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 7
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1 Doc., x, 686. 2 Idem, 608.
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cil. Upon the shore of the lake "they were placed in ranks settled by themselves." The domiciliated Iroquois, the most numerous of the bands, and " the former pro- prietors of the soil," assumed the office of hosts, and received the remote tribes with the rites due to strangers. To the Iroquois, Montcalm presented the " great belt of two thousand beads, to bind the Indians to each other and all to himself." When the tribes had been thus pro- pitiated, he unfolded to them all the plans of the expedi- tion.1 These were satisfactory, and were adopted by a formal acquiescence. The insufficient supply of boats made it necessary for a part of the army to proceed by land. De Levis, with twenty-two hundred French and Canadians, escorted by six hundred Indians, starting two days in advance and leaving their baggage to be conveyed by water, undertook to traverse the rugged mountain track on the west side of the lake, which was scarcely practicable to the solitary hunter. On the 1st of August, the remainder of the forces embarked in bateaux. The artillery was transported upon pontoons, constructed by platforms resting on two boats, which were lashed together. The Christian Indians had employed the preceding days in the confessional, and devotion ; but the pagan tribes from the upper lakes " were juggling, dreaming, and fancy- ing that every delay portended misfortune." These tribes suspended " a full equipment to render the Manitou pro- pitious." Montcalm, in a severe austerity, to which he cordially subjected himself, reduced the supplies of the army to absolute necessities.2 He appropriated " a canvas awning to every two officers, of whatever grade." "A blanket and a bear skin," he said, " are the bed of a war- rior in such an expedition."3
1 These independent people, whose assistance is purely voluntary, must be consulted, and their opinions and caprices are often a law to us."-Doc., x, 609.
2 Doc., x, 610. 3 Idem, 637, Montcalm's Circular.
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The army was composed of about five thousand five hundred effective men, with an auxiliary force of sixteen hundred Indians.1 On the second day, early in the morning, they saw three signal fires at Ganaouskè bay, that an- nounced the arrival of De Levis, and the assurance of security in disembarkation. De Levis had encountered toils and obstacles, which were only surmounted by the perseverance of hardihood acquired from the habits and example of their Indian allies. The same evening Mont- calm advanced towards the fort. During the night two English scout boats were discovered upon the lake, and pursued by the swift war canoes of the Indians. One of these boats was captured. Two only of the crew were saved, and the others massacred.2 In the fight a distinguished warrior of the Nipissings was slain, and the next day the Indians consecrated to his funeral rites, in all the splendor and display of barbarian ceremonies.3 The fort, garrisoned by five hundred men, commanded by a gallant veteran, Colonel Munroe, and supported by seventeen hundred troops in an intrenched camp adjacent, Montcalm was promptly and perfectly invested. De Levis occupied the right, the most exposed and important position, and held the road leading to Fort Edward; Boulemarque took position on the left resting upon the lake, and Montcalm held the centre.4 Immediately before the investment, Webb, who lay at Fort Edward, fourteen miles distant, with four thousand men, had visited William Henry, es- corted by Putnam and a body of rangers. Putnam de- scending the lake in a reconnaissance, discovered the approach of Montcalm, and at once returned, communicat- ing the fact to Webb, and urging him to prepare to oppose
1 Doc., x, 625.
2 The French account magnifies the crews into a hundred and fifty men, of whom "sixty or seventy were captured or drowned." The Indians at- tacked in their birch canoes, and by swimming " with guns and hatchets."- Pouchot, I, 86.
3 Bancroft.
4 Doc., x, 601, 611. De Levis did not hold the left wing as stated by Bancroft.
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the landing. Webb, enjoining secresy upon Putnam, hastily returned to Fort Edward. Johnson, on the day of Montcalm's departure from Carillon, received intelligence from Webb of the impending attack, and abandoning an Indian council in which he was engaged, collected the militia and Indians he was able to muster, and marched rapidly to Fort Edward, which he reached on the second day of the siege. The craven supineness of Webb was long deaf to the entreaties and expostulations of his subordi- nates to attempt the relief of the beleaguered fortress. He at length conceded to Johnson a reluctant permission to advance with the militia and rangers. But these generous designs were arrested, when they had scarcely proceeded three miles, by an imperative order from Webb to return.1 Montcalm was apprised of the movements of Johnson, and with his accustomed promptness prepared to meet it.
The sole interest manifested by Webb for the heroic gar- rison, struggling in their hopeless position, was a chilling letter agitated by exaggerated fears, which he attempted to communicate to Monroe. In this letter, which was interrupted by Montcalm, but eagerly forwarded to Monroe, Webb advised, if "from the delays of the militia he should not have it in his power to give timely assistance," Monroe should obtain the best terms left in his power.2 2For this letter see appendix A.] On the same fortunate day of this event, Montcalm received dispatches from France announc- ing " royal favors to his army and conferring upon himself " the red ribbon with the rank of commander in the order of St. Louis." The army was animated with a more ardent enthusiasm by this appreciation of the king, and the Indians " hastened to compliment the general at the distinction which the great Onontio3 had just decorated
1 Thompson's Vermont ; Stone. 2 Pouchot, II, 263.
3 This term of respect was applied indiscriminately by the Indians to the king of France, the governor-general or other high officials. Its literal meaning is great mountain, an epithet originally applied to M. De Mont- magny, governor of Canada, of whose name it is a translation. (O'Calla-
ghan's note, Doc., IX, 37).
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him, as they knew how highly he esteemed it; that, as for themselves, they did not love or esteem him the more on that account, it was his person they loved, and not what he added to the exterior."1 On the sixth day of the siege, Monroe, half his guns useless and his ammunition nearly exhausted, hung out a flag of truce. Terms the most liberal were extended to the garrison, either from a magnanimous respect for its gallant defense or dictated by an apprehension that Webb might arouse from his stupor and imbecility and assail the French rear.
It was stipulated by the first article of the capitulation, that the English troops should march out of the works " with their arms and other honors of war," and be escorted on the road to Fort Edward by a detachment of French troops and interpreters attached to the Indians.2 In order to secure their performance of this capitulation, the Indians were made parties to it, and formally ratified its provisions.
The appalling event which followed the capitulation are involved in impenetrable mystery. They have been so dis- torted by passionate exaggerations and screened by such earnest and varied apologies and evasions, that they must ever remain among those problems in history, to which neither research nor speculations can afford any solution. This and many similar atrocities have been written upon the page of history, by unwise and unchristian policy, which added to the horrors of war by the introduction of fierce and savage barbarism into the conflicts between civil- ized nations. The distinct facts, which can be extracted from the confusion of conflicting statements and the angry passions of the times are nearly these. The night suc- ceeding the capitulation had been spent by the Indians, in celebrating the victory with their customary orgies. Their minds were inflamed by the recital by the eastern tribes of real or imaginary wrongs recently inflicted by the English.3 As the garrison was marching from the entrenchments early in the morning, the Indians in a menacing attitude
1 Doc., x, 613. 2 Idem, 617. 3 Idem, 616.
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gathered about them and commencing their outrages by seizing the personal effects of the prisoners and brandish- ing the tomahawk and amusing themselves with the terror their savage pastimes excited among the English. Indivi- dual resistance was probably made to these indignities, and personal conflicts ensued. The Indians saw spoils, which as victors they thought belonged to themselves, eluding their grasp.1 This idea combined with their inherent love of slaughter aroused their savage appetites. "The first blood that flowed inflamed all the ferocity of their nature, and for a while they recognized no regard to treaties or any restraints of power or influence. The panic-stricken Englishmen broke from their ranks, and, forgetting the weapons in their hands, fled in wild dismay pursued by the frenzied savages. At this moment Montcalm and other French officers rushed upon the scene baring their own breasts and interposing their arms for the protection of the prisoners and "by threats, prayers, caresses and conflicts with the chiefs, arrested the massacre."2 "Kill me," cried Montcalm," but spare the English, who are under my pro- tection." More than half the British troops, in fragmentary detachments succeeded in reaching Fort Edward; about thirty were slain ; four hundred were rescued with their property and restored under the capitulation by Montcalm, and many others, at his solicitation, were ransomed from the Indians by Vaudreuil.3 It is evident that the escort of French troops stipulated by the capitulation were not sup- plied until after the massacre.4
Montcalm and his apologists affirm in his vindication, that the English troops, in uncontrollable alarm, left the intrenchments at an earlier hour than had been agreed upon ; that they had possessed, by the arms they carried, the means of resistance, but instead of this, scattered in ungovernable frenzy ; that in disregard of the injunctions of the French, they gave intoxicating liquor to the In- dians, in the hope of conciliating them ; that Montcalm
1 Pouchot. 2 Doc., x, 637. 3 Doc. 4 Idem.
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was powerless to control the hordes of peculiarly wild and ferocious savages who perpetrated the massacre, but had relied on the assurances of the chiefs, that they would maintain the treaty and prevent all discord; and that every effort was made by Montcalm and his subordinates, to arrest the violence, and by these exertions, an indis- criminate slaughter of the prisoners was averted.
These apologies are not fully sustained by the authen- ticated facts. Bourgainville, the aide and adviser of Montcalm, explicitly states in his official report, that he had destroyed "on the day of the surrender, all intoxicat- ing liquors in the English works."1 Montcalm, in his first summons to Monroe, avowed a distrust of an ability to control his savage allies. With that knowledge, he should have exerted the right and power of the victor, if the English, in their infatuation and terror, were rushing upon these appalling dangers, and arrested them by force, until an adequate protection was prepared. No motive of policy ; no desire to propitiate the affections of the Indians, should have received the consideration of a moment, in restraining the exercise of his whole military force, for the preservation of his own fame, the honor of his country, and the sacred faith of a capitulation. One, who himself participated in the horrors of the scene, and stripped of his clothing, narrowly escaped the massacre, insists in a minute account of the occurrences, " that the French neglected, and even refused protection to the English," imploring their mercy and interposition.2 Bri- tish Indians, who were with the garrison, the French savages seized upon, without interference, and they per- ished in lingering and barbarous tortures.3
Calm history will always reject the impassioned tales, evolved from the exasperation and excitement of the times, of the complicity of Montcalm in a cold-blooded and pre- meditated slaughter of capitulated prisoners, and the wanton and barbarous cruelties imputed to him. Such
1 Doc., x, 615. 2 Carver's Travels, 204.
3 Graham, II, 268.
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atrocities were utterly incompatible with his high character as a Christian noble, a gallant soldier and a refined scholar, whose sensibilities had been purified and elevated by com- munion with the poets and philosophers of antiquity. But it can never exonerate his fame from the imputation of criminal negligence and a reckless disregard to the safety of those confided to his honor and protection by the most solemn act known to warfare. A moral responsibility for the consequences rests upon those, who set in motion a power, which they know they have no ability to guide or control. The Indians, in their eager pursuit of plunder and scalps, violated many new made graves, and tore from the decaying corpses the dread trophies that commanded rewards. Several of these graves contained victims to the small-pox. The plunderers contracted the infection, and bore the fell scourge to their winter lodges in the far west. Its fearful desolation among the savages who knew no remedy, and in superstitious dread sought no relief, cannot be conceived. The noble tribe of the Pottawattomies was nearly extinguished by its ravages.1
The total demolition of William Henry, and the capture of an immense quantity of munitions and public stores were the rewards of this expedition. Montcalm's triumph was mingled with deep satisfaction, when he reported that this conquest had been achieved with the loss of only fifty- three of his own army. On the 15th of August, he aban- doned a smoking ruin and bloody strand to silence and desolation. An ulterior object of the campaign contem- plated the reduction of Fort Edward. Had Montcalm comprehended the imbecility and paralysis that had fallen upon the British councils, this result and possibly the de- struction of Albany might have been accomplished. But the existence of facts so degrading, could scarcely enter into the calculations of his gallant spirit. The diminution of his forces an advance would have demanded, the limited extent of his supplies, and the urgent necessity imposed
1 Pouchot, I, 91.
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HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY.
by an impending famine for the presence of the Canadians in their harvest fields, constrained Montcalm to be satisfied with the glory and success he had already achieved. Terror and alarm pervaded the English colonies. Webb sent his personal baggage to a place of security, and was preparing to fall back upon the highlands of the Hudson. Loudon, to defend the British possessions, had taken post upon Long Island. The English were expelled from the Ohio. Montcalm had established the domination of France throughout the valley of the St. Lawrence. A deep con- sternation and a cry of agony agitated New England. Britain and the colonies were alike stricken and humiliated.1
CHAPTER VI.
TICONDEROGA, 1758.
The opening of the year 1758, was marked by an aug- mented activity and determination in the councils and operations of each of the belligerents. France and Eng- land, alike comprehended that the crisis was approaching which must decide their protracted struggle for the sove- reignity of the North American continent. In that field, the vast disproportion in their material resources and military strength, became constantly more obvious and decisive. Much of the soil of Canada, for more than one season, had been abandoned or only partially tilled, and the scanty harvest insufficiently gathered, while a large proportion of the peasantry, who should have cultivated the earth and gathered the crops, had been drawn into the field by the exigencies of the war. An unpropitious sea- son in 1757, caused a failure of the harvest, and especially that of wheat, which was the chief reliance of both the people and the army. For more than six months in the year, nature formed an impenetrable barrier to the naviga-
1 Bancroft.
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tion of the St. Lawrence. British ships thronged the track of the ocean between France and her colonies, rendering the transmission of supplies and troops precarious and nearly impracticable. A scarcity that nearly reached destitution, already prevailed in Canada.1 In February, 1758, Mont- calm addressing the French minister writes : " the article of provisions makes me tremble." 2
The population of Canada was estimated by Montcalm at only eighty-two thousand, and from these he computed he might rely upon about seven thousand men in the field at one time. This force was augmented by nearly four thousand regular troops. With this strength and with such resources, he was required to confront an army of fifty thousand men, subject to the orders of Abercrombie,3 and sustained by a rich and prosperous population in the British colonies of a million and a half, enjoying a constant and commodious intercourse with England. These em- barrassments were aggravated by other annoyances and difficulties, that galled the high, incorruptible spirit of Montcalm, and fettered his energies. An universal scheme of venality and peculation pervaded every branch of the colonial government. The king was defrauded, and public measures paralyzed ; the people were oppressed, and the army, both officers and men, suffering and impoverished. Huge fortunes awarded the corrupt and debauched officials.1 A bitter animosity, inflamed by perpetual charges and
1 Vaudreuil states that in the late expeditions of the autumn of 1757, the troops were chiefly dependent for support upon the uncertain toils of the hunters .- Doc., x, 701. The citizens received a daily supply of one-fourth of a pound of bread, and this scanty ration was reduced to two ounces .- Montcalm, 448. Doreil writes : " many persons have died of hunger. Idem 898. 2 Idem, 686.
$ Hildreth.
4 Doc., x, 960, 963. At the termination of the war, these frauds were investigated in France judicially. Vandreuil was acquitted. Bigot, the intendant, Varin, the commissary at Montreal, Breard, the comptroller of the navy, were convicted and banished. Pean, the instrument of these iniquities, by the influence of his wife, the mistress of Bigot (Pouchot), and the Madame Pompadour of Canada, was mulct in the sum of 600,000 livres .- O'Callaghan, Doc., x, 1126.
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mutual recriminations, disturbed the relations between Vaudreuil and Montcalm. The one imputed to the governor- general gross ignorance in military affairs, duplicity, and disingenuousness in the exertion of power, and practices that trammelled and embarrassed his operations.1 Vaudreuil complained of the arrogance of Montcalm, his jealousies and the assumption of authority not warranted by his position.2
In every age and in all countries, commanders, operating in a remote field of action, have often experienced the paralyzing influence produced by the instructions and the intrusive councils of men, who are necessarily ignorant of concurring events and often without a competent know- ledge of military affairs. Generals have felt this malign influence, and history has recognized and recorded it as the aulic council policy in war. Genius and spirit have often commanded success in ascending beyond or bursting through these restraints. Montcalm was not exempt from this blind and arbitary intrusion into his measures. While tracing the military character of Boulamarque, Montcalm portrays with equal force both the nature and effect of this system when he says: Boulamarque "follows too literally orders issued eighty leagues distant, by a general who knows not how to speak of war." 3
These favorable circumstances, which were calculated to impart such preponderance to England in American affairs, were to a certain extent counterbalanced by advan- tages peculiar to France.
The British provinces were independent in their govern- ment by their chartered organization, and widely separated in geographical position. These incidents often produced conflicts of interest, collision in sentiments, and acrimonious jealousies. An absence of that harmony, so essential to successful action, was not unfrequently apparent in their councils. The population of Canada was concentrated and accessible, and all the measures and resources of the colony
1 Doc., x, 786, 800, 778, 812. 2 Idem, 885, 781.
3 Idem, 491.
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were, in theory, controlled by a single mind, which could decide and act, while the English governments were con- tending or advising. French policy and intrigues excited a perpetual alarm or hostility against England among the Indian tribes, that lay along the borders of her colonies from Acadia to the Spanish possessions, and hung like a dark and threatening cloud upon their horizon, which might at any moment burst upon their settlement in tem- pests of fire and blood. This sagacious policy of France, which to such an extent fettered the strength of the Eng- lish colonies, cannot be understood without a comprehension of the dread inspired at that time by the horrors of an Indian war. The people of Canada, although continually revolted by the supercilious and arbitrary deportment of the French, which was limited to no grade, sustained the conflict with a zeal and devotion never surpassed by any race in any age ofthe world.1 The great amount of Canadian levies which joined the French armies, so totally in excess of the pro- portion usually supplied by an equal population, may be referred to a cause, which possibly exerted some influence in stimulating the great apparent ardor. The feudal system, as it existed in France in the seventeenth century, was transplanted into Canada at its colonization. The seignio- ries in the province were held under the feudal tenure, which included military service. The sovereign preroga- tive under this system was empowered to call out the seigneurs, and the tenants holding under them were sub- ject to their military orders in obedience to the call. This fact partially explains the extraordinary aspects exhibited by the virtual conscriptions of this epoch. Montcalm, in one of his letters presenting an estimate of the Canadian force he might calculate on, uses the feudal terms ban and arriere-ban.
But we must ascribe to the immense superiority in cha- racter and intellectual qualities of the men who guided the civil and military affairs of the province, the prominent
1 Doc., x, 463, 585.
6
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HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY.
agency by which the preeminence of France was so long sustained on the continent and by which the impending ruin of its empire was so long averted. Britain sent to her colonies effete generals, bankrupt nobles, and debauched parasites of the court. France selected her function- aries from the wisest, noblest and best of her people, and therefore her colonial interests were usually directed with wisdom and sagacity. England and America were raised from their humiliation and despondency by the potent genius and splendid combinations of Pitt. His ardent appeals to the patriotism of the colonies, although enforced by no coercion of power, aroused and enlisted their whole energies in support of that gigantic scheme, which contemplated a widely extended attack on all the colonial dominions of France. The irregular warfare between the rangers and partisans and the savage auxi- liaries of both nations, crowded into the spring and early summer deeds of brilliant courage achieved in scenes of romance and excitement. In March, Rogers left Fort Edward with one hundred and eighty men under orders to make a reconnaissance in the vicinity of Ticonderoga. He marched upon the ice, until he approached the French out- posts, when to disguise their presence, the party plunged into the dense forest, traversing the deep snow through thickets and over broken ground upon snow shoes. Hav- ing nearly reached the foot of the lake, they encountered a body of about one hundred Indians and Canadians. These they attacked and dispersed. Pursuing in the con- fidence of victory, the rangers were suddenly confronted by a largely superior force, which had used their advanced guard to allure the English into an ambush. To retreat was impossible, and a desperate conflict ensued. The rangers scattered into small parties, fought independently with their wonted ardor, but were defeated, and almost the whole detachment slaughtered.1 Many submitted to
1 Near the scene of this battle is Rogers' slide. The marvelous escape, imputed to him by tradition, must have occurred after this reverse, but I
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