USA > New York > The Pennsylvania and New York frontier : history of from 1720 to the close of the Revolution > Part 13
USA > Pennsylvania > The Pennsylvania and New York frontier : history of from 1720 to the close of the Revolution > Part 13
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While Montcalm was exulting over his great victory at Ticonderoga, the ominous clouds of disaster were gathering over New France. Despite a series of victories, which would have crushed any other nation, Eng- land's command of the sea, her superior industry and the numerous pop- ulation of the American colonies created an overwhelming military organi- zation, now competently led, which moved with deadly precision. Amherst and Wolfe captured Louisburg, July 27, 1758.
Bradstreet, the only officer worth while in Abercrombie's disconcerted army, obtained permission to capture Fort Frontenac, and with three thousand men, marched to ruined Oswego. He crossed the lake and after a short siege, De Noyon, the French commander surrendered, August 27th. The fortification and a large amount of supplies were destroyed.3 This vic- tory tended to neutralize the northern Indians and hampered the trans- mission of supplies to Niagara and Fort Duquesne.
The treaty made at Easton, in October, 1758, definitely turned the tide of Indian aggression on the frontier. It was negotiated with great difficulty, as many conflicting interests and passions had to be reconciled or subdued. The troublesome intermeddling of the Friendly Association had to be nullified. The bumptous presumptions of Teedyuscung deflated, the different irritations of the many tribes anointed with political salve, and above all the supremacy of the Six Nations reestablished, so that united action be maintained. The Friendly Association inspired Teedyuscung to threaten disruption of the conference unless his land claims were satisfied, while Croghan and Weiser wisely strove to avoid the land question and make a lasting peace.
The conference began October 8, 1758, in the presence of Governors Bernard of New Jersey and Denny of Pennsylvania, members of the council and assembly of the latter province and many citizens. The prin- cipal chiefs of the Six Nations and various eastern Indian tribes were present. George Croghan deputy of Sir William Johnson, conducted the treaty. Conrad Weiser was interpreter for Pennsylvania and Henry Mon- tour for Croghan. After the usual salutation and interruptions of the reg- ular order of business by Teedyuscung's rambling talks, Nichus, chief of the
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Mohawks, "spoke for some time with great vehemence, pointing to Teedyuscung." Weiser, sensing a disruption of the conference, if the speech, was then interpreted, got permission to have it done at a private meeting. This gave time for him and Croghan to sound the Indians and prepare for a later and favorable reception of the speech. Conrad Weiser thus saved the Easton treaty.
The time had come for the deflation of Teedyuscung. The Six Nations had borne his insolence with patience. His boastfulness and pretensions, to kingship over many nations, shocked their sense of propriety, and frequent interruptions, of the proceedings, violated their strict adherence to Indian decorum. The great chiefs of the Iroquois spoke for their nations and by authority of the mighty confederacy, they represented.
But, that none may say they misjudged him, a relation, of contem- porary opinion, is pertinent. The Moravians said, "he was as unstable as water and like a reed shaken before the wind-was dazzled by the prospect of a crown, and trafficked his peace of mind for the unrest of ambition "4 Conrad Weiser early detected his duplicity.5 The diary of William Parsons depicts his instability, drunkenness, boastfulness and rambling manner of discourse.6 George Croghan called him an infamous villian.7 Governor Denny distrusted him.8 Sir William Johnson wrote, "I suspect he is not the consequential person, he has pretended to be, and that he is either a tool made use of by some in your Province, or a forward fellow, who finds his advantage by imposing himself on your government, as a person of great importance."9 How the Indians judged him, may be inferred from the following. At the Easton conference, in 1757, his own people, the eastern Delawares complained of his conduct and rebuked him.10 In their interview with Frederick Post, the western Delawares repudiated him and said he lied in his report to the governor.11 Captain Newcastle reported he falsely claimed he had authority from the Six Nations to treat with Pennsylvania.12 Teedyuscung's wife had little confidence in him and wanted to remain at Bethlehem, because of his debauchery.13
At the private conference, in the morning, Nichas, the Mohawk said : "We thought it proper to meet you here and have some private discourse about our nephew, Teedyuscung. You all know, that he gives out, he is a great man and chief of ten nations. This is his constant discourse. Now, I on behalf of the Mohawks say, we do not know he is such a great man. If he is such a great man, we desire to know who made him so. Perhaps you have and if this be the case, tell us so. It may be the French have made him so. We want to enquire and know, whence his greatness arose."
Nine of the ten nations endorsed what Nichas said, and denied his kingship over them. Only the Delawares did not openly repudiate him, and of these the western Delawares had done so in their interview with Post, while the Minnisinks did at the treaty, appointing Thomas King of the Six Nations to manage their business. Governor Bernard, in his speech, to the conference, said, "I know not, who made Teedyuscung so great a man, nor do I know that he is any greater than chief of the Dela- ware Indians settled at Wyoming."
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Teedyuscung squirmed for a few days. Israel Pemberton and the Quakers tried hard to bolster him up, but in vain. All his brag and bluster were gone. His surrender was abject and complete, and to his uncles, the Six Nations, he sang, this his song of sorrow: "I sit here as a bird on a bough, I look about and do not know where to go, let me therefore come down upon the ground and make that my own by a good deed, and that I shall have a home forever, for if you my uncles or I die, our brethren the English will say they have bought it from you, and so wrong my posterity out of it."14
The greatness of Teedyuscung was only a fiction of Quaker imagina- tion, and the folly of those writers who have followed them. As Mr. Harvey has said, in his History of Wilkes-Barre, "he was a politician and not a warrior and not the noble red man described by some writers, but a crafty, cunning and crooked character."
The latter part of the conference proceeded amicably under the direc- tion of the Six Nations, and a treaty of peace was concluded, wherein the Indians promised to return all the captives. New Jersey gave the Min- nisinks £1000 and they released all claims to land in New Jersey. Conrad Weiser and Richard Peters, upon behalf of the Penn heirs, released all the unsettled land purchased at Albany in 1754. A message was sent to the Ohio Indians. As Thomas King concluded the conference, he spied Mr. Vernon, the commissary and requested he be ordered to take the lock off the rum barrel and let it run freely.15
Pitt appointed Brigadier-General John Forbes, commander of the expedition against Fort Duquesne, and he arrived at Philadelphia in April, 1758. The Pennsylvania assembly voted to raise twenty-seven hun- dred men and money for the necessary horses and wagons for transporta- tion of supplies. The army assembled at Carlisle; and thence Colonel Boquet proceeded to Raystown, where he built Fort Bedford.16 Forbes was suffering from a fatal illness and much of the way was carried on a litter borne by horses.
Upon the recommendation of Boquet and St. Clair, a new and shorter route from Fort Bedford was selected, despite the opposition of the Virginians, who favored the old Braddock road from Fort Cumberland. Those interested in the Ohio Company and particularly Washington were exasperated by the selection. Forbes was incensed at him and wrote Boquet, "I would consult Colonel Washington, though perhaps not follow his advice, as his behavior about the road was noways like a soldier."
Forbes army, numbering about seven thousand, consisted of twelve hundred Highlanders, three hundred fifty Royal Americans, twenty-seven hundred Pennsylvanians, sixteen hundred Virginians, one hundred fifty North Carolinians, one hundred from Delaware, two hundred fifty from Maryland and a thousand wagoners and laborers.17 Boquet built a road over the Alleghenies to Loyalhanna creek, where, in September, he erected Fort Ligonier.18
From there, he dispatched Major Grant, with some eight hundred men, to reconnoiter the vicinity of Fort Duquesne. Grant arrived, within
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two miles of the fort, about the middle of September, and leaving his baggage there, proceeded to a hill, a quarter of a mile from the place. Major Lewis, with a force of two hundred, was directed to lie in ambush, along the road, and intercept an anticipated French attack on the baggage guard. Four hundred men were placed, on a hill, facing the fort, to cover the retreat of a detachment of Highlanders sent forward to entice the enemy from their works. Grant underestimated the strength of the French, who sallied out in great numbers and attacked the Highlanders. They were forced to retreat. The provincials, secreting themselves behind trees, made a good defense, but, being unsupported, were compelled to join the flight. Grant exposed himself and vainly endeavored to rally his men, who were outflanked on all sides. Many were driven into the river and drowned. The baggage guard withstood the enemy for a time and this gave the fleeing men opportunity to escape. Grant was captured.19
Encouraged by this victory, twelve hundred French and Indians attacked Fort Ligonier, October 11th. Colonel James Burd, in command of the fort, made a gallant defense and the enemy was forced to retreat. The English losses were sixty-two privates and five officers killed, wounded and missing.
Forbes had despaired concluding the campaign, during the fall of 1758, but his slow sure policy had prevailed. Post's mission, which he had urged, had broken the Indian alliance with the French. The savages deserted and fled from Fort Duquesne, like a flock of wild pigeons. November 18th, Armstrong's advance force of Pennsylvanians was within seventeen miles of the fort and Washington with the Virginia provincials was at Bushy Run. Forbes, with the main army followed them. Scouts brought word the French had fled and the place was on fire. The whole army occupied Fort Duquesne, November 25th, 1758, Armstrong raised the English flag on the ruined ramparts and the west was forever free of the French.20
Forbes named the place Pittsburg and dated his report to Governor Denny, "Fort Duquesne, now Pittsburg, the 26th November 1758." A new stockaded fortification called Fort Pitt was immediately begun. Colonel Hugh Mercer was left in command, and the main army returned to Fort Bedford.21 General Forbes died at Philadelphia, March 13, 1759.
Next to the capture of Quebec, the taking of Fort Duquesne, in future results, to Great Britain and the colonies, was the most important achieve- ment of the war. It confined the French to Louisiana and deprived the western Indians of French support in their depredations of the frontier.
NOTES-CHAPTER FIFTEEN
1. In April: In York county, Richard Baird, Daniel McMenomy, Samuel Hunter, Thomas Potter, a Baird child captured; Mr. Lebenguth and wife and a woman killed, near Tulpehocken; at Swatara, two Shetterly brothers killed and Michael Sauter, William Hurt and a widow captured; at Northkill, Mrs. Nicholas Geiger and two children, and Mrs. Michael Detzelar killed.
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In May: Barnabas Tolan killed in Hanover township, Lancaster county.
In June: Two men killed in the Minnisinks (Pa. Archs. 3, 424) ; Mrs. John Frantz and three children captured near Fort Henry; Jacob Snavely's son killed ; Samuel Robinson and another man shot, in Swatara township; Leonard Long killed, in Hanover township (Col. Recs. 7, 140; Pa. Archs. 3, 412 to 422).
On November : Jacob Mosser and Hans Adam Mosser killed in Hanover town- ship, (Pa. Archs. 3, 425, 426: Rupp's History of Berks county, 75, 76, 77; Col. Recs. 7, 140 for an account of casualties).
2. Journal of Frederick Post, Pa. Archs. 3, 520 to 544.
3. Pa. Archs. 3, 518; Letter of Thomas Butler in Johnson Papers 2, 889.
4. Memorials of Moravian Church, 219 to 221; Loskiel's History of Moravian Missions, 150.
5. Wallace, Life of Weiser, 450.
6. Pa. Archs. 2, 724, 725.
7. Pa. Archs. 3, 544.
8. Col. Recs. 7, 225.
9. Johnson Papers, 2, 880.
10. Pa. Archs. 3, 257.
11. Ibid, 525, 526.
12. Memorials of Moravian Church, 257.
13. Ibid, 275; Watson Annals of Philadelphia, 2, 171.
14. Col. Recs. 8, 190 to 193, 203.
15. Minutes of Treaty, Col. Recs. 8, 174 to 223.
16. Fort Bedford was bounded north by the Raystown branch, east by what is now Richard, south by Pitt and west by Juliana streets. There were five bastions, the central one extended to the waters edge and contained a gallery with loopholes. From it water could be obtained for the garrison. The southern rampart was parallel with the Forbes road, now Pitt street, and the main gate was on this side. A postern gate opened northward. The officers and soldiers quarters were in the fort, but the hospital and storehouses were outside. It was built in the usual stockaded form and was protected on the south and west sides by a moat eight feet deep and fifteen feet wide. In the bastions were mounted several guns. See Frontier Forts 2, 487, 488.
17. Frontier Forts, 2, 79.
18. This fort stood in the present town of Ligonier between Loyalhanna street and Loyalhanna creek, on an eminence about forty feet above the stream. It had four bastions and in the fort were storehouses, powder magazine and officers barracks. Around it was an intrenched camp. Frontier Forts, 2, 208 contains a plan of the fort and a description at page 251.
19. Hazard's Register 8, 141.
20. For account of Forbes expedition : Frontier Forts 2; Col. Recs. 8, 52, 59, 65, 79, 111, 167, 224, 232, 234; Pa. Archs. 3, 383, 448, 449, 450, 455, 483, 488, 560. For French account : Paris Documents XV, reprinted in N. Y. Col. Docs. 10, 900, 901, 924, 925.
21. Frontier Forts, 2, 101.
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CHAPTER SIXTEEN
END OF THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR
In 1759, Canada was in dire straits; and a French official confessed the inability of France in men, supplies and ships, and admitted the over- whelming superiority of England on land and sea. He likened Canada to a sick man, "who is supported by cordials until he sinks or a crisis saves him," and doubted whether the country was worth saving.1 The impotence of the French government and dissension and disorder in Canada invited disaster. Supplies were scant and the colony impoverished. The people, overwhelmed by taxation and crushed by a licentious soldiery, longed for peace. The corrupt officials had plundered the country and fattened them- selves at the expense of the king.2 The clash, between the vain governor general, Vaudreuil and Montcalm, the impetuous commander in chief, engendered a venomous and jealous malignity, which extreme French politeness could not dissemble. England's navy sealed Canada from the sea ; and her ponderous military machine moved slowly but irresistibly to the fatal end.
General John Stanwix was appointed successor of General Forbes. He arrived in Pittsburg, in August, and began the construction of the permanent fortification, known as Fort Pitt, which was completed in March 1760. It occupied all the ground between the river, Marbury (now Third street), West Street and a part of Liberty Street. The works were five sided. The ground around it was thrown up and it was enclosed by a rampart of earth. On the two sides facing the open country, the embank- ment was supported by brick work, nearly perpendicular. On the other three sides, the rampart had no support and presented only an inclined surface, which defect was remedied by a line of pickets outside the slope. The works were surrounded by a wide ditch. Eighteen guns were mounted on the bastions. Within were casemates, barracks and storehouses, accom- modating a garrison of a thousand men and officers. Traders flocked to Pittsburg and were carrying on a large trade with the Indians. An enumeration made, in July 1760, showed there were, in the place, two hundred houses and one hundred forty-nine inhabitants, exclusive of the garrison.3
A force, of French and Indians from Venango, invested Fort Ligonier in July. The commander, of the fort, Adam Stephens made a spirited
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defense and the artillery fire drove the enemy to the woods, from which they kept up the attack, until dark, when they retreated. Shortly before the investment, a detachment of eighteen men left the fort as escort of a party on its way to Bedford. They went as far as the Laurel Hills and then returned. By avoiding the road, they regained the fort without loss. The English casualties were only three men, besides Captain Jones who was killed.4
Scouts reported, July 17th, that the French, because of the impending attack on Fort Nigara, were about to abandon Venango, and the Indians were making up their bundles and preparing to follow.5 The border troubles were about over.
Not all the dastardly murders were committed by the Indians. Dr. John, a friendly Delaware Indian, living near Carlisle, and his wife and children were barbarously murdered by the frontiersmen, in 1760. The bodies, of the Indian and his son, were found scalped, but the remains of the woman and her children were never discovered. Arrests were made, but there were no trials. The murder was aired, at a later conference with the Indians, but no reparation was made.6
General John Prideaux was appointed commander of the expedition against Fort Niagara. He left Oswego with a considerable force of regulars. provincials and six hundred Indians under Sir William Johnson. Colonel Frederick Haldimand and about a thousand troops remained to defend Oswego, which after Prideaux's departure, was attacked by the French, under La Corne. Haldimand was able to repel their assaults, on his entrenchments, which continued for two days, with a loss only of three men killed and twelve wounded. La Corne was wounded and he lost a large number of men.7
Fort Niagara occupied the triangle formed at the intersection of the Niagara river and Lake Ontario. The high bank of the river was on the west and the perpendicular bluff of the lake was on the north. These sides of the fort were protected, by an entrenchment, of earth, seven feet high inside and six feet thick at the top, with a fraise on the berm. The strongest fortification was, at the base of the triangle, it being the approach from the land side, and consisted of an earthen rampart and glacis with a ditch nine feet deep. There were two bastions with batteries and the large stone house within the enclosure was used as a hospital. Captain Pouchot commanded the garrison of five hundred men. The French and Indians at Fort Machault and Presque Isle had been ordered to reinforce Fort Niagara, but when the investment began had not arrived. The fort at the carrying place was burned and the troops there reinforced the garrison.
The British siege began July 9th and the cannonading continued until the 23rd, when a breach was made in the main wall of the fort. Three days before, Prideaux was killed, by the explosion of a shot from one of the English mortars, and Sir William Johnson succeeded him.
The relief forces, from Machault and Presque Isle, under Aubry and Ligneris fell into an ambuscade. Johnson sent Captain James De Lancey
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with a detachment of light infantry to intercept them. They secreted themselves behind a hastily constructed breastwork, near the river and close by the road leading from the Falls to the fort. Troops, under Colonel Massey, and a band of Indians were sent to reinforce them. The Indians fell on the French flank. Aubry assaulted Massey's main line, was repulsed and De Lancey's men poured over the breastwork. The French, encom- passed on all sides, broke and fled. Their losses were two hundred killed and one hundred prisoners. Aubry, Ligneris, Montigney, Repentigney and Marin were captured.
Johnson informed Pouchot of the French disaster and afforded him opportunity to verify it. An officer was sent to the English camp, where he found Ligneris wounded and the other officers in an arbor near Johnson's tent. Upon receiving the officer's report, Pouchot agreed to a capitulation, which he signed July 25th; and the French garrison, consisting of six hundred seven men and eleven officers were conveyed to New York.8 John- son with the main army returned to Oswego, where August 16th, General Gage succeeded him.
It was planned, that General Amherst, commander in chief of the English armies, should invade Canada by the way of Lake Champlain. Accordingly, he proceeded to the site of Fort William Henry, near which he began the construction of Fort George. Only one bastion was com- pleted, the remains of which may still be seen. With his army, he sailed down Lake George, and occupied Ticonderoga and Crown Point, both of which, Bourlamaque, the French commander abandoned and destroyed. The French fleet still controlled Lake Champlain and the season, being advanced, no invasion of Canada was accomplished.
The most dramatic event of the French and Indian War must be briefly related. In results, it was one of the most important affairs in the history of the world. It was early June, 1759, and the belated summer had barely melted the ice and snow of the frozen north into the chilling waters of the St. Lawrence. Near the entrance of the gulf, the tossing waves of the ocean were flecked with spots of white, like gulls bobbing up and down in the billows of the sea. The biting wind, beating toward the coast, had swollen the sails of a vast fleet, twenty-two great battleships of the line, with cannon mighty enough to batter down the strongest ramparts of earth and stone, sloops of war, flight frigates and innumerable transports, sufficient to carry ten thousand men and an immense stock of munitions and supplies, wallowed in the troughs of the ocean. It was the greatest arma- ment that had left England and was designed for the reduction of one of the strongest fortresses in the world.
Clutching the rail of the flagship, and peering in silent reverie toward the coast, was an emaciated young man, with legs far too long for his frail body. A rich scarlet cloak hung loosely about him and ill-fitted his misshapen shoulders. His upturned nose, receding forehead and weak chin indicated no strength of character. Yet, he was master of all these mighty engines of death and destruction. Under him were generals, older, and of higher birth and social rank, Monckton, Townsend and Murray. But no
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other English general could have done what he dared to do. His skill and daring, at the capture of Louisburg, had won the admiration of king and minister. Pitt, who had canny prescience in choosing men, had picked him to lead the most important expedition of the war. The Duke of New- castle had protested his appointment to George the Second, and termed him Pitt's mad general. "Mad is he," the king testily replied, "I wish he would bite my other generals." James Wolfe was only thirty-three years old, but despite difficulties and discouragements, which would have baffled other men, he did not belie the trust of king and minister.
The fleet moved slowly up the channel of the St. Lawrence; and the English captains, with loaded pistols in their hands, stood over the captured French pilots and made them safely pass the dangerous rifts. The army landed on the Island of Orleans, below Quebec, and the siege began. Unable to entice Montcalm from his entrenchments, Wolfe attempted to approach the city by the way of Montmorency, but in vain. He landed a part of his army on the beach at Beauport, but was driven back. His cannon battered the city of wood and stone to rubble and ruin. Frustrated and tormented with a fatal disease, he tossed for weeks on his fevered bed in the attic of a farmhouse. Winning a little respite from his sufferings, Wolfe gripped his courage again. His keen eye detected a narrow path, leading from the river up the perpendicular cliff to the plain above. At night, he floated his army down the river, landed on the scant strip of beach, scaled the cliff, overpowered the guard at the top, and early in the morning of September 13th, formed his line of battle on the Plains of Abraham. Montcalm, now forced to leave his trenches and fight an open battle, attacked the English line. The grenadiers with Wolfe, at their head, charged and the French broke and fled. On the 17th, Quebec surrendered, but then, both Montcalm and Wolfe were dead. In the night, they buried Montcalm in a shell shot hole beneath the walls of the Ursuline Convent ; and the English surgeons embalmed the body of Wolfe and placed it in a leaden casket.
Before the winter closed the St. Lawrence, the English fleet sailed for home, carrying the embalmed body of the great general, who had won an incomparable victory for England. The army, under General Mur- ray, held Quebec during the long and dreary winter. During the summer of 1760, three armies converged on Montreal, the only place unconquered. General Haviland entered Canada by the way of Lake Champlain, General Murray came up the St. Lawrence from Quebec and Amherst with the main army marched down the river from Lake Ontario. The city was completely invested and September 8th, Vaudreuil surrendered not only Montreal but all Canada with its dependencies. The definitive treaty of peace was signed at Paris, February 10, 1763 and confirmed the English conquest of Canada and the west.9
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