USA > New York > Washington County > Washington county, New York; its history to the close of the nineteenth century > Part 25
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1 See my Life and Military Journals of Major-General Riedesel.
2 And yet General Riedesel states that 1,500 horses had been purchased in Canada, as early as the middle of June, for the army. What became of them ? Is it possible that the contractors of that day as well as our own. pocketed the money and failed to produce the horses ?
3 The weight of one of these Brunswick Jack Boots was 5 1-2 pounds or HI pounds for the pair, and this only for the boots, to say nothing of the dragoon's other equipments One of these boots, worn by a man captured at Saratoga, is yet ( 1900) preserved at Washington's Headquarters at Newburgh, N. V. The man who wore this boot was captured at Saratoga. He travelled on foot with other prisoners on his way to Easton, Pa., as far as North Newburgh, where he ex- changed his boots for a lighter pair.
215
EXPEDITION TO BENNINGTON.
the troops sent out by the British General, on a service requiring the lightest of light skirmishers. The latter, however, did not err from ignorance. From the beginning of the campaign, the English officers had ridiculed these unwieldy troopers, who strolled about the camp with their heavy sabres dragging on the ground, saying (which was the fact) that the hat and sword of one of them were as heavy as the whole of an English private's equipment. But, as if this was not sufficient, these light dragoons were still further cumbered by being obliged to carry flour and drive a herd of cattle before them for their maintenance on the way. Could anything have been more fattious?
Baum left Fort Miller on the 11th of August and encamped near old Fort Saraghtoga that night. When about to move the next morn- ing he received an order to wait for further instructions, and remained encamped through the day at the mouth of the Battenkill. The fol- lowing day, August 13, he set out on his unlucky expedition. That' night he encamped near what is now called "Wait's Corners " in the town of Cambridge. His advance had a slight skirmish with a few militiamen, capturing eight of them. They were released the follow- ing morning at Colonel Skene's request, the latter having an idea that this action would have a good effect on the large number of those of the population who were supposed to be favorably inclined towards the cause of the King.
Colonel Baum had been specially instructed to consult Skene in everything relating to the treatment of the inhabitants, whom that personage was supposed to know all about, but whom he, as the re- sult proved, actually knew very little about. The fact is, that Skene thought that two-thirds of the people were loyalists, whereas, espec- ially in the section traversed by Baum, hardly one in ten were so. On the 14th Baum's command proceeded southward through Cambridge, crossed the Hoosick into the present town of Rensselaer and followed up the valley of that stream and its tributary, the Walloomsac, toward Bennington.
The result of these inefficient manoeuvres may be easily foreseen. By a rapid movement of the Americans under Stark, at three o'clock of the afternoon of the 16th of August, Baum was cut off from his English allies, who fled and left him to fight alone, with his awk- wardly equipped squad, an enemy far superior in numbers. In this manoeuver Stark was greatly aided by a ruse practiced on the German Colonel. " Toward nine o'clock on the morning of the 16th." writes
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WASHINGTON COUNTY: ITS HISTORY.
General Riedesel, in giving an account of this action, "small bodies of armed men made their appearance from different directions. These men were mostly in their shirt-sleeves. They did not act as if they intended to make an attack and Baum, being told by a Provincial who had joined his army on the line of march, that they were all Loyalists and would make common cause with him, suffered them to encamp on his sides and rear. This confidence, perhaps, was the first and chief false step which caused Baum's ultimate defeat. Shortly after- ward, another force of the 'Rebels' arrived and attacked his rear, but with the aid of artillery, they were repulsed. After a little while a stronger body made their appearance and attacked more vigorously. This was the signal for the seeming Loyalists, who had encamped on the sides and rear of the army, to attack the Germans, and the result was that Baum suddenly found himself cut off from all his detached posts."1 For over two hours he withstood the sallies and fire of the Americans-his dragoons to a man fighting like heroes-but at last, his ammunition giving out and the re-inforcements he had sent for not arriving, he was obliged to give way before superior numbers and retreat. "The enemy," to quote again from General Riedesel, than whom no better or more conscientious authority can be given, "seemed to spring out of the ground." Twice the dragoons succeeded in breaking a road through the forces of Stark, for, upon their ammu- nition being used up, Baum ordered that they should sling their car- bines on their shoulders and trust to their swords. But bravery was now in vain, the heroic leader, himself mortally wounded in the abdo- men by a bullet, and having lost three hundred and sixty out of four hundred men, was forced to surrender. Meanwhile, the Indians and Provincials had taken flight and sought safety in the forest.
While these events were taking place Lieutenant-Colonel Brey- mann, who had been sent by Riedesel to the aid of Baum, reached the bridge of Sancoick at three o'clock in the afternoon. Here he was met by Major Skene, who assured him that he was only two miles distant from Lieutenant-Colonel Baum. Skene, however, not inform- ing him of the latter's defeat, he continued his march as quickly as possible, although his troops-the day being unusually hot and sultry -were greatly fatigued. But scarcely had he advanced fifteen hun-
1 I have only quoted a very small portion of Riedesel's account. If the reader wishes to read more of it, he is referred to my "Life and Times of General Riedesel," and my " Burgoyne's Cam- paign."
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BREYMANN'S RETREAT.
dred paces beyond the bridge, when he descried a strongly armed force on an eminence toward the west. Skene assured him this force were not the enemy, but Breymann, not satisfied with this assurance, sent ahead some scouts who were immediately received with a volley of musketry. Perceiving how the case stood, he at once ordered Major Barner to advance upon the hill, sent his grenadiers to the right, put the guns of both regiments into position and directed the fire upon a log-house occupied by the Americans. The Germans drove the enemy across three ridges of land, but their ammunition giving out, they were obliged to desist from the pursuit. Thereupon, the Americans, guessing the cause of the halt, in their turn, once more advanced, upon which, Breymann, relying solely upon the fast gather- ing darkness to save himself, halted his men opposite the enemy and remained there until it was perfectly dark. Then, under cover of the night, he retreated across the bridge, but was forced to leave his can- non in the hands of the Americans. At twelve o'clock that same night, Breymann arrived with his tired troops at Cambridge, reaching the main army at Fort Miller on the 17th. Meanwhile, he had dis- patched messengers to Burgoyne, who, galloping through darkness and mud, reached that general with the news of both battles at three o'clock on the morning of the 17th. Startled by these unexpected tidings of disaster and fearing lest Breymann, too, would be over- whelmed by an avalanche of New England riflemen-whom, not- withstanding his supercilious remark, 1 he had already begun to fear- he consulted Riedesel as to the advisability of starting at once with his entire army to support the defeated detachment-at the same time sending off an officer to inform Colonel Breymann of his intention. But before he could put his design in operation, Riedesel had received news that Breymann had escaped and was within six miles of the Batten- kill, and the order was therefore countermanded. In the course of that day (the 17th) the wearied Brunswickers, covered with mud and almost dead with fatigue, marched disconsolately into the camp at Fort Miller while, hour after hour, the Dragoons, the Tories and the Indians came straggling in with their several tales of woe.
: Reference is here made to Burgoyne's remark in Parliament, before assuming the command in America, that " with 500, British troops he could march through all of the Colonies."
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WASHINGTON COUNTY: ITS HISTORY.
In this action the Americans captured four brass cannon, 1 besides some hundred stand of arms and brass barrelled drums, several Brunswick swords and about seven hundred prisoners. "It is true," says Riedesel, in commenting upon this action, "that justice was done to the bravery of Colonel Baum, but the English also said, that he did not possess the least knowledge of the country, its people, or its lan- guage. But who selected him for this expedition? " ?
I have dwelt on this battle at length, because the Battle of Ben- nington was one of those decisive conflicts which "fringe the border of Washington County with a red band of warlike wrath." It was barely outside of the southern line of the present town of White Creek, in the valley of the Walloomac, that "the old Indian fighter, grim John Stark," having waited throughout the 15th for the rain to abate, on the morning of the 16th led his militia against the well trained and disciplined forces of Colonel Baum. His men were, it is true, chiefly from New Hampshire, and there were, also, a considera- ble number from Vermont and Massachusetts, but many of them were from the towns of Cambridge, White Creek, Jackson and Salem in this county.
In order, however, says Jennings, in his " Memoirs of a Century," to appreciate the valor of the Americans in the Bennington Battle, their general want of military experience and training must be con- sidered. When Stark ordered the cannon taken from Baum to the scene of action, upon the arrival of Breymann, the men whom he directed to load and fire knew not how to do it; the general there- upon dismounted and taught them. by loading one of the pieces him- self. 3 After the battle in all Stark's brigade there was but one case
1 These beautiful brass pieces of artillery were destined to undergo several of the vicissi- tudes of war. They are French cast and were brought from Quebec with the army of Burgoyne. They were afterwards inscribed "taken at Bennington, August 16, 1777," and constituted a part of the artillery of General Hull's army and fell into the enemy's hands at Detroit. When the British officer of the day ordered the evening salutes to be fired from the American cannon, he chanced to read the inscription, whereupon he said that he would cause to be added, as an addi- tional line, "Retaken at Detroit, August 16, 1812." The guns were carried by the British down to Fort George at the mouth of the Niagara river, where they again fell into the hands of the Ameri- can army, which captured that fortress. Gen. Dearborn had them transported to Sackett's Har- bor and with them were fired the salutes in honor of Harrison's victory over Proctor at the river Thames, in Upper Canada. The guns are now in Washington.
A beautiful monument erected under the auspices of the Bennington Monument Association- on the site of the Battle. commemorates the action.
2 This, of course, was meant for a severe eut at Burgoyne-and a just one.
3 l'hatcher.
219
IMPORTANCE OF SUCCESS AT BENNINGTON.
of amputating instruments. Doctor Henry Clark relates that a resi- dent of Bennington, who was a lad at the time of the battle, told him of the vivid impression made upon his mind by seeing the men hurry- ing past where he stood (he stood on the corner since occupied by Mr. Patchen's store) with scythes and axes, as well as muskets and fowl- ing pieces to meet the enemy.
Some remarks of Mr. Everett in his life of Stark may appropriately be quoted on this point :
" Too much praise cannot be bestowed on the conduct of those who gained the Battle of Bennington, officers and men. It is, perhaps, the most conspicuous example of the performance by militia of all that is expected of regular veteran troops. The fortitude and resolu- tion with which the lines at Bunker Hill were maintained by recent recruits against the assault of a powerful army of experienced soldiers have always been regarded with admiration. But at Bennington the hardy yeomanry of New Hampshire, Vermont and Massachusetts Į when he speaks of Vermont, of course he refers to the people of Washington County, at least those residing east of the Hudson] many of them fresh from the plow and unused to the camp, advanced,' as General Stark expresses it 'through fire and smoke and mounted breastworks that were well fortified with cannon.'"
With the failure of this expedition against Bennington, the first lightning flashed from Burgoyne's hitherto serene sky. The soldiers, as well as their officers, had set out on this campaign with cheerful hearts for, the campaign brought to a close, all must end in the triumph of the British arms. Even the ladies who accompanied the expedition -Mrs. General Riedesel and Lady Harriet Acland and others- thought they were actually on a grand picnic and, as they plodded through the wilderness from Fort Edward to Fort Miller with their brilliantly uniformed escorts, they laughed and chattered in a right merry mood. 1 " Britons never go back, " Burgoyne exultantly had said, as the flotilla passed up Lake Champlain. Now, however, the Indians deserted by scores and an almost general consternation and languor took the place of the former confidence and bouyancy.
On his arrival at Fort Edward, which, as has been narrated, was
' See my " Life and Letters of Mrs. General Riedesel." One of the bronze tablets in the Sara- toga Monument at Schuylerville, N. Y., has a represention of this gala march through the wil- derness-the ladies and officers talking merrily together while carrying their lap-dogs in their arms!
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WASHINGTON COUNTY: ITS HISTORY.
evacuated by Schuyler on the approach of the British army, the Eng- lish General was joined by the Mohawk nation, or, as they were called, "Sir William Johnson's Indians." The celebrated Indian chieftain, Joseph Brant-Thayendanega-also visited Burgoyne's camp at the same time, as a matter of courtesy; and tarried only a few days. The Mohawks agreed to fight, provided their women and chil- dren were sent to Canada, a condition which was faithfully carried out.
It was while Burgoyne was at Fort Edward that his German ally, General Riedesel, was joined on the 18th of July by his wife, who had followed the army on from Canada. In one of her letters to her mother she gives a delightful picture of her sojourn at Fort Edward at this time. "In the afternoon of the 14th of July, " she writes, "we seated ourselves in a calash 1 at Fort George and reached Fort Edward on the same day. We led during the three weeks of our stay at this place, a very pleasant life. The surrounding country was magnifi- cent and we were encircled by the encampments of the English and German troops. We lived in a building called the . Red House.' ' ] had only one room for my husband, myself and my children, in which my husband also slept, and had besides all'his writing materials. My women servants slept in a kind of hall. When it was beautiful weather we took our meals under the trees, but if not, in a barn, upon
1 Isaac Weld in his "Travels in Canada " (1795-7) gives the following description of a "Calash" which will be of interest to the reader. He writes as follows :
" The calash is a carriage very generally used in Lower Canada. Indeed, there is scarcely a farmer in the country who does not possess one. It is a sort of one horse-chaise, capable of hold- ing two people besides the driver, who sits on a kind of box placed over the footboard expressly for his accommodation. The body of the calash is hung upon broad straps of leather, round iron rollers that are placed behind by means of which they are shortened or lengthened. On each side of the carriage is a little door about two feet high, whereby you enter it, and which is useful when shut, in preventing anything from slipping out. The harness for the horse is always made in the old French taste, extremely heavy; it is studded with brass nails and to particular parts of it are attached small bells, of no use that I could ever discover but to annoy passengers." .
2 " The 'Red House' or Burgoyne's Headquarters, was built [as mentioned in a preceding note, out of the debris of the old fort] before the Revolution by Doctor James Smyth, who fled to. Canada, but, subsequently, sold the ' Red House ' to Captain Ezekiel Baldwin, who occupied it as a tavern until he built and removed to the tavern owned, subsequently, by Major Sproll. The . Red House ' stood on an open, unfenced space. I recollect having seen it in that condition. When it was taken down I do not know; but two years ago, I found its chimney foundation, over which a new street has since been opened. The fort of 1709 was on the 'Red House' site, where Colonel Lydius, after having been expelled from Montreal, built a kind of bloek-house residence, which the French called Fort Lydius. and by whom it was burned in 1745. On its foundation Doctor Smyth erected the . Red House,' which, after Smyth left for Canada, was occupied by Peter Treal, a Tory."-Letter from the late . Hon. William Hay of Saratoga Springs, Along a resident of (ilens Falls and Fort Edward) to the author, December Ist, 1866.
221
NARRATIVE OF SERGEANT LAMB.
boards, which were laid upon casks and served as a table. It was at this place that I eat bear's flesh for the first time and found it of cap- ital flavor. We were often put to it to get any thing to eat; notwith- standing this, however, I was very happy and contented, for I was with my children and beloved by those by whom I was surrounded. There were, if I remember rightly, four or five adjutants staying with us. The evening was spent by the gentlemen in playing cards and by myself in putting my children to bed." 1
Beyond Fort Edward the county was peopled with German, Dutch and English settlers. The latter, pretending to be good royalists, were allowed by Burgoyne, against the strong representations of his officers, not only to carry arms, but to stroll about the camp at their leisure, and without any restraint. "These men, however," says Riedesel in his Journal, "were all but Royalists. They consequently improved the opportunity to gain intelligence of all the occurrences in the army by appearances, and they forthwith communicated to the commanders of the enemy's forces that which they had seen and heard. Having finally reached the Hudson at the mouth of the Bat- tenkill, those of the German dragoons that were left were horsed. Their number had now diminished to twenty, and this number con- stituted the entire cavalry force of the invading army.
SERGEANT LAMB'S ACCOUNT OF HIS JOURNEY FROM FORT MILLER TO TICONDEROGA.
While General Burgoyne was in camp at Fort Miller, at the mouth of the Battenkill, and just as he was on the point of making an ad- vance upon Saratoga preparatory to a still further movement against Albany, he sent Sergeant Lamb back to Ticonderoga on a particular mission. As part of this journey through the woods was made within the present limits of Washington County, I have thought the general, as well as the Washington County reader, would be glad to hear Lamb's narrative in full-especially when it is stated that the work from which it is taken is exceedingly rare-there being, with the
1 Stone's Riedesel Pg. 32.
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WASHINGTON COUNTY: ITS HISTORY.
exception of my own copy, but three in the libraries of the United States. ' Lamb writes as follows:
" During our continuance at Fort Miller, the writer of this memoir was selected by his officers to return alone to Ticonderoga, for the purpose of taking back some of our baggage which had been left there. Going unaccompanied on such a solitary route was dreary and dan- gerous; but yet the selection of one from numbers, seemed to render the man chosen on the occasion a depository of peculiar confidence. He therefore undertook the duty imposed, not only without repining, but with alacrity. A small detachment, if sent, could not pass unno- ticed or safe by such a route through the woods, a distance of twenty miles, and a sufficient force could not be spared on the occasion. " The sending of a single soldier appeared, therefore, as the most ad- visable plan, and it was ordered by General Burgoyne, that he should, after arriving at Ticonderoga, follow the Royal army with the bag- gage escorted by the recruits and as many of the convalescents re- maining at that post as could march with it. Pursuant to this arrange- ment, he prepared himself, taking twenty rounds of ball cartridges and some provisions. About noon he set out and at four in the after- noon reached our former encampment, Fort Edward, where he stopped awhile to refresh. Thence he proceeded with as much expe- dition as he could make to Fort Henry3 on Lake George. Almost
Memoir of his own life, by R. Lamb, formerly a sergeant in the Royal Welsh Fusiliers. Dublin, 1811. Lamb, after his return to Ireland, established a school for boys, which met with great success. He evidently, as I have remarked before, was a man of great shrewdness of ob- servation and of education. That he retained the esteem of the officers in the British army is evident, since in his work he gives the names of some four hundred subscribers to it-nearly all people of the highest prominence-and among whom were nearly all of the officers of the British army who served in America at that time. This occupation, as he informs us, enabled him for twenty-six years, to provide for and educate a growing family-the source of satisfaction and solicitude. He was discharged without the pension usually given for past services (occasioned by a mere technicality and "red tape ") and being frequently advised by his friends to apply for it, in 1809 (twenty-five years after receiving his discharge) he memorialized His Royal Highness. the Duke of York, and was graciously favored by an immediate compliance with the prayer of his petition. Lamb, as I hear from the secretary of the Royal Hospital in Chelsea. in his reply to my letter asking for the information under date of October 4th, 1885, states that Lamb died in 1832.
2 Lamb refers here to the distance from Fort Miller to Fort George, where he would take water-carriage and not of course, to the distance from Fort Miller to Ticonderoga.
Meaning, of course, Fort George. Fort William Henry, that fort being then in ruins.
Indeed, much confusion seems always to have arisen regarding these two forts. Thus, the French on Montealm's expedition against Fort William Henry in 1757 (built by Sir William John- son in 1755) spoke of going against Fort George- though that fort, which consisted, by the way, of only a single bastine, was not built until several years after by General Amherst.
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LAMB'S NARRATIVE CONTINUED.
eleven o'clock at night, becoming very weary, he laid him down to sleep a little in a thick part of the wood. Although the day had been hot, the night dews soon awakened him shivering with cold, having rested but about two hours; then resuming his march for four or five miles, he saw a light on his left, and directed his course toward it. Having gained the place, he was saluted by a man at the door of his house, ' who informed him that a soldier's wife had been just taken in from the woods, where she was found by one of his family, in the pains of childbirth. Being admitted into this hospitable dwelling, the owner of which was one of the Society of Friends, or people called Quakers, he recognized the wife of a sergeant of his own company. The woman was delivered of a fine girl soon after, and having re- quested her friendly host to allow her to stop, until his return from Ticonderoga, at which time he would be able to take her to the main army in one of his wagons, he set out on his lonely route again. 2 Pre- vious to his leaving her, she informed him that she had determined to brave the dangers of the woods, in order to come up with her hus- band; that she had crossed Lake George and was seized with the sick- ness of labor in the forest, where she must have perished, had she not been proventially discovered by the kind-hearted people under whose roof she then was. 3 It is worthy of remark that the author not long since in this city, [Dublin] with great pleasure, saw the female who was born as he before related, in the wilderness near Lake George. She had been married to a man serving in the band of a militia regi- ment and the meeting with her revived in his mind the lively emotions. of distressful and difficult seenes, which, although long passed, can never be forgotten by him. At Fort George he was provided with a boat to take him across to Ticonderoga."
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