Landmarks of Oswego County, New York, Part 10

Author: Churchill, John Charles, 1821-1905; Smith, H. P. (Henry Perry), 1839-1925; Child, W. Stanley
Publication date: 1895
Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y. : D. Mason
Number of Pages: 1410

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General Bradstreet, who had been commissioned a brigadier-general,

LANDMARKS OF OSWEGO COUNTY.

had endeavored, early in the season, to gain Abercrombie's consent to an expedition for the capture of Frontenac, but was refused. After the Ticonderoga battle, however, the commander-in-chief reversed his decision, and Bradstreet, accompanied by Maj. Philip Schuyler, pro- ceeded to the Mohawk and Wood Creek portage, where 3,000 troops were engaged in building Fort Stanwix. Of these he took command and hurried on to Oswego, Schuyler several days ahead with an ad- vance guard. On the arrival of the latter he immediately began build- ing a schooner, which was named Mohawk, and so energetically did he pursue the work that in three weeks the vessel was ready to take on board the cannon and heavy stores, and accompany the fleet of bateaux and whale boats across the lake. Bradstreet arrived and the voyage began about the 20th of August. The weather proved fair, and on the evening of the 25th he landed within a mile of the fort, constructed a battery, and on the 27th opened on the work at short range. The small garrison of 110 (the Indians having previously deserted) surrendered the same day. Sixty cannon, sixteen mortars, part of which were those captured at Oswego, fell into his hands. Bradstreet lost only four or five men.

They soon breached the wall, and the garrison of ninety men and thirty voyageurs, surrendered upon condition of being allowed to descend to Montreal. The English took away a part of the artillery which we had captured at Oswego, and destroyed what they could not remove.1

Another authority states that the English found nine vessels of from eight to eighteen guns, two of which were sent to Oswego, one of them richly laden. The rest were burned. Pouchot says (vol. I, p. 125) that they took away a bark and a brigantine and "the rest of our marine they burned." "The destruction of property and abandonment of the fort, although in obedience to orders of General Abercrombie, has been severely censured. It was thought everything might have been held, and that it would have given the English a powerful ad- vantage." 2

The capture of Frontenac was one of the most important events of the war. It facilitated the fall of Duquesne, discouraged the French,

1 Pouchot's Memoirs, vol. I, pp. 124-5.

2 Mante, p. 154.

MONTCALM DISHEARTENED.

gave joy to the English, and reflected honor on the provincials. It raised a cry for peace throughout Canada, the resources of which were almost exhausted. "I am not discouraged," wrote Montcalm, in evident disappointment, "nor my troops. We are resolved to find our graves under the ruins of the colony." 1

Bradstreet's force returned to Oswego early in September, whence the greater part departed for the settlements. A detachment in this year (1758) built a new fortification a little below Oswego Falls, the remains of which were visible in recent years. It was probably also in this year or the next that a fort was built in the present town of Schroeppel, on the east side of the river at Three River Point. It was only about sixty feet square and contained three storehouses.

In September, 1758, General Amherst was appointed commander in- chief in America and, forgetting past disaster and encouraged by recent favorable events, Great Britain and her colonies determined upon a heroic effort in the following spring to overthrow their enemies. The energy and sacrifice of the colonies in the the year now closing ; the losses to the colonists and the mother country from cessation of trade ; England's reviving faith in her superiority on the water and in her other resources ; her trust in the neutrality or alliance of most of the Iroquois Indians ; 2 all conspired to stimulate her energies and revive her hopes. Meanwhile the situation of the French on the frontier was not im- proving. While never relaxing their efforts to secure the fealty of the Iroquois, they met with little success. Pouchot says (vol. I, p. 123) : "We may infer from the relation of M. de Longueil, who had been sent to the Five Nations, that they were very little inclined in our be- half." Fort Duquesne fell into the hands of the English on the 24th of November, though it was burned before the French abandoned it. Moreover, in the fall and winter of 1758-9, provisions on their western frontier and in Canada became very scarce. On this subject Pouchot gives the following facts :

During the winter provisions were extremely scarce, and the rations of bread were reduced to a pound and a half, and that of pork to a quarter of a pound. The latter

1 The Empire State (Lossing), p. 176.

2 Early in June Sir William Johnson had gathered about 700 warriors of the Six Nations and proceeded to Oswego, where he was joined by 250 more from the St. Lawrence, who had been under French influence, all of Whom were ready to aid the English.

LANDMARKS OF OSWEGO COUNTY.

failing, the intendant proposed to issue horseflesh to the troops, which they were obliged to submit to without a murmur. With economy they were still able to furnish a little pork, but when the ice melted they were obliged to throw it away as spoiled. The con- tractor was therefore ordered to furnish horses, and he accordingly collected all the jaded nags of the country to feed the troops.1

Even the courageous Montcalm had become disheartened. On April 12, 1759, he wrote Marshal de Belle Isle from Montreal (Doc. Col. Hist., vol. X, p. 960) that " Canada will be taken this campaign, and assuredly during the next, if there be not some unforeseen good luck, a powerful diversion by sea against the English colonies, or some gross blunders on the part of the enemy. The English have 60,000 men, we, at the most, from 10,000 to 11,000. Our government is good for nothing ; money and provisions will fail. The Canadians are dispirited ; no confidence in M. de Vaudreuil or in M. Bigot."

Oswego, with the opening of 1759, became the scene of stirring events. Gen. John Prideaux was entrusted with the siege of Fort Niagara, and early in June proceeded to Oswego with 2,000 regulars and provincials, where he was joined by Sir William Johnson with about 1,000 Indians The command left Oswego on the Ist of July, leaving Col. Frederick Haldimand and five or six hundred provincials to guard Oswego. Captain Pouchot had been placed in command of Niagara. The siege began about the middle of July and continued until the 20th under General Prideaux, when he was killed in the trenches. Sir William Johnson then assumed command and pressed the work with vigor. A body of about 1,200 men, sent by the French from Presque Isle and Detroit to reinforce the fort, was met by a large de- tachment of Johnson's army (July 25) in sight of the fort and signally defeated. Immediately following this event the fort was surrendered.

Meanwhile the workmen on a stockade ordered by Colonel Haldimand at Oswego were fired upon on the 5th of July by a body of French and Indians, whereupon they retreated to the camp. The assailants were the advance guard of a considerable force under the Chevalier de la Corne, composed of five or six hundred Canadians and a similar body of Indians from the site of Ogdensburg, accompanied by the celebrated Abbe Picquet, which was in camp east of Oswego, where

I Pouchot's Memoirs, vol. I, p. 134.

ACTIVITY OF THE ENGLISH AT OSWEGO.

Montcalm had disembarked three years earlier. £ Of the movements of this expedition, Pouchot wrote as follows :

The English, upon going to Niagara, had left at the place where Fort Ontario was, about five or six hundred men, who had not as yet time to entrench themselves, and they had only made a kind of wall around their camp with the barrels of pork and flour, of which the army corps had provided a great supply. As this detachment felt itself very secure, the greater portion was scattered in the neighboring forests, cutting wood for intrenchments.

M. de la Corne pressed forward a large body of forces as far as the place where Fort Ontario had stood, to reconnoiter the enemy. They fired upon the workmen, who, on coming to their camp, found it in confusion. The guard, and those who remained in camp, resisted these scouts. Had M. de la Corne followed his advance guard, the Eng- lish would have lost everything. But the Abbe Picquet, who heard the beginning of the firing, thought it was his duty, before his troops should attack, to make a short exhortation, and give them absolution. This led to the loss of their opportunity, and the English ran to arms, and placed themselves behind the barrels. M. de la Corne arrived after his detachment, who were scattered around the English, but did not ap- proach nearer on account of their [the English] superiority. He wished to have them renew the attack, but some Canadians, who would rather retreat than fight, cried out that the blow had failed, and in spite of their officers, regained their boats as soon as possible. We had but a small loss, as the English did not pursue.1

Pouchot expressed the belief that if De la Corne had promptly taken advantage of this opportunity, he would have captured Oswego, and through that event have saved Niagara. The English lost about a dozen men killed and wounded.

On the 16th of August Gen. Thomas Gage, afterward governor of the Province of Massachusetts, arrived at Oswego to succeed Prideaux, where he found Sir William Johnson with his forces, and a large number of prisoners taken at Niagara. In this month also, when De Vaudreuil and Montcalm learned of the fall of Niagara, they sent M. de Lévis, with several hundred men, to La Presentation (Ogdensburg) to repair and establish that post in a condition sufficient to protect that part of the frontier. An attack upon that place was contemplated by Gage and Johnson, from Oswego, but the project was abandoned.

Again Oswego presented a busy scene. The English began active measures to secure to themselves permanently the results of their recent triumphs. A plan for a new fort on the east side of the river, to replace the one destroyed by Montcalm, was prepared, and the erection

1 Pouchot's Memoirs, vol. I, pp. 208-9.

LANDMARKS OF OSWEGO COUNTY.

of a strong fortress begun nearly or quite on the site of the former work, but extending nearer to the lake.

The south part of the fortress, built in 1759-60, was within the limits of the present Fort Ontario. The whole circuit of the five sides was about 500 feet. The rampart was built of earth, revetted with "saucissons " on the side toward the lake, but on the landward sides the earth was kept in place by large square timbers laid one upon the other. The parapet was some twelve feet thick. and outside of it there was a ditch nearly thirty feet wide. During the autumn of 1759 or the spring of 1760, four block-houses were also erected at long gunshot from the fort.1

At about the same time detachments from Oswego and Fort Stanwix built a fort on the Oneida River, a short distance from the north bank, and within Oswego county, about a mile from the outlet of Oneida lake. The work was done under direction of Captain Brewerton, and the fort was given his name. It was an octagon, about one hundred feet in diameter, with walls five feet high, crowned with palisades twenty feet high, with loop holes. Outside the wall was a ditch and still farther out a second lower wall. The line of the walls may still be seen. At the same time a rough wall of large rocks was constructed from the point where the waters of the lake and the river meet, southeastward into the lake some considerable distance. At the outer end of this a sentry box was placed, and there a sentinel was regularly posted to watch the lake and river.

In June General Wolfe sailed on his memorable expedition against Quebec, for the details of which the reader is referred to the pages of general history. That stronghold fell into English possession on the 18th of September of that year, and Wolf gave up his life and won immortal fame. The news of this important event reached Oswego by a scout and caused the most exultant joy. The day of deliverance from French power seemed near. So confident was Sir William Johnson of the early and complete triumph of their cause that he invited the Indians to reopen trade at Niagara and Oswego in the following spring. Many of the provincial troops were sent home, and except for the strokes of the workmen on the fortifications, Oswego settled down into winter quiet.2

1 Johnson's History of Oswego County, p. 34.

2 Work on the fortifications at Oswego continued far into and perhaps entirely through the year 1760. Pouchot says (vol. II. p. 17) that as late as August 8, an Indian scout who had visited

SURRENDER OF MONTREAL.

Early in 1760 England and the colonies prepared for the final struggle. M. de Vaudreuil, then governor-general of Canada, col- lected the strength of his armies at Montreal and on the river above that point, to protect the Canadian capital, now the only remaining important stronghold of the French. General Amherst had planned to send northward three separate armies-one up the St. Lawrence from Quebec ; a smaller division by way of Lake Champlain ; while the main army under his personal command was to proceed from Oswego down the St. Lawrence. With the movements of this latter army we are most concerned. Amherst, with an army of about 10,000 men, left Schenectady on the 12th of June and followed the usual course to Oswego, which he reached early in July. Here he was joined by about 1,300 Indians, now anxious to array themselves on the winning side. Never before had Oswego witnessed a scene of such activity- perhaps never since. The scarlet uniforms of England's soldiers mingled with the more sombre dress of the colonists, and the tawny skins and variegated war vestments of the Iroquois. Supplies were hurried for- ward for this great army, amid the extensive preparations necessary for the further transportation of the troops. The axes and hammers of hundreds of carpenters building boats resounded in the forest, the air was infused with the sound of expectant victory, while amid the ani- mated scenes moved such famous men as Amherst, Johnson and Gage.

On the 10th of August the embarkation of these 10,000 men in open boats for their long and perilous voyage was accomplished. Captain Pouchot was in command of Fort Levis near Ogdensburg, with about 150 men ; he had labored to place the post in defensive condition, not probably with the hope of holding it against the English, of whose movements he had been kept informed by Indian scouts. When the English reached the fort they immediately began an assault upon it, and though it was gallantly defended, Pouchot surrendered on the 25th.1

Oswego reported that "he had met vessels in the river, and that they were at work fortifying Oswego."

1 The activity of our fire put the English in bad humor, and in the afternoon they redoubled theirs from all their batteries, and fired red hot balls, fire-pots and carcases. This was too much for this miserable fort, which was now only a litter of carpenter's wood and fascines. The hot shot set fire to the saucissons of the interior revetment of the bastion, already down, but we

LANDMARKS OF OSWEGO COUNTY.

The concentration of the armies before Montreal constituted an at- tacking force against which the disheartened French could not hope to successfully contend, and on the 8th of September, 1760, Montreal and all other posts held by the French were surrendered. French power was forever extinguished in this part of the western continent.

Amherst's provincials were sent home by way of Lake Champlain and Lake Ontario, while the regulars were established at the various posts where their presence was needed.

CHAPTER VII.

The Garrison at Fort Ontario under English Rule-Major Duncan's Peculiarities- Mrs. Grant's Description of the Post-Clearing of Lands-Pontiac's War-Arrival of Sir William Johnson-His Efficient Management-A Council at Oswego-A Reign of Peace-Establishment of the Property Line-Encroachments of New Settlers- Indian Alliance with the British.

After the fall of Montreal, September 8, 1760, the English continued in occupation at Oswego, and it remained one of their most important posts. The greater part of the 55th Infantry, largely composed of Scotch soldiers under command of Major Alexander Duncan, was transferred to Oswego from Montreal immediately after the surrender. One of the captains in the regiment was Duncan McVicar, and he brought to the fort his wife and little daughter Annie, then about six years old. Annie McVicar was a precocious child and stored her men - ory with the scenes and events of her youth. She subsequently became the Mrs. Grant, whose "Memoirs of an American Lady" (the subject being Mrs. Schuyler, aunt of General Schuyler) presents a delightful picture of life in colonial times. A portion of her book is devoted to a

extinguished it. From this we may see how the rampart was ruined. . On the 26th in the morning, when the enemy entered, they were greatly surprised at seeing only a few soldiers scat- tered around their posts which they left, and some sixty militia, with handkerchiefs on their heads, in their shirt sleeves, and with necks bare, as is the Canadian fashion. They asked M. Pouchot where was his garrison? He replied that they saw the whole. We had more than sixty men killed or wounded. All the officers had been more or less wounded .- [Pouchot's Memoirs, vol. II, pp. 35-6.

MAJOR DUNCAN AT OSWEGO.

description of her journey from Albany to Fort Ontario and her sojourn at the latter place The journey was made in October, and on their last night out they staid at Fort Brewerton, then garrisoned by a company of the 55th under Capt. Mungo Campbell.

Major Duncan was a typical Scotchman and a strict disciplinarian, though he appears to have had the welfare of his command at heart. In a small frame structure set on wheels, which he made tolerably com- fortable by a liberal use in its two rooms of skins of animals, he dwelt temporarily in such parts of the parade ground as best suited his duties and desires. Anxious for the welfare of his garrison, as well as to keep the men busy through the trying winter months, he organized a sort of school over which he presided in person-probably the first civil in- struction given at Oswego. He also yielded to the urgent requests of his men, and, to supply the garrison with game, permitted them to go . on a general hunt. A party was organized, and, escorted by twelve soldiers, set out with five days' leave of absence. When the time ex- pired and nothing was heard from them, there was considerable fear for their safety, and guns were fired at the fort to attract their attention. At length on the eighth day they returned laden with game.

According to Mrs. Grant, when winter set in, Oswego became "a perfect Siberia," a reputation that it has not yet, after more than one hundred years, wholly lost. We may here quote a little further from her description :

Spring returned with its flowers and converted our Siberia into an uncultivated Eden, rich in all the majestic charms of sublime scenery and primeval beauty and fertility. If ever the fond illusions of poets and philosophers, that Atlantis -- that new Arcadia, that safe and serene Utopia, where ideal quiet and happiness have so often charmed us in theory -- if ever this dream of social bliss in some new planted region is to be realized, this unrivalled scene of grandeur and fertility bids fairest to be the place of its abode. Here the climate is serene and equal; the vigorous winters that brace the frame and call forth the powers of mind and body to prepare for its approach, are succeeded by a spring so rapid, the exuberance of vernal bloom bursts forth so suddenly after disappearance of those deep snows which cherish and fructify the earth, that the charge seems like a magical delusion."

Such is Mrs. Grant's picture of Oswego in its sylvan glory.

Mrs. McVicar and her accomplished daughter returned to Albany in the spring of 1761.

With the coming of the warm season, the commandant busied his

LANDMARKS OF OSWEGO COUNTY.

men with the cultivation of a garden in the hollow south of the fort, and a bowling green and a fish pond were also constructed by them. The vegetables in this garden, according to Mrs. Grant, " throve beyond belief or example." They used, in the following year, " to send them down to Albany to astonish us. On the continent they were not equaled, except in another military garden, which emulation had pro- duced at Niagara." 1

Oswego was occupied by Major Duncan and his regiment until 1765, for, although French dominion was extinguished, Indian hostilities con- tinued at intervals at various points on the western frontier, causing anxiety and apprehension in the garrisons farther east.

Pontiac's war broke out in the West in June, 1763. This Ottawa chieftain had been an early ally of the French and had defended their trading post at Detroit. His investment of the fort at Detroit and the warfare that succeeded had little influence at Oswego, except to excite anxiety, and need not be followed here; it is sufficient to state that he submitted to the English under General Bradstreet in 1766, who, with his force of about 2,000 men, passed through Oswego on his way westward in 1764. He was joined here by Sir William Johnson with over 500 Iroquois warriors, and the army sailed for Niagara on the 3d of July. A council was held here, at the close of which Johnson returned to his home.

In the spring of 1766 Johnson received the appointment of " Com- missary of Trade," an office which gave him the general supervision of barter with the Indians at Oswego, as well as at other posts. From that time forward for nearly ten years he wielded almost autocratic

1 In the spring of 1761, Major Duncan, seeing a prospect of being stationed at Oswego for a number of years, employed his men in clearing out the stumps from the lands which surrounded Fort Ontario, from which the timber had been cut to build the fort, and for firewood for the gar- rison, and laid out the same in large and tasteful gardens, from which the garrison for many years raised an ample supply of vegetables. During the occupancy of the post by the British, the cultivated grounds were extended above Bridge street, on the south and easterly to the alder swamp lying in the vicinity of East 6th street ; some fields also on the west side of the river seem to have been cultivated, but probably at an earlier period. After the building of Fort Onta- rio, the garrison agriculture seems to have been mostly confined to the east side. It seems to have been done almost entirely by hand-by the spade rather than the plow. Major Duncan's garden lay in the hollow, immediately south of Fort Ontario ; it was dug up by hand (as before stated) for there was not a horse in Oswego, nor any cattle except one old cow, owned by a settler. A bowling green and a fish pond were constructed for the amusement of the garrison. The location of the latter can still be discerned. A summer-house was built in a tree top .- [Reminiscences of E. W. Clark.

SIR WILLIAM JOHNSON AND PONTIAC

power over the Iroquois and lived in a lordly way in the Mohawk valley, amid his wilderness surroundings. Trade at the frontier posts had been much broken up by the recent hostilities, but under Johnson's orders all the commerce possible was concentrated at Oswego and Niagara. This purpose was effected under direction of the Lords of Trade, who ordered Johnson to " curtail as much as possible the ex- penses of his department." 1

In order to abolish the frauds that had been regularly practiced by the traders on the Indians, the baronet proceeded to establish a new basis for the future conduct of Indian trade. In the spring of 1766 he appointed at Oswego, Niagara, Fort Pitt, Detroit and Montreal, com- missioners of trade, who were charged with supervision of all trade matters. At the same time he introduced a most salutary regulation, prohibiting traders from going out among the Indians. He sent his deputy, George Croghan (who had been useful in connection with the Pontiac settlement) to Illinois in April to introduce these new methods there. The good effects were at once apparent and trade again became active.

When Pontiac submitted to the English in 1766 he had agreed to meet Sir William Johnson, whom he knew as the powerful friend of the Six Nations, in the following spring at Oswego.2 The time had now arrived for the fulfillment of this promise, and to insure the attendance of the Indian chief, Sir William in March sent Hugh Crawford with belts and messages to Pontiac and other chiefs of the western nations, with orders to escort the delegation to Oswego to join in a council. Pontiac had some fears that the English would not permit him to return home if he once placed himself in their power. He, however, accompanied the party, reached Oswego in June, and there awaited the arrival of the superintendent, hospitably entertained meanwhile by Norman McLeod, the commissioner at Niagara. It was about the 20th of July when Johnson arrived, accompanied by a large delegation of warriors of the Six Nations. The 23d was the day fixed for the beginning of the

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Landmarks of Oswego County, New York, Part 10

Author: Churchill, John Charles, 1821-1905; Smith, H. P. (Henry Perry), 1839-1925; Child, W. Stanley Publication date: 1895 Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y. : D. Mason Number of Pages: 1410

Author: Churchill, John Charles, 1821-1905; Smith, H. P. (Henry Perry), 1839-1925; Child, W. Stanley
Publication date: 1895
Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y. : D. Mason
Number of Pages: 1410