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 16
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1 Thompson, in the History of Vermont, states, that this bridge, when Bur- goyne approached, was in an unfinished condition.
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and four hundred yards distant from Ticonderoga and separated from Mt. Independence by fifteen hundred yards, and by its position and greater height commanded both works. The imagined impregnability of these works would at once fail, in the event of this eminence being occupied by a hostile battery. St. Clair had been ap- prized of this momentous fact by the examination of the preceding year. Pont Le Roy, the engineer of Montcalm, evidently referred to it in the epigrammatic utterance I have quoted; and we cannot doubt, that the possession of Ticonderoga during more than eighteen years, had dis- closed the military value of this position to the British commanders. But St. Clair was destitute of the resources necessary for holding and fortifying the place, and of averting the impending danger. His feeble garrison was insufficient for the occupation of the more prominent and exposed lines. He was constrained to rely upon the hope for the same impunity the fortress had formerly enjoyed from an attack in that direction. Conscious of his weak- ness he could alone in maintaining the fortresses have con- templated creating a delay, which would secure an infinite advantage to the republican cause, or of a successful re- sistance to an active assault, that he might have antici- pated from the impetuosity and presumption of Burgoyne.
A fatuity seems to have rested upon the American coun- cils, in the affairs of the Champlain frontier. A singular ignorance prevailed, in reference to the strength and move- ments of Burgoyne, inconsistent with the most common military skill and prudence. The people, the government and the commanders, were alike impressed by the convic- tion, that the menaced invasion by the waters of Cham- plain, was a mere pretext to disguise other operations, and that no competent force for the purpose had been organized in Canada. When its reality was demonstrated, by the actual appearance of the British army, little preparation had been made to oppose its advance. On the 25th of June, St. Clair communicated to Schuyler the perilous circumstances by which he was surrounded, and reiterates,
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as he asserts, his views of the inadequacy of his resources and the fatal consequences which would result from a regu- lar siege or blockade of the works. This letter, three days later, was transmitted to Washington by Schuyler, accom- panied by the representations of his own utter inability either to support St. Clair or resist a prompt advance by Burgoyne. The obvious and transparent error, which involved so many disastrous consequences, and for which all, who exerted a controlling influence upon the measure, were in common, responsible, was the delay that occurred in the evacuations of Ticonderoga and its dependencies. Had that movement been executed when its necessity was first apparent, it might have been conducted with a leisure and circumspection, that would have secured the removal of the munitions and artillery, and the safety of the army, without demoralization. St. Clair, in a letter to congress, alleges, that his instructions gave him no discretion in reference to the abandonment of the work, except from the presence of a last and imperious necessity.1
While the American affairs were involved in these strange delusions, and paralyzed by this inaction and hesi- tancy, Burgoyne had occupied Crown point, and with extra- ordinary promptitude and vigor marched upon Ticon- deroga. On the 1st July he advanced in three columns. The left wing under Riedesel proceeded along the eastern shore of the lake, which here, deep and narrow, exhibits the proportions and appearance of a river. He advanced to East creek, a small stream, which, spreading out in the form of an estuary as it enters the lake, washes the northern base of Mt. Independence. Burgoyne himself embarked with the centre column in bateaux, and convoyed by two ships slowly ascended the lake. Phillips, with the right wing, moved upon the western side, and the next day ex- tended his flank, threatening the outposts of St. Clair. The parties which held the landing and Mt. Hope were ordered after destroying the public property, and burning the mills,
1 Marshall.
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to fall back into the American lines. The British general immediately seized this important post, and by its occupa- tion commanded a portion of the remaining works and effectively severed St. Clair's communication with Lake George.1 St. Clair resisted these operations by a heavy cannonade directed against the several positions of the enemy. While actively occupied in enveloping the Ame- rican works by a cordon of posts, Burgoyne caused a careful reconnaissance to be made of Mt. Defiance. The result corroborated the opinion of the American engineer, submitted the last year, and announced that the ascent was not only practicable, but that the brief space of a single day was sufficient for the construction of an available road for artillery to the summit. The fourth was devoted by Burgoyne to the landing of his battering train, and the concentration of his munitions and supplies. On the same day, the proposed ascent of Mt. Defiance was effected with a success only equaled by the ardor and toil exerted in its execution, and on the morning of the 8th, a battery had been erected, and eight pieces of heavy artillery mounted, and ready to open a plunging and insupportable fire upon the doomed garrison.
St. Clair witnessed these operations without any power to arrest them or avert their consequences, and yielded to the perfect conviction that neither Ticonderoga nor Mt. Independence was longer tenable. The difficulties of his perilous situation were enhanced by the fact, that only a single link now remained to accomplish the investment of the entire works, and to secure the control of the water communication with Skeensboro'. Riedesel was about closing that space, by stretching his forces from the posi- tion he occupied on East creek, around Mt. Independence to the waters of the narrow lake south of that post. Op-
1 Mount Hope is situated near the Lower Falls, on the outlet of Lake George. It is a steep and rocky eminence, and tradition asserts, received its name from Phillips, when he seized it in this campaign. Vestiges of mili- tary works are still visible upon it, and also the ruins of a log bridge, built on the occasion.
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pressed by this gloomy aspect of his affairs, the American commander convened a military council, which with per- fect harmony and without hesitation, concurred in the opinion, that the works could not be maintained, and that an immediate evacuation was necessary. The same night this resolution was executed. The sick, the hospital and other stores, and all the guns, munitions and provisions, which under the pressure of the circumstances could be moved, were embarked in two hundred boats, which, guarded by about six hundred men under Colonel Long, and convoyed by five armed galleys, proceeded to Skeenes- boro'. The lights in the camp were all extinguished, and caution and profound silence enjoined. Prudence de- manded that during the day no unusual movement in the forts should reveal to the enemy, who watched their proceedings from the summit of Mt. Defiance, the con- templated design. The short time allowed for the execu- tion of the measure and the obscurity of the night, necessarily created some degree of haste and confusion ; but the retreat was conducted with such skill and celerity that, although the moon was shining brightly, it escaped the observation of the British sentinels. St Clair, with the leading column, crossed the bridge at 2 o'clock in the morning, and was closely followed by Francis with the rear of the army. No suspicion of the enemy had yet been excited, and every circumstance indicated the most favorable results. But at the moment, when these appear- ances were thus auspicious, a house on Mt. Independence, occupied by General de Fermoy, was discovered to be ou fire. The flames spread widely, and casting a bright illu- mination over the scene, revealed all the movements of the retreating army. The British camp was instantly aroused, and the drum and trumpet sounded the alarm through all its sections. The abandoned works were immediately occupied, and a fire opened upon the rear of the Americans. Frazer led a strong detachment at once across the bridge which St. Clair had not had time to dis- turb, and commenced a rapid and vigorous pursuit. He
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was immediately followed by Riedesel with his German corps. With indefatigable activity and vigor, Burgoyne, by the labor of a few hours, skillfully directed, removed the boom and bridge - stupendous fabrics, that had exacted a vast expenditure of money and material and the unre- mitting toil of months. Early on the morning of the 6th, these obstacles upon which the Americans had relied in perfect confidence, were obliterated, or sufficiently dis- placed to allow the passage of two ships and several gun- boats, which with the utmost ardor and celerity pursued the American flotilla. The latter had reached its destina- tion in safety, and while the troops were indulging in rest and in fancied security after the excessive labor and fatigue of the retreat, their repose was suddenly broken by the guns of Burgoyne, in an attack at the wharves of the galleys and boats. The overwhelming force of the Eng- lish rendered resistance impossible, and having burnt or destroyed the military works, the mills and the bateaux with three of the galleys, two had been captured by Bur- goyne, Long hastily retreated in the direction of Fort Ann. By this prompt and rapid movement he eluded a British force of three regiments, which, pursuing the track of Dieskau, had landed at the foot of South bay, and ad- vanced with great celerity to the Fort Edward road for the purpose of intercepting the retreat. While Burgoyne achieved these signal successes, St Clair was pursuing a forced, and to some extent disorderly, march, towards Castleton, which he reached during the night after the evacuation.
Three regiments, under Warner, Francis and Hale, which constituted the rear division of the American army, paused at Hubbardton, in order to reorganize and to collect the stragglers, who had fallen out of the line on the pre- cipitate retreat. This force occupied a favorable position, and it was decided to await an attack. The pursuit of Frazer had been eager and unremitting. That night he lay on his arms near the American position, and early on the morning of the 7th, without hesitating for the arrival
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of Riedesel, which was momentarily expected, advanced with ardor to the attack of the American lines. The command of Frazer embraced eight hundred and fifty veteran regulars. The opposing force consisted of about thirteen hundred men, but a large proportion of these were militia ; and the inequality in numbers was speedily removed by the retreat of Colonel Hale's regiment. This command was composed mainly of the siek and convalescent in- capable of field service, and Hale, therefore, after a brief though warm skirmish with the British advance, continued his retreat towards Castleton, but he was intercepted by a British column, and himself and nearly the entire regiment were taken prisoners.1
A long and sanguinary engagement ensued, which was conducted with skill, and fought with the highest spirit and resolution. The battle of Hubbardton has not acquired the prominence in American history or the consideration from the country, due to the valor and sacrifices by which it was signalized. At one period of its changing aspect, when the British line recoiled in disorder before the impetu- osity of the American charge, victory seemed assured to the republican arms; but Frazer soon restored his ranks
1 Colonel Nathan Hale commanded one of the battalions raised in 1776 by New Hampshire. Some modern writers, each adopting the statements contained in the narrative of Ethan Allen, without apparently having examined the subject, have imputed to Colonel Hale misconduct in this battle, and asserted that his command was surrendered without resistance. These charges, it is alleged, inflict unjust censure upon a brave soldier and patriotic citizen. Gordon, Williams, and other subordinate writers reflect the views of Allen, but Marshall, the most authentic, by the sources from which he received his facts, of any historian of the period : Botta, Stead- man and other authors, both American and English, are silent on the sub- ject, and ascribe blame to no one. The charge that Hale " surrendered without striking a blow " is discountenanced, at least, by the simple account, bearing upon its face the impress of truth, of one who was present in the engagement - was wounded and taken prisoner. The author, who was attached to Carr's company in Hale's battalion, states that early in the morning of the 7th, while the troops were prepar ng their breakfast, under marching orders, the enemy suddenly appeared in line. The American troops were ordered to "lay down their packs : ad be ready for action. The firing immediately commenced, and a sharp skirmish occurred. The
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and the appearance immediately after of the Germans upon the field decided the contest, and the Americans dispersed in every direction. Colonel Francis fell gallantly at the head of his regiment. The aggregate American loss in this warmly contested action was about three hundred, and that of the British one hundred and eighty-three. Warner, with his wonted decision and intrepidty, reassem- bled his troops at Manchester, and led them to unite with Schuylerat Fort Edward. Severe censure has been attached to St. Clair, that lying only six miles from the field of battle with his detachment, he had not returned to the support of Warner and Francis. His apologists allege, that he made the most earnest efforts to do so, but that the troops who were principally composed of militia regiments, re- fused to march to their aid.
The capture of Ticonderoga was a deep calamity to the republican cause. The trophies announced by Burgoyne to his government, embraced one hundred and twenty- eight pieces of artillery ; all the boats and armed vessels in the harbors, and the provision stores and munitions. The great flag of the garrison was also abandoned in the confusion of the retreat, and fell into the enemy's hands. The intelligence of this event was received in England by
republicans sought the cover of trees, but "were a few in number in com- parison with the enemy." While discharging his musket, in that position, the author was wounded, and captured, when the battalion retreated .- Narrative of Ebenezer Fletcher. Belknap, a contemporary, in his History of New Hampshire, states, that "Colonel Hale's battalion was ordered to cover the rear of the invalids," and the next morning was attacked by the advance of the enemy. Barstow, in his history, says, in allusion to this event, "a sharp skirmish ensued, in which Major Titcomb (of Hale's bat- talion) was wounded." These authorities seem to disprove one serious point of the strictures. Colonel Hale claimed from Washington the right of being exchanged, that he might vindicate his conduct before a military tribunal, but he died, while still a prisoner, before this desire could be gratified.
The memory of Colonel Hale is entitled to the consideration due to other facts. At the commencement of the revolution, he was in easy pecuniary circumstances. After the battle of Lexington, he raised a company of minute men, at his own expense, and by patriotic sacrifices like this, when he died in the vigor of manhood, he left his family in comparative poverty.
*
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the partisans of the ministry with the most rapturous exultation, and confidently accepted as a propitious augury of the final issue of the contest. At no period of the revo- lution did any other disaster press upon the popular heart in America, with a more chilling and despondent influence. Surprise and astonishment mingled with rage and grief. The imputations of imbecility, negligence, and incompetency, did not reach the expression of public sentiment, but hostile and malignant tongues gave free utterance to the terms, baseness and treachery. Even the serene and just mind of Washington was disturbed. St. Clair was suspended, and Schuyler superseded in the command of the northern army, at the moment when success and glory were about becoming the fruition of his wise, skillful, and patriotic measures. But time dis- persed the clouds that for a period shadowed the fame of these able and devoted patriots, and a mature investi- gation of the facts, afforded them an ample and decisive vindication.
Phillips, as soon as the means of transportation could be organized on Lake George, advanced with his division to Fort George and established at that post and also at the foot of the lake, depots of supplies, and the proximate base of the army. At Fort George, he found only dismantled and naked walls. Schuyler, in the judicious but stern policy by which he had rendered savage nature still more hideous, and created in the front of the foe a waste and desolation, had either destroyed or removed every material that might impart comfort or facilities to the invader. This narrative must relinquish to general history the recital of the future progress and history of Burgoyne, and that great culminat- ing victory, which was not only decisive of his career, but decisive also of the great contest of England with her re- bellious colonies.
While Burgoyne was urging a slow progress as he gra- dually surmounted the vast obstacles, which the sagacity of Schuyler had interposed, Lincoln was engaged in collect- ing and organizing a body of four thousand militia at
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Manchester, Vermont. The flank of the British army by this movement was seriously menaced. A portion of these troops, it was decided, should be used in a bold and im- portant operation, which was intended to sever the commu- nications of Burgoyne, and if possible to seize his base at Ticonderoga. Colonel Johnson, with a party of about five hundred men, was detached by Lincoln against Skeenes- boro' and Fort Edward, but with the special object of co- vering the retreat of the two other detachments led by Brown and Woodbury. Colonel Brown, with a party of rangers of nearly the same strength, was instructed to proceed to the landing on Lake George, to rescue Ameri- can prisoners confined there, and having accomplished this object to act on the suggestions of his own judgment. He crossed Lake Champlain at the narrows above Ticonderoga, and marching all night conducted alone by the signals emitted at short intervals by his guides, hoots, in imitation of the owl, he traversed the rugged mountain range that separates the two lakes, and toiling in the darkness, amid precipices and chasms, a distance of fourteen miles, just as the day was breaking, burst upon the enemy at the foot of the lake, by a complete surprise. He captured without resistance nearly three hundred British troops, the works at Mount Hope and at the landing, and seized two hundred bateaux, an armed sloop and a number of gun-boats, which had been transported from Lake Champlain with severe toil, and were stationed here to protect the carrying place. In addition to these successes he accomplished the primary object of the expedition by liberating one hundred Ame- rican prisoners. Captain Ebenezer Allen had been de- tached with a small and resolute band by Brown to assail the works on Mount Defiance. Scaling cautiously and in silence the precipitous acclivities of the mountain, so steep in one place that the assailants were able only to ascend by climbing over the shoulders of each other, they reached the summit and captured the battery without the discharge of a single weapon. Colonel Johnson, with a detachment of about an equal number, arrived early the next morning and
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joined Brown before Ticonderoga.1 The united forces immediately invested the fortress and summoned General Powell, the commander of the garrison, to surrender. He returned a defiant answer, and after an ineffectual cannon- ade of four days with ordnance too feeble to make an im- pression upon the works, the attack was abandoned. At the landing Brown embarked forces in the captured boats, and ascended Lake George with the design of seizing Diamond island, where Burgoyne had deposited an im- mense quantity of stores and munitions.
Upon the surrender of Burgoyne, the small garrison at Ticonderoga dismantled and evacuated the works, and, em- barking in a few open boats, sought refuge and security by a silent and stealthy flight down the lake. This inglo- rious retreat of the relics of a great host presented an im- pressive contrast to the ostentatious array, that a few weeks before had traversed the same waters, bearing, as if in a triumphant procession, a vaunting leader and an army in- flamed by the confidence of approaching victory. These fugitives, however, did not wholly escape the vigilant eye of the Americans. Near where the village of Essex now stands they were intercepted by Ebenezer Allen. He cut off and captured several of the rear boats, seized fifty pri- soners and a large amount of military stores, baggage, horses and cattle. Among the spoils, he captured a negro slave with an infant child. "Being conscientious in the sight of God that it is not right to keep slaves," these he declared " to be forever free," and caused a certificate of their freedom to be recorded in the town clerk's office at Bennington, where it still exists.2
Refugee tories and other irregulars, more ruthless than their savage allies, fugitives from the fate that was impend- ing over the British army, passed through in their flight the deserted settlement on the Boquet. Carleton and
1 Several authorities assign the command of the third detachment to Colo- nel Warner. I follow the statement of Marshall.
2 Butler's discourse on Ebenezer Allen, Hall's Vermont.
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Burgoyne had been merciful in their visitations. The ra- pacity of Arnold and the exactions of the government had spared the dwellings and structures of the settlers ; but these gleaners in devastation left only ashes and desolation in their track. Tradition asserts, that they consigned to the flames every edifice from Split rock to the Boquet in a wanton and merciless destruction.1 In November, 1778, a large British force, and several armed vessels advanced to Ticonderoga, and inflicted a general devastation upon the property on both sides of the lake, that had escaped former ravages.
In the spring of 1780, Sir John Johnson organized at Ticonderoga a band of about five hundred men, composed of regulars, a party of his own corps of Royal Greens and two hundred tories and Indians, and proceeded on an errand, which, in its spirit and purposes, presented one of the most revolting scenes of this fratricidal war. Penetrat- ing the rude wilderness of mountains, forests and waters, which spreads westward from Lake George, he reached and ascended the valley of the Sacondaga. This route compelled him to cross a site, which his father in happier days was accustomed often to visit in pursuit of relaxation and rural pastimes. Recollections of youthful joys must have welled up in the memory of the invader, when he recalled the incidents of former years, associated with the Fish house. An outlawed fugitive, a dishonored soldier, who had violated his parole, he broke the quiet and secluded repose of the scene, in a mission of vengeance and blood. These memories could not have softened his vindictive passions, for he passed onward, unchanged in his fierce designs to descend at midnight upon his native valley in a whirlwind of rapine and flame. Near the baronial halls of his father, the motley band was divided into two detach- ments, that the work of destruction might be more tho- rough and wide spread. The inhabitants were slumbering in perfect security, ignorant and unsuspicious of danger.
1 Sheldon's Manuscript.
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A common and indiscriminate ruin involved all who had adhered to the republican cause. Neither the former friends nor aged associates of his father, nor the com- panions of his own boyhood were exempt from the uni- versal desolation. There was nothing left in a wide track along the beautiful valley of the Mohawk, where yesterday stood the abodes of plenty,
But a mass of ashes slaked with blood.
The professed object of this pitiless incursion was the recovery of a mass of valuable plate, which a faithful slave had assisted to bury in 1776. With silent and unwavering fidelity he had watched over the deposit, although in the confiscation of the Johnson estate he had been sold to another master. The plate was recovered, and distributed in the knapsacks of forty different soldiers. By this means it was all safely conveyed into Canada. An alarm had been immediately sounded, and the local militia, under Coloner Harper, beginning to assemble, Sir John made a rapid retreat. He bore with him what plunder he was able to convey, and forty prisoners ; and reaching his bateaux at Crown point returned to Canada in safety, successfully evading the pursuit of Governor Clinton aided by detach- ments from the New Hampshire grants.
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