USA > Vermont > The history of Vermont; with descriptions, physical and topographical > Part 16
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His vanguard of Indians was met ; and, being beaten, fell back upon the main body, which after a few day's manœuvering were brought to action, and defeated with great loss. Baume himself, a German officer of great merit, survived but a short time the wounds received in the battle.
Col. Breyman, another German officer, soon after the action, coming up with a reinforcement, was met by Col. Warner with his regiment of Vermonters, who had also now arrived. Another conflict ensued, severe and bloody. But it was decided before dark in favor of the Americans. This was the 16th of August, 1777; and the ground is about six miles from the centre of Benning- ton, near a branch of the Hoosic river.
Of Gen. Stark, Humphrey, one of Washington's aids, in his life of Putnam, remarks : " He will be recognized as the hero of Bennington, but it is not generally known that he employed an ingenious and successful expedient to strike a panic into the enemy and assist him in achiev- ing the glorious victory. He had one iron cannon, but neither powder sufficient to employ it, nor balls ; he ordered an officer, however, to charge it, who objected, the want of balls ; "no matter," said the General, " load it with blank cartridge, and let the discharge be the signal for all the troops to rush on the enemy." "The Hessians were panic struck at the thundering report ; his troops rushed on with loud huzzas, and the victory was complete."
" The following is a letter sent by express to Gov.
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Trumbull," (Ct.) "dated" "In Council of Safety, Bennington, August 16th, 1777. Brig. Gen. Stark, of New Hampshire, with his brigade, together with the militia, two companies of rangers, raised by this state, with part of Col. Simon's regiment of militia, are now in action with a number of the enemy's troops, assembled near this place, which for some time has been very severe. We have in possession, taken from the enemy this day, four brass field pieces, ordnance, stores, &c., and this minute five hundred prisoners have arrived. We have taken the ground, although fortified by entrench- ments. They were reinforced, made a second stand, and still continue the action. The loss on each side is doubtless considerable-number not known.
P. S. The second action took place about a mile from the first; many of the enemy were killed ; took two hundred more prisoners ; being in all seven hundred ; and in all five pieces."
HINMAN.
In the war with Great Britain of 1812, a few military events may be cursorily reviewed in a history of Ver- mont. Some transactions of a military character passed in and near her limits. The naval engagement particu- larly on Lake Champlain near Plattsburg, was one of the most decisive and important American victories of that war. It revived the spirits of the people throughout the country, who, by mortifying disasters and failures, had become dissatisfied and querulous. The efforts by
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our armies and generals on land had, previous to this event, been mostly unsuccessful. The army of the North, as it was called, assembled at Burlington under the command of Gen. Wade Hampton, had done little or nothing toward the invasion of Canada. Its object was to enter Canada by the lake. It made an attempt, but was driven back; and Hampton, desirous of escap- ing from his windy position, left the frontiers, and went south to his home and warmer climate.
Gen. Wilkinson took the place of Hampton, and made some two or three proclamations, that appeared well on paper. But they were not followed up with very decisive advantages by action.
Gov. Chittenden withdrew a brigade of militia, who had been drafted and taken to Plattsburg. This was in consequence of a difference of opinion on the constitu- tionality (and the same collision took place between some other of the New England states and the general government ;) of giving up the militia to United States officers to be employed out of the state. In such circumstances of embarrassment, the governor of Canada was threatening the invasion of New York and Vermont with a large army. His naval force on the lake was superior to that of the Americans under Com. Mc- Donough. His design was to make a simultaneous onset by land and water.
In September, of 1814, Gov. Provost entered the northern part of New York with 14,000 men; and moved towards Plattsburg, where McDonough lay at
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anchor with his fleet. The alarm spread rapidly through Vermont; and the green mountain boys repaired in great numbers to Burlington ; and crossed the lake to the immediate scene of action. They sustained their character for bravery and discipline ; and under Gen. Strong, as volunteers, were of great service in repelling the assailants.
The action on the lake between McDonough and Downie, was severe and bloody. It was in plain view of Plattsburg, and the adjacent towns, the cannonading being distinctly heard at Burlington. The British fought with unyielding perseverance ; and gave up not until every vestige of hope disappeared. Commodore Downie was slain with three lieutenants, and eighty others, and one hundred and ten wounded. The slain on our part was fifty ; and the wounded, fifty-eight.
The conduct of McDonough in all his services on the lake, and at the mouth of Otter creek, gained him great respect and favor with the whole country. The people of Vermont and New York especially expressed obligations to him, and bestowed on him distinguished honors. He was a man of plain, unaffected manners ; modest and retiring ; and of great moral worth. His quick discernment and his fortitude were heightened by his filial fear of God, which in his last days made him lament the horrors and disavow the practice of war. Indeed soon after his splendid victory, he expressed a "wish that the expense of the ball given in his honor by his fellow citizens of Middletown, Ct., had been
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bestowed on those made widows and orphans by it. This was noble ; and it was commendable in Vermont, honoring and rewarding him, as she did with a vote of thanks, and a farm at Cumberland Head, in full view of his glorious scene of action.
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CHAPTER XVIII.
Readiness of the government to foster public benevolent Institu- tions .- Asylum of deaf and dumb at Hartford .- Asylum for the insane at Brattleboro .- Mrs. Marsh, its founder .- Dr. Rockwell, superintendent .- Its location and scenery around it .- Buildings .- Patients .- Success .- An object worthy of public patronage .- Provision for the indigent insane .- Causes increas- ing of this malady .- Other ways of suffering .- By flood and cold .- Inundations of 1828-30 .- Catastrophe at New Haven .- A man perished by cold near the summit of the mountain .- A man, wife and infant impeded by the drifting snow .- Over- taken by night in an uninhabited part of the road .- Their suffer- ings .- Death of the wife .- Sudden changes in the weather .- Great contrast .- Cold days .- The freezing of a rum drinker .- The circumstances .- His body long buried under the snow.
THE state has manifested a commendable spirit in encouraging and fostering humane and benevolent institu- tions. The asylum for the education of the deaf and dumb, established at Hartford, Ct. and originally under the care of the Rev. Thomas H. Gualladet, was pat- ronized by the Vermont legislature. They voted the institution, under certain conditions, two thousand dollars annually. They continue to pay that sum ; and many of her unhappy youth, in this respect, have there been taught the rudiments of education ; and made acquainted
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with the principles of the gospel; in some instances giving evidence of having experienced its benign and saving influences. They have all been thus rendered capable in a measure of transacting ordinary business, and participating in human pursuits, and enjoying the pleasures of society. Great credit is due the gentleman above named for his disinterested zeal in preparing him- self for the oversight of this establishment; and for his self-denial and judicious and successful efforts to render it eminently useful ; and an honor to our country. He has proved himself the fast friend of an extensive class of sufferers. Nor is it without praiseworthiness in the government, that they so early and promptly seconded the benevolence and sympathy of those who originated and matured this plan of doing good. Nor does it speak less in their favor that they have for more than a quarter of a century remained steadfast in the work to which they so readily set their hands.
An institution was founded in this state several years since, by an act of the general assembly, called the Vermont Asylum for the Insane; established at Brat- tleboro.
A benevolent lady of Hinsdale, New Hampshire, by the name of Marsh, gave rise to it by bequeathing ten thousand dollars for the founding of it, on certain conditions ; one of which was that it should be located in or near Brattleboro, she being a native of Vernon in this state.
It is under the superintendence of Dr. William H.
17
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Rockwell, a gentleman well qualified for the responsible station, and its arduous duties.
The elegant seat of the late Joseph Fessenden, was purchased by the trustees, and fitted up for the reception of patients. It stands about a quarter of a mile from the village on a beautiful upland flat, connected with alluvial meadows near the mouth of West river. It has a farm attached to it of about fifty acres of good land ; on which the male patients in the right stages of their disorder, labor for exercise and recreation. A large flower and fruit garden, arranged by the late owner, with much taste, in various figures and departments, has been even improved under the direction of the superin- tendent. It has thus become a very attractive spot ; and is well calculated to sooth the feelings, and beguile the maladies of the afflicted inmates of the houses contiguous. In the rear of the original building, is a spherical mound, regular by nature, and adorned by art with circular walks, and beautiful shrubbery; and on its summit a reservoir of water. Farther in the rear still, is a park; a high woodland ridge of oaks. These afford delightful retreats for the stricken deer ; to shun the inquisitive gaze of those, ' whose heads never ache,' and whose hearts feel little for the miseries of others. The scenery around and the attentions of sympathizing attendants, must have an healing "influence on theirs, the worst of human maladies. Surely it would be difficult to find a spot, better designed in its exterior to aid moral and medicinal and professional means of effecting a cure than this.
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So soon and deservedly went forth a good report of the operations of this institution, that an additional building became necessary. Accordingly on application, the government of the state granted money for the purpose. A large and commodious brick building has been erected on the opposite side of the road, fronting south, consisting of a centre dome, and two wings, resem- bling somewhat the ' Connecticut Retreat,' at Hartford. The legislature of Vermont have done honor to the state in so readily and bountifully patronizing this insti- tution ; and their grants have, it is believed, received the cordial approbation of the people. the late provision made of two thousand dollars annually, expressly for the benefit of the indigent insane persons of the state, is a noble example of paternal care for this neglected class of sufferers. History ought to record such acts of public beneficence and liberality in the cause of humanity.
To restore to. themselves and their friends, and the enjoyments of social intercourse, the wanderers from reason's guide, bewildered in frenzy's maze, are worthy objects in christian communities of legislative provision. If the causes of this malady increase as the objects of human enterprise, and incentives to mental improvement and means of social enjoyment multiply, surely they ought to be followed by counteracting influences, and corresponding remedial provisions. Institutions of this kind, multiplying as they are in our land, make an era in the history of philanthropy, and christian enterprise. This state is going forward in this cause, if not as fast
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as any of her sister states, she is outrunning some of her neighbors.
As all are liable to visitations of this kind, all should manifest sympathy in behalf of the sufferers, and a readiness to forward the means of their relief. He who formed the mind, can change it, and suspend the operation of its faculties. He it is that makes us to differ ; confirming to one the exercise of reason, and taking it from another.
You have seen a clump of green flourishing trees, clustering around the dwelling of the husbandman, like children round the fireside of their home, affording ornament and shade. You saw them yesterday, and there was no difference in them. They alike lifted their heads to the winds, and the sunbeams. To day one of them is despoiled of its grace and foliage. It stands, but how changed ! It stands a naked trunk. The fire of heaven has been there; the lightning chain has hit it, and shivered and stript it of its branches, and strewed them around in wild confusion ; leaving but a solitary bough, scorched and withering with the heat. .It stands, but different-changed; and seems to say to its fellows, who maketh you to differ ? You may have seen the family circle yesterday, rejoicing in health and unbroken vigor, the children comforting their parents, standing around, their crown and ornament. A simi- larity of features marks and groups a family likeness. To day one of them may be but a faint resemblance of what he was yesterday. 3 He stands, but how changed ! The fire of frenzy has been there, burning the stays
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and props of the soul ; confusing and intermingling her faculties till she parts anchor into a shoreless, and unknown sea. He stands, but a difference has been made. He seems to look at his kindred, and in accents which might shiver the heart of Pharaoh, to say, who maketh thee to differ ? His associates he views, and seems to address the same piercing interrogatory to them. Surely his brethren ; his fellows and companions, while reflecting on the change, may bring home the question, who maketh thee to differ ?
" As when heaven's fire Hath scath'd the forest oaks, or mountain pines, With singed top their stately growth, though bare, Stands on the blasted heath."
The number of patients in this asylum is about two hundred ; and the recoveries from insanity, are as many comparatively as those of any establishment in the coun- try. It is melancholy to witness the wreck of mind in many promising individuals, who were visited in this way before the benefits of these institutions were ex- perienced. You may see those who once belonged to the first class in talents and acquirements ; scattered up and down the country, hopeless wrecks. The writer has in mind two of this description, who received some thirty years since, the honors of Yale college. You may see them' perchance, in a pleasant town on the Connecticut, at the close of day, by cross roads, with heads uncovered, watching the setting sun ; unconscious of the light of reason long gone down in their darkened
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minds, shrouded in their ruins. If you accost them, they may, in the language of the poet :
" Turn a scornful eye, Shake their proud head, and deign you no reply."
The sympathy and liberality of the inhabitants have been awakened and called upon now and then by more than usual personal suffering, and devastations of pro- perty by flood, and cold, and casualties. The autumn of 1828, and also that of 1830, were remarkable for the destruction of lives and property by sudden inunda- tions. The writer having occasion in the former of those years, to go from the southeastern part of the state to Burlington, immediately after the rain ceased, witnessed the destruction of bridges, and factories, and the fruits of the earth. The havoc in many places was fearful. The inhabitants of the village from which he started, were called from their beds in the dead of night, to witness the sweeping away of their property. They could do little more than witness it. The pouring down of water from the clouds in torrents ; the roaring of the river and neighboring streams, the rapid passing and re- passing of lighted lanterns amid the thick darkness ; and the intermingling of human voices in earnest and animated devises and efforts to help one another, and to rescue factories, and mills and their contents from the overwhelming element, formed a night scene of sleep- less anxiety. But it was one experienced that night, more or less the whole length and breadth of the state. The morning disclosed the ravages made. Groups of
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countenances were seen here and there marked with care and solicitude ; some in deep consultation on what was to be done ; and others with their teams and imple- ments seemed resolved to do something ; and forthwith commenced making repairs. Some were ready to aid the traveler on his way amid the ruins with which his course was beset ; in crossing the swollen, and bridgeless streams ; in avoiding the avalanches ; or slides of masses of matter; with rocks and trees from the hills and mountains into the path ; pointing out the crossway to be taken ; the hills to be ascended, the field to be enter- ed, and the circuitous route pursued. When he seemed brought to a stand, his way foreclosed ; the bridge gone ; the river rapid with rocky bottom and steep banks, others were found ready to stem the current, and draw his vehicle through it, ride his horse over and con- duct him across upon a plank. Thus escaping safely to land, by the divine favor he accomplished his journey as contemplated and intended, while others may have turned back or suspended their course for the waters to subside. But he could not but recall to mind incidents in the life of the apostle to the Gentiles ; " in perils by water ; in perils by land."
But the floods of 1830, were still more disastrous, particularly in the loss of lives. Among other places, a small village in New Haven, suffered severely in this way. It was a cluster of factories and mills, with dwell- ing houses situated on a branch of Otter creek, which affords great water privileges, with falls and high, rocky banks; so much so that they were deemed perfectly
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safe ; and the buildings were placed upon this very verge ; and in some instances from one to the other, that is, over the chasm. But they were suddenly and unex- pectedly swept away in the night with a tremendous crash and uproar. Great was the consternation and terror of that night. The roar and resistless power of the water, the falling and dashing of the buildings one upon another ; the sudden transition from tranquility and security to the most appalling and inevitable danger ; the cries of distress and despair ; and the shrieks of the drowning and helpless, together formed a scene to be comprehended by those only who witnessed it. Four- teen were awakened from sleep in circumstances the most fearful ; and hurried into the sleep of death ; four- teen individuals in a small village containing from one to two hundred inhabitants. How great the breach ! How many hearts bled at the sudden separation and its circumstances ! So great was the disaster, that the civil authority issued circulars very properly in behalf of the surviving sufferers, and collections were cheerfully taken up in many of the religious congregations of the state.
Soon after the road from Brattleboro to Bennington was opened as a turnpike, a man crossing the mountain perished by frost ; and was found near the summit. A tree is marked at the foot of which he expired ; and many a traveler has since left the initials of his name carved on it and the adjacent trees.
Since then a man by the name of Blake, with his wife and infant, crossing the mountain from Manchester, was impeded by the drifting snow. The path was so
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blocked up that his horse, struggling slowly awhile, at length gave out, and night overtook them with no dwell- ing in sight. To avoid perishing in the cold, piercing wind, the only alternative seemed to him to go forward himself, and find help to rescue them from their perilous condition. But his wife remonstrated against it ; fearing that fatigue and discouragement, and cold might over- come him, and he sink down exhausted; and she and her child lose even his assistance. She finally consented to his going forward, but not beyond the hearing of each other's voices. Their voices often responded to each other in melancholy tones, but fainter and fainter till his no longer reached her ears. He made the woods resound with the cry of distress, but no human voice answered the signal. That cry indeed fell upon the ears of one, who was returning from his barn about the time of retiring to rest ; and who yet could sleep till morning before he sought the cause. But not so with the wife of the traveler ; for she rose with her child and followed the footsteps of her husband, whose voice she could no more hear. She went till fatigued ; and could carry no longer her precious burden, but enfolding the little one in the thickest clothing about her, deposited it carefully in the snow bank. To overtake her husband she made her last, but feeble effort. She went but a short dis- tance before nature gave way and she breathed her last ; her heart reaching forward, so to speak, toward her hus- band, and drawn back to her child, unable to reach either of them. The husband unable to catch a glimpse of light, or obtain an answer to his calls, the chillness
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of death coming over him, lay down in the snow ; but lingered till he was found in the morning, frost-bitten and crippled for life. Retracing his track, the man who heard the night before the lamentation of the traveler, whose feet had stumbled on the dark mountains, found the stiffened corpse of his wife, and guided by faint footsteps he finds the child. It had slept sweetly and soundly amid the desolations of that wintry night; and smiled, as it was uncovered, and its eyes met the light of morning, unconscious of the throbbing anguish of which it had been the occasion.
It is a matter of thankfulness that so few lives are lost by the severely cold winter weather, which some- times prevails in this state. It is generally the case, that when the air is most frosty ; when the mercury in the thermometer is lowest, the atmosphere is tranquil. If it were not; if it were strongly agitated with winds at the same time, it would be dangerous to be long exposed to it. But as it is, so biting is the cold some days, that the inhabitants keep as much within doors as possible. The most robust, and resolute sometimes find it difficult to stand before this enemy; and exhibit evidence of his inroads upon their persons. Some days gain the appellation of being pre-eminently cold ; such as the cold Friday ; the cold Sabbath ; and retain this distinction a long time. One of this description of thirty years' standing is still remembered as the cold Friday ; a very sudden and great change taking place in the weather from the moderate and mild the night previous to the intensely cold and windy ; and many
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being frozen in their hands, or feet, or faces, who were out doors only a few minutes, particularly school children.
These sudden changes from calm to boisterous weather render traveling uncertain and precarious, the snow drifting into the roads and rendering them impassable for days in succession. Saturday may be serene ; the sleighing good, the paths being well trod; but Sabbath may find them full of snow, driven in and crowded so closely, as to prevent most of the congregation from leaving their own premises. Thus in the hilly and mountainous towns, it sometimes so happens that churches find within them no worshippers on the Sabbath. Access is cut off even to those, who long for the courts of the Lord.
But the rum-drinker would make trial of buffeting the driving snow, to gratify his appetite, when none else was found to incur the danger. His life was sometimes the price of his temerity. A melancholy instance of this occurred a few years since in a town in this state at the foot of the green mountain .* A man on the Sabbath went three miles, and purchased a jug of rum of a retailer of this poison. It was in the early part of the winter, but the snow was uncommonly deep for the time. It was one of those days, of which many such come up in a Vermont winter, when the air is thick and dark, so to speak, with flying, whirling snow, not so much from the clouds, as by the setting in motion of that already on the ground. He undertook to return home in the face
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