USA > New York > Franklin County > The north country; a history, embracing Jefferson, St. Lawrence, Oswego, Lewis and Franklin counties, New York, Volume 1 > Part 16
USA > New York > Jefferson County > The north country; a history, embracing Jefferson, St. Lawrence, Oswego, Lewis and Franklin counties, New York, Volume 1 > Part 16
USA > New York > Lewis County > The north country; a history, embracing Jefferson, St. Lawrence, Oswego, Lewis and Franklin counties, New York, Volume 1 > Part 16
USA > New York > Oswego County > The north country; a history, embracing Jefferson, St. Lawrence, Oswego, Lewis and Franklin counties, New York, Volume 1 > Part 16
USA > New York > St Lawrence County > The north country; a history, embracing Jefferson, St. Lawrence, Oswego, Lewis and Franklin counties, New York, Volume 1 > Part 16
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WILKINSON'S EXPEDITION
Secretary of War Armstrong now determined that the time had come for the grand invasion of Canada and what better place to start it than from Sackets Harbor, recently so valiantly defended. And for some strange reason he selected Major General James Wil- kinson, a man whom he certainly distrusted and probably hated, to command the expedition. Wilkinson was an officer of the old army, a class described by one historian as "old, vain, respectable and incapable." His record in the Revolution had not been free from censure and he had few friends in the service. Scott, who was nothing if not frank, called him an "unprincipled imbecile." But Armstrong wanted Wilkinson to command the invasion. "Come to the north and come quickly," he wrote that general, who took nearly all the summer to reach Sackets Harbor only arriving there August 20th.
No expense was spared to make the expedition a success. Heavy naval guns were transported to Sackets at the cost of $1,000 a gun. Troops were concentrated there on a scale never before known in Northern New York. Chauncey's fleet brought the Niagara army back to Sackets. The roads were clogged with marching men. And finally on came the secretary of war, himself, to establish the war department at Sackets Harbor for nearly two months, and to dis- pute with Wilkinson over every detail of the plans. Whether or not Armstrong thought Montreal could be taken is not clear. Certainly Wilkinson thought the attempt suicidal, as it no doubt was. The plan was to descend the river to Montreal without taking a single fortified place. "Should we surmount every obstacle," wrote Wilkin- son, "We shall advance upon Montreal ignorant of the force arrayed against us, and in case of misfortune, having no retreat, the army must surrender at discretion." But as the "invasion" never pro- ceeded any further than French Mills, the present Fort Covington, this statement could not be tested.
Never was there a braver or more colorful sight than the start of the expedition. Seven thousand men were loaded into the boats as the fifers and drummers played their most stirring airs. Out in the lake lay Chauncey's stately frigates, a fleet such as Perry would have given his soul to possess. But ill luck assailed the invaders
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from the first. It took twelve days for Wilkinson to get his force to Clayton and he did not arrive in Ogdenburg for almost as many days more. Here Secretary Armstrong, who preferred the land for travel, was to meet him but Northern New York roads were too much for the secretary. He got as far as Antwerp and decided to turn back. From Denmark he wrote that "bad roads, worst weather and a considerable degree of illness" had decided him to return to Washington. This was just a week after Major General Wade Hampton whose force was to form a juncture with that of Wilkin- son suffered a decisive defeat at the hands of a few hundred French Canadians on the Chateaugay.
He immediately retired to Chateaugay village and when ordered to march to St. Regis and form a junction with Wilkinson's troops he replied that his troops were sickly, discouraged and in want of food. Four days later he calmly set out for Plattsburgh. This was the very day that Boyd's division of Wilkinson's army suffered a bad defeat and was all but routed at Chrysler's Farm on the Canadian side.
One column of the American army under the immediate com- mand of Gen. Boyd, with Generals Swartout and Covington com- manding brigades under him, had been followed by a Canadian force from the vicinity of Prescott. The Candians launched an attack at Chrysler's Farm, about twenty miles above Cornwall. While there is some uncertainty as to the number of men engaged, an examination of the official reports would seem to indicate that the Canadians were decidedly outnumbered. Wilkinson, ill, was unable to leave his berth in the boat and did not give a single order. Morgan Lewis was little better off. Boyd was left to fight the battle as best he could and Boyd was never known to be an aggressive officer. It is said that Brown threatened to resign rather than serve under him and Wini- fred Scott called him an imbecile. After two hours of the hardest kind of fighting, Gen. Covington was killed, his brigade gave way and the whole American line fell back, if not routed at least beaten. It was an inexcusable defeat. The Americans lost 339 in killed and wounded and the British about half as many. The name of French Mills, Franklin county, was changed to Fort Covington after the gallant Southern officer who fell at the head of his troops at Chrys-
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ler's Farm. His body lies in the military cemetery at Sackets Harbor.
Two days after the defeat Wilkinson, with unusual energy, moved his whole force to French Mills and knowing now that he could expect no cooperation from Hampton went into winter quarters at that place. Later he established himself at the more comfortable Harison manor house at Malone. From here he wrote assailing both Hampton and Armstrong. The brave invasion of Canada was at an end.
The American army established itself at French Mills as best it could. Huts were built for the men and the blockhouses strengthened. Illness spread in the army largely as a result of improper food and lack of supplies of all sorts. Several hospitals were established in Malone and at one time nearly 500 of Wilkinson's army were re- ported sick. Later that winter Wilkinson received orders to abandon Malone and Chateaugay and move to Plattsburgh, while Brown with 2,000 men was ordered to march to Sackets Harbor. Scores of teamsters from Jefferson and Lewis counties were employed to haul Brown's supplies from Chateaugay to Sackets. Scarcely had the American troops left when a motley force of British, Canadians and Indians invaded American territory and looted Malone, Chateaugay, French Mills and Hopkinton.
The failure of Wilkinson's campaign had not served to make the war any more popular in the Northern New York counties. The landowners openly voiced their opposition. The people murmured over the high taxes. Congress imposed a direct tax in August, 1813, of $3,000,000. The allotment for Franklin county was $770, St. Lawrence county, $3,000, Jefferson $4,610 and Lewis $1,960. The militia was being constantly called out. There was always fear of invasion. A number of the border villages had been looted by the British and Canadians. Northern New York was bearing the brunt of a war which many sections of the country scarcely felt. In the election of 1813, every Northern New York county with the excep- tion of Lewis, where Tompkins got a narrow majority, went for Gen. Van Renssalaer, the Federalist candidate for governor, St. Lawrence by a vote of nearly three to one. Only two towns in the present county of Oswego, Redfield and Scriba, were carried by Governor Tompkins. The Federalists were opposed to the war and
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in certain states such as Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Con- necticut, had refused all cooperation with the national government. Moss Kent of LeRaysville, Federalist, was returned to Congress from the Northern New York district, defeating Samuel Whittlesley of Watertown, friend and supporter of Governor Tompkins.
Many Northern New York farmers were openly selling supplies to the British armies. Gen. Izard reported to Armstrong that "from the St. Lawrence to the ocean, an open disregard prevails for the laws prohibiting intercourse with the enemy. The road to St. Regis is covered with droves of cattle, and the river with rafts, designed for the enemy. The revenue officers see these things but acknowl- edge their inability to put a stop to such outrageous proceedings."
Writing to David Parish in January, 1814, Vincent LeRay, the Jefferson county landowner, said: "We have arrived at a crisis from which we must extricate ourselves, 'peacefully if we can; forcibly if we must.' The same measures cannot be adopted for another twelve months without a political convulsion. If the Union should unhappily dissolve this country will for some time be no desirable abode." The letter is significant when it is considered that even at that time the Federalists of New England were seriously considering secession from the Union, a movement which culminated later in the Hartford convention, to which, according to administration papers, Northern New York Federalists proposed sending delegates.
In an effort to win the lukewarm or openly hostile people to the cause of the war, the government pushed ship-building at Sackets Harbor at full speed. Had Chauncey been a man like Perry the issue might have been decided on Lake Ontario long before this time. But instead he contented himself with playing a game of hide and seek with Sir James Yeo, who, fortunately for Chauncey, was equally cautious. The inactivity of the fleet disgusted Brown who openly taunted the naval commander. Particularly was Brown moved to a frenzy when Chauncey remained cooped up in Sackets Harbor be- cause Yeo had one more ship than he had. Work was rushed on the great American frigate, the Superior, 66 guns, which was ready for launching 80 days from the time she was started. But the Superior had no equipment. Her armament was being shipped up from Albany by boat by way of the Mohawk, Oneida Lake and the Oswego river. The British, now in full command of the lake, decided
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to capture these stores and to keep Chauncey bottled up in Black River Bay.
THE CAPTURE OF OSWEGO
The naval guns and other stores were being held at Oswego Falls awaiting a safe opportunity to slip them down the river and up the lake to Sackets Harbor. At Oswego also were a large number of military and naval stores in charge of Alvin Bronson. Gen. Gaines, who was then in command at Sackets Harbor, learned of the British project and dispatched Col. Mitchell with five companies of artillery, armed as infantry, to Oswego to occupy Fort Ontario. Mitchell marched his little force of 300 men through Sandy creek, Pulaski and Mexico, arriving in Oswego April 30th, 1814. The Americans found the fort practically in ruins with five rusty old guns mounted on the ramparts. Bronson concealed his stores as well as he could in the neighborhood forest. Then the Americans waited for the British attack.
It was not long in coming. On the morning of May 6th, the American sentinels at Fort Ontario saw the long line of British frigates, their prows pointed towards Oswego harbor. The fleet was armed with two hundred and twenty-two guns. Sir James Yeo was in command of the fleet while Lieut. Gen. Sir George Gordon Drum- mond of the British army was on board in command of over a thou- sand soldiers. The American schooner, Growler, was in the river and she was at once sunk and part of her crew joined the defenders in the fort. The British frigates rounded too about a quarter of a mile from shore and the British began to make preparations to land. In the meantime Mitchell had sent a small detachment of men with an old iron twelve-pounder down near the shore. Fifteen large boats, crammed with red-coated soldiers, were soon being rowed swiftly towards the shore. At the same time the big guns on the fleet opened a heavy fire on the crumbling walls of the old fort.
But the old twelve-pounder on the shore opened up with disastrous effect. Several British boats were abandoned, the soldiers clamber- ing into the remaining craft. The utmost confusion prevailed as grape from the old iron cannon ripped into the thickly packed sol- diery. Within a few moments, the boats were turned and made for the fleet. Sails were unfurled and in a little time the big British
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ships of the line were headed for the open lake once more. But they had not abandoned the attack. The next morning, bright and early, the frigates again hove into view, the red cross of St. George flapping at their mastheads. At ten o'clock the fleet started a bombardment of the fort with all its guns. One after another the American guns were disabled but still the cannonade continued. Not only did the British bombard the fort but also the neighboring woods in the hope of scattering any militia that might be lurking there.
Col. Mitchell now realized that the real attack was coming. He left a few men in the fort but posted most of his battalion in the underbrush to the east of it. About one o'clock, when every Ameri- can gun had been disabled excepting one, the British soldiery pre- pared to land. Lieut. Col. Fischer was in command of the landing party which consisted of three companies of British regulars, a battalion of marines and 200 seamen, armed with pikes, under Captain Mulcaster of the Royal navy. Once landed Fischer led his soldiers and marines towards Mitchell's men in the underbrush while Mulcaster led his sailors towards the fort. There they found little opposition. In a moment they were climbing over the battered ram- parts. The few Americans who had been defending the fort took a position near the southern wall and determined to fight to the last. The Star-Spangled Banner was still waving from its pole on the northwestern bastion. It had been nailed there and a British tar tried to climb the pole to tear it down. An American sharpshooter picked him off. Another attempted it, but he, too, was shot down. Then Captain Mulcaster himself sprang on the parapet in an effort to tear down the offending banner. The next instant he fell severely wounded to the ground.
A particularly graphic account of the storming of Oswego from the British standpoint is given in Snyder's "In the Wake of the Eighteen-Twelvers," in which Malachi Malone of the British ship "Magnet" thus describes the engagement :
"We lay closest to the fort, and they hailed red-hot shot on us from the ramparts. We came back with cold grape and round. They slithered our sails to ribbons and cut up our rigging till it hung in tangled bunches of hemp. 'We can't get out o' here, lads,' hailed Captain Popham, 'for our gear's all gone, but-' A ball whizzed, and his right hand, holding the trumpet, dropped, mangled. He raised
HIGH SCHOOL, OSWEGO, N. Y.
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STATE NORMAL SCHOOL, OSWEGO, N. Y.
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the trumpet with the other hand and finished-'we'll give them the worth of their money, since they want us to stay so badly!'
"Up the steep slope of the hill to the fort swarmed two hundred bluejackets with their boarding pikes, Sir William Howe Mulcaster, of the old Royal George, at their head. Sir James Yeo, the commo- dore, was ashore, too. Along the back of the fort hill, from the land- ing place, streamed the kilted Glengarries and the De Wattevilles, in red tunics and white breeches, and the Royal Marines in their glazed, stiff hats, red coats and blue trousers. But they could fight, those same Johnnies, and the Yanks who had potted them from the shelter of the woods, were now on the run for the fort.
"By this time we were on fire. The red-hot shot from the fur- naces in the fort made our tarred rigging sizzle and the flames licked up the masts.
" 'Buckers aloft!' called Captain Popham, and the topmen scrambled up the flaming ratlines and laid out along the scorching yards with leather buckets on long lines and soused everything. I could see through the smoke the bluejackets were up the bank now, and Lieutenant Laurie, Sir James Yeo's secretary, was scrambling over the ramparts first of all. Then another burst o' flame along our decks made everybody's heart thump, for fire in a wooden ship, bal- lasted with gunpowder, is a pretty sure passport to the big beyond !
"The bulwarks had taken fire, but we smothered them with sand and tarpaulins, when there came a yell from aloft. A brace of red- hot chain shot had struck the foretop and sheared away the main- topmast stays'l, where it was stowed there. It floated down like a flaming parachute on to the fo'c's'le head by the powder gangway. The sailing master rushed forward with a boarding pike, caught the mass as it fell, and pitched it overboard. Then with a scream he dropped the pike and rolled down the gangway, where his left arm had been hung was a bloody mass of seared flesh and shredded jacket sleeve. A red-hot round shot had got him.
"I helped carry him to the cockpit. 'It'll have to come off at the shoulder,' I heard the surgeon say. Jimmy Richardson gritted his teeth and then above the roar of the guns I heard round of cheers on cheers. I rushed on deck, sick with the smell of the surgeon's shambles, and there on the hilltop, with his legs locked around the head of the fort flagpole, I could see a marine hanging. It was
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Lieutenant Hewitt. t. He had swarmed up, as nimble as a man-'o- warsman and had torn the big Stars and Stripes down with his hands. The colors had been nailed to the pole."
The Americans gave a good account of themselves but they were outnumbered two to one and gradually were forced back by the ad- vancing British grenadiers and marines.
With the fort captured, Mitchell saw that further resistance was useless and ordered a retreat, marching towards Oswego Falls, where the bulk of the stores were located. The British made no attempt to pursue him. The Americans lost six killed, thirty-eight wounded and twenty-five missing in the engagement. The British lost nine- teen killed and seventy-five wounded. Such stores and supplies as could be found in Oswego were seized by the invaders. Mr. Bronson, the American storekeeper, was roughly treated by the British and finally taken on board the fleet as a prisoner.
The utmost excitement prevailed all through the present Oswego county when it became known that the British had captured Oswego. Most everyone expected that the invaders would advance up the Oswego river and take the stores at the Falls. People generally de- serted their homes and fled. Major Stone's tavern at the present Scriba was crowded with people who stopped there for a time on their way to safety. Mitchell, in retreating up the Oswego river, felled trees to block the road and took other steps to safeguard the precious stores, but all proved unnecessary. After destroying all the public property in Oswego that they could the British fleet sailed away, but did not fail to maintain a blockade along the eastern end of the lake.
Captain Woolsey and two or three naval officers had retreated from Oswego with Mitchell. It was Mitchell's duty to get the guns and equipment for the new frigate, Superior, to Sackets Harbor if possible. In view of the British blockade, it appeared impossible to ship them in schooners, as had been originally planned. Woolsey hit upon the idea of loading the stores in a flotilla of small boats and running the blockade to Stony creek and transporting them by land the rest of the way to Sackets. Gen. Gaines was communicated with and he agreed to the plan. At once the Americans at Oswego Falls got busy. Heavy naval guns were run over the falls in scows by
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expert pilots, a feat which would seem impossible today. Then guns, cables and all were stored in nineteen large, open boats. In all there were thirty-five naval guns, twenty-two long thirty-two-pounders, ten twenty-four-pounders, three forty-two-pound carronades and twelve large cables, in addition to quantities of shot. The main cable for the Superior was so immense that it filled one of the largest boats, being twenty-two inches in circumference and weighing over nine thousand pounds. Besides the boatsmen, there was an escort of 130 riflemen under Major Daniel Appling, a young Georgian who had already rendered distinguished service.
The flotilla reached Oswego Harbor without mishap and as the twilight fell on the evening of May 28th, stole quietly out of the bay, the prows of the boats pointing eastward. All night long the rowers plied their oars and by dawn the little fleet of barges had reached the mouth of the Salmon river. One barge, however, had become sepa- rated from the others in the darkness and when morning came was sighted and captured by a British cruiser. This gave the whole thing away. It became apparent to the British that the Americans were attempting to run the blockade and the cruiser immediately put on full sail to get the news to Sir James Yeo.
In the meantime the Americans had met, according to plan, about 150 Oneida Indians who were waiting for them at the mouth of the Salmon on the site of old La Famine where the historic conference between de la Barre and the Iroquois had taken place 150 years be- fore. When the lost barge did not appear Woolsey decided that it must have been captured and that there was little chance of him reaching Stony Creek as he had planned. Instead he started with all the speed his sturdy oarsmen could muster for the mouth of Big Sandy creek in Jefferson county. The officers scanned the lake an- xiously for a sight of the British fleet as the rowers bent to their task. Along the sandy shore, keeping pace with the boats, trotted the Oneida braves, stripped to their breech-clouts, painted and feathered for battle. At noon the boats reached the mouth of Big Sandy and quickly proceeded up that stream as far as the depth of water would permit. Then the boatmen and soldiers set to work and moved the stores to the shore. There was nothing further they could do but wait for the fight they knew was coming.
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Fortunately a messenger had been rushed to Sackets Harbor from Salmon river telling Gen. Gaines of the attempt to enter Big Sandy creek with the guns and the other naval equipment. As soon as a landing was made at Big Sandy, other messengers were sent in every direction to rally the militia and to get oxen and wagon to move the stores overland to Sackets Harbor. The following morning an Ameri- can lookout boat sighted the British making for the creek. The American subterfuge had been discovered. The enemy consisted of a corps of seamen and marines in seven boats, three gunboats, three cutters and a gig. Just as the British proceeded up the creek and started a bombardment from a heavy sixty-eight pounder of the American boats, the masts of which could be seen through the trees, a squadron of dragoons and a company of light artillery came dash- ing up through the woods from Sackets Harbor. They had arrived just in time. The British were preparing to make a land attack.
Major Appling concealed his riflemen behind a log fence where they could not be observed by the enemy. The troops from Sackets were lined up near the boats, where they could be seen by the British. The enemy had landed on the north bank of the creek and in column formation advanced towards the American position. The British column had arrived at a point about ten rods from the concealed riflemen, when suddenly Appling gave the command to fire. The riflemen rose from their ambush and poured a deadly hail of bullets into the ranks of the foe. So complete was the surprise that the British column was thrown into the utmost confusion. At the same moment Appling gave the command to charge, while the Indians made the woods ring with their whoops. There could be only one end to a conflict of this kind. Within a few minutes the British had surrendered. It was all the American officers could do to restrain the Indians from murdering the prisoners on the spot, and indeed there is some reason for believing that they did murder two or three. The British loss was eighteen killed, fifty wounded and 133 prisoners. The American loss was one Indian killed and one rifleman wounded. So far as the numbers involved go it was not such an important engagement, but measured by its results it was a decisive victory for the American arms.
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CARRYING THE CABLE
The problem now was to get the naval stores to Sackets Harbor at the earliest possible moment so that the Superior could be equipped and the blockade, which had kept the American fleet cooped up in Black River Bay, lifted. The guns and most of the other equipment could be loaded into ox carts and the story has come down from eye- witnesses of that day of the great, creaking carts, loaded with their munitions of war, drawn by span after span of oxen, slowly moving along the forest roads towards Sackets.
The great ship cable for The Superior, weighing over four tons and nine inches in diameter, presented a problem. It was too large to be put into an ox cart. Finally it was decided to transport it on the shoulders of men. A long line of militiamen was formed. One end of the ponderous cable was put into an ox cart and the rest was supported on the shoulders of the men. It was no small task. The road was little more than a forest trail, filled with stumps. It was twenty miles to Sackets Harbor. There were men who carried that cable who bore the marks on their shoulders to the day they died. The feat caught the fancy of the countryside. Through Ellis Village and Smithville the novel procession moved.
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