USA > Vermont > History of eastern Vermont, from its earliest settlement to the close of the eighteeth century with a biographical chapter and appendixes > Part 6
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47
FIGHT BETWEEN HOBBS AND SACKETT.
1748.]
Massachusetts, received a wound in the arm during the engage- ment, and Ralph Rice was also injured.
Many of the enemy were seen to fall, particularly when they advanced and exposed themselves, and although their loss was undoubtedly great, yet so effectually did they conceal it, that it was impossible to determine its extent. After the Indians had disappeared, Capt. Hobbs and his men remained concealed until night, fearing another attack ; but there being no signs of the enemy, favored by the darkness they gathered their packs, took up the dead and wounded, and after burying the former under some old logs about half a mile from the scene of action, and conducting the latter-two of whom, Graves and Kinney, they were obliged to carry-to a more convenient place, about two miles distant, they encamped for the night. They arrived at Fort Dummer on the 27th, at four o'clock in the afternoon, and sent the wounded to Northfield, where they could receive proper medical attention. Two days after, having received no answer to the expresses which had been sent to Hadley and Hatfield for assistance, Capt. Hobbs and Lieut. Sheldon, with forty-nine men, set out from Fort Dummer, about three o'clock in the afternoon, for the place where the fight had occurred. About sunset hearing a gun fired in the rear, and at night a report in advance, then another in the rear, and the same repeated several times, they concluded they were discovered, and fearing an ambush, set out for the fort, where they arrived the next morning in safety a little after sunrise, and immedi- ately fired the " Great Gun," the signal for aid.
In the fight between Hobbs and Sackett, according to the long established custom, whenever an Indian fell, his nearest comrade stealthily approaching the body under cover of the trees and underbrush, would attach to it a tump line and cautiously drag it to the rear. Although the Indians sometimes exposed them- selves in this manner more than in regular combat, yet so skil- fully was the action performed that the dead bodies seemed to Hobbs's men to slide along the ground as if by enchantment .*
The number of Sackett's force, though not known, has been estimated at the least as four times that of the English ; and it is probable that, had he known his numerical superiority, he
* In his Dictionary of Americanisms, p. 366, Bartlett defines the Indian verb tump, " to draw a deer or other animal home through the woods, after he has been killed." According to the same authority a tumpline is " a strap placed across the forehead to assist a man in carrying a pack on his back."
48
HISTORY OF EASTERN VERMONT.
[1748.
would have adopted a different method of warfare. This battle was regarded by the people in the vicinity as a masterpiece of persevering bravery, and served, to a certain extent, to remove the unfavorable impression produced by the defeat of Melvin's scout. "If Hobbs's men had been Romans," observes one writer, " they would have been crowned with laurel, and their names would have been transmitted with perpetual honor to succeeding generations."*
The enemy still continued their depredations on the frontiers, and, in the early part of July, killed at Ashuelot ten or eleven head of cattle, and drove off all the rest they could find in the neighborhood. On the 14th of the same month, as ten men were travelling from Northfield to Ashuelot, by the way of Fort Dummer, in order to supply the place of the ten who had been killed or captured the month before, they being in company with some other soldiers who belonged to Fort Dummer and to Capts. Stevens and Hobbs's companies, the whole party, seventeen in number, were fired upon by a body of French and Indians, who had ambushed their path, about half a mile from Fort Dummer, within a few rods of the spot where the former conflict had taken place. Although they had taken the pre- caution to keep out an advanced guard on each side of the path, while on their march, yet so suddenly were they waylaid, and by a force numerically so much their superior, that more than a hundred bullets were discharged at them, before they had time to reload after the first fire. They immediately fled for shelter to the bank of the river, but were pursued and overcome after a short skirmish.
The interposition of Connecticut river, the small number of the men at Fort Dummer, sixteen only, half of whom were by sickness unfit for duty, rendered it impossible for the garrison there to relieve their friends, or pursue the enemy. Some of them, however, ran down the river, and discovering on the other side a wounded man, and another endeavoring to escape to the fort, they guarded them up and over the river to their place of destination. Two others turned back and reached Col. Hinsdell's fort in safety. The "Great Gun" at Fort Dummer was fired, but only three persons that night responded by their presence to this signal for assistance.
* MS. papers in office Sec. State, Mass. Hoyt's Indian Wars, pp. 249-251. Dwight's Travels, ii. 81.
49
SCOUTING EXPEDITIONS.
1748.]
The news of the conflict having reached Number Four on the 15th, Capt. Stevens with thirteen men, Lieut. Hoit with thirty, and Lieut. Bills with more than twenty, immediately set out for Northfield. On the next day, Capt. Leeds and Lieuts. Stratton and Sheldon joined Capt. Stevens, and the whole force, amount- ing to one hundred and twenty-nine men, including officers, marched to the spot where the conflict had taken place. They found there the dead bodies of Asahel Graves of Hatfield, and Henry Chandler of Westford, entirely stripped of arms and clothing. Having performed the rites of burial, and being joined by Col. Willard, of Fort Dummer, for whom they had sent, they followed the enemy's track a mile further, and dis- covered the bodies of Joseph Rose of Northfield, and James Billings of Concord. It was supposed that these men had been wounded in the fight, and being too much exhausted to proceed further with their captors, had been summarily dispatched. They also found the body of a soldier who had been slain in the former encounter. Returning to Fort Dummer, they were soon after joined by several of the inhabitants of Northampton, Had- ley, Hatfield, and Sunderland, who had received orders from Col. Porter and Major Williams to "scour the woods." On the 17th, a consultation was held at Hinsdell's Fort, where Capt. Leeds was then stationed. It was determined that Capt. Stevens, who had the command of the whole party, should examine the woods in the neighborhood, and discover, if possible, the inten- tions of the enemy. Returning in the afternoon to Fort Dum- mer, it being Sunday, Mr. Gardner, the chaplain, in view of the disastrous events which had lately occurred, and the surprises with which these occurrences had invariably commenced, preached from the Revelation of St. John, the third chapter and third verse, "If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee."
On Monday, the 18th, Capt. Stevens, with one hundred and twenty men, set out on the scouting expedition which had been planned the day previous. After visiting the spot where Hobbs's fight had occurred, burying the dead they there found, and following the enemy some distance, whom, however, they were not able to overtake, they returned on the 20th, reaching Fort Dummer at noon.
What the loss of the French and Indians was on this occasion, as on all former occasions, it was impossible to determine.
4
50
HISTORY OF EASTERN VERMONT.
[1748.
That two Indians were slain was certain, and it was probable that more were killed or wounded, as the soldiers faced and fought them at the first onset, and the scouts afterwards discovered the places where four biers or litters had been cut and prepared.
Robert Cooper, one of the men who escaped to Fort Dummer, was wounded in his left side in two places, and his arm and one of his ribs were severely fractured. He remained at the fort under the care of Andrew Gardner, who was " chyrur- geon" as well as chaplain, until February of the next year, by which time he had recovered sufficiently to warrant his remo- val to a more comfortable place.
Although nine were taken prisoners, yet that they did not submit very readily, will be seen from the following incident : John Henry, of Concord, after being wounded and having re- ceived seven bullets in his clothing, succeeded in escaping to a neighboring thicket, where he might have remained in safety, being entirely concealed. But happening to see an Indian seize one of his fellow-soldiers at a little distance from his place of retreat, he ran up within a few feet of the Indian and shot him through the body, whereupon a number of the enemy sur- rounded him, whom he engaged with his gun clubbed until it was broken in pieces, upon which he was obliged to surrender. During his captivity, he was barbarously used by the Indians, probably on account of the spirited resistance with which he had opposed them. Ephraim Powers of Littleton, and John Edgehill of Lexington, the latter an apprentice to Jacob Pike of Framingham, were, both of them, stripped of their clothing, arms, and ammunition, and the former also received a wound in the head. After their return from Canada, they were for a long time incapable of any labor on account of the hardships and sufferings they had undergone.
The other captives were Sergt. Thomas Taylor of North- field, Jonathan Lawrence Jr. of Littleton, Reuben Walker of Chelmsford, Daniel Farmer of Granton, Daniel How of Cam- bridge, and Thomas Crisson of Rutland. Most of them were young men, and some of them had been impressed into the ser- vice, as was the custom of the times, when a sufficiency of sol- diers could not be obtained by regular enlistment. They lost everything of value which they had with them, and were, with the others before mentioned, taken to Canada, where they were sold to the French, who retained them until the 1st of October when they were released and allowed to return home.
51
ROUTE OF THE INDIANS TO CANADA.
1748.]
The route pursued by the Indians in reaching Crown Point on their way to Canada, is thus described by Sergt. Taylor, one of the captives : "They crossed the Connecticut at a place then called Catts-bane, two or three miles above the mouth of West River, which they fell in with at the lower fork ; thence proceeded up that river, part of the way on the flats, over the ground where Capt. Melvin's affair happened, three or four miles below the upper fork; thence to the source of the river, and over the high lands to Otter Creek ; thence down this creek several miles, and crossing, proceeded to Lake Champlain about twelve miles south of Crown Point, whence they proceed- ed in canoes to that post. The enemy carried several of their wounded, and were joined on the route by another body with a prisoner, Mrs. Fitch, taken at Lunenburgh. The Indians halted in the middle of the forenoon, at noon, and the middle of the afternoon-their march, twenty miles per day."*
The General Court of Massachusetts, in view of the services rendered, gave especial rewards to Sergt. Taylor, to the three of his companions who were the greatest sufferers, and to the representatives of those who were slain.
This calamity, and the others which had preceded it, aroused the attention of Massachusetts to the necessity of a more effi- cient defence of the frontier settlements. Brig .- Gen. Joseph Dwight wrote to Secretary Willard, of Massachusetts, on the
* Hoyt's Indian Wars, p. 251. In the year 1739, John Fitch purchased one hundred and twenty acres of land, situated about seven and a half miles above the meeting-house in Lunenburgh, Massachusetts, where he built a house and culti- vated a farm. For a defence against the enemy, he afterwards erected a block- house, at which scouting parties were accustomed to rendezvous. On the 5th of July, 1748, there being but two soldiers with him, the enemy appeared, shot one of them, and drove Fitch and the other into the garrison. After besieging the garrison about an hour and a half, the other was shot through the porthole in the flanker. Fitch being left alone and unable longer to resist, was taken prisoner with his wife and five children. The Indians, after possessing themselves of such things as they wished, burned the house and garrison, and set out with their cap- tives for Canada. It is probable that the party separated before reaching Crown Point, since Sergt. Taylor, in mentioning the arrival of Mrs. Fitch, makes no re- ference to her husband, who was probably in another company. The youngest of the children was not weaned, and two of the others, from want of provisions, be- came nurslings on the way. After a wearisome march, they reached their place of destination, but were not obliged to remain long in captivity, being allowed to return home early in the following fall. Having reached New York, they set out for Massachusetts by the way of Rhode Island ; but Mrs. Fitch, wearied by the long journey she had just accomplished, and overcome by her sufferings, died at Providence.
52
HISTORY OF EASTERN VERMONT.
[1748.
16th of July, praying for a " thousand men to drive the woods and pursue the enemy to Crown Point ;" also, for several troops of horse. He also proposed, that other means than those which had been heretofore used, should be tried to enlist soldiers, and that £1000 should be paid for every Indian killed, the scalp to be a sufficient order for the reward. Col. Israel Williams of Hatfield also wrote to Governor Shirley, on the 16th, advising that twenty or thirty of the Six nations of Indians should reside at Number Four and at Fort Massachusetts. Their presence, it was urged, would ward off the attacks of the enemy. Col. Josiah Willard, of Fort Dummer, in a letter written on the 19th, said : "Ever since Number Four above us has been so mantled,* they (the Indians) press exceeding hard upon Fort Dummer and Mr. Hinsdell's garrison, both which are very weak-handed. My business of procuring stores obliges us to go out, and having but sixteen men in ye fort, we are exceed- ingly exposed." His son, Major Josiah Willard, of Ashuelot, in a letter dated a few days previous, complained of the scarce- ness of provisions at Number Four.
In answer to these various communications, Governor Shirley ordered Col. Willard to detain twenty men of the garrison of Number Four at Fort Dummer, for a short time while the enemy were near ; and it appears that Capt. Thomas Buckmin- ster, with forty-seven men, was stationed there from the 6th to the 20th of August.
The incursions of the Indians during the remainder of the year, were neither numerous nor extended. On the morning of the 23d of July, a little before sunrise, six Indians having attacked Aaron Belding, killed and scalped him on the main street in Northfield. The inhabitants were generally in bed, but on hearing the alarm arose as fast as possible, and hurried to the spot. The Indians had, however, made good their escape, and though they were hotly pursued, yet it was to no purpose.
An attack on Fort Massachusetts was the last hostile act of the enemy for the year. Suitable provision was made for main- taining the principal forts during the coming winter ; and by the special advice of Governor Shirley, fifteen men were sta- tioned at Fort Dummer, and five at Hinsdell's Fort, there to remain for seven months from the 20th of November.
Covered, guarded or protected.
CHAPTER III.
FRONTIER LIFE.
Preparations for Defence-Life of the Frontier Settlers-Soldiers' Quarters- Diversions of Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter-Effects of a Declaration of War-Grants of Townships on Connecticut River by Massachusetts-Number One or New Taunton-Conditions of a Grant-First Settlement of New Taunton, now Westminster-The place abandoned-Re-settled-Proposition to Settle the Coos Country-John Stark-Convention at Albany-Incursion at Charles- town-Birth of Captive Johnson-Inscription commemorative of the Cir- cumstance-Other Depredations-Defences-The Great Meadow-Its Settle- ment-Partisan Corps-The Life of a " Ranger"-Continuation of Incursions- Attack on Bridgman's Fort-Captivity of Mrs. How-Attack near Hinsdale's Fort-Dispute as to the Maintenance of Fort Dummer-Death of Col. Ephraim Williams.
THE peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, concluded on the 18th of October, 1748, and proclaimed at Boston in January, 1749, although it put an end to the war between England and France, did not immediately restore tranquillity to the colonies. Early in the next year, hostile Indians began as usual to hover around the frontier settlements, and on the 20th of June, a party of them in ambush shot Ensign Obadiah Sartwell, of Number Four, as he was harrowing corn in his house-lot, and took captive Enos Stevens, son of the renowned captain. About the same time Lieut. Moses Willard, in company with his two sons and James Porter Jr., discovered at the north of West river mountain five fires, and numerous Indian tracks ; and as Mr. Andros was going from Fort Dummer to Hinsdell's gar- rison, he saw a gun fired among some cattle as they were graz- ing but a short distance from him. These indications were enough to awaken suspicions of a bloody season, and the Gene- ral Court accordingly enlisted a force of fifty men to serve as scouts between Northfield and Number Four, having their head-quarters at Fort Dummer and Col. Hinsdell's garrison,
54
HISTORY OF EASTERN VERMONT. [1749.
and being under the command of Col. Josiah Willard. They continued on this service from the 26th of June to the 17th of July, and were then dismissed, it appearing that the enemy had removed from that portion of the country. Although hostili- ties had ceased, and notwithstanding a treaty of peace was concluded with the Indians at Falmouth in the month of Sep- tember following, yet the forces were not wholly withdrawn from the frontiers. A garrison of fifteen men, afterwards reduced to ten, was continued at Fort Dummer from Septem- ber, 1749, to June, 1750, and the same number of men was stationed respectively at Number Four and Fort Massachusetts during the same period.
Throughout the whole of this war, the Indians were gene- rally successful in their attacks upon the whites, and yet there were no instances in which deliberate murder was committed, or cruel torture inflicted on those who fell into their hands. On the contrary, their captives were always treated with kind- ness ; blankets and shoes were provided to protect them from the inclemencies of the weather, and in case of a scarcity of provisions the vanquished and victor shared alike.
Civilization in this part of the country, even if it had not retrograded during these struggles, had made but little advance, and many of the settlements which had been commenced before the war, were wholly abandoned during its progress. The people not belonging to the garrisons and who still remained ' on the frontiers, lived in fortified houses which were distin- guished by the names of the owners or occupants, and afforded sufficient defence from the attacks of musketry. The settler never went to his labors unarmed, and were he to toil in the field would as soon have left his instruments of husbandry at home as his gun or his pistols. Often was it the case, that the woods which surrounded his little patch of cleared ground and sheltered his poor but comfortable dwelling, sheltered also his most deadly enemy ready to plunder and destroy .*
* The fortified houses were in some instances surrounded with palisades of cleft or hewn timber, planted perpendicularly in the ground, and without ditches. The villages were inclosed by larger works of a similar style. Occasionally, flanking works were placed at the angles of fortified houses, similar to small bas- tions. " A work called a mount was often erected at exposed points. These [mounts] were a kind of elevated block-house, affording a view of the neighbor- ing country, and where they were wanting, sentry-boxes were generally placed upon the roofs of houses."-Hoyt's Indian Wars, p. 185.
55
LIFE OF THE FRONTIER SETTLERS.
1749.]
Solitary and unsocial as the life might seem to be which the soldiers led in the garrisons-distant as they were from any but the smallest settlements, and liable at almost any moment to the attack of the enemy-yet it had also its bright side, and to a close observer does not appear to have been wholly devoid of pleasure. The soldiers' quarters were for the most part com- fortable, and their fare, though not always the richest, was good of its kind. Hard labor in the woods or field, or on camp duty, afforded a seasoning to their simple repast, the piquancy of which effeminate ease never imagined. Those who kept watch by night, rested by day, and none, except in times of imminent danger, were deprived of their customary quota of sleep.
In the spring, when the ground was to be ploughed and the grain sown, with a proper guard stationed in different parts of the field, the laborers accomplished their toil. In the pleasant afternoons when the genial sunshine was bringing out "the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn," a game at ball on the well trodden parade, or of whist with a broad flat stone for a table, and a knapsack for an easy cushion, served either to nerve the arm for brave deeds, and quicken the eye with an Indian instinct, or to sharpen in the English mind that principle, which nowadays has its full development in Yankee cunning. Pleasant also was it to snare the unsuspecting salmon as he pursued his way up the river; exciting to spear him, when endeavoring to leap the falls which impeded his advance.
The grass ripened in the hot summer's day, and the crop was carefully gathered, that the " kindly cow" might not perish in the long winter, and that the soldier might occasionally renew his homely but healthful bed of hay. By and by, when the golden silk that had swayed so gently on the top of the tall stalk, turning sere and crinkled, told that the maize with which God had supplied the hunger of the Indian for ages, was ready to yield nourishment to his bitterest enemy the white, then for a while was the sword exchanged for the sickle, and the shouts of harvest-home sounded a strange contrast to the whoop of the foeman. And then at the husking, no spacious barn which had received the golden load, beheld beneath its roof the merry company assembled for sport as well as labor, but when gather- ed in knots of three or four, or it might be a half dozen, as they stripped the dried husk, and filled the basket with the full ears, or cast the dishonored nubbins in some ignoble corner, who doubts that their thoughts wandered back to the dear delights
56
HISTORY OF EASTERN VERMONT.
[1749.
which even the puritan customs of the old Bay Province had allowed them to enjoy, and that their minds lingered around the pleasant scenes of bygone days, until fancy had filled the picture to which reality had given only the frame. This also was the season when the deer furnished the best venison, and the bear the richest tongue and steak; and when there was no enemy near, to be attracted by the sound, the click of the rifle was sure premonition of a repast, which had it not been for the plainness of its appointments, would have been a feast for an epicure.
When winter had mantled the earth, then did the old woods, which had stood for ages undisturbed, feel the force of the sturdy blow, and many a noble oak yielded up its life, that the axe which wounded it might be new-handled, the fort repaired where time and the enemy had weakened it, and the soldiers warmed when benumbed by cold and exposure. Then, too, would they prepare the trap for the big moose, or on snow- shoes attack him on his own premises; and when the heavy carcass arrived piecemeal at its destination, its presence spoke of plenty and good cheer for a long season.
On the Sabbath, if the garrison was provided with a chap- lain, what themes could not the preacher find suggestive of God and goodness ? The White Hills on one side, and on the other the .Green Mountains, pointed to the heaven of which he would speak, and emblemized the majesty of him who reigned there. The simple wild wood flowers taught lessons of gentle- ness and mercy ; and when the hand of the foe had destroyed the habitation, and widowed the wife, and carried the babes captive ; when the shriek at midnight, or in the day-time the ambush in the path, told of surprise or insecurity, with what pathos could he warn them of "the terror by night," of "the arrow that flieth by day," of "the destruction that wasteth at noonday," and urge upon them the necessity of preparation not only temporally but for eternity.
Joyful was the hour when the invitation came to attend the raising of some new block-house, or of a dwelling within the walls of a neighboring garrison. As timber rose upon timber, or as mortise received tenon, and mainpost the brace with its bevel joint, tumultuously rose the shouts and merrily passed the canteen from mouth to mouth with its precious freight of rum or cider. And when the last log was laid, or the framework stood com- plete, foreshadowing the future house in its skeleton outline,
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