One pleasant September day in 1897 it was my good fortune, under expert
guidance, to follow for a little the one solitary trail made by the
American patriots in Western New York during the Revolutionary War, the
one expedition of our colonial forces approaching this region during
that period. This was the famous "raid" led by Gen. John Sullivan in the
summer of 1779. Our quest took us up the long hill slope west of Conesus
Lake, in what is now the town of Groveland, Livingston Co., to a
spot--among the most memorable in the annals of Western New York, yet
unmarked and known to but a few--where a detachment of Sullivan's army,
under Lieut. Boyd, were waylaid and massacred by the Indians. It was on
the 13th of September that this tragedy occurred. Two days later Gen.
Sullivan, having accomplished the main purpose of his raid--the
destruction of Indian villages and crops--turned back towards
Pennsylvania, returning to Easton, whence the expedition had started. He
had come within about eighty miles of the Niagara. "Though I had it not
in command," wrote Gen. Sullivan in his report to the Secretary of War,
"I should have ventured to have paid [Fort] Niagara a visit, had I been
supplied with fifteen days' provisions in addition to what I had, which
I am persuaded from the bravery and ardor of our troops would have
fallen into our hands."[10] This was the nearest approach to any attempt
made by the Americans to enter this region during that war.
The events of Sullivan's expedition are well known. Few episodes of the
Revolution are more fully recorded. But what is the reverse of the
picture? What lay at the other side of this Western New York wilderness
which Sullivan failed to penetrate? What was going on, up and down the
Niagara, and on Buffalo Creek, during those momentous years? We know
that the region was British, that old Fort Niagara was its garrison, the
principal rendezvous of the Indians and the base from which scalping
parties set out to harry the frontier settlements. The most dreadful
frontier tragedies of the war--Wyoming, Cherry Valley, and others--were
planned here and carried out with British cooeperation. But who were the
men and what were the incidents of the time, upon our Niagara frontier?
So far as I am aware, that period is for the most part a blank in our
histories. One may search the books in vain for any adequate
narrative--indeed for any but the most meager data--of the history of
the Niagara region during the Revolution. The materials are not lacking,
they are in fact abundant. In this paper I undertake only to give an
inkling of the character of events in this region during that grave
period in our nation's history.[11]
In 1778, Colonel Haldimand, afterward Sir Frederick, succeeded Gen. Guy
Carleton in the command of the British forces in Canada. He was
Commander in Chief, and Governor of Canada, until his recall in 1784.
Lord North was England's Prime Minister, Lord George Germaine in charge
of American affairs in the Cabinet. Haldimand took up his residence at
Quebec, and therefrom, for a decade, administered the affairs of the
Canadian frontier with zeal and adroitness. He was a thorough soldier,
as his letters show. He was also an adept in the treatment of matters
which, like the retention by the British of the frontier posts for
thirteen years after they had been ceded to the Americans by treaty,
called for dogged determination, veiled behind diplomatic courtesies.
The troops which he commanded were scattered from the mouth of the St.
Lawrence to Lake Michigan; but to no part of this long line of
wilderness defense--a line which was substantially the enemy's
frontier--did he pay more constant attention than to Fort Niagara. There
were good reasons for this. Fort Niagara was not only the key to the
upper lakes, the base of supplies for Detroit, Michillimackinac and
minor posts, but it had long been an important trading post and the
principal rendezvous of the Six Nations, upon whose peculiarly efficient
services against the American frontiers Sir Frederick relied scarcely
less than he did upon the British troops themselves. It was, therefore,
with no ordinary solicitude that he made his appointments for Niagara.
I cannot state positively the names of all officers in command at Fort
Niagara from the time war was begun, down to 1777. Lieut. Lernault,
afterwards at Detroit, was here for a time; but about the spring of '77
we find Fort Niagara put under the command of Lieut. Col. Mason Bolton,
of the 34th Royal Artillery. He had then seen some years of service in
America; had campaigned in Florida and the West Indies; had been sent to
Mackinac and as far west as the Illinois; and it was no slight tribute
to his ability and fidelity, when Haldimand put the Niagara frontier
into his hands. Here, for over three years, he was the chief in command.
In military rank, even if in nothing else, he was the principal man in
this region during the crucial period of the Revolution. He commanded
the garrison at Fort Niagara, and its dependencies at Schlosser and Fort
Erie. Buffalo was then unthought of--it was merely Te-hos-e-ro-ron, the
place of the basswoods; but at the Indian villages farther up Buffalo
Creek, which came into existence in 1780, the name of Col. Bolton stood
for the highest military authority of the region. And yet, incredible as
it may seem, after all these years in which--to adapt Carlyle's
phrase--the Torch of History has been so assiduously brandished about, I
do not know of any printed book which offers any information about Col.
Mason Bolton or the life he led here. Indeed, with one or two
exceptions, in which he is barely alluded to, I think all printed
literature may be searched in vain for so much as a mention of his name.
Other chief men of this frontier, at the period we are considering, were
Col. Guy Johnson, Superintendent of Indian Affairs; Sir John Johnson,
son of the Sir William who captured Fort Niagara from the French in
1759; Col. John Butler, of the Queen's Rangers; his son Walter;
Sayenqueraghta, the King of the Senecas; Rowland Montour, his half-breed
son-in-law; and Brant, the Mohawk hero, who, equipped with a New England
schooling and enlightened by a trip to England, here returned to lead
out scalping parties in the British interests.
Col. Bolton had been for some time without authentic news of the enemy,
when on the morning of December 14, 1777, the little garrison was thrown
into unwonted activity by the arrival of Capt. La Mothe, who reported
that Gen. Howe had taken Philadelphia, and that the rebels had
"sustained an incredible loss." By a forced march of Howe, La Mothe
averred, Gen. Washington had been defeated, "with 11,000 rebels killed,
wounded and prisoners." Two days later the excitement was increased by
the arrival at the fort of some Delaware Indians, who brought the great
news that Washington was killed and his army totally routed. "I had a
meeting of the chiefs of the Six Nations," wrote Bolton to Gen.
Carleton, "about an hour after the express arrived and told them the
news. They seemed extremely pleased and have been in good temper ever
since their arrival." Oddly enough, this news was confirmed by a soldier
of the 7th Regiment, who had been taken prisoner by the Americans, but
had escaped and made his way to Niagara. He further embellished the
report by declaring that 9,000 men under Lord Percy defeated 13,000
rebels at Bear's Hill on December 20th, under Washington, that Gates was
sent for to take the command when Washington was killed, and that 7,000
volunteers from Ireland had joined Howe's army. Washington at this time,
the reader will remember, had gone into winter quarters with his army at
Valley Forge.
There were 2,300 Indians at Fort Niagara at this period, all making
perpetual demands for beef, flour and rum. The license of the jubilee
over Washington's death probably was limited only by the scantiness of
provisions and the impossibility of adding to the store. Cold weather
shut down on the establishment, the vessels were laid up, and all winter
long Col. Bolton and his men had no word contradicting the report of
Washington's death. As late as April 8th, the following spring, he wrote
to Gen. Carleton that "all accounts confirm Washington being killed and
his army defeated in December last, and that Gates was sent for to take
the command."
The British early were apprised of Sullivan's intended raid, and
although powerless to prevent it, kept well posted as to its progress.
The various parties which Sullivan encountered, were directed from Fort
Niagara. "Since the rebels visit the Indian country," wrote Gen.
Haldimand to Sir John Johnson, September 14, 1779, "I am happy they are
advancing so far. They can never reach Niagara and their difficulties
and danger of retreat will, in proportion as they advance, increase."
Again he wrote twelve days later: "You will be able to make your way to
Niagara, and if the rebels should be encouraged to advance as far as
that place, I am convinced that few of them will escape from famine or
the sword. All in my power to do for you is to push up provisions, which
shall be done with the utmost vigor, while the river and lake remain
navigable, although it may throw me into great distress in this part of
the province, should anything happen to prevent the arrival of the fall
victuallers." There was however genuine alarm at Fort Niagara, and even
Sir Frederick himself, though he wrote so confidently to Bolton, in his
letters to the Ministry expressed grave apprehensions of what might
happen.
What did happen was bad enough for British interests, for though the
Americans turned back, the raid had driven in upon Bolton a horde of
frightened, hungry and irresponsible Indians, who had to be fed at the
King's expense and were a source of unmeasured concern to the overworked
commandant, notwithstanding the independent organization of the Indian
Department which was effected.
To arrive at a just idea of conditions hereabouts at this period, we
must keep in mind the relation of the fluctuating population, Indians
and whites, to the uncertain and often inadequate food supply.
Fort Niagara at this time--the fall of '78--was a fortification 1,100
yards in circumference, with five bastions and two blockhouses. Capt.
John Johnson thought 1,000 men were needed to defend it; "the present
strength," he wrote, "amounting to no more than 200 rank and file,
including fifteen men of the Royal Artillery and the sick, a number
barely sufficient to defend the outworks (if they were in a state of
defense) and return the necessary sentries, should the place be infested
by a considerable force.... With a garrison of 500 or a less number, it
is impregnable against all the savages in America, but if a strong body
of troops with artillery should move this way, I believe no engineer who
has ever seen these works will say it can hold out any considerable
time."
On May 1st, 1778, there had been in the garrison at Fort Niagara 311
men. Half a dozen more were stationed at Fort Schlosser, and thirty-two
at Fort Erie, a total of 349, of whom 255 were reported as fit for duty.
At this time Maj. Butler's Rangers, numbering 106, had gone on "an
expedition with the Indians towards the settlements of Pennsylvania or
New York, whichever he finds most practicable and advantageous to the
King's service." These raids from Fort Niagara were far more frequent
than one would infer from the histories--even from the American
histories whose authors are not to be suspected of purposely minimizing
either their number or effect. But it appears from the records that not
infrequently the expeditions accomplished nothing of more consequence
than to steal stock. Horses, cattle and sheep were in more than one
instance driven away from settlements far down on the Mohawk or
Susquehanna, and brought back alive or dead along the old trails, to
Fort Niagara.
To illustrate the methods of the time: In a report to Brig. Gen. Powell,
Maj. Butler wrote: "In the spring of 1778 I found it absolutely
requisite for the good of His Majesty's service, with the consent and
approbation of Lt. Col. Bolton, and on the application of the chiefs and
warriors of the five united nations ..., to proceed to the frontiers of
the colonies in rebellion, with as many officers and men of my corps as
were then raised, in order to protect the Indian settlements and to
annoy the enemy." At this time many of his men were new recruits from
the colonies, sons or heads of Loyalist--or as we used to say, on this
side the border, of Tory--families. As they approached American frontier
settlements, the loyalty to King George of some of his men became
suspicious, so that Butler issued a proclamation that all deserters, if
apprehended, were to be shot. In the letter just quoted from he reports
that this order had a good effect. Many curious circumstances arose at
the time, due to the British or American allegiance of men who before
the war had been friendly neighbors, but who now met as hostiles, as
captor and captive, sometimes as victor and victim. There was a constant
flight, by one route and another, of Loyalist refugees to Fort Niagara.
Thus, by a return of Feb. 12, 1779, 1,346 people were drawing rations
from the stores of that place, of whom sixty-four were "distressed
families," that is, Tories who had fled from the colonies (mostly from
the Mohawk Valley); and 445 Indians. The war parties left early in the
spring, and during the summer the supply boats could get up from the
lower stations. Then came that march of destruction up the Genesee
Valley; winter shut down on lake and river communication, and the most
distressed period the frontier had known under British rule set in. In
October, immediately after the invasion, Col. Bolton wrote (I quote
briefly from a very full report): "Joseph Brant ... assures me that if
500 men had joined the Rangers in time, there is no doubt that instead
of 300, at least 1,000 warriors would have turned out, and with that
force he is convinced that Mr. Sullivan would have had some reason to
repent of his expedition; but the Indians not being supported as they
expected, thought of nothing more than carrying off their families, and
we had at this Post the 21st of last month 5,036 to supply with
provisions, and notwithstanding a number of parties have been sent out
since, we have still on the ground 3,678 to maintain. I am convinced
your Excellency will not be surprised, if I am extremely alarmed, for to
support such a multitude I think will be absolutely impossible. I have
requested of Major Butler to try his utmost to prevail on the Indians
whose villages have been destroyed to go down to Montreal for the
winter, where, I have assured him, they would be well taken care of; and
to inform all the rest who have not suffered by the enemy that they must
return home and take care of their corn."
Neither plan worked as hoped for. It was difficult to get the Indians to
consent to go down the river, or even to Carleton Island; and as
Sullivan had destroyed every village save two, few of the Senecas could
be induced to return into the Genesee country. Bolton's urgent appeals
for extra provisions were also doomed to disappointment, owing to the
lateness of the season or the lack of transports.
The winter after Sullivan's raid, Guy Johnson distributed clothing to
more than 3,000 Indians at Fort Niagara. But the cost of clothing them
was trifling compared with the cost of feeding them. Expeditions against
the distant American settlements were planned, not more through the
desire for retaliation, than from the necessity of reducing the number
of dependents on Fort Niagara. When the inroads on provisions grew
serious, the Indians were encouraged to go on the war-path. But so
exceedingly severe was the winter, so deep was the snow on the trails,
that not until the middle of February could any parties be induced to
set out. The number camped around the fort, consuming the King's pork,
beef, flour and rum, rose as we have seen, to more than 5,000. Many
starved and many froze.
Much could be said regarding the British policy of dealing with the
Indians at Fort Niagara, but I may only touch upon the subject at this
time. Haldimand, and behind him the British Ministry, placed great
reliance upon them. The uniform instruction was that the Indians should
be maintained as allies. On April 10, 1778, Lord George Germaine wrote
to Gen. Haldimand that the designs of the rebels against Niagara and
Detroit were not likely to be successful as long as the Six Nations
continued faithful. Presents, honors, and the full license of the
tomahawk and scalping-knife were allowed them. With a view to promoting
their fidelity, Joseph Brant was made a colonel. Significant, too, was
the settling of a generous allowance for life upon Brant's sister, Sir
William Johnson's consort; which act was approved, about this time, by
the august council at Whitehall.
The British watched the state of the Indian mind as the sailor watches
his barometer at the coming of a storm. And the Indian mind, though
always cunning, was sometimes childlike in the directness and simplicity
of its conclusions. The constant flight to Fort Niagara of refugee
Tories was remarked by the savages, and in turn noted and reported to
Gen. Haldimand. "The frequent passing of white people to Niagara," wrote
Capt. John Johnson to Gen. Carleton, October 6, 1778, "is much taken
note of by the Indians, who say they are running away and that they (the
Tories) have begun the quarrel and leave them (the Indians) to defend
it." However, Johnson counted on being able to change their minds, for
he added: "I hope in my next to inform you of giving the rebels an
eternal thrashing."
The usual British good sense--the national tradesman's instinct--seems
to have been temporarily suspended, held in abeyance, at the demands of
these Indians. In his report of May 12, '78, Col. Bolton writes that he
has approved bills for nearly L18,000 "for sundries furnished savages
which Maj. Butler thought absolutely necessary, notwithstanding all the
presents sent to their posts last year; 2,700 being assembled at a time
when I little expected such a number, obliged me to send to Detroit for
a supply of provisions, and to buy up all the cattle, etc., that could
possibly be procured, otherwise this garrison must have been distressed
or the savages offended, and of course, I suppose, would have joined the
rebels. Even after all that was done for them they scarce seemed
satisfied." In June he writes that only eight out of twenty puncheons of
rum ordered for Fort Niagara had been received, and that "much wine has
been given to the savages that was intended for this post."
One reads in this old correspondence, with mingled amusement and
amazement, of the marvelous attentions paid these wily savages.
Childlike, whatever they saw in the cargoes of the merchants, they
wanted, and England humored and pampered them, lest they transfer their
affections. We have Guy Johnson's word for it, under date of Niagara,
July 3, 1780, that "many of the Indians will no longer wear tinsel lace,
and are become good judges of gold and silver. They frequently demand
and have received wine, tea, coffee, candles and many such articles, and
they are frequently nice in the choice of the finest black and other
cloth for blankets, and the best linnen and cambrick with other things
needless to enumerate.... The Six Nations are not so fond of gaudy
colors as of good and substantial things, but they are passionately fond
of silver ornaments and neat arrows." Elsewhere in these letters a
requisition for port wine is explained on the ground that it was
demanded by the chiefs when they were sick--dainty treatment, truly, for
stalwart savages whose more accustomed diet was cornmeal and water, and
who could feast, when fortune favored, on the reeking entrails of a dead
horse.
Now and then, it is true, advantages were taken of the Indians in ways
which, presumably, it was thought they would not detect; all, we must
grant, in the interest of economy. One was in the matter of powder. The
Indians were furnished with a grade inferior to the garrison powder.
This was shown by a series of tests made at Fort Niagara by order of
Brig. Gen. Powell--Col. Bolton's successor--on July 10, 1782. We may
suppose it to have been an agreeable summer day, that there was leisure
at the fort to indulge in experiments, and that there were no astute
Indians on hand to be unduly edified by the result. At Gen. Powell's
order an eight-inch mortar was elevated to forty-five degrees, and six
rounds fired, to find out how far one half a pound of powder would throw
a forty-six pound shell. The first trial, with the garrison powder, sent
the shell 239 yards. For rounds two and three Indian Department powder
was used; the fine-glazed kind sent the shell eighty-two yards, the
coarser grain carried it but seventy-nine yards. Once more the garrison
powder was used; the shell flew 243 yards, while a second trial of the
two sorts of Indian Department powder sent it but eighty-four and
seventy-six yards, or about three to one in favor of the white man. With
the garrison powder, a musket and carbine ball went through a two and
one-quarter-inch oak plank, at the distance of fifty yards, and lodged
in one six inches behind it; but with the Indian powder these balls
would not go through the first plank.
This seems like taking a base advantage of the trustful Indian ally,
especially since he was to use his powder against the common foe, the
American rebel; in reality, however, the Indians were wasteful and
irresponsible, and squandered their ammunition on the little birds of
the forest and even in harmless but expensive salvos into the empty air.
Another economy was practiced in the Indian Department: when the stock
ran low the rum was watered. Sometimes the precious contents of the
casks were augmented one third, sometimes even two thirds, with the more
abundant beverage from Niagara River, so that the garrison rum, like
the garrison powder, "carried" two or three times as well as did that of
the Indian Department; but whether this had a salutary effect upon the
thirsty recipients is a problem the solution of which lies outside the
range of the exact historian.
Difficult as it was to hold the allegiance of the savage, it was harder
yet--nay, it was impossible--to make him fight according to the rules of
civilized warfare. The British Government from the Ministry down stand
in history in an equivocal position in this matter. Over and over again
in the correspondence which I have examined, one finds vigorous
condemnation of the Indian method of slaughter of women and children,
and the torture of captives. Over and over again the officers are urged
not to allow it; and over and over again they report, after a raid, that
they deplore the acts of wantonness which were committed, and which they
were unable to prevent. But nowhere do I find any suggestion that the
services of the Indians be dispensed with. Throughout the Revolution,
the Senecas, Cayugas, Onondagas and Delawares--for the last, also, were
often at Fort Niagara--were sent against the Americans, by the British.
The Oneidas, as is well known, were divided and vacillating in their
allegiance. In August, 1780, 132 of them who hitherto had been
ostensibly friendly to the Americans, were induced to go to Niagara and
give their pledges to the British. When they arrived Guy Johnson put on
a severe front and censured them for their lack of steadfastness to the
King. According to him, some 500 Oneidas in all came to the fort that
year and declared themselves ready to fight the Americans. The last
party that arrived delivered up to the Superintendent a commission
which, he says, "the Rebels had issued with a view to form the Oneidas
into a corps, ... they also delivered up to me the Rebel flag."
So far as I am aware this is the first mention of the Stars and Stripes
on the banks of the Niagara. By resolution of June 14, 1777, the
American Congress had decreed "That the flag of the thirteen United
States be thirteen stripes alternate red and white; that the union be
thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new
constellation." A little over three years had passed since John Paul
Jones had first flung to the breeze, at the mast of his ship Ranger,
this bright banner of the new nation. It was not to appear in a British
port for two and a half years to come; sixteen years were to pass before
it could fly triumphant over the old walls of Fort Niagara; but France
had saluted it, Americans were fighting for it, and although it is first
found here in hostile hands, yet I like to reckon from that August day
in 1780, the beginning, if in prophecy only, of the reign of that new
constellation over the Niagara region.
Col. Bolton's life at Fort Niagara was one of infinite care. Besides the
routine of the garrison, he was constantly harrassed by the demands of
the Indians, whom the British did not wish to feed, but whom they dared
not offend. The old fort, which now sleeps so quietly at the mouth of
the river, was a busy place in those days. There was constant coming and
going. Schooners, snows[12] and batteaux with provisions from Quebec, or
with munitions of war or detachments of troops for Detroit or
Michillimackinac, were constantly arriving. I question if the lower
Niagara were not busier in that period than it is now. The transfer of
supplies around the falls--the "great portage"--was hard and tedious
work. Not Quebec, but Great Britain, was the real base of supplies.
There were many detentions, and constant interruption in shipment, at
every stage of the way. Sometimes a cargo of salt pork from Ireland or
flour from London would reach Quebec too late in the summer to admit of
transfer to the posts until spring. Sometimes, in crossing Lake Ontario,
the provisions would be damaged so as to be unfit for use; sometimes
they would be lost. Then not only the garrison at Niagara had to face
starvation, but Col. Bolton soon had his ears ringing with messages and
maledictions from Detroit and Mackinac, buried still farther in the
wilderness, and all looking to Niagara for food and clothing. At such
times of distress the upper posts questioned whether goods intended for
them were not irregularly held at Niagara; the meanwhile, Col. Bolton
would be straining every effort to get provisions enough to keep his own
command from starvation. Indian supplies and traders' goods, too, were
liable to loss and detention; and on very slight provocation, the
demands of the Indians grew insolent.
There were constant desertions, too, among the troops. Indeed, there
seems never to have been a time at Fort Niagara when desertions were not
frequent, and, more than once, so numerous as to threaten the very
existence of the garrison. This, however, not in Bolton's time. As the
correspondence shows, he enjoyed the utmost confidence of his superiors,
and there is nothing to indicate that his men were not as devoted to him
as any officer could expect at a frontier post where service meant hard
work and possible starvation.
Frequent as had been the raids against the settlements before the
expedition of Sullivan, they became thereafter even more frequent; and,
if less disastrous, they were so merely because the American frontier
settlements had already paid their utmost tribute to Butler and Brant.
The expeditions, along certain much-worn trails, had to go farther and
farther in order to find foes to attack or cattle to steal. This was
especially so in the valleys of the Mohawk and Susquehanna; yet in one
quarter and another this border warfare went on, and there is no lack of
evidence, in the official correspondence, of its effectiveness. Thus,
writing from Fort Niagara, August 24, 1780, Guy Johnson reports: "I have
the pleasure to inform your excellency that the partys who subdivided
after Capt. Brant's success at the Cleysburg"--an expedition which he
had previously reported--"have all been successful; that Capt. Brant
has destroyed twenty houses in Schoharie and taken and killed twelve
persons, besides releasing several women and children. Among the
prisoners is Lieut. Vrooman, the settlement of that name being that
which was destroyed. The other divisions of that party have been also
successful, particularly Capt. David's party, and the number of killed
and taken by them within that time, so far as it has come to my hands,
is, killed, thirty-five, taken, forty-six, released, forty.... The
remaining inhabitants on the frontiers are drawing in so as to deprive
the rebels of any useful resources from them. I have at present on
service, several partys that set out within one and the same week, and I
apprehend that falling on the frontiers in different places at the same
time will have a good effect." September 18th he writes, telling of the
destruction of "Kleysberg," "containing a church, 100 houses and as many
barnes, besides mills and 500 cattle and horses." In the same letter he
wrote: "I have now 405 warriors out in different parties and quarters,
exclusive of some marched from Kadaragawas.... The greater part of the
rest are at their planting grounds, and many sick here, as fevers and
fluxes have for some time prevailed at this Post." October 1st he
reports the number of men in the war parties sent out from Fort Niagara
as 892. A return, dated June 30, 1781, shows that the war parties "have
killed and taken during the season already 150 persons." September 30th
he reports an expedition under Walter Johnson and Montour, in which
about "twenty rebels" were killed; and on that day Capt. Nelles arrived
with eleven prisoners taken in Pennsylvania. A postscript to this letter
says: "Since writing, I have received the disagreeable news of the death
of the gallant Montour, who died of the wounds he received in the action
before related. He was a chief of the greatest spirit and readiness, and
his death is a loss." We can well believe that; for Montour, who, from
the American view-point, had the reputation of being a fiend incarnate,
had indeed shown "spirit and readiness" in stealing cattle, burning log
cabins, killing and scalping their occupants or bringing them captive to
Fort Niagara.
In another paper[13] I have stated that I have traced out the individual
experiences in captivity of thirty-two of these Americans, who were
taken by the Indians and British and brought as prisoners to Fort
Niagara. How much might be done on this line may be judged from a review
of Col. Johnson's transactions, furnished by that officer at Montreal,
March 24, 1782, in which it is stated that the number of Americans
killed and taken captive by parties from Fort Niagara, amounted at that
time to near 900. The time was rife with like experiences. For instance,
there was the famous raid on Cherry Valley, from which Mrs. Jane
Campbell and her four children, after a long detention among the
Indians, were brought to Fort Niagara. There was Jane Moore, who was
also taken at Cherry Valley, and who subsequently was married to Capt.
Powell of the Niagara garrison in the winter of 1779--the ceremony, by
the Church of England service, so impressing Joseph Brant that he
immediately led up to the minister the squaw with whom he had been
living for a long time, and insisted on being married over again, white
man's fashion. There was Lieut. Col. Stacia, another prisoner from
Cherry Valley, whose head Molly Brant wanted for a football. Some of the
stories of these captives, like that of Alexander Harper, who ran the
gauntlet at Fort Niagara (the ordeal apparently being made light in his
case), are familiar to readers of our history; others, I venture to say,
are unknown. For instance, there were John and Robert Brice, two little
boys, who were taken in 1779 near Rensselaerville by a scouting party,
and brought, with other prisoners and eight scalps, to Fort Niagara. But
they did not come together. Robert, who was but eleven years old, was
taken to Fort Erie and sold to a lake sailor for the sum of L3. This
little Son of the Revolution was kept on the upper lakes until 1783,
when he was summoned to Fort Niagara where he met his brother John, from
whom he had parted near the mouth of the Unadilla River some four years
before. They were sent to Montreal with nearly 200 liberated captives,
and ultimately the boys reached Albany and their friends. Then there is
the story of Nancy Bundy, who, her husband and children being killed,
was brought to Fort Niagara and sold into servitude for $8. There was
the famous Indian fighter, Moses Van Campen, whose adventures and
captivity in our region are the subject of a whole book. There were
Horatio Jones and Jasper Parrish, who passed from Indian captives into
the useful role of interpreters for the whites.
Thus I might go on, naming by the score the heroes and heroines of
Indian captivities whose sufferings and whose adventures make up the
most romantic chapter in our home annals, as yet for the most part
unwritten. But I take time now to dwell, briefly as possible, upon but
one of these captivities--one of the notable incidents during Col.
Bolton's time at Fort Niagara. This was the capture of the Gilbert
family. It made so great a stir, even in those days accustomed to war
and Indian raids, that in 1784 a little book was published in
Philadelphia giving the history of it. The original edition[14] has long
since been one of the scarcest of Americana. But in the unpublished
correspondence between Gen. Haldimand and the officers at Fort Niagara,
I find sundry allusions to "the Quaker's family," and statements which
go to show that the British at least were disposed to treat them well,
and to effect their exchange as soon as possible. Notwithstanding, it
was a long and cruel captivity, and presents some features of peculiar
significance in our local history.
About sunrise on the morning of April 25, 1780, a party of eleven
painted Indians suddenly issued from the woods bordering Mahoning Creek,
in Northampton County, Penn. They had come from Fort Niagara, and were
one of those scalping parties for the success of which so many
encouraging messages had passed from Whitehall to Quebec, and from
Quebec to the frontier, and to stimulate which Guy Johnson had been so
lavish with the fine linen, silver ornaments and port wine. The party
was commanded by Rowland Montour, John Montour being second in command.
Undiscovered, they surrounded the log house of the old Quaker miller,
Benjamin Gilbert. With tomahawk raised and flint-locks cocked they
suddenly appeared at door and windows. The old Quaker offered his hand
as a brother. It was refused. Partly from the Quaker habit of
non-resistance, partly from the obvious certainty that to attempt to
escape meant death, the whole household submitted to be bound, while
their home was plundered and burned. Loading three of Gilbert's horses
with booty, and placing heavy packs on the back of each prisoner old
enough to bear them, the expedition took the trail for Fort Niagara,
more than 200 miles away. This was "war" in "the good old days."
There were twelve prisoners in the party, of whom but five were men.
The patriarch of the household, Benjamin, was sixty-nine years old;
Elizabeth, his wife, was fifty-five; Joseph, Benjamin's son by a former
wife, aged forty-one; another son, Jesse, aged nineteen, and his wife
Sarah, the same age. There were three younger children, Rebecca, Abner
and Elizabeth, respectively sixteen, fourteen and twelve; Thomas Peart,
son to Benjamin Gilbert's wife by a former husband, aged twenty-three; a
nephew, Benjamin Gilbert, aged eleven; a hired man, Andrew Harrigar,
twenty-six; and Abigail Dodson, the fourteen-year-old daughter of a
neighbor; she had had the ill-luck to come to Gilbert's mill that
morning for grist, and was taken with the rest. Half a mile distant
lived Mrs. Gilbert's oldest son, Benjamin Peart, aged twenty-seven, his
wife Elizabeth, who was but twenty, and their nine-months-old child.
Montour added these to his party, making fifteen prisoners in all,
burned their house and urged all along the trail, their first stop being
near "Mochunk." (Mauch Chunk.)
I must omit most of the details of their march northward. On the evening
of the first day Benjamin Peart fainted from fatigue and Rowland Montour
was with difficulty restrained from tomahawking him. At night the men
prisoners were secured in a way which was usual on these raids,
throughout Western New York and Pennsylvania, during those dismal years.
The Indians cut down a sapling five or six inches in diameter, and cut
notches in it large enough to receive the ankles of the prisoners. After
fixing their legs in these notches, they placed another pole over the
first, and thus secured them as in stocks. This upper pole was then
crossed at each end by stakes driven into the ground. The prisoners thus
lay on the ground, on their backs. Straps or ropes around their necks
were made fast to near-by trees. Sometimes a blanket was granted them
for covering, sometimes not. What rest might be had, preparatory to
another day's forced march, I leave to the imagination.
During the early stages of this march the old couple were constantly
threatened with death, because unable to keep up. On the fourth day four
negroes who claimed that they were loyal to the King, that they had
escaped from the Americans and had set out for Fort Niagara, were taken
up by Montour from a camp where he had left them on his way down the
valley. These negroes frequently whipped and tortured the prisoners for
sport, Montour making no objection. On the 4th of May, the Indians
separated into two companies; one taking the westward path, and with
this party went Thomas Peart, Joseph Gilbert, Benjamin Gilbert--the
little boy of eleven--and Sarah, wife of Jesse. The others kept on the
northerly course. Andrew Harrigar, terrified by the Indian boast that
those who had gone with the other party "were killed and scalped, and
you may expect the same fate tonight," took a kettle, under pretence of
bringing water, but ran away under cover of darkness. After incredible
hardships he regained the settlements. His escape so angered Rowland
Montour that he threw Jesse Gilbert down, and lifted his tomahawk for
the fatal blow; Elizabeth, Jesse's mother, knelt over him, pressed her
head to her son's brow and begged the captain to spare his life. Montour
kicked her over and tied them both by their necks to a tree; after a
time, his passion cooling, he loosed them, bade them pack up and take
the trail. This is but a sample incident. I pass over many.
None suffered more on the march than Elizabeth Peart, the girl mother.
The Indians would not let her husband relieve her by carrying her child,
and she was ever the victim of the whimsical moods of her captors. At
one time they would let her ride one of the horses; at another, would
compel her to walk, carrying the child, and would beat her if she lagged
behind. By the 14th of May Elizabeth Gilbert had become so weak that she
could only keep the trail when led and supported by her children. On
this day the main party was rejoined by a portion of the party that had
branched off to westward; with them were two of the four captives,
Benjamin Gilbert, Jr., and Sarah, wife of Jesse. On this day old
Benjamin was painted black, the custom of the Indians with prisoners
whom they intended to kill. Later on they were joined by British
soldiers, who took away the four negroes and did something to alleviate
the sufferings of the white prisoners. The expedition had exhausted its
provisions and all that had been taken from the Gilberts. A chance
hedgehog, and roots dug in the woods, sustained them for some days. May
the 17th they ferried across the Genesee River on a log raft.
Provisions were brought from Fort Niagara, an Indian having been sent
ahead, on the best horse; and on the morning of the 21st of May they
heard, faintly booming beyond the intervening forest, the morning gun at
Fort Niagara. An incident of that day's march was a meeting with
Montour's wife. She was the daughter of the great Seneca Sayenqueraghta,
the man who led the Indians at Wyoming,[15] and whose influence was
greater in this region, at the time we are studying, than even that of
Brant himself. He was the Old King of the Senecas, called Old Smoke by
the whites. Smoke's Creek, the well-known stream which empties into Lake
Erie just beyond the southwest limit of Buffalo, between South Park and
Woodlawn Beach, preserves his name to our day. It was there that he
lived in his last years; and somewhere on its margin, in a now unknown
grave, he was buried. His daughter the "Princess," was, next to Molly
Brant, the grandest Indian woman of the time on the Niagara. As she met
the wretched Gilberts, "she was dressed altogether in the Indian
costume, and was shining with gold lace and silver baubles." To her
Rowland Montour presented the girl Rebecca, as a daughter. The princess
took a silver ring from her finger and put it on Rebecca's, which act
completed the adoption of this little Quaker maid of sixteen into one
of the most famous--possibly the most infamous--family of the Niagara
region during the Revolutionary period.
At a village not far from Fort Niagara, apparently near the present
Tuscarora village on the heights east of Lewiston, Montour painted
Jesse, Abner, Rebecca and Elizabeth Gilbert, Jr., as Indians are
painted, and gave each a belt of wampum; but while these marks of favor
were shown to the young people, the mother, because of her feebleness,
was continually the victim of the displeasure and the blows of the
Indians. On May 23d, being at the Landing--what is now Lewiston--they
were visited by Captains Powell and Dace from the fort, and the next
day, just one month from the time of their capture, they trudged down
the trail which is now the pleasant river road, towards the old fort,
protected with difficulty from the blows of the Indians along the way.
Now followed the dispersion of this unhappy family. After the Indian
custom, the young and active prisoners were sought by the Indians for
adoption. Many brave American boys went out to live, in the most menial
servitude, among the Senecas and other tribes who during the later years
of the Revolution lived on the Genesee, the Tonawanda, Buffalo,
Cazenove, Smoke's, and Cattaraugus creeks. The old man and his wife and
their son Jesse were surrendered to Col. Johnson. Benjamin Peart, Mrs.
Gilbert's son, was carried off to the Genesee. The other members of the
party were held in captivity in various places; but I may only stay now
to note what befel the little Rebecca and her sister-in-law, Elizabeth
Peart.
As already stated, Rebecca had been adopted by Rowland Montour's wife.
In the general allotment of prisoners, her cousin, Benjamin Gilbert, the
lad of eleven, also fell to this daughter of Sayenqueraghta. She took
the children to a cabin where her father's family, eleven in number,
were assembled. After the usual grand lamentation for the dead, whose
places were supposed now to be filled by the white prisoners, this royal
household departed by easy stages for their summer's corn-planting. They
tarried at the Landing, while clothing was had from the fort. The little
Quaker girl was dressed after the Indian fashion, "with short-clothes,
leggins and a gold-laced hat"; while Benjamin, "as a badge of his
dignity, wore a silver medal hanging from his neck." They moved up to
Fort Schlosser (just above the falls, near where the present power-house
stands), thence by canoe to Fort Erie; then "four miles further, up
Buffalo Creek, where they pitched their tent for a settlement." Here the
women planted corn; but the little Rebecca, not being strong, was
allowed to look after the cooking. The whole household, queen, princess
and slave, had to work. The men of course were exempt; but the chief
advantage of Sayenqueraghta's high rank was that he could procure more
provisions from the King's stores at Fort Niagara than could the humbler
members of the tribe. The boy Ben had an easy time of it. He roamed at
will with the Indian boys over the territory that is now Buffalo;
fished in the lake, hunted or idled without constraint, and it is
recorded that he was so pleased with the Indian mode of life, that but
for his sister's constant admonition he would have dropped all thought
of return to civilization, and cheerfully have become as good an Indian
as the best of them. At eleven years of age savagery takes easy hold.
These children lived with Montour's Indian relatives for over two years;
sharing in the feasts when there was plenty, going pinched with hunger
on the frequent occasions when improvidence had exhausted the supply.
There were numerous expeditions, afoot and by canoe, to Fort Niagara. On
one occasion Rebecca, with her Indian family, were entertained by
British officers at Fort Erie, when Old Smoke drank so much wine that
when he came to paddle his canoe homeward, across the river, he narrowly
escaped an upset on the rocky reef, just outside the entrance to Buffalo
Creek. On every visit to Fort Niagara Rebecca would look for release;
but although the officers were kind to her, they did not choose to
interfere with so powerful a family as Montour's. It was shortly after
one of these disappointments that she heard of her father's death. For
some months she was sick; then came news of the death of her Indian
father, Rowland Montour, who succumbed to wounds received in the attack
already noted. There was great mourning in the lodge on Buffalo Creek,
and Rebecca had to make a feint of sorrow, weeping aloud with the rest.
In the winter of '81-'82 a scheme was devised by friends at the fort
for abducting her from the Indians, but it was not undertaken. In the
spring of '82 peremptory orders came from Gen. Haldimand that all the
remaining members of the Gilbert family who were still in captivity
should be taken from the Indians; but after a council fire had been
lighted, Old Smoke, Montour's widow, and the rest of the family, Rebecca
and Ben included, moved six miles up the lake shore--apparently to
Smoke's Creek--where they stayed several weeks making maple sugar. Then,
a great pigeon roost being reported, men and boys went off to it, some
fifty miles, and the delighted young Ben went too. Of all the Gilbert
captives he alone seems to have had experiences too full of wholesome
adventure and easy living to warrant the expenditure of the least bit of
sympathy upon him. But sooner or later the wily Indians had to heed Sir
Frederick's command, and on the 1st of June, 1782, after upwards of two
years of captivity, Rebecca and her cousin were released at Fort
Niagara, and two days later, with others, embarked for Montreal.
Far more cheerless were the experiences of Elizabeth Peart. She was
parted from her husband, adopted by a Seneca family, and was also
brought to raise corn on Buffalo Creek. Early in her servitude among the
Indians her babe was taken from her and carried across to Canada. She
was but twenty years old herself; the family that had taken her came by
canoe to Buffalo Creek, where they settled for the corn-planting. This
was in the spring of 1780. All manner of drudgery and burdens were put
upon her. Her work was to cultivate the corn. Falling sick, the Indians
built a hut for her by the side of the cornfield, and then utterly
neglected her. Here she remained through the summer, regaining strength
enough to care for and gather the corn; when this was done, her Indian
father permitted her to come and live again in the family lodge. At one
time a drunken Indian attacked her, knocked her down, and dragged her
about, beating her. At another, all provision failing, she tramped with
others four days through the snow to Fort Niagara. Here Capt. Powell's
wife--who had been a prisoner herself--interceded in Elizabeth's behalf,
but to no avail. She was however given an opportunity to see her babe,
which was being cared for by an Indian family on the Canadian side of
the river, opposite Fort Niagara. This privilege was gained for the poor
mother by bribing her Indian father with a bottle of rum. So far as I am
aware, this was the best use to which a bottle of rum was put during the
Revolutionary War. But back to Buffalo Creek the unhappy mother had to
come. Her release was finally obtained by artifice. Being allowed to
visit Fort Niagara, where she had some needlework to do for the white
people, she feigned sickness, and by one excuse and another the Indians
were put off until she could be shipped away to Montreal.
Of the Gilbert family and those taken with them by Montour, only the old
man died in captivity. The adventures of each one would make a long
story, but may not be entered upon here. By the close of '82 they were
all released from the Indians, and after a detention at Montreal,
reached their friends in Pennsylvania and set about the reestablishment
of homes.
Beyond question, Elizabeth Peart and Rebecca Gilbert were the first
white women ever on the site of the present city of Buffalo. They were
brave, patient, patriotic girls; no truer Daughters of the American
Revolution are known to history. It would seem fitting that their memory
should be preserved and their story known--much fuller than I have here
sketched it--by the patriotic Daughters of the Revolution of our own
day, who give heed to American beginnings in this region.
I have dwelt at length on the Gilbert captivity, not more because of its
own importance than to illustrate the responsibilities which constantly
rested on the commandant at Niagara, at this period. We now turn to
other phases of the service which engaged the attention and taxed the
endurance of Col. Bolton.
From the time of the conquest of Canada in 1760 down to the opening of
the Revolution, there had been a slow but steady growth of shipping on
the lakes, especially on Lake Ontario. On this lake, as early as 1767,
there were four brigs of from forty to seventy tons, and sixteen armed
deck-cutters. Besides the "King's ships" there were still much travel
and traffic by means of canoes and batteaux. One of the first effects of
the war with the American colonies was to beget active ship-building
operations by the British; for Lake Ontario, at Oswegatchie, Oswego and
Niagara; and for Lake Erie, at Navy Island, Detroit and Pine River. An
official return made in July, 1778, the summer after Col. Bolton assumed
command at Niagara, enumerates twelve sailing craft built for Lake
Ontario since the British gained control of that lake in 1759, and
sixteen for Lake Erie; seven of the Lake Ontario boats had been cast
away, two were laid up and decayed; so that at this time--midsummer of
'78--there were still in service only the snow Haldimand, eighteen guns,
built at Oswegatchie in 1771; the snow Seneca, eighteen guns, built in
1777; and the sloop Caldwell, two guns, built in 1774. A memorandum
records that Capt. Andrews, in the spring of 1778, sought permission to
build another vessel at Niagara, to take the place of the Haldimand,
which, he was informed, could not last more than another year. The
vessel built, in accordance with this recommendation, was a schooner;
her construction was entrusted to Capt. Shank, at Niagara, across the
river from the fort. We may be sure that Col. Bolton visited the yard
from time to time to note the progress of the work. There was discussion
over her lines. "Capt. Shank was told that he was making her too
flat-bottomed, and that she would upset." The builder laughed at his
critics and stuck to his model. She was launched, named the Ontario, and
was hastened forward to completion, for the King's service had urgent
need of her.
Col. Bolton had long been in bad health, wearied with the cares and
perplexities of his position and eager to get away from Fort Niagara.
One source of constant annoyance to his military mind was the traders'
supplies, which turned the fort into a warehouse and laid distasteful
duties upon its commandant. His letters contain many allusions to the
"incredible plague and trouble caused by merchants' goods frequently
sent without a single person to care for them." "Last year," so he wrote
in May, '78, "every place in this fort was lumbered with them, and
vessels were obliged to navigate the lakes until Nov. 30th." The vessels
were primarily for the King's service, but when unemployed were allowed
to be used in transporting merchants' goods, under certain regulations.
The next statement in the same letter gives some idea of the magnitude
of the transactions involved in the various departments in this region
at the period: "I have drawn a bill of L14,760-9-5"--nearly $74,000--"on
acct. of sundries furnished Indians by Maj. Butler, also another on
acct. of Naval Dept. at Detroit for L4,070-18-9. Between us I am
heartily sick of bills and accounts and if the other posts are as
expensive to Government as this has been I think Old England had done
much better in letting the savages take possession of them than to have
put herself to half the enormous sum she has been at in keeping them.
Neither does the climate agree with my constitution, which has already
suffered by being employed many years in the West Indies and Florida,
for I have been extremely ill the two winters I have spent here with
rheumatism and a disorder in my breast."
One source of annoyance to Bolton was a detachment of Hessians which was
sent to augment the garrison at Fort Niagara. Col. Bolton did not find
them to his liking, nor was life at a backwoods post at all congenial to
these mercenaries, fighting England's battles to pay their monarch's
debts. They refused to work on the fortifications at Niagara; whereupon,
in November, 1779, Col. Bolton packed them off down to Carleton Island.
Alexander Fraser, in charge of that post, wrote to Gen. Haldimand that
he had ordered the "jagers" to be replaced by a company of the 34th.
"Capt. Count Wittgenstein," he added, "fears bad consequences should the
Jagers be ordered to return." Nowhere in America does the British
employment of Hessian troops appear to have been less satisfactory than
on this frontier. At Carleton Island, as at Niagara, they refused to
work, many of them were accused of selling their necessaries for rum,
and the Count de Wittgenstein himself was reprimanded.
There were difficulties, too, with the lake service. Desertion and
discontent followed an attempt to shorten the seamen's rations. In the
summer of '78, the sailors on board the snow Seneca, at Niagara, asked
to be discharged, alleging that their time had expired the preceding
November, and the yet more remarkable reason that they objected to the
service because they had been brought up on shore and life on the
rolling deep of Lake Ontario afforded "no opportunity of exercising our
Religion, neither does confinement agree with our healths." Like many
lake sailors at this period they were probably French Canadian
Catholics, with loyalty none too strong to the British cause.
Bolton stuck to his post throughout that season, the year of alarm that
followed, and the succeeding period of distress. The most frequent
entries in his letters record the arrival of war parties, and his
anxiety over the enormous expense incurred for the Indians by Maj.
Butler. "Scalps and prisoners are coming in every day, which is all the
news this place affords," he writes in June, '78; and again, the same
month: "Ninety savages are just arrived with thirteen scalps and two
prisoners, and forty more with two scalps are expected. All of these
gentry, I am informed, must be clothed."[16] While there does not seem
ever to have been an open break between Bolton and Butler, yet the
former looked with dismay, if not disapproval, upon the endless
expenditure incurred for the Indians. In August, 1778, he wrote: "Maj.
Butler, chief of the Indian Department, gives orders to the merchants to
supply the savages with everything to answer their demands, of which
undoubtedly he is the best judge and only person who can satisfy them or
keep them in temper. He also signs a certificate that the goods and cash
issued and paid by his order were indispensably necessary for the
government of His Majesty's service. The commanding officer of this
post is thus obliged to draw bills for the amount of all these accounts,
of which it is impossible he can be a judge or know anything about.... I
only mention these things to show Yr Excellency the disagreeable part
that falls to my lot as commanding officer; besides this is such a
complicated command that even an officer of much superior abilities than
I am master of, would find himself sometimes not a little embarrassed at
this Post."
Bolton was seriously ill during the winter of '79-'80, as indeed were
many of his garrison. In April, 1780, he reports his wretched health to
Gen. Haldimand. All through the succeeding summer he stuck to his post;
but on September 13th, worn out and discouraged, he asked to be allowed
to retire from the command of the upper posts and lakes. September 30th
he again wrote, begging for leave of absence. Some weeks later the
desired permission was sent, and Bolton determined to stay no longer.
Late in October the new Ontario, which Capt. Shank had built across the
river from the fort, was finished and rigged; she carried sixteen guns,
and was declared ready for service. She was ordered to convey a company
of the 34th down to Carleton Island. It was a notable departure. The
season was so late, no other opportunity for crossing Lake Ontario might
be afforded until spring. Lieut. Royce, with thirty men of the 34th,
embarked, under orders; so did Lieut. Colleton of the Royal Artillery.
Capt. Andrews, superintendent of naval construction, at whose
solicitations the Ontario had been built, being at Fort Niagara at the
time, also took passage. There was the full complement of officers and
crew. Several passengers--licensed Indian traders and fur merchants,
probably--crowded aboard; and among those who sailed away from Fort
Niagara that last October day, was Col. Bolton. It was the Ontario's
first voyage; and we may be sure that there was no lack of speculation
and wise opinion in the throng of spectators who watched her round the
bar at the mouth of the river and take her course down the lake. The old
criticism about her flat bottom and lack of draught was sure to be
recalled. But the Ontario, with her notable passenger list, had sailed,
and the only port she ever reached was the bottom of the lake. It is
supposed she foundered, some forty miles east of Niagara, near a place
called Golden Hill. On the beach there, some days after, a few articles
were found, supposed to have come ashore; but no other sign, no word of
the Ontario or of any of the throng that sailed in her has been had from
that day to this. In due time news of the loss reached Quebec. Sincere
but short were the expressions of sorrow in the correspondence that
followed. "The loss of so many good officers and men," wrote Haldimand,
"particularly at this period, and the disappointment of forwarding
provisions for the great consumption at the upper posts, will be
severely felt."[17] It was the fortune of war, and already the thought
turned to those who had depended upon a return cargo of provisions by
the Ontario. And so passes Mason Bolton out of the history of Fort
Niagara.
What Befel David Ogden.