USA > New York > Washington County > Washington county, New York; its history to the close of the nineteenth century > Part 8
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These difficulties having been finally adjusted, Johnson, upon the 8th of August, set out from Albany with the stores and artillery and-with the exception of the New York and Rhode Island militia, which were still behind-with the rest of the troops. He was also accompanied by King Hendrick with fifty Mohawk warriors, and also by the afterward celebrated Joseph Brant, then a mere lad of thirteen years. Upon his arrival at the Great Carrying-Place (Fort Edward) he was joined by two hundred more braves, thus increasing the number of his Indian allies to about two hundred and fifty.
The General found the New England troops, already arrived at Fort Edward, burning with ardor and impatient of delay. The news of Braddock's defeat, far from disheartening, only made them the more desirous to be led against Crown Point. To them, this expedition was for the defence of their firesides. " I endeavor to keep myself calm and quiet under our slow progress and await God's time," wrote Thomas
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WASHINGTON COUNTY : ITS HISTORY.
Williams, one of the Provincials, at this time to his wife.1 But to them the advance was slow. Gen. Lyman felt equally restive under the delay. So much so, indeed, that before Johnson's arrival and after getting the building of Fort Edward well under way, he had set three hundred of his men at work cutting a road from Fort Edward to Fort Anne, supposing that the army would proceed against Crown Point by way of Wood Creek and Lake Champlain. Johnson, however, in view of a council of war, which he proposed to call for the purpose of deciding upon the best route, countermanded the order, and sent out a scouting party of forty soldiers and three Indians to reconnoitre the whole country in that vicinity. The scouts having returned, a council was called on the 22nd, in which the officers upon hearing their report unamiously gave it as their opinion " that the road to Lake St. Sacra- ment [Lake George] appeared to them the most eligible, and that it ought to be immediately set about." It was also determined to send forward two thousand men to cut a road through the woods to the head of the Lake, and erect there suitable buildings in which to store arms and other munitions of war when they should arrive.
Leaving General Lyman, therefore, at Fort Edward to await the arrival of the rest of the troops and the New Hampshire men to com- plete and garrison the Fort, Johnson set out on the 26th with thirty four hundred men for the Lake a distance of fourteen and a half miles -- reaching it at dusk of the twenty-eighth. The position which he selected for his camp was a strong one, it being protected on the rear by the Lake, and on both flanks by a thickly wooded swamp. His first act on his arrival there, was to change the name of the lake from St. Sacrament to Lake George," "not only," as he loyally writes, "in honor of his Majesty but to ascertain his undoubted dominion there." Although for many years previously this lake had been used as a means of communication both for warlike and commercial purposes between
1 This same Ietter is given by the Historian, Parkman, in his " Montcalm and Wolfe " sent him by me -of which he gives due acknowledgement.
2 The ancient Indian name of this Lake was Andiatarocte-" there the lake shuts itself." The French Missionary Father Joques named it St. Sacrament ; not, as some suppose, Mr. Cooper among them-on account of the purity of its waters, but because he arrived at the Lake upon the eve of the festival day of that name. The early Roman Catholic discoverers frequently connect the discovery of places with the festival name in the calendar. " Ils auiverant, la ville du St. Sacra- ment, au bout du lac qui est joint au grand lac de Champlain. Les Iroquois le nomment Andiat- arocte, comme qui disoir la on lac le ferme. Le Pere le nomma le lac du St. Sacrament," Jesuit Relations 1645-6. Mr. Cooper in his Last of the Mohicans suggests the name of Horicon for this lake after a tribe of Indians that resided near its banks. This, though quite poetical, is merely fanci- ful; as indeed he claims, and has not the merit of historic truth.
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THE FRENCH WAR CONTINUED.
Canada and Albany, yet Johnson found a primeval forest where "no house was ever before built, nor a spot of land cleared." The soldiers were immediately set to work clearing a place for a camp of five thousand men, and providing shelter for the military stores. Mean- while Gen. Lyman, having left at Ford Edward two hundred and fifty New England troops, and five companies from New York which had finally arrived, joined the camp at Lake George on the 3d of September, bringing with him all the heavy artillery.
All now was activity in the Provincial Camp. Wagons laden with munitions of war came and went across the portage. The wild flowers of the forest were crushed beneath the rude tread of armed men. The noise of a hundred hammers echoed through the mountain fastnesses; while keel after keel cut the crystal waters of the Lake. By day, the French Mountain frowned defiantly at those by whom its repose had first been broken; and at night the panther from the neighboring thicket looked forth upon the stalwart forms reclining by the watch-fires. " Prayers," wrote Johnson, "have a good effect, especially among the New England men;" and on the Sabbath, while the Indians were reclining at a distance under the forest shade, or skimming the waters in their birchen canoes, the New England troops had gathered around the man of God,' to listen to his words of comfort, and to unite with him in supplication at the throne of the Most High.
Johnson had expected to be joined at the Lake by many more war- riors of the Six Nations. In this he was disappointed. A few braves, it is true, dropped in at the camp, but by no means in the number which the Indians had assured him would come. The old Mohegan", Sachem, Hendrick, was mortified at the paucity of the number, and availed himself of a council, held on the 4th, to explain to Johnson and his officers why so few braves had joined his standard. This was the last formal speech that the great Mohawk Chieftain lived to make. True as tempered steel to the interests of the English-like Massasoit of early New England days his last moments were in harmony with those of his life-spent in keeping the Six Nations steadfast to their alliance. Although he was a rude brave of the forest, yet his noble appreciation of the public welfare, the more polished Governor of Massachusetts, Shirley, who had through jealousy, done every thing in his power to thwart Johnson, might well have imitated.
1 Rev. Stephen Williams of Long Meadow, Mass, Chaplain of William's Regiment.
2 Hendrick was a Mohawk only by adoption. 1
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WASHINGTON COUNTY : ITS HISTORY.
General Johnson's plan of operations was to build a fort at the head of the Lake, and to remain there until a sufficient number of bateaux could be constructed in which to transport his stores and artillery to Crown Point. As soon as those were in readiness, he designed to proceed down the Lake, with all his available forces to Ticonderoga, and there remain until strengthened by sufficient reinforcements, he could successfully attack Crown Point-the objective point of his expedition. Ticonderoga had long been considered by military men as a " very dangerous and important pass;" and it was his design to construct on that promontory a fort which should command the only two water passes to the lower settlements. This movement was, therefore, well planned; for if it should not be deemed advisable to attack Crown Point, the French could at least, be prevented from passing down either of the Lakes. The General was also the more anxious to proceed, from intelli- gence received through his scouts, that a small party of French had already occupied this important pass-really in this campaign, the Thermopylæ of America. Before, however, his arrangements could be completed, the rapid movements of the enemy foiled this well con- ceived design.
Early in July, de Vaudreuil, the Governor of Canada, who was informed through papers taken from Braddock, of Shirley's proposed expedition against Niagara, arranged a well concerted attack upon Oswego. Learning, however, that the English were advancing by way of St. Sacrament (Lake George) against Crown Point, he changed his pur- pose; and, calling back the troops already on their way to Oswego, sent them, under Baron Dieskau, to meet the forces of Gen. Johnson. Leaving a large force at Crown Point, the Baron took six hundred Indians, seven hundred Canadians, and two hundred regulars and pro- ceeding up Lake Champlain, landed at the head of that Lake-South Bay, now Whitehall.1 The intention of the French General was first to attack Fort Edward, and then to cut off the retreat of Johnson and annihilate his army. This accomplished, Albany and the lower settle- ments, and, perhaps even New York, were to be destroyed. This plan was in harmony with the motto upon the Baron's arms "BOLDNESS WINS;" and though it was brilliant it was also rash.
On the evening of the fourth day after disembarking at South Bay, the French Army found itself through the treachery of his Iroquois guides, on the road to Lake George, four miles distant from Fort
1 The Indian name of Whitehall was Kah-cho-quate-na-" The place where dip fish."
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Edward. Here the Baron halted and sent forward a party of Indians under St. Pièrre to reconnoiter. They soon returned having killed a courier whom Gen. Johnson had sent to warn the garrison at Fort Edward of their danger. As it was evident from this, that the com- mander of the Fort was now on the alert, Dieskau gave the Indians the choice either of attacking the fort or marching against the camp at the Lake. The Indians, who had a peculiar horror of artillery, having learned through a prisoner that the camp at the Lake was destitute of cannon, positively refused to attack the fort, but expressed their willingness to be led against the latter. Those of the Iroquois, also, who were with Dieskau, having been beguiled from their allegiance to the British Crown by le Vaudreuil, also refused because Fort Edward, they said, was on English soil. Having thus ascertained the disposition of his Indian allies, the French General gave up, for the present, his original design; and marching through the forest in the northerly part of the present towns of Kingsbury and Queensbury, encamped on the margin of a small pond on the east of the Lake George road, and near the northern spur of the French Mountain.
On the evening of the 7th of September, Johnson was apprized through scouts, that a road had been cut from South Bay, and that a large body of men were marching to the Hudson. The General immediately sent expresses to New York and New England for rein- forcements, and at the same time dispatched two messengers to Fort Edward to warn Col. Blanchard of the advance of the French army. One of these couriers, was, as has been stated, intercepted and killed, but the other returned at midnight, bringing the startling intelligence that the enemy were only four miles from the Fort. A council of war was called early the next morning, in which it was the general opinion of both officers and Indians that a detachment of one thousand troops and two hundred Indians should be sent out in aid of Fort Edward "to catch the enemy in their retreat, either as victors or as defeated in their design." Hendrick, alone, disapproved of the number. "If," said that sage counsellor, " they are to fight they are too few; if they are to be killed they are too many;" and again, when it was proposed to send out the detachment in three parties, the Mohawk Chieftain, pick- ing up three sticks from the ground, said "Put these together and you cannot break them; take them one by one, and you will do it easily." His advice, however, on both points was disregarded; and the Pro- vincials, under the gallant Col. Ephraim Williams, and the confede-
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rate warriors led by the venerable Mohawk brave, set out without delay in three divisions, and marched toward the Fort, where it was supposed the enemy would be found. As soon as they left the camp, Johnson had some trees felled to form, with the wagons and bateaux, a rude breastwork; and at the same time, some heavy cannon, destined for the attack on Crown Point, were drawn up from the shore of the Lake and posted in advantageous positions.
Meanwhile, Dieskau, advised through his Indian scouts of the advance of Col. Williams, arranged in a defile near at hand an ambuscade in the shape of a crescent; the regulars being stationed in the centre, and the Canadians and Indians on either side where they were concealed on the right by thickets, and on the left by rocks and trees.
Col. Williams advanced with his division to Rocky Brook, about two miles from the camp, and halted until he should be overtaken by Lieut. Whiting and Hendrick with the rest of the party. As soon as they came up, the Colonel, singularly, unsuspicious of danger, and neglecting his usual precaution of throwing ahead skirmishers; gave the order to advance; and the entire column preceded by Hendrick and his warriors, marched briskly forward and entered the fatal defile. It had been the express orders of Dieskau that his men should reserve their fire until the English were entirely within the half-circle. Fortunately, however, before the detachment were wholly within the ambush, one of Dieskau's Iroquois, relenting, fired a musket purposely to warn the Mohawks of their danger under Hendrick.1 Instantly, terriffic yells and rattling of musketry filled the air, as volley after volley was poured with murder- ous effect upon the left of Williams' column, and upon the Indians in front. Hendrick, who was in advance of his braves, and who being corpulent and mounted on horseback, formed a conspicuous mark for the enemy's bullets, fell dead at the first fire. Col. Williams was also killed in the early part of the action, being shot through the head as he was standing upon a huge boulder which he had mounted the better to direct the movements of his men." A hurried retreat of the Provincials
1 Statement by Dieskau himself. Other accounts say that the gun was accidently discharged.
" Two of Col. Williams' companions immediately concealed the body from the scalp-knives of the advancing Indians, and it was found after the battle unmutilated and was buried some twenty rods southeast of where he fell at the foot of a huge pine beside the military road. In 1835, his nephew, Dr. W. H. Williams of Raleigh, N. C., dissinterred and carried off the skull. The boulder on which Col. Williams fell is now surmounted by a Marble Monument, twelve feet high, erected by the alumni of Williams' College, and bears appropriate inscriptions on each of its sides. It is a pity that steps have not been taken to mark also with a monument the place where the great Mohegan, Hendrick, fell. Certainly his memory is in every respect worthy of being thus com- memorated.
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now followed, with the enemy close on their heels, alternately yelling and firing. Reaching a small pond' near the road, a portion of the Provincials rallied, and stationing themselves behind it, each man for himself, checked the pursuit until the arrival of Lieut. Col. Cole, whom Johnson, as soon as he heard the firing had sent out with three hundred men to cover the retreat. Under the guidance of Whiting and Cole this was successfully effected; and the party, which a little while before had gone forth confident in their strength clambered over the barricades of Johnson's camp, weary and dejected.
Had the French commander been able as he intended to have taken advantage of the confusion produced in Johnson's camp by the arrival of the panic stricken fugitives, and, while his men were flushed with success rushed forward and carried the breastworks by storm, he would doubtless have been successful. But the Indians and Canadians, coming in sight of Johnson's cannon, halted and finally skulked off to the edge of the woods leaving the regulars to begin the attack. This delay lost the Baron the victory, and gave the Provincials full fifteen minutes in which to improve their defences, and recover from their previous trepidation.
The attack was begun by the regulars who advanced in perfect order against the center, firing by platoons. As their polished arms were first discovered advancing from the woods, a slight tremor seized the Provincials, but after the first few volleys they lost all fear and fought with coolness and desperation " Finding that no impression could be made upon the centre, Dieskau changed his attack to the left but with no better effect. He next attempted to turn Johnson's right where were stationed the regiments of Ruggles, Titcomb and the late Col. Williams. A terrific fight followed: both parties feeling that the issue of the
1 Since called Bloody Pond, from the tradition that many of those slain in this skirmish were thrown into it-though, Dr. Fitch disputes this and ascribes the origin of the name to the circum- stanees that such numbers here fell dead into and along the pond that the brook issuing from it was the following morning seen to be discolored with blood for some distance below. Both reasons may be correct. The pond which is nearly circular and is generally covered in their season with the pond lily, is probably much smaller than formerly. In 1825, the skeleton of a man was dug up from the depth of 112 feet at a spot near the Pond which very likely was at the time of the battle covered with water. Close to the skeleton there were found a marble pipe, and some silver eyed buttons bearing the royal stamp. This pipe may have been bought of an indian; as i have a similar one of marble in my collection, made by the early aboriginals.
2 Joseph Brant, in relating the particulars of this bloody fight to Dr. Stewart. acknowledged that this being his first action at which he was present, he was seized with such a tremor when the firing began, that he was obliged to take hold of a small sapling to steady himself; but that, after the discharge of a few volleys, he recovered the use of his limbs and the composure of his mind so as to support the character of a brave man, of which he was exceedingly ambitious.
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struggle had now arrived. In the words of an officer present, " there seemed nothing but thunder and lightning and perpetual pillars of smoke, and the bullets flew like hail-stones." The Provincials, said Dieskau after the battle, "fought like devils;" and, in some instances leaping over the breastworks, and clubbing their arms they fought hand to hand and face to face. Finally, the old fashioned musket, in the hands of the New England farmers, proving superior to the glittering bayonet, the regulars were again driven back leaving the ground covered with their dead and wounded. During this attack upon the right, a party of Abenakis and Canadians posting themselves in a morass1, for a time made considerable havoc, but a few shells thrown among them scattered that tribe in the greatest confusion. Thus driven back at all points, the enemy began to waver, which was no sooner perceived by the Provincials, than leaping over their defences with a loud shout, they fought them until the Lake became red as the crimson flowers that still blossom upon its margin.2
This fierce onset decided the day ; and the French breaking their ranks, sought in wild disorder the cover of the woods. The French suffered little in this action from the artillery, which, aimed generally too high, did but small execution-except, by the crashing of the balls in the tree tops, to scare the Indians. All the credit is due to the personal valor of the soldiers and officers themselves.
In this battle almost all the French regulars were killed. Dieskau, although he had received three balls in his legs and one across his knee while fighting close to the barricades,3 refused to leave the field; and supported by the stump of a tree, continued amid the whistling of bullets, calmly to give his orders. Finally, as his troops were about to retreat, a renegade Frenchman maliciously discharged his musket through both of the Baron's hips, inflicting a very severe wound.
1 The summer visitor to the Fort William Hotel at Caldwell, Lake George, can easily recognize this morass at the present day.
2 The Lobelia Cardenalis, commonly called the Indian Eye Bright. The author has frequently seen and gathered large clusters of this beautiful blossom, growing on the banks of Lake George and Bloody Pond. The late Alfred B. Street has embalmed this flower in a touching Indian legend, in his entertaining Woods and Waters.
3 I am reminded by this circumstance of a remark which my friend, Hon. C. C. Lester, made lately while looking at Trumbull's paintings of the Death of Montgomery at Quebec, and Warren at Bunker Hill, in my library,-that the mode of fighting in those days was very different from that of the present-where the General commanding, at a good and safe distance from the scene of con- fliet, directs with his spy-glass from a far off eminence the movements of his troops. Indeed, this change was noticable even in the time of Napoleon the Great. Who ever knew of him, except in his earliest campaign in Italy under the "Directory," to expose his precious body to danger !
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Lieut. Col. Pommeroy, coming up at this moment, the Baron was, by his orders, conveyed by eight men in a blanket to the tent of the American commander, where he received every attention due to a brave but unfortu- nate man-Gen. Johnson refusing to have his own wounds dressed until those of his late opponent had been properly attended to.1 Le Gardeur de St. Pierre, the same officer who had defeated Washington the previous year on the Ohio, received his death wound in the skirmish of the morning. His last words were: "fight on boys, this is Johnson, not Braddock !"
In the beginning of the action, Gen. Johnson "displayed a firm and steady mind," and conducted himself with great bravery; but soon receiving a painful wound in the hips, he was forced to retire, leaving the command to Maj .- Gen. Lyman. During all of the fight which lasted from half-past ten in the morning until four in the afternoon, Lyman behaved with distinguished bravery ; repeatedly showing himself in front of the defences in order to encourage his men; and yet, will it be credited when it is stated that Lyman lingered only a few years in poverty and disappointment and died without receiving even the notice of the British Government ! Still, in our day, instances of similar ingratitude have been known even by republics-though it has become a common saying that even "Republics are ungrateful."
The misfortunes of the enemy were not, however, at an end. Toward evening of the same day, as the shattered remnants of the French army were seated near Rocky Brook, refreshing themselves after the late exhaustive battle, they were suddenly attacked by a party of two hundred New Hampshire troops under Capt. Maginnis, who were on their way to Lake George from Fort Edward, and completely routed, leaving, in the words of an eye witness, " their garments and weapons of war for miles together like the Assayrians in their flight." The brave
1 Too much cannot be said in praise of Dieskau. He was morally as great as he was brave. He remained a short time, while recuperating from his wounds, as the guest of Gen. Schuyler at Albany. Before he left America a warm friendship sprang up between himself and his conqueror: and previously to his returning to France he presented Johnson with a magnificent sword as a token of his regard. Johnson acknowledged this gift in a feeling letter to the Baron which MS. letter is in my possession-and if space permitted I would here give it at length. "I know not what at present will be my fate," wrote Dieskau to Count D'Argenson, Sept. 14, 1755. "From M. de Johnson, the General of the English army, I am receiving all the attention possible to be expected from a brave man, full of honor and feeling." The French Government entertained, notwithstanding his defeat, a high idea of his services. It gave him 12,000 livres as Major- General, 25,000 more as commander of the forces in America, and a retaining pension of 4,000. Dieskau died in 1767, in France, the ultimate consequence of his wounds received in this action.
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Maginnis, however, received a contusion on the head from a spent bullet, and died soon after reaching the camp.
The bodies of those slain in this skirmish were buried in the bottom of the glen, beneath the shadow of everlasting rocks. It is a sweet, wild haunt,-the sunbeam falls there with a softened radiance-and a brook near by murmers plaintively as if mourning for the dead.
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