USA > New York > New York City > History of the New Netherlands, province of New York, and state of New York : to the adoption of the federal Constitution. Vol. II > Part 12
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" I arrived last Wednesday, and immediately delivered my let-
EFFORTS OF SCHUYLER. 107
ters, but too late : congress liad already appointed General Schuy- ler to command in the northern department. Every possible oppo- sition had been made by your friends, but in vain : the interest of the other party carried it-by a single vote, however. Congress are now endeavouring to devise some mode of retaining you in the service ; they hope to persuade you to accept the adjutant-general's . office, and are willing to comply with your own propositions. My brother writes you fully ; as he has been on the spot, he knows the various manœuvres which have been performed on this occasion. I understand General Schuyler has appointed J. G. Frazer, Esq., to my late office."
Gates had been prohibited from appointing this gentleman, in these words : " it is not the intention of congress that Mr. Trum- bull should be re-appointed." On the same day, Samuel Adams wrote to Gates, saying, " I have not forgot you. I shall remem- ber the last words you said to me ; the bearer is able to tell you my whole meaning. I shall not be wanting." During this time, Gates, who had been sent on for the defence of Ticonderoga in March, is informed by Wilkinson, one of his aids, that there is at that post no preparations for defence, and requests him " to let Kosciusko come back with proper authority."
Another son of Governour Trumbull's, in answer to a letter of. Gates's, upon his retiring from the north, exclaims-" Righteous God ! of what higher crimes, more than others, are we guilty in this department, that we are thus exposed to thy severest punish- ments !" " May heaven ever bless you, my dear general." This was from the paymaster-general, and written when St. Clair had avoided captivity or death, by retreat from Ticonderoga. Schuy- ler found that " literally nothing" had been done during his ab- sence to improve the means of defence on the frontiers; but, as Chancellor Kent observes, he was " fortunately, in this season in good health, a blessing which he had not enjoyed the last two years. He now displayed his activity, fervour, and energy in a brilliant manner. General St. Clair was placed by him in the command at Ticonderoga, and especially directed to fortify Mount Indepen- dence. He informed congress, on the 14th of June, that consider- ing the extensiveness of the works at Ticonderoga, the smallness of the garrison was alarmning, and incompetent to maintain it, and that he found the department in the greatest confusion. Applica- tion was made to the eastern states to hasten on the remainder of their troops ; and he informed them that the garrison at Ticondero- ga did not then exceed two thousand two hundred men, sick in- cluded. On the 16th of June, General Washington was apprized by him of the fact that he had no troops to oppose Sir Jolin John- son on the Mohawk. He visited Ticonderoga and Mount Inde- pendence on the 20th, and found them not in a good state of de-
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EFFORTS OF SCHUYLER.
fence, and very deficient in troops and provisions; but it was resolved, at a council of officers called by him, that they be de- fended as long as possible. General Schuyler then hastened back to the Hudson, the more effectually to provide for the garri- son, reinforcements of provisions and men, and nothing conducive to that great object was omitted. He solicited reinforcements of every kind, with intense anxiety. On the 2Sth of June, he com- municated by expresses to General Washington, to the governour of Connecticut, to the president of Massachusetts, to the commit- tee of Berkshire, and to the committee of safety of New York, his apprehensions for the safety of the garrison at Ticonderoga, from the inadequacy of the means of defence. On the 28th and 30th of June, (for dates now become important,) he encouraged St. Clair, that he should move up with the continental troops and militia, as soon as he could possibly put them in motion, and " he hoped to have the pleasure of seeing him in possession of his post." So again on the 5th of July, he assured hin that the troops from Peekskill and the militia were in motion, and " he hoped to see him in a day or two." On the 7th, he informed General Washington, by letter, that he was up as far as Saratoga, with about seven hundred conti- nental troops, and about one thousand four hundred militia .. He was then in the utmost distress for provisions, and he then and there met the news, that General St. Clair had abandoned Ticon- deroga and Mount Independence on the 6th, with the loss of all his military equipments.
The last scene of General Schuyler's military life, was full of action befitting the occasion, and worthy of his character. Every quarter of his department was replete with difficulty and danger. The frontier on the Mohawk was menaced by an army of one thou- sand, and six hundred regulars, tories, and Indians, under Lieuten- ant-colonel St. Leger, and he cheered and encouraged Brigadier- general Herkimer to rouse the militia, and act with alacrity in defence of that frontier. He addressed the civil and military au- thorities in every direction, with manly firmness, and the most for- cible exhortation to assist him with men, arms, and provisions ; " every militiaman," he said, "ought to turn out without delay, in a crisis the most alarming since the contest began." He directed that the inhabitants retire from before the enemy, and that every article be brought off or destroyed, that was calculated to assist them-that the roads, causeways, and Wood Creek be rendered impassable. He issued a proclamation to encourage the country, and counteract that of Burgoyne. He assured General Washing- ton, on the 12th of July, that he should retard the enemy's advance by all possible means. "If my countrymen will support me with vigour and dexterity, and do not meanly despond, we shall be able to prevent the enemy from penetrating much farther into the coun-
EFFORTS OF SCHUYLER. : 109
try." With a force of four thousand five hundred men, regulars and militia, he had to encounter or impede the progress of six thou- sand of the finest troops of Europe, with equipments and artillery equal to their discipline.
Fort George was abandoned on the 14th of July, for it was ut- terly indefensible, being only part of an unfinished bastion holding one hundred and fifty men. On the 24th of July, Schuyler retired with his army to Moore's Creek, four miles below Fort Edward, as the latter was only a heap of ruins, and always commanded by the neighbouring hills. The enemy kept pressing upon his ad- vanced posts, but in the midst of unparalleled difficulties, his retreat was slow and safe, and every inch of ground disputed. The distress of the army, in want of artillery and every other military and comfortable equipment, was aggravated by despondency and sickness, and the restlessness and insubordination of the militia. They could not be detained. Almost all the eastern militia had left the army. By the advice of a council of general officers, Schuyler was obliged to let one half of the militia go home under a promise of the residue to continue for three weeks. Though the subject of popular calumny, he did not in the least despond or shrink from his duty. " I shall go on," he writes to General Washington, " in doing my duty, and in endeavours to deserve your esteem." He renewed his call on the eastern states for as- sistance, and told his friend, Governour Trumbull, of Connecticut, (whom he always mentioned with the highest esteem, and between whom and Schuyler a mutual confidence and attachment had invari- ably subsisted,) that " if the eastern militia did not turn out with spirit, and behave better, we should be ruined." The greatest reliance was placed on the efforts of his own more immediate countrymen, and his most pathetick and eloquent appeals were made to the council of safety of the state of New York for succours to enable him to. meet the enemy in the field. By the beginning of August, he was preparing to act on the offensive, and by his orders of the 30th of July and 13th of August, General Lincoln was directed to move with a body of troops to the north of Cambridge, towards Skeenes- borough, and take command of the troops under General Starke and Colonel Warner, who had orders to join him; and if he should have force enough, to fall on the enemy in that quarter. As Bur- goyne advanced down the Hudson, there was constant skirmishing at the advanced posts, and General Schuyler retreated slowly and in good order down to Saratoga, and then to and below Stillwater, and in every instance by the unanimous advice of his officers.
During this eventful period, the western branch of Schuyler's military district was in the utmost consternation and peril. The army under St. Leger had besieged Fort Stanwix ; and General Herkimer, with eight hundred of the frontier militia, marching to
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FÊTRE
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TICONDEROGA TAKEN.
the relief of the fortress, was attacked by a detachment of the ene- ' my, under Sir John Johnson, and defeated at Oriskany, on the 6th of August. On the 16th, General Schuyler despatched Ar- nold with three regiments, amounting in the whole only to five hun- dred and fifty men, to take charge of the military operations on the Mohawk.
But the period of his eminent services was drawing to a close. Congress, yielding to the clamour and calumny of the people and militia of the eastern states, suspended General Schuyler's com- mand, and on the 19th of August, (three days after the victory at Bennington,) General Gates arrived in camp, and superseded hini. General Schuyler felt acutely the discredit of being recalled in the most critical period of the campaign, and after the labour and ac- : tivity of making preparations to repair the disasters of it, had been expended by him, and when he was in vigorous preparation to win, and almost in the act to place the laurels of victory on his brow. " I am sensible," said this great and injured man, in his letter to . congress, " of the indignity of being ordered from the command of an army, at a time when an engagement must soon take place ;" and when, we may add, he had already commenced offensive pre- parations, and laid the foundation of future and glorious triumphs.
The whole country looked to the Fort of Ticonderoga as a safe- guard against Burgoyne and his army : but when that general in- vested St. Clair at Ticonderoga, the defences were found insuffi- cient, and the number of the garrison too small. Burgoyne had seized upon Mount Defiance, and commanded the place by means which had been pointed out to Gates by the adjutant-general, Col. Trumbull, more than a year previous. St. Clair precipitately aban- doned the place, and with his retreating army crossed to the east side of the lake, after much suffering, and was pursued by General Grant . with the elite of Burgoyne's army-who, after taking possession of Ticonderoga and its dependencies, and despatching aid to Colonel St. Leger by Lake George, to co-operate with Sir John Johnson and the Iroquois under Brant, pushed with the main army and his fleet to Skeenesborough, now Whitehall. Grant followed on the north side of the lake until his Grenadiers overtook part of the American army in the Hubbardstown road, and were repulsed. General Reidesel was wounded, and left at Castleton.
Governour Morgan Lewis, who was then quarter-master general of St. Clair's army, arrived at Fort Edward, now a village of that name, to receive Van Schaick's regiment, and quarter them there. At that time, Fort Edward commanded the entrance of the Hudson from the west, a little below the present village of Sandy Hill. It is now scarcely visible. On the road thither, Gouvernour Lewis and suite stopped at a house in the woods, occupied by the widow of
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AFFAIR OF MISS M'CREA.
a Scotch highlander, and a country girl, of the name of McCrea, who were unprotected-there being in the house no other person than u negro woman. They advised the old woman and the young one to remove, as the British were coming that road. As they appeared confident of their situation, they were left. In the evening, Van Schaick's regiment was quartered at the fort, and Lieutenant Van Vechten and a sufficient guard were placed at a proper distance from the enemy. In the morning, Lewis and suite rode back the same way to gain information of the approach of the British, and found the dead bodies of the young women and Lieuten- ant Van Vechten stripped, and laying side by side. He and his guard had been surprised, scalped, and tomahawked ; and she was killed by blows of the tomahawk on her head, but not scalped ; and her hair had been so adjusted as to form a covering of decency. The party rode to the house and found there only the black woman, who said she had hid herself in the cellar while the Indians took the other women away.
It appears that a young man who attended a mill on the Hoosick, near which the British army passed, had joined them as a guide; and being engaged to this young woman, and knowing his proxim- ity to the armies, employed some Indians, with the promise of two kegs of whiskey, to bring her and her protectress, the old Scotch woman, to him. These Indians had surprised Van Vechten and his guard, and then quarrelling who should have the whiskey, killed the young woman, as the most summary mode of settling the dispute.
Gates wrote an insolent letter to the English commander, mis- stating the fact, and accusing that officer (whom he sneeringly calls " the famous Lieutenant-general Burgoyne, in whom the fine gen- tleman is united with the soldier and the scholar,") with hiring " the Savages of America to scalp Europeans and their descend- ants," and says : the bride, dressed to receive her promised hus- band, " met her murderer, employed by you." To this, the an- swer of General Burgoyne was, though indignant, that of a gentle- man and a scholar.
Governour Lewis says, he by chance entered the commander's tent when this absurd letter was in preparation by Doctor Potts, the surgeon-general ; and it being read aloud, some remarked upon the inaccuracy of the statement ; but Gates shouted, " Never mind -colour it high, Doctor-colour high."
Schuyler was at Stillwater, endeavouring to bring his army to Ticonderoga and take command of that fortress, when he received information of the retreat of St. Clair, and soon after was joined by the retreating army.
At Fort Edward, Burgoyne made a halt, and sent Colonel Baume to Vermont.
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SIEGE OF FORT STANWIX.
After giving an account of St. Leger, we shall return to Starke , and Baume.
In the year 1815, the house of James Lynch, Esq., covered the east bastion of old Fort Stanwix. The writer, from a window in that house, made a drawing of the remains of the fort. The block house still occupied the centre of the fortification, and the mounds of earth which formerly made the ramparts of the fort, were beyond. The church, and other publick buildings of the village of Rome, formed the distance.
In 1777, this was called Fort Schuyler, and garrisoned by Co- lonel Gansevoort, as the safeguard of the valley of the Mohawk.
St. Leger found no enemy in his route by Oswego, strong enough to detain him. He sent Lieutenant Bird and Brant to invest the fort, preparatory to his arrival with the rest of his forces. Fortu- nately, Colonel Marinus Willet, with his regiment, had been thrown iuto the fort, and the unfinished defences were directed henceforth by·him.
In June, Gansevoort wrote to Schuyler-" I am sorry to inform your Honour that Captain Gregg and Corporal Madison, of my regiment, went out a gunning yesterday morning, contrary to or- ders. It seems they went out just after breakfast, and at about ten o'clock Corporal Madison was killed and scalped. Captain Gregg was shot through his back, tomahawked and scalped, and is still alive. He informs me that the misfortune happened about ten o'clock in the morning. He looked at his watch after he was scalped. He saw but two Indians. He was about one mile and a half from the fort, and was not discovered until two o'clock in the afternoon. I immediately sent out a party and had him brought into the fort, just after three o'clock ; also the corpse of Madison. Gregg is perfectly in his senses, and speaks strong and hearty, notwithstand- ing that his recovery is doubtful."
And in July, he again wrote to Schuyler-" Having taken an accurate review of the state of the garrison, I think it is incumbent on me to inform your Excellency by express of our present circum- stances. Every possible assistance is given to Captain Marquizee, to enable him to carry on such works as are deemed absolutely ne- cessary for the defence of the garrison. The soldiers are constant- ly at work-even such of them as come off guard are immediately turned out to fatigue. But I cannot conceal from your Excellency the impossibility of attending fully to all the great objects poiuted out in the orders issued to the commanding officer on the station, without further assistance. ' Sending out sufficient parties of ob- servation, felling the timber into Wood Creek, clearing the road from Fort Dayton, which is so embarrassed, in many parts, as to be impassable, and prosecuting, at the same time, the internal bu- siness of the garrison, are objects of the greatest importance, which
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SIEGE OF FORT STANWIX.
.should if possible, be immediately considered. But while no ex- ertions compatible with the circumstances we are in, and necessary to give your Excellency satisfaction with respect to all interesting matters, shall be omitted, I am very sensible it is not in our power to get over some capital obstructions without a reinforcement. The enclosed return, and the difficulties arising from the increased number of hostile Indians, will show to your Excellency the grounds of my opinion. One hundred and fifty men would be needed speedily and effectually to obstruct Wood Creek ; an equal num- ber will be necessary to guard the men at work felling and hauling of . timber. Such a deduction from our number, together with smaller deductions for scouting parties, would scarcely leave a man in the garrison, which might therefore be easily surprised by a con- temptible party of the enemy. The number of inimical Indians increases. On the affair of last week only two made their appear- ance. Yesterday a party of at least forty, supposed to be Butler's emissaries, attacked Ensign Sporr with sixteen privates, who were out on fatigue, cutting turf about three quarters of a mile from the fort. One soldier was brought in dead and inhumanly mangled ; two was brought in wounded-one of them slightly and the other mortally. Six privates and Mr. Sporr are missing. Two parties were immediately sent to pursue the enemy, but they returned without being able to come up with them. This success will no doubt, encourage them to send out a greater number ; and the in- telligence they may possibly acquire, will probably hasten the main body destined to act against us in these parts. Our provision is greatly diminished by reason of the spoiling of the beef, and the quantities that must be given from time to time to the Indians. It will not hold out above six weeks. Your Excellency will perceive, in look- ing over Captain Savage's return of the state of the artillery, that some essential articles are very scarce. As a great number of the bullets do not suit the fire-locks, some bullet moulds of different sizes for casting others, would be of great advantage to us. Our stock of powder is absolutely too little; a ton, in addition to what we have, is wanted as the lowest proportion for the shot we have on hand. We will, notwithstanding every difficulty, exert our- selves to the utmost of our power ; and if your Excellency will be pleased to order a speedy reinforcement, with a sufficient supply of provision and 'ammunition to enable us to hold out a siege, we will, I hope, by the blessing of God, be able to give a good account of any force that will probably come against us."
John Jay, then sitting in the convention a: Esopus, wrote thus: -July 21st, 1777-" The situation of Tryon County is both shameful and alarming. Such abject dejection and despondency, as mark the letters we have received from thence, disgrace human nature. God knows what to do with, or for them. Were they VOL. II. 15
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SIEGE OF FORT STANWIX.
alone interested in their fate, I should be for leaving their cart in the slough till they would put their shoulder to the wheel.
" Schuyler has his enemies here, and they use these things to his disadvantage. Suspicions of his having been privy to the evacua- . tion of Ticonderoga spread wide ; and twenty little circumstances, which perhaps are false, are trumped up to give colour to the conjecture."
But General Herkimer contrived to arouse the militia of his neighbourhood ; marched with a body of militia to support Fort Stanwix, and had arrived within five or six miles of that post when he learned that Sir John Johnson, with his savages, had been sent by St. Leger to intercept his force, not consisting of more than eight hundred undisciplined men. The strife that ensued is called the battle of Oriskany, and the field is pointed out between Utica and Rome. At the first fire of the enemy, many of the militia were killed, and some fled ; Herkimer and a brave band sustained the fight, even hand to hand ; and the Indians, being worsted, are said to have conceived that the British had betrayed them, and in their rage killed their friends, making the confusion of a contest carried on with knives, muskets, bayonets, and tomahawks, in close fight, or from behind logs and trees, more awful. Sir John and his party retreated, and carried off the slain, and several pri- soners. Herkimer was wounded and carried to his own house, where he died.
Scarce had St. Leger sent off Sir John Johnson with his Tories, and Brant with his Indians to meet Herkimer, when Colonel Wil- let made a sortie, and falling upon the enemy's camp, drove them off, and carried back a quantity of arms and stores. The English rallied and attempted to prevent his return to the fort, but he charged them and carried off his booty in triumph. The com- mander, Colonel Gansevoort, finding that the enemy increased around him by bringing on more savages, was anxious to call up- on the country below for relief. Colonel Willet and Lieutenant Stockwell undertook the hazardous enterprise of passing through the surrounding host of savages and other rangers, now made watchful by the previous attacks ; and these gallant gentlemen, both skilled in Indian warfare, crept on their hands and knees through the enemy's camp, eluding even the keen senses of the savage warriours, and arrived safe at the head-quarters of General Schuyler.
This produced the effect in an unexpected manner. As Arnold was advancing up the Mohawk, a fellow who was a tory, and ac- cused of being a spy, was brought into his camp. After examin- ing the circumstances, Arnold wisely determined to avail himself of this man's service. He proposed to him a scherne for alarm- ing the enemy, particularly the savages, by announcing to them,
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that a formidable army was in full march to destroy them ; and as- sured him of his life, and estate, if he would enter heartily into the interests of his country, and faithfully execute a mission of this nature. The spy, who was shrewd and resolute, versed in the lan- guage and manners of the Indians, acquainted with some of their chiefs, and therefore perfectly qualified for this business, readily engaged in the enterprise.
Colonel St. Leger had pushed the siege with considerable acti- vity ; and advanced his works within one hundred and fifty yards of the fort. Upon the spy's arrival, he told a lamentable story of his being taken by Arnold, his escape from hanging, and the dan- ger which he had encountered in his flight ; and declared at the same time that a formidable army of Americans was marching with full speed to attack the British. The Americans, he observed, had no hostility towards the Indians, and wished not to injure them ; but added, that, if the Indians continued with the British, they must unquestionably take their share of whatever calamities might befall their allies.
The Indians being thus thoroughly alarmed, a friendly chief, who was in the secret, arrived, as if by mere accident ; and in the mysterious manner of that people began to insinuate to his coun- trymen, that a bird had brought him intelligence, of great moment. This hint set their curosity afloat ; and excited a series of anxious inquiries. To these he replied in hints, and suggestions, concern- ing warriours in great numbers, marching with the utmost rapidity, and already far advanced. The Indians, already disgusted with the service, which they found a mere contrast to the promises of the British commanders, and their own expectations, and sore with the loss which they had sustained in the battle with General Her- kimer, were now so completely alarmed, that they determined up- on an immediate retreat.
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