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 8
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MILITARY AND POLITICAL HISTORY.
capitulation, but were slain under circumstances of peculiar atrocity. Rogers, with a small number escaped, but one hundred and forty-four scalps, with two living letters, the designation the Indians gave to prisoners whom they saved for intelligence, were the horrid trophies they bore to Mont- calm.1 This was one of the most novel and remarkable conflicts that impressed their strange wildness upon these forest campaigns. It was fought in a dense wood, amid overhanging rocks, upon the declivities of mountains, and on the surface of snow lying four feet deep.2 The reports on neither side refer to a fact too common to require remark, but the circumstances to my mind imply that both parties were in the battle and fought upon snow shoes.3
Another strange episode is said to have imparted addi- tional romance to the campaign of 1758. Putnam, em- ployed in protecting the communications of the English army from the movements of the French partisans, occupied a commanding position with a body of rangers, which, on the eventful night was reduced to thirty-five, below Whitehall, at a point where the lake forms a sharp angle, that is now known as Fiddler's elbow. High ledges of rocks on each side compress the water into a narrow passage. Upon the cliff on the east side, he erected a stone breastwork, which was disguised by arranging pine boughs in such a manner as to present the appearance of a natural growth. Here, he lay four long summer days with the patience and perseverance he had learnt from his savage associates. On the evening of the fourth, his vigilant scout announced the approach of a flotilla. Soon it was discerned gliding stealthily along,
regard the whole story to be a myth. I notice no reference to the incident in Rogers's journal, and he is known not to have been diffident in commemo- rating his own exploits.
1 Doc., x, 703 ; Rogers, 82 ; Pouchot, I, 199. 2 Rogers's Journal.
3 Locomotion in the depth of snow described would have been imprac- ticable without some artificial aid. The two officers who escaped, and after wandering several days found refuge at Carillon, state explicitly that they fled from the battle on snow shoes. (Rogers, 92, 93).
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HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY.
but the effulgence of a full moon revealed every movement. The leading boats had passed the parapet, when the gun of a ranger grating upon the rock produced a slight sound, but sufficient to reach the watchful ear of the foe. They hesitated, and for a moment the boats clustered together, and were about retreating, when the rangers poured upon them a deadly fire. Volley succeeded to volley, in rapid succession. The French returned the fire, but their bul- lets flattened innoxiously upon the rocks. They attempted to land and gain the rear of Putnam, but were repulsed by the gallant Durkee, with twelve men. The day began to dawn, and his ammunition all expended, Putnam abandoned his fortress, and retreated, bearing with him two wounded men, his only loss. This position is still known as Put's rock. Afterwards, when a prisoner in Canada, he learnt from Marin, that he, with five hundred men, was the antagonist in that romantic encounter, and that the French lost one-half of the force engaged. Per- haps an allowance should be made for a degree of exagge- ration, from the courtesy of the brave Frenchman or the credulity of the hearer.
The capture of the fortress on Lake Champlain, and that achieved a descent upon Montreal, were the promi- nent and most vital objects embraced in the schemes of Pitt. In consonance with this design, an army was gra- dually assembled in the early summer of 1758, at the head of Lake George. This army, the most magnificent by the number and character of his troops, and the extent and perfection of its appointments, that had ever appeared in the campaigns of the western continent, was intrusted to the command of James Abercrombie. Neither the antecedents of this commander, nor any native ability, jus- tified his selection to a position which would exact the highest efforts of skill and energy. Abercombie was a creature of the court; but Pitt, in the selection of Lord Howe, sought to supply those qualities, in which his superior was so fatally deficient. Howe, elevated to the rank of brigadier-general, was the controlling spirit of
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the enterprise. Before the arrival of Abercrombie at the camp, the zeal and precaution of Howe had obtained, by the agency of Rogers, a plan of the French works at Carillon, with surveys of the vicinity, and recognizances of the immediate districts.
At the dawn of the beautiful morning on the 5th of July, the whole army, amounting to about sixteen hundred men, including six thousand three hundred and thirty- seven regulars, embarked in nine hundred bateaux, and one hundred and thirty-five whale boats. The artillery was mounted on rafts.1 The flotilla descended the lake in imposing and splendid order. The rangers, and light infantry were in front, the regulars occupying the centre, and the provincials on either wing.2 Modern times had witnessed no parallel to this impressive and gorgeous spectacle. We are even now impressed with a degree of awe, as we contemplate the dark, gloomy frame-work of mountain scenery that encloses Lake George in its narrow bed, and by the silence and solitude that rests upon its waters. When the fleet of Abercombie ruffled the placid surface of the romantic lake, the primeval stillness and seclusion of nature were undisturbed along its rugged shores and all its territory, by the habitations of civilized man. The brilliant spectacle moved amid the scene, almost like the illusions of fancy. Amid the clangor of martial music, the glittering of burnished arms, the gleaming of bright scarlet, the fluttering of parti co- lored plaids, mingled with the woodman's uniform, and the humbler tints of the homespun garments of the provin- cials, and their banners floating in the breeze, the flotilla glides rapidly forward, exhilarated by the inspirations of heroic daring, and the confidence of victory. We may fancy the hearts of the gallant Highlanders turning back to other days, as the strains of the bagpipes were returned in a thousand echoes from the mountains, recalled the scenes and the joys of their Scottish homes.
1 Abercrombie to Pitt, Doc., x, 725.
2 Rogers's Journal, 111.
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HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY.
Towards evening the expedition reached Sabbath-day point, and landed there to rest and refresh. At ten o'clock in the night it again cautiously advanced, Howe, in a whale boat leading the van. Early in the morning of the 6th, a landing was effected without opposition, on the west side of the lake in a little cove still known as Howe's landing. The night before, Howe, reposing on the same bear skin with Stark, discussed in an anxious and investi- gating spirit, the nature of the defenses at Carillon, and the future movements of the army.1 Equal in age, alike daring and intrepid, the one a descendant of royalty, and the other an humble pioneer of New Hampshire, they were united by a kindred spirit and warm, mutual esteem. De Boulamarque was stationed with three regiments at the foot of the lake, to observe, and if possible resist the landing of the English army. On its approach, in over- whelming numbers, he burnt his camp with its materials, and effecting a retreat, rejoined Montcalm, to aid in con- structing the entrenchment. De Trèpesée, who had been detached with a body of three hundred and fifty men, was constrained to pursue a circuitous route through a heavy forest, was bewildered in its intricacies, and after an ex- hausting march of twelve hours, while essaying to ford at a rapid, intercepted an English column involved in a similar confusion.2
Boulamarque, on his retreat, had very judiciously burnt both the bridges that crossed the outlet of Lake George, and thus obliged Abercombie to advance through a path- less wood on the west side of the stream, who, leaving at the burnt camp his artillery, baggage and supplies, imme- diately marched towards the French works. The English were arranged in four columns, the regulars in the centre, and the provincials on the flanks; " but the woods being very thick," and the ground uneven and " impassable for a large body of men in any regularity,3 and the guides unskillful,"
1 Sparks's Life of Stark. 2 Doc., x, 726 ; Montcalm, 758 ; Pouchot, I, 111.
3 Abercrombie to Pitt, Doc., x, 625.
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MILITARY AND POLITICAL HISTORY.
the columns became intermingled and broken. Lord Howe marched at the head of a centre column, which, dis- ordered and obstructed by the tangled underwood and intricate forest, was wandering in confusion when it en- countered the fugitive detachment of Trèpesée. An irre- gular skirmish ensued. The French troops, inferior in numbers, surprised, and worn, and exhausted by their laborious march, fought with desperate valor. Lord Howe fell at the first fire.1 The regulars, strangers to this mode of forest warfare, appalled by the death of Howe, and intimidated, as a British historian alleges, by the Indian war whoop, faltered and broke, but were gallantly sustained by the provincials.2 The brave Trèpesée was mortally wounded, and almost the entire detachment either slain or captured, with an insignificant loss to the English. If the British army narrowly escaped by this panic a renewal of the bloody scenes on the Monongahela, it is equally proba- ble, if Howe had lived, and a rapid and vigorous advance been made after the annihilation of Trèpesée's party, that the imperfect entrenchments of the French might have been entered and captured in the disorder and alarm of the moment.3 But the bugle of Abercrombie sounded the retreat, and the opportunity was lost.
The death of Howe paralyzed the army. With him ex- pired its spirit, its confidence, and hope. All afterwards was prompted by imbecility, indecision and folly. Gene- rous and kind, gifted and accomplished, instinct with genius and heroism, Howe died deeply lamented. The next day a single barge retraced the track of the flotilla bearing the body of the young hero, who but yesterday had led its brilliant pageant. Philip Schuyler, then just entering upon his distinguished career, escorted the remains with all the tenderness and reverence due the illustrious dead. The
1 Doc., x, 738, 726.
2 Graham, II, 279. Doc., x, 726, 725. A few Indians were with Trèpesée. Doc., x, 735.
" Doc., x, 735 ; Graham, II, 279.
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HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY.
body was conveyed to Albany and buried in St. Peter's Episcopal Church, which stood in the middle of State street. His obsequies were performed with every pomp of military display and all the solemnities of religious rituals. An heraldic insignia marked the location of the grave. Forty-four years had elapsed, and in the progress of im- provement, that edifice was demolished and the grave of Howe exposed. A double coffin was revealed. The outer one, which was made of white pine, was nearly decayed ; but the other, formed of heavy mahogany, was almost entire. In a few spots it was wasted, and the pressure of the earth had forced some soil into the interior. When the lid was un- covered, the remains appeared clothed in a rich silk damask cerement, in which they were enshrouded on his interment. The teeth were bright and perfect, the hair stiffened by the dressing of the period, the queue entire, the ribbon and double brace apparently new and jet black. All, on expo- sure, shrunk into dust, and the relics of the high bred and gallant peer were conveyed by vulgar hands to the common charnel house and mingled with the promiscuous dead.1 The character and services of Howe received the most generous tribute of respect and eulogium from the French. Massachusetts, in gratitude and reverence, erected a monu- ment to his memory in Westminster Abbey.2
1 Montcalm's dispatch .- Pouchot.
2 I am indebted, in part, to a published letter of Mrs. Cochrane for the fact of the interment of Howe in St. Peter's, and to the manuscript of Elkanah Watson for the circumstances of the exhumation. The tradition that Howe, as an example to his troops, caused his hair to be cut short, has cast some doubt on the accuracy of the statement in the text. Pouchot alludes to the same fact, and says the hair was left " two fingers breadth long." (Pouchot, I, 110). In my judgment, if the story is correct, it does not conflict with the account in the manuscript. It was the fashion of the age to wear the hair in long locks or ringlets. This habit had probably been introduced into the army, and Howe desired to correct it. No motive of cleanliness, which was doubtless the prominent object with Howe, made the excision of the queue necessary. Short hair, rather than long, would have exacted careful dressing for a funeral preparation. The manuscript states that the identity of the grave was established not only by the coat of arms which surmounted it, but also by the recollection of Henry Cuyler, a half pay British officer, who was at the time a highly respected resident of Greenbush.
1
TICONDEROGA AND ITS DEPENDENCIES, AUGUST, 1776. From a plan drawn by Col. John Trumbull.
HIGH LAND
NES REPAIRED.
FRENCH LINES
4TH BRIGADE.
LOWLAND.
INTENDED REDOURTS
CHAMPLAIN.
OUTLET OF LAKE GEORGE
DOCK.
LAKE
LANDING
OF
RT BATTERY!
VCHED
PA
REDO
PROPOSED AS A DOCK IN WINTER
HIŠT BRIGADE.
RISING GROUND.
PROPOSED WORK.
ISNARTILERY
PARK.
MOUNT INDEPENDENCE
HUMORASS.
DEEP MORASS AND CREEK.
2º/BRIGADE
3º BRIGADE
FLOW LAND.
LANDING FROM SKENESBOROUGH.
Mount Defiance, a very high hill, supposed inaccessible for carriages.
OLD FORT AND REDOUBTS OUT OF REPAIR
LOW LAND.
TO BE REPAIREJ
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MILITARY AND POLITICAL HISTORY.
On the morning of the 7th, Abercrombie added to the depression of the troops by withdrawing the whole army to the protection of the works erected at the landing. About noon of that day Bradstreet took possession of the sawmills, at the falls, which were two miles distant from the fort. He rebuilt the bridges, and in the evening the army again advanced and occupied this position.1 These vacillations and delays of Abercrombie afforded to his alert and energetic adversary the precious hours he needed for the perfection of his defenses.
The promontory held by Montcalm was a narrow and elevated peninsula, washed on three sides by deep waters, with its base on the western and only accessible side. On the north of this base the access was obstructed by a wet meadow, and on the southern extremity it was rendered impracticable to the advance of an army by a steep slope, extending from the hill to the outlet. The summit between these points was rounded and sinuous with ledges and elevations at intervals.2 Here and about half a mile in advance of the fort, Montcalm traced the line of his projected entrenchment. It followed the sinuosities of the land, the sections of the works reciprocally flanking each other.3 The entrenchment, which was about an eighth of a league in length, was constructed by Dupont Le Roy an accomplished engineer. " It was formed by falling trunks of trees one upon the other and others felled in front, their branches cut and sharpened produced the effect of a chevaux de frize.4 All of the 7th the French army toiled with unremitting vigor upon the lines, with flags flying along the works, and exhilarated by the inspiration of music, the officers participating in the labor. The parapet arose to the height of eight to ten feet along its whole course. The abatis was about one hundred yards in width.
1 Abercrombie to Pitt, Doc., x, 726. 2 Pouchot, I, 114; Doc., x, 739, 742.
Idem. + Montcalm's report, Doc., x, 739.
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HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY.
De Levis, who had organized an expedition against the Mohawk valley, was recalled by Vaudreuil to meet the perils which were menacing Ticonderoga. Hurrying onward with all celerity that oars and sail could give, his four hundred veterans reached the scene of danger on the night of the 7th, diffusing joy and hope by the announcement of the approach of De Levis, who arrived at five o'clock on the morning of thememorable eighth, accompanied by the brilliant De Senezergues, who, second in command on the plains of Abraham, died there with Montcalm.1 Nearly at the same hour of De Levis's arrival, Johnson with three or four hundred Mohawks joined the English camp. That the design of evacuating Ticonderoga, which was imputed to Montcalm as a grave fault by Vaudreuil, was entertained by him, may be assumed from other and less prejudiced evidences.2
He compared his insignificant force with the overwhelm- ing array of Abercrombie, and saw how easily Carillon might be made untenable. At an earlier day Dupont Le Roy, the chief engineer, had written to the government in emphatic condemnation of the works, and had declared that to capture the fort " I would only require six mortars and two cannon."3 It is asserted that Montcalm did not decide to make an earnest defense until the morning of the attack.4
That purpose of retreating persisted in, would have eclipsed his own great glory. Its consequences would not only have embraced the loss of Ticonderoga and the capture of St. Frederick, but the surrender or disorganization of the French army. The means he possessed of escape by water were totally inadequate to the transportation of his troops and munitions. Pathless forests, lofty and dislocated
1 Doc., x, 794 ; Pouchot, I, 108.
2 Vaudreuil to De Massiac, Doc., x, 781; Dain to Belle Isle, Idem, 814; Pouchot, 1, 115.
3 Doc. x, 720, Memoir in cipher. This language has been imputed by Mr Bancroft and those who have followed him, to Montcalm, but I find nothing of the kind in his correspondence with the government.
4 Pouchot, I, 110.
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MILITARY AND POLITICAL HISTORY.
mountain ranges, and deep rivers interposed an insuperable barrier to the retreat of an organized army by land.
As far as the limited time permitted, all was prepared along the French lines for the imminent crisis. Mont- calm held at Ticonderoga on that day three thousand and six hundred men, and of these, four hundred and fifty were Canadians and troops of the marine.1 A few Indians only were present. The number of fighting men actu- ally behind the trenches amounted to two thousand nine hundred and ninety-two.2 At daybreak, the troops were summoned to the lines by the generale. To each was assigned his post, and then the whole army returned to labor upon the entrenchment and abatis.3 The meadow on the extreme right, with a slight abatis in front, was occupied by the Canadians and irregular troops. The battery of four guns, which was designed to flank this point, was not completed until the morning after the assault. The guns of the fort commanded this opening, as well as the slope on the extreme left. De Levis, on the right, defended the line with three regiments ; Mont- calm was in the centre with two battalions and pickets, and De Boulamarque occupied with an equal force the left. The precipitous declivity that extended to the outlet was guarded by two companies. Behind each battalion was stationed a company of grenadiers in reserve. The men, still laboring on the works, were ordered to repair to their respective stations, on the discharge of an alarm gun, and at " the moment and signal prescribed, all the troops were under arms and at their posts," just as the van of the British columns appeared.4
Abercrombie had been impressed by the advices he re- ceived, with the conviction that large reenforcements were approaching Montcalm. Influenced by the report of Clarke, his engineer, who had reconnoitered the French lines from the opposite side of the river, he decided to order an im-
1 These were irregular troops. 2 Doc., x, 739 ; Pouchot, I, 114.
3 Idem. 4 Doc., x, 740, Montcalm's report.
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HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY.
mediate attack, without waiting for his powerful artillery. The English engineer, familiar only with the formal and scientific works of Europe, was doubtless deceived by the peculiar construction of the intrenchment, but the practiced eye of Stark, who knew the strength of the rude parapet of Johnson in 1755, detected formidable lines where Clarke discovered only a frail defense.1 With a fatuity common to the European leaders in America, Stark's opinion was rejected.
The advance exhibited a grand and imposing military spectacle. The army was formed in three lines. The first was composed of the rangers, bateau men, and light infantry ; next the provincials marched with wide spaces between the regiments; and behind these openings, the regulars were formed in columns. The New Jersey and Connecticut levies formed the rear guard. Johnson, with his Indians, occupied Mount Defiance, then known as Sugar-loaf hill, an elevation across the river, near and south of the fort, but, with the exception of an occasional shot, were mere spectators of the conflict. The regulars advancing through the openings with a firm, quick, and steady tread, their bayonets fixed, rushed upon the French lines, along an open space in front of the felled trees. But when they reached the abatis and became entangled in it, all order and regularity were broken. The heroic veterans, struggling individually to surmount these im- pediments, fought with a valor never surpassed, but against all hope. Two columns charged the right, another assailed the centre, and a fourth was hurled upon the left. They could not advance beyond the terrible abatis, and would not retreat. Even the instincts of nature were dominated by the force of discipline. The British soldier knew no law but obedience. No command came to them to retreat, while the destruction, by the deadly fire of the French musketry, and the howitzers planted at inter- vals along the line, was terrific. Some of the Highlanders
1 Pouchot, I, 116.
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MILITARY AND POLITICAL HISTORY.
fell almost on the entrenchment. The French, protected by their works, were little exposed. " They were invisi- ble," only " a small bit of their caps was to be seen," while they swept down the English by an unbroken storm of fire.1 The fire of the provincials and marksmen, inter- spersed between the columns of regulars, was more effec- tive.2 The moment of greatest peril to the French occurred late in the afternoon, when two of the British columns, by a concerted movement, concentrated an attack upon an angle on the left of the right defense of the French line, and nearly wrested the victory from inexorable for- tune. But De Levis, who was temporarily relieved by the pressure upon his right, promptly supported the en- dangered point, and Montcalm, whose eagle eye watched every change of the battle, rushed to the rescue with a body of the reserve, and this last cast for victory was lost.3
Early in the engagement, Abercrombie directed two rafts, mounted with two guns each, to descend the outlet for the purpose of enfilading the French lines, but they were with ease repulsed by the guns of the fort, and the fire of the two companies stationed to defend the extreme left. Fre- quent, bold and successful sorties were made during the assault by pickets and grenadiers, aided by the Canadians and marine troops from the opening on the right, in which the flank of the attacking column was assailed and prison- ers captured.
While these sanguinary scenes were in progress, Aber- crombie was reposing in inglorious security at the saw mills; but Montcalm, casting off his coat in that sunny afternoon,4 was everywhere present meeting every peril; animating his troops by voice and example, ministering to all their wants, and imparting the fervor of his own heroic spirit. On the first assault, the military eye detected the
1 Doc., x, 736.
2 Montcalm speaks of their murderous fire, Doc., x, 740. " Their fire greatly incommoded those in the entrenchments."-Pouchot, I, 116.
3 Doc., x, 740, 743. 4 Bancroft.
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HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY.
utter hopelessness of the enterprise. The attack commenced shortly after meridian, and five long hours had rolled on amid this carnage and desperation, and still the British troops maintained the conflict with determined but unavail- ing constancy. No order came to stop the ruthless slaughter. The hour of six had arrived, and the devoted columns continued to assail first the right and then the left of the impregnable entrenchment, but at seven the retreat was accomplished.1 Some loss was inflicted upon the British troops, caused by their firing on each other in the common disorder and excitement. At length regiment after regi- ment, without any general orders, or concert, retired to the camp; the provincials covering the retreat.2
Then ensued that strange and inscrutable phenomenon, which is sometimes exhibited among troops the bravest and most reliable, when an electric influence pervades the masses, communicating an universal and irresistible panic. These veterans, whose steadiness and valor received the generous homage of their victorious foes, and whose coun- try, even amid her grief and humiliation, exulted in their heroism and sacrifices, fled in wild terror and confusion, rushing to the boats in a precipitancy that threatened a general ruin. The firmness and efforts of Bradstreet alone averted fresh and dishonorable catastrophies, which their antecedents could not redeem.3
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