USA > New York > The Pennsylvania and New York frontier : history of from 1720 to the close of the Revolution > Part 20
USA > Pennsylvania > The Pennsylvania and New York frontier : history of from 1720 to the close of the Revolution > Part 20
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During the morning, the remainder of the Green Mountain Boys, under the command of Seth Warner, had been ferried over the lake, and Allen ordered him to reduce Crown Point. This was accomplished May 12th, by him, with the assistance of Remember Baker, who with another detachment of Green Mountain Boys, had, previously, intercepted mes- sengers on their way to Montreal, with news of the fall of Ticonderoga. The garrison of Crown Point consisted of a sergeant and eleven men, and the spoils were one hundred fourteen cannon and other munitions of great value.
The ambitious Arnold was badly disappointed and to appease him,
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Allen sent him, up the lake in a captured and armed sloop, and he destroyed the British shipping at St. Johns. Thus within a few days, the whole of the Lake Champlain region came under the control of Ethan Allen.
(For an account of the exploit, see Allen's Narrative in DePuy's Ethan Allen, beginning at page 213; and Lossing's Field Book of the Revolution, Vol. 1, page 123.)
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CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
BATTLE OF ORISKANY
During the Revolution, Tryon county, embracing the upper Mohawk valley and the headwaters of the Susquehanna, was the real New York fron- tier. The inhabitants, largely, Palatine Germans, some Dutch and the Scotch-Irish, mostly, supported the Continental Congress. There were some neutrals among them. Outside the Johnson family and their adher- ents, there were few outspoken loyalists, and these were, probably coerced, as were the other Tories elsewhere, by flogging, tar and feathering, riding on a rail and other personal indiginities. The Revolution was not, as usually thought, a spontaneous uprising of patriotic devotion, by the whole body of the people, but the act of an aggressive and militant minority ably and efficiently led. The vexations and provocations were many, includ- ing British attempts at taxation of the colonists, indifference to their rights and desires and the arrogance of English officers and crown officials. But more potent causes aroused the animosity of individuals, such as the disappointments of ambitious men, who desired royal appointments, restric- tions of commerce and manufacturing, prevention of gross Indian land speculation and the influence of the Congregational, Dutch Reformed, Presbyterian and Lutheran ministers, who feared an Episcopal church establishment and the presumptions of its clergymen. This resentment was fanned into the furious flame of war by slogans and the politicians usual appeal to patriotism. Usually, revolutions are the muddy sediments of humanity bestirred, by adroit leaders, roiling the calm water of peace.
As early as 1774, the Palatine District of Tryon county organized in support of Congress, as did the other districts in 1775. Thomas Spencer, the Indian interpreter, in an impassioned speech, aroused the patriotic sentiment of Cherry Valley. The Johnson's, by an armed intimidation, prevented a meeting in the Mohawk district, but later the people there organized. The committees of all the districts formed a body of forty-two members of which Christopher P. Yates was chairman and it acted under direction of the Provincial Congress of New York.
Guy Johnson, now British Indian superintendent, was suspected of fomenting a Mohawk uprising; and he soon left for Oswego, where he succeeded in pledging the Indians to support the crown. The Mohawks
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deserted their old homes and followed Johnson into Canada. Soon after, he and Joseph Brant sailed for England.
Sir John Johnson, who with his family, remained at Johnson Hall, was the object of suspicion, and in January, 1776, General Philip Schuyler with the militia, went to Johnstown and arrested him, because he had fortified the hall and surrounded himself with some one hundred and fifty of his tenants, Roman Catholic Highlanders. He was taken to Fishkill, but the Provincial Congress released him on parole. The following June, he broke his parole, abandoned his vast possessions and fled to Canada.
In February, 1777, it being reported that a large number of unfriendly Indians had collected at Oquaga, the Provincial Congress sent Colonel John Harper there to ascertain their designs. He feasted them with a roast ox, and they assured him they proposed to remain neutral. In June, Joseph Brant, who had returned from England, appeared at Unadilla with a considerable number of warriors. He forced the people to furnish him with provisions, and the inhabitants, perceiving his hostile attitude, aban- doned their farms and sought places of greater safety. A regiment of militia had been organized in each of the districts of Tryon county, and these with a partial regiment from Schoharie were placed under command of General Nicholas Herkimer, a leading Whig. He marched to Unadilla and summoned Brant to a conference. He came with one hundred fifty warriors and declared his intention to support the king. During the pro- ceedings, there was a flare-up, and the Indians retreated to their camp, fired their guns and set up the warwhoops. However, the conference was resumed and Herkimer assured Brant he did not come to fight but to make peace. He, then, marched away and left Brant in possession of Unadilla and the surrounding country.1
After Johnson's flight, Colonel Van Schaick with provincial troops occupied Johnstown ; and Colonel Dayton built Fort Dayton, not far from the court house in the present village of Herkimer. Colonel Dayton was ordered to reconstruct Fort Stanwix, which had fallen into disrepair, and the work had not been completed in April, 1777, when Colonel Peter Gansevoort, with the Third New York regiment was sent to garrison it.
The British scheme to invade New York, during the summer of 1777, was the best planned campaign devised by the king's ministers ; and had it succeeded New York would have been conquered, New England divided from the other colonies and the independence of the United States, prob- ably, frustrated. Burgoyne with the main army was to proceed by Lake Champlain and occupy Albany and the army in New York was to come up the Hudson and cooperate with him. Another division, under Barry St. Leger, was to march from Oswego, capture Fort Stanwix, overrun the Mohawk valley and join Burgoyne at Albany.
News of the invasion was first sent by the friendly Oneida Indians. In June, Colonel Marinus Willett, a very capable officer, with his regiment reinforced Fort Stanwix, or as it was now called Fort Schuyler, and two Continental companies also joined the garrison, which at the time of the
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siege consisted of seven hundred and fifty men. August 3rd, the fort was invested by some seventeen hundred British soldiers, Tories and Indians.
General Herkimer, with eight hundred of the Tryon county militia, marched up the Mohawk valley for the relief of Fort Schuyler, but there was much looseness of order during the march. Thomas Spencer insisted flanking parties should be kept out. General Herkimer concurred, but the impetuous men declared it would retard the march and charged Herkimer with cowardice. Stung by this, he ordered the men forward with all dispatch.
About 10 o'clock in the morning of August 6th, the little army entered the fatal ambuscade of Oriskany. The place is about the same today, as then, except that the heavy woods have been cleared away, and now meadows, a farm house, barns and stately monuments occupy the scene of the bloody fray. The battlefield is and about a shallow ravine, the bottom of which is still swampy and wild. On either side are ridges running from the southeast to the northwest toward the Mohawk river, but in most accounts, they are designated as east and west. The present high- way crosses the ravine about one hundred and fifty feet above the old road pursued by Herkimer's men. Beyond the new road the ravine expands basin shaped, the course of the rivulet becoming only a shallow depression, constituting what may be called a level ampitheater, surrounded by the eastern and western ridges, which join on the southeast, making a semi- circular enclosure of the main battlefield. Some distance below the old road, the ravine disappears in the swampy lowland along the Mohawk. The old road followed by Herkimer's men, the course of which can still be plainly discerned, descends the eastern ridge and crossed the swampy ravine by a corduroy bridge, indications of which may yet be perceived. The incline of the western ridge, the scene of the fiercest struggle is now partly occupied by the buildings and barnyard of the farm. At the time of the battle, the lowlands toward the Mohawk were covered with a growth of pine, and the ridges with beech elm and maple trees.
It was an ideal place for an ambuscade, and Major John Butler2 and Joseph Brant3 who commanded the British and Indians, adepts in border warfare, certainly made no mistake in its selection. Brant secreted the Indians in the underbrush of the eastern ridge, but did not extend his line to the road, which was the inlet of the trap. Butler posted his troops on the western ridge facing the American advance. Stationed as they were and the swampy ground below, by which there was no escape, made it a complete ambush. Seizure of the road on the eastern ridge closed the trap.
Earlier in the morning, Herkimer had dispatched Adam Helmar, a noted scout to Fort Schuyler, requesting Gansevoort to make a sortie from the fort and announce it by a discharge of cannon. This was for the pur- pose of diverting the enemy from obstructing Herkimer's advance.
The Canajoharie regiment, with General Herkimer, and Colonels Cox and Paris leading, and following the road from the eastern ridge, had partly crossed the corduroy bridge and was ascending the incline to the summit of the western ridge, when the Indians gave the warwhoop and
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closed in. Cox was killed at the first onslaught and his frightened horse ran back along the road throwing, the troops following with the baggage train and now in the bed of the ravine, into wild confusion. Colonel Vischer, with the Conewango regiment, brought up the rear and was still on the eastern ridge, when Brant's warriors fell upon him and his men broke and fled. The Indians had now covered the eastern approach of the road and closed the trap.
It now became a life and death struggle and the Americans fought with superhuman bravery. Herkimer succeeded in rallying his men who were marching up the incline of the western ridge, formed them in circles and they held the foe in front at bay. He ordered the troops, under Colonel Bellinger who were not yet across the corduroy bridge, to retake the east- ern ridge, which they did. This cleared the fatal ravine of all but the dead and wounded. It was a hand to hand conflict, a struggle of bayonet thrusts and tomahawk blows. To outwit the savages, two men would place themselves behind a tree, and when the Indian ran from his cover to tomahawk the soldier who had fired and had not time to reload, his secreted companion shot the Indian. Herkimer was wounded in the leg and carried to the butt of a beech tree, south of the road and about half way up the incline, and resting against his saddle, he continued to direct the battle. To stimulate the bravery of his men, it is said, he calmly smoked his pipe and gave orders in broken German speech.
When the conflict was bitterest, a thunder shower suspended the strife, and gave the Americans time to better order their lines. Colonel Bellinger, having cleared the eastern ridge joined Herkimer and when the storm abated, the fighting was resumed with more bloody vigor. After six hours of terrible struggle, the Americans succeeded in beating off their enemies and were able to remove their wounded from the field. They had by their bravery saved themselves from annihilation. Carrying their wounded they fell back to the German Flats. About two hundred were killed. Herkimer was removed to his home, where his leg was amputated, from which, due to poor surgery, he died. Among the slain was Thomas Spencer, the gallant spirit, who had secured the adherence of the Oneidas to the Americans. The Americans had not succeeded in their purpose and the foe possessed the field. But, the Indians in their villages along the Genesee wailed for over a hundred of their warriors killed and whetted their vengeance for Wyoming and Cherry Valley.4
Helmar was delayed and it was not until 2 o'clock that the cannon boomed, and Willett sallied forth with two hundred men. He swept all before him, overran the camp of Sir John Johnson, captured his private papers, and the standards of his regiment, and with his booty regained the fort without the loss of a man. To tantalize the enemy, the captured standards were displayed under the improvised flag of the fort, homemade from women's petticoats.
As supplies were running low, Colonel Willett and Lieutenant Stock- well eluded the Indians investing the fort, made their way out of the fort at night and went to General Schuyler for relief. He sent Benedict Arnold
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and a force, which reached Fort Dayton, where Arnold resolved a strata- gem to end the siege. Hans. Yost Schuyler a half-witted Tory had been captured with Walter Butler and was condemned to die as a spy. Arnold promised to pardon him on condition, he go to St. Leger and spread the report Arnold was near with a large army. His brother was retained as a hostage under threat if Hans Yost failed he would be shot, and the coat of Hans was riddled with bullets. Accompanied by a friendly Oneida he made his way to the British camp. There the Oneida alarmed the Indians by the report and Hans Yost being taken to St. Leger declared he escaped while being taken to execution and in confirmation of his story exhibited his riddled coat. When asked the size of Arnold's force, he mysteriously pointed to the leaves of the trees. Be this as it may, the fact that Arnold was on the way, alarmed the Indians who had little stomach for more fighting and they deserted the British. St. Leger raised the siege August 22nd and his troops fled in confusion to Oswego, abandoning most of their supplies.5
About this time, McDonald a Tory leader fell on the Schoharie settle- ment and Captain Mann of the Schoharie militia having turned traitor, Colonel John Harper went to Albany for assistance. Returning with a troop of cavalry. Harper attacked McDonald's camp. A severe skirmish ensued, in which several were killed and wounded. McDonald was defeated and his force fled to the Susquehanna, by that way going to Fort Niagara.6
NOTES-CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
1. N. Y. Col. Docs. 8, 663, 682, 687; also Annals of Tryon County, chapters 2 and 3; Simms History of Schoharie County chapter 7; Old N. Y. Frontier.
2. John Butler was born in 1728, in New London, Connecticut. He was the son of Walter Butler, whom it has been presumed was born in Ireland, a descendant of the illustrious Ormonde family. This conjecture is based on the fact that he was appointed a lieutenant in a company stationed at Albany, by Governor Burnett who had some connection with the Ormonde family. In 1735, he obtained a patent for 4000 acres in the Mohawk valley and located near the present town of Fonda. There on an elevated situation, known as Switzer Hill, he built a substantial frame dwelling which it is said was afterwards rebuilt. It still stands and was occupied as a farm house when visited by the writer, some years ago. The place was called Butlersbury and when Walter Butler died in 1760, he devised it to his son John, who occupied it until his flight to Canada. The Butlers were intimates of Sir William Johnson and shared in his advancement. John and his brother Walter Jr. were appointed captains in the Indian Department and both participated in the Battle of Lake George, where Walter was killed. John served under Abercrombie at Ticonderoga, was with Bradstreet at the taking of Frontenac, and in the capture of Fort Niagara had command of the Indians. He was one of the first judges of Tryon county, but in 1775 with his son Walter, a lawyer by profession, withdrew to Canada. Both served in the siege of Fort Schuyler and the Battle of Oriskany. After the battle Walter was taken prisoner and condemned to death as a spy, but his sentence was remitted and while a prisoner he escaped. John Butler organized a corps of Rangers, composed of Tories and regularly enlisted in the British
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service. He, as a major commanded the forces, which perpetrated the Wyoming Massacre; and his son Walter was in command at Cherry Valley. Both thereby earned the condemnation and hatred of posterity. After the war, John Butler who held the rank of lieutenant colonel retired to Niagara on the Canadian side, where he died in May, 1796.
3. Thayendanega, popularly known as Joseph Brant, was born in 1742, in Ohio, where his parents were then temporarily engaged in a hunting expedition. It has been presumed, he was the son of Nickus Brant, a considerable chief of the Mohawks, residing at Canajoharie Castle. His sister, Molly or Mary Brant was the mistress of Sir William Johnson. It is said, that as a mere boy of thirteen, he was present at the Battle of Lake George. He distinguished himself at the capture of Fort Niagara in 1759. He attended Dr. Wheelock's Indian school at Lebanon, Connecticut, where he acquired the rudiments of an English education. Later, he had intimate relations with some of the Indian missionaries, and it is claimed assisted in the translation of the New Testament into the Iroquoian language. He was thrice married, and before the Revolution lived at Canajoharie in a good house and enjoyed the comforts of life. He became a regular communicant of the Episcopal church. Brant accompanied Guy Johnson to England and remained there during the early part of 1776. His career during the Revolution is related in the text. In 1785, he visited England in the interests of the expatriated Mohawks. In an altercation with his son, Isaac, who was a dissipated and violent young man, Brant stabbed him, from the effects of which he died. The British government granted him a considerable tract of land on the Canadian side of Lake Ontario and he lived there in some splendor until his deeth, November 24, 1807. He has been lauded as the principal chief of the Iroquois, but it is reasonable to assume his power was largely confined to the Mohawks, and that he was surpassed in ability and influence by Sayenqueraghta, great chief of the Senecas. Much of his renown is due to Stone, who in his life of him, has made him a hero.
4. The above account of the battle was written at the time of the writer's visit to the battlefield.
5. Annals of Tryon County, Chapter 4; Field Book of the Revolution 1, 240.
6. Ibid; Simms History of Schoharie.
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CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
BURGOYNE'S INVASION
The British invasion of New York was begun in 1776 by Carleton, who constructed a small fleet on Lake Champlain. The Americans also built a flotilla, and Arnold was put in command of it. The two fleets met at Valcour Islands, October 14th and a severe battle ensued. At night Arnold escaped with part of his fleet, but the British pursued and drove him into a small creek, where he burned his boats to prevent their capture, and the crews fled. Carleton occupied Crown Point, but November 3rd abandoned it and returned to Canada.
In 1775, Congress, at the solicitation of New York, reluctantly appointed Philip Schuyler, a major general; and directed him to take command of Ticonderoga and Crown Point with authority to occupy St. Johns, Montreal and other parts of Canada. Montgomery, at the time, made this significant statement : "His (Schuyler's) consequence in the province make him a fit subject for an important trust, but has he strong nerves ? I could wish this point well ascertained with respect to any man so employed." Bancroft says : "Schuyler owed his place to his social position, not to military talents. Anxious and suspected of a want of personal courage, he found everything go ill under his command." (Vol. 5, 164).
In 1776, Congress directed Washington to send Major General Horatio Gates to command the American forces in Canada. A question arose, whether or not Gates was independent of Schuyler and there was no harmony between them. Early in 1777, Schuyler wrote Congress a letter, considered insulting and he was replaced by Gates. Schuyler re- entered Congress, of which he was a member, and by adroit manipulation got himself restored. On reassuming the position, he visited Ticonderoga, the principal defense of the northern frontier ; but in spite of the fact, that Trumbull had pointed out Mount Defiance dominated Ticonderoga, he neglected to order its fortification. He reinforced the fort until its garrison numbered over three thousand men, and contained vast stores.
Burgoyne, who succeeded Carleton, as commander of the British invasion, occupied Crown Point and on July 1st camped before Ticon- deroga. Four days later, he seized Mount Defiance, which enabled him to sweep the fort with his cannon fire. St. Clair another over-rated and unfor- tunate general, who commanded Ticonderoga, decided his position was
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untenable and ordered its evacuation, which was accomplished by his gar- rison of three thousand three hundred men, without firing a shot. He left behind eighty large cannon and an immense quantity of supplies. It was a stampede and has been, generally, considered an unnecessary and hasty flight. The garrison fled through Vermont and was hotly pursued by the British, who came upon the rear guard at Hubbardtown. Warner, in command, being a fighting man made a gallant resistance until the British were reinforced, when he withdrew. This engagement was about the only resistance offered by the northern army, during Schuyler's command and infused the dispirited soldiers with a little more grit. Colonel Long, who had occupied old Fort Anne, was attacked and defeated. He burned the place and fell back to Fort Edward, which was successfully reached by St. Clair's men.
Burgoyne, in order to proceed from Fort Anne to Fort Edward, had to construct a road sixteen miles long, through an unbroken wilderness. This delayed his advance, and during the delay, occurred the tragic death of Jane McCrea. The account given by Bancroft (Vol. 5, 164), copied by most writers and now an accepted tradition is: "Jane Macarea, a young woman of twenty, betrothed to a loyalist in the British service, and esteeming herself under the protection of the British arms, was riding from Fort Edward to the British camp at Sandy Hill, escorted by two Indians. The Indians quarelled about the reward promised on her safe arrival, and at half a mile from Fort Edward, one of them sunk his tomahawk in her skull."
The following account is entitled to more credence. After the death of her father, a Presbyterian clergyman of Jersey City, Jane McCrea removed to the home of her brother at Fort Edward, and there became engaged to David Jones, a young man of the neighborhood, who was a loyalist and a British officer. Upon Burgoyne's advance, her brother entreated her to go with him to Albany, but she remained at Fort Edward with a friend Mrs. McNeil, a Tory, probably, with the expectation of meeting her betrothed. Early in the morning of July 27th, Indians were seen approaching and the two women secreted themselves, but were dis- covered and seized. Jane was placed on a horse and Mrs. McNeil, a stout woman was unable to ride and was assisted by two stout Indians. Amer- ican soldiers from the fort pursued the Indians and fired several shots at them. Mrs. McNeil was taken to General Fraser, her cousin, and soon after, the other Indians returned with scalps among which she recognized, that of Jane. The Indians were accused of murdering her, but denied the charge and insisted she was killed by shots from the pursuing soldiers, and then they scalped her to obtain the reward. Their story is corroborated by the fact that the British reward for a prisoner was much greater than the bounty for a scalp; and also by the statement of General Morgan Lewis, the American officer at Fort Edward who had charge of Jane's burial and found her body contained three gun shot wounds. Both Lossing (Vol. 1, 38) and Stone's Campaign of Burgoyne (Appendix 302) give this version, which is supported by the statements of contemporaries. How-
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ever, an American army surgeon, Dr. John Bartlett declared she was shot by the Indians.
Burgoyne occupied Fort Edward, August 4th, and thence dispatched Colonel Baum with a force of Brunswick dragoons, British, Canadians, Tories and Indians to Vermont to collect horses, and cattle, which he greatly needed and to seize and destroy the American stores at Benning- ton. General John Stark with a brigade of New Hampshire militia came to the assistance of Vermont. Schuyler ordered Stark to join his fleeing army, but he refused and was denounced by Schuyler and censured by Congress. Stark and Seth Warner, commander of the Green Mountain Boys, acting in concert, at 3 o'clock in the afternoon at a place near Bennington but over the New York border, attacked Baum on every side. The Indians broke and fled, and Stark's riflemen played havoc with the German troops. After two hours hard fighting, British resistance faltered and the Americans poured over the enemy's breastworks and fought the foe hand to hand. Baum was mortally wounded, and his troops surrendered. Colonel Breyman, who had been sent with reinforcements, came in sight, about the time of the surrender, but Stark and Warner confronted him and a new battle ensued. It lasted until sunset when Breyman retreated, leaving his cannon and wounded behind.
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