History of the County of Westmoreland, Pennsylvania, with Biographical Sketches of Many of its Pioneers and Prominent Men, Part 54

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See also note in " Lay of the Last Minstrel," Canto VI .; and also Capt. Wedderburn's courtship, "English and Scottish Ballads," vol. vill.

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their numerous retainers, remained loyal to the Stu- arts during the rebellion, and they were recomponeed with banishment and the confiscation of their estates. At length an effort was made to restore in the learned professione some of that honor which had passed to other hands, which distinction was partly theirs when the sword was mightier than the pen, and the dignity of the gown was confined to the yew-tree shade of the cloister.

As Arthur could not inherit any of the landed property entailed in the direct line of primogeniture, being the son of a younger son, he made choice of the medical profession, and to secure his education en- tered the University of Edinburgh, famous at that day for its prominent schools in that department. After the death of his father he removed to London for the benefits afforded by the clinical practice at the great hospitals of the metropolis, and was there indentured to the celebrated Dr. William Hunter. But the noise of arms then shaking the world, he chose to relinquish his scientific calling and to follow the vocation of the soldier. When he came into the great heart of the world it was throbbing with the anticipation of future glorious actions. The rattling of drums, the blare of bugles, and the measured tramp of the files of soldiers echoed round the street corners of the capital day and night. War had been declared between Great Britain and France,1 and under the new life infused into the na- tion by Pitt the young men were everywhere forsaking the pursuits of peace and enlisting. Arthur, with the help of his family, purchased an ensign's commission in the army,' and soon after, in 1758, came to America with the corps of Gen. Amherst, in the fleet under Admiral Boscawen. This was at the commencement of the French and Indian war, which, after enduring for seven years, resulted in the acquisition of the Cana- dian Provinces, then under the French, by the Brit- ish to the American appendages of the crown. While in this army he learned the military science under such leaders as Murray, Monckton, and Wolfe, the com- mander of this expedition. Under Wolfe he served in the campaign against Quebec, and was with that hero when he fell in the moment of victory, after the esca- lading of Mount Abraham.

After remaining some time at the garrisoned fort- ress of Quebec, St. Clair went with a part of his regi- ment to Boston, then the capital town of the North- east.

In May, 1760, he was married to Miss Phoebe Bayard, in Trinity Church, Boston, by the rector, the

Rev. William Hooper. Mrs. St. Clair was born in 1748, and survived her husband some six or seven years. She was the daughter of Balthaser Bayard and Mary Bowdoin, a half-sister of Governor James Bow- doin, of Massachusetts Bay' With his wife he gos much money.

In 1759 he had been commissioned a lieutenant; this he resigned in April, 1762.", It is very likely that for a few years after his mariage he remained at Boston or Philadelphia, and that he took no further part in the French and Indian war, which terminated in 1764. But shortly after this time he manifestly was in Western Pennsylvania, as he had a parcel of the ground about Fort Pitt, which was granted him by Gen. Gage,' and we believe that from 1765 until 1771 all his attention and time were centred in this region, either in watching his own pecuniary interests or in a supervisory capacity, under the commander- in-chief of the British army in America, with whom he was related, or latterly, and especially after the treaty of 1768, as an agent of the proprietors of the Province. The documentary evidence which we refer to shows that he had charge of Fort Ligonier, then one of His Majesty's forts, and that he was authorized to and did grant permits the same as a regular officer, before the Penns passed titles." Immediately after the opening of the land office, in 1769, he is identi-

" She married Balthaser Bayard (or Byard, as they wrote it) in 1787. Died 1780.

" For dates see chronological table at end of this chapter.

From the date of his resignation in the British army, that is 1762, to 1767 there is a hiatus which has not been satisfactorily filled. The copy of the permit to Frederick Rhorer, which we give in the note to Chapter VII., and which has not before this time been made public, but which fixes a part of the dispated faote, chowe' that in April, 1767, Arthur &t. Clair, " late lieutenant in his Majesty's Sixtieth Regiment of Foot, having the care of his Majesty's fort of Legonier," was employed in these parts. But the dates of his commissions and his resignation correspond with the official records of the British army, from which they were taken. A copy of the " British Army Lists' " is in the library of the New York Historionl Society, and these exactly agree with those furnished from the British War Office. Many writers say that after the close of the French and In- dian war (1764) Gen. Gage (who was a relative, and who afterwards com- manded the British at Boston) appointed bim to take command of the forts in Western Pennsylvania, and have the military stores contained in those forta removed to the headquarters of the army at New York. (Bce sketch in National Intelligencer, quoted in Life and Public Services, oto. ; also report of Committee of Claims, etc , Senate of the United States, Mr. Brodhead, Chairman, Thirty-fourth Congress, first session ; 'also Day's "Historical Collections," pp. 686 and 687, and Rapp's " History of West- ern Pennsylvania," p. 281). We cannot be led to believe, from the evi- dence within reach, that he served with Bouquet in 1763-64. There was . Capt. St. Clair with Bouquet, but not Arthur.

" Pennsylvania Archives, vol. z. p. 483. St. Clair to president of Penn- . sylvania, 1785.

" Fort Ligonier was garrisoned part of the time after Pontiac's war, 1764, by provincial troops, commissioned by the Province. (See Col. Miles' Journal, elsewhere referred to, and in Penn. Arch., Second Series, vol. il. p. 560.) " In the year 1759 I was stationed at Ligonier, and had twenty-five men, picked out of the two battalions, under my command." At present we are not prepared to say that the Province garrisoned these forts in Western Pennsylvania prior to the purchase of 1768, but think it did not; but that they were garrisoned or at least under command of regular officers.

" His Majesty, the king of Great Britain, having conquered the French in this country, all the forts and settlements the French bad is now be- come the property of the king of England."-Grogan's Journal, 1765.

1 1756.

" His mother, upon whom had rested the care of his training, died in the winter of 1756-57. His regiment was the Sixtieth, or Royal Amer- Ican Regiment of Foot. Date of his ensignry, 3d May, 1757. His regi- ment was projected by the Duke of Cumberland. It consisted of four battalions of one thousand men each. The first battalion was com- manded by Monckton, the second by Lawrence. St. Clair belonged to the second battalion. It was organized under act of Parliament, 29 George II., c. v. Col. Bouquet belonged to this regiment .- Penn. Magarine, etc., No. 2, vol. ili.

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fied with some transactions as their agent. He then, with his brother-in-law, Capt. Bayard, took up large bodies of land in Ligonier Valley. In the descrip- tion of boundary lands in old title papers he is some- times designated as captain and sometimes as lieuten- ant, but always by a military title.

In May, 1770, he, with Crawford, Thomas Gist, and Pentecost, was among the justices of the peace ap- pointed by the proprietary government for Cumber- land County. In March, 1771, he was reappointed for Bedford County, and made prothonotary and chief clerk of the courts when that county was erected at .that time. He earnestly advocated the erection of a new county to the west of Laurel Hill, and when Westmoreland was formed in 1778 he was appointed by Richard Penn to the same offices he had held in Bedford. From this time till the beginning of the Revolutionary war he was the outspoken agent of the proprietaries. During 1774 his efficiency is made apparent by the records of the Province. He was in constant communication with those in authority, he advised with them, and the entire management of local affairs was left to him. In the exercise of. his trust he became especially obnoxious to Dunmore, the Governor of Virginia, who demanded of the Gov- ernor of Pennsylvania that St. Clair be delivered over to him, but the demand was refused, and met with the intimation that the proprietaries were responsible for the official acts of their magistrates. During the excitement of 1774 he was the foremost one in the sight of the people; he rode day and night, and pre- vailed on the inhabitants not to leave, as they were about to do. But he made them take up arms in their defense; the government could not assist them, 80 they must assist themselves. He organized a per- manent militia, and promised the rangers pay, which was guaranteed by his own obligation. Under his direction and supervision the chain of block-houses along the rivers and the old military road was estab- lished. He advised the Penns to open a road for military purposes from Kittanning to Ligonier, and to erect a fort at that point, to be garrisoned by the soldiers of the Province. This point had been pointed out by Forbes as early as 1758 as important in a mili- tary view, and was the site of Fort Armstrong.1

The preservation of the Westmoreland settlements in 1774 is as much to be attributed to St. Clair's in- fluence over the Indian tribes as to any other cause. He spoke to them in manly and plain words, and they had the utmost confidence in him. In one of their conferences when he was not present they called him their friend and the Pennsylvanians their brothers. Afterwards when the agents appointed by Congress came out. to visit the tribes about Fort Pitt and to secure their alliance they stopped with St. Clair on their way, and prevailed with him to accompany them.

There is no doubt that St. Clair watched atten- tively the struggle between the colonies and the crown, and there is likewise no doubt that from the first his mind was made up. With all the traditions of the Scotch uppermost it was not in his strong nature to give in to the latest of the tyrannical rulers of his native country, which the Scotch allowed was at that day held by the tenure of usurpation. And although the war of the Revolution found him busied in do- mestic relations, yet he was recognized from the first as the friend of the colonies, and was in correspond- ence with the patriots in the East. That he was in- strumental in calling the meeting at Hannastown of May 16, 1775, and that he secured the passage of the remarkable resolutions that day adopted there can be no reasonable doubt.'

DURING THE REVOLUTION.

In that pathetic and heart-moving letter which he wrote in his old age to the Congressional Committee he says that his first connection with the United States began in the year 1775. Congress had appointed com- missioners to repair to Fort Pitt to treat with the In- dians. On their way they called upon St. Clair, and requested him to accompany them and act as their secretary. He did so, and in the course of the nego -. tiations formed the project of a volunteer expedition to surprise Detroit, which he thought practicable. The commissioners entered into the project warmly, and in a very short time he engaged between four and five hundred young men, who were to furnish their own horses, forage, and provisions. The measure being referred to Congress by the commissioners, was disapproved, for the reason .that Gen. Arnold was at that time before Quebec, and its fall was considered certain. But Arnold failed. St. Clair was called to Philadelphia, and, resigning his office, he went to that city for instructions.

We can, in the absence of any memoir, partially trace his career through the war. He first assisted to perfect the Associators in 1775, and on Jan. 1, 1776, in the " Account of the Rules and Regulations" for the Associators sent to the committees of the different 'counties, there is a memorandum that those for West- moreland were sent by Col. St. Clair. In the early

" With the extreme modesty and unobtrusivenees which always were characteristic in him, he says in his letter to Governor Penn, May 26, 1775, "I got a clanse added, by which they bind themselves to soviet the civil magistrates in the execution of the laws they have been acone- tomed to be governed by." This clause was the fourth, and began, "That we do not wish or advise any innovations," etc. But that he drafted this paper I have little doubt. In his letter to Lieut .- Col. Allen, nearly a year and a half after this (Ticonderoga, Sept. 1, 1776), he says, "If I remember rightly, there were two points on which we were perfectly agreed : First, that independence was not the interest of America if the liberties of America could be otherwise secured ; Secondly, if foreign troops were employed to reduce Amprice to abesointe submission, that independence or any other mode was justifiable." This letter is a most noble one. Here is the substance of the third and fifth clauses, and part of the conditions for which the colonies went to war. Who else here was likely to talk of a " licentious soldiery" in the mme conse as he, from a personal knowledge ?

1 For & fall account of these affairs see Penn. Archives, vol. iv.

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part of 1776 he was commissioned colonel by Congress in the Continental service, and was stationed in the eastern part of the State, where he was engaged in different capacities in organizing, recruiting, supply- ing, and provisioning the volunteers.' He advanced money to his own detriment in this service, some of which he did not get reimbursed for till many years after the war was over. As fast as the troops could be furnished for campaigning he forwarded them, and being himself ordered with other contingents to cover the retreat of the American army from Canada under Arnold, he recruited and equipped for his own command six full companies without expense to the : State, and marched them by the 1st of May to the vicinity of Quebec.'

This campaign had been planned by Gen. Mont- gomery, but it came to an unfortunate termination. Montgomery was killed before Quebec, and Arnold, the next in command, who himself was wounded, conducted the retreat. St. Clair served with Wayne under Gen. Thompson, the successor of Arnold, but who dying soon after he came to the command was succeeded by Gen. Sullivan. Here his former mili- tary knowledge was of much advantage, for he it was who suggested to Gen. Thompson, who was then in command, the practicability of taking post at the village of Three Rivers to prevent the British trans- ports from passing up the river. The plan was ap- proved, and St. Clair was sent to take up a position. Sullivan now having arrived and taken command of the army, detached Thompson with reinforcements to support St. Clair and to take the command. But being overpowered and pushed back, and Thompson having been killed, the command fell to St. Clair, who carried the broken detachment back through the midst of a constantly increasing enemy to the headquarters at Sorel.

The American army now withdrew from Canada in as masterful a manner as it had marched thither. The army went into quarters at Crown Point and Ticonderoga, and there St. Clair remained during the summer in camp duty. On Sunday, the 28th of July, to the soldiers drawn up in long lines, he read the Declaration of Independence which had been adopted by the Congress, when they threw their caps in air and cheered for the cause of the United Colonies.

In August of this year, 1776, he was made a briga- dier, and joined Washington, who was then retreat- ing across the Jerseys before the elated British army under Howe. He fought under the eyes of the com-

mander-in-chief in.the closing battles of this cam- paign, at White Plains, at Trenton, and at Princeton," and all informed writers agree that he suggested to Washington that ruse of war by which the Hessians were surprised at Princeton.

The campaign of 1777 opened with favor to the British. The fearful retreat from Long Island, and the miserable condition of the Continental army, encouraged the British to push this campaign with energy, and thus speedily crush out this rising sedi- tion.

The plan of the British generals was to divide the colonies by the line of Hudson River, Lake George, and Lake Champlain. Clinton was to go up the river, and above Albany to unite with Burgoyne, who was to come down from Canada. The success of this plan would have been well-nigh fatal to the prospect of American independence. Between Lake Cham- plain and Lake George was situated the strong for- trees of Ticonderoga, the same which Col. Ethan Allen had taken by the authority of the great Jeho- vah and . the Continental Congress. This fortress commanded the lakes and the passage of the isthmus. While it was held it debarred Burgoyne from effect- ing the junction. To hold this point was, therefore, of the utmost importance. St. Clair, who enjoyed the confidence of the commander-in-chief, was raised to the rank of major-general, and superseding Gen. Schuyler, was sent with three thousand men to take command of the post, and at all hazards to hold it.

Burgoyne, passing Lake Champlain, took Crown Point and advanced against Ticonderoga. Gen. Schuyler, before he was transferred, had put the for- trees in good order. On the 19th of June, 1777, operations were commenced against the post. On the 20th of July the soldiers of Burgoyne took possession of Mount Defiance, a point on the right of the Amer- icans. This position adjoined and overlooked the fortress, but being deemed inaccessible, it had re- mained unoccupied by the Continentals. By the use of tackle, cannon were hoisted up its side by the enemy until the arms and the force there were suff- cient to dislodge the garrison.

St. Clair called a council of officers, and among them it was unanimously agreed that the hills which

1 The Council of Safety on the 18th of July, 1775, recommended the carollment of all able-bodied mee into regiments or battalions. The militis of Westmoreland were enrolled, and St. Clair was elected colonel. Boe Memorandum Book of the Committee and Council of Safety for 1776 and 1777; Pa. Arch., Second Series, vol. L., for services in the colony and State. He was commissioned colonel of the Second Battalion Jan. 3, 1776. He with Cola. Shee, Wayne, and Magaw were in command of the four battalions of Pennsylvania troops to be raised for the Continental Service. For history of the Second Battalion, oce Chap. XVIII. . " For his services and the campaign in Canada, seo Chapter XVIII.

" Respectively, Oct. 28, 1776, Dec. 26, 1776, and January, 1777. Daa- croft goes to extra pains to prove that St. Clair did not advice Werking- ton in this successful engagement, and he labors hard to support a contrary position, but in this he is at fosse with numerous authorities. See Wilkinson's "Memoirs," G. W. Greene's " Life of Gen. Nathaniel Gresse," and St. Clair's "Narrativa." It is not, however, questoned that he directed the detalle of the march and the incidental prepare- tion (Bryant's " Popular History of the United States," chap. xxi., 532). "Soon after midnight the troops quietly withdrew by detachmenta, and marching by the right moved upun Princeton. St. Clair's brigade of New Hampshire, Connecticut, and, Massachusetts troops, with two dix- poundera, marched at the head of the column, with which Gen. Wash- ington rode."-" Life and Public Services," etc., vol. I. p. 37, as quoting Wilkinson.

This campaign made him a major-general. In March, 1777, on the resignation of Col. Reed, St. Clair was detailed by Washington se odja- tant-general.

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commanded the fort ought to have been previously fortified; that it was too late for them now to be for- tified; that if fortified it would require fully ten thou- sand men to man and hold them; and that the force at the disposal of the general was not in any way adequate to meet the enemy. It was determined, therefore, to abandon the post.

But the withdrawing the army now was a retreat. The American force retired under cover to Hubbards- town and thence to Castleton, about thirty miles from Ticonderoga, where a stand was made. The British and German light troops had been sent in pursuit, and on the 7th of August overtook the rear- guard under Col. Warner at Castleton. The attack was sharp and bloody, and the British at first were routed, but the Americans not being supported by their comrades, the British and mercenaries renewed their attack, and with the bayonet dispersed the whole force of the rear-guard, with the loss to us of three hundred men. Col. Warner came in with the rest of his troops at Fort Ann. Altogether the loss of the Americans in this, one of the most disastrous retreats of the war, was about one thousand men, killed, wounded, and prisoners.

Of course a clamor was raised. Reasons plenty as blackberries were given why St. Clair should not be shot, hung and quartered, banished. Some said he was incompetent, some cowardly, some treacherous. He said little, but demanded of right an inquiry in due form into his conduct and the circumstances of the surrender. After waiting for a long time a court of inquiry at last was formed, which was composed of some of the best officers in the army, which after sitting and considering the whole affair critically and with deliberation exculpated him from guilt; and some then said that although he lost a fortress he saved a State. Burgoyne was forced to give his sword to Gates at Saratoga, and the two British armies were not, after all, joined together, notwithstanding their sanguine anticipations.1

1 From the surrender of Ticonderoga and the retreat a prejudice was raised against St. Clair which he never could get rid of, and which his enemies never ceased to make capital of. Good military men say that no better generalship was displayed throughout the war than that dis- played by him in withdrawing his army and saving it from capture. The United States Gasette, a high authority in the army, has said on this sub- ject in a sketch of St. Clair, in speaking of his defense before the court of inquiry, " His defense on that occasion is still extant, und exhibits a sample of profound generalship. Whilst the English language shall be admired, it will continue to be an example of martial eloquence."

Facts dispel illusions. Gen. Burgoyne's army numbered 7863 men, including 200 Canadians and 400 Indians; St. Clair bad 2200 men. Bur- goyne's artillery numbered 142 guns, and his was the best equipped army for an offensive campaign in the field. The American works were equipped with 100 cannou of indifferent calibre and a small force of in- experienced artillerymen to serve them .- Life and Public Services, etc., p. 60.

St. Clair left the Northern Department on the 20th of August (1777), in obedience to the orders of Congress, to report at headquarters and await an inquiry into his management at the North. Washington still remained faithful to him and never lost confidence in him. He, after St. Clair demanded it, urged the court of inquiry to be held. In Sep- tember, 1778, a court-martial, of which Maj .- Gen. Lincoln was presi-

During the time which intervened from the sur- render till the board of inquiry had finished their sittings he was suspended from any command. He was, however, with the army, and at Brandywine fought as a volunteer, and had a horse shot from under him during the engagement. He was with the army at headquarters at Valley Forge. The court of inquiry not censuring him he was reinstated in public confidence, and was intrusted with the very arduous duties of organizing the levies of Pennsylvania and New Jersey and sending them out to the armies in the field when needed. After the treason of Arnold, St. Clair was detailed by Washington to hold West Point, and he succeeded Gates in command at Philadelphia. On September the 29th, 1780, he sat with Lafayette, Parsons, Clinton, Knox, Huntingdon, and others, all well known for their uprightness, on the trial of Maj. Andre, adjutant-general of the British army, who made their unanimous report that Andre ought to be considered as a spy from the enemy and suffer death.

When the last campaign was closing in the South, St. Clair with Wayne, who together were using all their ingenuity in converting three old long-tailed coats into two short ones, and two old hats into one infantry cap, so that the men would bear some simi- larity with each other, was assigned with reinforce- ments to the Southern department, where the war was then raging. When the combined American and French armies circled around the British at York- town, St. Clair was there. Having arrived some time before the surrender, he was with that galaxy of il- lustrious men who stood in the trenches when the cause of the colonies was decided. He was then sent to reinforce Greene with the Pennsylvania troops, and they formed a junction in the beginning of 1782.'

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History of the County of Westmoreland, Pennsylvania, with Biographical Sketches of Many of its Pioneers and Prominent Men, Part 54

Author: George Dallas Albert, editor Publication date: Publisher: Number of Pages:

Author: George Dallas Albert, editor
Publication date:
Publisher:
Number of Pages: