USA > New York > The Empire State: a compendious history of the commonwealth of New York > Part 29
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* The value of the property destroyed was fully $50,000. When General Schuyler heard of his loss he wrote to Colonel Varick : "The event [the victory] that has taken place makes the heavy loss I have sustained sit quite easy upon me. Britain will prob- ably see how fruitless her attempts to enslave us will be."
After the surrender of Burgoyne, Schuyler entertained the captive general at his house in Albany. The latter spoke feelingly of the injury his troops had doue to the private property of General Schuyler. "Say nothing about it," responded Schuyler ; " it was the fortune of war."
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staff were six members of Parliament. Among the spoils were forty- two pieces of the best brass cannon then known, forty-six hundred muskets and rifles, and a large quantity of munitions of war. Congress awarded thanks and a gold medal to Gates.
Very generous terms were granted to Burgoyne by the capitulation. The troops were held as prisoners of war, but allowed a free passage to Europe for those who wished to go there, and free permission for the Canadians to return to their homes on the condition that none of the troops surrendered should serve SE against the Americans. The cap- GIONUM RIONAL . SATVS tives were marched to Cambridge, near Boston, expecting to embark for England. Congress ratified the generous. terms, but Washington and that body were soon convinced by circumstances that Burgoyne and his officers intended to violate the agreement at the first oppor- tunity. It was therefore resolved HOSTE AD SARATOGAM IN DEDITION ACCEPT O DIE XVILOCT.MOC CL.XXVII not to let the captives go until the British Government should ratify the terms of the capitulation. Here THE GATES MEDAL. was a dilemma. That Government could not recognize the authority of Congress. So the " convention troops," as the captives were called, were sent to Virginia, and they remained idle in America four or five years. Burgoyne and his chief officers were allowed to depart for home.
The surrender of Burgoyne was a turning-point in the war in favor of the Americans. It inspirited the patriots ; revived the credit of the Continental Government ; the armies were rapidly recruited, and public opinion in Europe set strongly in favor of the struggling patriots. In less than four months after this event France had formed a treaty of alliance with the United States and acknowledged their independence.
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ATTACKS ON FORTS CLINTON AND MONTGOMERY.
CHAPTER XX.
WHILE General Burgoyne was struggling for victory and conquest in the upper valley of the Hudson, General Sir Henry Clinton, whom Howe had left in command at New York, was making earnest endeavors to aid him and to gain possession of the country between Albany and the sea.
At the lower entrance to the Highlands the Americans had erected two forts-" Clinton" and " Montgomery"-on the west side of the Hudson. They were upon a high, rocky shore, one on each side of a small stream. Between these forts and Anthony's Nose (a lofty hill) opposite they had stretched a boom and chain, as we have observed, to check British vessels ascending the river. These forts were under the immediate command of Generals George and James Clinton, the former then Governor of the State of New York. There was another fort (" Constitution") upon an island opposite West Point. They were all under the chief command of the veteran General Israel Putnam, whose headquarters was at Peekskill, just below the Highlands. The garrisons of these posts were weak at the beginning of October (1777), the aggre- gate number of troops not exceeding two thousand.
Sir Henry Clinton had waited at New York very impatiently for the arrival of re-enforcements. They came at the beginning of October, after floating upon the bosom of the Atlantic Ocean about three months. On the morning of the 4th he went up the Hudson with between three and four thousand troops, in many armed and unarmed vessels com- manded by Commodore Hotham, and landed his men at Verplanck's Point, a few miles below Peekskill, feigning an attack upon the latter post. This feint deceived Putnam, and he sent to the Highland forts for re-enforcements. But Governor Clinton was not deceived, and held baek all the forces in the Highlands.
At dawn on the morning of October 6th, under cover of a dense fog, Sir Henry crossed the river to Stony Point with a little more than two thousand men. He there divided his forces. One party under General Vaughan, accompanied by the baronet, pushed on through a defile in the rear of the lofty Donderberg to fall upon Fort Clinton. The party numbered about twelve hundred. Another party nine hundred strong, under Lieutenant-Colonel Campbell, made a longer march around Bear
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Mountain, to fall upon Fort Montgomery at the same time. Sir Henry had ordered his war vessels to anchor within point-blank cannon-shot of the forts to co-operate in an attack upon them. On the borders of Lake Sinnipink, at the foot of Bear Mountain, Vaughan encountered some troops sent out by Governor Clinton, and a severe but short battle ensued. The Americans fell back to the fort. Lieutenant-Colonel Campbell ap- peared before Fort Montgomery toward evening, when a peremptory demand for the surrender of both posts was made. It was refused with words of seorn, when a simultaneous attack was made upon both forts by the forces on land and water. The garrisons, mostly militia, held out bravely until dark, when they sought safety in the adjacent mountains. Many were slain or made prisoners. Governor Clinton escaped across the river, and at midnight was in Putnam's camp at Peekskill. His brother (General James Clinton), badly wounded, made his way over the mountains to his home at New Windsor. The frigate Montgomery, a ten-gun sloop, and a row-galley JAMES CLINTON .* lying above the boom attempted to escape, but could not for want of wind, so their crews set them on fire and abandoned them. The con- flagration was a magnificent spectacle. A British officer wrote con- cerning it :
" The flames suddenly broke forth, and as every sail was set the vessels soon became magnificent pyramids of fire. The reflection on the steep face of the opposite mountain, and the long train of ruddy light which shone upon the waters for a prodigious distance, had a
# General James Clinton was born in Orange County, N. Y., in 1736, and died there in 1812. He was fond of military life. At the age of twenty-two he was a captain under Bradstreet in the capture of Fort Frontenac. Ile was afterward in command of four regiments for the protection of the frontiers of Ulster and Orange counties. When the war for independence began he was appointed colonel of the Third New York Regiment, and accompanied Montgomery to Quebec. He was make a brigadier general in August, 1776, and was active in the service during a greater part of the war. He joined Sullivan's expedition against the Indians in 1779, and was stationed at Albany most of the time afterward ; yet he was present at the surrender of Cornwallis. He held civil offices after the war. General Clinton was the father of De Witt Clinton.
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CLINTON'S BULLET DESPATCH.
wonderful effect ; while the ear was awfully filled with the continued echoes from the rocky shores as the flames gradually reached the loaded cannon. The whole was sublimely terminated by the explosion, which left all again in dark-
ness."
The boom and chain were broken by the British early on the morning of the 7th, and a flying squadron 11. - -- of light vessels com- manded by Sir James ling.now Wallace, bearing the -1 whole land force of - Sir Henry Clinton, ' 13' - 1. went up the Hudson 1 En, to devastate its shores and keep the militia from joining Gates. They took possession CLINTON'S DESPATCH. of Fort Constitution on the way. At the same time Sir Henry despatched a messenger with a note to Burgoyne, as follows :
"Nous y voici [Here I am], and nothing between me and Gates. I sincerely hope this little success of ours may facilitate your operations. In answer to your letter of September 28th by C. C., I shall only say I cannot presume to order, or even to advise, for reasons obvious. I wish you suceess. - H. CLINTON."
This despateh was written on tissue paper and enelosed in an elliptical hollow silver bullet made so as to be opened at the middle, and of a size to be swallowed conveniently. The messenger was sent up the west side of the river, and while in the camp of Governor Clinton, near New SILVER BULLET. Windsor, he was suspected of being a spy. He was arrested, and was seen to suddenly put something in his mouth and swallow it. An emetic was administered, when the silver bullet was discovered and its contents were revealed. He was hanged as a spy not far from Kingston while that village was in flames, kindled by the hands of British incendiaries.
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The British troops in the marauding expedition, thirty-six hundred strong, were commanded by General Vaughan. Every vessel found on the river was burned or otherwise destroyed. The houses of known Whigs on the shores were fired upon, and small parties landing from the vessels desolated neighborhoods with fire and sword. They penetrated as far north as Kingston (Ulster Connty), then the political capital of the State, and applying the torch (October 13th), laid almost every house in the village in ashes. The Legislature fled to Duchess County, and soon afterward resumed their sittings at Poughkeepsie.
Leaving Kingston, the maranders went up the river as far as Living- ston's Manor, destroying much property at Rhinebeck on the way. They had begun to desolate Livingston's estate when they were arrested by the alarming intelligence of Burgoyne's defeat. Then they made a hasty retreat to New York.
So ended the efforts of the British Ministry for taking possession of the valleys of the Hudson and Lake Champlain. On the surrender of Burgoyne the invaders were compelled to evacuate Ticonderoga and Crown Point. British power was now prostrated in the northern section of New York, and the Americans were masters of the territory of the commonwealth from the borders of Canada almost to the sea.
While the events just recorded were occurring in the vicinity of the Hudson or North River, very important events were occurring beyond the Delaware or the South River. For several weeks Washington and Howe confronted each other in hostile movements in New Jersey, each doubtful of the intentions of the other. Finally, at the close of June, the British troops left New Jersey and passed over to Staten Island ; and on July 23d Howe, leaving Sir Henry Clinton in command at New York, embarked with eighteen thousand troops for more southern waters.
Suspecting Ilowe's destination to be the Continental seat of govern- ment, Washington, leaving a strong force on the Hudson, hastened to Philadelphia, where he was joined by the young Marquis de Lafayette as a volunteer. Hearing that the British army had landed at the head of Chesapeake Bay, he pushed on to meet Howe. They came in collision on the banks of the Brandywine Creek on September 11th, when a very severe battle was fought. The Americans were defeated, and their shattered battalions retreated to Philadelphia.
So soon as his troops were rested Washington recrossed the Schuylkill and proceeded to confront Ilowe, who was slowly moving toward the Continental capital. Some skirmishing occurred, and on the night of September 20th a detachment under General Wayne was surprised near the Paoli Tavern and lost about three hundred men.
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CONSPIRACY AGAINST WASHINGTON.
While Washington was engaged in securing his stores at Reading, Howe suddenly erossed the Schuylkill and took possession of Philadelphia (September 26th, 1777) without opposition. The Continental Congress fled at his approach, first to Lancaster and then to York, beyond the Susquehanna. It reassembled at York on September 30th, and con- tinued its sessions there until the following summer. The British army eneamped at Germantown, about four miles from Philadelphia.
Howe's troops had landed at the head of Chesapeake Bay. While they were pressing on toward Philadelphia the fleet that bore them sailed round to the Delaware, but could not pass obstructions which had been placed in the river just below the city. Above these obstructions were two forts, Mifflin, upon an island, and Mercer, upon the New Jersey shore. These were captured by Britons and Germans sent from Howe's camp, after stout resistance. They took possession of the forts before the middle of November. This conquest greatly strengthened Howe's position.
Meanwhile the British camp at Germantown had been attacked early on the morning of October 4th. A severe battle ensued, which con- tinued nearly three hours. The Americans, who became confused by a dense fog that began to rise at dawn, were defeated, and retired to their camp on Skippack Creek. Washington soon prepared to put them into winter quarters at Whitemarsh, only fourteen miles from Philadelphia. Howe broke up his encampment at Germantown, and made Philadelphia the winter quarters of his army.
Washington did not remain long at Whitemarsh, for he found a more eligible position. He broke up the camp toward the middle of December and removed to Valley Forge, where he was at a greater distance from his foe and could more easily protect the Congress, and his stores at Reading. For about six months the American army lay at Valley Forge, and suffered intensely for want of sufficient food, clothing, and shelter during the first half of that period. It was the severest ordeal in which the patriotism of the soldiers was tried during the long war for inde- pendence.
It was at this period that the conspiracy of General Gates and others to deprive Washington of the chief command of the American armies was in active operation-a conspiracy known in history as "Conway's Cabal."* Gates was then president of the Board of War, sitting at
* Count de Conway, of Irish birth, was among the French brigadiers in the Con- tinental service. He never won the confidence of Washington, and when it was proposed to promote him to an important command the commander-in-chief strenuously opposed
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York, the residence of Congress. That Board planned a winter cam- paign against Canada. So feasible seemed the plan and so glorious were the results to be obtained, as set forth by Gates and his friends, that Congress approved. The ardent Lafayette was captivated, and strongly urged its prosecution. Washington was not consulted. He, however, obtained such valuable information from General Schuyler, showing the absurdity of the undertaking, that he not only perceived the plan to be a part of the scheme to deprive him of the chief command, but he was enabled to defeat the project and thus save his country from a most perilous, if not ruinous undertaking.
The Board of War, evidently hoping to win Lafayette to the support of their schemes by conferring honors upon him, appointed him com- mander of the expedition. This also was done withont consulting Wash- ington. The shrewd young marquis very soon suspected his appoint- ment was a part of the scheme to injure his revered friend, and he resolved to show his colors at the first opportunity. His suspicions were confirmed while on a visit to York to receive his instructions. At table, with Gates and other members of the Board of War, wine flowed freely and many toasts were given. Lafayette finally arose and said :
" Gentlemen, one toast, I perceive, has been omitted, and which I will now give." They filled their glasses, when he gave, " The com- mander-in-chief of the American armies." The coldness with which the sentiment was received confirmed the marquis's worst opinions of the men around him.
Lafayette, with General Conway, who was appointed third in com- mand, proceeded to Albany, where he was cordially received by General Schuyler, and became his guest. It was evident that with materials at hand a successful expedition into Canada was impossible. The marquis had been promised three thousand men well supplied. There were not twelve hundred men at Albany fit for duty, and one fourth of these were too naked even for a summer campaign. Gates had assured him that General Stark with New England troops would be at Ticonderoga await- ing his coming, and that he would have burned the British fleet on Lake Champlain before his arrival. He only found a letter from Stark inquir- ing what number of men, from where, and at what rendezvous he desired him to raise.
The marquis now fully comprehended the vile trick of which he had
the measure. Conway was offended, and became a willing instrument of Gates in his conspiracy. The prominent part which he took in that movement caused it to be called " Conway's Cabal."
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COUNCIL WITH THE INDIANS.
been made the victim. He had been utterly deceived by the false utter- ances of Gates. "I fancy," he wrote, " the actual scheme is to have me out of this part of the country and General Conway as chief under the immediate command of Gates." The conspirators found they could not use Lafayette. Congress abandoned the enterprise, and the marquis, disgusted with the whole affair, returned to Washington's camp at Valley Forge.
The British held possession of Fort Niagara and exercised a powerful influence over the Six Nations, especially the more western tribes. They had nearly all become more or less disaffected toward the American cause, and at the close of 1777, so threatening became their aspect, that Congress recommended the Commissioners of Indian Affairs of New York to hold a treaty with them, defining the chief objects to be (1) to induce the Indians to make war upon their enemies, who were then desolating the frontier settlements of Pennsylvania and Virginia, and (2) to induce them to surprise and capture the British post of Niagara.
The commissioners complied. A council was opened at Johnstown early in March (1778), at which about seven hundred barbarian delegates appeared. Lafayette accompanied the commissioners. James Deane, an Indian agent living among the Oneidas, was the interpreter of a speech sent by Congress and read by General Schuyler, in which the power of the United States was asserted most emphatically, and the magnanimons manner in which they had always treated the Six Nations was recounted. The speech charged the Indians with ingratitude, cruelty, and treachery, and demanded reparation for their crimes. From these charges the Oneidas and Tuscaroras were exempted.
The council was not satisfactory. The Mohawks and Cayugas were sullen ; the Senecas refused to send delegates. An Oneida sachem, con- scious of the faithfulness of his people (and also of the Tuscaroras) to their pledges of neutrality, spoke eloquently in behalf of both, and these two nations renewed their pledges. It was clearly evident, however, that the more powerful of the Six Nations, with Brant at their head, were devising schemes for avenging their losses at Oriskany, and that war was inevitable. "It is strange," said the Senecas, by a messenger sent to announce their refusal to attend the conference, " that while your tomahawks are sticking in our heads [referring to the battle of Oriskany], our wounds bleeding, and our eyes streaming with tears for the loss of our friends, the commissioners should think of inviting us to a treaty."
Earnest efforts were made to avert war with the Indians. Attempts to recruit four hundred warriors of the Six Nations for the Continental service were only partially successful. When the news of the alliance
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with France was received, early in May, it was circulated as widely as possible among the Iroquois tribes. But little impression seemed to have been made upon the barbarians, and the white people began at once to make preparations to meet hostility. At Cherry Valley the house of Samuel Campbell, the strongest in the settlement, was fortified ; and in the Sehoharie Valley three buildings were intrenched with breastworks and block-houses and stockaded, by order of Lafayette. Each was garrisoned and armed with a small brass field-piece. These were ealled respectively the Upper, the Middle, and the Lower Fort. To these strongholds the women and children might fly for safety. Forts Schuyler and Dayton (the latter on the site of the village of Herkimer) were strengthened, and Fort Plain, lower down the Mohawk Valley, was enlarged and better armed.
These precautionary movements were not made too soon. They were keenly watehed by Sir John Johnson and his kinsmen and friends. Among them the most active were Colonels John Butler, Guy Johnson, and Daniel Claas, the latter Sir John's brother-in-law. At the same time a nephew of Sir Guy Carleton was lurking near Johnson IIall for the same purpose.
We have observed that Brant returned from Canada in the spring of 1777 with a large band of Mohawk warriors. After the dispersion of St. Leger's invading force, in Angust, Brant and his followers retired to Fort Niagara, and there during the ensuing winter and spring they made preparations for war.
Early in the spring of 1778 Brant and his warriors appeared at Oghkwaga, their place of rendezvous the previous year. There he organized scalping parties and sent them out upon the borderers, cutting them off in detail. They fell like thunderbolts upon isolated families. Very soon the hills and valleys were nightly illuminated by the blaze of burning dwellings and made hideous by the shrieks of women and children. The inhabitants stood continually on the defensive. Men cultivated the fields with loaded muskets slung upon their backs. Women were taught the use of fire-arms, and half-grown children became expert scouts and discerners of Indian trails. Such was the con- dition of the settlers in the Mohawk region and the country south of it during a greater portion of the war.
In May (1778) Brant desolated Springfield, at the head of Otsego Lake, ten miles from Cherry Valley. Every house was laid in ashes. At the beginning of June he was in the Schoharie Valley with about three hundred and fifty Indian followers, and on the upper waters of the Cobleskill he had a severe encounter with some regulars and militia com-
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MASSACRE AT CHERRY VALLEY.
manded by Captains Brown and Patrick. Twenty-two of the Repub- licans were killed and several were wounded. The houses in that region were plundered and burnt. A month later the terrible tragedy in the Wyoming Valley (to be noticed presently) occurred.
The Johnsons and their Tory followers were the allies of the barbarians in their bloody work south of the Mohawk River. The most savage of these Tories was Walter N. Butler, son of Colonel John Butler, who was in command of a detachment of his father's Rangers and had joined Brant. The latter, who was humane and even generous toward women and children placed at his mercy," detested young Butler for his cruelties, and at first refused to serve with him. The matter was finally adjusted, and at near the middle of November (1778), during a heavy storm of sleet, the two leaders and their followers fell upon Cherry Valley, the wealthiest and most important settlement on the head-waters of the Susquehanna River, in New York.
A fort had been erected at Cherry Valley around a church by order of Lafayette, and was garrisoned by some Continental troops commanded by Colonel Ichabod Alden. He was forewarned by reports of approach- ing danger, but would not believe the messengers. He was therefore unprepared for an attack when, early in the morning of November 11th, snow, rain, and hail falling copiously, the motley hosts of Brant and Butler burst upon the settlement. They murdered, plundered, and destroyed without stint. Butler was the arch-fiend on that occasion, and would listen to no appeals from Brant for mercy to their victims.
The invaders first entered the house of Mr. Wells, whose wife was a daughter of the venerable minister, Mr. Dunlap. They massacred the whole family. Only his son John, afterward the eminent lawyer of New York, who was then at school in Schenectady, was saved. The family consisted of Mr. Wells, his wife and four children, his mother, brother, sister, and three servants. Colonel Alden, who was in the house at the time, was tomahawked and scalped. The savages then rushed to the dwelling of Rev. Mr. Dunlap and slew his wife before his
* Many instances of Brant's humanity are related. When, in 1780, he and Sir John Johnson desolated the Mohawk and Schoharie valleys an infant was carried off. The frantic mother pursued, but could not recover her babe. A day or two afterward General Van Rensselaer, in command of Fort Hunter, received a visit from a young Indian bearing the infant in his arms, and a letter from Brant, who wrote : "SIR : I send you by one of my runners the child which he will deliver, that you may know that whatever others may do, I do not make war upon women and children. I am sorry to say that I have those engaged with me who are more savage than the savages them- selves." He named the Butlers and others,
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