USA > New York > The Empire State: a compendious history of the commonwealth of New York > Part 19
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MILITARY PREPARATIONS.
land force and a well-manned fleet under Admiral Saunders, was to ascend the St. Lawrence River and attack Quebec. Another force under General Amherst was to drive the French from Lake Champlain, seize Montreal, and join Wolfe at Quebec ; while a third expedition, led by General Prideaux, was to attempt the capture of Fort Niag- ara, and, if successful, to go down Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence to Montreal.
When, at the close of summer (1758), Amherst, at Cape Breton, heard of the disaster at Ticon- deroga he sailed for Boston with four regiments and a battalion, and made a forced march across New England to Albany to re-enforce the defeated Abercrombie. He- arrived at Lake George early in October, but too late for further SIR JEFFREY AMHERST. action in the field that season. He went to New York, and in November he received his commission as commander-in-chief. He spent the winter in New York City making preparations for the next campaign. In the spring he made his head- quarters at Albany ; appointed Colonel Bradstreet quartermaster-general of his army ; collected his forces, and at the close of May found himself at the head of twelve thousand men, chiefly of New York and New England. The Assembly of New York had authorized the emission of half a million dollars in bills of credit, and a loan to the crown of a large sum, to be reimbursed before the close of the year.
Prideaux collected his forces, chiefly provincials, at Oswego. From that point, accompanied by Sir William Johnson and some Mohawks, he sailed for Niagara, and landed there withont inuch opposition on July 15th. A siege was immediately begun, and on the same day Prideaux was killed by the bursting of one of his cannons, when Johnson assunied the chief command. He demanded the surrender of the fort. The com- mander was in hourly expectation of re-enforcements and refused com- pliance, and for several days the garrison made a brave resistance.
On the 24th about fifteen hundred French regulars and many Creek and Cherokee warriors, drawn from Detroit and elsewhere, appeared, commanded by Colonel D'Aubrey, when a sharp battle ensued. The
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French and their allies were soon effectually routed and dispersed. The next day (July 25th) the fort and its dependencies were surrendered to the British. The French dominion in that region was fairly annihilated, and the connecting link of military power between Canada and Louisiana was broken never to be restored. Lieutenant-Governor De Lancey wrote to the Lords of Trade : "His Majesty is now in possession of the most important pass in all the Indian countries."
Johnson was so encumbered with prisoners that he could not provide a sufficiency of vessels to convey him and his troops, with the captives, to Montreal, so he garrisoned Fort Niagara and returned to Albany.
Late in June Amherst was at the head of Lake George with about twelve thousand troops, regulars and provincials in equal numbers ; and on July 22d he appeared before the lines at Ticonderoga with about eleven thousand men. The French, conscious of their own weakness and peril, fled down the lake to Crown Point, and almost immediately abandoned that post also and took a longer flight, halting at Isle aux Noix, at the foot of the lake, or rather in the Sorel River, its outlet. Amherst took possession of Crown Point without opposition, and was about to follow the French with a detachment of his army, when he was informed that the allies were three thousand strong and that the lake was gnarded by four vessels carrying heavy guns numerously manned, under the command of a skilful French naval officer.
Amherst paused, and ordered the construction of several vessels of war at Crown Point. Upon these he embarked his whole army at the middle of October, for the purpose of driving the French beyond the St. Law- rence. Heavy tempests drove him back to Crown Point, where he went into winter quarters, and then set his troops at work in the construction of a strong and costly fort, the picturesque ruins of which are seen by tourists on Lake Champlain. The fort and its appartenances cost the British Government several million dollars. It remained in their pos- session until 1775.
Meanwhile a more successful expedition was consummated. The fleet of Admiral Saunders, consisting of twenty-two line-of-battle ships, many frigates and smaller vessels, bore General Wolfe and eight thousand troops up the St. Lawrence River in June (1759). These landed on the Island of Orleans, a few miles below Quebec, on the 27th.
Quebec, then as now, consisted of an Upper and Lower Town, the former being surrounded by a strongly fortified wall pierced by five gates. An elevated plateau three hundred feet above the river and extending from the rear of the city some distance up the St. Lawrence is called the Plains of Abraham, a locality made famous in history by
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THE ENGLISH BESIEGE QUEBEC.
the events of this expedition. At the junction of the St. Charles River with the St. Lawrence, at the foot of the rocky promontory on which lies the Upper Town, the French had armed vessels and floating bat- teries. The city was strongly garrisoned by French regulars, and along the river from Quebec to the Montmorenci River, a distance of seven miles, lay the army of Montcalm, consisting chiefly of Canadians and Indians, in an intrenched camp .*
With amazing skill and vigor Wolfe prepared for the siege of Quebec. He took possession of Point Levi, nearly opposite the city, a mile distant, on July 30th, where he erected batteries and whence he hurled blazing bombshells upon the Lower Town, setting on fire fifty houses in one night. The citadel was beyond their reach. The French sent down fire-rafts to burn the British fleet anchored below, but without success.
Wolfe, eager to gain a victory speedily, had landed a large force (July 10th, 1759) under Generals Townshend and Murray below the Montmorenci, and formed a camp there. Wolfe was in possession of the river, but the large fleet conld do little more than reconnoitre, trans- port troops, and guard the channels. It seemed impossible to force a passage across the Montmorenci above the cataract. The only way was to cross it at its mouth at low tide.
Finally, at near the close of July, General Monckton, with grenadiers and other troops, was sent over from Point Levi, and landed on the beach above the month of the Montmorenci. Without waiting for troops from the British camp below to join him, Monckton, with his grenadiers, rushed up the steep acclivity to attack Montcalm's lines, when they were driven back to the beach, while a fierce thunder-storm was raging. Dark- ness came on. The roar of the rising tide admonished them to take to their boats, which they did, but with a loss of nearly five hundred of their comrades, who had perished.
Wolfe sent Murray above the town with twelve hundred men to de- stroy French ships there, and to open the way for Amherst. But alas ! Amherst did not come. Murray heard of the fall of Fort Niagara and of the expedition of the French from Lake Champlain, but received no direct tidings from Amherst.
Two months had passed away since the landing on Orleans, and yet no important advance had been made. In vain Wolfe listened for the drums of Amherst. Not even a message came from him, for reasons already given. Exposure, anxiety, and fatigue prostrated the commander
* Montcalm had his headquarters in a stone building not far from Beauport Mills It commanded a view of Quebec and its immediate vicinity.
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early in September. Ile called a council of war at his bedside, when it was determined to scale the Heights of Abraham and assail the city in the rear. Feeble as he was, Wolfe resolved to lead the attack in person. The camp at the Montmorenci was broken up (September 8th), and the attention of Montcalm was diverted from the real designs of the British by seeming preparations to attack his lines. The affair was managed so secretly and skilfully that even De Bougainville, a French officer with fifteen hundred men who had been sent up the river to watch the movements of the British, did not suspect their design.
On the evening of the 12th the whole army destined for the assault moved up the river from Point Levi in transports, several leagnes above the chosen landing-place. At midnight they left the ships, and embarking in flat-boats, floated noiselessly down the stream with the ebb- ing tide .* Black clouds obscured the sky, but the voyagers reached their destination in good order, and landed without being discovered. The place where they disembarked is still known as Wolfe's Cove. They at once clambered up the tangled ravine that led to the Plains of Abraham, and at dawn on the 13th about five thousand British troops stood upon the heights, a fearful apparition to the French sentinels and the sergeants' guard at the brow of the acclivity, who, in hot haste, carried the alarming news first to the garrison in Quebec and then to Montcalm at Beauport, beyond the St. Charles River. "It can only be a small party come to burn a few houses and return," said the incredu- lons commander.
Montcalm was soon undeceived. He immediately sent orders for De Levi and De Bougainville to return with their troops. Abandoning his in- trenchments, he led a greater portion of his army across the St. Charles, and at ten o'clock in the morning they stood in battle array on the Plains
* Wolfe appeared to be in good spirits, yet there was evidently a brooding shadow of a presentiment of evil. At the evening mess he sang the little campaign song beginning,
" Why, soldiers, why Should we be melancholy boys ? Why, soldiers, why, Whose business 'tis to die," etc.
And as he sat among his officers and floated softly down the river in the gloom, he re- peated, in his musing tones, that stanza from Gray's "Elegy in a Country Church- yard"-
" The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power, And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave, Await alike th' inevitable hour- The path of glory leads but to the grave."
At the close he said, " Now, gentlemen, I would prefer being the author of that poem ' to the glory of beating the French to-morrow."
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DEATH OF WOLFE AND MONTCALM.
of Abraham, near the town. Both parties lacked heavy guns. The French had three field-pieces, the English only one - a light six- pounder which some sailors had dragged up the ravine. The two com- manders, at the head of their respective troops, faced each other.
A general, fierce, and sanguinary battle now ensued. The British muskets were double-shotted, and the soldiers reserved their fire until within forty yards of their foes, when they poured upon the French such destructive volleys that the latter were thrown into utter confusion. The terrible English bayonet completed the work and secured the vic- tory. Wolfe and Montcalm had both been mortally wounded. Wolfe, leaning on the shoulder of an officer, was borne to the rear. His ear caught the exclamation, " See ! they run ! they run !"
" Who runs ?" asked the dying hero in a whisper.
"The enemy, sir ; they give way everywhere !"' was the reply. Wolfe then gave an order to cut off their retreat, and then said, in an almost inaudible whisper :
" Now, God be praised, I die happy !"' and expired.
Montcalm's surgeon said to his wounded general, "Death is certain."
" I am glad of it," said the marquis. " How long have I to live ?" " Ten or twelve hours ; perhaps less."
" So much the better ; I shall not live to see the surrender of Quebec !"
About seventy years after this event an English governor of Canada caused a modest granite column to be erected on the spot where Wolfe fell, with the inscription, " Here died Wolfe, victorious September 13th, 1759." In its place now stands a beautiful Doric column of granite dedi- cated to the memory of both Wolfe and Montcalm. It also bears the former inscription. It was erected by the British army in Canada in 1849.
General Townshend assumed the command of the British army, and five days after the battle he received the formal surrender of the city of Quebec. The remainder of Montcalm's army, under De Levi, fled to Montreal. So, brilliantly for the English, ended the campaign of 1759. Yet Canada was not conquered. Five thousand troops under General Murray took possession of the great prize. The fleet, with French prisoners, sailed for Halifax.
The final struggle for the mastery in Canada was begun early in the spring of 1760, when Vaudreuil, the governor-general, sent De Levi, with ten thousand regulars, Canadians, and Indians in six frigates to attempt the recovery of Quebec. De Levi appeared before the city at the close of March, when the brave Murray went out with his whole force-less than three thousand-to attack him. At Sillery, three miles above Quebec, one of the most sanguinary battles of the war was fought.
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THE EMPIRE STATE.
Murray was defeated. He lost all his artillery and a thousand men, but managed to get back into the city with the remainder. De Levi then began a siege, and Murray's condition was becoming desperate when a British squadron, with re-enforcements and supplies, appeared. Supposing it to be the whole British fleet, De Levi withdrew and fled to Montreal, after losing most of his shipping. Vaudreuil gathered all his forces at Montreal, the last stronghold of French dominion in America. Amherst spent the whole summer in preparations for an attack upon that city. Ilis movements were slow but sure. With almost ten thousand men and one thousand Indians under Sir William Johnson he proceeded to Oswego, crossed Lake Ontario, went down the St. Lawrence, and appeared before Montreal on September 6th. He had captured Fort Presentation, at the mouth of the Oswegatchie River (now Ogdensburg), on his way. Murray arrived from Quebec at noon the same day with four thousand troops, and before night Colonel Hlaviland, who had proceeded from Crown Point and had driven the French from Isle aux Noix, arrived there with three thousand men.
Surrounded by almost seventeen thousand foes, Vaudreuil at once capitulated, and on the Sth Montreal and all Canada passed into the possession of the British crown. General Gage was appointed governor-general at Montreal, and Murray, with his four thousand troops, garrisoned Quebec. Fort Detroit was yet in possession of the French. Major Robert Rogers* was sent with some rangers
* Robert Rogers, a famous partisan soldier in the French and Indian War, was born at Dumbarton, N. HI., about 1730, and died in England in 1780. His father was from Ireland, and an early settler of Dumbarton. Robert was in command of a corps of rangers during the French and Indian War, and did gallant service. In 1758 he fought a bloody battle with the French and their Indian allies in Northern New York. He had 170 men ; the French, 700, including 600 Indians. After losing 150 men he retreated, leaving 150 of his enemies dead on the field. In 1759 General Amherst sent him to de- stroy the Indian village of St. Francis, which he did, killing 200 of the barbarians. In 1760 he was sent to take possession of Detroit and other Western forts ceded to Great Britain. It was done. Then he went to England, and in 1765 was appointed governor of Mackinaw. Accused of treasonable designs, he was sent to Montreal in irons, tried by a court-martial, and was acquitted. In 1769 he again went to England, and was graciously received by the king. Becoming financially embarrassed, he went to Algiers, where he fought two battles for the Dey. IIe returned to America, and at the opening of the war for independence his course was so suspicious that he was arrested by order of Congress, and released on parole. In 1776 Washington, suspecting him of being a spy, arrested him. Congress soon released him, when he openly took up arms for the crown, and raised a corp of Loyalists, which he called the " Queen's Rangers." He soon went to England, leaving them in command of Lieutenant-Colonel Simcoe, under whom they became a famous partisan corps. In 1776 Major Rogers published, in London, " Journals of the French War."
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WORK OF THE ENGLISH-AMERICAN COLONISTS.
to take possession of it, which was accomplished at the close of November.
This conquest and the treaty signed at Paris early in 1763 deprived France of all her territorial posses- sions in North America. Great Britain soon became the sole possessor of the Continent from the Gulf of Mexico to the Aretie seas and from ocean to ocean, but at a cost during her sev- eral struggles of fully 8500,000,000 and many thousand precious lives.
During many long and gloomy years the colonists had struggled up, unaided and alone, from feebleness to strength. They had ereeted forts, raised armies, and fought battles cheer- fully for England's glory and their own preservation without England's aid and often without her sympathy .* During the French and Indian War, the turmoil of which in America was now ended, did they cheerfully tax themselves and contribute inen, money, and provisions. They lost during that war 25,000 robust men on land, and many seamen. That war MAJOR ROBERT ROGERS. (From a print published in London in 1776.) eost the colonists, in the aggregate, fully $20,000,000, besides the flower of their youths ; and in return Parliament granted them, at different times during the contest, only about $5,500,000. And yet the British Ministry, in 1760, while the colonists were so generously supporting the power and dignity of the realm, regarded them as mere servile sub- jeets to the king, and imposed a tax npon them to replenish the exhausted British Treasury.
A dangerous movement, known as " Pontiac's Conspiracy," immedi- ately followed the war-a conspiracy planned by Pontiac, a powerful,
* When, on the floor of the British House of Commons, Charles Townshend, speaking of the English-American colonists, said : " They have been planted by our care, nourished by our indulgence, and protected by our arms," Colonel Barre retorted : "No ; your oppression planted them in America ; they grew by your neglect ; and they have nobly taken up arms in your defence."
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sagacious, and ambitious Ottowa chief, who succeeded in confederating several Algonquin tribes for the purpose of crushing the newly-acquired British power westward of the Niagara River." It was an echo of the French and Indian War. It was ripe before its growth was even sus- pected. Within a fortnight, in the summer of 1763, all military posts in possession of the British west of Oswego to Lake Michigan fell into the possession of Pontiac by treachery or surprise, excepting Forts Niagara, Pitt, and Detroit. The conspiracy was soon subdued, and the power of the hostile tribes was broken. Pontiac would not yield, but took refuge in the country of the Illinois, where he was treacherously murdered by one of his own race.
Lieutenant-Governor De Lancey managed the civil affairs of the province of New York with wisdom and energy from the death of Sir Danvers Osborne, in 1753, until his own sudden death from apoplexy in the summer of 1760,+ a period of about seven years. As we have observed, Sir Charles Hardy, a naval officer, came to New York as governor in 1755, but, more incompetent than Clinton as a civil ruler, he was com- pletely dominated by De Lancey. He received his salary, and allowed the lieutenant-governor to hold the helm of the ship of State. Sir Charles left the province in the summer of 1757, when he hoisted his flag over a naval vessel in the harbor of New York as Rear-Admiral of the Blue, and took command in the expedition against Louisburg. He never re- turned to the executive chair.
During the administration of De Lancey important social movements had occurred in the city of New York. Allusion has been made to the
* In April, 1763, Pontiac called a council near Detroit of representatives of many North-Western tribes, and the Senecas of Western New York. That council presented a gay scene. The chiefs were attended by their families, dressed in their gaudiest apparel. They gathered in groups to feast, smoke, gamble, and tell stories ; many of them were bedizened with feathers, beads, and other tokens of pride-"young maidens," says Parkman, " radiant with bear's oil and ruddy, with vermilion, and versed in all the arts of forest coquetry." The grave men were seated on the ground in council in consecutive rows, and after the pipe had gone round from hand to hand, Pontiac, painted and plumed, arose and delivered an impassioned speech. He displayed in one hand a broad belt of wampum, and assured his hearers that it came from the French, who would soon come with ships and armies to reconquer Canada.
t De Lancey was found by one of his children, on the morning of July 30th, 1760, dying, in his chair, in his study, in which he had probably sat all night, as he frequently did, on account of chronic asthma. He had dined the day before, with a number of lead- ing men of the province, on Staten Island, where he indulged, as was common on such occasions, in excessive eating and drinking. He returned to his home in the Bowery in the evening and retired to his study, from which he never emerged alive. There was an ostentatious funeral. His body was buried beneath the middle aisle of Trinity Church, the Rev. Mr. Barclay conducting the funeral services.
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SOCIAL MOVEMENTS IN NEW YORK.
neglect of intellectual cultivation in the province. Leading men had long deplored this state of things, and perceived the danger to society which might be evolved by such neglect as population and wealth increased. Finally, in 1754, Dr. Cadwallader Colden, *. James de Lancey, Philip Livingston, Peter Schuyler, Abraham de Peyster, Frederick Philipse, William Smith, and others founded the New York Society Library, now one of the noblest of the literary institutions of the city. A neg- lected germ of such an institution had existed about fifty years. The chaplain of Governor Bellomont (Jacob Sharp) gave to the city, in 1700, a collection of books to which was afterward added many more CADWALLADER COLDEN. by the Rev. John Millington, of England. It formed the Corporation Library ; but the books were neglected and nearly forgotten. When the Society Library was formed, these books were added to it.
At the same period an effectual movement was made for the foun- dation of a college in the city of New York. There were then few collegians in the province. For many years Mr. De Lan- cey and William Smith, the elder, were the only " academics," excepting those in holy orders ; and at the time in question there were only thirteen others, the youngest of whom had his
Corelder oben SIGNATURE OF CADWALLADER COLDEN.
* Cadwallader Colden was a physician and a native of Scotland, where he was born in 1688. He emigrated to Pennsylvania in 1708, returned to Scotland, and came back to America in 1716. Two years later he made the province of New York his residence at the request of Governor Hunter, and was appointed surveyor-general of the colony. In 1720 he became a member of Governor Burnet's Council, and made his residence in Orange County. He became lieutenant-governor of the province in 1761, which position he occupied during the remainder of his life. He died on Long Island in 1776. Through- out the troublous times preceding the Revolution, he managed public affairs with great sagacity.
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bachelor's degree at the age of seventeen .* In 1746 the Assembly anthorized a lottery to raise funds for the establishment of a college. Nearly $6000 were thus raised. It was increased in 1754, and King's (now Columbia) College was founded and chartered.
At that time sectarianism was rampant in the province, and there was a bitter strife between the Episcopalians, or those of the Church of Eng- land, and the Presbyterians, for the control of the college. The aristoc- racy were generally members of the Episcopal Church, and in the contest for the control of the college they were victorious. Trinity Church offered a site for the college building on the condition that the president should always be an Episcopalian, and that the prayers of the Church should always be used in it. Governor De Lancey gave it a charter on these conditions in 1754, but there was a liberal distribution of the trustee- ship among other denominations. Rev. William Samnel Johnson, D.D., was appointed the first president.+
New York City at that time had a population of about fourteen thon- sand, and contained an Episcopal, a Presbyterian, and a French church, two German Lutheran churches, a Quaker and an Anabaptist meeting- house, a Jewish synagogue, and a Moravian congregation. The Jews were disfranchised, and the Moravians were perseented as Jesuits in dis- gnise.
The sectarian controversy at that time was a consequence of a discov- ered scheme of Dr. Secker, Archbishop of Canterbury, for the establish- ment of Episcopacy in the colonies, largely for the purpose of curbing the Puritan spirit in political and religions affairs. The throne and the hierarchy were, in a sense, mutually dependent, and Dr. Secker's propo- sition was warmly supported by the British Cabinet. It was as warmly opposed by the Dissenters and all independent thinkers in the colonies.
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