USA > New York > Washington County > Washington county, New York; its history to the close of the nineteenth century > Part 10
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86
1 Not Abercrombie as it is generally spelled, as is seen by a MS. letter of his in my possession.
25
THE WINTER OF 1756-57-INACTIVITY.
Before the army returned to Albany in October, and while a council of war was sitting at the great Carrying-Place (Fort Edward) to answer an important (!) question propounded by Gen. Abercromby, "What effect a junction of the King's troops, in the campaign against Crown- Point would have upon his Majesty's service.1" Capt. Robert Rogers, the uncrowned ranger, had performed a splendid feat upon Lake Champlain-a feat characterized by romantic and daring courage.
In June, 1756, a force of 600 men under La Corn de St. Luc landed at South Bay, and after destroying at Half-way Brook a party of teamsters, who, under a small convey of troops, were transporting the baggage and provisions of Winslow's army from Fort Edward to Fort William Henry, escaped toward Fort St. Frederick by the same way they came. Accordingly, early in June, Rogers with Putnam, in order to intercept the mauraders, embarked with seventy five men in five whale-boats, carrying two small cannon, and landed on one of the picturesque islands that adorn the Lake. The next day, his men landed their boats some five miles distant from the Island, and carrying them six miles over a mountain to the narrows, re-embarked about eight miles below Whitehall in the present town of Dresden. Here they lay con- cealed in ambush waiting until St. Luc's party should pass by on their way to Ticonderoga. Nor was it long before his boats laden with the plunder so recently taken, appeared. A rapid discharge of musketry and grape from the cannon, sunk several of the boats and killed a number of the enemy, the remainder escaping with all speed down the Lake. Fearing that the French, heavily reinforced, would rally, they returned to Fort William Henry, encountering on their way back, a large party of French and Indians at Sabbath-Day Point.
After resting a few days, Rogers, with fifty men, went down Lake George coasting its eastern shore nearly to its foot. Here, carrying their whale-boats over the mountains of the northern part of Putnam they re embarked at South Bay on the 3d of July. Passing down the Lake, reconnoitering as they went, rowing by night and lying concealed by day, they successively passed Fort St. Frederick and Crown Point- sailing down some thirty miles below the latter fort, while hiding during the day, many boats-sometimes a hundred at a time-and two large schooners passed the place of their concealment, some of the boats
1 MS. letter Surgeon Williams to his wife dated at Fort Edward in the authors' possession. "It appears to me that the settling ranks among ourselves may (if gone into according to some gentle- man's minds) be campaign enough for one year."
76
WASHINGTON COUNTY : ITS HISTORY.
sailing so near that they could distinctly hear the orders given by the officers in command.
On the evening of the 7th of July, the scouts, which Capt. Rogers had sent out for a reconnoissance, reported that a schooner was lying at anchor a mile below their place of ambush. The rangers immediately lightened their boats and were preparing to board her when two bateaux1 manned by twelve men were discovered coming up the Lake. Waiting until they had approached sufficiently near to the bank, the rangers suddenly showed themselves and fired, at the same time hailing the crews and offering quarter. Without responding to this offer, the boatmen, hastily turning their prows towards the opposite shore, attempted to escape. In this movement, however, the rangers anticipated them; for leaping into their light whale-boats, they gave chase, and soon captured the vessels and the bateaux, killing three of the crew and wounding two, one of whom shortly after died of his wounds. Not one escaped to carry tidings. The vessels, with their cargoes, were then sunk-the latter consisting chiefly of grain, wine and brandy-the rangers not having the facilities to carry them back to Fort William Henry.
By this daring achievement in the very heart of the enemy's country, the garrison of Crown-Point were deprived of eight hundred bushels of flour, and a large quantity of money. The destruction of the cargoes being completed, the brave ranger and his equally gallant band, drew up their whale-boats on the shore, and concealing them in the brush- wood, marched through the woods on the east bank of Lake George, reaching Fort William Henry with their prisoners on the fifeenth of July.
Military affairs during the remainder of this year remained generally
1 Bateaux are so frequently mentioned in this history as being used on Lake George and Champlain and on Wood Creek, that I think the reader will be interested in having a description of them. The bateaux of the army (afterwards known as "Durham boats" or barges) were flat- bottom boats, having a plank around them to walk on or to pole, from thirty-five to forty feet long, each extremity terminating in a point; six feet beam in the center; usual weight, four and one-half tons; worked by oars; a mast sail; capable of carrying 1500 1bs of cargo; drag ropes for turning and long poles for " setting through the currents and rapids." The sides were about four feet high; and for the convenience of the rowers, four or five benches were laid across, sometimes more, according to the length of the bateaux. Four men managed them in summer, but in the fall another rower was always added. "It is," says Weld, who travelled here after the Revolution, "a very awkward sort of vessel either for rowing or sailing; but it is preferred to a boat with a keel for two very obvious reasons: first, because it draws less water, at the same time it carries a large burden; and secondly, it is much safer on lakes or large rivers, where storms are frequent. A proof of this came under our observation the day of our leaving Montreal in 1796. We had reached a wide part of the river, and were sailing along with a favorable wind, when suddenly the horizon grew very dark and a dreadful storm arose accompanied with lond peals of thunder and torrents of rain. Before the sail could be taken in the ropes, which held it, we're snapped in pieces. * .* * The bateaui was
72
RAIDS OF ROGERS, STARK AND PUTNAM.
in a quiescent state. Rogers and Stark, however, with their natural inclination for a forest and adventurous life, in January of the following year, (1757), planned a reconnoissance that, for bravery and dare-devil adventure, even exceeded their exploits of the previous year.
With seventy-five men, Rogers and Stark set out, and, travelling now on the ice, and now on snow-shoes, they skirted the eastern bank of Lake George; crossed over on the third day out to Lake Champlain and captured some sledges which they met. From the prisoners thus taken, it was learned that Fort St. Frederick was strongly garrisoned. A few of the men in the sledges having escaped, Rogers knew that a party would at once be sent out to attack him; and he, therefore, ordered an immediate return to Fort William Henry.'
On their way back, as they were tramping over the snow in single file, they unexpectedly found themselves face to face with a force of French and Indians who had skillfully prepared an ambush-I say " skillfully " advisedly, as it must have been so to take Rogers and Stark-such experienced woodsmen-by surprise.
In the conflict which now followed. Rogers was wounded in the head; and Stark, thereupon assuming the command, from a neighboring eminence formed his line and "firmly stood, in snow four feet in depth from two o'clock till nightfall," and repelled every attack of the enemy during that period. Stark also valiantly maintained his ground; and
consequently driven ashore, but the bottom of it being quite flat, it was carried southerly upon the beach without sustaining any injury; and the men, leaping out, drew it upon dry land where we remained out of all danger till the storm was over. A keel-boat, however, of the same size, could not have approached nearer to the shore than thirty feet, and then it would have stuck fast in the sand, and probably have been filled with water." Weld, who appears to have been a very shrewd observer, also gives an account of the manner in which the boatmen manipulate their craft. "The men," he writes, " set their poles together at the same moment, and all worked at the same side of the bateaux. The steersman, however, shifts his pole accasionally from side to side in order to keep the vessel in an even direction. The poles commonly used are about eight feet in length, extremely light and headed with iron, on coming to a deep bay or inlet, the men abandon the poles, take to their oars, and strike, if possible, directly across the mouth of the bay; but if the current is too strong. they pole entirely round the bay. Whenever the wind is favorable they set their sail * * * The exertion required to stem the current is so great that the men are obliged to stop very frequently to take breath. The places where they stop are regularly ascertained, some of them, where the current is very rapid, are not more than half a mile distant, one from the other; others one or two, but none of them more than four miles apart. Each of these places, the boatmen, who are almost all French Canadians, denominate 'one pipe,' because they are allowed to stop at it and fill their pipes.
1 The reader is, of course, aware that an account of these expeditions which took place on Lake George is not irrelevant to the present history. That Lake forms the northwestern boundary of Washington county and hence all of these raids here given and to be narrated, further on, occurred properly within the limits of that county; and whenever, as I said, in my Introductory Chapter, events are spoken of as happening in contiguous territory, they necessarily form a part of the narration -- if a correct understanding of these events is to be arrived at.
WASHINGTON COUNTY : ITS HISTORY.
wherever the fire was the hottest he was found encouraging his men, going so far even as to threaten "to shoot the first man who should attempt to fly." The French gave up the fight at the approach of dusk : and those of the Rangers (forty-eight in number) who were unharmed, marched all night, through the woods and in defiance of the cold of a severe winter's night, reaching the foot of Lake George the following morning. At this point Stark, notwithstanding the terrible fatigue he had endured, pushed on to the fort at the head of the Lake, by himself, where, procuring sledges he returned for the wounded, all of whom (he himself drawing a loaded sledge) were finally brought back in safety to the Fort. Stark thus "stood out through three days and two nights of incessant and severe toil, engaged for nearly four hours in a hot combat ; and the remainder of the time in travelling over snows and ice." " We effeminate men of the present day," writes Dr. Fitch, "can scarcely credit that any human frame was ever capable of such endurance."
But, notwithstanding these raids, which, when successful, helped to sustain the faltering hopes of the colonists, clouds of black portent hung over the opening of the new year, 1757.
Nothing so loses the respect of the Red Man as imbecility. The inactivity of the English during the year succeeding Baron Dieskau's defeat, and the consequent successes of the French, had in a measure, aided the latter to alienate the "Confederacy of the Six Nations" from the English interest; and an occurrence, therefore, which happened at this time by turning a little the scale, conduced greatly towards keeping these tribes loyal-a circumstance of incalculable moment to the Colonists in the war now impending.
The report brought in by Mohawk scouts to Sir William Johnson in the early spring of 1757, that a French army was on its way to attack Fort Edward and the lower settlements, was not without foundation. On the 15th of March of that year a strong force under the command of Rigaud de Vaudreuil (a brother of the then Governor of Canada) left Ticon- deroga to ravage the frontiers of New York. Sleds, drawn by dogs, carried their provisions and munitions of war. Silently, under the overhanging cliffs of the Putnam Mountains, this body glided along on snow-shoes, slept at night on bear-skins with snow for their mattresses; and covered only with sail cloth, skirted the western border of Dresden and the northwestern corner of Fort Anne; and, on the evening of the 17th, encamped three miles from Fort William Henry-the immediate object of their journey.
FRENCH ATTACK ON FORT WILLIAM HENRY.
At two o'clock on the morning of the following day the attention of a ranger sentinel on the ramparts of that fort was attracted to a mysterious light at some distance down the Lake. The conjectures to which this appearance gave rise were soon set at rest, when the gray dawn disclosed on the ice in front of the fort fifteen hundred French regulars, Canadians and Indians, armed with three hundred scaling- ladders and everything necessary for a vigorous attack. Hardly, however, had the sun appeared above the horizon, when the guns of the fort served by William Eyre,' one of Braddock's most skillful engineers and artillerists, compel the enemy to retire with considerable loss. Towards noon, with their forces arranged in a semi-circle, they renewed the attack, but with no better success. At midnight of the same day they attempt a surprise, but accomplish nothing except the burning of the sloops and most of the bateaux. Finally, their demand for a surrender being refused, and another spirited attack being bravely repelled by the undaunted garrison, the French beat a retreat; and being seized by a panic-the cause of which has never been ascertained -- they flee precipitately down the Lake, leaving behind them twelve hundred of their sledges and a great quantity of millitary equipments. In the loss of men the enemy suffered severely ; and the warm April sun revealed many a ghastly form wrapped in a winding sheet of snow.
The following anecdote of General John Stark, who was in command of Fort William Henry at the time of this attack is related by Caleb Stark in his biography of his grandfather :
" While going his rounds, on the evening of the sixteenth, Captain Stark overheard a squad of his men who were of the Scotch-Irish race, planning a celebration in honor of St. Patrick, for the next night. He afterward said that he had then no presentiment of approaching danger, but disliked these wild Irish demonstrations. He, therefore, called for the ranger sutler, Samuel Blodget, and gave him directions to deliver the rangers their regular rations of grog until the evening of the seventeenth; and after that no more, without a written order from himself. On that evening he retired to his quarters, directing his orderly sergeant to say to all applicants for written orders that he was confined to his bunk with a lame right hand, and must not be disturbed. The Irish troops (regulars) secured an extra supply of rum on the night of the sixteenth, and began their carousal which they carried on with
1 The same officer, under whose supervision Fort Edward was built. See note in advance, when I speak of Dr. Dwight's visit to Washington county.
80
WASHINGTON COUNTY : ITS HISTORY.
unabated vigor through the night and during the ensuing day in honor of St. Patrick and his wife Sheelah. They drank so freely that the officer of the day could find none of them fit for duty as sentinels, and the rangers-those, at least who were sober-supplied their places. The rangers, seeing the Irish thus enjoying themselves, desired the same privilege. The sutler imformed them of his orders, and the captain's quarters were beset to obtain a written order. The orderly refused to disturb his officer, as he was confined with a painfully lame right hand, and could not write. The soldiers felt somewhat cross, but bore their disappointments like philosophers. Upon the advance of the enemy notice was at once conveyed to the ranger captain. Instantly, the lame hand was restored to its normal condition, and he was among his men, who were silently mustered upon the walls." The near approach of danger dissipated the fumes of liquor from the brains of the regulars, and the garrison was soon in condition for the vigorous and successful defence which they afterward made. Had it not been for this ruse on the part of Stark, it is hardly problematical what would have been the result of this night assault of the French.
The news of this attack was conveyed to Sir William Johnson in a letter from Colonel (afterward General Gage of Revolutionary fame) on Sunday, the twentieth of March. He immediately issued orders for the militia on the Mohawk river to muster at his house as soon as possible, and sent Arent Stevens, his Indian interpreter. to the Mohawks, who, with others of the Six Nations, then at Mount Johnson, agreed to march forthwith. Such was the prompt response to his call, that at daybreak of Monday morning, he set out with the Indians and twelve hundred militia, reaching Fort Edward, on Thursday, the twenty-fourth. Receiving, however, on his arrival at that Fort intelligence from Major Eyre that the enemy had retreated, he returned on the twenty-sixth to to his home at Mount Johnson.
81
THE FRENCH WAR CONTINUED.
CHAPTER VIII.
1757.
THE FRENCH WAR CONTINUED - MONTCALM'S CAPTURE OF FORT WILLIAM HENRY AND THE SUBSEQUENT MASSACRE - ATTACK BY THE OTTAWAS ON FORT EDWARD EASILY REPULSED BY PUTNAM'S RANGERS.
On the twentieth of June, Lord Loudoun, with six thousand regulars sailed from New York for Halifax, preparatory to investing Louisburgh. General Webb, now second in command, was detailed with six thousand men to garrison Fort William Henry, Fort Edward and the forts along the Mohawk Valley; General Stanwix with two thousand men, was assigned to the west; and Colonel Bouquet was directed to guard the borders of the Carolinas from the incursions of the Southern Indians.
General Daniel Webb was probably the most consummate coward that the British Ministry ever sent either to her American or other Colonies. In addition to which he lacked even the simplest rudiments of military science. Indeed, he was merely an instance of the then British army system-(so aptly described by Thackeray in his Henry Esmond)-put- ting in nobodies to please the mistresses either of the King or his prime- ministers. The previous year, after the capture of Oswego, that officer had fled down the Mohawk in a pitiable state of physical collapse caused by abject fear-greatly to the disgust of the soldiers and the public. However, by great exertions on the part of Sir William Johnson, an army of several thousand Provincials, together with some regiments of regular troops, assembled under Webb's orders and rendezvoused at Fort Edward. The last of July General Webb started from that post for Fort William Henry under an escort of two hundred men commanded by Major Putnam. But Major Putnam soon after Webb's arrival, having ascertained through his scouts, that General Montcalm was rapidly approaching, Webb incontinently and in all haste returned to Fort Edward under a strong escort. The first act after his placing his body in safety within the friendly walls of Fort Edward was to dispatch Colonel George Monro-"a sturdy Scotch officer."-with his regiment to Fort William Henry -- with orders to take the command of that fort -- which was by this time known to be in the most imminent danger. Accordingly, that brave Scotch officer
[10]
.
WASHINGTON COUNTY : ITS HISTORY.
set out from Fort Edward on the second of August, arriving at the fort just as the French were about to take possession of the road between the two forts. The garrison was, by this means, increased to nearly twenty-five hundred men; while Webb had between four and five thousand at Fort Edward. But, as though this force was not sufficient for troops acting on the defensive behind solid defences, Webb sent expresses throughout the Colonies of New York and New England urgently praying for reinforcements. The call, notwithstanding the contempt in which Webb was held by the Colonial Governors, met with an immediate response. All the militia of New York north of the Highlands was called out while a "fourth of the able bodied men of Connecticut were drafted." A number of other Colonies responded with almost equal alacrity; and soon the soil of Washington county was trodden by large bodies of militia, marching from every direction toward Fort Edward. But as it will be seen later on, all this suberb patriotism and these great efforts were rendered nugatory by the cowardice of the General in command.
Loudoun arrived in Halifax on the last day of June; and was soon joined by Admiral Holburn with sixteen ships of the line, and by George Viscount Howe, with six thousand disciplined troops-thus increasing his land force to eleven thousand well appointed and effective men. Everything, therefore, augured well for the expedition; and the sails, flapping idly in the favoring breezes, urged to immediate departure. But to the sluggish mind of Loudoun (a fit companion for his contemporary brother, General Webb) this was altogether too hasty a proceeding ! A vegetable garden must first be planted for the use of the army, and a parade-ground laid out, on which his regulars could attain yet higher discipline. Thus, while the troops were winning golden opinions from the Commander-in-Chief for their proficiency in fighting mock battles, and storming sham fortresses, the beautiful July was frittered away. Roused at length by the murmuring of both officers and men, Loudoun gave orders to embark for Louisburgh. Scarcely, however, was the first anchor weighed, when, learning that Louis- burgh had received an additional reinforcement, and that the French fleet outnumbered by one vessel his own, he reversed his orders, and with his troops returned to New York; having accomplished nothing, save the intercepting of a small vessel bearing dispatches from the Governor of Louisiana, of a Peace recently concluded by the latter with the Cherokees !
53
CAPTURE OF FORT WILLIAM HENRY.
Meanwhile, General Montcalm was not an indifferent spectator of these occurrences. With an eagle eye he had followed the movements of the Commander-in-Chief: ' and while the latter was watching the growth of his cabbages under a July sun, he rightly judged that the time had come for a descent upon Fort William Henry.
While the fate of that fortress was already determined upon by the French General, the partizans of the latter were not inactive. On the twenty-third of July, Lieutenant Marin, a Canadian officer and the same one who had destroyed the " Lydius Mills " at the Great Carrying- Place in 1745, appeared before Fort Edward at the head of two hundred men : and after a brisk skirmish, returned with thirty-two scalps and one prisoner taken from under the very guns of the Fort. On this French partizan's return to Quebec, in excuse for not bringing more prisoners, he told Montcalm that " he did not amuse himself by taking prisoners."
Almost at the same time, another scene equal in barbarity, was witnessed on the farther boundary of this county. Desirous of emulating the exploit of Lieutenant Marin, Lieutenant Corbière, also a Canadian officer, with fifty Canadians and three hundred Ottawas lay in ambush among the islands of Lake George, near Sabbath-Day Point, all day and night of the twenty-sixth. At sunrise of the twenty-seventh, twenty- two bateaux. having on board a New Jersey regiment of three hundred soldiers, under the command of Colonel Palmer," were seen on the Lake. Rising with terrific yells from their concealment, the Indians attacked the English with such ferocity that only two of the barges escaped. Twenty of the boats were either captured or sunk; and keeping time with their paddles to a wild and wierd melody, the Indians returned down the Lake, having their canoes decorated with the scalps of one hundred and sixty Englishmen. 3
1 It must, ere this, have occurred to the reader who has followed me in this history, how much farther ahead the French always were in the matter of obtaining information of the movements of the English, than the latter. This which only shows the imbecility of the British (Generals will be much more apparent when I come to narrate the " Burgoyne Campaign."
2 Not Parker as has been generally stated.
3 It has always been a much mooted question whether any of our Northern Indians (the Algonquins, Adirondacks, Hurons, etc.) ever practiced canibalism. The Jesuit Relations, it is true, seem to say they did. But it was, if it ever occurred, to make them brave by eating the hearts of their enemies rather than as food. Thus, when Roubard, a French historian, says that on this particular occasion of " his own knowledge " one of the slain Provincials was actually boiled and eaten by the " ferocious Ottawas." we must admit it. See. also, some pages back, when one of the French opposed to Col. Peter Schuyler, was boiled. This, however, was. to assuage hunger and escape starvation.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.