USA > New York > Fulton County > The border warfare of New York, during the revolution; or, The annals of Tryon county > Part 18
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These were the last proceedings of the General Assembly of the colony of New York, which now closed its existence forever. More perilous scenes, and new and brighter paths of glory, were opening upon the vision of those illustrious patriots.
The delegates from this colony to the first Continen- tal Congress in 1774, were not chosen by the General Assembly, but by the suffrages of the people, mani-
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fested in some sufficiently authentic shape in the several counties.
The delegates to the second constitutional Congress, which met in May, 1775, were chosen by a Provincial Congress, which the people of the colony had already created, and which was held in this city, in April of that year, and had virtually assumed the powers of government. The names of the delegates from this colony, to this second congress, were John Jay, John Alsop, James Duane, Philip Schuyler, George Clin- ton, Lewis Morris, and Robert R. Livingston ; and the weight of their talents and character may be in- ferred from the fact, that Mr. Jay, Mr. Livingston, Mr. Duane, and Mr. Schuyler were early placed upon committees, charged with the most arduous and responsible duties. We find Washington and Schuy- ler associated together in the committee, appointed on the 14th of June, 1775, to prepare rules and regula- tions for the government of the army. This associa- tion of those great men, commenced at such a critical moment, was the beginning of a mutual confidence, respect, and admiration, which continued with unin- terrupted and unabated vividness during the remainder of their lives. An allusion is made to this friendship in the memoir of a former president of this society, and the allusion is remarkable for its strength and pathos. After mentioning General Schuyler, he adds, " I have placed thee, my friend, by the side of him who knew thee; thy intelligence to discern, thy zeal to promote thy country's good, and knowing thee, prized thee. Let this be thy eulogy. I add, and with
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truth, peculiarly thine-content it should be mine to have expressed it."
The congress of this colony, during the year 1775 and 1776, had to meet difficulties and dangers almost sufficient to subdue the firmest resolution. The popu- lation of the colony was short of 200,000 souls. It had a vast body of disaffected inhabitants within its own bosom. It had numerous tribes of hostile sav- ages on its extended frontier. The bonds of society seemed to have been broken up, and society itself resolved into its primitive elements. There was no civil government, but such as had been introduced by the Provincial Congress and county committees, as temporary expedients. It had an enemy's province in the rear, strengthened by large and well-appointed forces. It had an open and exposed sea-port without any adequate means to defend it. In the summer of 1776, the state was actually invaded, not only upon our Canadian, but upon our Atlantic frontier, by a formidable fleet and army, calculated by the power that sent them to be sufficient to annihilate at once all our infant republics.
In the midst of this appalling storm, the virtue of our people, animated by a host of intrepid patriots, the mention of whose names is enough to kindle enthusiasm in the breast of the present generation, remained glowing, unmoved, and invincible. It would be difficult to find any other people who have been put to a severer test, or on trial gave higher proofs of courage and capacity.
On the 19th of June, 1775, Philip Schuyler was appointed by Congress the third major general in the
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armies of the United Colonies ; and such was his sin- gular promptitude, that, in eleven days from this appointment, we find him in acual service, correspond- ing with Congress from a distance, on business that required and received immediate attention. In July, 1775, he was placed at the head of a board of com- missioners for the northern department, and empow- ered to employ all the troops in that department at his discretion, subject to the future orders of the com- mander-in-chief. He was authorized, if he should find it practicable and expedient, to take possession of St. Johns and Montreal, and pursue any other mea- sure in Canada having a tendency, in his judgment, to promote the peace and security of the United Colonies. 1
In September, 1775, Gen. Schuyler was acting under positive instructions to enter Canada, and he proceeded, with Generals Montgomery and Wooster under his command, to the Isle au Noix. He had at that time become extremely ill, and he was obliged to leave the command of the expedition to devolve upon Gen. Montgomery. The latter, under his orders, captured the garrisons of Chambly and St. Johns, and pressed forward to Montreal and Quebec. Mon- treal was entered on the 12th of November, 1775, by the troops under the immediate orders of Montgomery, and in the same month a committee from Congress was appointed to confer with General Schuyler, relative to raising troops in Canada for the possession and security of that province. His activity, skill, and zeal shone conspicuously throughout that ardu- ous northern campaign ; and his unremitting corres-
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pondence with Congress received the most prompt and marked consideration.
While the expedition under Montgomery was em- ployed in Canada, Gen. Schuyler was called to exer- cise his influence and power in another quarter of his military district. On the 30th of December, 1775, he was ordered to disarm the disaffected inhabitants of Tryon County, then under the influence of Sir John Johnson ; and on the 18th of January following, he made a treaty with the disaffected portion of the people in that western part of the state. The Conti- nental Congress were so highly satisfied with his con- duct in that delicate and meritorious service, as to declare, by a special resolution, that he had executed his trust with fidelity, prudence and dispatch ; and they ordered a publication of the narrative of his march in depth of winter into the regions bordering on the middle and upper Mohawk. The duties imposed upon that officer were so various, multiplied, and inces- sant, as to require rapid movements, sufficient to distract and confound an ordinary mind. Thus, on the 30th of December, 1775, he was ordered to disarm the Tories in Tryon County. On the 8th of January, 1776, he was ordered to have the river St. Lawrence, .above and below Quebec, well explored. On the 25th of January, he was ordered to have the fortress of Ticonderoga repaired and made defensible, and on the 17th of February he was directed to take the command of the forces, and conduct the military operations at the city of New York. All these cumu- lative and conflicting orders from Congress, were made upon him in the course of six weeks, and they
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were occasioned by the embarrassments and distresses of the times.
In March, 1776, Congress changed their plan of operation, and directed Gen. Schuyler to establish his head-quarters at Albany, and superintend the army destined for Canada. He was instructed to take such orders as he should deem expedient, respecting the very perplexing and all-important subject of the sup- plies for the troops in Canada, and those orders as to the supplies were repeated in April, and again in May, 1776. The duty of procuring supplies, though less splendid in its effects, is often more effectual to the safety and success of an army than prowess in the field. Gen. Schuyler, by his thorough business habits, his precise attention to details, and by his skill and science in every duty connected with the equipment of an army, was admirably fitted to be at the head of the commissariat ; and he gave life and vigor to every branch of the service. His versatile talents, equally adapted to investigation and action, rendered his merits as an officer of transcendent value.
On the 14th of June, 1776, he was ordered by Congress to hold a treaty with the Six Nations, and engage them in the interest of the colonies, and to treat with them on the principles, and in the decisive manner, which he had suggested. His preparations for taking immediate possession of Fort Stanwix, and erecting a fortification there, received the approbation of Congress, and their records afford the most satis- factory evidence that his comprehensive and accurate mind had anticipated and suggested the most essential measures, which he afterward diligently executed
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throughout the whole northern department. But within three days after the order for the treaty, Con- gress directed his operations to a different quarter of his command. He was ordered, on the 17th of June, to clear Wood Creek, and construct a lock upon the creek at Skeensborough, (now Whitehall,) and to take the level of the waters falling into the Hudson at Fort Edward, and into Wood Creek. There can be no doubt that those orders were all founded upon his previous suggestions, and they afford demonstrative proof of the views entertained by him, at that early day, of the practicability and importance of canal navigation. He was likewise directed to cause armed vessels to be built, so as to secure the mastery of the waters of the northern lakes. He was to judge of the expediency of a temporary fortification or in- trenched camp on the heights opposite Ticonderoga. Captain Graydon visited Gen. Schuyler early in the summer of 1776, at his head-quarters on Lake George ; and he speaks of him, in the very interesting memoirs of his own life, as an officer thoroughly devoted to business, and being, at the same time, a gentleman of polished, courteous manners. On the 1st of August following, he was on the upper Mohawk, providing for its defense and security, and again in October we find him on the upper Hudson, and call- ing upon the Eastern States for their militia.
There can be no doubt that the northern frontier, in the campaign of 1776, was indebted for its extraor- dinary quiet and security to the ceaseless activity of Gen. Schuyler. At the close of that year he was further instructed to build a floating battery on the
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lake, at the foot of Mount Independence, and also to strengthen the works at Fort Stanwix.
In the midst of such conflicting and harassing services, he had excited much popular jealousy and ill will, arising from the energy of his character, and the dignity of his deportment. He was likewise dis- gusted at what he deemed injustice, in the irregularity of appointing other and junior officers in separate and independent commands within what was considered to be his military district. He accordingly, in Octo- ber, 1776, tendered to Congress the resignation of his commission. But when Congress came to inves- tigate his services, they found them, says the historian of Washington, far to exceed in value any estimate which had been made of them. They declared that they could not dispense with his services, during the then situation of affairs ; and they directed the presi- dent of Congress to request him to continue in his command, and they declared their high sense of his services, and their unabated confidence in his attach- ment to the cause of freedom.
A governor and legislature were chosen in the sum- mer of 1777, and in that trying season there was not a county in this State, as it then existed, which escaped a visit from the arms of the enemy. To add to the embarrassment of our councils in the extremity of their distress, the inhabitants of the northeast part of the State, (now Vermont,) which had been represented in the convention, and just then ingrafted into the con- stitution, under the names of the counties of Cumber- land and Gloucester, renounced their allegiance, and set up for an independent state. On the 30th of
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June, in that year, they were knocking at the door of Congress for a recognition of their independence, and an admission into the Union.
The memorable campaign of 1777 was opened by an expedition of the enemy from New York to Dan- bury in Connecticut, and the destruction of large quantities of provisions, and military means collected and deposited in that town. In the northern quarter, Gen. Burgoyne advanced from Canada through the lakes, with a well-appointed army of 10,000 men ; and for a time he dissipated all opposition, and swept every obstacle before him. Gen. Schuyler was still in the command of the whole northern department, and he made every exertion to check the progress of the enemy. He visited in person the different forts, and used the utmost activity in obtaining supplies, to enable them to sustain a siege. While at Albany, (which was his head-quarters, as previously fixed by Congress,) busy in accelerating the equipment and march of troops, Ticonderoga being assailed, was suddenly evacuated by Gen. St. Clair. Gen. Schuy- ler met on the upper Hudson the news of the retreat, and he displayed, says the candid and accurate histo- rian of Washington, the utmost diligence and judg- ment in that gloomy state of things. He effectually impeded the navigation of Wood Creek. He rendered the roads impassable. He removed every kind of provisions and stores beyond the reach of the enemy. He summoned the militia of New York and New England to his assistance, and he answered the procla- mation of Burgoyne by a counter proclamation, equally addressed to the hopes and fears of the country. Con-
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gress, by their resolution of the 17th of July, 1777, approved all the acts of Gen. Schuyler, in reference to the army at Ticonderoga. But the evacuation of that fortress excited great discontent in the United States, and Gen. Schuyler did not escape his share of the popular clamor, and he was made a victim to ap- pease it. It was deemed expedient to recall the general officers in the northern army, and in the month of August he was superseded in the command of that department by the arrival of Gen. Gates. The laurels which he was in preparation to win by his judicious and distinguished efforts, and which he would very shortly have attained, were by that re- moval intercepted from his brow.
. General Schuyler felt acutely the discredit of being recalled in the most critical and interesting period of the campaign of 1777; and when the labor and ac- tivity of making preparations to repair the disaster of it had been expended by him ; and when an oppor- tunity was opening, as he observed, for that resistance and retaliation which might bring glory upon our arms. If error be attributable to the evacuation of Ticonderoga, says the historian of Washington, no portion of it was committed by Gen. Schuyler. But his removal, though unjust and severe as respected himself, was rendered expedient, according to Chief Justice Marshall, as a sacrifice to the prejudices of New England.
He was present at the capture of Burgoyne, but without any personal command; and the urbanity of his manners, and the chivalric magnanimity of his character, smarting as he was under the extent and
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severity of his pecuniary losses, was attested by Gen. Burgoyne himself, in his speech in 1778, in the British House of Commons. He there declared, that, by his orders, " a very good dwelling-house, exceed- ing large storehouses, great saw-mills, and other out- buildings, to the value altogether, perhaps, of 10,000l. belonging to Gen. Schuyler, at Saratoga, were de- stroyed by fire, a few days before the surrender." He said further, that one of the first persons he saw after the convention was signed, was Gen. Schuyler, and when expressing to him his regret at the event which had happened to his property, Gen. Schuyler desired him "to think no more of it, and that the occasion justified it, according to the principles and rules of war. He did more," said Burgoyne ; "he sent an aid-de-camp to conduct me to Albany, in order, as he expressed it, to procure better quarters than a stranger might be able to find. That gentleman con- ducted me to a very elegant house, and, to my great surprise, presented me to Mrs. Schuyler and her fam- ily. In that house I remained during my whole stay in Albany, with a table with more than twenty covers for me and my friends, and every other possible de- monstration of hospitality."
I have several times had the same relation, in sub- stance, from Gen. Schuyler himself, and he said that he remained behind at Saratoga, under the pretext of taking care of the remains of his property, but in reality to avoid giving fresh occasions for calumny and jealousies, by appearing in person with Burgoyne, at his own house. It was not until the autumn of 1778, that the conduct of Gen. Schuyler, in the campaign
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of 1777, was submitted to the investigation of a court- martial. He was acquitted of every charge with the highest honors, and the sentence was confirmed by Congress. He shortly afterward, upon his earnest and repeated solicitations, had leave to retire from the army, and he devoted the remainder of his life to the service of his country in its political councils.
If the military life of Gen. Schuyler was inferior in brilliancy to that of some others of his countrymen, none of them ever surpassed him in fidelity, activity, and devotedness to the service. The characteristic of his measures was utility. They. bore the stamp and unerring precision of practical science. There was nothing complicated in his character. It was chaste and severe simplicity ; and, take him for all in all, he was one of the wisest and most efficient men, both in military and civil life, that the state or the nation has produced.
He had been elected to Congress in 1777, and he was re-elected in each of the three following years. On his return to Congress, after the termination of his military life, his talents, experience, and energy were put in immediate requisition ; and in November, 1779, he was appointed to confer with General Washington, on the state of the southern department. In 1781, he was in the senate of this State ; and wherever he was placed, and whatever might be the business before him, he gave the utmost activity to measures, and left upon them the impression of his prudence and sagacity. In 1789, he was elected to a seat in the first senate of the United States, and when his term of service expired in Congress, he was replaced in the
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senate of this State. In 1792, he was very active in digesting and bringing to maturity that early and great measure of State policy, the establishment of companies for inland lock navigation. The whole suggestion was the product of his fertile and calcu- lating mind, ever busy in schemes for the public wel- fare. He was placed at the head of the direction of both of the navigation companies, and his mind was ardently directed for years towards the execution of those liberal plans of internal improvement. In 1796, he urged in his place in the Senate, and afterward published in a pamphlet form, his plan for the im- provement of the revenue of this State, and, in 1797, his plan was almost literally adopted, and to that we owe the institution of the office of Comptroller. In 1797, he was unanimously elected by the two houses of our Legislature, a Senator in Congress; and he took leave of the Senate of this State in a liberal and affecting address, which was inserted at large upon their journals.
But the life of this great man was drawing to a close. I formed and cultivated a personal acquaint- ance with General Schuyler, while a member of the Legislature, in 1792, and again in 1796; and from 1799 to his death, in the autumn of 1804, I was in habits of constant and friendly intimacy with him, and was honored with the kindest and most grateful attentions. His spirits were cheerful, his conversation most eminently instructive, his manners gentle and courteous, and his whole deportment tempered with grace and dignity. His faculties seemed to retain their unimpaired vigor and untiring activity ; though
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he had evidently lost some of his constitutional ardor of temperament and vehemence of feeling. He was sobered by age, chastened by affliction, broken by disease ; and yet nothing could surpass the interest excited by the mild radiance of the evening of his days.
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NOTE H.
WYOMING.
AMONG the claims set up by the State of Connecti- cut was the following : that by their charter they owned all lands lying between those parallels of lati- tude forming the northern and southern boundary of their State, and extending west to the Pacific Ocean. This claim, it will readily be perceived, would cover a large portion of the southern part of New York, and of the northern parts of Pennsylvania and Ohio. In prosecution of this claim, a colony from Windham, in Connecticut, obtained a State grant for a large tract of land lying along the Susquehanna in the State of Pennsylvania, whither they removed. The valley they occupied was called Wyoming ; said to mean " Field of blood ;" so called on account of a bloody bat- tle fought in the neighborhood of the settlement by the Indians at a period anterior to the removal of the whites.
The following account of the battle and massacre is taken from an interesting history of Wyoming, writ- ten by Isaac Chapman, Esq., late of Wilkesbarre. Judge Chapman lived upon the spot, and could hardly have failed to collect accurate materials, and to give a correct narrative of the events which transpired there
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during the Revolutionary war. The inhabitants had collected in Forty Fort- the principal fort in the val- ley. The number of men in the fort was three hun- dred and sixty-eight.
" On the morning of the 3d of July, 1778, the offi- cers of the garrison at Forty Fort held a council to determine on the propriety of marching from the fort, and attacking the enemy wherever found. The de- bates in this council of war are said to have been con- ducted with much warmth and animation. The ulti- mate determination was one on which depended the lives of the garrison and safety of the settlement. On one side it was contended that their enemies were daily increasing in numbers ; that they would plun- der the settlement of all kinds of property, and would accumulate the means of carrying on the war, while they themselves would become weaker; that the harvest would soon be ripe, and would be gathered or destroyed by their enemies, and all their means of sus- tenance during the succeeding winter would fail ; that probably all their messengers were killed, and as there had been more than sufficient time, and no assistance arrived, they would probably receive none, and conse- quently now was the proper time to make the attack. On the other side it was argued, that probably some or all the messengers may have arrived at head- quarters, but that the absence of the commander-in- chief may have produced delay ; that one or two weeks more may bring the desired assistance, and that to attack the enemy, superior as they were in number, out of the limits of their own fort, would produce al- most certain destruction to the settlement and them-
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selves, and captivity, and slavery, perhaps torture, to their wives and children. While these debates were progressing, five men belonging to Wyoming, but who at that time held commissions in the continental army, arived at the fort ; they had received informa- tion that a force from Niagara had marched to destroy the settlements on the Susquehanna, and being una- ble to bring with them any reinforcement, they re- signed their appointments, and hastened immediately to the protection of their families. They had heard nothing of the messengers, neither could they give any certain information as to the probability of relief.
" The prospect of receiving assistance became now extremely uncertain. The advocates for the attack prevailed in the council, and at dawn of day, on the morning of the 3d of July, the garrison left the fort, and began their march up the river, under the com- mand of Col. Zebulon Butler. Having proceeded about two miles, the troops halted for the purpose of detaching a reconnoitering party, to ascertain the situation of the enemy.
" The scout found the enemy in possession of Fort Wintermoot, and occupying huts immediately around it, carousing in supposed security ; but on their re- turn to the advancing column, they met two strolling Indians, by whom they were fired upon, and upon whom they immediately returned the fire without effect. The settlers hastened their march for the at- tack, but the Indians had given the alarm, and the advancing troops found the enemy already formed in order of battle a small distance from their fort, with their right flank covered by a swamp, and
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their left resting upon the bank of a river. The set- tlers immediately displayed their column and formed in corresponding order, but as the enemy was much superior in numbers, their line was much more extensive. Pine woods and bushes covered the bat- tle-ground, in consequence of which the movements of the troops could not be so quickly discovered, nor so well ascertained. Col. Zebulon Butler had com- mand of the right, and was opposed by Col. John Butler at the head of the British troops on the left ; Col. Nathan Denison commanded the left, opposed by Brant at the head of his Indians on the enemy's right. The battle commenced at about forty rods dis- tant, and continued about fifteen minutes through the woods and brush, without much execution. At this time Brant with his Indians, having penetrated the swamp, turned the left flank of the settlers' line, and with a terrible war-whoop and savage yell made a desperate charge upon the troops composing that wing, which fell very fast, and were immediately cut to pieces with the tomahawk. Col. Denison having as- certained that the savages were gaining the rear of the left, gave orders for that wing to fall back. At the same time Col. John Butler, finding that the line of the settlers did not extend as far towards the river as his own, doubled that end of his line which was protected by a thick growth of brushwood, and hav- ing brought a party of his British regulars to act in column upon that wing, threw Col. Zebulon Butler's troops into some confusion. The orders of Col. Deni- son for his troops to fall back, having been understood by many to mean a retreat, the troops began to retire
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