HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK, continued ...
by NATHANIEL BARTLETT SYLVESTER
1878
CHAPTER IX.
FRENCH AND INDIAN WARS - THE NORTHERN INVASION OF 1666.
AFTER the weary feet of Isaac Jogues had ceased to tread the war-trails of old Saratoga and Kay-ad-ros-se-ra, the next expedition of importance which passed from the St. Lawrence to the Mohawk over these old trails was the famous expedition of Governor Daniel de Remi, Sieur de Courcelle, and the Marquis de Tracy, lieutenant-general of Canada, to the Mohawk country in 1666.
This expedition was also intimately connected with the naming of the Chazy river, of Clinton county, on Lake Champlain.
The Chazy river flows from the beautiful lake of the same name northerly and easterly, and falls into the northerly end of Lake Champlain, nearly opposite the Isle la Motte, of historic fame.
The Chazy lake sleeps at the foot of Mount Lyon, one of the central peaks of a mountain group of the Lake Bell of the Wilderness, on the rugged eastern border of Clinton county.
This beautiful stream was named in memory of Sieur Chazy, a young French nobleman, who was murdered on its banks near its mouth, by the Indians, in the year 1666.
M. Chazy was a nephew of the Marquis de Tracy, and was a captain in the famous French regiment, Carignan-Salières.
This regiment was the first body of regular troops that was sent to Canada by the French king.
It was raised by Prince Carignan in Savoy during the year 1544.
Eight years after it was conspicuous in the service of the French king in the battles with Prince Condé in the revolt of the Fronde.
But the Prince of Carignan was unable to support the regiment, and gave it to the king, who attached it to the armies of France.
In 1664 it took a distinguished part with the allied forces of France in the Austrian war with the Turks.
The next year it went with Tracy to Canada.
Among its captains, besides Chazy, were Sorel, Chambly, La Motte, and others whose names are so familiar in Canadian annals.
The regiment was commanded by Colonel de Salières.
Hence its double name. {Parkman's Old Regime, p. 181.}
In 1665, Tracy landed at Quebec in great pomp and splendor. {Ibid., p. 178.}
The Chevalier de Chaumont was at his side, and a long line of young noblesse, gorgeous in lace, ribbons, and majestic leonine wigs, followed in his train.
As this splendid array of noblemen marched through the narrow streets of the young, city at the tap of the drum, escorted by the regiment Carignan-Salières, "the bronzed veterans of the Turkish wars," each soldier with slouched hat, nodding plume, bandolier, and shouldered firelock, they formed a glittering pageant, such as the New World had never seen before.
In the same year the captain Sieur La Motte built Fort St. Anne upon the Isle La Motte, at the south end of Lake Champlain, opposite the mouth of the Chazy river.
Young Chazy was stationed at this fort in the spring of 1666, and while hunting in the woods, near the mouth of the river, with a party of officers, was surprised and attacked by a roving band of Iroquois.
Chazy, with two or three others, was killed upon the spot, and the survivors captured and carried off prisoners to the valley of the Mohawk.
For months the war thus begun raged with unabated violence, and the old wilderness was again drenched in blood, as it had been in the time of Father Jogues, twenty years before.
But in the August following a grand council of peace was held with the Iroquois at Quebec.
During the council Tracy invited some Mohawk chiefs to dine with him.
At the table some allusion was made to the murder of Chazy.
A chief, named Ag-ari-ata, at once held out his arm and boastingly said:
''This is the hand that split the head of that young man!"
"You shall never kill anybody else," exclaimed the horror-stricken Tracy, and ordered the insolent savage to be taken out and hanged upon the spot, in sight of his comrades {Ibid., p. 192.}
Of course peace was no longer thought of.
Tracy made haste to march against the Mohawks with all the forces at his command.
During the month of September, Quebec on the St. Lawrence, and Fort St. Anne on the Isle La Motte in Lake Champlain, were scenes of busy preparation.
At length Tracy and the governor, Courcelle, set out from Quebec on the day of the exaltation of the Cross, "for whose glory," says the Relation, "this expedition is undertaken."
They had with them a force of thirteen hundred men and two pieces of cannon.
It was the beginning of October, and the forests were putting on the gorgeous hues of an American autumn.
They went up Lake Champlain and into Lake St. Sacrament, now Lake George.
As their flotilla swept gracefully over the crystal waters of this gem of the old wilderness, it formed the first of the military pageants that in after-years made that fair scene famous in history.
Leaving their canoes where Fort William Henry was afterwards built, they plunged boldly on foot into the southern wilderness that lay before them towards the Mohawk country.
They took the old Indian trail, so often trodden by Father Jogues and by war-parties of savages, which led across the Hudson at the main bend above Glen's Falls, and passed across the old Indian hunting-ground, Kay-ad-ros-se-ra, through what are now the towns of Wilton, Greenfield, and Galway, in Saratoga County, to the lower castles on the Mohawk near the mouth of the Schoharie creek.
It was more than forty miles of forests filled with swamps, rivers, and mountains, that lay before them.
Their path was a narrow, rugged trail, filled with rocks and gullies, pitfalls and streams.
Their forces consisted of six hundred regulars of the regiment Carignan-Salières, six hundred Canadian militia, and a hundred Christian Indians from the missions.
"It seems to them," writes Mother Marie de l'Incarnation, in her letter of the 16th of October, 1666, "that they are going to lay siege to Paradise and win it and enter in, because they are fighting for religion and the faith."
On they went through the tangled woods, officers as well as men carrying heavy loads upon their backs, and dragging their cannon "over slippery logs, tangled roots, and oozy masses."
Before long, in the vicinity of what is now known as Lake Desolation, their provisions gave out, and they were almost starved.
But soon the trail led through a thick wood of chestnut-trees full of nuts, which they eagerly devoured and thus stayed their hunger.
At length, after many weary days, they reached the lower Mohawk cantons.
The names of the two lower Mohawk castles were then Te-hon-da-lo-ga, which was at Fort Hunter, at the mouth of the Schoharie crook, and Ga-no-wa-ga, now Cach-na-wa-ga, which was near Tribes hill.
The upper castles, which were farther up the Mohawk, were the Ca-na-jo-ha-e, near Fort Plain, and Ga-ne-ha-ho-ga, opposite the mouth of East Canada creek.
They marched through the fertile valley of the Mohawk, the Indians fleeing into the forest at their approach.
Thus the brilliant pageant of the summer that had glittered across the sombre rock of Quebec, was twice repeated by this warlike band of noblemen and soldiers amid the crimson glories of the autumn woods in the wild valley of the Mohawk.
They did not need the cannon which they had brought with so much toil across the country from Lake St. Sacrament.
The savages were frightened almost out of their wits by the noise of their twenty drums.
"Let us save ourselves, brothers," said one of the Mohawk chiefs, as he ran away, "the whole world is coming against us."
After destroying all the corn-fields in the valley, and burning the last palisaded Mohawk village, they planted a cross on its ashes, and by the side of the cross the royal arms of France.
Then an officer, by order of Tracy, advanced to the front, and, with sword in band, proclaimed in a loud voice that he took possession, in the name of the king of France, of all the country of the Mohawks.
Having thus happily accomplished their object without the loss of a man, they returned unmolested to Canada over the route by which they came.
The death of young Chazy was avenged.
The insolent Iroquois were for the first time chastised and humbled in their own country.
For twenty years afterwards there was peace in the old wilderness - peace bought by the blood of young Chazy.
Surely was the beautiful river, on whose banks his bones still rest, christened with his name amid a baptism of fire at an altar upon which the villages, the wigwams, the cornfields of his murderers were the sacrificial offerings.
And so ended the second French and Indian war, known in colonial annals as the War of 1666.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY
Re: HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY
HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK, continued ...
by NATHANIEL BARTLETT SYLVESTER
1878
CHAPTER X.
FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR OF 1689-90.
I. - THE INVASION OF MONTREAL OF 1689.
AFTER the return of Tracy's expedition of 1666, there was comparative peace in the old wilderness for a period of more than twenty years.
But at length, owing to the mistaken policy of Governor Denonville, the war broke out afresh, and the old northern valley again became the scene of untold horrors.
All colonies are sometimes unfortunate in their governors: and the dominion of New France was not an exception to the rule.
In the manner in which some of the early Canadian governors treated the Iroquois of central New York, can easily be traced the persistent enmity of these savages to the French, and their unshaken friendship for the English colonists of the Atlantic slope.
Previous to 1689 Governor Denonville had for a long time been on unfriendly terms with the Iroquois.
In that year he committed warlike depredations upon their hunting-parties near the upper lakes.
In the mean time, Governor Dongan, of New York, was the warm friend and ally of the Iroquois.
Governor Dongan's wrath was kindled anew when he heard that the French had invaded the country of the Senecas, seized English traders on the lakes, and built a fort at Niagara.
He at once summoned the Five Nations to meet him at Albany.
He told the assembled chiefs that their late troubles had fallen upon them because they had held councils with the French without asking his leave; and he forbade them to do so again, and told them that, as subjects of King James, they must make no further treaty with the French except with his consent.
He enjoined them to receive no more French Jesuits into their towns, and to call home their countrymen whom these fathers had converted and enticed to Cachnawaga.
"Obey my commands," said the governor, "for that is the only way to eat well and sleep well, without fear or disturbance."
The Iroquois seemed to assent to all this; their orators said, "We will fight the French as long as a man is left."
Then arose a long controversy between Governor Dongan and Governor Denonville in reference to the Iroquois.
Governor Dongan took the responsibility of protecting the Iroquois upon his own shoulders.
At length James II. consented to own the Iroquois as his subjects, and ordered Dongan to protect them.
This declaration of royalty was a great relief to Dongan.
He now pursued more vigorous measures against the French.
So the controversy ran on year after year between the two governors until the fall of 1689, when the Iroquois struck a blow which came upon the French like the crash of a thunderbolt.
During the latter part of July they assembled their warriors and started on the war-path.
Taking their bark canoes, they paddled down the Mohawk, passed the old city of Schenectady, and landed at the mouth of Eel-Place creek, on the right bank of the river.
Here they found a large corn-field planted by William Apple and his associates, who were inhabitants of Schenectady.
Halting for a few days, they feasted upon the green corn in the ear, destroying the whole field.
In after-years what is now known as "Apple patent" grew out of this circumstance.
Leaving the Mohawk, they then followed up the creek to the carrying-place which leads across into Ballston lake.
At the lake they again took to their canoes, and sped across its water.
It was a splendid warlike pageant for these now quietly sleeping waters.
The Iroquois were fully fifteen hundred strong, the fiercest warriors of the New World, painted and plumed for the war-path.
They reached the outlet of the lake near what is now known as East Line.
Again taking their canoes from the water, they carried them over the land into the "Mourning Kill."
From the "Mourning Kill" they descended into the valley of the Kay-ad-ros-se-ra river; down the Kay-ad-ros-se-ra they sped into the Kay-ad-ros-se-ra, now Saratoga, lake.
Across its tranquil waters they passed in savage array, presenting a striking contrast with our modern regattas, and, entering the Fishkill, were soon upon the waters of the Hudson.
Proceeding up to the great carrying-place, at what is now Fort Edward, they passed over it into Wood creek, and thence down into Lake Champlain.
On the 5th of August, 1689, a violent hail-storm burst over Lake St. Louis, an expansion of the St. Lawrence a little above Montreal.
Concealed by the tempest and the darkness, these fifteen hundred warriors landed at La Chine, and posted themselves in silence about the houses of the sleeping settlers, then screeched the war-whoop, and began the most frightful massacre in Canadian history.
Men, women, and children were butchered indiscriminately, and the houses reduced to ashes.
In the neighborhood were three stockaded forts, and an encampment of two hundred regulars were at the distance of three miles.
At four o'clock in the morning, the troops in this encampment heard a cannon-shot from one of the forts.
Soon after they were under arms they saw a man running towards them, just escaped from the Indian butchery.
He told his story, and passed on with the news to Montreal, about six miles distant.
Within a short time thereafter, there came in several fugitives one after another, each telling his tale of the frightful massacre.
The commander of the troops at once ordered them to march.
When they had advanced toward La Chine they found the houses still burning, and the bodies of the inmates strewn among them, or hanging from the stakes where they had been tortured.
The Iroquois, they learned, had been encamped a mile and a half farther on, behind a tract of forest.
Advancing towards the Iroquois sword in hand at the head of his men, the daring commander entered the forest; but, at that moment, a voice from the rear commanded a halt.
It was that of the Chevalier De Vandreuil, just come from Montreal, with positive orders from Denonville to run no risks and stand solely on the defensive.
On the next day eighty men from some of the forts attempted to join them; but the Iroquois intercepted the unfortunate detachment and cut them to pieces in full sight of the forts.
All were killed except Le Moyne, De Longeuil, and a few others, who escaped within the gates of the two forts.
Montreal was stricken to the earth with terror.
But no attack was made either on the town or any of the forts, and the inhabitants, such as could reach them, were safe; while the Iroquois held undisputed possession of the open country, burned all the houses and barns over an extent of nine miles, and roamed in small parties, pillaging and scalping, over more than twenty miles more.
They encountered no opposition nor met with any loss.
Charlevoix says that the invaders remained in the neighborhood of Montreal till the middle of October; whether this be so or not, their stay was strangely long.
At length, when ready to return, they recrossed Lake St. Louis in a body, giving ninety yells, showing thereby that they had ninety prisoners of war.
As they passed the forts they shouted, "Onontio, you have deceived us, and now we have deceived you!"
Towards evening they encamped on the farther side of the river, and began to torture and devour their prisoners.
On that miserable night groups of persons, stupefied and speechless, stood gazing from the Canadian shore at the lights that gleamed along the shore of Chateaugay, where their friends, wives, parents, or children were agonizing in the fires of the Iroquois, and where scenes were enacted of indescribable and nameless horror.
Under this terrible calamity Canada lay benumbed and bewildered; but this was not all.
James II., of England, the friend and ally of France, had been driven from England, and William of Orange had seized his vacant throne.
There was now war between England and France.
The French not only had to contend against the Iroquois, but now the British colonies, strong and populous, were about to attack them.
But Denonville was recalled, and in October sailed for France.
His successor was Count de Frontenac.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
by NATHANIEL BARTLETT SYLVESTER
1878
CHAPTER X.
FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR OF 1689-90.
I. - THE INVASION OF MONTREAL OF 1689.
AFTER the return of Tracy's expedition of 1666, there was comparative peace in the old wilderness for a period of more than twenty years.
But at length, owing to the mistaken policy of Governor Denonville, the war broke out afresh, and the old northern valley again became the scene of untold horrors.
All colonies are sometimes unfortunate in their governors: and the dominion of New France was not an exception to the rule.
In the manner in which some of the early Canadian governors treated the Iroquois of central New York, can easily be traced the persistent enmity of these savages to the French, and their unshaken friendship for the English colonists of the Atlantic slope.
Previous to 1689 Governor Denonville had for a long time been on unfriendly terms with the Iroquois.
In that year he committed warlike depredations upon their hunting-parties near the upper lakes.
In the mean time, Governor Dongan, of New York, was the warm friend and ally of the Iroquois.
Governor Dongan's wrath was kindled anew when he heard that the French had invaded the country of the Senecas, seized English traders on the lakes, and built a fort at Niagara.
He at once summoned the Five Nations to meet him at Albany.
He told the assembled chiefs that their late troubles had fallen upon them because they had held councils with the French without asking his leave; and he forbade them to do so again, and told them that, as subjects of King James, they must make no further treaty with the French except with his consent.
He enjoined them to receive no more French Jesuits into their towns, and to call home their countrymen whom these fathers had converted and enticed to Cachnawaga.
"Obey my commands," said the governor, "for that is the only way to eat well and sleep well, without fear or disturbance."
The Iroquois seemed to assent to all this; their orators said, "We will fight the French as long as a man is left."
Then arose a long controversy between Governor Dongan and Governor Denonville in reference to the Iroquois.
Governor Dongan took the responsibility of protecting the Iroquois upon his own shoulders.
At length James II. consented to own the Iroquois as his subjects, and ordered Dongan to protect them.
This declaration of royalty was a great relief to Dongan.
He now pursued more vigorous measures against the French.
So the controversy ran on year after year between the two governors until the fall of 1689, when the Iroquois struck a blow which came upon the French like the crash of a thunderbolt.
During the latter part of July they assembled their warriors and started on the war-path.
Taking their bark canoes, they paddled down the Mohawk, passed the old city of Schenectady, and landed at the mouth of Eel-Place creek, on the right bank of the river.
Here they found a large corn-field planted by William Apple and his associates, who were inhabitants of Schenectady.
Halting for a few days, they feasted upon the green corn in the ear, destroying the whole field.
In after-years what is now known as "Apple patent" grew out of this circumstance.
Leaving the Mohawk, they then followed up the creek to the carrying-place which leads across into Ballston lake.
At the lake they again took to their canoes, and sped across its water.
It was a splendid warlike pageant for these now quietly sleeping waters.
The Iroquois were fully fifteen hundred strong, the fiercest warriors of the New World, painted and plumed for the war-path.
They reached the outlet of the lake near what is now known as East Line.
Again taking their canoes from the water, they carried them over the land into the "Mourning Kill."
From the "Mourning Kill" they descended into the valley of the Kay-ad-ros-se-ra river; down the Kay-ad-ros-se-ra they sped into the Kay-ad-ros-se-ra, now Saratoga, lake.
Across its tranquil waters they passed in savage array, presenting a striking contrast with our modern regattas, and, entering the Fishkill, were soon upon the waters of the Hudson.
Proceeding up to the great carrying-place, at what is now Fort Edward, they passed over it into Wood creek, and thence down into Lake Champlain.
On the 5th of August, 1689, a violent hail-storm burst over Lake St. Louis, an expansion of the St. Lawrence a little above Montreal.
Concealed by the tempest and the darkness, these fifteen hundred warriors landed at La Chine, and posted themselves in silence about the houses of the sleeping settlers, then screeched the war-whoop, and began the most frightful massacre in Canadian history.
Men, women, and children were butchered indiscriminately, and the houses reduced to ashes.
In the neighborhood were three stockaded forts, and an encampment of two hundred regulars were at the distance of three miles.
At four o'clock in the morning, the troops in this encampment heard a cannon-shot from one of the forts.
Soon after they were under arms they saw a man running towards them, just escaped from the Indian butchery.
He told his story, and passed on with the news to Montreal, about six miles distant.
Within a short time thereafter, there came in several fugitives one after another, each telling his tale of the frightful massacre.
The commander of the troops at once ordered them to march.
When they had advanced toward La Chine they found the houses still burning, and the bodies of the inmates strewn among them, or hanging from the stakes where they had been tortured.
The Iroquois, they learned, had been encamped a mile and a half farther on, behind a tract of forest.
Advancing towards the Iroquois sword in hand at the head of his men, the daring commander entered the forest; but, at that moment, a voice from the rear commanded a halt.
It was that of the Chevalier De Vandreuil, just come from Montreal, with positive orders from Denonville to run no risks and stand solely on the defensive.
On the next day eighty men from some of the forts attempted to join them; but the Iroquois intercepted the unfortunate detachment and cut them to pieces in full sight of the forts.
All were killed except Le Moyne, De Longeuil, and a few others, who escaped within the gates of the two forts.
Montreal was stricken to the earth with terror.
But no attack was made either on the town or any of the forts, and the inhabitants, such as could reach them, were safe; while the Iroquois held undisputed possession of the open country, burned all the houses and barns over an extent of nine miles, and roamed in small parties, pillaging and scalping, over more than twenty miles more.
They encountered no opposition nor met with any loss.
Charlevoix says that the invaders remained in the neighborhood of Montreal till the middle of October; whether this be so or not, their stay was strangely long.
At length, when ready to return, they recrossed Lake St. Louis in a body, giving ninety yells, showing thereby that they had ninety prisoners of war.
As they passed the forts they shouted, "Onontio, you have deceived us, and now we have deceived you!"
Towards evening they encamped on the farther side of the river, and began to torture and devour their prisoners.
On that miserable night groups of persons, stupefied and speechless, stood gazing from the Canadian shore at the lights that gleamed along the shore of Chateaugay, where their friends, wives, parents, or children were agonizing in the fires of the Iroquois, and where scenes were enacted of indescribable and nameless horror.
Under this terrible calamity Canada lay benumbed and bewildered; but this was not all.
James II., of England, the friend and ally of France, had been driven from England, and William of Orange had seized his vacant throne.
There was now war between England and France.
The French not only had to contend against the Iroquois, but now the British colonies, strong and populous, were about to attack them.
But Denonville was recalled, and in October sailed for France.
His successor was Count de Frontenac.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Re: HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY
HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK, continued ...
by NATHANIEL BARTLETT SYLVESTER
1878
CHAPTER X.
FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR OF 1689-90, continued ...
II. - THE BURNING OF SCHENECTADY, IN 1690.
No event in the long and bloody warfare of the old wilderness possesses a more tragic interest than the sacking and burning of Schenectady in the dead of winter, in the year 1690.
Instead of opposing the Iroquois, his former allies, Frontenac attempted to reclaim them.
He resolved, therefore, to take the offensive, not only against the Iroquois, but also against the English, and to strike a few rapid, sharp blows that he might teach both his friends and foes that Onontio was still alive.
He formed three war-parties of picked men, one at Montreal, one at Three Rivers, and one at Quebec; the first to strike at Albany, the second New Hampshire, and the third Maine.
That, of Montreal against Albany was first ready.
It consisted of two hundred men, of whom ninety-six were converted Indians, from the missions near Montreal.
D'Aillebout de Mantet and Le Moyne de Sainte-Helene, the brave son of Charles Le Moyne, had the chief command; they were supported by the brothers Le Moyne D'Iberville and Le Moyne De Bienville, with Repentigny de Monttesson, Le Ber Du Chesne, and other of the Canadian noblesse.
They began their march in the depth of winter, on snowshoes, each soldier with the hood of his blanket drawn over his head, a gun in his mittened hand, a knife, a hatchet, a tobacco-pouch at his belt, and a pack on his shoulders.
They dragged their blankets and provisions over the snow on Indian sledges.
Thus they went on across the St. Lawrence up the Richelieu and the frozen Lake Champlain, and then stopped to hold a council.
Frontenac had left the precise point of attack discretionary with the leaders, and the men had thus far been ignorant of their destination.
The Indians demanded to know it.
Mantet and Sainte-Helene replied that they were going to Albany.
The Indians objected - "How long is it," asked one of them, "since the French grew so bold?"
The commanders answered that, to regain the honor of which their late misfortunes had robbed them, the French would take Albany or die in the attempt.
After eight days they reached the Hudson, and found the place, at what is now Schuylerville, where two paths diverged, the one for Albany and the other for Schenectady; they all without further words took the latter trail.
There was a partial thaw, and they waded knee-deep through the half-melted snow, and the mingled ice, mud, and water of the gloomy swamps.
So painful and slow was their progress that it was nine days more before they reached a point two leagues from Schenectady.
By this time the weather had changed again, and a cold, gusty snow-storm pelted them.
At four o'clock in the afternoon of the 8th of February the scouts found an Indian hut, and in it were four Iroquois squaws, whom they captured.
There was a fire in the wigwam, and the shivering Canadians crowded about it and warmed themselves over its blaze.
The chief Indian, called by the Dutch "Kryn," harangued his followers, and exhorted them to wash out their wrongs in blood.
They then advanced again, and about dark reached the river Mohawk, a little above the village.
Their purpose had been to postpone the attack until two o'clock in the morning; but such was the inclemency of the weather that they were forced to move on or perish.
Guided by the frightened squaws, they crossed the Mohawk on the ice.
About eleven o'clock they saw through the storm the snow-covered palisades of the devoted village.
Such was their distress that some of them afterwards said that they would all have surrendered if an enemy had appeared.
The village was oblong in form and inclosed by a palisade, which had two gates, one towards Albany and the other towards the Mohawks.
There was a block-house near the eastern gate, occupied by eight or nine Connecticut militiamen, under Lieutenant Talmadge.
There were also about twenty or thirty Mohawks in the place, on a visit.
The Dutch inhabitants were in a state of discord.
The revolution in England had produced a revolution in New York.
The demagogue, Jacob Leisler, had got possession of Fort William, and was endeavoring to master the whole colony.
Albany was in the hands of the anti-Leisler, or Conservative party, represented in convention, of which Peter Schuyler was the chief.
The Dutch of Schenectady for the most part favored Leisler, but their magistrate, John Sander Glen, stood fast for the Albany convention; for this the villagers had threatened to kill him.
Talmadge and his militia were under orders from Albany, and, therefore, like Glen, they were under the popular ban.
In vain had the magistrate and Talmadge entreated the people to stand on their guard.
They turned the advice to ridicule, and left their gates open, and placed there, it is said, a snow image as mock sentinel.
There had been some festivity during the evening; but it was now over, and the primitive villagers, fathers, mothers, children, and infants, lay buried in unbroken sleep.
Before the open western gate, with its mock sentinel of snow, its blind and dumb warder, stood the French and Indians.
The assailants were now formed into two bands, Sainte-Helene leading the one and Mantet the other.
They passed through the gate together in dead silence.
One turned to the right and the other to the left, and they filed around the village between the palisades and the houses, till the two leaders met at the farther end.
Thus the place was completely surrounded.
The signal was then given; they all screeched the war-whoop together, burst in the doors with hatchets, and fell to their work.
The villagers, roused by the infernal din, leaped from their beds.
For some it was but a nightmare of fright and horror, ended by the blow of the tomahawk.
Others were less fortunate.
Neither children nor women were spared.
"No pen can write, and no tongue express," wrote Schuyler, "the cruelties that were committed."
At the block-house, Talmadge and his men made a stubborn fight, but the doors were at length forced in, the defenders killed or taken, and the building set on fire.
Adam Vrooman, one of the villagers, saw his wife shot and his child brained against the doorposts, but he fought so desperately that the assailants promised him his life.
Orders had been given to spare Peter Tassemaker, the minister.
He was hacked to pieces and his house burned.
A few fortunate ones fled towards Albany in the storm to seek shelter.
Sixty persons were killed outright, of whom thirty-eight were men and boys, ten were women, and twelve were children.
The number captured, it appears, was between eighty and ninety.
The thirty Mohawks in the town were treated with great kindness by the victors, who declared that they had no quarrel with them, but only with the Dutch and English.
For two hours this terrible massacre and pillage continued; then the prisoners were secured, sentinels posted, and the men told to rest and refresh themselves.
In the morning a small party crossed the river to the house of Glen, which stood on a rising ground, at what is now called Scotia.
Glen had prepared to defend himself; but the French told him not to fear, for they had orders not to hurt a chicken of his.
After requiring them to lay down their arms, he allowed them to enter.
Glen had on several occasions saved the lives of the French, and owing him therefore a debt of gratitude, they took this means of repaying it.
He was now led before the crowd of prisoners and told that not only were his own life and property safe, but that all of his kindred should be spared.
So many claimed relationship with Glen that the Indians observed "that everybody seemed to be his relation."
Fire was now set to all the buildings except one in which a French officer lay wounded, another belonging to Glen, and three or four more which he begged the victors to spare.
At noon Schenectady was in ashes.
The French and Indians then withdrew, laden with booty.
Dragging their sledges with thirty or forty horses, which were captured, twenty-seven men and boys were driven prisoners into the forest.
About sixty old men, women, and children were left behind, without injury by the victors.
Only two of the invaders had been killed.
The French and Indians returned across the territory of Saratoga County, in the order in which they came, pursued by the English troops.
They were overtaken near Lake Champlain, and a few prisoners taken.
Before reaching Montreal, they came near starving, such was the inclemency of the season and the difficulties of the journey.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
by NATHANIEL BARTLETT SYLVESTER
1878
CHAPTER X.
FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR OF 1689-90, continued ...
II. - THE BURNING OF SCHENECTADY, IN 1690.
No event in the long and bloody warfare of the old wilderness possesses a more tragic interest than the sacking and burning of Schenectady in the dead of winter, in the year 1690.
Instead of opposing the Iroquois, his former allies, Frontenac attempted to reclaim them.
He resolved, therefore, to take the offensive, not only against the Iroquois, but also against the English, and to strike a few rapid, sharp blows that he might teach both his friends and foes that Onontio was still alive.
He formed three war-parties of picked men, one at Montreal, one at Three Rivers, and one at Quebec; the first to strike at Albany, the second New Hampshire, and the third Maine.
That, of Montreal against Albany was first ready.
It consisted of two hundred men, of whom ninety-six were converted Indians, from the missions near Montreal.
D'Aillebout de Mantet and Le Moyne de Sainte-Helene, the brave son of Charles Le Moyne, had the chief command; they were supported by the brothers Le Moyne D'Iberville and Le Moyne De Bienville, with Repentigny de Monttesson, Le Ber Du Chesne, and other of the Canadian noblesse.
They began their march in the depth of winter, on snowshoes, each soldier with the hood of his blanket drawn over his head, a gun in his mittened hand, a knife, a hatchet, a tobacco-pouch at his belt, and a pack on his shoulders.
They dragged their blankets and provisions over the snow on Indian sledges.
Thus they went on across the St. Lawrence up the Richelieu and the frozen Lake Champlain, and then stopped to hold a council.
Frontenac had left the precise point of attack discretionary with the leaders, and the men had thus far been ignorant of their destination.
The Indians demanded to know it.
Mantet and Sainte-Helene replied that they were going to Albany.
The Indians objected - "How long is it," asked one of them, "since the French grew so bold?"
The commanders answered that, to regain the honor of which their late misfortunes had robbed them, the French would take Albany or die in the attempt.
After eight days they reached the Hudson, and found the place, at what is now Schuylerville, where two paths diverged, the one for Albany and the other for Schenectady; they all without further words took the latter trail.
There was a partial thaw, and they waded knee-deep through the half-melted snow, and the mingled ice, mud, and water of the gloomy swamps.
So painful and slow was their progress that it was nine days more before they reached a point two leagues from Schenectady.
By this time the weather had changed again, and a cold, gusty snow-storm pelted them.
At four o'clock in the afternoon of the 8th of February the scouts found an Indian hut, and in it were four Iroquois squaws, whom they captured.
There was a fire in the wigwam, and the shivering Canadians crowded about it and warmed themselves over its blaze.
The chief Indian, called by the Dutch "Kryn," harangued his followers, and exhorted them to wash out their wrongs in blood.
They then advanced again, and about dark reached the river Mohawk, a little above the village.
Their purpose had been to postpone the attack until two o'clock in the morning; but such was the inclemency of the weather that they were forced to move on or perish.
Guided by the frightened squaws, they crossed the Mohawk on the ice.
About eleven o'clock they saw through the storm the snow-covered palisades of the devoted village.
Such was their distress that some of them afterwards said that they would all have surrendered if an enemy had appeared.
The village was oblong in form and inclosed by a palisade, which had two gates, one towards Albany and the other towards the Mohawks.
There was a block-house near the eastern gate, occupied by eight or nine Connecticut militiamen, under Lieutenant Talmadge.
There were also about twenty or thirty Mohawks in the place, on a visit.
The Dutch inhabitants were in a state of discord.
The revolution in England had produced a revolution in New York.
The demagogue, Jacob Leisler, had got possession of Fort William, and was endeavoring to master the whole colony.
Albany was in the hands of the anti-Leisler, or Conservative party, represented in convention, of which Peter Schuyler was the chief.
The Dutch of Schenectady for the most part favored Leisler, but their magistrate, John Sander Glen, stood fast for the Albany convention; for this the villagers had threatened to kill him.
Talmadge and his militia were under orders from Albany, and, therefore, like Glen, they were under the popular ban.
In vain had the magistrate and Talmadge entreated the people to stand on their guard.
They turned the advice to ridicule, and left their gates open, and placed there, it is said, a snow image as mock sentinel.
There had been some festivity during the evening; but it was now over, and the primitive villagers, fathers, mothers, children, and infants, lay buried in unbroken sleep.
Before the open western gate, with its mock sentinel of snow, its blind and dumb warder, stood the French and Indians.
The assailants were now formed into two bands, Sainte-Helene leading the one and Mantet the other.
They passed through the gate together in dead silence.
One turned to the right and the other to the left, and they filed around the village between the palisades and the houses, till the two leaders met at the farther end.
Thus the place was completely surrounded.
The signal was then given; they all screeched the war-whoop together, burst in the doors with hatchets, and fell to their work.
The villagers, roused by the infernal din, leaped from their beds.
For some it was but a nightmare of fright and horror, ended by the blow of the tomahawk.
Others were less fortunate.
Neither children nor women were spared.
"No pen can write, and no tongue express," wrote Schuyler, "the cruelties that were committed."
At the block-house, Talmadge and his men made a stubborn fight, but the doors were at length forced in, the defenders killed or taken, and the building set on fire.
Adam Vrooman, one of the villagers, saw his wife shot and his child brained against the doorposts, but he fought so desperately that the assailants promised him his life.
Orders had been given to spare Peter Tassemaker, the minister.
He was hacked to pieces and his house burned.
A few fortunate ones fled towards Albany in the storm to seek shelter.
Sixty persons were killed outright, of whom thirty-eight were men and boys, ten were women, and twelve were children.
The number captured, it appears, was between eighty and ninety.
The thirty Mohawks in the town were treated with great kindness by the victors, who declared that they had no quarrel with them, but only with the Dutch and English.
For two hours this terrible massacre and pillage continued; then the prisoners were secured, sentinels posted, and the men told to rest and refresh themselves.
In the morning a small party crossed the river to the house of Glen, which stood on a rising ground, at what is now called Scotia.
Glen had prepared to defend himself; but the French told him not to fear, for they had orders not to hurt a chicken of his.
After requiring them to lay down their arms, he allowed them to enter.
Glen had on several occasions saved the lives of the French, and owing him therefore a debt of gratitude, they took this means of repaying it.
He was now led before the crowd of prisoners and told that not only were his own life and property safe, but that all of his kindred should be spared.
So many claimed relationship with Glen that the Indians observed "that everybody seemed to be his relation."
Fire was now set to all the buildings except one in which a French officer lay wounded, another belonging to Glen, and three or four more which he begged the victors to spare.
At noon Schenectady was in ashes.
The French and Indians then withdrew, laden with booty.
Dragging their sledges with thirty or forty horses, which were captured, twenty-seven men and boys were driven prisoners into the forest.
About sixty old men, women, and children were left behind, without injury by the victors.
Only two of the invaders had been killed.
The French and Indians returned across the territory of Saratoga County, in the order in which they came, pursued by the English troops.
They were overtaken near Lake Champlain, and a few prisoners taken.
Before reaching Montreal, they came near starving, such was the inclemency of the season and the difficulties of the journey.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Re: HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY
HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK, continued ...
by NATHANIEL BARTLETT SYLVESTER
1878
CHAPTER X.
FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR OF 1689-90, concluded ...
III. - FITZ JOHN WINTHROP'S EXPEDITION OF 1690.
The first American Congress was held on the 1st of May, 1690, in the fort at New York.
It was agreed that while the fleet should attack Quebec the army should proceed by way of Lake Champlain to Montreal and thus effect the conquest of Canada.
The command of this expedition was given to Fitz John Winthrop, of Connecticut.
He was commissioned a major-general in the service, being already a member of the council of Governor Andros.
On the 14th of July of this year General Winthrop set out from Hartford with some troops, and was seven days marching through the almost impassable wilderness before he reached Albany, on the Hudson.
He had been preceded by two companies under Captains Johnson and Fitch.
"At Albany," says Winthrop, "I found the design against Canada poorly contrived and prosecuted, all things confused and in no readiness to march, and everybody full of idle projects about it."
The expedition consisted of four hundred troops from New York, one hundred and thirty-five men, being three companies, from Connecticut, thirty River Indians, and one hundred and fifty Mohawks.
A sorry array compared to the thousands who, sixty-eight years after, swept up the Hudson through Lake George, under Abercrombie and Lord Howe, to find "glory and a grave" at Ticonderoga.
On the 30th of July the New England troops and the Indians moved up four miles and encamped on the flats of Watervliet.
On the 1st of August Winthrop's expedition reached Stillwater, where they encamped for the night.
The next morning Winthrop took up the line of march for Saratoga, now Schuylerville, where there was a block-house and some Dutch soldiers.
At this place he found the recorder of Albany, Mr. Wessells, and a company of principal gentlemen, volunteers from that city.
Here he got letters from Major Peter Schuyler, the mayor of Albany, who had already gone up the river before him with the Dutch troops, to the effect that he, Major Schuyler, who was situated at the second carrying-place, now Fort Miller, was making canoes for the army.
"Thus far," Winthrop says, "the way was good; only four great wading rivers, only one of them dangerous for horse and man."
On the 4th of August the provisions were divided; to each soldier was given thirty-five cakes of bread, besides pork, and Winthrop moved up eight miles to Fort Miller; the Dutch soldiers carrying up their supplies in their bark canoes, and the Connecticut troops carrying them on horses.
"Here," says Winthrop, "the water passeth so violently, by reason of the great falls and rocks, that canoes cannot pass; so they were forced to carry their provisions and canoes on their backs a pretty ways to a passable part of the river."
This point was then known as "the Little Carrying-Place."
On the 5th of August the soldiers marched about eight miles to "The Great Carrying-Place," taking their provisions on their horses, the Dutch having already gone up the river in their canoes.
On the 6th of August the little army marched over the "Great Carrying-Place" twelve miles, to the forks on Wood creek, since called Fort Ann.
The way was through a continuous swamp covered with tall white-pine trees.
On the 7th of August, General Winthrop sent back thirty horses to Saratoga, under command of Ensign Thomilson, for provisions,
On the same day the general passed down Wood creek with two files of musketeers, flanked by the Indians under Captain Stanton, to the Hautkill, now Whitehall, where he encamped with Major Schuyler and the Mohawk captains, on the north side of Wood creek.
On the 9th of August the general received information through Captain Johnson, who had been sent to Albany some days previous for provisions, that the western Indians whom he expected to meet at the Isle La Motte, near the north end of Lake Champlain, had not left their country on account of the smallpox breaking out among them.
The expression the Indians used was "that the great God had stopped their way."
The smallpox had also broken out in the army under Winthrop, and seriously reduced the available force.
The French claimed that of this expedition four hundred Indians and two hundred English died of the smallpox.
While at Hautkill, Major Schuyler sent forward Captain Sanders Glen, the same who had been spared at the Schenectady massacre, with a company of twenty-eight men and five Indians.
At Ticonderoga Glen erected on the 5th of August some stone breastworks, and waited for the expedition to come up; but it was found that the time was so far spent that bark would not peel, and therefore no more canoes could be built that season.
It was further ascertained that the commissaries at Albany could forward no further supplies of provisions.
On the 15th of August a council of war was held, and it was resolved to return with the army to Albany.
Thus ended the first expedition against Canada undertaken by the English colonists.
Captain John Schuyler, however, proceeded on down Lake Champlain, on his first expedition against the French at La Prairie.
When the troops, on their return, reached Wood creek, Lieutenant Hubbell died of the smallpox; he was buried there with much ceremony.
All the forts above Saratoga, with the stores and boats, were burned.
Winthrop's army reached Greenbush, opposite Albany, on the 20th of August, having been absent just three weeks.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
by NATHANIEL BARTLETT SYLVESTER
1878
CHAPTER X.
FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR OF 1689-90, concluded ...
III. - FITZ JOHN WINTHROP'S EXPEDITION OF 1690.
The first American Congress was held on the 1st of May, 1690, in the fort at New York.
It was agreed that while the fleet should attack Quebec the army should proceed by way of Lake Champlain to Montreal and thus effect the conquest of Canada.
The command of this expedition was given to Fitz John Winthrop, of Connecticut.
He was commissioned a major-general in the service, being already a member of the council of Governor Andros.
On the 14th of July of this year General Winthrop set out from Hartford with some troops, and was seven days marching through the almost impassable wilderness before he reached Albany, on the Hudson.
He had been preceded by two companies under Captains Johnson and Fitch.
"At Albany," says Winthrop, "I found the design against Canada poorly contrived and prosecuted, all things confused and in no readiness to march, and everybody full of idle projects about it."
The expedition consisted of four hundred troops from New York, one hundred and thirty-five men, being three companies, from Connecticut, thirty River Indians, and one hundred and fifty Mohawks.
A sorry array compared to the thousands who, sixty-eight years after, swept up the Hudson through Lake George, under Abercrombie and Lord Howe, to find "glory and a grave" at Ticonderoga.
On the 30th of July the New England troops and the Indians moved up four miles and encamped on the flats of Watervliet.
On the 1st of August Winthrop's expedition reached Stillwater, where they encamped for the night.
The next morning Winthrop took up the line of march for Saratoga, now Schuylerville, where there was a block-house and some Dutch soldiers.
At this place he found the recorder of Albany, Mr. Wessells, and a company of principal gentlemen, volunteers from that city.
Here he got letters from Major Peter Schuyler, the mayor of Albany, who had already gone up the river before him with the Dutch troops, to the effect that he, Major Schuyler, who was situated at the second carrying-place, now Fort Miller, was making canoes for the army.
"Thus far," Winthrop says, "the way was good; only four great wading rivers, only one of them dangerous for horse and man."
On the 4th of August the provisions were divided; to each soldier was given thirty-five cakes of bread, besides pork, and Winthrop moved up eight miles to Fort Miller; the Dutch soldiers carrying up their supplies in their bark canoes, and the Connecticut troops carrying them on horses.
"Here," says Winthrop, "the water passeth so violently, by reason of the great falls and rocks, that canoes cannot pass; so they were forced to carry their provisions and canoes on their backs a pretty ways to a passable part of the river."
This point was then known as "the Little Carrying-Place."
On the 5th of August the soldiers marched about eight miles to "The Great Carrying-Place," taking their provisions on their horses, the Dutch having already gone up the river in their canoes.
On the 6th of August the little army marched over the "Great Carrying-Place" twelve miles, to the forks on Wood creek, since called Fort Ann.
The way was through a continuous swamp covered with tall white-pine trees.
On the 7th of August, General Winthrop sent back thirty horses to Saratoga, under command of Ensign Thomilson, for provisions,
On the same day the general passed down Wood creek with two files of musketeers, flanked by the Indians under Captain Stanton, to the Hautkill, now Whitehall, where he encamped with Major Schuyler and the Mohawk captains, on the north side of Wood creek.
On the 9th of August the general received information through Captain Johnson, who had been sent to Albany some days previous for provisions, that the western Indians whom he expected to meet at the Isle La Motte, near the north end of Lake Champlain, had not left their country on account of the smallpox breaking out among them.
The expression the Indians used was "that the great God had stopped their way."
The smallpox had also broken out in the army under Winthrop, and seriously reduced the available force.
The French claimed that of this expedition four hundred Indians and two hundred English died of the smallpox.
While at Hautkill, Major Schuyler sent forward Captain Sanders Glen, the same who had been spared at the Schenectady massacre, with a company of twenty-eight men and five Indians.
At Ticonderoga Glen erected on the 5th of August some stone breastworks, and waited for the expedition to come up; but it was found that the time was so far spent that bark would not peel, and therefore no more canoes could be built that season.
It was further ascertained that the commissaries at Albany could forward no further supplies of provisions.
On the 15th of August a council of war was held, and it was resolved to return with the army to Albany.
Thus ended the first expedition against Canada undertaken by the English colonists.
Captain John Schuyler, however, proceeded on down Lake Champlain, on his first expedition against the French at La Prairie.
When the troops, on their return, reached Wood creek, Lieutenant Hubbell died of the smallpox; he was buried there with much ceremony.
All the forts above Saratoga, with the stores and boats, were burned.
Winthrop's army reached Greenbush, opposite Albany, on the 20th of August, having been absent just three weeks.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Re: HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY
HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK, continued ...
by NATHANIEL BARTLETT SYLVESTER
1878
CHAPTER XI.
THE NORTHERN INVASION OF 1693 - A BATTLE IN SARATOGA.
In the month of January, 1693, Count de Frontenac, governor of Canada, dispatched a force from Montreal with orders to invest and destroy the Mohawk castles, and commit as great ravages as possible around Fort Orange.
This expedition was under the command of De Manteth Courtemanche and La Nuoe.
All the Canadian mission Indians were invited to join it, the Iroquois of the Saut and mountain; Abenakis, froth the Chaudiere; Hurons, from Lorette; and Algonquins, from Three Rivers.
A hundred regular soldiers were added, and a large band of Canadian voyageurs.
The whole force mustered six hundred and twenty-five men.
They left Chambly at the end of January, and pushed southward on snow-shoes.
Their way was over the ice of Lake Champlain, and so on to the Mohawk country.
At night, in squads of twelve or more, they bivouacked in the forest; they dug away the snow in a circle and covered the bare earth with hemlock boughs, built a fire in the middle, and sat around it.
It was sixteen days before they reached the two lower Mohawk towns, which were a quarter of a league apart.
They surrounded one town on the night of the 16th of February, and waited in silence till the voices within were hushed, when they attacked the place, capturing all the inhabitants without resistance.
They then marched to the next town, reached it at evening, and hid in the neighboring woods.
Through all the early evening they heard the whoops and songs of the warriors within who were dancing the war-dance.
The Mohawks had posted no sentinels; and one of the French Indians, scaling the palisade, opened the gate to his comrades.
The fight was short but bloody.
Twenty or thirty Mohawks were killed, and nearly three hundred captured, chiefly women and children.
After burning the last Mohawk town the French and their Indian allies began their retreat, encumbered with a long train of prisoners.
It was the intent of the French to push on to Schenectady and Albany, but they were overruled by the Indian chiefs, who represented that the number of the prisoners was so great they would prevent them from making any farther advances.
In the mean time the whole country had become alarmed.
Lieut. John Schuyler and fifty-five horse marched from Albany to Schenectady.
These were quickly followed by Major Schuyler, who sent out scouts to watch the enemy's movements.
The English crossed the Mohawk, started in pursuit of the enemy with two hundred and seventy-three men, marched twelve miles, and encamped.
At one o'clock the next morning they broke camp and marched till six o'clock A.M., when they were advised that the Canadians were eight miles distant.
At four o'clock P.M. the English forces marched to a place near Tribes hill, where the invaders had remained the night before.
On Tuesday, the 15th, they received a reinforcement of Mohawks, who had come down from the upper country, and they marched about ten miles to a place near Galway, where they halted and sent spies to discover the enemy.
On Thursday, the 17th, they marched in the morning to the place where the French had previously encamped, near Greenfield Centre.
Two miles farther on they learned, through a Christian Indian boy, that the French were then within three miles.
They then marched and encamped within a mile of the enemy, where the French had built a fort, Indian fashion, near what is now known as the Stiles' tavern, in Wilton, on the eastern border of the Palmerton mountains.
The English soon appeared before the fortified camp of the French.
The forest at once rang with the war-whoops of the savages, and the English Indians set at work to intrench themselves with felled trees.
The French and the Indian allies sallied to dislodge them.
The attack was fierce and the resistance equally so.
With the French, a priest of the Mission of the Mountain, named Gay, was in the thick of the fight; and, when he saw his neophytes run, he threw himself before them, crying, "What are you afraid of?"
"We are fighting with infidels, who have nothing human but the shape."
"Have you forgotten that the Holy Virgin is our leader and our protector, and that you are subjects of the King of France, whose name makes all Europe tremble?"
Three times the French renewed the attack in vain.
They then gave over the attempt and lay quietly behind their barricade of trees.
So did their English opponents also.
The morning was dark and dreary; a drifting snow-storm filled the air.
The English were out of provisions and in a starving condition.
The Indians, however, did not want for food, having resources unknown to their white friends.
Schuyler was invited to taste some broth which they had prepared, but his appetite was spoiled when he saw them ladle a man's hand out of the kettle.
The Indians were making their breakfast on the bodies of the dead Frenchmen.
All through the next night the hostile bands watched each other behind their sylvan ramparts.
In the morning an Indian deserter told the English commander that the French were packing their baggage.
They had retreated under cover of the snow-storm.
Schuyler ordered his men to follow, but they had fasted three days and refused to go.
The next morning some provisions arrived from Albany.
Five biscuits were served out to each man, and the pursuit began.
By great efforts they nearly overtook the fugitives, who now sent word back that if the English made an attack all the prisoners should be put to death.
On hearing this the Indians under Schuyler refused to continue the chase.
When the French reached the Hudson, they found to their dismay that the ice was breaking up and drifting down the stream.
Happily for them, a large sheet of it had become wedged at the bend of the river, that formed a temporary bridge, over which they crossed and pushed up to Lake George.
Before the English arrived at the river the ice-bridge had again floated away, and the pursuit was ended.
Thus was fought on the soil of Saratoga County, within six miles of Saratoga Springs, one of the sanguinary contests of the old wilderness warfare.
The battle is said to have been on the plain which lies to the northwest of Stiles' tavern.
This region of the country was afterwards occupied by the Palmerton Indians.
The peace of Ryswyck was declared two years after, in 1695, and for fourteen years thereafter, and until what is known as Queen Anne's war broke out, there was peace in the old wilderness.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
by NATHANIEL BARTLETT SYLVESTER
1878
CHAPTER XI.
THE NORTHERN INVASION OF 1693 - A BATTLE IN SARATOGA.
In the month of January, 1693, Count de Frontenac, governor of Canada, dispatched a force from Montreal with orders to invest and destroy the Mohawk castles, and commit as great ravages as possible around Fort Orange.
This expedition was under the command of De Manteth Courtemanche and La Nuoe.
All the Canadian mission Indians were invited to join it, the Iroquois of the Saut and mountain; Abenakis, froth the Chaudiere; Hurons, from Lorette; and Algonquins, from Three Rivers.
A hundred regular soldiers were added, and a large band of Canadian voyageurs.
The whole force mustered six hundred and twenty-five men.
They left Chambly at the end of January, and pushed southward on snow-shoes.
Their way was over the ice of Lake Champlain, and so on to the Mohawk country.
At night, in squads of twelve or more, they bivouacked in the forest; they dug away the snow in a circle and covered the bare earth with hemlock boughs, built a fire in the middle, and sat around it.
It was sixteen days before they reached the two lower Mohawk towns, which were a quarter of a league apart.
They surrounded one town on the night of the 16th of February, and waited in silence till the voices within were hushed, when they attacked the place, capturing all the inhabitants without resistance.
They then marched to the next town, reached it at evening, and hid in the neighboring woods.
Through all the early evening they heard the whoops and songs of the warriors within who were dancing the war-dance.
The Mohawks had posted no sentinels; and one of the French Indians, scaling the palisade, opened the gate to his comrades.
The fight was short but bloody.
Twenty or thirty Mohawks were killed, and nearly three hundred captured, chiefly women and children.
After burning the last Mohawk town the French and their Indian allies began their retreat, encumbered with a long train of prisoners.
It was the intent of the French to push on to Schenectady and Albany, but they were overruled by the Indian chiefs, who represented that the number of the prisoners was so great they would prevent them from making any farther advances.
In the mean time the whole country had become alarmed.
Lieut. John Schuyler and fifty-five horse marched from Albany to Schenectady.
These were quickly followed by Major Schuyler, who sent out scouts to watch the enemy's movements.
The English crossed the Mohawk, started in pursuit of the enemy with two hundred and seventy-three men, marched twelve miles, and encamped.
At one o'clock the next morning they broke camp and marched till six o'clock A.M., when they were advised that the Canadians were eight miles distant.
At four o'clock P.M. the English forces marched to a place near Tribes hill, where the invaders had remained the night before.
On Tuesday, the 15th, they received a reinforcement of Mohawks, who had come down from the upper country, and they marched about ten miles to a place near Galway, where they halted and sent spies to discover the enemy.
On Thursday, the 17th, they marched in the morning to the place where the French had previously encamped, near Greenfield Centre.
Two miles farther on they learned, through a Christian Indian boy, that the French were then within three miles.
They then marched and encamped within a mile of the enemy, where the French had built a fort, Indian fashion, near what is now known as the Stiles' tavern, in Wilton, on the eastern border of the Palmerton mountains.
The English soon appeared before the fortified camp of the French.
The forest at once rang with the war-whoops of the savages, and the English Indians set at work to intrench themselves with felled trees.
The French and the Indian allies sallied to dislodge them.
The attack was fierce and the resistance equally so.
With the French, a priest of the Mission of the Mountain, named Gay, was in the thick of the fight; and, when he saw his neophytes run, he threw himself before them, crying, "What are you afraid of?"
"We are fighting with infidels, who have nothing human but the shape."
"Have you forgotten that the Holy Virgin is our leader and our protector, and that you are subjects of the King of France, whose name makes all Europe tremble?"
Three times the French renewed the attack in vain.
They then gave over the attempt and lay quietly behind their barricade of trees.
So did their English opponents also.
The morning was dark and dreary; a drifting snow-storm filled the air.
The English were out of provisions and in a starving condition.
The Indians, however, did not want for food, having resources unknown to their white friends.
Schuyler was invited to taste some broth which they had prepared, but his appetite was spoiled when he saw them ladle a man's hand out of the kettle.
The Indians were making their breakfast on the bodies of the dead Frenchmen.
All through the next night the hostile bands watched each other behind their sylvan ramparts.
In the morning an Indian deserter told the English commander that the French were packing their baggage.
They had retreated under cover of the snow-storm.
Schuyler ordered his men to follow, but they had fasted three days and refused to go.
The next morning some provisions arrived from Albany.
Five biscuits were served out to each man, and the pursuit began.
By great efforts they nearly overtook the fugitives, who now sent word back that if the English made an attack all the prisoners should be put to death.
On hearing this the Indians under Schuyler refused to continue the chase.
When the French reached the Hudson, they found to their dismay that the ice was breaking up and drifting down the stream.
Happily for them, a large sheet of it had become wedged at the bend of the river, that formed a temporary bridge, over which they crossed and pushed up to Lake George.
Before the English arrived at the river the ice-bridge had again floated away, and the pursuit was ended.
Thus was fought on the soil of Saratoga County, within six miles of Saratoga Springs, one of the sanguinary contests of the old wilderness warfare.
The battle is said to have been on the plain which lies to the northwest of Stiles' tavern.
This region of the country was afterwards occupied by the Palmerton Indians.
The peace of Ryswyck was declared two years after, in 1695, and for fourteen years thereafter, and until what is known as Queen Anne's war broke out, there was peace in the old wilderness.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Re: HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY
HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK, continued ...
by NATHANIEL BARTLETT SYLVESTER
1878
CHAPTER XII.
FRENCH AND INDIAN WARS, 1709-48.
I. - QUEEN ANNE'S WAR.
In the year 1709, what is known as Queen Anne's war broke out in Europe and speedily extended to the American colonies, each of which soon became bent on the extermination of the other.
Peter Schuyler was now of the executive council, a commissioner of Indian affairs, and a colonel in the service.
He was called by the Indians Guider, because they could not pronounce his name.
His brother John had been advanced to the grade of lieutenant-colonel.
Richard Ingoldsby, who had come over with the rank of major, as commander of Her Majesty's four companies of regulars, was now lieutenant-governor of the province.
Again a joint expedition was planned by the colonists for the conquest of Canada.
Five regiments of regulars were to be joined with twelve hundred provincial troops, who were to proceed by sea to Quebec.
Another body of troops was to rendezvous at Albany for the attack on Montreal.
The forces for this latter expedition were placed under the command of Colonel Vetch, a nephew of Peter Schuyler, and General Nicholson.
Nicholson was tendered the command by Governor Ingoldsby on the 21st of May, 1709.
On the 19th of May, the council had given orders that there should be sent forthwith to Albany a sufficient quantity of stores and provisions, and all other things necessary for building storehouses and boats and make canoes.
About the 1st of June the vanguard of the expedition, consisting of three hundred men, with the pioneers and artificers, moved out of Albany, under the command of Colonel Schuyler.
Proceeding to Stillwater, they built a stockaded fort for provisions, which they named Fort Ingoldsby.
They also built stockaded forts at Saratoga, situated on the east side of the river, below the Battenkill, and another at Fort Miller falls.
From Saratoga they built a road up the east side of the river to the Great Carrying-Place.
At the bank of the Hudson they built, at the Great Carrying-Place, another fort, which they called Fort Nicholson.
This has since become Fort Edward.
From Fort Edward they went across the Great Carrying-Place to the Wood creek, where they built another fort, which they called Fort Schuyler.
This name was shortly afterwards changed to Fort Ann.
At Fort Ann they built a hundred bark canoes, one hundred and ten boats, which would hold from six to ten men each.
Lieutenant-Colonel John Schuyler was in command of this place.
The number of men was finally increased to eleven hundred and fifty.
Fort Nicholson was garrisoned by four hundred and fifty men, including seven companies of regulars, in scarlet uniform, from Old England.
At the Fort Miller falls there were forty men, and at Stillwater seventy men.
In the mean time, Governor Vaudreuil had moved up from Montreal to Chambly, to watch the motions of the invaders.
But this expedition overland was simply auxiliary to the fleet by sea from Boston.
As this latter failed nothing further came of the invasion, and the summer passed away in idleness.
While at Fort Ann a fatal sickness broke out in the English camp, and a great number died as if poisoned.
In October, Colonel Nicholson returned with his crippled forces to Albany.
Charlevoix states that this sickness was produced by the treachery of the Indians, who threw the skins of their game into the swamp above the camp.
It is probable, however, that it was a malignant dysentery, caused by the extreme heat and the malaria of the swamps.
Two years later, in 1711, a second army was fitted out in a similar manner to the last and for the same purpose.
It was composed of three regiments, as follows: first, Colonel Ingoldsby's regulars; secondly, Colonel Schuyler's New York troops; thirdly, Colonel Woodin's troops, from Connecticut.
The whole force consisted of about three thousand men, under command of General Nicholson, and left Albany on the 24th of August.
By the 28th the troops were all on their march beyond Albany.
They proceeded as far as Fort Ann, which had been destroyed two years before.
Shortly after arriving at Fort Ann, intelligence was received that Her Majesty's fleet had been shattered by storms in the St. Lawrence, with the loss of one thousand troops, and the expedition was abandoned.
Thus the third attempt to conquer Canada proved abortive and in 1713 the peace of Utrecht, between England and France, again put a stop to the warfare of the old wilderness.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
by NATHANIEL BARTLETT SYLVESTER
1878
CHAPTER XII.
FRENCH AND INDIAN WARS, 1709-48.
I. - QUEEN ANNE'S WAR.
In the year 1709, what is known as Queen Anne's war broke out in Europe and speedily extended to the American colonies, each of which soon became bent on the extermination of the other.
Peter Schuyler was now of the executive council, a commissioner of Indian affairs, and a colonel in the service.
He was called by the Indians Guider, because they could not pronounce his name.
His brother John had been advanced to the grade of lieutenant-colonel.
Richard Ingoldsby, who had come over with the rank of major, as commander of Her Majesty's four companies of regulars, was now lieutenant-governor of the province.
Again a joint expedition was planned by the colonists for the conquest of Canada.
Five regiments of regulars were to be joined with twelve hundred provincial troops, who were to proceed by sea to Quebec.
Another body of troops was to rendezvous at Albany for the attack on Montreal.
The forces for this latter expedition were placed under the command of Colonel Vetch, a nephew of Peter Schuyler, and General Nicholson.
Nicholson was tendered the command by Governor Ingoldsby on the 21st of May, 1709.
On the 19th of May, the council had given orders that there should be sent forthwith to Albany a sufficient quantity of stores and provisions, and all other things necessary for building storehouses and boats and make canoes.
About the 1st of June the vanguard of the expedition, consisting of three hundred men, with the pioneers and artificers, moved out of Albany, under the command of Colonel Schuyler.
Proceeding to Stillwater, they built a stockaded fort for provisions, which they named Fort Ingoldsby.
They also built stockaded forts at Saratoga, situated on the east side of the river, below the Battenkill, and another at Fort Miller falls.
From Saratoga they built a road up the east side of the river to the Great Carrying-Place.
At the bank of the Hudson they built, at the Great Carrying-Place, another fort, which they called Fort Nicholson.
This has since become Fort Edward.
From Fort Edward they went across the Great Carrying-Place to the Wood creek, where they built another fort, which they called Fort Schuyler.
This name was shortly afterwards changed to Fort Ann.
At Fort Ann they built a hundred bark canoes, one hundred and ten boats, which would hold from six to ten men each.
Lieutenant-Colonel John Schuyler was in command of this place.
The number of men was finally increased to eleven hundred and fifty.
Fort Nicholson was garrisoned by four hundred and fifty men, including seven companies of regulars, in scarlet uniform, from Old England.
At the Fort Miller falls there were forty men, and at Stillwater seventy men.
In the mean time, Governor Vaudreuil had moved up from Montreal to Chambly, to watch the motions of the invaders.
But this expedition overland was simply auxiliary to the fleet by sea from Boston.
As this latter failed nothing further came of the invasion, and the summer passed away in idleness.
While at Fort Ann a fatal sickness broke out in the English camp, and a great number died as if poisoned.
In October, Colonel Nicholson returned with his crippled forces to Albany.
Charlevoix states that this sickness was produced by the treachery of the Indians, who threw the skins of their game into the swamp above the camp.
It is probable, however, that it was a malignant dysentery, caused by the extreme heat and the malaria of the swamps.
Two years later, in 1711, a second army was fitted out in a similar manner to the last and for the same purpose.
It was composed of three regiments, as follows: first, Colonel Ingoldsby's regulars; secondly, Colonel Schuyler's New York troops; thirdly, Colonel Woodin's troops, from Connecticut.
The whole force consisted of about three thousand men, under command of General Nicholson, and left Albany on the 24th of August.
By the 28th the troops were all on their march beyond Albany.
They proceeded as far as Fort Ann, which had been destroyed two years before.
Shortly after arriving at Fort Ann, intelligence was received that Her Majesty's fleet had been shattered by storms in the St. Lawrence, with the loss of one thousand troops, and the expedition was abandoned.
Thus the third attempt to conquer Canada proved abortive and in 1713 the peace of Utrecht, between England and France, again put a stop to the warfare of the old wilderness.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Re: HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY
HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK, continued ...
by NATHANIEL BARTLETT SYLVESTER
1878
CHAPTER XII.
FRENCH AND INDIAN WARS, 1709-48, concluded ...
II. - THE ATTACK ON FORT CLINTON, AT SARATOGA.
In 1744 war was again declared between England and France.
In the midst of the profound peace of the preceeding thirty-one years, the French had advanced up Lake Champlain as far as Crown Point, where they built Fort St. Frederick, in the year 1731.
In the month of November, 1745, an expedition against the English settlement was fitted out at Montreal; it was composed of three hundred Frenchmen and as many Indians.
Their object was to attack and capture the settlements on the Connecticut river; but, on their arrival at Fort St. Frederick, they changed this purpose and proceeded down to Saratoga.
On the night of the 16th of November they attacked the little settlement of Saratoga, plundered and burned about twenty houses, together with the fort.
They killed and scalped about thirty persons, and carried off sixty prisoners; only one family escaped by flight, who, as they looked back, saw the fort in flames.
Among the killed was John Philip Schuyler, an uncle of General Philip Schuyler of Revolutionary memory.
Schuyler had made his will a few years before, by which he divided his property between two nephews, one of whom was General Philip Schuyler.
In the spring of 1746 the English rebuilt the fort at Saratoga, changing its location, however, to accommodate some wheat-fields which were there growing, giving it the name of Fort Clinton.
On the 29th of August, 1746, a band of French and Indians, under command of M. De Repentigny, who were scouting near by, made an attack upon a party of twenty soldiers near the gates of the fort, killing four men, who were scalped by the Indians, and took four prisoners.
In June, 1747, an expedition started from Fort St. Frederick to attack and destroy Fort Clinton, at Saratoga.
It was under the command of La Corne St. Luc, and consisted of twenty Frenchmen and two hundred Indians.
On the night of the 11th of June they arrived before the fort.
While the main body of the French were lying in concealment near by, La Corne sent forward six scouts with orders to lie in ambush within eight paces of the fort, to fire upon those who should come out of the fort the next morning, and if attacked to retire pretending to be wounded.
At daybreak in the morning two Englishmen came out of the fort, and they were at once fired upon by the French scouts, who thereupon fled.
Soon after the firing began, a hundred and twenty Englishmen came out of the fort, headed by their officers, and started in hot pursuit of the French scouts.
The English soon fell in with the main body of the French, who rising from their ambuscade, poured a galling fire into the English ranks.
The English at first bravely stood their ground and sharply returned the fire.
The guns of the fort also opened upon the French with grape and cannon shot.
But the Indians soon rushed upon the English with terrible yells, and with tomahawk in hand drove them into the fort, giving them scarcely time to shut the gates behind them.
Many of the English soldiers, being unable to reach the fort, ran down the hill into the river, and were drowned or killed with the tomahawk.
The Indians killed and scalped twenty-eight of the English, and took forty-five prisoners, besides those drowned in the river.
In the autumn following this disaster, Fort Clinton, of Saratoga, was dismantled and burned by the English, and Albany once more became the extreme northern outpost of the English colonies, with nothing but her palisaded walls between her and the uplifted tomahawks of the ever-frowning north.
In May, 1748, peace was again proclaimed, which lasted for the brief period of seven years, until the beginning of the last French and Indian war of 1755, which ended in the conquest of Canada.
During this short peace of seven years, the settler's axe was heard upon many a hillside, as he widened his little clearing, and the smoke went curling gracefully upward from his lonely cabin in many a valley along the upper Hudson.
It was in the summer of 1749, during this short peace, that Peter Kalm, {Vide Kalm's Travels, in Pinkerton, vol. xiii.} the Swedish botanist, traveled, in the interests of science, through this great northern war-path.
He gives, in his account of the journey, a graphic description of the ruins of the old forts at Saratoga, at Fort Nicholson, and Fort Ann, which were then still remaining in the centres of small deserted clearings in the great wilderness through which he passed.
He made many discoveries of rare and beautiful plants before unknown to Europeans, and in our swamps and lowlands a modest flower, the kalmia glauca, swamp laurel, blooms in perpetual remembrance of his visit.
But there were no mineral springs in the Saratoga visited by Peter Kalm.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
by NATHANIEL BARTLETT SYLVESTER
1878
CHAPTER XII.
FRENCH AND INDIAN WARS, 1709-48, concluded ...
II. - THE ATTACK ON FORT CLINTON, AT SARATOGA.
In 1744 war was again declared between England and France.
In the midst of the profound peace of the preceeding thirty-one years, the French had advanced up Lake Champlain as far as Crown Point, where they built Fort St. Frederick, in the year 1731.
In the month of November, 1745, an expedition against the English settlement was fitted out at Montreal; it was composed of three hundred Frenchmen and as many Indians.
Their object was to attack and capture the settlements on the Connecticut river; but, on their arrival at Fort St. Frederick, they changed this purpose and proceeded down to Saratoga.
On the night of the 16th of November they attacked the little settlement of Saratoga, plundered and burned about twenty houses, together with the fort.
They killed and scalped about thirty persons, and carried off sixty prisoners; only one family escaped by flight, who, as they looked back, saw the fort in flames.
Among the killed was John Philip Schuyler, an uncle of General Philip Schuyler of Revolutionary memory.
Schuyler had made his will a few years before, by which he divided his property between two nephews, one of whom was General Philip Schuyler.
In the spring of 1746 the English rebuilt the fort at Saratoga, changing its location, however, to accommodate some wheat-fields which were there growing, giving it the name of Fort Clinton.
On the 29th of August, 1746, a band of French and Indians, under command of M. De Repentigny, who were scouting near by, made an attack upon a party of twenty soldiers near the gates of the fort, killing four men, who were scalped by the Indians, and took four prisoners.
In June, 1747, an expedition started from Fort St. Frederick to attack and destroy Fort Clinton, at Saratoga.
It was under the command of La Corne St. Luc, and consisted of twenty Frenchmen and two hundred Indians.
On the night of the 11th of June they arrived before the fort.
While the main body of the French were lying in concealment near by, La Corne sent forward six scouts with orders to lie in ambush within eight paces of the fort, to fire upon those who should come out of the fort the next morning, and if attacked to retire pretending to be wounded.
At daybreak in the morning two Englishmen came out of the fort, and they were at once fired upon by the French scouts, who thereupon fled.
Soon after the firing began, a hundred and twenty Englishmen came out of the fort, headed by their officers, and started in hot pursuit of the French scouts.
The English soon fell in with the main body of the French, who rising from their ambuscade, poured a galling fire into the English ranks.
The English at first bravely stood their ground and sharply returned the fire.
The guns of the fort also opened upon the French with grape and cannon shot.
But the Indians soon rushed upon the English with terrible yells, and with tomahawk in hand drove them into the fort, giving them scarcely time to shut the gates behind them.
Many of the English soldiers, being unable to reach the fort, ran down the hill into the river, and were drowned or killed with the tomahawk.
The Indians killed and scalped twenty-eight of the English, and took forty-five prisoners, besides those drowned in the river.
In the autumn following this disaster, Fort Clinton, of Saratoga, was dismantled and burned by the English, and Albany once more became the extreme northern outpost of the English colonies, with nothing but her palisaded walls between her and the uplifted tomahawks of the ever-frowning north.
In May, 1748, peace was again proclaimed, which lasted for the brief period of seven years, until the beginning of the last French and Indian war of 1755, which ended in the conquest of Canada.
During this short peace of seven years, the settler's axe was heard upon many a hillside, as he widened his little clearing, and the smoke went curling gracefully upward from his lonely cabin in many a valley along the upper Hudson.
It was in the summer of 1749, during this short peace, that Peter Kalm, {Vide Kalm's Travels, in Pinkerton, vol. xiii.} the Swedish botanist, traveled, in the interests of science, through this great northern war-path.
He gives, in his account of the journey, a graphic description of the ruins of the old forts at Saratoga, at Fort Nicholson, and Fort Ann, which were then still remaining in the centres of small deserted clearings in the great wilderness through which he passed.
He made many discoveries of rare and beautiful plants before unknown to Europeans, and in our swamps and lowlands a modest flower, the kalmia glauca, swamp laurel, blooms in perpetual remembrance of his visit.
But there were no mineral springs in the Saratoga visited by Peter Kalm.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Re: HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY
HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK, continued ...
by NATHANIEL BARTLETT SYLVESTER
1878
CHAPTER XIII.
LAST FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR, 1755-63.
We have now come, in passing through the history of the long colonial wars of the old wilderness, to the last French and Indian war, which raged for a period of eight years, ending in the peace of 1763.
In this period was enacted a great drama of five acts:
1. The expedition of Sir William Johnson to Lake George, in 1755.
2. The expedition of General Winslow, of 1756.
3. Montcalm's campaign against Lake George, in 1757.
4. Abercrombie's march and defeat, of 1758.
5. The victory of Amherst on Lake Champlain, and of Wolfe at Quebec, of the year 1759.
During this war great armies marched through Saratoga along the old northern war-worn valley, dyeing its streams with blood, and filling its wild meadows with thousands of nameless new-made graves.
I. - SIR WILLIAM JOHNSON'S EXPEDITION IN 1755.
In the beginning of the year 1755, a plan of military operations, on a more extensive scale than had ever before been projected, was adopted by the British ministry for dispossessing the French upon the English territory.
Three expeditions were fitted out: that of Braddock against Fort Du Quesne, another under Shirley against Niagara, and a third under Johnson against Crown Point.
To carry out this latter expedition five thousand provincial troops were raised, of which number eight hundred were furnished by New York.
This army assembled at Albany on the last of June, where it was joined by King Hendrick, with a large body of Mohawk warriors.
Early in July, about six hundred men were sent up the Hudson river to erect a fort at the Great Carrying-Place, on the site of old Fort Nicholson.
This fort was first called Fort Lyman: in honor of the officer commanding the advanced corps.
In a few years it was changed to Fort Edward, in honor of Edward, Duke of York, grandson of the reigning sovereign, George the Second.
It stood upon the bank of the Hudson, on the north side of Fort Edward creek.
Other detachments of the army soon followed, one of which, under command of Colonel Miller, built a fort at the rapids above Saratoga.
It was named Fort Miller.
Colonel Miller also cut a military road upon the west side of the Hudson to Fort Edward, and thence through the forest to the head of Lake George.
On the 8th of August, Major-General William Johnson left Albany with the artillery, and took command of the army in person.
The latter part of August he advanced with the main body of his forces to the head of Lake George, with the design of passing to the outlet of the lake at Ticonderoga, and erecting a fort there to aid in the operations against Crown Point, but the French reached Ticonderoga in advance of him, and strongly fortified themselves there.
Aware of Johnson's enterprise against Crown Point, Baron Dieskau, the commander of the French forces on Lake Champlain, had collected about three thousand men for its defense.
Expecting an immediate attack, he selected a force of two hundred grenadiers, eight hundred Canadian militia, and seven hundred Indians, proceeded up the lake, and landed at the head of South bay, to embarrass Johnson, who was then lying with his army at the head of Lake George.
He resolved to capture Fort Edward, thence drop down the river, and menace Albany.
Accordingly, on the 7th day of September, he marched south into the edge of Kingsbury, where he halted about seven miles north of Fort Edward.
The French and Indians opposed the idea of assaulting Fort Edward, dreading the cannon, but were willing to attack Johnson at Lake George.
Dieskau therefore changed his course, marching toward Lake George, and encamped over night near the southern extremity of French mountain.
Johnson, learning of the approach of Dieskau on the morning of the eighth, sent out Colonel Ephraim Williams with a thousand troops, and Hendrick with two hundred Indians, with orders to oppose the progress of the French.
They had gone but four miles when they encountered the enemy.
Dieskau, informed of their approach, had halted and prepared for their reception, forming his forces in a semicircle, the ends of which were far in advance of the centre, and concealed from view by the forest.
Into this ambuscade the detachment under Colonel Williams marched wholly unconscious of their danger.
Suddenly the war-whoop resounded all around them, and a galling fire was opened all along the front and left side of the column.
Colonel Williams hastily changed his position and ordered his men to ascend the rising ground on their right, but this brought them on the other wing of the French forces.
Williams and Hendrick, with numbers of their followers, fell, and the detachment retreated in great confusion.
A large part of these troops were from western Massachusetts, and few families there were but mourned the loss of relatives or friends cut off in "the bloody morning scout at Lake George."
When this advance was proposed, it was opposed by King Hendrick.
He remarked, in the laconic language of his race, "If they're to fight, they're too few; if they're to be killed, they're too many."
And when it was suggested that the detachment should be divided into three bodies, he gathered three sticks from the ground.
"Put these together," he said, "and you cannot break them; then take them one by one, and you can break them readily."
Just before Williams began his march Hendrick mounted a stump and harangued his people.
With his strong, masculine voice he might have been heard at least half a mile.
One who heard him but did not understand his language, afterwards said, "The animation of Hendrick, the fire of his eye, the force of his gestures, his emphasis, the inflections of his voice, and his whole manner, affected him more than any speech he had ever heard."
Williams, who gallantly took his position upon a rock which is now the base of his own monument, fell early in action.
Hendrick fell nearly at the same moment.
The English forces, reaching Dieskau, doubled up and fled pell-mell to their intrenchments.
They were soon relieved by Lieutenant-Colonel Whitting, however, and fought with more valor under cover of a party of about three hundred men, commanded by Colonel Cole, who had made their appearance.
The detachment then retreated in good order to their camp.
As soon as the stragglers began to come in, showing that the enemy was at hand, a barricade of logs was hastily thrown up in front of the English encampment.
In a short time, Dieskau's troops made their appearance; they advanced with great regularity, their burnished muskets glittering in the sun.
We can readily imagine that no small trepidation was caused among the English at the advancing platoons.
A short pause was made by the French before commencing the attack; this enabled Johnson's men to recover from their panic, and when once fairly engaged they fought with the calmness and resolution of veterans.
Johnson's camp was assailed by the grenadiers in front, and by the French and Indians upon both flanks.
A few discharges of artillery against the Indians caused them to fall back and secure themselves behind logs and trees, from which they afterwards maintained an irregular fire.
General Johnson being wounded early in the engagement, the command devolved upon General Lyman, who stationed himself in front of the breastworks and directed their movements.
For nearly four hours the battle lasted, the assailed still standing firm at every point.
Dieskau at length ordered a retreat.
So hastily did his men withdraw that their leader, having been wounded in the foot, was unable to keep pace with them.
Reclining against a stump to obtain temporary relief from his pain, he was discovered by a soldier.
Dieskau sought to propitiate the soldier by offering him his watch.
As he searched for it, the soldier, mistaking his action for an attempt to reach his pistol, discharged his musket and gave him a wound in the left hip from which he died twelve years afterwards.
The French retreated to the ground where the forenoon engagement had occurred, and there paused for the night.
In the mean time, Colonel Blanchard, the commanding officer at Fort Edward, had sent out two hundred men to range the woods.
Hearing the discharge of cannon in the direction of Johnson's camp, they knew that a battle was there in progress, and they hastened on to the scene of action.
Reaching the French encampment after nightfall, they distributed themselves in positions from which they could fire with the most security and effect.
A body of the French were washing and refreshing themselves from their packs upon a margin of a marshy pool in a hollow.
At the first fire such numbers of these fell dead into and along the pool, and it became so discolored with blood, that it has since borne the name of "Bloody Pond."
The surprise was so sudden that the French fled at all points, but soon rallied and returned to the charge.
They maintained for a time a sharp conflict, but soon gave way and fled through the woods towards South bay, leaving their packs, baggage, and a number of prisoners in the hands of the victors, who conveyed them in triumph to Johnson's camp.
With this final rout of the French army, the memorable engagement of the 8th of September, 1755, at Lake George closed.
Seven hundred French were killed, and two hundred and thirty English.
This engagement takes rank as one of the most important in our nation's history.
It exerted a great influence on our country's destiny.
It showed that raw troops, fresh from the plow and workshop, who before had never been in the service, if properly officered and led, could compete with veterans of European history.
The confidence in their own abilities which the battle of Lake George gave the provincials had no small influence upon the issue of this war, and in substantially leading our country into and through our Revolutionary contest.
General Johnson now erected a fort at Lake George, which was named in honor of William Henry, Duke of Cumberland, brother of George the Third.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
by NATHANIEL BARTLETT SYLVESTER
1878
CHAPTER XIII.
LAST FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR, 1755-63.
We have now come, in passing through the history of the long colonial wars of the old wilderness, to the last French and Indian war, which raged for a period of eight years, ending in the peace of 1763.
In this period was enacted a great drama of five acts:
1. The expedition of Sir William Johnson to Lake George, in 1755.
2. The expedition of General Winslow, of 1756.
3. Montcalm's campaign against Lake George, in 1757.
4. Abercrombie's march and defeat, of 1758.
5. The victory of Amherst on Lake Champlain, and of Wolfe at Quebec, of the year 1759.
During this war great armies marched through Saratoga along the old northern war-worn valley, dyeing its streams with blood, and filling its wild meadows with thousands of nameless new-made graves.
I. - SIR WILLIAM JOHNSON'S EXPEDITION IN 1755.
In the beginning of the year 1755, a plan of military operations, on a more extensive scale than had ever before been projected, was adopted by the British ministry for dispossessing the French upon the English territory.
Three expeditions were fitted out: that of Braddock against Fort Du Quesne, another under Shirley against Niagara, and a third under Johnson against Crown Point.
To carry out this latter expedition five thousand provincial troops were raised, of which number eight hundred were furnished by New York.
This army assembled at Albany on the last of June, where it was joined by King Hendrick, with a large body of Mohawk warriors.
Early in July, about six hundred men were sent up the Hudson river to erect a fort at the Great Carrying-Place, on the site of old Fort Nicholson.
This fort was first called Fort Lyman: in honor of the officer commanding the advanced corps.
In a few years it was changed to Fort Edward, in honor of Edward, Duke of York, grandson of the reigning sovereign, George the Second.
It stood upon the bank of the Hudson, on the north side of Fort Edward creek.
Other detachments of the army soon followed, one of which, under command of Colonel Miller, built a fort at the rapids above Saratoga.
It was named Fort Miller.
Colonel Miller also cut a military road upon the west side of the Hudson to Fort Edward, and thence through the forest to the head of Lake George.
On the 8th of August, Major-General William Johnson left Albany with the artillery, and took command of the army in person.
The latter part of August he advanced with the main body of his forces to the head of Lake George, with the design of passing to the outlet of the lake at Ticonderoga, and erecting a fort there to aid in the operations against Crown Point, but the French reached Ticonderoga in advance of him, and strongly fortified themselves there.
Aware of Johnson's enterprise against Crown Point, Baron Dieskau, the commander of the French forces on Lake Champlain, had collected about three thousand men for its defense.
Expecting an immediate attack, he selected a force of two hundred grenadiers, eight hundred Canadian militia, and seven hundred Indians, proceeded up the lake, and landed at the head of South bay, to embarrass Johnson, who was then lying with his army at the head of Lake George.
He resolved to capture Fort Edward, thence drop down the river, and menace Albany.
Accordingly, on the 7th day of September, he marched south into the edge of Kingsbury, where he halted about seven miles north of Fort Edward.
The French and Indians opposed the idea of assaulting Fort Edward, dreading the cannon, but were willing to attack Johnson at Lake George.
Dieskau therefore changed his course, marching toward Lake George, and encamped over night near the southern extremity of French mountain.
Johnson, learning of the approach of Dieskau on the morning of the eighth, sent out Colonel Ephraim Williams with a thousand troops, and Hendrick with two hundred Indians, with orders to oppose the progress of the French.
They had gone but four miles when they encountered the enemy.
Dieskau, informed of their approach, had halted and prepared for their reception, forming his forces in a semicircle, the ends of which were far in advance of the centre, and concealed from view by the forest.
Into this ambuscade the detachment under Colonel Williams marched wholly unconscious of their danger.
Suddenly the war-whoop resounded all around them, and a galling fire was opened all along the front and left side of the column.
Colonel Williams hastily changed his position and ordered his men to ascend the rising ground on their right, but this brought them on the other wing of the French forces.
Williams and Hendrick, with numbers of their followers, fell, and the detachment retreated in great confusion.
A large part of these troops were from western Massachusetts, and few families there were but mourned the loss of relatives or friends cut off in "the bloody morning scout at Lake George."
When this advance was proposed, it was opposed by King Hendrick.
He remarked, in the laconic language of his race, "If they're to fight, they're too few; if they're to be killed, they're too many."
And when it was suggested that the detachment should be divided into three bodies, he gathered three sticks from the ground.
"Put these together," he said, "and you cannot break them; then take them one by one, and you can break them readily."
Just before Williams began his march Hendrick mounted a stump and harangued his people.
With his strong, masculine voice he might have been heard at least half a mile.
One who heard him but did not understand his language, afterwards said, "The animation of Hendrick, the fire of his eye, the force of his gestures, his emphasis, the inflections of his voice, and his whole manner, affected him more than any speech he had ever heard."
Williams, who gallantly took his position upon a rock which is now the base of his own monument, fell early in action.
Hendrick fell nearly at the same moment.
The English forces, reaching Dieskau, doubled up and fled pell-mell to their intrenchments.
They were soon relieved by Lieutenant-Colonel Whitting, however, and fought with more valor under cover of a party of about three hundred men, commanded by Colonel Cole, who had made their appearance.
The detachment then retreated in good order to their camp.
As soon as the stragglers began to come in, showing that the enemy was at hand, a barricade of logs was hastily thrown up in front of the English encampment.
In a short time, Dieskau's troops made their appearance; they advanced with great regularity, their burnished muskets glittering in the sun.
We can readily imagine that no small trepidation was caused among the English at the advancing platoons.
A short pause was made by the French before commencing the attack; this enabled Johnson's men to recover from their panic, and when once fairly engaged they fought with the calmness and resolution of veterans.
Johnson's camp was assailed by the grenadiers in front, and by the French and Indians upon both flanks.
A few discharges of artillery against the Indians caused them to fall back and secure themselves behind logs and trees, from which they afterwards maintained an irregular fire.
General Johnson being wounded early in the engagement, the command devolved upon General Lyman, who stationed himself in front of the breastworks and directed their movements.
For nearly four hours the battle lasted, the assailed still standing firm at every point.
Dieskau at length ordered a retreat.
So hastily did his men withdraw that their leader, having been wounded in the foot, was unable to keep pace with them.
Reclining against a stump to obtain temporary relief from his pain, he was discovered by a soldier.
Dieskau sought to propitiate the soldier by offering him his watch.
As he searched for it, the soldier, mistaking his action for an attempt to reach his pistol, discharged his musket and gave him a wound in the left hip from which he died twelve years afterwards.
The French retreated to the ground where the forenoon engagement had occurred, and there paused for the night.
In the mean time, Colonel Blanchard, the commanding officer at Fort Edward, had sent out two hundred men to range the woods.
Hearing the discharge of cannon in the direction of Johnson's camp, they knew that a battle was there in progress, and they hastened on to the scene of action.
Reaching the French encampment after nightfall, they distributed themselves in positions from which they could fire with the most security and effect.
A body of the French were washing and refreshing themselves from their packs upon a margin of a marshy pool in a hollow.
At the first fire such numbers of these fell dead into and along the pool, and it became so discolored with blood, that it has since borne the name of "Bloody Pond."
The surprise was so sudden that the French fled at all points, but soon rallied and returned to the charge.
They maintained for a time a sharp conflict, but soon gave way and fled through the woods towards South bay, leaving their packs, baggage, and a number of prisoners in the hands of the victors, who conveyed them in triumph to Johnson's camp.
With this final rout of the French army, the memorable engagement of the 8th of September, 1755, at Lake George closed.
Seven hundred French were killed, and two hundred and thirty English.
This engagement takes rank as one of the most important in our nation's history.
It exerted a great influence on our country's destiny.
It showed that raw troops, fresh from the plow and workshop, who before had never been in the service, if properly officered and led, could compete with veterans of European history.
The confidence in their own abilities which the battle of Lake George gave the provincials had no small influence upon the issue of this war, and in substantially leading our country into and through our Revolutionary contest.
General Johnson now erected a fort at Lake George, which was named in honor of William Henry, Duke of Cumberland, brother of George the Third.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Re: HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY
HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK, continued ...
by NATHANIEL BARTLETT SYLVESTER
1878
CHAPTER XIII.
LAST FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR, 1755-63, continued ...
II. - WINSLOW'S EXPEDITION OF 1756.
In the summer of 1756 six thousand troops were collected, under Colonel Seth Winslow, who had commanded the expedition which the previous year had reduced Acadia.
Advancing up the Hudson, he halted at Stillwater, and built a fort on the site of old Fort Ingoldsby, which he called Fort Winslow.
Proceeding to Lake George, he remained during the summer, effecting little.
The operations of this campaign were chiefly confined to Captain Rogers' Rangers along the shores of Lake George and Lake Champlain.
The army of General Winslow returned in the fall, having accomplished nothing.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
by NATHANIEL BARTLETT SYLVESTER
1878
CHAPTER XIII.
LAST FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR, 1755-63, continued ...
II. - WINSLOW'S EXPEDITION OF 1756.
In the summer of 1756 six thousand troops were collected, under Colonel Seth Winslow, who had commanded the expedition which the previous year had reduced Acadia.
Advancing up the Hudson, he halted at Stillwater, and built a fort on the site of old Fort Ingoldsby, which he called Fort Winslow.
Proceeding to Lake George, he remained during the summer, effecting little.
The operations of this campaign were chiefly confined to Captain Rogers' Rangers along the shores of Lake George and Lake Champlain.
The army of General Winslow returned in the fall, having accomplished nothing.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
Re: HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY
HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK, continued ...
by NATHANIEL BARTLETT SYLVESTER
1878
CHAPTER XIII.
LAST FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR, 1755-63, continued ...
III. - MONTCALM'S INVESTMENT OF FORT GEORGE IN 1756.
On the 10th of August, 1756, Montcalm invested Oswego.
He leveled the fortresses to the ground, and Oswego was left once more a solitude.
Returning triumphantly, he lost no time in arranging his expedition against Fort William Henry, on Lake George.
At Montreal he held a council of the Indian tribes gathered there from Nova Scotia and Lake Superior.
On the 12th of July he proceeded up Lake Champlain to Fort Carillon, at Ticonderoga, accompanied by eighteen hundred and six warriors.
In addition to the Indians the French army was composed of three thousand and eighty-one regulars, two thousand nine hundred and forty-six Canadian militia, and one hundred and eight artillery, in all six thousand two hundred and fifteen men.
General Webb, who was in command of the English forces, upon the 2d day of August dispatched Colonel Monroe from Fort Edward, with his regiment, to rendezvous at and take command of the Fort William Henry garrison, which then numbered two thousand two hundred men, four hundred and fifty of whom occupied the fort, and the remainder were posted in the fortified camp on the ground near the forts.
General Webb remained at Fort Edward with the main army, amounting to four or five thousand men, which in a few days began to be augmented by the arrival of militia.
Upon the 3d of August, Montcalm arrived with his force before old Fort William Henry, which he soon invested.
Colonel Monroe sent from time to time to General Webb for assistance, but the pusillanimous Webb lay inactive, and paid no attention to his requests.
Thus the garrison at Lake George held out day after day, expecting relief and reinforcements, but none came.
On the 8th of August, {original text has "June"} General Johnson obtained permission of Webb to march to the relief of the garrison, and Putnam and his Rangers volunteered; but this force had scarcely begun their march when Webb ordered them to return to their posts.
Giving over all hopes of relief, his ammunition now nearly exhausted, Colonel Monroe, on the 9th of August, signed articles of capitulation.
The garrison was to march out with the honors of war, retaining their arms and their baggage, and one cannon.
Covered wagons were to be furnished for their baggage, and an escort of five hundred men to guard the garrison on their way to Fort Edward.
A scene now ensued which beggars description, and fixes a stain upon Montcalm which dims the lustre of his triumphs.
The Indians fell upon the musketeers, and butchered them in the most ferocious manner.
It is but just to the French, however, to say that they did everything in their power to prevent the fiendish massacre; as savages, when once they have tasted blood, were not to be appeased or controlled.
The miserable remnants of this ill-starred garrison, after struggling through the woods, reached Fort Edward in small parties, after sleeping in the open air.
The number that was massacred on this occasion was never definitely ascertained.
Montcalm soon burned the fort and retired with his forces to Ticonderoga.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
by NATHANIEL BARTLETT SYLVESTER
1878
CHAPTER XIII.
LAST FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR, 1755-63, continued ...
III. - MONTCALM'S INVESTMENT OF FORT GEORGE IN 1756.
On the 10th of August, 1756, Montcalm invested Oswego.
He leveled the fortresses to the ground, and Oswego was left once more a solitude.
Returning triumphantly, he lost no time in arranging his expedition against Fort William Henry, on Lake George.
At Montreal he held a council of the Indian tribes gathered there from Nova Scotia and Lake Superior.
On the 12th of July he proceeded up Lake Champlain to Fort Carillon, at Ticonderoga, accompanied by eighteen hundred and six warriors.
In addition to the Indians the French army was composed of three thousand and eighty-one regulars, two thousand nine hundred and forty-six Canadian militia, and one hundred and eight artillery, in all six thousand two hundred and fifteen men.
General Webb, who was in command of the English forces, upon the 2d day of August dispatched Colonel Monroe from Fort Edward, with his regiment, to rendezvous at and take command of the Fort William Henry garrison, which then numbered two thousand two hundred men, four hundred and fifty of whom occupied the fort, and the remainder were posted in the fortified camp on the ground near the forts.
General Webb remained at Fort Edward with the main army, amounting to four or five thousand men, which in a few days began to be augmented by the arrival of militia.
Upon the 3d of August, Montcalm arrived with his force before old Fort William Henry, which he soon invested.
Colonel Monroe sent from time to time to General Webb for assistance, but the pusillanimous Webb lay inactive, and paid no attention to his requests.
Thus the garrison at Lake George held out day after day, expecting relief and reinforcements, but none came.
On the 8th of August, {original text has "June"} General Johnson obtained permission of Webb to march to the relief of the garrison, and Putnam and his Rangers volunteered; but this force had scarcely begun their march when Webb ordered them to return to their posts.
Giving over all hopes of relief, his ammunition now nearly exhausted, Colonel Monroe, on the 9th of August, signed articles of capitulation.
The garrison was to march out with the honors of war, retaining their arms and their baggage, and one cannon.
Covered wagons were to be furnished for their baggage, and an escort of five hundred men to guard the garrison on their way to Fort Edward.
A scene now ensued which beggars description, and fixes a stain upon Montcalm which dims the lustre of his triumphs.
The Indians fell upon the musketeers, and butchered them in the most ferocious manner.
It is but just to the French, however, to say that they did everything in their power to prevent the fiendish massacre; as savages, when once they have tasted blood, were not to be appeased or controlled.
The miserable remnants of this ill-starred garrison, after struggling through the woods, reached Fort Edward in small parties, after sleeping in the open air.
The number that was massacred on this occasion was never definitely ascertained.
Montcalm soon burned the fort and retired with his forces to Ticonderoga.
TO BE CONTINUED ...