USA > New York > Monroe County > History of the pioneer settlement of Phelps and Gorham's purchase, and Morris' reserve; embracing the counties of Monroe, Ontario, Livingston, Yates, Steuben, most of Wayne and Allegany, and parts of Orleans, Genesee, and Wyoming. To which is added, a Supplement, or Extension of the pioneer history of Monroe county > Part 7
USA > New York > Allegany County > History of the pioneer settlement of Phelps and Gorham's purchase, and Morris' reserve; embracing the counties of Monroe, Ontario, Livingston, Yates, Steuben, most of Wayne and Allegany, and parts of Orleans, Genesee, and Wyoming > Part 7
USA > New York > Livingston County > History of the pioneer settlement of Phelps and Gorham's purchase, and Morris' reserve; embracing the counties of Monroe, Ontario, Livingston, Yates, Steuben, most of Wayne and Allegany, and parts of Orleans, Genesee, and Wyoming. To which is added, a Supplement, or Extension of the pioneer history of Monroe county > Part 7
USA > New York > Yates County > History of the pioneer settlement of Phelps and Gorham's purchase, and Morris' reserve; embracing the counties of Monroe, Ontario, Livingston, Yates, Steuben, most of Wayne and Allegany, and parts of Orleans, Genesee, and Wyoming. To which is added, a Supplement, or Extension of the pioneer history of Monroe county > Part 7
USA > New York > Ontario County > History of the pioneer settlement of Phelps and Gorham's purchase, and Morris' reserve; embracing the counties of Monroe, Ontario, Livingston, Yates, Steuben, most of Wayne and Allegany, and parts of Orleans, Genesee, and Wyoming. To which is added, a Supplement, or Extension of the pioneer history of Monroe county > Part 7
USA > New York > Wyoming County > History of the pioneer settlement of Phelps and Gorham's purchase, and Morris' reserve; embracing the counties of Monroe, Ontario, Livingston, Yates, Steuben, most of Wayne and Allegany, and parts of Orleans, Genesee, and Wyoming. To which is added, a Supplement, or Extension of the pioneer history of Monroe county > Part 7
USA > New York > Steuben County > History of the pioneer settlement of Phelps and Gorham's purchase, and Morris' reserve; embracing the counties of Monroe, Ontario, Livingston, Yates, Steuben, most of Wayne and Allegany, and parts of Orleans, Genesee, and Wyoming. To which is added, a Supplement, or Extension of the pioneer history of Monroe county > Part 7
USA > New York > Genesee County > History of the pioneer settlement of Phelps and Gorham's purchase, and Morris' reserve; embracing the counties of Monroe, Ontario, Livingston, Yates, Steuben, most of Wayne and Allegany, and parts of Orleans, Genesee, and Wyoming. To which is added, a Supplement, or Extension of the pioneer history of Monroe county > Part 7
USA > New York > Wayne County > History of the pioneer settlement of Phelps and Gorham's purchase, and Morris' reserve; embracing the counties of Monroe, Ontario, Livingston, Yates, Steuben, most of Wayne and Allegany, and parts of Orleans, Genesee, and Wyoming. To which is added, a Supplement, or Extension of the pioneer history of Monroe county > Part 7
USA > New York > Orleans County > History of the pioneer settlement of Phelps and Gorham's purchase, and Morris' reserve; embracing the counties of Monroe, Ontario, Livingston, Yates, Steuben, most of Wayne and Allegany, and parts of Orleans, Genesee, and Wyoming. To which is added, a Supplement, or Extension of the pioneer history of Monroe county > Part 7
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" I am safe," said he on the 12th of September, "unless Wolf lands above the town." Even then, there was a movement with the Brit- ish force to gain the position, from the possession of which he had impliedly foretold his ruin.
* There is some difficulty in determining to what event this looked forward : - If to defeat and expulsion from the region the English were conquering, it has not been realized. If it meant that the war that was then waging would pave the way to the loss of most of the American Colonies, it was singularly and truthfully prophetic,
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While he was listening to the sound of cannon from an unexpec- ted quarter, a horseman came to him in full speed, and announced that the English were occupying the plains of Abraham. He aroused a sleeping and wearied soldiery, and by prompt action had them soon hurrying in long lines over the valley of the St. Charles to the battle ground. Incredulous at first, that the besiegers had ventured and succeeded in gaining the rugged ascent - almost be- lieving it a feint ; - when convinced of its reality he nerved him- self for the decisive contest which he knew had come. The hour of conflict found him at the head of his army ; as Wolf was of his. Where danger was most imminent, he was to be found ; flying from column to column, inspiring confidence by his presence and infusing into his ranks, a desperate courage that England's veteran troops had no where before contended with. At one moment, simultaneously al- most, as if each charge was exploded by an electric circuit, came a volley from the drawn up columns of the British lines. The French were swept down like forest trees before a whirlwind. Upon this hand, fell his second in command, upon the other, one of his bravest generals ; the day and the battle, the citadel and an Empire was al- ready lost ; and yet Montcalm was undismayed. Recoiling from the shock, like hardened steel that has been bent almost to breaking, again he collected his scattered forces and presented a bold front to the enemy. Then came another terrible fire from the British lines, and with it a charge, such as has but few parallels in the his- tories of battles. Overcome, trampled down, yielding and flying in every direction, was the whole French force. Amid this scene of death and carnage, Montcalm died as he had hoped he should ; when he could no longer resist the march of the invader. He fell mortally wounded at the head of his troops, that he was in vain at- tempting to rally and make stand firm, in the face of a fire and a charge, incessant and desperate. When the surgeon had examined his wound, he told him it was mortal. "I am glad of it," said he, "how long can I survive ?" "Perhaps a day, perhaps less," was the reply of the surgeon. "So much the better," replied Montcalm, " I shall not live to see the surrender of Quebec." It is given on the atuhority of a British officer, who was present at the siege of Quebec, that Montcalm, in his last moments, paid a high compliment to his conquerors ; and at the same time bitterly reflected upon his own troops. That he said : " If I could survive this wound, I would
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engage to beat three times the number of such forces as I comman- ded this morning, with a third of their number of British troops."
The siege continued. On the 17th, when the British fleet had prepared to attack the lower town, and 118 guns were mounted up- on the British batteries, ready to open a fire, there came from the besieged city a stipulation to surrender, if no reinforcements came before the next morning. This was in anticipation of the arrival of French troops from Montreal that had been ordered down. In the mean time, Vaudreuil had retreated with his immediate command at Montmorency, as had also another large division of the French army, under De Bougainville, that had been posted at another point. They retired to Port aux Trembles. When the Governor of Mon- treal came down and joined them, it was agreed to send encoura- ging words to M. de Ramsay, the Governor of Quebec, urging him to hold out against the siege. The courier reached the besieged city on the day -the 18th of September - in the morning of which it had surrendered.
The English army took possession of Quebec, and the French army retired to Three Rivers and Montreal. Thus ended the campaign in that quarter, for the season of 1759. Its results had been the conquest of Quebec, Crown Point, Ticonderoga, and Niagara. Occupying these vantage grounds, the English may well be supposed to have surmounted the most formidable barriers against the complete success of the campaign ; yet, on the part of the French colonists, the stake they were contending for, was too large - the issue was too momentous - to admit of entire surrender, as long as there was the least chance of winning.
M. de Levi, the Governor of Montreal, had succeeded Montcalm as commander-in-chief. The French army, during the winter of 1759, '60, had been reinforced by six thousand militia, and a large
NOTE. - The author of the "Conquest of Canada," says: - " Under some mysteri- ous and incomprehensible impulse, Montcalm at once determined to meet his danger- ous enemy in the open field. "To account for this extraordinary resolution, is impossi- ble. Had the French General thrown himself into Quebec, he might have securely defied his assailants from behind its ramparts, till winter drove them away. But a short time before, he had recorded his deliberate conviction, that he could not face the British army in a general engagement. He was well aware that all the efforts of his indefatigable enemy had been throughout exerted to bring on an action upon any terms : and yet, at length, on an open plain, without even waiting for his artillery. unaided by any advantage of position, he threw the rude Canadian militia against the veterans of England. Once, and once only, in a successful and illustrions career, did this gallant Frenchman forget his wisdom and his military skill. But that one tremen- dons error led him to defeat and death.'
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body of Indians. In April, as soon as the upper portion of the St. Lawrence was open enough to admit of the transportation of his artillery, heavy baggage, and military stores, M. de Levi re- solved upon a descent and an attempt to re-conquer Quebec. It was a rash attempt, but he relied much upon the effects a cold win- ter had had in reducing and enfeebling the British force, that had been left at Quebec ; and in fact, shut up as they had been, but scantily supplied with salt provisions, death and disability had fear- fully thinned their ranks. The defence had devolved upon Gen. Murray. On the morning of the 27th of April, M. de Levi had posted his strong force within three miles of Quebec. The British General, fully aware that investment, for any considerable period, in the condition of his army, would be equally as fatal as defeat, re- solved to follow the example of Montcalm. His unequal force was marched out, and an attack commenced. After a desperate fight, and the loss, in killed and wounded, of nearly one-third of his army, he retired within the walls. M. de Levi followed up his success, approaching and strongly entrenching ; the lost citadel was apparent- ly within his grasp, when a small, but efficient English fleet came up the St. Lawrence, and made quick work in destroying and cap- turing the whole French armament ; a new spirit was infused in the English camp; and M. de Levi, with hopes so suddenly crushed, made a hasty retreat at the sacrifice of his guns, amunition, stores, and entrenching tools. Thus ended an expedition that the chagrined Canadians stigmatized as "de Levi's folly."
On his way to Niagara, Prideux had left Col. Haldimand in com- mand at Oswego. On the 4th of July, the fort was besieged by a large force of Canadian militia and Indians, under the command of M. de la Corne. A surprise was attempted and failed, the garrison, being forewarned, was ready for their reception, and opened a fire upon the besiegers, which compelled a dispersion. An attempt to burn the English boats in the harbor failed, and the besiegers re- crossed the Lake.
The English opened the campaign in 1760, to complete their con- quest. Early in May, Gen. Amherst had collected a large force at Oswego. Two armed vessels succeeded in forcing all the French armament upon the Lake to take refuge among the " Thousand Isles." The army at Oswego consisted of over 10,000; allied to which, were 700 Indians that Sir William Johnson had brought into
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the field. The main army under Gen. Amherst, went down the Lake, and the St. Lawrence; a detachment under Col. Haviland going via Lake Champlain to Crown Point, to be joined by the force stationed there. The first point of attack was the small garrison upon Isle Royal, commanded by captain Pouchot. That surrender- ed after a spirited resistance. Here the Indian allies mostly deser- ted, or marched off in a body, chagrined at Amherst and Johnson's refusal to allow them to massacre the whole French garrison, as they had intended. After a perilous passage down the St. Lawrence, in which 80 men and 60 boats were lost, Amherst's army landed nine miles from Montreal on the 6th of September. Murray, with all his disposable force, had left Quebec and sailed up the St. Law- rence on the 14th of June. As an cvidence how strong, was yet the attachment of the Canadians to the French interests - even in this hour where there was little hope, it is mentioned that Murray's force was constantly annoyed by guerrilla attacks from the banks of the river, as they ascended. After a slow passage, delayed in expect- ation of being joined by fresh troops from England, the squadron reached the Island of Montreal on the 7th of September, and were disembarked. Col. Haviland having come down Lake Champlain, captured the post at Isle Aux Nois, to which the French had re- treated before Amherst, the previous season, was near at hand, and reached the Island on the 8th.
Under Amherst, Murray and Haviland, there was now an English force of 16,000 effective troops. With but little delay, in view of so formidable an army of besiegers, M de Vaudreuil surren- dered Montreal and signed articles of capitulation, which included, all of Canada, western New York, and to the extent of the French claims at the west.
If any thing excused the French Governor, Vaudreuil, for so sud- den a surrender, it was the favorable terms he exacted from the be- siegers, which were conceded to, as a better alternative, than the shedding of more blood, of which the banks of the St. Lawrence, and the shores of the Lakes, had already seen enough to satiate the most morbid desire for human sacrifice, in the respective countries to which the thousands of victims owed allegiance. The foreign French troops; the civil officers, their families and baggage ; were to be sent home in English vessels ; the troops under parol, to serve no more during the war. The militia were allowed to return to
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their homes. The French colonists were to enjoy the same privi- leges and immunities as British subjects. The Indians that had ad- hered to the French interests, were to be unmolested, and disturbed in no right they had enjoyed under French dominion.
Thus terminated French dominion upon this continent, which had existed for a century and a half. How badly was all that time improved! The sympathies which are naturally excited by a peru- sal of all the details of the final contest ; the misfortunes and casual- ties, we may well call them, that one after another baffled the arms of France, and paralized the arms of as brave men as were ever trained in her armies ; shutting them up in fortresses ; closing the avenues by which succor could reach them, with ice and snow, or adverse winds ; cutting off reinforcements in their march of relief ; disease prostrating them, and famine staring them in the face, while hosts of armed men were thundering at their gates, and their strong walls were swaying and trembling over their heads ; are in a mea- sure abated by the reflection, that they so long held dominion over as fine a region as arms ever conquered, or enterprise ever reach- ed, and were so unmindful of the value of their possession. An occupancy of five generations, and how little did it leave behind of its impress ! How little was done for France! how little for man- kind!
ยท There was in Canada, (East,) the two considerable cities of Quebec and Montreal, and a few small villages upon the St. Law- rence. In their vicinities, upon the most favorable soils, there was an agricultural population, but little more than supplying their own food. In Canada, (West,) but a small garrison at Frontenac, (Kings- ton,) with a little agricultural improvement in its immediate neigh- borhood; a small trading station at Toronto ; and a few missionary and trading stations in the interior, and upon Lake Huron. In western New York, the valley of the Lakes, and the upper vallies of the Mississippi, over all of which the French claimed dominion, there was but fur trading and missionary stations ; with few excep- tions of agricultural enterprise ; by far the most considerable of which, was upon a narrow strip upon the Detroit river.
There is much that is admirable in the French Missionary enter- prize in all the region they occupied. The world has no where seen as much of devotion, of self-sacrifice, of courage, perseverance and endurance. A host of gifted men who had left the highest
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walks of civilization and refinement, which they had helped to adorn, took up their abode in the wilderness, in rude huts ; here and there, upon the banks of lakes and rivers, where there were none of even the foot prints of civilization, save their own. Solitary and. alone, they wrestled with the rude savage ; displayed the cross, the emblem of salvation, to his wondering gaze, and disarmed his fierce resentments by mild persuasion ; adapting themselves to his condition, and inducting him into the sublime mysteries of a re- ligion of peace and universal brotherhood. Each missionary was a wanderer :- ice, snow, swollen streams, winds and tempests, summer's heats and winter's chills, were to him no hindrances, when duty and devotion urged him onward. Inured to toil and priva- tion, a small parcel of parched corn and a bit of jerked beef, would be his only sustenance in long journeys through the forests, seeking new fields of missionary labor. Often were they martyrs- there are few localities in all the vast region they traversed, where one or more of them did not yield up his life as an earnest of his faith. - As often as they perished by the tomahawk, the rigors of the cli- mate, exposure, fatigue or disease, their ranks were supplied. Like disciplined soldiers, the Jesuit missionaries, one after another, would fill ranks, the vacancy of which would admonish them of danger.
And where are now the evidences of all these long years of mis- sionary enterprize, zeal and martyrdom? In the small villages of: Western New York, which now contain remnants of the once powerful Iroquois, there is the form of the cross in their silver or- naments, and around the western Lakes and Rivers, the traveller may see in addition to this, occasionally, a rude cross, over an Indian grave. This is all that is left, save written records, to remind us of that extraordinary, long continued, missionary advent. All else faded away with the decline of French power. The good mission- ary, worn out in the service, either rested from his labors under the mould of the forests he had penetrated, or retired when the flag of his country no longer gave him confidence and protection. The treaty of 1763 forbid any recruits of his order. In his absence, his simple neophytes soon forgot his teachings. The symbols of his faith no longer reminded them of the "glad tidings " he had proclaimed. Tradition even of his presence, has become obscure.
Never perhaps, was rejoicing in England, as universal and enthu- siastic, as when the news of the conquest of Quebec -the con-
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quest of Canada as it was rightly construed -reached there. High expectations of the value and importance of the French pos- sessions had been raised ; and hatred of the French had become a universal public sentiment. A series of defeats and misfortunes that had previously attended the British arms in this quarter; in the war then waging, had disposed the people of England to make the most of victories when they finally came. A public thanksgiving was proclaimed, pageants upon land and water succeeded, with bonfires and illuminations. The victory was the theme of the press and the pulpit, of the poet and the player. Mingled with all this, was mourning for the brave men that had perished in the long suc- cession of conflicts, or rather the reverse of the picture, was the funeral pageant, the widow's and the orphan's tears, the hearths made desolate. When the remains of the lamented Wolf were carried home and conveyed to Greenwich cemetry, there was a solemn and imposing hiatus in the national jubilee ; - but that over, England became again joyous in view of an immense accession of empire, and the triumph of its armies.
We know how well it is ordered for us, as individuals, that a curtain is drawn between the present and the future ; that our pres- ent happiness is unalloyed by any taste of the bitter drugs that are concealed even in the cup of bliss. So with nations, if they could always see the tendency and the end of events, there would have been less rejoicing at the triumphs of arms. How would it have appalled England ; how would her King, her Statesmen, sitting un- der triumphal arches, or holding saturnalias at festive boards, have been affrighted and dismayed, if some prophetic hand had inscribed upon their walls : - " YOU HAVE GAINED A PROVINCE AND LOST AN EMPIRE !"
And such was the destiny ; - crowding into a brief space, the cause and the effect, the triumph and its consequences. Illy fitted for the great task that was before them, would the feeble colonies have been, at the commencement of the Revolution, in the absence of the apprenticeship in the trade of war, that the last French and English war upon this continent afforded. What better discipline. could men have had ; what better experience, to inure them to toil, privation and danger, than was had in the expeditions to the Ohio. and the Allegany, the siege of Louisburg, Quebec, Montreal, Crown Point and Niagara? Every campaign was a school far
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better than West Point and Annapolis. Mingled in all these were the colonists of New York and New England, New Jersey, Penn- sylvania, Maryland and Virginia. Out of the ranks of those retired armies, came a host of the efficient men, who, upon the breaking out of the Revolution, so well convinced their military instructors of the proficiency they had made under their tuition. The military skill and genius necessary to organize armies, the courage and chiv- alry necessary to lead them to triumph, which had been inert, was aroused in the stirring scenes of the French war; its succession of splendid triumphs. England had made war a profession with a large number of the colonists, little thinking where would be the field and what the occasion of its practice. In the prosecution of the French war, England had fearfully augmented its public debt ; in an hour of evil councils, against the protestations of her wisest statesmen, taxation of the colonies was added to the burthens, the privations and sufferings that had borne so heavily upon them. And it may be added, that a handful of feeble colonies would hardly have ventured to strike a blow for separation, as long as the French held dominion here. Independence achieved, the colonies would necessarily have had to assume the relative condition that England bore with France. They would have assumed England's quarrels, growing out of unsettled boundaries and disputed dominions.
Had there been no English conquest of French dominions, the separation of the colonies, if realized at all, would have been an event far removed from the period in which it was consummated. France surrendered her splendid possessions in America, sullenly and grudgingly, yielded to destiny and a succession of untoward events, hoping for some event -some " tide in the affairs of men," that would wrest from England's Crown the bright jewel she had picked up on the banks of the St. Lawrence, bathed in blood; and which she was displaying with a provoking air of triumph. It came more speedily than the keenest eye of prophecy could have foreseen. In a little more than twenty years after the fall of Que- hec, La Fayette, Rochambeau, Chastelleux, D'Estang, M. de Choisy, Viomenil, de Grasse, M. de St. Simon, and a host of gallant French- men beside, saw the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown; an event as crowning and decisive, in the loss of an empire, as was the surrender of Quebec, in the loss of a colony.
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CHAPTER IV.
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ENGLISH DOMINION - BORDER WARS OF THE REVOLUTION.
FROM the end of French dominion in Western New York, to the close of the Revolution, constituted a period of twenty-four years ; the events of which, having an immediate bearing upon our local region, must be crowded into a space too limited for elaborate detail ; allowing of but little more than what is necessary to pre- vent a break in the chain of events that leads us to the main de- sign of the work in hand.
Little of historical interest occurred previous to the Revolution. The English would seem to have made no better use of the rich prize that the fortunes of war had thrown into their hands, than had their French predecessors. Settlements made the advance of but a day's walk, and occupancy in any form, west of the lower valley of the Mohawk, was but the fortresses of Oswego and Niagara, and small English trading establishments, that had succeeded those of the French. The rich soil, that has made this region the prosper- ous home of hundreds of thousands; in which lay dormant the elements of more enduring wealth than would have been the rich- est "placers " of California, had no attractions for their adventur- ers, and were without the narrow circle of enterprize that bound- ed the views of colonial governors and legislators.
The change of occupants does not seem to have pleased the Senecas. Scarcely had the English got a foothold in their coun- ty, before a war was commenced by an attack upon a British wagon-train and its guard, as they were passing over the Portage from Lewiston to Schlosser. A tragical event that has much prominence in the local reminiscences of that region. This was followed by an attack upon a detachment of British soldiers at Black Rock, on their way from Niagara to Detroit. Sir William Johnson, in his official correspondence, called the Senecas a "trou- blesome people,"
.
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All of English dominion west of Albany, other than its military posts, was a "one man power ;" and before proceeding farther, it will be necessary to give some account of that one man, who has already, incidentally, been introduced in our narrative. '
SIR WILLIAM JOHNSON.
He was a native of Ireland, of a good family, and was well edu- cated. Soon after he became of age, in 1737 or '8, he came to America as the land agent of his uncle, Sir Peter Warren, an Ad- miral in the English navy, who had acquired a considerable tract of land upon the Mohawk, in the present county of Montgomery. He located a few miles from the present village of Port Jackson. Of a romantic disposition, and having acquired, from the unsuccessful termination of a love affair in his native country, some distaste for civilized society, which he was well qualified to adorn, he had not been long a resident in the backwoods of America, when he had determined upon permament settlement. He formed an exception to a large majority of his countymen, in the ease and facility with which he exchanged the refinements of civilized society for life in the woods, with few but the native Indians for neighbors or associ- ates. No Frenchman ever sit himself down upon the borders of our western lakes, alone of all his race, in the midst of Indian wig- wams, and sooner merged and blended himself with all about him. Says the London Gentleman's Magazine, (1755) : - " Besides his skill and experience as an officer, he is particularly happy in making himself beloved by all sorts of people, and can conform to all com- panies and conversations. He is very much the fine gentleman in genteel company. But as the inhabitants next to him are mostly Dutch, he sits down with them and smokes his tobacco, drinks flip, and talks of improvements, bear and beaver skins. Being surround- ed with Indians, he speaks several of their languages well, and has always some of them with him. He takes care of their wives and old Indians, when they go out on parties, and even wears their dress. In short, by his honest dealings with them in trade, and his courage, which has often been successfully tried with them, and his courteous behavior, he has so endeared himself to them, that they chose him one of their chief Sachems, or Princes, and esteem him as their father."
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