USA > New York > Essex County > The military and civil history of the county of Essex, New York : and a general survey of its physical geography, its mines and minerals, and industrial pursuits, embracing an account of the northern wilderness > Part 10
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1 Doc., x, 1042.
2 The term Indians was often used to designate warriors, and we may hope it was so in this instance; but Pouchot states that the warriors were absent .- Vol. 1, 223.
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these symbols of Indian barbarity, they might, with truth, have felt, that they were not only instruments of ven- geance, but ministers of justice. The village was con- sumed, and many of the Indians, who had sought a refuge in the cellars and lofts, were burnt to death. Captain Ogden, of the rangers, was severely wounded, six others slightly, and one Indian of the party killed. Loading the men with all the plunder and corn they were able to carry, Rogers immediately commenced a retreat in the direction of the Connecticut. He was pursued by a body of Indians, and repeatedly attacked, with the loss of a few prisoners. At length he turned upon his pursuers, and dealt them a punishment so severe, as to arrest further open assaults, but they hung upon his rear with a deadly tenacity ; and when the detachment separated into small bodies, which policy Rogers was constrained to adopt, on the eighth day of the march, in order more readily to procure subsistence, they attacked and killed or captured many of the party.1
The different bodies toiling in intense labor and suffer- ing, marching over steep rocky mountains, and traversing rivers and deep morasses, were sustained, amid fatigue and hunger, by the confident hope of finding relief and repose at the place designated by Rogers. They reached it, and found the brands, enkindled by the party which was to con- vey them supplies, still smouldering; but no friends, no food. McMullen, penetrating the vast forest a hundred miles in extent, arrived at Crown point on the ninth day of his march. Amherst, with no delay, had directed a lieute- nant Stephens to convey the requisite supplies to the ap- pointed rendezvous, and to remain while a hope existed of the return of Rogers. He reached the place with ample provisions, but fearing the approach of the Indians, conti- nued only two days at his post and abandoned it, as after-
1 The Indians massacred some forty, and carried off ten prisoners to their village, where some of them fell victims to the fury of the Indian women, notwithstanding the efforts made by the Canadians to save them." Doc., x, 1042
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*
wards appeared, but two hours before the arrival of Rogers. He heard the signal guns fired to recall him, but believing them to indicate the presence of Indians, his flight was precipitated.
Leaving his exhausted and famishing comrades with the assurance that in ten days they should be relieved, to procure " what wretched subsistence they could in a bar- ren wilderness," Rogers, accompanied by Ogden, a ranger, and an Indian youth, undertook to descend the river upon a raft in pursuit of aid. Rogers does not intimate his motive for carrying with him the Indian, but we may form a fearful conjecture. The first raft was lost among the rapids ; destitute of implements, they could only con- struct another, with trees felled and reduced to the appro- priate length by burning. The fort at Number Four was reached by an inflexible determination, and a canoe with supplies immediately despatched, which arrived at Cohase on the day designated by Rogers. He returned to Crown point on the 1st December, and when the scattered parties were reassembled, he reported the loss after the detach- ment retreated from the ruins of the St. Francis village, of three officers and forty-six privates.1
On the eleventh of October, Captain Loring of the navy, to whom the work was confided, had succeeded by the most energetic efforts in completing the construction of a sloop carrying sixteen guns, a brigantine and radeau mounted with six cannon of large calibre. Amherst em- barked his army in a vast flotilla of bateaux, and, escorted by these vessels, proceeded on his long procrastinated ex- pedition. The next day he encountered one of those severe autumnal gales, which often at that season sweep over the lake.2 Twelve of the boats were foundered, and the remainder sought shelter under the western shore of the lake. Amherst probably advanced while struggling with these adverse circumstances to the vicinity of Valcour
1 Rogers's Journal, 144, 159.
2 Pouchot, I, 146 ; II, 66.
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island, and there on the mainland formed an encampment.1 Loring, with the sloop and brigantine, continued on his course, and compelled the French to destroy two of their vessels in a bay on the north-east angles of Valcour; a third was sunk, and one only, the schooner, escaped, and sought shelter under the guns of the Isle aux Noix.2
Experience or inquiry might have suggested to Amherst, that these periodical gales on the lake are always limited in their duration, and usually succeeded by a term of serene and genial weather. But ever controlled by an extreme of prudence and caution, he returned to Crown point after an absence of ten days, relinquishing the combinations his movements were intended to promote, and abandoning Wolfe to work out the fortunes of his army by his own unbounded energies and genius.
It is not my province to pursue the course of events on the banks of the St. Lawrence, but a brief space devoted to the last scenes in the life of one who has occupied so wide a space in our narrative, can need no apology. On the 24th of August, 1759, Montcalm, as if in the cool tracings of history, instead of the speculations of prophetic prescience, wrote : "The capture of Quebec must be the work of a coup de main. The English are masters of the river. They have but to effect a descent on the bank on which this city,3 without fortification and without defense,
1 I adopt this conclusion from the language of an English writer of the period, and from the popular traditions of the region. Those are still living who recollect an opening on the Pine bluffs, south of the Au Sable river and directly upon the boundary line between Clinton and Essex counties, which, in the early part of the century, was known as Amherst's encamp- ment. It exhibited vestiges of extensive field-works the habitual cau- tion of Amherst would have led him to erect, and also remains of tar manufactories, formed in the primitive method of the pioneers. It is a singular coincidence, that the tar and pitch used in the equipment of Mc- Donough's fleet, more than fifty years afterwards, were made on the same ground and by a similar process,- Alvin Colvin, Esq.
2 Doc., VII, 405 ; x, 1042 ; Pouchot.
3 Montcalm must here speak comparatively and refer to the inadequacy of the works which surrounded Quebec. A reference to this remarkable and deeply interesting document will be found in Appendix B.
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is situated, and they are at once in condition to offer me battle which I cannot refuse, and which I ought not to be permitted to gain. In fine, Mr. Wolfe, if he understands his business, has but to receive my first fire, to rush ra- pidly upon my army, to discharge his volley at close quar- ters, and my Canadians without discipline, deaf to the call of the drum and the trumpet, and thrown into dis- order by this assault, will be unable to recover their ranks. They have no bayonets to meet those of their enemy ; nothing remains for them but flight, and I am routed irretrievably."
Three weeks later, Wolfe, pursuing the instincts of a congenial spirit, had fulfilled the presages of Montcalm, and stood with his army upon the plains of Abraham. Prophecy became history, and Montcalm, routed as he had predicted, was borne back to Quebec with a fatal wound, rejoicing " that he should not live to witness its fall." Confiding to his subordinate the honor of France, and commending the companions of his misfortunes and glory to the clemency of a generous foe, he exclaims : "As for me, I shall spend the night with God."1 Montcalm survived his illustrious rival only a few hours, and at his own request was buried in a pit excavated by a shell in exploding; "A meet tomb for a warrior, who died on the field of honor." 2
Rashness and precipitancy have been imputed to Mont- calm in the campaign before Quebec, and with a degree apparently of justice. Why did he hasten the attack before the aid he had summoned could arrive ? The motives that
1 Bancroft. Pouchot.
2 I dissent with much hesitation from the suggested doubts of an eminent authority, in reference to the grave of Montcalm. (O'Callaghan's note, Doc. x, 400). I accept the statement not alone on the authority of the Biographie Universelle, but on the strength of the commemorative painting of his death, dictated by his officers (Pouchot, I, 217), but more especially on the language of the majestic epitaph of the French Academy of Inscription : " Deposited his mortal remains in a grave which a falling bomb in exploding had excavated." For this epitaph and the elegant and feeling correspond- ence between Bougainville and Pitt on the subject, see Appendix B.
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influenced his action are buried in his grave. Montreuil, a veteran and experienced soldier, asserts that delay would have enabled Wolfe to entrench upon a hill, and thus render his position impregnable.1 Bishop De Pontbriand, who participated in these events, sustains the same views, and says " that Montcalm deigned to avail himself of the first impulses of his troops." He adds a fact, which if it existed, manifests the highest wisdom and skill in the measures adopted by Montcalm : " had he delayed an hour the enemy would have been reenforced by three thousand men and eight pieces of cannon.2 Bougainville, who had ascended the river with two thousand select men, to watch the opera- tions of Wolfe, was instantly, on the landing of the English army, ordered to return. Did the rapid conception enter into the sagacious mind of Montcalm, that Bougainville should return while the battle raged, and falling upon the the rear of Wolfe annihilate his forces ; and success, in bold and consummate strategy, like this, would have emblazoned with the brightest radiance the martial fame of Montcalm. Obloquy and detraction did not pause at the glorious grave of Montcalm. He was charged not merely with reckless- ness and presumption, but the base offense was imputed to him, of sacrificing his own life and the realm of New France to a groveling jealousy of Vaudreuil.3 These calumnies have never satisfactorily explained why Vau- dreuil, lying within a mile and a half of the scene of action, with fifteen hundred men, did not advance with greater celerity, assume the command warranted by his rank, and direct the operations of the army. The advance of Wolfe could not have been veiled from his knowledge.4
A want of enterprise has been singularly ascribed to Montcalm, not only by his detractors of that age, but a
1 Doc., x, 1014. 2 An impartial opinion etc., Doc., x, 1061.
3 Doc., x, 1034, 1043 ; Garneau, II, 327.
4 Bancroft says that " messenger after messenger was dispatched to Vau- dreuil to come up ;" I know not on what authority. No official document I think discloses the fact, and the Relations, etc., explicitly denies it .- Doc., x, 1061.
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modern Canadian writer indulges in the same strictures.1 The marvellous exploits, achieved with means so inade- quate, should dispel all these imputations. And it should be remembered that wise enterprise is always tempered by prudence and discretion. Vaudreuil, after the capitu- lation of 1760, went back to France, and he, in turn, was marked by adverse fortune, and an object of injustice and persecution. The friends of Montcalm, it is said, pur- sued and oppressed him with a vindictive animosity ; but he was in life able to secure the vindication of his honor and integrity.
The repose that rested upon the shores of Champlain, was interrupted by no event of public interest, until the campaign of the next year. The attention of Amherst was devoted to the extension and improvement of the works at Ticonderoga, and the erection, as we have already noticed, of a magnificent fortress on Crown point.
The remains of these works, now crumbling ruins, still attest their original splendor and strength. They are now guarded and preserved by private taste and intelligence, from the vandal outrages which were rapidly destroying them. We may cherish the hope, that the most extensive and imposing ruins in America, redolent with the bright- est historical associations, and becoming shrouded in the venerableness of antiquity, will be perpetuated to excite the admiration and to attract the pilgrimage of future ages. These fields of glory are now tilled in the peaceful pursuits of husbandry. In the vicinity of Ticonderoga, balls, muskets, swords, and numerous other relics of war, are constantly revealed. At one period, the line of the fatal abatis might almost be traced by these dumb but significant memorials of the spot where the harvest of death had been the most exuberant.
The course of the circumvallations and trenches, singu- larly complex and interlaced, may readily be distinguished. Part of the battlements rising above the rocky cliff are
1 Doc., x, 1043 ; Garneau, XI, 327.
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almost entire. The line of the ramparts is still traced ; the ruins of a portion of the barracks remain, although private cupidity has removed much of the brick and stone of the buildings. The bakery is in a state of good preserv- ation. At Crown point the ruin is still better preserved, although here the deep interest that entrances at Ticon- deroga, is less profound and exciting. The mounds of Fort St. Frederic are yet perceptible, although fallen and dilapidated. The oven, the covered way, and magazine, are easily distingished. The fort erected by Amherst, might even now be restored. The form of the vast quad- rangular barracks, which enclosed the esplanade, may still be distinguished, although one side has been totally demolished, and another partially removed. They formed, until the desecration was arrested by the present pro- prietors, quarries that supplied building material to a wide region. Two of these barracks remain in partial preserv- ation, one a hundred and ninety-two feet and the other two hundred and sixteen feet in length. The walls yet stand, and although roofless, without floors, and the beams charred and blackened, they are in more perfect condition than any other part of either ruin. The inner walls bear the soldiers' idle scribblings of more than a century ago. Each room contains a broad and lofty fireplace. The gar- rison well, almost one hundred feet deep, remains. The direction of the covered way, conducting to the lake, although occasionally fallen in, may readily be discerned.
How changed the scene, since the chivalry of France and England, and the savage warriors from Acadia to the precincts of Hudson's bay, were marshaled on these shores. Last autumn, standing on a lofty eminence on the southern limits of Essex county, I gazed far along the bold banks and tranquil bosom of Lake George. The view was as lovely as in the age of Montcalm and Howe; but not a sound broke the deep stillness of nature, not a form interrupted its solitude. When I stood amid the ruins of Crown point, cattle were ruminating in its bas- tion, and a solitary robin twittered among the branches of 8
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a tree, whose roots were interlaced among the rocks of the ramparts. I saw sheep feeding upon the walls of Fort Carillon, and plucked wild grapes from a vine clustering upon the ruins of its magazine.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE COLONIZATION, 1760 - 1775.
While Amherst procrastinated his movements, the last convulsive, but nearly successful struggle for a prolonged dominion, was made by De Levis, in the attempted recap- ture of Quebec. The battle of Sillery, contiguous to the plains of Abraham, had been fought, where the brave but presumptuous and incompetent Murray experienced a defeat as severe in its losses and complete in the route, as that which proved fatal to Montcalm. But circumstances were not equally propitious to the French for the consumma- tion of the victory.1 Amherst reserved to himself the command of the largest column of the British armies, which in accordance with the plan of the campaign of 1760, con- sisted of ten thousand men and was designed to approach Montreal by Oswego and the line of the St. Lawrence. Proceeding with a slow caution, that the enfeebled condition of the French forces did not exact, and incurring to his army great and unnecessary toil, and sweeping away as he advanced all the remains of hostile power along these waters, he appeared early in September before the walls of Montreal.
Haviland was in charge of the troops which remained at the fortresses on Lake Champlain. While delaying for the progress of Amherst's operations, several bold and successful incursions were made from this point, against the settlement of Canada, by Rogers, in connection with
1 The battle of Sillery was fought near the Cote d'Abraham ; this, with the celebrated Plains of Abraham, was called after one Abraham Martin, who owned a farm in the immediate vicinity .- O'Callaghan, Doc., x, 1801.
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the naval force, which now held the control of the lake. On the 16th of August, 1760, the last brilliant martial procession of the war departed from Crown point. Bear- ing about three thousand regulars and provincials, under the command of Colonel Haviland, it moved down the lake in a long line of bateaux, under the convoy of four armed vessels, with an equal number of radeaux, each of which bore a heavy armament. Richard Montgomery, who had already attracted the attention and won the applause of Wolfe, at Louisburg, accompanied this expe- dition, as adjutant of the Seventeenth regiment of foot.1
Haviland effected a descent near the Isle aux Noix, without opposition, and at once erected batteries opposite the fort upon the main land. Bougainville, who occupied the works with sixteen hundred men, had strengthened his position by anchoring a fleet of small vessels on his flank. These were vigorously attacked and soon dispersed or captured. The rangers swam out to one, tomahawk in hand, boarded and seized her.2 Weakened by this loss, Bougainville, on the night of the 29th, abandoned his posi- tion. The forts at St. John's and Chambly were evacuated at the same time, the garrisons retreating slowly towards Montreal. By a skillful execution of happily concerted movements, Haviland appeared before Montreal on the 7th of September, the day after the arrival and junction of Amherst and Murray. Murray had ascended the river from Quebec, driving before him the remnants of the French army, occupying the country and imposing the oath of allegiance upon the people.3
In this last stronghold of New France, Vandreuil, its last governor-general, had gathered the gallant relics of his wasted army, and with an intrepid front, made the most prudent and skillful disposition for a final conflict.4 As the blood in the process of dissolution recedes from the extremities and collects about the heart, so all the Cana-
1 Rogers, 133 ; Armstrong's Life of Montgomery.
$ Graham. 4 Idem; De Levis, Doc., x, 1125.
2 Rogers, 191.
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dian power of France had gathered around the only re- maining citadel of its strength. All the chivalry of France that still survived on the soil of Canada, had assembled here, animated by a zeal and ardor that almost defied des- tiny. There was De Levis, second alone to Montcalm in renown and services; there was Boulamarque, the target of every battle-field; and Montrueil the successor of Dies- kau at Lake George; and Bougainville, the pupil and friend of Montcalm, and to become illustrious as the first French circumnavigator of the globe. "If we do not save the country, " wrote De Levis to Belle Isle, "we will sustain the honor of the king's arms."1 But the contest was hope- lessly unequal, and on the 8th of September, Vandreuil proposed terms of capitulation which were soon adjusted by Amherst in a spirit of humane magnanimity, and the sceptre of New France was yielded to England.
By the treaty of Paris the next year, the province of Canada was formally ceded to Great Britain. England, in wild exultation, rejoiced over this conquest, which added the domain of almost half a continent to her realm, as "the most important that ever the British army had achieved."2 But the far-seeing and comprehensive mind of Choiseul, discerned in it the germ of the dismember- ment of the British empire.3 The keen forecast of Mont- calm, three weeks before his fatal field, found consolation in contemplating the same view. In the letter from which I have quoted in another page, he writes : " I shall console myself to some extent for my defeat and for the loss of our colony by the profound conviction which I entertain, that this defeat will one day become of greater value to my country than a victory, and that the victor here will find his grave, in his very victory." He then proceeds to trace with a master's hand, the consequences which will be entailed on England by the annexation of Canada, from its influences upon the attitude of the British colonies.4
1 Doc., x, 1103. 2 Smollet. 3 Bancroft.
4 See Appendix B.
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The inference derived from the subsequent aspect of the country, and the silence of documents and history on the subject is strong, if not conclusive, that the actual occupa- tion of the Champlain valley by the French, for practical and agricultural purposes, although they maintained their military ascendancy for more than a fourth of a century, did not extend far beyond the protection of their fortresses.
The extent and character of these early settlements is a question of strong interest, as well in the illustration it affords of the history of the region, as in the antiquarian researches it demands. Whatever may have been the number or situation of the French occupants, they appear to have receded before the approach of the victorious arms of Amherst, and probably accompanied the retreat of the French forces. The most decisive evidence remains of the presence, at some former period, of a considerable and civilized community in the vicinity of Crown point. The vestiges of their occupation which still exist, indicate a people who knew the comforts and amenities of life, and possessed numbers and means to secure their enjoy- ment. The allusions of ancient manuscripts corroborate the traditions preserved in the reminiscences of aged persons, that a population, ranging in the estimate from fifteen hundred to three thousand persons, were gathered around the fortress of St. Frederic. A very important traffic, it is known, existed between the French and English possessions, as early as 1700, and that Lake Champlain was the medium of the intercourse. Several years anterior to that period, Crown point, it will be re- collected, was referred to, as a prominent landmark, in the public instructions of the municipal authorities of Albany. May it not have been, previous to the French occupation, an important mart of this commerce ? We think the conclusion is warranted, that Crown point was probably, at an early period, a trading post, at which the merchandise of the French and English colonies were interchanged, and where the Indians congregated from widely extended hunting grounds to traffic their peltries.
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We have already briefly sketched the peninsular position of Crown point- one side resting on Bulwagga bay, and the other washed by the waters of the lake. When we last witnessed it the clearest evidences remained of the ground, for many rods along the margin of the bay, having been graded and formed into an artificial slope, inclining to the water. Ruins of enclosures are still visible. The fragments of a former wall, in one instance, distinctly mark its course. Trees which have sprung up, along the line of the wall, have supported and preserved spaces of it almost entire. This enclosure, embracing an area of about two acres, was evidently a fruit yard or garden. Fruit trees were flourishing in it within the recollection of the present owner.
An avenue seems to have swept in a wide curvature along the margin of the lake in front of the enclosure, and approached a landing place, adapted to the craft which at that time navigated its waters. Still more distinct and palpable indications are exhibited parallel to this avenue, upon the crest of a slight eminence, of the former residence of a dense and prosperous population. A street may be traced, reaching a long distance towards the mainland, raised and covered with broken stone not unlike the Mac- adam roads of the present day. The ruins of cellars, many of which are excavated from the solid rock, line this street on each side. The compact arrangement of these cellars and the narrowness of the avenue, present a striking analogy to the antiquated villages in Canada, founded by the French, and leave little doubt that their origin was the same. No vestige of this by-gone age so thrilled upon my feelings and excited my imagination, as the remnant of the sidewalk along this street. It is formed of flagging similar to that now in use in our cities. The stones are smooth and worn, and remain in the position they were left by the generation who once thronged them in the busy scenes of life. We were assured by the occupant of the ground, that he has displaced many continuous rods of this pavement, in the course of his agricultural operations,
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