USA > Virginia > Virginia, a history of the people > Part 21
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The rebel then proceeded to throw up a breastwork in front of the palisade, and in order to protect his men nad recourse to a very unworthy scheme. He sent de- tachments of horsemen into the surrounding country to capture and bring into camp the wives of prominent gen- tlemen who fought on the side of Berkeley. We have the names of four of these ladies : " Madame Bray, Mad- ame Page, Madame Ballard, and Madame Bacon " - the wife of no less a person than that "rich, politick " old kinsman, Nathaniel Bacon, Sr., of the Council, who had such a fondness for his " uneasy cousin," the young rebel. The young person in question was thus a rude adversary, and stopped at nothing. The ladies were brought in their carriages, it is to be hoped, not forced to come on foot ; but they came. This was a bad busi- ness enough and scarcely worthy of that preux cheva- lier and devoted attendant of "indisposed " ladies, Mr. Nathanicl Bacon ; but he was going to do still worse. He sent one of the disconsolate ladies into the town,
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under a flag, " to inform her own and the other hus- bands" that he meant to place them "in the forefront of his men " during the construction of the earthworks ; - if an attack was made on the workmen the ladies would suffer.
The " white aproned " herald went and delivered the message, and the chronicle states the result. "The poor gentlewomen were mightily astonished, and neather were their husbands void of amazement at this subtill inven- tion." And then the worthy historian of this subtile invention bursts forth with his own comment full of dry humor : " If Mr. Fuller thought it strange that the Divell's black garde should be enrouled God's soulders," the poor amazed husbands " made it no less wonderful that their innocent and harmless wives should thus be entred a white garde to the Divell. And this action was a method in war that they were not well acquainted with : that before they could come to pierce their ene- my's sides they must be obliged to dart their weapons thorugh their wives brest."
There is no reason to doubt that Bacon resorted to this unworthy device. His admirers attempt, of course, to explain it away, or discredit it. It was done. At daylight an attacking party sallied out of town and fell on the workmen ; the sally was repulsed; and then the ladies were "exhibited to the view of their husbands and friends in town upon the top of the small work, where he caused them to tarry till he had finished his defence against his enemy's shot." That is precise, and admits of no discussion. And of all the curious events of a curious time it was the most curious. It resembles rather an invention of romance than a sober tableau of history, -this picture of the ladies in their
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THE WHITE APRONS AT JAMESTOWN.
" white aprons" on the buttress of earth and felled trees, shivering in the September moonlight as the chill dawn begins to glimmer ; around them the red, autumn foliage ; behind them the bearded faces of the rebel horsemen ; and yonder within the palisade the amazed and forlorn husbands withholding their shot lest they harm these dear white guards of the Devil -who is Gen- eral Bacon !
It is rather difficult to reconcile the incident with Bacon's conceded character as a soldier and a gentle- man, since soldiers or gentlemen do not make war on women or children. When they do so they do it at their peril, and if the victims have no other avenger, history will take care of their oppressors. It has done so in this case. Explain it as people may, that was not a defensible proceeding; and it has left a blot on the name of a man otherwise illustrious. Berkeley acted with more gallantry. "The ladies' white aprons be- came of greater force " than Bacon's men and guns, and no further attack was made until the " guardian angells withdrew into a place of safety" - let us hope were sent back home. Then the ancient Cavalier burst out with a force of about eight hundred men and made a sudden assault on Bacon.
It was repulsed in a twinkling, was indeed a mere fiasco. Alas! the motley crew from Accomac were no fit adversaries for the well-armed housekeepers. In his hour of need Governor Berkeley had been obliged to re- cruit fishermen, 'longshoremen, and rabble instead of good men. The rabble had no principles to fight for, or hearts in the business. They had come over to plun- der ; and finding cold steel to encounter instead of lard- ers to rifle, they suddenly ceased fighting and " returned
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282 VIRGINIA: A HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE.
with light heels " to Jamestown, leaving a dozen of their number stretched on the ground as the only proof that they had fought at all.
This was the end for the moment of Sir William Berkeley and the royal cause. The stormy old leader was " extremely disgusted, and expressed in some pas- sionate terms " his wrath and mortification. But there was no help for it. His following was plainly too luke- warm to run any risk in his cause ; and when Bacon brought up three guns and opened a cannonade on the town and ships, Sir William Berkeley lost all heart, em- barked during the night, and he and his Accomac army sailed away from Jamestown.
The ancient capital of Virginia was now in the hands of the rebels. Having consulted with his officers, Bacon resolved to burn it " tliat the rogues should harbor there no more; " the rogues being his Honor Sir William Berkeley and his people. This was done without delay ; thoughtful Mr. Lawrence and sober Mr. Drummond set fire to their houses with their own hands ; and the town was soon in ashes. Thus the old "nest of empire " built by that first of American eagles, Smith, went up in flame and vanished. It was a pity, and after all, as the narrative will show, was useless.
Such was the end of the famous invasion of Virginia by the un-Norman men of Berkeley from the distant kingdom of Accomac. It had accomplished nothing. The advance had ended in retreat. Sir William Berke- ley had fled to his ships, and his ships had fled down James River. They were still in sight, however, and Bacon remained at his headquarters in the Greenspring manor-house to watch them.
This was the state of affairs when the scenes of the
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THE DEATH OF BACON.
rapid drama shifted as rapidly as before. A courier, in hot haste, from the York country brought intelligence that a strong force, friends of Sir William Berkeley, were advancing from the direction of the Potomac to attack the rebels.
XIX.
THE DEATH OF BACON.
BACON promptly broke up his camp and marched to face the new danger. There was little to fear any longer from Sir William. If he came back to James- town he would find only smoking ruins. If he pursued the adventurous rebels he knew the consequences of a collision with them. So turning his back on the Acco- mackians, Bacon marched at the head of his horsemen toward the York.
He had grown ill and irritable. In the Jamestown trenches he had contracted fever and dysentery, and the result was a great irascibility of temper. He had be- come passionate and excitable, but his strong will was as strong as ever; perhaps more dangerous from the fever consuming him. He was readier to fight than before. The situation of things was plain : a force of Royalists was marching on his rear to avenge the woes of Berkeley, and his place was to crush them.
He crossed the lower York in boats at Ferry Point and marched into Gloucester, where he made his head- quarters at Colonel Warner's and issued his "man- dates." These were addressed to the Gloster men, and called on them to meet him promptly at the Court-house, there to take the oath drawn up at Middle-Plantation. It was the direct test of the rebel or royalist sentiment ;
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but before the test could be applied a courier arrived, post-haste, with important news. Colonel Brent was "advancing fast upon him, with a resolution to fight him, at the head of 1,000 men."
Thereupon no more mandates or parley with the Gloster men. Bacon "commands the drums to beat for the gathering his soulders under their colors," and this done, makes them an address. Brent is coming to fight ; are they ready to fight him ? "Shouts and ac- clamations " follow, and " the drums thunder a march." They flock around their leader, prepare for the advance, and with " abundance of cheerfulness, disburthen them- selves of all impediments to expedition ; excepting their oathes and wenches."
The army marched at once up the country toward the Rappahannock. But there was not to be any fighting. The dread poison of rebellion, which had been blown on the breeze to Accomac, had swept northward on the south wind to the Potomac. Colonel Brent's men de- serted him, and some came to Bacon, "resolving with the Persians to go and worship the rising sun," - poor sun about to set ! Thereupon, the brave Colonel Brent exclaims, " They have forsaken the stoutest man and ruined the fairest estate in Virginia!" and goes home with his few faithful in huge disgust.
Such was the sudden end of that danger, and Bacon marched back to Gloucester. The rude chronicle is more expressive : " This business of Brent's having (like the hoggs the devill sheared) produced more noyse than wooll, Bacon, according to summons, meets the Gloster men at the Court howse." The scene was ani- mated and not harmonious. Six or seven hundred armed Gloster men had come to the rendezvous on horseback,
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THE DEATH OF BACON.
and Bacon, as usual, made them "a long harange." Would they take the oath ? They had not yet done so, and he had sent for them to ask them that plain question. The speech is not reported; these hot ora- tions of the young rebel have all been carried away by the winds of two centuries, but enough is known to show that Bacon's demeanor, on this day, was fiery. He was sick and exasperated. These Gloster men were the only enemies left. He had crushed Berke- ley, and Brent's men had gone home or joined his own standard. The rest of Virginia was true to him; what were the Gloster men going to do? He wanted their answer.
Their spokesman, Mr. Cole, "offered the sense of the Gloster men." They objected to the oath and wished to remain neutral. Thereat Bacon flamed out. They should not remain neutral ! They "appeared like the worst of sinners, who had a desire to be saved with the righteous, and yet would do nothing whereby they might obtain their salvation !" With this hot flout lie turns his back on them, doubtless looking toward his armed liouse- keepers. The crisis is perilous ; he has only to raise his finger and the armed housekeepers will charge the Gloster men. One of the latter, Colonel Gouge, inter- poses. Perhaps the oath may be taken yet ; he " had only spoke to the horse and not to the foot." But Bacon, "in some passion," and scowling, doubtless at the Colo- nel, cries hotly : " I spake to the men, and not to the horse, leaving that service for you to do, as one beast can best understand the meaning of another!" The Gen- eral is furious, and spares no one. A minister, Mr. Wading, refuses the oath and encourages others to do so, whereupon Bacon promptly arrests him, telling
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VIRGINIA: A HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE.
him it was " his place to preach in the church not in the camp; in the first he might say what he pleased, but in the last he was to say no more than should please him, unless he could fight to better purpose than he could preach ! "
In truth the fever caught at Jamestown is burning in the young General's blood. He is never a patient man, and his present surroundings are not soothing. He will be master, if the issue is to be tried with arms ; and the Gloster men agree at last to take the oath, which is afterwards done. Then the meeting disperses and that matter ends.
This was the last great scene in which Bacon appeared on the theatre of events. His life was wasting away. The fever bred in the ditches at Jamestown had caught fast hold on his frame; but to the last his resolute will defied the fire raging in his pulses. He planned an ex- pedition to Accomac, and an attack on Berkeley who had gone back there. But his strength rapidly waned, and the dysentery preying on him made further exertion impossible. He was soon unable to remain in command, and retired to the house of a friend, Major Pate, in Gloucester ; and here after a few weeks' illness he ex- pired (October 1676).
A fearful rumor rose above his corpse. The Royal- ists, full of rancor, said that he died of a loathsome dis- ease, the direct visitation of God, but his friends said that he had been poisoned. Could there have been any truth in this charge? On the face of it, it seems incred- ible, as inconsistent with the character of Berkeley, - a cruel and bitterly revengeful but not treacherous person. And yet the chance expressions of contemporary writ- ers have an ugly appearance. The friends of Bacon
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. THE DEATH OF BACON.
said that the royal party, "dreading their just desert corrupted death by Paracelsian art to destroy him." That might be passed by as the bitter suspicion of polit- ical enemies, but unfortunately the Royalists did not re- sent the accusation One of them, in some verses on Bacon's death, wrote: -
" Then how can it be counted for a sin Though Death (nay though myself ) had bribed been To guide the fatal shaft ? We honor all That lends a hand unto a traitor's fall."
'This may have meant nothing, but a line in " Ingram's Proceedings," which is written by a strong Royalist, goes further. Fortune, this writer says, has removed the great foe of Berkeley, " by a death either natural or vio- lent." Thus the friends of Berkeley did not distinctly repel the charge that the death of Bacon was caused by poison or the dagger. Even so reliable a writer as Hening inclines to the belief that he " fell by the hand of some assassin employed by the government." But the phrases used are vague, and it is a critical proceeding to mingle suppositions with history. If Bacon was assas- sinated it is probable that neither Berkeley or any gen- tleman of the King's party had any knowledge of the in- tent. Political animosity is a fierce prompter, but the characters of the royalist leaders contradict the theory of assassination. To sum up the matter, the charge was made ; not distinctly repelled ; but is not proved by any evidence remaining to the present time.
The death of the famous leader seems to have been tranquil, and he made a pious end. Finding his last hour near, he sent for Mr. Wading, the minister whom he had arrested, a political opponent, and "made his articles of rendition," which his enemies said was " the
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only religious duty he was observed to perform during these intrigues of affairs." Whether this was true or not is not known ; but all statements in regard to Bacon after his death come mainly from the victorious side. Having thus made his peace with heaven he calmly expired, or as the quaint old chronicle says, " surren- dered up that fort he was no longer able to keep, into the hands of the grim and all-conquering Captain, Death." To the last all connected with him was full of strange interest. Berkeley was hovering near, waiting to pounce upon his dead body and hang it on a gibbet, as the English royalists had hung the body of Cromwell. To defeat this design, Lawrence and other friends re- solved to conceal his body. This was done with pro- found secrecy, and the old writers make only mysterious references to the scene. The body was buried, one of them intimates, in some secret nook of the Gloucester woods, -" but where deposited till the Generall day, not known, only to those who are resolutely silent in that particular." Another says, " Bacon's body was so made away, as his bones were never found to be exposed on a gibbet as was proposed, stones being laid in his coffin, supposed to be done by Lawrence." Was the corpse sunk in the York, or some other stream, as the body of Alaric was sunk in the Busento by his Goths ? It is more than probable. The stones placed " in his coffin " seem to point to such a device. In either case the place of liis burial was not discovered, and remains still a secret.
Such was the abrupt ending of this brief and stormy career. It was all comprised in about four months. May, 1676, found Bacon an unknown planter ; in the summer he was already famous ; and in October he was
THE DEATH OF BACON. 289
dead. His character and aims must have been plain from the foregoing narrative. Undoubtedly his designs developed with the development of events. He began by applying only for a commission to fight the Indians, and ended by resolving to free Virginia from the op- pressions of the Government. The defender of the frontier became the head of revolution ; and whether Lawrence and others did or did not induce him to em- bark in the rebellion, he was the soul of it. With all his impetuosity he was a man of cool judgment and saw the ends he meant to achieve. The rising was not a hair-brained project, but the result of deliberate calcu- lation. As the representative of the Virginia people, he protested, sword in hand, against public grievances, to compel redress. His own life, he must have seen from the first, would probably answer for his course, but the country would profit. And his anticipation was justified. His resolute stand against Berkeley com- pelled the dissolution of the royalist Assembly, which had remained unchanged since 1660, and resulted in " Bacon's Assembly," which began at once by "inspect- ing the public revenues," extended suffrage to freemen, and was so defiant that Berkeley dissolved it. That was the first result of the appeal to the sword. The rest would follow; and Bacon liad arranged for every- thing. If English troops came to Virginia, he would retreat to the woods and fight them. He would not lay down his arms until the public grievances were re- dressed.
His personal character lies on the surface of his career. He was resolute, imperious, quick of temper, but cool too. He scarcely ever lost his equipoise. His courage and decision were certainly remarkable. The
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VIRGINIA: A HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE.
prompt march on Jamestown with a small force, on Berkeley's return from Accomac, was the act of a thorough soldier. His judgment was not blinded by passion. At Middle- Plantation he had not for a moment lost his head, or indulged visions of military usurpation. He drove through his great plan of action against the protests of the "prime gentlemen." But the passionate youth whose will bent all, plainly an- nounced that the Virginia Assembly alone could de- cide who was to be the ruler of Virginia. This im- perious temper was his greatest blemish, but he could be gentle and winning, and was certainly a great nat- ural orator. There are many proofs of this fact. Even his enemies conceded it. His eloquence seems to have been superb and passionate ; those who heard him speak said that he " animated with his heat" the dullest and chillest souls ; and "conquered with his commanding tongue more than Cæsar." On all critical occasions he made a "long harangue," his enemies said derisively ; but they added that the young soldier-orator "knit more knots by his own head in one day" than his op- ponents were "able to untie in a whole week." At his fiery appeals in Gloucester, his followers " burst into shouts and acclamations, while the drums thunder a march to meet the promised conflict." He was not only a pop- ular speaker, but even more a man of action who de- cided on his course quickly, and adhered to it obstinately. As a soldier he was uniformly successful, - which an- other great soldier has said is the true test of soldier- ship. It may be objected that Virginia in general was for him, and that victory was thus organized in advance. The sufficient answer is that up to the time of his death the rebellion had triumphed everywhere; and that when
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THE DEATH OF BACON.
he went it went with him. The whole fabric suddenly crumbled and the dread revolt was snuffed out with lit- tle difficulty.
Of the inner motives of the man we have no record. We have his own statement of his aims, but personal statements are always doubtful authority. Still Bacon seems to have been disinterested. He had nothing to expect from revolution but confiscation and a halter. The Assembly called for September might have de- posed Berkeley and chosen him for Governor ; but his clear eyes must have seen that his tenure of that office would be short and full of trouble. The armed rebel against his Majesty could not long remain master of his Majesty's colony of Virginia. The path of revolution was thus rough and perilous, and at the end of it a gulf yawned, which would surely swallow him. It is his just claim to renown that this peril did not shake his nerves. He made fearless war on an adversary who was nearly certain to crush him; and was the first American who declared, sword in hand, that he would die rather than submit to an invasion of his right. As such this young Virginia rebel of 1676 takes his place with the great American rebels of 1776, who followed in his footsteps.
All that is known of Bacon personally is embodied in this narrative. It is not muchi, but is sufficient to paint the likeness of the man - the winning, imperious, violent leader of twenty-eight, with the hot pulse of youth and the cool brain of age united in him. Noth- ing further is recorded of him, and lie goes into the mist with Berkeley his adversary, his " well-armed housekeepers," the blundering old Assembly-men, the Indian queens, and all the dead figures. He appears
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VIRGINIA: A HISTORY OF THE PEOPLE.
and disappears like an actor passing across the stage, and even the last resting-place of this "most accom- plished gentleman of Virginia," as a contemporary calls him, remains a secret. His sorrowful friends were " resolutely silent in that particular." We only know that his body was sunk in the York by the weight of stones placed in his coffin ; or that he lies under the shade of the trees in some remote spot of the woods of Gloucester " till the Generall day."
XX.
BERKELEY'S VENGEANCES.
THE dire rebellion ended with Bacon. That great mainspring once broken, the whole machinery stopped. From the moment when this cool head and strong will disappeared, though some fighting followed, all hope of making a successful stand against the royal authority was abandoned. The sudden change in the whole face of affairs was momentous, and must strike with aston- ishment the student who reads the narrative. In Sep- tember the revolutionists were everywhere triumphant. Berkeley was driven back to Accomac; the men from the Potomac had disbanded ; Gloucester had taken the oath ; and all Virginia had declared for Bacon. In October he was dead, and the rebellion was over. With this one man went the cause, and the well-armed housekeepers retired to their homes in despair.
For a brief season desultory fighting still continued. A grotesque personage named Ingram, who had been a rope-dancer, was made General ; but Bacon's death had occasioned widespread dismay, and the end soon came.
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BERKELEY'S VENGEANCES.
There was a confused turmoil in Gloucester, but it was seen that the struggle was over, and Sir William Berkeley prepared to glut his long deferred vengeance. Colonel Hansford, one of Bacon's best men, was captured at the house of a young lady to whom he was paying his ad- dresses, taken to Accomac, and hung as a rebel, by Berke- ley, in spite of his prayer that he might be " shot like a soldier." Major Cheeseman was also captured, and Cap- tains Wilford and Farlow. The last were hung like Hans- ford, and Cheeseman was thrown into prison, where he afterwards died. He was said to have shared the fate of Bacon. A scene between his wife and the Governor has dishonored Berkeley's memory. When her husband was fiercely questioned by Berkeley as to liis motive for rebellion, this lady came forward before he could reply and said, " It was her provocations that made her hus- band join in the cause that Bacon contended for ; if he had not been influenced by her instigations he had never done that which he had done." She then knelt before Berkeley and said, "Since what her husband had done was by her means, and so by consequence she most guilty, she might be hanged and he pardoned." To this brave speech of the true wife Berkeley replied by offering her a gross insult, and even the Berkeleyan chronicler revolts from the disgraceful scene. "His Honor was angry," and did not mean what he said ; for no woman could have " so small affection for her husband as to dishonor him by her dishonesty, and yet retain such a degree of love, that rather than he should be hanged she will be con- tent to submit her own life to the sentence." The roy- alist writer thus urges his lame apology. His Honor's anger had made him forget himself and turned a gentle man into a ruffian.
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