The mighty man of Kittery has a double claim to remembrance. He was a
famous general, the most prominent military character in our
ante-Revolutionary annals; and he may be taken as the representative of a
class of warriors peculiar to their age and country,--true
citizen-soldiers, who diversified a life of commerce or agriculture by the
episode of a city sacked, or a battle won, and, having stamped their
names on the page of history, went back to the routine of peaceful
occupation. Sir William Pepperell's letters, written at the most
critical period of his career, and his conduct then and at other times,
indicate a man of plain good sense, with a large share of quiet
resolution, and but little of an enterprising spirit, unless aroused by
external circumstances. The Methodistic principles, with which he was
slightly tinctured, instead of impelling him to extravagance,
assimilated themselves to his orderly habits of thought and action. Thus
respectably endowed, we find him, when near the age of fifty, a merchant
of weight in foreign and domestic trade, a provincial counsellor, and
colonel of the York County militia, filling a large space in the eyes of
his generation, but likely to gain no other posthumous memorial than the
letters on his tombstone, because undistinguished from the many
worshipful gentlemen who had lived prosperously and died peacefully
before him. But in the year 1745, an expedition was projected against
Louisburg, a walled city of the French in the island of Cape Breton.
The idea of reducing this strong fortress was conceived by William
Vaughan, a bold, energetic, and imaginative adventurer, and adopted by
Governor Shirley, the most bustling, though not the wisest ruler, that
ever presided over Massachusetts. His influence at its utmost stretch
carried the measure by a majority of only one vote in the legislature:
the other New England provinces consented to lend their assistance; and
the next point was to select a commander from among the gentlemen of the
country, none of whom had the least particle of scientific soldiership,
although some were experienced in the irregular warfare of the
frontiers. In the absence of the usual qualifications for military
rank, the choice was guided by other motives, and fell upon Colonel
Pepperell, who, as a landed proprietor in three provinces, and popular
with all classes of people, might draw the greatest number of recruits
to his banner. When this doubtful speculation was proposed to the
prudent merchant, he sought advice from the celebrated Whitefield, then
an itinerant preacher in the country, and an object of vast antipathy to
many of the settled ministers. The response of the apostle of
Methodism, though dark as those of the Oracle of Delphos, intimating
that the blood of the slain would be laid to Colonel Pepperell's charge,
in case of failure, and that the envy of the living would persecute him,
if victorious, decided him to gird on his armor. That the French might
be taken unawares, the legislature had been laid under an oath of
secrecy while their deliberations should continue; this precaution,
however, was nullified by the pious perjury of a country member of the
lower house, who, in the performance of domestic worship at his
lodgings, broke into a fervent and involuntary petition for the success
of the enterprise against Louisburg. We of the present generation,
whose hearts have never been heated and amalgamated by one universal
passion, and who are, perhaps, less excitable in the mass than our
fathers, cannot easily conceive the enthusiasm with which the people
seized upon the project. A desire to prove in the eyes of England the
courage of her provinces; the real necessity for the destruction of this
Dunkirk of America; the hope of private advantage; a remnant of the old
Puritan detestation of Papist idolatry; a strong hereditary hatred of
the French, who, for half a hundred years, had shed the blood of the
English settlers in concert with the savages; the natural proneness of
the New-Englanders to engage in temporary undertakings, even though
doubtful and hazardous, such were some of the motives which soon drew
together a host, comprehending nearly all the effective force of the
country. The officers were grave deacons, justices of the peace, and
other similar dignitaries; and in the ranks were many warm householders,
sons of rich farmers, mechanics in thriving business, husbands weary of
their wives, and bachelors disconsolate for want of them. The disciples
of Whitefield also turned their excited imaginations in this direction,
and increased the resemblance borne by the provincial army to the motley
assemblages of the first crusaders. A part of the peculiarities of the
affair may be grouped in one picture, by selecting the moment of General
Pepperell's embarkation.
It is a bright and breezy day of March; and about twenty small white
clouds are scudding seaward before the wind, airy forerunners of the
fleet of privateers and transports that spread their sails to the
sunshine in the harbor. The tide is at its height; and the gunwale of a
barge alternately rises above the wharf, and then sinks from view, as it
lies rocking on the waves in readiness to convey the general and his
suite on board the Shirley galley. In the background, the dark wooden
dwellings of the town have poured forth their inhabitants; and this way
rolls an earnest throng, with the great man of the day walking in the
midst. Before him struts a guard of honor, selected from the yeomanry
of his own neighborhood, and stout young rustics in their Sunday
clothes; next appear six figures who demand our more minute attention.
He in the centre is the general, a well-proportioned man with a slight
hoar-frost of age just visible upon him; he views the fleet in which lie
is about to embark, with no stronger expression than a calm anxiety, as
if he were sending a freight of his own merchandise to Europe. A
scarlet British uniform, made of the best of broadcloth, because
imported by himself, adorns his person; and in the left pocket of a
large buff waistcoat, near the pommel of his sword, we see the square
protuberance of a small Bible, which certainly may benefit his pious
soul, and, perchance, may keep a bullet from his body. The middle-aged
gentleman at his right hand, to whom he pays such grave attention, in
silk, gold, and velvet, and with a pair of spectacles thrust above his
forehead, is Governor Shirley. The quick motion of his small eyes in
their puckered sockets, his grasp on one of the general's bright
military buttons, the gesticulation of his forefinger, keeping time with
the earnest rapidity of his words, have all something characteristic.
His mind is calculated to fill up the wild conceptions of other men with
its own minute ingenuities; and he seeks, as it were, to climb up to the
moon by piling pebble-stones, one upon another. He is now impressing on
the general's recollection the voluminous details of a plan for
surprising Louisburg in the depth of midnight, and thus to finish the
campaign within twelve hours after the arrival of the troops. On the
left, forming a striking contrast with the unruffled deportment of
Pepperell, and the fidgety vehemence of Shirley, is the martial figure
of Vaughan: with one hand he has seized the general's arm; and he points
the other to the sails of the vessel fluttering in the breeze, while the
fire of his inward enthusiasm glows through his dark complexion, and
flashes in tips of flame from his eyes. Another pale and emaciated
person, in neglected and scarcely decent attire, and distinguished by
the abstracted fervor of his manner, presses through the crowd, and
attempts to lay hold of Pepperell's skirt. He has spent years in wild
and shadowy studies, and has searched the crucible of the alchemist for
gold, and wasted the life allotted him, in a weary effort to render it
immortal. The din of warlike preparation has broken in upon his
solitude; and he comes forth with a fancy of his half-maddened brain,--the
model of a flying bridge,--by which the army is to be transported
into the heart of the hostile fortress with the celerity of magic. But
who is this, of the mild and venerable countenance shaded by locks of a
hallowed whiteness, looking like Peace with its gentle thoughts in the
midst of uproar and stern designs? It is the minister of an inland
parish, who, after much prayer and fasting, advised by the elders of the
church and the wife of his bosom, has taken his staff, and journeyed
townward. The benevolent old man would fair solicit the general's
attention to a method of avoiding danger from the explosion of mines,
and of overcoming the city without bloodshed of friend or enemy. We
start as we turn from this picture of Christian love to the dark
enthusiast close beside him,--a preacher of the new sect, in every
wrinkled line of whose visage we can read the stormy passions that have
chosen religion for their outlet. Woe to the wretch that shall seek
mercy there! At his back is slung an axe, wherewith he goes to hew down
the carved altars and idolatrous images in the Popish churches; and over
his head he rears a banner, which, as the wind unfolds it, displays the
motto given by Whitefield,--Christo Duce,--in letters red as blood. But
the tide is now ebbing; and the general makes his adieus to the
governor, and enters the boat: it bounds swiftly over the waves, the
holy banner fluttering in the bows: a huzza from the fleet comes
riotously to the shore; and the people thunder hack their many-voiced
reply.
When the expedition sailed, the projectors could not reasonably rely on
assistance from the mother-country. At Canso, however, the fleet was
strengthened by a squadron of British ships-of-the-lice and frigates,
under Commodore Warren; and this circumstance undoubtedly prevented a
discomfiture, although the active business, and all the dangers of the
siege, fell to the share of the provincials. If we had any confidence
that it could be done with half so much pleasure to the reader as to
ourself, we would present, a whole gallery of pictures from these rich
and fresh historic scenes. Never, certainly, since man first indulged
his instinctive appetite for war, did a queerer and less manageable host
sit down before a hostile city. The officers, drawn from the same.
class of citizens with the rank and file, had neither the power to
institute an awful discipline, nor enough of the trained soldier's
spirit to attempt it. Of headlong valor, when occasion offered, there
was no lack, nor of a readiness to encounter severe fatigue; but, with
few intermissions, the provincial army made the siege one long day of
frolic and disorder. Conscious that no military virtues of their own
deserved the prosperous result which followed, they insisted that Heaven
had fought as manifestly on their side as ever on that of Israel in the
battles of the Old Testament. We, however, if we consider the events of
after-years, and confine our view to a period short of the Revolution,
might doubt whether the victory was granted to our fathers as a blessing
or as a judgment. Most of the young men who had left their paternal
firesides, sound in constitution, and pure in morals, if they returned
at all, returned with ruined health, and with minds so broken up by the
interval of riot, that they never after could resume the habits of good
citizenship. A lust for military glory was also awakened in the
country; and France and England gratified it with enough of slaughter;
the former seeking to recover what she had lost, the latter to complete
the conquest which the colonists had begun. There was a brief season of
repose, and then a fiercer contest, raging almost from end to end of
North America. Some went forth, and met the red men of the wilderness;
and when years had rolled, and the settler came in peace where they had
come in war, there he found their unburied bones among the fallen boughs
and withered leaves of many autumns. Others were foremost in the
battles of the Canadas, till, in the day that saw the downfall of the
French dominion, they poured their blood with Wolfe on the Heights of
Abraham. Through all this troubled time, the flower of the youth were
cut down by the sword, or died of physical diseases, or became
unprofitable citizens by moral ones contracted in the camp and field.
Dr. Douglass, a shrewd Scotch physician of the last century, who died
before war had gathered in half its harvest, computes that many thousand
blooming damsels, capable and well inclined to serve the state as wives
and mothers, were compelled to lead lives of barren celibacy by the
consequences of the successful siege of Louisburg. But we will not
sadden ourselves with these doleful thoughts, when we are to witness the
triumphal entry of the victors into the surrendered town.
The thundering of drums, irregularly beaten, grows more and more
distinct, and the shattered strength of the western wall of Louisburg
stretches out before the eye, forty feet in height, and far overtopped
by a rock built citadel. In yonder breach the broken timber, fractured
stones, and crumbling earth prove the effect of the provincial cannon.
The drawbridge is down over the wide moat; the gate is open; and the
general and British commodore are received by the French authorities
beneath the dark and lofty portal arch. Through the massive gloom of
this deep avenue there is a vista of the main street, bordered by high
peaked houses, in the fashion of old France; the view is terminated by
the centre square of the city, in the midst of which rises a stone
cross; and shaven monks, and women with their children, are kneeling at
its foot. A confused sobbing and half-stifled shrieks are heard, as the
tumultuous advance of the conquering army becomes audible to those
within the walls. By the light which falls through the archway, we
perceive that a few months have somewhat changed the general's mien,
giving it the freedom of one acquainted with peril, and accustomed to
command; nor, amid hopes of more solid reward, does he appear insensible
to the thought that posterity will remember his name among those
renowned in arms. Sir Peter Warren, who receives with him the enemy's
submission, is a rough and haughty English seaman, greedy of fame, but
despising those who have won it for him. Pressing forward to the
portal, sword in hand, comes a comical figure in a brown suit, and blue
yarn stockings, with a huge frill sticking forth from his bosom, to
which the whole man seems an appendage this is that famous worthy of
Plymouth County, who went to the war with two plain shirts and a ruffled
one, and is now about to solicit the post of governor in Louisburg. In
close vicinity stands Vaughan, worn down with toil and exposure, the
effect of which has fallen upon him at once in the moment of
accomplished hope. The group is filled up by several British officers,
who fold their arms, and look with scornful merriment at the provincial
army, as it stretches far behind in garments of every hue, resembling an
immense strip of patchwork carpeting thrown down over the uneven ground.
In the nearer ranks we may discern the variety of ingredients that
compose the mass. Here advance a row of stern, unmitigable-fanatics,
each of whom clinches his teeth, and grasps his weapon with a fist of
iron, at sight of the temples of the ancient faith, with the sunlight
glittering on their cross-crowned spires. Others examine the
surrounding country, and send scrutinizing glances through the gateway,
anxious to select a spot, whither the good woman and her little ones in
the Bay Province may be advantageously transported. Some, who drag
their diseased limbs forward in weariness and pain, have made the
wretched exchange of health or life for what share of fleeting glory may
fall to them among four thousand men. But these are all exceptions, and
the exulting feelings of the general host combine in an expression like
that of a broad laugh on an honest countenance. They roll onward
riotously, flourishing their muskets above their heads, shuffling their
heavy heels into an instinctive dance, and roaring out some holy verse
from the New England Psalmody, or those harsh old warlike stanzas which
tell the story of "Lovell's Fight." Thus they pour along, till the
battered town and the rabble of its conquerors, and the shouts, the
drums, the singing, and the laughter, grow dim, and die away from
Fancy's eye and ear.
The arms of Great Britain were not crowned by a more brilliant
achievement during that unprosperous war; and, in adjusting the terms of
a subsequent peace, Louisburg was an equivalent for many losses nearer
home. The English, with very pardonable vanity, attributed the conquest
chiefly to the valor of the naval force. On the continent of Europe,
our fathers met with greater justice, and Voltaire has ranked this
enterprise of the husbandmen of New England among the most remarkable
events in the reign of Louis XV. The ostensible leaders did not fail of
reward. Shirley, originally a lawyer, was commissioned in the regular
army, and rose to the supreme military command in America. Warren,
also, received honors and professional rank, and arrogated to himself,
without scruple, the whole crop of laurels gathered at Louisburg.
Pepperell was placed at the head of a royal regiment, and, first of his
countrymen, was distinguished by the title of baronet. Vaughan alone,
who had been soul of the deed from its adventurous conception till the
triumphant close, and in every danger and every hardship had exhibited a
rare union of ardor and perseverance,--Vaughan was entirely neglected,
and died in London, whither he had gone to make known his claims. After
the great era of his life, Sir William Pepperell did not distinguish
himself either as a warrior or a statesman. He spent the remainder of
his days in all the pomp of a colonial grandee, and laid down his
aristocratic head among the humbler ashes of his fathers, just before
the commencement of the earliest troubles between England and America.