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 9
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The exhaustion and paucity of the French army, the darkness of the night, the impossibility of traversing the woods without Indian guides, and the entrenchments which the English had erected along their route, restrained pursuit.4 When De Levis, at break of day on the 10th, followed the track of Abercrombie, he found only the ves- tiges of a stricken and routed army ; the wounded and sup- plies abandoned, clothing scattered along the woods, with
1 Montcalm, Doc., x, 740. 2 Pennsylvania Archives.
$ It was fortunate we were not pursued in our retreat, we should certainly have lost 2,000 more men .- Idem.
4 Montcalm's report.
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the charred remains of boats and pontoons.1 Before that hour arrived, Abercrombie had fled "in the extremest terror and consternation " and secured a dishonored safety by interposing the length of Lake George between his army and its dreaded conqueror. No pen inscribed for the re- search of posterity any account of the ignominious flight, so singularly contrasting with the splendor of the advance. The night that closed on a day, among the most glorious that ever beamed upon the arms of France, was spent by Montcalm in the deepest solicitude for the morrow. His troops were under arms or laboriously perfecting their in- complete works, preparing for the anticipated renewal of the assault. Although the English still exceeded the French forces fourfold, with their artillery ready for action, Aber- crombie abandoned the campaign.2 Bradstreet soon after, with a detachment of the same troops, measureably restored their confidence, and vindicated the fame of England by the siege and conquest of Frontenac. Abercrombie admit- ted the loss of about two thousand men, but the French assumed it to be far heavier, and stated their own to be less than five hundred, but Boulamarque severely and Bougain- ville slightly were included among the wounded.3
The arrival of the younger Vaudreuil on the 12th with three thousand Canadians, followed by six hundred Indians on the 13th, furnished some apparent basis for the appre- hension of Abercrombie that reenforcements to Montcalm were approaching, by which he professed to justify his
1 We found in the mud on the road to the falls five hundred pairs of shoes with buckles .- Pouchot, I, 121. The soldiers returned loaded with plunder and an immense quantity of shoes with buckles .- Doc., X, 725, 741.
2 The French asserted that he entrenched on the ruins of William Henry, and removed the guns to Albany for security, retaining all his artillery .- Doc., x. 819 ; Bancroft.
3 A singular incident occurred during the progress of this remarkable battle. A captain of the Royal Roussillon in bravado, tied a red handker- chief to a gun, and waved it in a sort of defiance towards the English. The English column opposite, supposed it indicated a purpose on the part of the French to surrender. Under this impression, holding their guns hori- zontally above their heads, they ran toward the entrenchment, crying quar-
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precipitate attack on the French works.1 Abercrombie lingered in imbecile indecision at Fort George, while Montcalm was felt at every point, where his ardor and activity could deliver a blow. Eight days after the repulse at Ticonderoga, a band of five hundred partisans, lurking in the woods near the half way brook between Lake George and Fort Edward, surprised an English detachment and secured forty scalps.2 A few days after, another party at- tacked a wagon train on the same ground, loaded with provisions and merchandise. Forty carts, two hundred oxen, the contents of the convoy, one hundred and sixteen scalps and eighty-four prisoners were the fruits of the bold enterprise.3 Rogers and Putnam with a detachment of seven hundred troops pursued without success the active partisans. Engaged in this pursuit, with the purpose of suppressing similar movements, they descended Lake George, traversed the rude mountainous district to Wood- neck, and were returning to Fort Edward. Montcalm was apprised of their march, and dispatched Marin with about the same number of partisans, to follow and intercept the English. Both parties were near Fort Ann, wandering in a dense forest each ignorant of the vicinity of the enemy they were vigilantly pursuing. Rogers, forgetting his
ter. The French, ignorant of the circumstances, on their part, believing the English desired to surrender, mounted the works to receive them and ceased firing. The English, under this mutual mistake, had nearly entered the lines, when Pouchot, who witnessed the scene, and perceiving the con- sequence which would result from their doing this, promptly gave the word to his troops to fire. They did so, with most deadly effect upon the exposed ranks of the English. This is Pouchot's own account of a some- what ambiguous transaction. He adds, "they have since charged us with using an unpardonable deceit .- Pouchot, I, 114.
1 This is the statement of Pouchot (vol. 1, 122). Other accounts reduce the number of the Canadians to three hundred-Doc., x, 745. This fact with the assertion of Rogers that the assault was commenced " before the gene- ral intended by an accidental fire from a New York regiment on the left wing," (Journal, 115), is the only extenuation of Abercrombie that can ever be adduced.
2 Pouchot, I, 123 ; Rogers, 117.
3 Rogers, 117 ; Doc., x, 818; Pouchot, I, 123.
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usual prudence, indulged in firing at a mark with a British officer. Marin heard "the report of three shots" while hesitating as to his course, but the shots revealed the posi- tion of the rangers, and, selecting an appropriate spot, he formed au effective ambush.1 The English, unsuspicious of danger, were threading the woods in Indian file; Rogers in advance, D'Ell in the centre, and Putnam in the rear. They marched directly into the trap that had been so skillfully prepared. Suddenly, the forest resounded with the fearful war whoop, and a terrific fire was hailed upon them from every side. The English, familiar with such scenes, promptly rallied, and a sanguinary conflict followed. Then occurred those thrilling incidents, whose story has agitated for more than a century, thousands of young hearts.
Putnam and a few others, in the surprise and confusion, were cut off from the main body. The men were slain, and Putnam captured and securely bound to a tree. As the changes of the battle surged around him, he was placed at times between the fire of the contending parties and his garments torn by the shots, alike of friend and foe. While in this helpless condition, a young Indian approached and amused himself with the strange pastime of hurling his tomahawk at the prisoner, practicing how near he could approach, without striking the mark. A still more savage Canadian presented his gun at Putnam's breast, but it missed fire. He then indulged his fierce passions by in- flicting upon the prisoner several severe wounds with the butt of the weapon. When the French were repulsed and commenced their retreat, his Indian captor released Putnam and extended to him that mysterious tenderness and care with which the Indians treat their victims destined to the torture. The savages encamped at night, and then the strange motive that actuated this kindness was revealed. Putnam, stripped of his clothing, was again tied to a sap- ling; dried faggots were piled about him; the torch applied, and while the smoke and crackling flames began
1 Doc., x, 511.
7
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to ascend, the thoughts of the brave ranger dwelt upon his happy home and prattling children. When the agony of death in this frightful form was almost passed, the generous Marin, who had learnt of his peril, rushed to the spot, and bursting through the circle of shouting savages, scattered the firebrands and rescued the victim. In the ensuing autumn Putnam was exchanged, and returned to new fields of glory, but to none of such appalling horror.1
CHAPTER VII.
THE CONQUEST, 1759.
The campaign of 1759 opened under gloomy and porten- tous auguries for the future of New France. The dearth of provision had become intensified into the startling horrors of an absolute famine. The province was nearly exhausted of all the domestic animals. Life in a great degree was sustained, both in the army and among the citizens, only by the consumption of horseflesh. In 1758, these animals had been purchased by the government in large numbers, and their flesh sold to the famishing poor at a trifling cost, and distributed in rations to the troops.2 The habitans relinquished, either from coercion or cupid- ity, their ordinary food to the use of the army, and for " two months before the harvest " of 1759 depended for sustenance upon the spontaneous products of the earth and forests. At rare intervals, an adventurous ship, eluding the British squadrons, might increase the scanty supplies of the pro- vince by a small pittance, but all regular and reliable suc- cor by this channel was interrupted. Every department in the province revealed evidences, that could not be mis- taken, of destitution and decay.
1 On the breaking out of the war of independence Rogers adhered to the government, was subjected to confiscation and outlawry, went to England and there published his journal.
ยช Doc., x, 704, 837 ; Pouchot, I, 135.
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Almost every man, that the debilitated population of Canada could yield, was wrested from the fields to replenish the military ranks. "We want provisions; we want powder; and France should send ten thousand men to pre- serve the colony." Such was the portentous appeal to the home government.1 But that government was unable to transport a single regiment with a rational hope that it would escape the British ships that thronged the ocean and the gulf. For three years of fierce trials, but resplendent in personal and national glory, Montcalm, by his own genius and energy, had maintained the unequal and desperate con- test. But Doreil exclaims, in a letter to Belle Isle, " Mira- cles cannot always be expected, Canada is lost if peace is not made this winter."2 In the spring of 1759, Montcalm, in anguish of spirit, writes to the same minister: "If the war continues, Canada will belong to England, perhaps this campaign or the next."3
The general venality to which we have referred continu- ally increased, and was a deep cancer that had eaten into the vitals of colonial strength, and was an active cause of its hopeless and irremedial decay. Jealous asperities, and deepening alienations, prevailed between the native French and the Canadians, that marred the harmony and concert all essential to their successful cooperation. The French disparaged the military character of the provincials, bur- lesqued their pretensions, and scoffed at the pride of the Canadian noblesse.4 The Canadians were revolted by the hauteur and insolence of the French officials, and indig- nantly repelled their arrogant assumptions of superiority.5
1 Doc., x, 926. 2 Dorcil to Belle Isle Doc., x, 829.
$ Montcalm to Belle Isle, Doc., x, 960. In the same letter he utters this emphatic language : "If there be peace the colony is lost unless the entire government is changed ; " and, with stinging inunendo, quotes Mirabeau, " that those should be disgraced who return from colonies with wealth, and those rewarded who return with the staff and scrip with which they went forth."
4 Doc., x, 419, 460, 1043 ; Pouchot, I, 37. 5 Doc., x, 78, 419 ; Pouchot, 1, 95.
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Vaudreuil was of noble descent, but a Canadian by birth, and however deficient he may have been in the attainments of military science, his whole career develops the eminent qualities of his mind, in a native vigor and resources. He was unhappily surrounded by relatives and retainers, and his enemies ascribed to him a nepotism and colonial sympathy, to which were subordinated the higher claims of individuals and paramount public interests.1 These suspicions and animosities, if they did not originate it, were fostered by the feuds that disturbed the intercourse between Vaudreuil and Montcalm. The latter pretended no disguise of the contemptuous view in which he held the military capacity of Vaudreuil, and with extreme bitterness denounced his incompetent interference, his injustice and want of magnanimity. We cannot fail to detect in the utterances and measures of Vaudreuil, jea- lousy of the overshadowing martial fame of Montcalm, and often an ungenerous purpose of escaping responsibili- ties and attempting to grasp the glory that belonged to the deeds of others.
The accusations which Vaudreuil industriously carried to the throne, imputed to Montcalm, insubordination, a haughty neglect of instructions, denunciations of officials, an indiscriminate jealousy, a want of adaptation by tem- peraments and habits to the command in Canada, and an arbitrary and stern deportment that offended the pride and repelled the services of the Indians and provin- cials.2 Whether imaginary or just, the causes of these dis- sensions, their existence exerted a baneful influence upon the measures of the war. Perhaps the spirit that tends to the disparagement of all irregular troops, common to the professional soldiers, many have tinged the estimate by Montcalm of the provincial levies. The Canadians possi- bly were deficient in the formula of the parade, or the efficiency of the drill, but in their native qualities, no braver race ever stood upon the battle-field. These ani-
1 Doc., x, 859.
2 Idem, 791, 782, 780, 444, 789.
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mosities formed a deep line of demarkation, which may be traced in the colonial affairs between the friends and advocates of Montcalm and the partisans of Vaudreuil. The savage tribes, although their professed fealty was undisturbed, no longer gathered about the French camps in numbers that oppressed the commissariat. As an ele- ment of strength to the armies of France, they were now unreliable. Perhaps, with the native sagacity that some- times marked the policy of the Indians, they detected the ascending fortunes of England. Vaudreuil ascribed this defection to the " petulance and impatience " of Montcalm. The presence of a large body of warriors at Ticonderoga had been assured to Montcalm, and he felt the profound conviction, that with their aid as guides through the forest on the night of the assault and the effect of their appear- ance and fearful whooping in inflaming the panic of the English, a defeat so overwhelming must have been inflicted on Abercrombie, that he would have fled with the mere fragments of an army, leaving to the French a more crown- ing and decisive victory. Exasperated at these conse- quences of their delays, when at length they did join him, Montcalm rebuked them with a stern and injudicious, however just, severity. The chiefs carried their complaints to Vaudreuil, and he with an active assiduity communicated them to Versailles.1 The proud and independent freemen of the woods were doubtless revolted by this violence and a large part returned to their lodges.
While these clouds were gathering about the falling empire of New France, Britain was collecting all her energies for the impending conflict, with a renewed vigor and enthusiasm, inspired by the zeal and spirit of Pitt. The fortress of Louisburg had scarcely fallen, when Am- herst, learning of the fatal issue of Abercrombie's cam- paign, with an unwonted ardor, not waiting for orders,
1 When the chiefs proposed "to go on the road to Fort Edward," Mont- calm told them "to go to the d-1." A young chief came back quite furi- ous saying Montcalm had turned him out of doors .- Doc., x, 805.
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immediately embarked four or five regiments, and hastened to Boston. He commenced at once a march through the forest towards Lake George, which he, in person, reached in October. In the preceding month, Abercrombie had been recalled, and Amherst appointed the commander-in- chief of the forces in North America.1 In November, 1758, he assumed the command, and Abercrombie returned to England; evaded censure ; was gladdened by promo- tion, and lived to vote as a member of parliament for the taxation of a country, which his imbecility might have lost, and which was always the object of his malignant aspersions.2
Amherst, without any claim to brilliancy or genius, was calculated to command success by the excellence of his judgment, his prudent circumspection, and persevering firmness. His character and policy had secured to him the respect and confidence of the colonies. His measures were not stimulated by the arrogance of Braddock, nor trammelled by the feebleness and indecision of Aber- crombie, nor dishonored by the pusillanimity of Webb.
When the exactions for the campaign of seventeen hun- dred and fifty-nine were known to the colonies, they were appalled by the magnitude of the burdens that were contem- plated. Under the assurance that the campaign of the last year should be the final effort, they had yielded their appro- priations to it with unbounded fervor and enthusiasm. But they had seen their blood and treasures lavished, without securing any adequate results. The voluntary contribu- tions and public taxation had consumed their resources, while the population was almost exhausted of its avail- able strength by the constantly recurring demands of the protracted war.3 Although reeling under these debilities, every colony north of Maryland, stimulated by the ardor of Pitt and wielded by his influence, with an abiding reli- ance on the integrity and skill of Amherst, freely yielded to
1 Doc., VII, 345.
2 Bancroft ; O'Callaghan, Doc., VII, 345.
" Minot. Grahame.
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his fresh requisition, their wealth and their sons. On the twentieth of June, Amherst took up a position near the ruins of William Henry. Although his entire army, consisting of about eleven thousand effective men, formed in about equal proportions of regulars and provincials, did not assemble until the twenty-first of July. On that day another gor- geous and imposing procession in four columns moved down the quiet lake. A landing was effected without opposition on the eastern shore nearly opposite to Howe's cove. In the combinations of this campaign the British ministry designed to direct a blow at the heart of New France by an attack upon Quebec from the gulf with a pow- erful army led by Wolfe, while Amherst should cooperate by advancing with a still more formidable force along the Champlain frontier.
Montcalm, oppressed by the annoyances and impediments we have noticed, and despondent from his wasting estate and absence from a dependent family, had reiterated de- mands for his recall. This request was endorsed and pressed with extreme sincerity by Vandreuil.1 But France felt that his great intellect alone sustained the tottering fabric of her colonial power. Instead of an acquiescence, the ominous despatch arrived from Versailles : " You must not expect to receive any military reenforcements ; we will convey all the provisions and ammunition possible ; the rest depends on your wisdom and courage and the bravery of your troops."2 All the martial ardor of Montcalm was en- flamed, and his patriotic devotion enlisted. He resolved to fall beneath the ruins of the colony. To a kinsman in France he wrote : " There are situations where nothing remains for a general but to die with honor. *
My thoughts are wholly for France, and will be even in the grave, if in the grave anything remains for us."3
1 Doc., x, 758, 769, 783.
2 Belle Isle to Montcalm, February 19th, 1759, Doc., x, 943.
3 Private letter of Montcalm, see Appendix.
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Montcalm, collecting his scattered battalions, and sum- moning to his standard all the population of the province able to bear arms, repaired to Quebec to oppose the opera- tions of Wolfe. With a feeble force of twenty-three hundred men, Boulamarque remained in charge of the fortresses upon the lake, to confront Amherst and to retard his pro- gress, while . resistance would not endanger the safety of his troops. He proposed to assail the English in their advance through the woods ; but the Indians, most useful under such circumstances, defeated the scheme by refusing to cooperate. He left a garrison of four hundred men at Ticonderoga, with orders to maintain the position, until the investment was completed, then to blow up the fort and fall back upon Crown point. Amherst effected the investment of the fort on the 23d ; but on the evening of the 26th, a heavy explosion announced the evacuation of Ticonderoga, and that the domination of France had ceased. Amherst immediately occupied the abandoned fortification.
This conquest, the desire and labor of so many years, was at length achieved almost without the effusion of blood. Townsend, the adjutant-general of Amherst, a young officer of high promise and in many qualities the counter- part of Howe, was killed, while reconnoitering the fort, by a cannon ball. His death, and the loss of about eighty men, were the sacrifices by which this important conquest was secured. Exact, cautious and fettered by the prescribed forms of military progress, Amherst consumed two weeks in the guarded and anxious scrutiny by his spies and scouts, before he ventured to advance upon Crown point. IIe found it abandoned and desolate. Boulamarque had re- treated with his army and munition, to fortify the Isle aux Noix. Amherst, as soon as the occupation of Crown point was safely accomplished, commenced the preparations for erecting a new fortress near the site of St. Frederic, but on a scale of increased magnitude and strength. Unnecessary at that time, and rendered wholly useless by the conquest of Canada, he left the work unfinished after the expenditure of more than ten millions of dollars. The most conspicuous
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ruins at Crown point visited with such deep interest by the tourist and antiquarian are the remains of this fort.1
Amherst, with great assiduity and vigor, prepared means to secure a naval preponderance upon the lake. While he awaited the building of a flotilla at Ticonderoga, two measures were accomplished by his orders, uncon- nected with each other and infinitely dissimilar in their character and results. The first was the construction of a military road from Crown point to Charlestown, or Number Four on the Connecticut river, which, traversing the entire width of Vermont, rendered a large and valuable territory accessible to civilization and improve- ment. The remains of this work may still be traced.2
The other contemplated the destruction of the Indian village of St. Francis, situated on the river of that name, about midway between Montreal and Quebec. Their frequent and active incursions and the relentless atrocities that made this band of the Abenakis conspicuous in a horrid warfare, had rendered them the terror of New England, and objects of peculiar vengeance.
On the 13th of September, Rogers, with great secrecy, and a careful concealment of his design, left Crown point on this perilous service. His party consisted of one hun- dred and forty-two effective men. Descending the lake with the utmost caution and vigilance, in the hope of escaping the observation of the French, on the tenth day from his departure, he reached the foot of Missisqui bay. Here the boats were concealed, with provisions to supply the party on its return, and leaving two trusty In- dians to secretly watch them, Rogers proceeded on his expedition. The second day after, the Indians overtook him, with the alarming intelligence, that the boats had been discovered and removed by the French, and that a detachment of about two hundred were in rapid pursuit. Notwithstanding the disguise and caution of Rogers, Bou- lamarque, perfectly advised of all his movements, had fol-
1 Doc., x, 670. 2 Goodhue's Shorehan.
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lowed his track, seized the boats, and lay in ambush, expect- ing the return of the English.1 But Rogers's shrewdness could not thus be entrapped. Hesitating for a moment, the decision of the bold ranger was formed. Dispatching Lieutenant McMullin and eight men, who were to pene- trate the pathless wilderness to Crown point, with a request to Amherst, to send the necessary supplies to meet the party at the Cohase intervales, a point sixty miles north of Number Four, the extreme northern post of the English on the Connecticut, Rogers determined to prose- cute the original design.
Nine days his march continued, wading through un- broken swamps and morasses ; sleeping upon hammocks elevated above the water, by boughs cut from the trees, and fording deep streams. On the evening of the twenty- second day of his expedition, the party approached their unsuspecting victims. Rogers and two of his officers reconnoitered the village, and found it abandoned to revelry and dancing. Amherst, in his instructions to Rogers, had given expression, rare in that age of savage cruelty, to the voice of mercy and humanity. "Take your revenge on the warriors; but remember," he said, " it is my orders that no women or children are killed or hurt." Just as the day was dawning, the troops " on the right, centre, and left," burst upon the slumbering vil- lagers. The surprise was complete and few escaped. " We killed," reports Rogers, "two hundred Indians," 2 and took twenty of their women and children prisoners. He dismissed all but five of the latter prisoners, whom he retained, and released five English captives. The light revealed the horrid spectacle of more than six hundred scalps, of both sexes and of every age, chiefly English, floating like dread pennons from the lodge poles and cabins of the savages. When the rangers looked upon
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