force of between six and seven hundred French and Indians, secretly passed Lake Champlain on the ice, descended into the Mohawk country and captured three of their castles, meeting with resistance only in the last. They retreated with about three hundred prisoners. Major Peter Schuyler, ever the firm friend of the Mohawks, hastily gathered a party of Albany militia and Indians to the number of five hundred, and started in pursuit. So prompt was their action that the fugitives were closely pressed and suffered greatly for food, being compelled " to eat the leather of their shoes." They escaped, however, with a loss of eighty killed and thirty-three wounded.
After vain efforts to negotiate peace with the Iroquois Frontenac made pre- parations for a still more formidable effort to coerce them into submission. In the summer of 1695 he sent a strong force to repair and 'garrison Fort Ca- daraqui, which then took his name. On the 4th of July in the following year he embarked from the south end of the island of Montreal with all the militia of the colony and a large body of Indians, for a destructive incursion against the Onondagas. Although by far the most formidable invasion yet made into the Iroquois country, it was almost fruitless in results, other than the destruction of villages and crops.
The treaty of Ryswick was concluded in September, 1697. While it estab- lished peace between the French and English, it practically left unsettled the status of the Iroquois. The French, while insisting on including their own Indian allies in the terms of the treaty, were unwilling to include the Iroquois, and made preparations to attack them with their whole force; but the English as strenuously insisted on extending the terms to their allies, and Earl Bello- mont informed Count de Frontenac that he would resist with the entire force of his government, any attack on the Iroquois, if necessary. This put an end to French threats.
1 June 6, 1692, the Iroquois entered into a formal treaty of alliance and friendship with Major Rich- ard Ingoldesby, who assumed the gubernatorial office of New York on the death of Col. Henry Sloughter, in July, 1691. Ingoldesby was succeeded by Benjamin Fletcher in August, 1692.
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FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR.
For five or six years after the signing of the treaty at Ryswick quiet pre- vailed in the territory between Albany and Lake Champlain. The breaking out of the war of the Spanish Succession, or, as it was called in America, Queen Anne's War, again plunged the colonies of the two countries into the caldron of contention. Queen Anne ascended the English throne in 1702, and soon afterward found cause to declare war against France. The Five Na- tions, by a treaty of neutrality with the French in Canada, made August 4th, 1701, became a barrier against the savages from the north. But in the east the French induced the Indians to violate a treaty made with the colonists of New England, thus opening a new series of hostilities in that region that soon spread along the whole frontier. For several years ferocious forays occurred in New England and elsewhere. "Remote settlements were abandoned, and fields were cultivated only by armed parties united for common defense."1 Fi- nally this state of affairs became insupportable, and after several fruitless expe- ditions, fitted out chiefly by Massachusetts to chastise the French and their Indian allies for three or four successive seasons, in 1710 an armament of ships and troops sailed for Port Royal (Nova Scotia), which was captured. Acadia was seized and annexed to the English colony. The following year (1711) an English fleet and army arrived at Boston. On the 15th of August fifteen men-of-war and forty transports, bearing an army of 7,000 men, partly composed of New England forces, sailed for the St. Lawrence, under the com- mand of Sir Hovenden Walker. In the mean time Governor Nicholson had proceeded to Albany, where a force of about 4,000, partly composed of Iro- quois Indians, had been concentrated. Walker, inexperienced and "strong in his own conceit," declined to be advised by subordinates better versed, shipwrecked eight of the vessels of his fleet and lost 1,000 of his men on the rocks at the entrance of the St. Lawrence. Discouraged by this he ignobly turned his prow towards England, having first sent the New England men back to Boston. Nicholson, who had begun his march towards Montreal, was overtaken with the news of Walker's disheartening failure, and immediately retraced his route to Albany. Thus ended another enterprise, planned upon a magnificent scale for those days, and mainly owing its disastrous failure to the policy of England of placing officials in command who were every way unfitted for the positions they held.
Hostilities were now suspended, and the treaty of peace at Utrecht 2 be- tween England and France (April 11, 1713) secured peace until 1744.
The Iroquois were now debarred from continuing their incursions upon the northern and western Indians, and their natural inclinations led them south-
1 LOSSING.
2 This treaty " secured the Protestant succession to the throne of England, the separation of the French and Spanish crowns, the destruction of Dunkirk, the enlargement of the British colonies in America, and full satisfaction from France of the claims of the allies, England, Holland and Germany." This treaty terminated Queene Anne's War, and secured peace for thirty years.
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HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.
ward where they chastised their old enemies living in Carolina. While upon this expedition they adopted into their confederacy the Tuscaroras, of North Carolina, who became known as the sixth nation of the Iroquois. They were assigned territory west of and near to the Oneidas.
But in 1731, during this period of peace, M. de Beauharnois, the French governor of the Canadian colony, by the authority of Louis XV, and in vio- lation of the treaties of Ryswick and Utrecht, peoceeded up Lake Champlain and began fortifying Crown Point. As the work was first erected, it was a small wooden fort, scarcely strong enough to resist the weakest artillery; but it was added to and strengthened during the successive years, until, in 1755, it contained space and quarters for five or six hundred men. It was called by the French Fort St. Frederic. Thirty men only formed the first French gar- rison at this point.
This movement startled New York and New England. The assembly of the former resolved that "this encroachment, if not prevented, would prove of the most pernicious consequence to this and other colonies." They sent no- tice of the encroachment to Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Massachusetts, and applied to the board of trade and plantations for aid. While that body would have granted the request, Robert Walpole counseled peace.
The French, upon their occupation of Crown Point, seemed to have antici- pated the apathy of the English that actually followed. Three years later Beauharnois informed his government that he was "preparing to complete" his incipient fortifications. As late as 1747 it had not attained such strength or proportions as to induce the belief that it could not have been recaptured and the garrison with it, at any time since its occupation, by the efforts of any one of the English colonies, had England seen fit to sanction the movement.
To protect Canada from incursions by the Iroquois was the ostensible rea- son advanced by France for erecting the fortress at Crown Point. That there was a deeper purpose is too palpable to need demonstration. So ignorant, or indifferent, or both together, was the English government, to the real situation and its importance, that the lords of trade as early as December, 1738, con- fessed to Governor Clinton their ignorance of the location even of French for- tifications on Lake Champlain. When, soon after, the attention of the French government was called to the violation of the treaty of Utrecht, the response was a denial of " all knowledge of the projected establishment," and the una- vailing assurance that an inquiry on the subject would be made. Meanwhile France, in pursuit of its early policy, was consummating the establishment of trading posts from Canada to the gulf of Mexico.
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FRENCH AND ENGLISH RIVALRY.
CHAPTER VI.
FRENCH AND ENGLISH RIVALRY.
Declaration of War between France and England - Destruction of Saratoga - Indian and French Atrocities - English Apathy - Events of 1747- Treaty of Aix-la-chapelle - Operations by the Eng- lish in 1754 - Hendrick's Speech - The Massachusetts Expedition - Braddock's Campaign - The Movement Against Crown Point - Ticonderoga - Arrival of Dieskau and Vaudreuil - Engagement between Johnson and Dieskau - English Victory - Ephraim Williams's Death - Building of Fort William Henry.
A
GAIN, in 1744, as the result of the rivalries and jealousies of the two na- tions, war was declared between England and France.
At this time the French held possession of the Champlain valley, and had fortified Crown Point and Ticonderoga. In the fall of 1745 an expedition was fitted out at Montreal and placed under the command of M. Marin. The ex- pressed object of this enterprise was to attack and sack certain settlements on the Connecticut River, but it seems that on arriving at Crown Point, or Fort St. Frederic, the party was met by Father Piquet, a French préfet apostolique, who induced M. Marin to change his purpose. Accordingly they proceeded up "Lake Champlain to Wood Creek, crossed the country to the Hudson River, destroyed Lydius's lumber establishment on the site of Fort Edward, and approached the thriving settlement of Saratoga, which they utterly de- stroyed."1 In this massacre about thirty men and women were killed, and fifty or sixty prisoners were taken. But one family escaped. The fort was burned to the ground. The New York Assembly rebuilt it the next year (1746) and named it Fort Clinton. It was then one hundred and fifty feet in length by one hundred in breadth, with several wooden redoubts, which were used as barracks. Its armament consisted of twelve cannon, six, twelve and eighteen pounders.
All through the summer of 1746 small detachments of French soldiers and their Indian allies were dispatched from Montreal, and, proceeding to Fort St. Frederic, halted long enough to make the necessary preparations, and then set out upon the trails leading to the scattered English settlements in the vicin- ity of Albany and westward along the Mohawk River. When we consider the mercilessness and barbarous atrocities perpetrated by these prowling bands, acting under the direct control of the French commandants, and often accom- panied by them, it is not to be wondered at that the American colonists looked upon Fort St. Frederic as a constant menace, and the source from which the enemy were enabled successfully to send out its marauding parties ; and all the time the inhabitants felt their inability to protect themselves against the forays, and burned with indignation against the English government for its
1 LOSSING.
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HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.
apathy and dilatoriness in thus leaving them to suffer at the hands of the re- lentless foe. The following memoranda, from the original French documents preserved in the Documentary History, throws strong light upon the proceed- ings of the French at this time, and may be considered indisputable, as it is their own statement : -
"March 29, 1746. A party set out, consisting of fourteen Indians .... who have been in the country, near Albany, and returned with some prisoners and scalps.
"26th (April). A party of thirty-five warriors belonging to the Soult set out. They have been in the neighborhood of Orange (Albany), have made some prisoners and taken some scalps.
" 27th. A party set out consisting of six warriors, who struck a blow in the neighborhood of Albany.
"May 7. Six Nepissings started to strike a blow near Boston and returned with some scalps.
" Ioth. Gatienonde, an Iroquois, who had been settled at the lake for two or three years, left with five Indians of that village and Lieutenant St. Blein, to strike a blow near Orange. They brought in one prisoner. The leader was killed.
" 12th. Ten Indians of the Soult set out towards Boston and returned with some scalps.
" 22d. Nineteen warriors of the Soult St. Louis have been equipped. They have been made to strike a blow in the direction of Albany.
" 24th. A party of eight Abenakis has been fitted out, who have been in the direction of Corlac [Schenectady] and have returned with some prisoners and scalps.
" 27th. Equipped a party of eight warriors of Soult, who struck a blow near Albany, and brought back six scalps.
" 28th. A party of twelve Nepissings made an attack in the neighborhood of Boston, and brought away four scalps and one prisoner, whom they killed on the road, as he became furious and refused to march.
" A party of Abenakis struck a blow near Albany and Corlac, and returned with some scalps.
"June 2d. Equipped twenty-five warriors, who returned from the neigh- borhood of Albany with some scalps.
"3d. Equipped a party of eighteen Nepissings, who struck a blow at Albany and Corlac.
" 19th. Equipped a party of twenty-five Indians of the Soult, who struck a blow near Orange. One or two of these Indians were wounded. They brought away some scalps.
" 20th. Equipped a party of nineteen warriors of the Soult, who went to Orange to strike a blow.
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FRENCH AND ENGLISH RIVALRY.
"2Ist. Equipped a party of twenty-seven of the same village to go to Al- bany. Sieur De Carquiville, an officer, was of the party, which has brought in a prisoner that was on the scout to Saristeau [Saratoga], and some scalps.
" August 10th. Chevalier De Repentigny arrived at Quebec and reported that he had made an attack near Corlac and took eleven prisoners and twenty- five scalps."
And so on, each succeeding week being but a repetition of the preceding one. The terms of the records are brief, but the miseries and horrors hidden behind the few tame words are more than mind can conceive, or pen can write without shuddering. Cunning, cruel and stealthy, the unfeeling Indians were fit tools in the hands of their unscrupulous employers. It is no wonder that the almost powerless English settlers were driven to desperation, and to a thirst for vengeance.
In 1747 the same methods were employed by the French, only that each succeeding attack seemed to be actuated by a deeper intent of murder and rapine than the one preceding. The terms of the treaties of peace between the parties were utterly ignored, as well in Europe as in the colonies. The original and deep-rooted plan of the French to establish a chain of military posts from Canada to the Mississippi and thence to the Gulf of Mexico, was never relinquished by them, no matter to what extent the text of the treaties they had signed forbade such a proceeding. By all the devices known the In- dians were worked upon to take up arms in their favor, and so successful were they in accomplishing this even questionable military measure, that it is told by writers of the time that the sound of the hammer and saw in the construc- tion of fortifications mingled with that of the rifles of their dark-skinned allies in their murderous depredations against the English settlers.
It was the expressed purpose of the expeditions fitted out by the French at Montreal to " harass, murder, scalp, burn and pillage, and this was what they called war." No doubt by experience they had learned that small parties thus composed and equipped following one another at short intervals, had a greater terrorizing effect upon the stricken settlers, and accomplished greater ruin than would the same number of men consolidated into a single army. The apathy that, from the beginning of the settlement of the country, had characterized the English government in protecting its colonists probably had much to do in augmenting the effrontery and recklessness of the French officials ; certain it is, that none of the expeditions set on foot by the English succeeded in chastising the marauders to the extent justice demanded, although it is on record that in the colony of New York alone seventy thousand pounds were expended in one year in carrying out plans to punish the French and Indians for the depreda- tions they had committed.
During the season above mentioned (1747) more than thirty different at- tacks were made on the settlements between the head of Lake George and Al-
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HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.
bany. The torch and scalping-knife had driven the inhabitantsto desperation, and, discouraged at the supineness of the government, they took the matter into their own hands. On the 4th of August Colonel Johnson had dispatched a body of the Iroquois to Canada, divided into two parties, who made an attack on Chambly. They inflicted sharp punishment upon that post, for all they were drawn into an ambush and suffered severe losses. Johnson made an- other attempt to reach Canada, but found so large a body of the enemy at Crown Point that he abandoned the enterprise.
In December Governor Clinton announced that he had succeeded in rais- ing twenty companies to engage in the expedition against Crown Point the coming season - an enterprise urged by all the leading provincials as the first step necessary towards liberating the settlers from the harassing incursions of the French and northern Indians. These twenty companies numbered about 1,000 men.
About this time orders were given to burn Fort Clinton at " Saraghtoga," after removing the property therein. The reason assigned for this remarkable action was that the provincial assembly had failed to furnish troops and sup- plies sufficient to protect it from even the small marauding parties of the enemy.
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