USA > Pennsylvania > Bradford County > History of Bradford County, Pennsylvania, with Illustrations and biographical sketches > Part 20
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77
HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.
on the part of Congress was induced by the secret opposi- tion of the Pennsylvania delegation, who feared the enter. prise might further the subsequent occupation of Wyoming by the New England people. On reaching Wyoming, Sullivan found his supplies deficient in both quantity and quality .* "Not a pound of salted meat remaining was fit to eat, and in other departments contractors had equally wronged the public service. Sullivan says that more than a third of his men were without a shirt to their backs. Many of the cattle furnished him were too poor to walk, and some were even unable to stand. Of the fourteen hundred horses provided, fully fifty were worn out and un- able to travel farther than a single day's march beyond the Chemung river, where they were abandoned and ordered to be shot. The Indians afterwards gathered the heads of these slaughtered animals, and arranged them beside the trail. From this circumstance the locality derived its present name of Horseheads."
Here, for nearly six weeks, Sullivan was busily engaged in collecting supplies, boats, and paek-horses, and in or- ganizing and drilling his army.
The boats, one hundred and twenty in number, were loaded with provisions, the heavy artillery, consisting of six four-pounders and two howitzers, and other military stores, and the fleet placed in command of Col. Proctor. The pack horses, of which there were about fifteen hundred, carried the camp equipage and daily rations. About one o'clock in the afternoon of July 31, the whole army was put in motion for its march to Tioga. The force, as it marched from Wyoming, consisted, besides Col. Thomas Proctor's artillery regiment, of three brigades. The light troops, composed of Hubley's and the German regiments, with those commanded by Col. Richard Butler and Col. Hartley, and Schots' and Spalding's independent companies, and a company of volunteers from Wyoming, commanded by Capt. John Franklin, all under the command of Brig .- Gen. Edward Hand, formed the vanguard of the army, and usually marched from a mile to a mile and a half in front of the main body. Brig .- Gen. William Maxwell, com- manding the New Jersey brigade, composed of the First Regiment under Col. Matthias Ogden, the Second under Col. Israel Shreve, and the Third under Col. Elias Dayton, with Col. Oliver Spencer's regiment, formed the right division ; the left, under command of Brig .- Gen. Enoch Poor, was composed of the regiments commanded by Colonels Cilley, Reed, Scammel, and Courtlandt, New Hampshire and Massachusetts troops.
Col. Zebulon Butler, with a small force, was left in com- mand at Wyoming. Gen. Sullivan was now in command of about three thousand men. July 22, there were re- ported fit for duty, brigadier-generals, 3; colonels, 7; lieu- tenant-colonels, 6; majors, 8; captains, 48; chaplains, 3; surgeons, 10; drum-majors, 8; fife-majors, 3; drummers and fifers, 131 ; rank and file, 2312 ; total, 2539. Lieut. John Jenkins acted as chief guide, assisted by Richard Fitzgerald, and perhaps some others, while Mr. Benjamin Lodge surveyed the entire route of the army.
On Aug. 4 the army reached Black Walnut, and en-
camped on the abandoned plantations of Frederiek Vander Lippe and Mr. Williamson. They were now so far advanced into the Indian country that an attack was expected to be made at any time. Additional precautions were now taken tu guard against surprise ; the soldiers were ordered to march with loaded muskets, the eannon mounted on the hoats to be shotted, and the advance line to proceed with great circumspection. The troops were directed to march in close order, and with the greatest front possible.
The next day the weather was beautiful. As the army emerged from the thick woods and came upon the crest of the Browntown mountain, the landscape presented a picture of great beauty. At their feet, the Susquehanna winding among the hills and shimmering in the light of the declining" sun ; about three miles below, but in plain sight, the little fleet was toiling up against the current; while farther on, nearly as far as the eye could reach, hill rose above hill, " circling round like the seats of some vast amphitheatre," forming a scene which called forth expressions of surprise and wonder from the wearied soldiers as they sat down for a moment's rest on their fatiguing mareh.
In the evening the army encamped at Wyalusing : the main body, with the boats, near the old Indian town ; Gen. Hand's brigade a mile and a quarter farther up. There is a tradition that Gen. Hand's marquee stood on the little rise of ground a few rods east of the Kingsley House, while his troops were eneamped across the gravel ridge from that point to where the Welles' residence now is. The old Indian town had been destroyed. In the spring of 1778, the white people had taken the timbers of the church and some of the largest houses to construet a raft on which to move down the families then living here, and in the autumn of that year Hartley had burned the remaining ones. The beautiful meadows, covered with their rich carpet of English grass, afforded a pleasant encampment for the tired troops, and grand pasturage for the horses and cattle.
The army left a man at Vander Lippe's, too sick to travel. During the day one of the boatmen fell overboard and was drowned, and in the evening, Martin Johnson, a Jersey sergeant, " died after marching all day." The next day a party went back to Vander Lippe's to look after the sick man, found him dead, and brought up his body and buried him with Sergeant Johnson, near the Kingsley House.
The next day the army remained in its encampment, and the troops spent the day in resting from their fatigues, bathing in the river, washing their clothes, and cooking rations to last them until they should reach Tioga.
Saturday the 7th of August, a severe rain-storm came on, which compelled them to remain another day at Wya- lusing. Towards evening the weather cleared, and a general inspection of all the troops took place on the banks of the river.
What strange changes a few years will sometimes witness ! A short time before, these woods were vocal with the sounds of busy-industry, and ringing with the music of the Chris- tianized Indians as they sang their Delaware hymns. Scarcely had the echoes of these plaintive melodies died away ere these hills were rattling with the shrill war-whoop of the marauding savage, and now they are answering back the shrill call of the bugle, the martial music of fife and
# Col. Doty's History of Livingston Co., N. Y., p. 158.
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HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.
drum, or trembling with the echoing thunders of the deep- mouthed cannon.
Early on Sunday morning the army again took up its line of march. The path followed nearly the line of the old stage-road, and the greater part of the distance was out of sight of the river. A succession of high, steep hills made the journey a difficult one. Gen. Hand was able to reach Wy- socking and encamp on the Strope farni, near the mouth of the creck, while the main body got only as far as Standing Stone, and cncamped on the farms of Mr. Fitzgerald and Capt. Spalding. The boatmen had met on this day's trip unusual difficulties. The river swollen by the recent rains, the numerous rifts and rapids, and the greater distance of the erooked stream made this a day of great hardship, and it was late in the night erc the whole fleet was drawn up along the flank of the army and the evening gun announced that the day's work was completed. Just opposite the command- ing general's headquarters was the great stone, standing on the farther bank of the river, which gives the name to the place. At the command of Sullivan a solid shot was fired from the morning gun, which broke off its uppermost corner, leaving the imprint a story for future generations.
Gen. Hand had learned from his scouts of the existence of a newly-built Indian village called Newtychaning, eon- sisting of twenty-eight finished log houses and six others in process of building, on the opposite side of the river, near the mouth of Sugar creek, which had been built in the spring, but was now abandoned. On their passage up the next day a company from Col. Proetor's men landed and burned the town. This was the first opportunity afforded the army to engage in the work of destruction which it was their mission to carry on. This day, Monday, the path left the river at Wysox creek, striking the Little Wysox near the Hinman place, thenee behind the hills opposite Towanda to the small stream which flows into the river above the Narrows, when it passed over the high hill opposite the mouth of Sugar creek, where, being so narrow along the steep face of the hill, it took the name of Breakneck. Three of the cattle tumbled down the hill, and were killed in the fall. One of the boats loaded with flour was lost this evening just as they were coming to land. It was nearly nine o'clock before the troops reached the place of their en- campment on the Indian meadows of the present Sheshequin. This place was called by some of the men Sullivan's farms. Gen. Sullivan himself dated his orders at "Shawanee." Here the army rested one day, waiting for the boats to come up, cooking provision, while some of the officers, under a proper escort, ascended the hill overlooking the junction of the two rivers and reconnoitred the place of the old Tioga.
On Wednesday, Aug. 11, the army was again put in motion. After marching up the river about a mile the troops forded to the right bank. The Second New Jersey and the Second New York crossing first, were deployed to cover the passage of the remainder of the forees. The water at this place was nearly to the armpits, and the current quite rapid. The troops entered the river in several files, each man grasping the one before him in order to steady himself against the force of the streamn ; and, to keep dry their am- munition, their eartouch-boxes were slung upon their bayonets high above their heads. But little more than an
hour was spent in transferring the whole army across the stream. They landed a little below Queen Esther's town, which Hartley had burned the preceding October. March- ing two miles farther, they forded the Tioga branch, and went into camp, not far from noon, on the beautiful plain where the borough of Athens is now situated. This even- ing Gen. Sullivan dispatched Capt. Cummings, Licut. Jenkins, Capt. John Franklin, and six men from the Second New Jersey Regiment to reconnoitre the Indian town of Chemung, about twelve miles up the Tioga and near the place which now bears that name, where it was supposed was a considerable force of the enemy ; the army meanwhile being employed in clearing off the ground, burn- ing the brush huts which the Indians had erected after the destruction of the town by Hartley, and preparing for their encampment.
About three o'clock in the afternoon of the next day the scout returned with the information that the Indians were moving away with all speed. All the able-bodied troops were at onee mustered and ordered to take a supply of am- munition and one day's rations, to be ready to march early in the evening. At ten o'clock the troops were put in motion, Gen. Hand in advance, followed by Gen. Poor's brigade, with Gen. Maxwell's, under command of Col. Dayton, in the rear ; Gen. Maxwell remaining in command of the camp. The march was an exceedingly difficult one, on account of the darkness of the night and a couple of nar- row defiles which must be passed, so that at daybreak but half of the journey had been accomplished. The remaining half was made on the run, and the town was reached about ·sunrise. The enemy had evacuated the place and carried away the most of their goods, a few deer- and bear-skins and some trifling trinkets only being left behind. The town " consisted of about forty houses, built chiefly with split and hewu timber, covered with bark and some other rough materials, without chimneys or floors. There were two larger houses, which, from some extraordinary rude deco- rations, we took to be public buildings. . . . In what we supposed to be a chapel was found indecd an idol, which might well enough be worshiped without a breach of the second commandment on account of its likeness to anything in heaven or earth .* About sunrise the general gave orders for the town to be illuminated, and accordingly we bad a glorious bonfire." (Capt. James Norris' Journal of the Sul- livan Campaign.)
Gen. Hand was ordered to push forward with the light troops, in the hope that he might overtake the flying fugi- tives. When he had advanced about a mile and a half he was fired upon by a party of about fifty, hidden in the bushes, killing six soldiers and wounding as many more, with Capt. Carbury and Adjt. Huston, both of Col. Hub- ley's regiment, which was in advance, and Capt. John Franklin, who was severely wounded in the shoulder. Ou
# A part of this journal was published in the Portsmouth (N. H.) Journal, Sept. 16, 1843, which, by leaving out about two pages of the original MS., makes this idol found in Queen Esther's palace, which was burned by Hartley nearly a year before. The dates ought to have corrected the mistake. Mr. Miner quotes this without observing the blunder, and seeks to account for the existence of the idol on the ground of Queen Esther's suppesed French deseent.
79
HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.
both sides the river were large fields of corn, potatoes, beans, pumpkins, squashes, and watermelons. After gathering as much of these as could be carried, the rest were destroyed. While doing this, Gen. Poor's brigade was fired upon by a party from across the river ; one man was killed and three wounded. Having completed the destruction of the erops the army marched back to Tioga; which they reached about sunset, thoroughly exhausted by the labors of the last twenty- four hours. The dead were brought back, and buried in the evening with military honors,
Apprehending no danger from the Indians in the imme- diate vicinity of the camp, the herdsmen separated into small parties, for the purpose of securing better pasturage for the horses and cattle. A party of five or six had gone on the west side of the Tioga for this purpose, when, in the afternoon of the 16th, they were suddenly attacked by a band of Indians. Jabez Elliott was killed and scalped, two others killed, and one missing, and the enemy succeeded in killing one ox and driving off several horses.
It was the plan of Washington that the army should ad- vance into the Iroquois territory in three divisions : the right by the way of the Mohawk, the centre by the Sus- quehanna, and the left by the Alleghany. General Broad- head, who was in command at Pittsburgh, was to take com- mand of the left or western division. Leaving Pittsburgh in August, with six hundred men, he destroyed several In- dian towns on the Allegheny and other tributaries of the Ohio, when it was found that the difficulty of keeping open communications between this and other divisions of the ex- pedition would render co-operation impracticable, and this part of the plan had to be abandoned.
General James Clinton's division, which consisted of four regiments, under command of Colonels Gansevort, Dubois, Alden, Weisenfels, numbering altogether about fifteen hun- dred men, had wintered on the Mohawk. About the mid- dle of June he commenced transporting his army and mili- tary stores to the head of Lake Otsego, where two hundred and fifty boats were built for the transportation of his stores to Tioga, where he was to form a junction with the other division, under the immediate command of Sullivan.
On the 16th of August, Sullivan ordered a detachment of nine hundred men,* under the command of General Poor, to move up the Susquehanna until they met Clinton. The detachment began its march at 11 o'clock A.M., and reached Mauckatoewangum the first night. From this place Ser- geants Chapman and Justus Gaylord were sent forward to inform Clinton of the approaching escort. The sergeants, however, lost the path, and after wandering about in the woods for a number of days, returned to camp nearly fam- ished with hunger. On the evening of the 17th the de- tachment encamped at Owego, and on the 18th at Choconut. As they were going into their encampment, they were greeted with the report of Clinton's evening gun.
Clinton's command had lain in comparative idleness at Lake Otsego, since the middle of June, awaiting orders from Sullivan. To guard against low water, which usually oc- curs in the latter part of summer, a dam was built at the outlet of the lake, and its waters held in reserve. On the 9th of August the stores were placed on board the boats, each of which was guided by three men, the dam was cut away, and the loaded fleet floated gracefully out of the lake, and hurried down the swollen stream. The troops marched near the bank of the river. On the 13th they reached Unadilla, on the 15th Acquaga, where they ex- pected to be met by a Pennsylvania regiment, for whom they waited all day, and at 9 o'clock the two parties met, and reached Owego the same evening, where they laid by all day on account of a heavy rain. At noon, on the 22d, they reached Tioga in the midst of a drenching storm, where they were welcomed with salvos of artillery, and escorted into camp by Proctor's military band.
The whole army now numbered about five thousand men. It was the largest and the most imposing military force ever gathered on the soil of Bradford County, as the expedition was the most remarkable undertaken during the Revolu- tionary war.
Sullivan had determined to make Tioga the base of sup- plies for his army while in the Indian country. For this purpose he set about constructing a fortification of consid- erable strength, and for a number of days the soldiers were busily employed in cutting logs for the work. In a letter of Captain John Shreve, son of the colonel, and who com- manded a company in his father's regiment, he says, " After remaining here a few days, Colonel Shreve was ordered, with a detachment, to build a stockade fort, at a place about two or three miles up the two rivers, Susquehanna and Chemung, where they passed each other within about one hundred yards. I was left with this detachment. The fort was called Fort Sullivan. Nearly four square, about ninety yards one way, and a little under the other way. By digging a trench two and a half feet deep, and placing up- right logs about twelve feet high, in the trench, leaving two or three gateways."
The location of this " fort" was near, and a little above, the public square in the borough of Athens, its sides diag- onally to the banks of the rivers, with a strong block-house standing in each angle of the intrenchment. It was a very secure defense against any force it was known the enemy could bring against it. The boats were brought up and secured near by.
Immediately on the arrival of Clinton, preparations for an advance were rapidly made. Tents were cut up and made into bags, so that flour, salted meat, and even ammuni- tion could be carried on the backs of pack-horses ; all un- necessary baggage was stored with the garrison, the army re- organized, the order of march detailed, and at eleven o'clock in the morning of the 26th of August began its forward movement into the country of the enemy. Nothing of note occurred until the 29th, except the great difficulty of trans- porting artillery and military stores through such a wilder- ness. On the morning of this day, when about four miles west of Chemung, a formidable breastwork of logs and fallen trees, very advantageously situated, was discovered.
# The following is the detail .- Jersey brigade : 2 colonels, 1 lieuten- ant-colonel, 1 major, 9 captains, 12 lientenants, 18 sergeants, 18 cor- porals, 3 drummers, 3 fifers, and 360 privates. Poor's brigade : 1 colenel, I lieutenant-colonel, 2 majors, 9 captains, 12 lientenants, 18 sergeants, 18 corporals, 3 drummers, 3 fifers, and- 335 privates. Hand's brigade : 4 captains, 8 lieutenants, 12 sergeants, 12 corporals, 2 drummers, 2 fifers, and 215 privates. Total number of officers and men, 1084.
80
HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.
A large creek ran in front of the intrenchment, the Che- mung (Tioga) river was on their right, a high, steep mountain on their left, and a newly-built settlement, called Newtown (present Elmira), in their rear. When the army had arrived within about three hundred yards of the works, the rifle corps began to engage the enemy, for the purpose of withdrawing his attention from the general movements of the troops. General Hand's brigade was ordered to cover the artillery; General Poor, supported by General Clinton, to take a circuitous march and gain the top of the hill on the enemy's left ; and General Maxwell's brigade to be held in reserve. Owing to the difficulty of the ground, General Poor did not gain the position assigned him before the fire was opened in front. The force of the enemy was variously estimated from eight hundred to fifteen hundred men ; of these there were two hundred British regulars and American loyalists, under the command of Major John and Walter Butler, and the remainder Indians, under Brant. At the second discharge of the artillery, the Indians took to their heels in perfeet consternation. In vain their leaders urged and besought them to halt and return their fire. They could think of nothing but eseape from the big guns, whose balls were plowing up the earth under their feet and crashing through the trees above their heads. In their re- treat they fell in with General Poor, and here a sharp en- gagement ensued. Poor ordered his men to advance with fixed bayonets, and the enemy fled before him like fright- ened deer. Reaching the top of the hill, his men poured a volley at the flying foe and the fight was over.
Col. Reid's regiment, which was on the left of Poor's brigade, suffered the most severely. Major Titcomb, Capt. Clays, and Lieut. McCauly were wounded, the latter died that night; one sergeant and three private soldiers were killed, and thirty-three were wounded.
Of the Indians twelve scalps were taken, but the number of killed and wounded could not be ascertained. One Tory and one negro were captured. A small force was sent in pursuit of the flying foe, but so precipitate was their re- treat that the pursuing party could not come up with them, and abandoned the pursuit.
The next day was spent in destroying the crops, which were abundant. Everything was laid waste. The Tories who were living with the Indians had assisted them in build- ing good log houses, and in planting their crops. Large clearings had been made about their settlements, and several thousand acres of corn were planted, from which it was ex- peeted that supplies could be drawn not only for the suste- nance of the cultivators, but for the subsistence of the British troops stationed on the border.
From Newtown Sullivan sent back his heavy artillery, for which he wisely judged there would be no further use, and which proved a great ineumbrance to the march, retaining only four brass three-pounders and a small howitzer. The wounded, and all who for any reason were unfit for active duty, went by boats to Tioga.
At the evening parade, he proposed to his army that they should draw only half-rations of flour and salted meat, making up the balance from the productions of the country. This was readily and cheerfully accepted by every regiment. No want, however, was occasioned among the troops, the
great quantities of corn, beans, squashes, and potatoes found all along the line of march affording an abundant supply of provisions.
The movements of the army in the State of New York it is not designed minutely to follow .* Passing through French Catherine's town, near the south point of Seneca lake, the route lay on the east side of the lake, thence into the valley of the Genesee river, where they arrived the 14th of September. Here nearly two days were spent in destroy- ing the crops, burning houses, cutting down orchards, and devastating the country. From this point various detach- ments were sent out to overrun all the neighboring country. One of these, under Col. Gansevort, passed through the cen- tral part of the State, down the Mohawk to Albany, others down the Cayuga lake, down the west side of the Seneca, while the main body of the army set out on its return, by the same way it had advanced. on the afternoon of the 15th of September, and on the 24th arrived at Fort Reid, near Newtown. This had been appointed as the place of rendez- vous for the various detachments sent out from the Genesee, and the army remained here until the 29th. In the mean- while parties were sent up the Tioga and its branches to the distance of thirty miles, for the purpose of destroying any villages or crops which might be found there.
A dispatch announcing that Spain had recognized the independence of the United States was read in general orders on the evening of the 24th, and the following day was spent in rejoicing ; oxen were killed, whisky drank, toasts proposed. The troops paraded, cannon roared, and musketry rattled, until the woods rang with the shouts and songs of the men, and the joyful notes of the martial music.
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