USA > New York > Washington County > Washington county, New York; its history to the close of the nineteenth century > Part 14
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
111
THE BATTLE OF KINGSBURY.
Fort Edward and Lake George, killing a hundred and ten men and taking captive eighty-four prisoners. Majors Putnam and Rogers were immediately dispatched in pursuit of the marauders.
THE BATTLE OF KINGSBURY.
At South Bay the party separated into two equal divisions-Rogers taking up a position on Wood-Creek, twelve miles distant from the Town of Putnam.1 Upon being, some time afterward, discovered, they formed a reunion, and concerted measures for returning to Fort Edward. Their march through the woods was in three divisions, by files; the right commanded by Rogers, the left by Putnam, and the centre by Captain Dalzell. The first night they encamped on the banks ·of Clear River, a branch of Wood-Creek, and about a mile from old Fort Anne, which, as it will be recalled, had been built by General Nicholson, and two miles north of the present Village of Kingsbury. The following morning (August 7th) Major Rogers and a British officer named Irwin, incautiously suffered themselves, from a spirit of false emulation, to be engaged in firing at a target. Nothing could have been more repugnant to the military principles of Putnam than such conduct, or reprobated by him in more pointed terms. As soon as the heavy dew, which had fallen the previous night would permit, the detachment moved in a body, Putnam being in front, Dalzell in the centre and Rogers in the rear. The impervious growth and underbrush that had sprung up, where the land had been partially cleared some years before, occasioned this change in the order of march. At the very moment of moving, the French Partizan Marin," who had been sent with five hundred men to intercept Putnam's party-of whose movements he had doubtless been well informed by his scouts-was not more than one mile and a half distant from them. Having heard the firing at the mark, he hastened to lay an ambuscade precisely in that part of the wood most favorable to his project. Major Putnam was just emerging from the thicket into the open forest, when the enemy rose : and with discordant yells and terrible war-whoops, began an attack on the right of his division. Surprised, but undismayed, Putnam
1 Putnam, the extreme northern town of Washington County, and named after the daring Partizan ranger, was taken from Westfield in 1806. The Palmerston mountain in this town rises to the height of 1500 feet.
? Also written Morany.
112
WASHINGTON COUNTY : ITS HISTORY.
halted, returned the fire, and passed the word for the other divisions to advance to his support. Dalzell at once came to his aid; and the action, the scene of which was widely scattered, and principally fought between man and man, soon grew general and intensely warm. It would be as- difficult as useless, to describe at length this irregular and ferocious mode of fighting. Rogers did not come to Putnam's assistance; but, as he afterwards declared, formed a circular file between the English and Wood-Creek, to prevent their being taken in the rear or enfiladed .. Successful, as he generally was, his conduct, on this occasion did not pass without unfavorable comment. Notwithstanding, it was a current saying in the camp " that Rogers always sent, but Putnam led his men to action, yet, in justice to Putnam, it should be said, that the latter has never been known-at least, so says his biographer-in relating the story of this day's disaster, to affix any stigma upon the conduct of Major Rogers.
At length, Putnam perceiving that it would be impossible to cross the Creek, determined, at least, to maintain his ground; and, inspired by his example, the officers and men behaved with great bravery. Some- times they fought in a body in open view of the enemy, and again, individually behind trees, taking aim from their several positions and acting entirely independently of one another-each man for himself. Putnam, having discharged his musket several times, it at length missed fire, just as its muzzle was pressed against the breast of a stalwart In- dian. This Savage, availing himself of the indefensible attitude of his adversary, sprang forward, with a tremendous war-whoop, and with an uplifted hatchet, compelled him to surrender. Then, having dis- armed and bound him, he returned to the field of strife.
Meanwhile, the courageous Captains, Dalzell and Harman, who now, in the absence of Putnam, assumed the command, were forced to give way for a little distance; and the Indians, taking this to be a sure sign that the enemy were defeated, rushed impetuously on with dreadful and re- doubled cries of victory. But our two Partizans, collecting a handful of brave men, gave the pursuers so warm a reception as to force them in turn to retreat a little beyond the spot at which the action had be- gun. Here, they made a determined stand; but this change of ground brought the tree, to which Putnam was tied, directly between the fire of the two parties. Imagination can scarcely conceive of a more de. plorable situation. The bullets flew incessantly from either side ; many struck the tree; while a number passed through the sleeves and skirts
113
PUTNAM TAKEN PRISONER.
of his coat! In this state of jeopardy, unable to move his body, to stir his limbs, or even to incline his head, he remained more than an hour- so equally balanced and so obstinate was the fight! At one moment, while the battle seemed in favor of the enemy, a young Indian chose an odd way of discovering his humor. Finding Putnam bound, he might easily have dispatched him by a blow. Choosing, however, to excite the terrors of the prisoner, he kept hurling his tomahawk at his head-his object seeming to be to see how near he could come without hit- ting him-and, indeed, so skillful was this Indian youth, that the weapon buried itself several times in the tree at a hair breadth's distant from Put- nam's head ! Finally, when the young Savage had finished his amuse- ment, a French officer-a much more inveterate Savage by nature, though descended from so human and polished a nation !- perceiving the bound captive, came up to him, and, levelling a fuzee within a foot of his breast, attempted to discharge it. Fortunately, however, it missed fire. Putnam, thereupon, endeavored to solicit from this offi- cer the treatment due to his situation, by repeating strongly that he was a prisoner of war. But the chivalric ! Frenchman had no ears for the language either of honor or nature. Deaf to its voice and dead to sensibility, he violently and repeatedly, pushed the muzzle of his gun against Putnam's ribs, finally giving him a cruel blow on the jaw with the butt end of his musket. After this dastardly deed, he left him.
At length, the active intrepedity of Dalzell and Harman, seconded by the persevering bravery of their followers, prevailed. They drove from the field the enemy, who left about ninety of their dead behind them. As they were retiring, or rather retreating, Putnam was untied by the Indian who had made him prisoner, and whom he afterward called " Master." Having been conducted for some distance from the scene of action, he was stripped of his coat, vest, stockings and shoes; loaded with as many of the packs of the wounded captives as could be piled upon him; strongly pinioned, and his wrists tied as closely to- gether as they could be pulled with a cord. After he had marched through (as may be imagined) no pleasant paths in this painful manner, and for many a tedions mile, the party, who were excessively fatigued, halted to breathe. Putnam's hands had now become terribly swoolen from the tightness of the ligature; and the pain had become well nigh intolerable. His feet, also, were so much scratched that the blood
[14 ]
114
WASHINGTON COUNTY: ITS HISTORY.
began to ooze out of them. Finally, exhausted with bearing a burden above his strength, and frantic with these continued torments now became beyond human endurance, he entreated an Irish interpreter, who was with the party, to implore, as the last and only grace he desired of the Indians, that they would knock him on the head and take his scalp at once, or loose his hands. A French officer, happening to be passing by at that time, and hearing Putnam's request, instantly inter- posed and ordered his hands to be unbound, and some of the packs to be taken off. By this time the Indian who had captured him, and had been absent with the wounded, coming up, gave him a pair of moccasins and expressed great indignation at the unworthy treatment his captive had suffered.
The Savage again returned to the care of the wounded; and the Indians, about two hundred in number, went before the rest of the party to the place where the whole were that night to encamp. They took with them Major Putnam, on whom, besides innumerable other outrages, they had the barbarity to inflict, they made a deep wound with the tomahawk in the left cheek. His sufferings were in this place to reach their height. Indeed, a scene of horror, infinitely greater than had ever met his eyes before, was now preparing. It was determined to roast him alive. Accordingly, and as preparatory to this holocaust, he was led into a dark forest, stripped naked, bound to a tree, while a lot of dried brush with other combustibles was piled in a circle around him. His torturers, meanwhile, accompanied their labors, as if for his funeral dirge, with screams and whoops and all the sounds they could conceive of to make the scene more diabolical. The fuel was then set on fire. A sudden shower, however, extinguished the rising flames; but more unmerciful than the elements, the Indians rekindled them until the blaze ran fiercely round the circle. Putnam soon began to feel the scorching heat. His hands were so tied that he could move his body; and he often shifted his position as the fire approached. His efforts thus made, seemed to afford the greatest delight to his tormentors, who manifested their joy by shouts and dancing. Putnam, now seeing that his hour had surely come, summoned all his resolution and fortitude and composed his mind, as far as circumstances would admit, to bid an eternal farewell to all he held most dear. To quit the world in itself would scarcely have cost him a single pang; but for the idea of home and his domestic ties aside from these thoughts-of which he has left an account-the bitterness of death-even of that death, perhaps one
115
INHUMAN TREATMENT OF PUTNAM.
of the most dreadful that our physical nature can endure-was in a manner passed. Indeed, nature, with a feeble struggle, was quitting its last hold on earthly things-when, marvellous to relate, a French officer rushed through the expectant crowd; opened a way for himself by scattering the burning brands, and unbound the victim. This was no other than Marin himself-to whom an Indian, unwilling to see another human sacrifice, had run post speed and communicated the tidings. The commandant-ever to his honor and fame be it said- spurned and severely reprimanded the Indians, whose nocturnal powwos and hellish orgies he thus suddenly ended. Putnam did not lack feeling or gratitude. The French commander, fearing to trust him alone with them, remained until he could deliver him in safety into the hands of his " Master."
This Savage approached his captive kindly, and seemed to treat him with particular affection. He offered him some hard biscuit (" hard- tack " it would now be called) ; but on finding that he could not chew it, by reason of the blow he had received from the Frenchman, this more humane Indian soaked some of the biscuit in water and made him suck the pulp-like part. Determined, however, not to lose his prisoner, (the refreshment being finished) he took the moccasins from his feet and tied them to one of his wrists; then, directing him to lie down on his back upon the bare ground, he stretched one arm to its full length, and bound it fast to a young tree-the other arm, meanwhile, being extended and bound in the same manner. His legs, also, were stretched apart and fastened to two saplings. Then, a number of tall, but slender poles were cut down, which, with some long bushes, were laid across his body from head to foot-while, on each side of him lay as many Indians as could conveniently find lodging, in order to prevent the possibility of his escape. In this disagreeable and painful position, he remained until morning. Regarding the silent watches of this long and dreary night, Putnam was wont to relate that he felt a ray of cheer- fulness come once in a while across his mind; and, indeed, could not refrain from smiling when he reflected what a ludicrous group this scene would have made for a painter, in which he, himself, was the principal figure !
The following day, he was allowed his blanket and moccasins, and also permitted to march without carrying any pack, nor, after this, did he receive any insult. Moreover, to allay his extreme hunger, a little bear's meat was given him, which he sucked through his teeth. At
116
WASHINGTON COUNTY: ITS HISTORY.
night the party arrived at Ticonderoga, and Putnam was placed under the care of the French guard. The Indians, who had been prevented from glutting their devilish thirst for blood, took another opportunity of manifesting their malevolence for the disappointment by horrid grimaces and angry gestures; but they were no longer suffered to offer any violence or personal indignity to him. After having been examined by that true gentleman, the Marquis de Montcalm, Major Putnam was conducted to Montreal by a French officer who treated him with the greatest indulgence and humanity.1
THE ADVENTURE OF JOHN QUACKENBOSS AT SANDY HILL.
The following recital, says Dr. Fitch, will bring to the old inhabitants of Sandy Hill, recollections of the story of Captain John Smith and Pocahontas, though it is associated with far more tragic accompaniments. This account was given in its present form to Dr. Fitch by the nephew of the principal, viz: Jacob Quackenboss of Schaghticoke."
It seems then, that when this tragedy took place in July, 1757, John, son of Cybrant Quackenboss of Albany, was under an engagement of marriage to Jane, daughter of Tennis Viele of the same city, when he was impressed and required to convey a load of provisions to Lake George.3 He had passed Fort Edward and entered the dark and dreary wilderness which stretched from the Great Carrying-Place to the Lake,
1 In September, 1759, Rogers led a foray against the Village of St. Francis in Canada, totally destroying it and returning sately to Crown-Point, having had only one of his party killed and seven wounded. As this raid, however, does not come within the scope of this work, an account of it is not given.
2 In a note to this account Dr. Fitch writes in 1849. as follows : " The thanks of the inhabitants of Sandy Hill are due to the New York State Agricultural Society, that through its instrumentality this thrilling incident, which is destined to remain to all coming time as the opening event in the history of their beautiful village, has at length been rescued from the apocryphal aspect in which it has heretofore been before the public, and presented in an authentic and credible form. * * 1 had regarded it as fiction, until, by the merest accident, when gathering information upon very different topics, the full and circumstantial recital above was given. My informant is a person of high respectibility and serupulous integrity. was unaware that any account had been published by Prof. Silliman. He is an entire stranger to the vicinity where it occurred, only locating it as having taken place somewhere near Lake George." I may go further than this, and state, that had it not been for Dr. Asa Fitch, (who, so modestly, takes no credit for himself) the account would have been utterly forgotten, or at least, relegated to the limbo of mythical events. Too much praise cannot be given to Dr. Fitch for his untiring historical industry, in preserving the incidents in the early history of Washington county.
3 Regarding this impression and the various dangers and vicissitudes accompanying it. the reader is referred to the chapter immediately perceding this.
11%
QUACKENBOSS' ADVENTURE.
when he was captured by a formidable party of Indians, who had previously waylaid and made capture of sixteen soldiers. The prisoners were all taken to where the lovely green in the centre of the Village of Sandy Hill is now situated, which at that time was a secluded spot in the woods. Here they were securely tied and were seated upon the trunk of a fallen tree with two or three Indians left to guard them, while the remainder hastened away on some further adventure. After a time they returned, the captive men still sitting in a row upon the log, Quackenboss being at one end, and a soldier named MeGuinis next to him. One of the Indians now went up to the opposite end of the log and deliberately sank his tomahawk into the head of the man there seated. The victim fell to the earth, and his final quiverings had scarcely ceased, when the next man shared the same fate, and in succession the next and the next. Nothing more awful can possibly be imagined than the situation of the survivors, compelled to sit still and see death, immediate and inevitable, gradually approaching them in this horrid form. Soon, of all the seventeen, two only remained, Quackenboss, clad in his teamster garb, and McGuinis in his soldier's uniform. Not one of all the slain, had offered the least resistance, so utterly helpless were all efforts to avert their fate. And now the death dealing toma- hawk was raised to cleave McGuinis down when, with the suddenness of a panther's spring, he threw himself backward from the log, striking the ground in a desperate struggle to break his bonds. But in vain. Instantly, on every side of the poor fellow, a dozen tomahawks were uplifted.' But lying upon his back with his heels flying he thrust his murderers off in every direction spinning round like a top, till hacked and mangled, and all crimson with his own life's blood which was now streaming in every direction from a score of horrid gashes, his efforts became more and more feeble-when a blow was leveled at his head, and all was over. The hapless teamster now alone remained. He knew that his moment had come. Already, the fatal tomahawk was upraised for the last and finishing stroke, when the arm by which it was wielded was suddenly pushed aside by a squaw, as she exclaimed " You shan't kill him! He's no fighter! He is my dog !" The tawny warriors acquiesced without a murmur. He was straightway unbound and taken in charge by his Indian mistress. A pack of plunder, so
1 I have in my cabinet of the Stone age, two tomahawks dug up from this very green in Sandy Hill. Perhaps they were those used on this occasion !
118
WASHINGTON COUNTY : ITS HISTORY.
heavy that he could scarcely stand under it, was tied upon his back and the party started off for Canada.
On arriving at the Indian village he had to run the gauntlet between two rows of Indians, all of whom were armed with clubs. One of them struck him so heavy a blow on the head that it all but felled him to the earth. He, however, reeled and stumbled onward, kicked and mauled on every side and, with scarce the breath of life left in him, reached the end of this most barbarous ordeal. His mistress, the squaw, now took him to her wigwam and bound up his wounds and bruises, carefully nursing him until he recovered. He asked her why it was that the Indians treated him so cruelly? She told him that it was because he would not dance-though what it was that she meant by this explana- tion he could not conjecture, nor did he ever find it out as long as he was with her.
Meanwhile, the Governor of Canada, hearing of his being a captive among the Indians, sent for and purchased him from them, and had him brought to Montreal, where, learning from him that he was a weaver by trade, he procured him employment in this business both in his own and a number of families in and around Montreal-his situation by this. kindness of the Governor, being rendered comparatively comfortable and easy, if, indeed, not remunerative. One thing, however, bore heavily upon his mind. His family and his betrothed bride he knew must be in a state of agonizing suspense with regard to his fate. He, therefore, ventured to beg the Governor for permission to write a letter to his father to inform him that his son was still alive. The Governor at once kindly acceded to his request: and having read the letter which was submitted to him, sealed and gave it to a trusty Indian by whom it was. brought down as near to Fort Edward as he could venture with safety. The Indian travelled down into the vicinity of Fort Edward-as far as he could do with safety to himself and, having made a slit in the bark of a tree growing beside a frequented path, inserted the letter in this primitive post-office box and hastened back to Canada.' The letter was soon afterward discovered by a scout on his way to Fort Edward, and safely forwarded to its destination. It gave the family their first intel- ligence of one whom they had long since given up as dead.
1 Smile, as we may, at this novel Post-office, it has not yet gone out of fashion, letters being still in the year of our Lord, 1900, left in the Adirondacks by the driver of the mail stage in a slit of a tree nearest the recipient's log cabin. This, I have witnessed myself on more than one occasion.
119
LESSONS FROM THE WAR.
Quackenboss remained a prisoner in Canada, about three years, when he was sent home in a vessel which sailed from Quebec to New York. It is pleasant to know that, although unfaithful to his Indian mistress, he married his first love, Miss Veile, and settled soon afterwards on a farm in Cambridge, half a mile below Buskirk's bridge, where he died about 1820. 1
In thus closing the history of the French War, I would fain dwell, particularly, on the fact that it is a great mistake to suppose that either Lexington or Bunker Hill was the first school in which the Colonists were taught their ability to struggle with veteran soldiers. It was in Washington County, and in the vicinity of Fort Edward, Lake George, and South Bay that this lesson was first learned; and, in fact, it is very doubtful if the Colonists would have dared to take the stand they did in the beginning of the Revolutionary War, had it not been for the lessons received in the " Old French " and the "French War." In the territory now known as Washington County, provincial prowess signal- ized its self-relying capabilities; and Putnam and Stark came into the French War, as to a military academy, to acquire the art of warfare which they all exercised at Bunker Hill " George Washington, himself, as a military man, was nurtured for himself and the world amid the forests of the Alleghanies and the rifles and tomahawks of these French and Indian struggles. Indeed, Fort Edward, Lake George and Saratoga are contiguous not merely in territory but, as we have seen, in heroic associations; and as these conflicts in Washington county were
1 Professor Silliman, however, in his Tour from Hartfort to Quebec furnishes a different version wof the manner in which Quackenboss was saved. He also, gives another name to the principal, in this transaction, viz: Schoonhoven. 1 believe the story as related in the text to be correct. But as everything relating to Sandy Hill will be greatly prized by its citizens, I append Prof. Silliman's version. * * * " Mr. Schoonhoven was the last but one upon the end of the log, opposite to where the massacre commenced : The work of Death had already proceeded to him, and the lifted tomahawk was ready to descend, when a chief gave a signal to stop the butcherv. Then approach- ing Mr. Schoonhoven, he mildly said. 'Do you not remember that |at such a time| when your young men were dancing, poor Indians came and wanted to dance too, your young men said . No! Indians shall not dance with us;' but you (for it seems, this chief had recognized his features only in the critical moment) you said Indians shall dance now I will show you that Indians can remember kindness.' This chance recollection (Providential, we had better call it) saved the life of Mr. Schoonhoven, and of the other survivor. Strange mixture of generosity and cruelty! For a trifling affront, they cherished and glutted vengeance, fell as that of infernals, without measure of retribution or discrimination of objects; for a favor equally trifling, they manifested magnan- imity exceeding all correspondence to the benefit, and capable of arresting the stroke of death. even when falling with the rapidity of lightning." This episode of the dancing, taken in connec- tion with the squaw's remark to Quackenboss regarding his not dancing &c., would seem to show how that part of the story originated - the latter, perhaps, not understanding exactly her remark.
2 The reader does not, of course, need to be reminded of the role played by Putnam and Stark at this battle.
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.