USA > New York > Washington County > Washington county, New York; its history to the close of the nineteenth century > Part 22
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Probably no event, either in ancient or modern warfare has received so many versions as the killing of Miss Jane McCrea, during the Revolutionary War. It has been commemorated in story and in song and narrated in grave histories in as many different ways as there have been writers upon the subject. As an incident, merely, of the Revolution, accuracy in its relation is not, perhaps, of much moment. When, however, measured by its results, it at once assumes an impor- tance which justifies such an investigation as shall bring out the truth.
The slaying of Jane McCrea was, to the people of New York and especially to those of Washington County, what the Battle of Lexing- ton was to the New England colonies. In each case, the effect was to consolidate the inhabitants more firmly against the invader. The
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WASHINGTON COUNTY: ITS HISTORY.
blood of the unfortunate maiden was not shed in vain. From every drop, like the teeth of the mythical dragon of old, hundreds of armed yoemen arose ; and, as has been justly said, her name was passed as a note of alarm along the banks of the Hudson, and, as a rallying ery among the Green Mountains of Vermont, brought down her hardy sons. It thus, in a great measure, contributed to Burgoyne's defeat, which became a precursor and the principal cause of American Inde- pendence.
Jane McCrea was born in Bedminster (now Lamington) N. J., in 1753, and was killed near Fort Edward, July 27th, 1777. She was the second daughter of Rev. James MeCrea, a Presbyterian clergyman of Scotch descent, whose father, William, was an elder in White Clay Creek Church, near Newark, Delaware. After his death she made her home with her brother John at Fort Edward, N. Y. This brother was a staunch patriot. He had been with the unfortunate expedition of General Montgomery, and had fought in the battle of Quebec and when General Schuyler, in command at Fort Edward, called on the militia of Washington County to take the field (as related in the last chapter) he promptly obeyed the summons. Between him and David Jones, her lover, there had arisen an estrangement growing out of their opposite sympathies in relation to the war. But Jane still clung to her betrothed notwithstanding her brother's dislike for him.
Miss McCrea is described by those who knew her personally, as a young woman of rare accomplishments, great personal attractions, and of a remarkable sweetness of disposition. She was from all trustworthy accounts, of medium stature, finely formed, and of a deli- cate blonde complexion. Her hair was of a golden brown and silken lustre, and when unbound, trailed upon the ground. Her father was devoted to literary pursuits, and she thus had acquired a taste for reading unusual in one of her age in those early times.
The story of the tragedy, as told by Bancroft, Irving and others 1 is that as Jane McCre was on her way from Fort Edward to meet her
1 1 am gratified to know that this version of the tragedy has been accepted by William Cullen Bryant in his "History of the United States," who gives me full credit. I state this that iny readers may have some confidence in this entirely new account. I am also, of course, aware that Sparks in his "Life of Arnold," gives a different version of this tragedy, related to him, as he says, by an eye-witness of the murder, viz .: a Samuel Standish who was one of the guard at the fort. Still, 1 believe the facts to be as stated in the text. But as I have said in the beginning of this sketch there have been numerous and different accounts of the tragedy. The only thing left, therefore, for the conscientious historian is, to try and sift the kernel from the chaff and present the facts as he understands them, to the reader.
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CORRECT ACCOUNT OF TRAGEDY.
lover, Lieutenant Jones, at the British camp, under the protection of the Indians, a quarrel arose between the latter as to which should have the promised reward, when one of them, to terminate the dis- pute, "sunk," as Mr. Bancroft says, "his tomahawk into the skull " of their unfortunate charge. 1 The correct account, however, of the Jane MeCrea tragedy, gathered from the statement made by Mrs. McNeal to General Burgoyne on the 28th of July, 1777 in the marquee of her cousin, General Fraser and corroborated by several people well acquainted with Jane McCrea, and by whom it was related to the late Judge William Hay of Saratoga Springs, a veracious and most indus- trious historian, and taken down from their lips, and by him com- municated to me, is entirely different from the version given by Mr. Bancroft.
On the morning of the 27th of July, 1777, Miss McCrea and Mrs. McNeal were in the latter's house at Fort Edward, preparing to set out for Fort Miller for greater security, as rumors had, for several days, been rife of hostile Indians in the vicinity. Their action was the result of a message sent to them early in the morning by General Arnold, who had, at the same time, despatched to their assistance Lieutenant Palmer with some twenty men, with orders to place their furniture and effects on board a bateau and row the family down to Fort Miller.
Lieutenant Palmer, having been informed by Mrs. McNeal that nearly all her household goods had been already put on board the bateau, remarked that he, with the soldiers, was going up the hill as far as an old block-house, for the purpose of reconnoitering, but would not be long absent. The lieutenant and his party, however, not returning, Mrs. McNeal and Jane McCrea concluded not to wait longer, but to ride on horseback to Colonel (John) McCrea's ferry,
1 Asthe tomahawk, in this history, is frequently mentioned, it may be well to quote from Aubrey his discription of that ( par excellence) Indian weapon. He writes: "This instrument," (the tomahawk) "they " (the Indians) "make great use of in war; for, in pursuing an enemy, if they find it impossible to come up with them, they, with the utmost dexterity, throw and seldom fail striking it into the skull or back of those they pursue, by that means arresting them in flight. The tomahawk is nothing more than a small hatchet having either a sharp spike, or a cup for tobacco affixed opposite to the part that is intended for cutting, but they are mostly made to answer two purposes-that of a pipe and a hatchet. When they purchase them of the traders, they take off the wooden handle and substitute in its stead a hollow cane one, which they do in a curious manner."
Some years since, my friend, HIon. C. C. Lester, found in an old stony cabin near "Wood- lawn." Saratoga Springs, one of the tomahawks above described, which, through his kindness. is now in my cabinet and before me as I write.
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leaving the lading of the boat in charge of a black servant. When the horses, however, were brought up to the door, it was found that one side-saddle was missing, and a boy1 was accordingly despatched to the house of a Mr. Gillis for the purpose of borrowing a side-sad- dle or pillion.
While watching for the boy's return, Mrs. McNeal heard a discharge of fire-armns 2 and looking out of a window, saw one of Lieutenant Van Vechten's soldiers running along the military road towards the fort, pursued by several Indians. The fugitive, seeing Mrs. McNeal, waved his hat as a signal of danger and passed on, which the Indians perceiving, left off the pursuit and came toward the house.
Seeing their intention, Mrs. McNeal screamed: "Get down cellar for your lives!" On this Jane McCrea and the black woman, Eve, with her infant, retreated safely to the cellar, but Mrs. McNeal was caught on the stairs by the Indians and dragged back by the hair of her head by a powerful savage, who was addressed by his companions as the "Wyandot Panther." A search in the cellar was then begun, and the result was the discovery of Jane McCrea, who was brought up from her concealment, 3 the Wyandot exclaiming upon seeing her, " My squaw, me find itm agin-me keep um fast now, foreber, ugh!
By this time the soldiers had arrived at the fort, the alarm drum was beaten and a party of soldiers under Captain Van Vechten started in pursuit. Alarmed by the noise of the drum which they, in com- mon with Mrs. McNeal and Jenny, heard the Indians, after a hurried consultation, hastily lifted the two women upon the horses which had been waiting at the door to carry them to Colonel MeCrea's ferry and started off tipon a rttn. Mrs. McNeal, however, having been placed upon the horse on which there was no saddle, slipped off and was thereupon carried in the arms of a stalwart savage. 4
1 The name of this boy was Norman Morrison. It is not known what afterwards became of him, though tradition states, that, being small and active, he escaped from the Indians and reached his home in Hartford, Washington County, N. Y.
2 So fatal was this discharge, that out of Lieutenant Palmer's party of twenty men, only eight remained, Van Vechten himself being killed on the spot.
3 Judge Hay was informed by Adam, after he became a man, that his mother, Eve, had often described to him how she continued to conceal him and herself in an ash-bin beneath a fire-place. he luckily not awaking to ery while the search was going on around them in the cellar. This fact was also confirmed by the late Mrs. Judge Cowen, of Saratoga Springs to Judge Hay.
4 The party who did this was the same, under Le Loup, who had, but a few hours before, massacred the Allen family. See last chapter.
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SHOOTING OF JANE MCCREA.
At this point Mrs. McNeal lost sight of her companion, who, to use the language of Mrs. MeNeal, "was then ahead of me and appeared to be firmly seated in the saddle, and held the rein, while several Indians seemed to guard her-the Wyandot still ascending the hill and pulling along by bridle-bit the affrighted horse upon which poor Jenny rode." The Indians, however, when half-way up the hill, were nearly overtaken by the soldiers, under Lieutenant Van Vechten, who, at this point began firing by platoons. At every discharge the Indians would fall flat with Mrs. McNeal. By the time the top of the Fort Edward Hill had been gained, not an Indian was harmed, and one of them remarked to Mrs. McNeal, "Wagh! um no kill-um shoot too much high for hit." During the firing, two or three of the bullets of the pursuing party hit Miss McCrea with a fatal effect, who falling from her horse, had her scalp torn off by her guide, the "Wy- andot Panther," in revenge for the loss of the reward given by Bur- goyne for every white prisoner-a reward considered equal to a barrel of rum.
Mrs. MeNeal, however, was carried to Griffith's house, and there kept by the Indians until the next day, when she was ransomed and taken to the British camp. "I never saw Jenny afterwards," says Mrs. McNeal, "nor anything that appertained to her person until my arrival in the British camp, when an aide-de-camp showed me a fresh scalp-lock which I could not mistake, because the hair was unusually fine, luxuriant, lustrous and dark as the wing of a raven. Till that evidence of her death was exhibited, I hoped, almost against hope, that poor Jenny had been either rescued by our pursuers (in whose army her brother, Stephen McCrea, was a surgeon) or brought by our captors to some part of the British encampment."
While at Griffith's house, Mrs. McNeal endeavored to hire an Indian named Captain Tommo, to go back and search for her companion, but neither he nor any of the Indians could be prevailed upon to venture even as far back as the brow of the Fort Edward hill to look down it for the " White Squaw," as they called Jenny.
At dawn the following morning, the remains of Miss MeCrea were gathered up by those who would have rescued her. They found it stark and ghastly, partly concealed beneath leaves and brush near a pellucid spring, which gushed forth by the side of a tree, 1 and near
1 This tree called " The Jenny McCrea Tree" would probably have remained to this day had it not been cut down and made into relics to be sold to the curious visitor.
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WASHINGTON COUNTY: ITS HISTORY.
by the corpse of Lieutenant Van Vechten stretched upon the earth. When they returned, her brother, with some women from his neigh- borhood, had arrived at the fort. He bent over her mangled remains and wept in bitterness of spirit. He knelt down and kissed her bloody forehead and would have clasped the decaying body in his arms, had not friends gently restrained him. They led him away from the sad spectacle and kindly sought to soothe him with many unavailing words of consolation. Her body, as well as that of Lieutenant Van Vechten was buried under the supervision of Colonel Morgan Lewis (then deputy-quartermaster general) on the bank of Moses Creek, near a fortified camp-ground, laid out by the celebrated Polish engineer, Kosciusko, three miles south of the fort and two miles south of her brother. John McCrea's farm, which was across the Hudson, and directly opposite the principal encampment of General Schuyler. Here in a rude grave, they laid Jenny down to her last sleep, and
To show that this statement is correct I clip from a paper of 1853 the following advertisement:
"AN INTERESTING RELIC OF THE REVOLUTION.
THE SUBSCRIBER, being censured through the public prints for cutting down the famous Jane McCrea tree, and importuned by his friends, presents to the public elegant canes and boxes manufactured from this world-renowned tree, believing that an event fraught with so much interest, being connected with the Revolution and Independence of our County, that they will meet with a hearty response from every American. A case containing canes and boxes may be seen at the Crystal Palace and are for sale at the following places in this city: Leary & Co., hatters, Astor House, Broadway, N. Y., also on Forty-first street, south side of Palace.
All other parties offering canes for sale, representing them to be made from the renowned Jane McCrea tree, are counterfeits, and will be dealt with accordingly.
I certify that I am owner of the land on which grew the tree known as the Jane McCrea Tree, at Fort Edward, Washington County, N. Y. The tree died in 1849, and was cut down during the winter of 1853, and was sent to the shop of J. M. Bur- dick, to be manufactured into canes and boxes. Each article and piece having this engraving upon it is part of the same trec. GEO. HARVEY.
All Orders may be addressed to the Subscriber, at Fort Edward, Washington County, N. Y.
GEO. HARVEY.
J. M. Burdick, Traveling Agent.
References-We have known Mr. Harvey for years as a reputable merchant, and late Cashier of the Bank of Fort Edward, and have the fullest confidence to believe what he says.
FREELAND, STUART & CO.,
F. LEAKF, Am. Ex. Bank. New York, July 25, 1853.
J. P. CRONKITE, 54 Exchange Place.
B. MURRAY, Jun. Ass't. Cash. Am. Ex. Bank.
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DOCTOR BARTLETT'S ACCOUNT OF TRAGEDY.
" strong men wept aloud as they turned from the humble sepulcher and departed on their way."1 That same morning, Fort Edward was evacuated, Schuyler falling back on Moses Creek and the sprouts of the Mohawk now Waterford.
The only statement which, while disproving Mr. Bancroft's narra- tive, seems to conflict with the above account of the manner of her death, is the one made by Dr. Bartlett, a surgeon in the American army. This occurs in his report to the director-general of the hospi- tals of the Northern Department, dated at Moses Creek at head-quar- ters, at ten o'clock of the night of July 27, 1777, and is as follows:
" I have this moment returned from Fort Edward, where a party of hell-hounds, in conjunction with their brethren, the British troops, fell upon an advanced guard, inhumanly butchered, scalped and stripped four of them, wounded two more, each in the thigh, and four more are missing.
" Poor Miss Jenny McCrea and the woman with whom she lived were taken by the savages, led up the hill to where there was a body of British troops, and there the poor girl was shot to death in cold blood, scalped and left on the ground, and the other woman not yet found.
" The alarm came to camp at two p. m. I was at dinner. I imme- diately sent off to collect all the regular surgeons, in order to take some one or two of them along with me, but the devil a bit of one was to be found. *
"There is neither amputating instruments, crooked needle, nor tourniquet in all the camp. I have a handful of lint and two or three bandages, and that is all. What in the name of wonder I am to do in case of an attack, God only knows. Without assistance, without in- struments, without anything!"
This statement, however, was made, as is apparent on its face, hur- riedly and under very great excitement. A thousand rumors were flying in the air, and there had been no time to sift the kernels of truth from the chaff of unproven reports. But, in addition to this, the story of the surgeon is flatly contradicted by testimony, both at the time of the occurrence and afterward. General Burgoyne's famous " Bouquet Order " of the 21st of May, and his efforts, by appealing to their fears and love of gain to prevent any species of cruelty on the part of his savage allies-facts well known to his officers and men-
1 Wilson.
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WASHINGTON COUNTY: ITS HISTORY.
render it simply impossible to believe the statement of Surgeon Bart- lett, that a "body of British troops " stood calmly by and witnessed the murder of a defenceless girl, and a girl, too, between whom and one of their comrades-in-arms there was known to be a betrothment. Leaving, however, probabilities, we have the entirely different and detailed account of Jenny's companion and hostess, Mrs. McNeal, " the woman with whom she lived," and who, as "the woman not yet found," was endeavoring-while the surgeon was penning his report- to prevail upon the Indians to go back and search for Jenny's body, left behind in their hurried flight.
The entire matter, however, seems to be placed beyond all doubt, not only by the corroborative statement of the " Wyandotte Panther," when brought into the presence of Burgoyne-to the effect that it was not he, but the enemy that had killed her-but by the statement of General Morgan Lewis, afterward Governor of New York State. His account is thus given by the late Judge William Hay in the following letter to the writer, in 1866:
" Several years after Mrs. Teasse had departed this-to her-event- ful life, I conversed (in the hearing of Mr. David Banks, at his law- book store in New York City) with Governor Lewis. Morgan Lewis then stated his distinct recollection that there were three gun-shot wounds upon Miss McCrea's corpse, which, on the day of her death, was, by direction of himself-and in fact, under his own personal supervision-removed, together with a subaltern's remains, from a hill near Fort Edward to the Three Mile Creek, where they were in- terred. The fact of the bullet wounds-of which I had not before heard, but which was consistent with Mrs. Teasse's statement-was to me confirmation strong as proof from Holy Writ, that Jane McCrea had not been killed exclusively by Indians, who would have done that deed either with a tomahawk or scalping-knife, and would not, there- fore, (pardon the phrase in this connection) have wasted their ammu- nition. In that opinion, Governor Lewis, an experienced jurist-if not general-and familiar with the rules of evidence, concurred."
This opinion of two eminent lawyers, as well as the statement of the Wyandot, receives, moreover, additional confirmation in the fact,. that when the remains of Jane McCrea, some years since, were disin- terred and removed to the old Fort Edward burial ground, and con- signed to Mrs. MeNeal's grave, Dr. William S. Norton, a reputable
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PARTICULARS OF MISS McCREA'S DEATH.
and highly intelligent practitioner of physic and surgery, examined her skull and found no marks whatever of a cut or a gash.
This fact, also, strongly confirms the opinion expressed at the time by General Fraser1 at the post-mortem camp examination, that Jane MeCrea was accidentally killed, or rather unintentionally killed by American troops pursuing the Indians, and, as General Fraser said he had often witnessed, aiming too high, when the mark was on elevated ground, as had occurred at Bunker's (Breed's) Hill.
It thus appears, first : that Jane McCrea was accidentally killed by the Americans, and secondly: that the American Loyalist, David Jones, did not send the Indians, much less the ferocious " Wyandot Panther," whom he abhorred and dreaded on their errand.
Indeed, the falsity of this latter statement (which, by the way, Gen- eral Burgoyne never believed) is also susceptible of proof. The well established fact that Jones had sent Robert Ayers, (father-in-law of the late Mr. Ransom Cook, long a highly respected resident of Sara- toga Springs) with a letter to Miss Jane McCrea asking her to visit the British encampment and accompany its commander-in-chief, with his lady guests (Lady Harriet Acland and Mrs. General Riedesel) on an excusion to Lake George, 1 clearly shows how the charge against Jones had crept into a Whig accusation concerning misconduct and mean- ness and the dialogue (also well authenticated) between two of her captors, in relation to the comparative value of a white squaw-esti- mated, as before stated, at a barrel of rum-and her scalp-lock, ac- counts, perhaps, for the story of the pretended proffered reward (a barrel of rum) alleged to have caused the quarrel among the Indians which resulted in the supposed catastrophe. All who had been ac- quainted with David Jones knew that he was incapable of such con- duet and so expressed themselves at the time.
The rumor, also, which is slightly confirmed in Burgoyne's letter to General Gates (quoted in this chapter further in advance) that Miss McCrea was on her way to an appointed marriage ceremony, origi- nated in Jones's admission that he had intended, on the arrival of his betrothed at Skenesborough, to solicit her consent to their immediate nuptials. But Jones explicitly denied having intimated such a desire,
1 Afterwards killed in the second Battle of Saratoga. October 7, 1777.
1 Conversations of the author with the late Ransom Cook.
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WASHINGTON COUNTY: ITS HISTORY.
either in a letter to Miss McCrea or otherwise. "Such," he added, " was without reference to my own sense of propriety, my dear Jenny's sensibility, that the indelicacy of this supposed proposal would, even under our peculiar circumstances have thwarted it." The late Mr. Ben- son J. Lossing, the eminent and painstaking historian who visited Fort Edward while several of Jane McCrea's contemporaries were still alive, says "that Lieutenant Jones denied all knowledge of the matter and utterly disclaimed any such intention as the sending of a letter to Jenny, or of an Indian escort to bring her to camp. He had no motive for so doing, for the American army was even then retreating ; a small guard only was at Fort Edward, and in a day or two the British would have full possession of that fort, when he could have a personal inter- view with her."
Nevertheless, there is much probability that Jane received com- munications from her lover at intervals, especially after the British army left Skenesborough. The following original manuscript letter from Jones to Jenny bears out this view:
"SKENESBORO, JULY 11, 1777.
" Dear Friend: I have ye opportunity to send you this by William Barnsy, hoping through Freel, it will come safe to hand. Since last writing 'Ty'1 has been taken and we have had a battle, which no doubt you have been informed of before this. Through God's mercy I escaped destruction, and am now well at this place, for which thanks to Him. The rebels cannot recover from the blow yt has been struck, and no doubt the war will soon end. Such should be the prayer of all of us. Dear Jenny, I do not forget you, though much there is to distract in these days, and hope I am remembered by you as formerly. In a few days we will march to Fort Edward, for which I am anxious, when I shall have the happiness to meet you, after long absence. I hear from Isaac Vaughn, who has just come in, that the people on the river are moving to Albany. I hope if your brother John goes, you will not go with him, but stay at Mrs. McNeil's, 2 to whom and Miss Hunter give my dutiful respects. There I will join you. My dear Jenny, these are sad times, but I think the war will end this year, as the rebels cannot hold out and will see their error. By the blessing of Providence I trust we shall pass many years together in peace. Shall write on every occasion that offers and hope to find you at Mrs. McNeil's. No more at present, but believe yours affectionately till death. "DAVID JONES. "3
1 Ticonderoga.
2 Jones spells the name McNeil, while Judge Hay McNcal.
3 No one can peruse this beautiful letter without being convinced that Lieutenant Jones was a person both of education and culture. It will compare well with any written by cultured peo- ple at the present day. For purposes of comparison read the "Orders, " of the Capts., etc., given in this history, when the above remark will be apparent.
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