USA > New York > Washington County > Washington county, New York; its history to the close of the nineteenth century > Part 5
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1 Owing to the low lands along Wood Creek malignant dysentery often made its appearance among the troops posted in its vicinity.
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QUEEN ANNE'S WAR.
Conneticut, New Jersey and Pennsylvania were to rendezvous at Albany preparatory to the capture of Montreal by way of Lake Champlain. Although all of the above colonies were cordial in their support of this movement yet, that of New York entered most enthusiastically into the undertaking. The Five Nations, through the efforts of "Quider " (Peter Schuyler) straightway took up the hatchet and sent five hundred of their warriors into the field; while, in addition to the independent companies of the Colony four hundred and eighty-seven men were mustered into the service; thus forming with the other troops from the other provinces a body fifteen hundred strong. And to show how earnest New York was in this matter, the commissioners for procuring and trans- porting provisions and other supplies, were authorized to " break open houses, to impress vessels, teamsters, horses and wagons." Of the carpenters and house-joiners, impressed into this service, thirty were sent in advance to the head of the Lake at Whitehall, where a hundred bateaux and the same number of bark canoes were constructed; while, at the several carrying-places along the route, block-houses, barricades and storehouses were built. At the same time, as preliminary to the advance of the army, New York put forth all its energy to open a road at its own expense, which not only greatly facilitated the movements of the troops, but the forwarding of the supplies for the army with celerity and safety.
This road began nearly opposite the present village of Schuylerville on the east side of the Hudson and ran up that river's bank to Fort Edward and thence by way of Wood Creek to the head of Lake Cham- plain-a distance of forty miles through a dense primeval forest. Along this route three forts were erected. The northernmost one of these, on the west side of Wood Creek, was built partly from funds furnished by the British government and was named, in honor of the reigning sovereign, Fort Anne1. Another was erected at the beginning of the " Great Carrying-Place " between the Hudson and the head of Wood Creek-on the same site as where Fort Edward was afterwards built- and was called Fort Nicholson in honor of the officer in command of this expedition; while the third, called Saraghtoga," was erected in the
1 The present Champlain canal passes partly through the spot which it encircled.
2 Saratoga is an Indian word of the Iroquois language-Saratoga, Kayaderoga, and Sarahoga as it is variously written-and in view of the great confusion existing in regard to it an explana- tion is in place. The word means "The Place of the Swift Water." " Saragh," signifying " Swift water," " aga " or "oga " in the Iroquois dialect being merely an inflection or termination mean-
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WASHINGTON COUNTY : ITS HISTORY.
present town of Easton, on the summit of one of the river hills opposite Schuylerville, about a mile south of the present road from that village to Galesville. These last two forts were built entirely at the expense of the Province of New York. All these forts were built entirely of wood, and were surrounded by palisades so constructed as to render their garrisons almost impervious to the fire of musketry-and as, at that time, cannons brought against them through the wilderness were undreamed of, these defences were deemed amply able to ward of attacks either from the French or hostile Indians. The fort erected at Saratoga is the only one of which any description (detailed or otherwise) has come down to us; and singularly enough, it is from the pen not of a contemporaneous native officer or even private, but from that of a foreigner-the Sweedish naturalist Kalm,' who visited it fifty years after its erection, viz; in
1749. He writes: "Saratoga has been a fort built of wood by the English to stop the attacks of the French Indians upon the English inhabitants in these parts, and to serve as a rampart to Albany. It is situated on a hill, on the east side of the River Hudson, and is built of thick posts driven into the ground close to each other, in the manner of palisades, forming a square, the length of whose sides was within the reach of a musket shot [i. e. a musket fired from side of the fort could carry a ball to the opposite side. ] At each corner are the houses of the officers, and within the palisades are the barracks, all of timber."
Finally, all the arrangements for the descent upon Canada being complete, the army under the command of Col. Nicholson, left Albany and encamped at Fort Anne, where they awaited intelligence of the arrival of the forces from England destined for the assault on Quebec, in order that both attacks might be made in complete accord-each army co-operating with the other.
Meanwhile, M. de Vandreuil, the Governor of Canada, learning of Nicholson's formidable force at Wood Creek, dispatched a force of fifteen
ing* "the place of " or "the people of " hence, Ticonderoga "the place where the Lake (Lake George) shuts itself"; Scandaga "the place or the people of the roaring water;" Niagara, "the place of the falling waters," etc. Formerly, Schuyler's settlement on the Hudson, (near Schuyler- ville) was known by the name of Saratoga or "swift water" to distinguish that part of the river from the "still-water " which there begins and extends down to the present village of Stillwater- Saratoga Lake was afterwards thus named from its proximity to Saraghtoga on the River; and when the Springs became famous, as they were within the district, they were named Saratoga Springs. The above is undoubtedly the true origin of the name, notwithstanding so called authori- ties have endeavored to give different solutions.
* Letter of Sir William Johnson to Arthur Lee, of the Philosophical Society, upon the language of the Six Nations, February 28, 1772. Can there be any better authority ?
1 I shall have occasion further on to quote from this same gentleman.
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QUEEN ANNE'S WAR.
hundred troops to Lake Champlain to oppose that officer's further advance; but learning through his scouts that the English army was superior to his own, as well that it was strongly posted, he caused his men to return. Nor, were the two expeditions on the English side more successful. The fleet destined for the attack on Quebec was diverted and sent instead to support Portugal against the power of Castile; while Nicholson's army, discouraged by delays, and greatly reduced in strength by a malignant and very fatal dysentery which broke out among his troops as they lay encamped on the bank of Wood Creek,1 returned to Albany with his army where it was soon afterward disbanded.
In 1711, another attempt was made by the Colonists for the invasion of Canada. Col. Nicholson was again placed in command, and with Cols. Schuyler, Ingolsby and Whitney, and with two thousand English, one thousand Germans and Dutch, and one thousand Indians of the Five Nations, he began his march towards Lake Champlain, taking, however, in view of his past experience at Wood Creek, the Lake George route. At the same time, an army of sixty-four hundred men, under Gen. Hill, sailed from Boston for a simultaneous attack on Quebec. A storm, however, coming up in the St. Lawrence, which drowned three thousand of his men, Hill, abandoning the expedition, returned to Cape Breton; and Nicholson, learning of this failure, returned once more to Albany.
These two abortive attempts upon Canada not only greatly discouraged the Colonists, but occasioned for a time, derisive comment on the part of the Five Nations for the inglorious end of the efforts of their English allies, whom they began to look upon as a " weak and cowardly people." " Indeed," such a fatality seemed to attend every attempt to conquer Canada that many good people were almost constrained to believe that Providence had pre-determined that all such attempts should be frustrated." In fact, the outlook for New York was dark. The Indians
1 This sickness was said by Charlevoix to have been produced by the treachery of Nicholson's Indian allies who designedly threw the skins of those animals taken in hunting into the creek. Doctor Fitch, however, questions this statement, and ascribes it to a malignant dysentery brought on by the troops drinking the stagnant water which flowed into the creek from the surrounding marches. See my previous note. The dreadful nature of the disease may be conjectured from the statement of the Jesuit, Father Marreuil, who had been taken prisoner by the English and confined in Albany. He states, that when on his release, he returned to Canada, and passed over the spot where Nicholson's army had encamped, he judged from the number of graves which he counted that at a low estimate a thousand were there buried. Estimating Nicholson's force at 1500, fully sixty-six per cent must have fallen victims to this dreadful scourge !
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WASHINGTON COUNTY : ITS HISTORY.
became restless and listened favorably to the renewed propositions of peace from the French, who now boldly threatened- and so assured the Iroquois-an invasion of the Province of New York both by sea and land. Fortunately, however, the Peace of Utrecht in the spring of 1713 dispelled these clouds of gloom-the French King, Louis XIV, by this treaty, releasing his nominal Sovereignity over the Iroquois, and recog- nizing their country as subject to the Dominion of Great Britain.
THE OLD FRENCH WAR.
The repose which the Colonies had so long enjoyed since the Peace of Utrecht, under the administration of Sir Robert Walpole-owing prob- ably not more to the policy of that minister than to the pacific temper of the Duke of Orleans-the Regent of France during the minority of Louis XV-was, of course, ended by the receipt of the Declaration of War against France in 1744. Indeed, the news of this declaration had not reached the colonies before Duquesnel, the French Governor of Cape Breton, invaded the Island of Canseau, burnt the houses, and made prisoners both of the garrison and its inhabitants.
The declaration of hostilities was announced to the General Assembly of New York by the Colonial Governor, Clinton, on the 18th of July, 1744, as a measure that had become indispensable to the honor and dignity of the crown ; but, above all because of the movements of France in behalf of the Popish Pretender. In his address, he urged immediate and strong measures for the security not only of the City of New York, but for the general defence of the Colony and especially of the Frontiers.
Meanwhile, during the period of peace that had elapsed from 1713 to 1744, what means had been provided by the New York colonies, looking toward future troubles ? absolutely nothing ! No permanent settlement had ever been established in what is now Washington county as a bulwark to French aggressions. Fort Anne (not Fort St. Ann, as it has been incorrectly called from ignorance of the origin of its name) and built, as has been seen, in 1709, had been occupied for a few years only and then burned by Nicholson on the return of his army to Albany in 1711 (Kalm by the way, saw the remains of its burnt palisades when he passed them in 1749, forty years after its erection.) The "Little Stone Fort," mentioned by Capt. John Schuyler in 1690, in his Journal from which I have before quoted was evidently of no value even as a defense against the Adirondacks; and Fort Saratoga was therefore the
33
THE OLD FRENCH WAR.
nearest post to the Canadian posts of La Prairie and Chambley in the north. Such, then was the condition of affairs, when in 1744, the "Old French war " broke out; and from the above description of the northern defences of New York, it will readily be seen that the war found that province utterly unprepared for this emergency. It was, therefore, not surprising that Clinton, in his announcement of hostilities, should have intimated that measures had already been taken for strengthening the posts of Oswego and Saratoga-which measures had consisted in some attention having been given to keeping the fort at Saratoga in repair, and having on the outbreak of hostilities dispatched a detach- ment of troops to garrison that fort. The next year Col. Phillip Schuyler was sent by the Colonial Government to erect six block-houses at Saratoga.' This was a work entailing great personal danger, as hostile Indians continually lurked behind every tree in the forest awaiting their opportunity to bring down any one within the range of their rifles. The house of Col. Lydius on the site of Fort Nicholson was burned and his son taken to Canada as a captive. Finally, on the 16th of November, 1745, an attack by some four hundred French and two hundred and twenty Indians under the command of a French partizan officer named Molang, was made upon the fort at Saratoga itself; and although it was not taken, yet not only was it virtually destroyed but the damage inflicted upon the surrounding property, was considerable. The artifice practiced by the Indians and French in their attack on the fort, is thus narrated by Kalm.
"A party of French, with their Indians, concealed themselves by night in a thicket near the fort. In the morning, some of their Indians as they had previously resolved, went to have a nearer view of the fort. The English fired upon them as soon as they saw them at a distance; the Indians pretended to be wounded, fell down, got up again, ran a little way and dropped again. About half of the garrison rushed out to take theni prisoners, but as soon as they were come up with them the French and the remaining Indians came out of the bushes betwixt the fortress and the English, surrounded them and took them prisoners. Those who remained in the fort had hardly time to shut the gates, nor could they fire upon the enemy because they equally exposed their countrymen to danger, and they were vexed to see their enemies take
1 The reader should bear in mind that when " Fort Saratoga" is mentioned it was in the town of Easton, Washington county, opposite the present town of Schuylerville.
[ 4 ]
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WASHINGTON COUNTY : ITS HISTORY.
and carry them off in their sight and under their cannon." The saw mills-which had to their owners became quite lucrative, and other buildings on the opposite bank of the river near the mouth of Fish Creek were burned to the ground except a new mill standing out of their course, as were other dwellings scattered along the river in the vicinity of those residing at this place. Hoyt says, in his " Indian wars," the greater part of them were killed by the tomahawk while others, scarcely so fortunate, were carried into captivity. The affair is repre- sented as having been barbarous ; and while I have not been able to find the number of persons killed, the slaughter must have been considerable, since Governor Clinton, in a speech to the Assembly several weeks afterwards, says : "Many of our people were murdered." Among the slain was the brave Captain Schuyler, a brother of Colonel Phillip Schuyler. More than one hundred captives were taken away, a majority of whom were blacks-slaves it is presumed. Thirty families were sacrificed in the massacre; a description of the horrors of which would be but a repetition of the story of Schenectady, fifty-five years before. So adroitly had the enemy concocted their plans that every house must have been attacked at nearly the same instant of time. One family only escaped, the footsteps of whose flight were lighted by the conflagragation. From Saratoga, the invaders crossed the Hudson, and swept with equal desolation over the village of Hoosic lying just beyond the southern limits of this county. A small fort at this place, commanded by Col. Hawks, made a spirited defence but was compelled to surrender. These events laid Washington and other frontier counties naked and open to the ravages of the enemy down to the very gates of Albany, spreading general consternation through the interior of the Province. As a consequence, the inhabitants in the settlements most exposed rushed to Albany for security; and the males of that city, capable of bearing arms, were obliged to go upon the watch in the environs, each in his turn every other night.
In the succeeding winter of 1746, the New York Colonial Assembly at the request of the Schuyler family, voted a hundred and fifty pounds to build a fort in place of Fort Saratoga-now, as before stated, in a useless and deserted condition. It was not, however, purely patriotism on the family's part, but it was intended to guard the large fields east of the old fort, which notwithstanding the destruction of the houses and mills it was hoped might be guarded. Accordingly, in the spring of that year, on a hill considerably west of the old site of Fort Saratoga,
35
THE OLD FRENCH WAR.
a new fortress was built. The new fort was much larger than the old one, being a hundred and fifty feet long by a hundred and fifty wide, with six wooden redoubts for barracks. It was fortified with six 12 pound and six 18 pound cannon and received the name of Fort Clinton in honor of the English Governor George Clinton-father of Sir Henry Clinton, the British commander in the Revolution.
In the early part of June, 1747, Col. (afterwards Sir William Johnson) was advised that the French, with their always loyal Indian allies (thanks to Champlain) were again showing themselves in the vicinity of Fort Clinton near the old site of Fort Saratoga. By the 16th of the same month, he was also informed, by the return of an unsuccessful war- party of the Schoharies, of the approach upon Lake Champlain of a fleet of three hundred canoes, and admonished to be on his guard against a surprise. Immediately, on the arrival of this intelligence at Saratoga, Capt. Chew was ordered forth with a detachment of one hundred men to reconnoiter the country between that post and the head of Lake Champlain. Falling in with the enemy on the 19th of June, an action ensued in which fifteen of his men were killed and forty-seven more, with himself, taken prisoners. The detachment encountered by Chew, was commanded by the famous French partizan La Corn de St. Luc, who immediately fell back upon a much larger force, occupying the path of communication between the Hudson and the Lake. But La Corn did not fall back without leaving a detachment of three hundred men, under M. Laquel, to Jurk about Fort Saratoga, and cut off approaching supplies and reinforcements. According to the representation of one of the enemy's Indians, who deserted and came to Saratoga, the main force of the French at the "Great Carrying-Place," consisted of twelve companies. The Indian informed farther, that St. Luc was to advance again immediately with artillery and mining tools, to lay siege to the Fort. Meantime, the three hundred who had been left in the environs of the Fort, under M. Laquel, performed bold service by appearing openly and attempting to fire a block-house, used, as they supposed, as a magazine, by shooting burning arrows, against its walls. " The person appointed to perform this duty," said the commander of the Fort in a letter written to Col. Johnson, " had a blanket carried before him that he might not discover (to the garrison ?) the fire upon the tops of his arrows. The main body of the enemy soon moved down to Fish Creek about a mile south of Fort Clinton, and a detachment of their troops was thrown between that post and Albany. Col. Schuyler at
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WASHINGTON COUNTY : ITS HISTORY.
once marched with his regiment, together with such other forces as he could raise on the instant to meet the invaders; who, however, though greatly superior in numbers, retired at his approach and fell back to Crown Point.
Fort Clinton was held by the Colony during the remainder of the summer ; but, in the fall, the garrison were withdrawn and the fort burned by order of Governor Clinton, his reason being that the Provin- cial Assembly would not vote sufficient money to keep it in thorough repair. Indeed the wonder is that Clinton had not adopted this measure long before. In the early spring of 1747, the officers wrote from Fort Clinton (or "Saratoga " as it was interchangably still called) that the garrison of that fort were almost in a state of mutiny from lack of pay, and that they were fearful the garrison would desert in a body. Col. Roberts also soon after wrote Col. Wm. Johnson announcing the desertion of thirty-four men from a single company; and, indeed, the garrison had become so much weakened as to create serious apprehen- sions that the fort would be lost; while the officers stationed at that fort wrote to the Governor that they could not persuade the designated quotas of the northern militia companies for the defence of that jeoparded position to remain. The fort at this time was garrisoned by the New Jersey levies, commanded by Col. Peter Schuyler: but as Mr. Clinton was inflexable in his purpose of drawing no more upon the Crown, there was grave danger of a speedy evacuation of the post for want of provisons In fact, information to that effect from Col. Schuyler himself, caused the Assembly to address the Governor on the 9th of September, praying earnestly for the adoption of such measures as would prevent the destruction of the forces, and prevent the fortress from falling into the hands of the enemy with its heavy cannon and stores. In the event of the threatened desertion of the Jersey men, the House suggested that the post might be regarrisoned by a detachment from the new levies destined against Canada, or if these levies were not still within his Excellency's command, they prayed that a portion of the independent fusileers might be sent thither, the Assembly pledging the necessary supplies for that service. But before this address had been presented, the Governor had rendered any answer thereto unnecessary by a message of a very decided character in reply to the resolutions of the House of the preceding week, in which all the demands for supplies were reiter- ated, with a threat that unless the house should revoke its determination not to provide for the transportation of supplies to the outposts he should
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THE OLD FRENCH WAR.
be under the necessity of withdrawing the garrisons both from Oswego and Saratoga (Ft. Clinton)-points which would of course be immediately occupied by the enemy. The Assembly, however, still proving con- tumacious, the Governor was forced, as we have seen, to the dismantling of the fort and the withdrawl of its garrison in pursuance of his threat.
Aside from these events here related, little of moment occurred in Washington county, during the remainder of the war. Block-houses, in addition to the dilapidated fort at Saratoga were, by order of the Assembly, erected and a garrison maintained during the continuance of the war. A definite Treaty of Peace, however was soon after concluded, on the 7th of October 1748, at Aix La Chapelle; though considering the circumstances under which it was concluded, and the relative strength of the parties and the condition of the alliance at the head of which was England, for the farther prosecution of the contest, it was a most inglorious peace.
Thus ended the " old French War," produced by the wickedness of Frederick, " the evils of which were felt in lands where the name of Prussia was unknown; and, in order that he might rob a neighbor whom he had promised to defend, black men fought on the coast of Coromandel, and Red-men scalped by the Great Lakes of America 1."
CHAPTER IV.
KALM'S JOURNEY THROUGH WHAT IS NOW WASHINGTON COUNTY IN 1749: AND THE FIRST BEGINNINGS OF SETTLEMENTS IN ITS TERRITORY.
Now, that the Peace of Aix La Chapelle, in 1748, has happily put an end, for the time being at least, to the many bloody atrocities which I have been compelled, as a truthful historian, to place before the reader, this is a fitting opportunity to carry him into more peaceful scenes. Hence, he is invited first to look upon Washington county as it then was, through the eyes of the distinguished Sweedish botanist Kalm. This gentleman, whom I have before quoted, was evidently a person of very shrewd observation. He had crossed the Atlantic for the purpose of exploring the fauna and flora of this country; and the
1 Macauley's Life of Frederick the Great.
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WASHINGTON COUNTY : ITS HISTORY.
restoration of peace had enabled him to journey leisurely through what is now Washington county into Canada.
With a guide he left Albany in a canoe, on the 23d of June, 1749, and proceeded up the river. Most of the farms above Albany lay along the river, all the houses were built of logs, the interstices being filled with clay. He observed that contiguous to each house was a small garden, in which squash, water-melon and kidney beans were reared- all having an orchard of apple trees. In Halfmoon was a large Dutch barn, which seems to have afforded him much amusement and this was the last building he saw in the Province ; for every house and barn north of that had been burned by the Indians during the war. The owners, however, were now returning to their houseless farms or clearings-their families being huddled into temporary shanties-some of them, even, having no shelter except a slight shed made of a few boards.
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