British preparations for the prosecution of the war--Indications at the
North--Doubtful position and conduct of General Howe--Embarrassing to
the Americans--Intercepted correspondence--General Howe sails to the
Chesapeake--Enters Philadelphia in triumph--Burgoyne approaches from
the North--Indian policy--Sir Guy Carleton--False estimates of the
strength of Ticonderoga--Burgoyne arrives at Crown Point--Feasts the
Indians--Invests Ticonderoga--Carries the outworks--Fortifies Sugar
Hill--The fortress evacuated by St. Clair--Retreat of the
Americans--Battles near Skenesborough and at Fort Ann--Burgoyne enters
the valley of the Hudson--Schuyler, without means, retreats from Fort
Edward--Terror of the people--Cruelties of the Indians--Story of Miss
McCrea--General flight of the population--Mrs. Ann Eliza
Bleecker--Heroism of Mrs. Schuyler--Attempted assassination of General
Schuyler.
Having failed in their efforts to extinguish the rebellion during the
preceding year, the government of the parent country-resolved to put forth
still greater energies during the present. For this purpose a powerful
force was organized in Canada, the command of which was transferred from
Sir Guy Carleton--the ablest British General, by the way, at that time or
subsequently in America--and conferred upon General Burgoyne--an officer,
also, of unquestioned merit--whose spirit of enterprise and thirst for
military glory could not be exceeded. It was the aim of this Northern
army to open a communication between Canada and New-York--thus cutting
off New-England, which the ministry justly considered the hot-bed of the
Revolution, from all communication with the Middle States; while Sir
William Howe, with an army of 16,000 men, was to withdraw from New Jersey,
and move round simultaneously to the Chesapeake, and take possession of
the Middle States; and thus, as it was hoped, compel the whole to return
to their allegiance.
Doubts, however, for several months hung over the intentions of the enemy,
whose designs were so skilfully veiled as for a long time almost to
paralyze the exertions of the Americans. The retreat of Carleton from Lake
Champlain, the preceding Autumn, even after the lake was in his power and
Crown Point in his possession, suggested a doubt whether a serious
invasion was meditated from that quarter. On the contrary, the impression
was general that the expedition of Burgoyne was destined against Boston;
and that Sir William Howe, whose movements in New Jersey were enigmatical
to perplexity, was to co-operate in an effort to re-subjugate New England.
The British government itself, as it is believed, contributed to the
distractions of Congress and the American commander, by causing reports
to be circulated that Boston was to be the next point of attack. Arthur
Lee, being then in Bordeaux, was thus confidentially advised, and he lost
no time in communicating such supposed intention to the Secret Committee
of Congress, who in turn gave the like information to the
Commander-in-chief, and also to the Legislature of Massachusetts. The
consequence of these distractions was unfortunate for the Americans. Less
attention was paid to preparations for the defence of the North than
otherwise would have been given; while Massachusetts, apprehending that
all her strength would be required for her own defence, set about raising
troops for her own protection, at the expense of the main army, from which
its quota of recruits was withheld. [FN]
* * * * *
[FN] Letters of Washington, during the months of May, June, and July,
1777.
Before the close of June, however, the designs of the enemy in regard to
the North became obvious. A person from Canada, arrested as a spy, and
brought before General Schuyler, stated on his examination, "that the
British forces were approaching St. Johns, and were to advance through
Lake Champlain under General Burgoyne; and also that a detachment of
British troops, Canadians and Indians, was to penetrate the country by
the way of Oswego and the Valley of the Mohawk. He added many particulars,
respecting the strength and arrangements of the British army, which turned
out in the end to be nearly accurate, but of which no intelligence had
before been obtained, or by many anticipated." [FN]
* * * * *
[FN] Sparks--Note in Life and Cor. of Washington, vol. iv.
The movements of General Howe were still equivocal, even after Burgoyne
had commenced his descent upon the North--thus adding to the
embarrassments of Washington. And in order the more certainly to mislead
the American commander as to his real intentions. General Howe wrote a
feigned despatch to Burgoyne, on the subject of ascending the Hudson to
join him, the bearer of which fell purposely into the hands of the
Americans, while pretending to be on his way to Canada. Unable, therefore,
to determine whether such might not be his design, (although the
intercepted despatch was regarded with strong suspicion,) or whether, on
the other hand, it might not be the purpose of Howe to pass round to the
Chesapeake and thence strike at Philadelphia, the American General was
compelled to remain inactively watching his motions, strengthening, in
the mean time, to the utmost of his power, his positions in the
highlands--without being able to detach any large number of troops to the
assistance of General Schuyler, then commanding the Northern Department.
And even after General Howe had embarked his troops and dropped down to
Sandy Hook--having evacuated New Jersey on the 30th of June
[FN-1]--Washington was still in doubt whether it might not yet be his
intention to return with the tide, and pass up the river in the
night. [FN-2] Such, however, was no part of the plan of the British
commander. His destination, on leaving the harbor of New-York, was the
Chesapeake and Philadelphia; and the latter branch of the campaign
indicated in the opening of the present chapter, was so far successful,
that after a series of victories over the forces of General Washington,
commencing at Brandywine and ending at Germantown, General Howe took
possession of, and established himself in, the capital of Pennsylvania.
* * * * *
[FN-1] It is a pleasing evidence of the sound religious views of
Washington, that he was a firm believer in the immediate interpositions
of Providence in directing and controlling the affairs of men. His
letters abound in passages that might be cited, showing his quickness to
discern the finger of Providence, and his readiness to make the
acknowledgment. Thus, in regard to the departure from New Jersey by
General Howe, he says:--"The evacuation of Jersey at this time seems to
be a peculiar mark of Providence, as the inhabitants have an opportunity
of securing their harvests of hay and grain, the latter of which would
in all probability have undergone the same fate with many farm-houses,
had it been ripe enough to take fire."--_Letter of Washington to Maj.
Gen. Armstrong, July_ 4, 1777.
[FN-2] "If we were certain Gen. Burgoyne were approaching Ticonderoga
with his whole army, I should not hesitate a moment in concluding that it
is in consequence of a preconcerted plan with Gen. Howe, and that the
latter is to co-operate with him by pushing his whole force up the North
River, and aiming a stroke in the first instance and immediately at the
Highlands."--_Letter of Washington to the President of Congress, July_ 2.
Again, in several successive letters, after the embarkation of General
Howe's army from Staten Island, Washington spoke of the perplexity in
which he was kept by the shifting manoeuvres of the fleet. On the 22d
of July he wrote--"I cannot give you any certain account of General
Howe's operations. His conduct is puzzling and embarrassing beyond
measure; so are the informations which I get. At one time the ships are
standing up toward the North River; in a little while they are going up
the Sound; and in one hour after, they are going out of the
Hook."--_Letter to General Schuyler._ The fleet actually sailed for the
Capes of Virginia on the 23d of July.
But a far different fortune attended the arms of Burgoyne. The regular
troops of his command, English and German, amounted to above seven
thousand men, added to which were large numbers of American and Canadian
loyalists, together with many hundred Indians; a species of force, which,
it has been held by British historians, Sir Guy Carleton was reluctant to
employ, while General Burgoyne, it has been alleged, entertained no such
scruples. It has ever been claimed as a virtue on the part of Carleton,
and carried to the credit of his humanity, that, rather than employ the
Indians, he submitted to the injustice of having the command of this
expedition, properly belonging to him, conferred upon an officer who was
not entitled to lead the enterprise. It is perhaps true, from his more
intimate knowledge of the Indian character, that he had formed such an
estimate of their services as to render him somewhat less sanguine than
others as to their value. His experience could not but have taught him
the extent of their inutility in war, the capriciousness of their
character, their intractableness and inconstancy. He must have known that
their ideas of war were totally different from those of civilized nations;
by reason of which, notwithstanding their ferocity, and the incredible
examples of passive valor which they sometimes afford in cases adapted to
their own opinions, they were nevertheless utterly regardless of, and
looked with contempt upon, those belligerent usages which are considered
as honorable, generous, and fair in the modern service of civilized men.
He could not have been ignorant of the fact, that the object and design
of most of the wars in which the Indians engage, are not so much to
conquer by manly and open battle, as to murder and destroy after their
own peculiar fashion. In one word, that accomplished officer very well
knew the services of the Indians to be uncertain; their rapacity to be
insatiable; their faith at all times doubtful; and their action cruel to
barbarity. Still, as we have already shown beyond contradiction, he was
among the first to court the alliance and obtain the services of Brant
and his Mohawks, on their descent to Montreal in 1775. The commendations,
therefore, that have been bestowed upon Sir Guy Carleton upon this
subject, at the expense of Burgoyne, were as undeserved by the one as
unjust toward the other. True, the march of Burgoyne was tracked with
blood, which a high-souled officer should scorn in such manner to
shed; [FN] but the footsteps of Carleton might have been equally sanguine
had the command been entrusted to him.
* * * * *
[FN] It is but just to this gallant but unfortunate officer, however, to
state, that he did all in his power to restrain the excesses and
barbarities of the Indians. At the council and war-feast, which he gave
them near Crown Point, he endeavored to explain to them the laws of
civilized war; and charged them that they must only kill those opposing
them in arms; that old men, women, children, and prisoners, must be held
sacred from the knife or hatchet, even in the heat of battle. But it did
no good.
Never, probably, at the time, had there been an army of equal numbers
better appointed than that of Burgoyne. The train of brass artillery, in
particular, was perhaps the finest that had ever been allotted to an army
not far exceeding the present in numerical strength, and for a time
victory seemed to perch upon his ensigns.
General Carleton, it will be remembered, had made himself master of Lake
Champlain, and the fortifications at Crown Point the Autumn before. The
first object for attack presenting itself to General Burgoyne, therefore,
was Ticonderoga--situated in the mountain gap through which the waters of
Lake George fall into Lake Champlain. This fortress was then in command
of General St. Clair, and was supposed by the Americans to be a post of
great security. The principal fortress, the ruins of which are yet
standing in frowning and rugged strength, was situated on an angle of land
which is surrounded on three sides by water filled with rocks. A great
part of the south side was covered by a deep morass; and where that
failed, in the north-west quarter, the old French lines served as a
defence. These lines had been strengthened by additional works and a
block-house. The Americans had other defences and block-houses in the
direction of Lake George, together with two new block-houses and some
other works to the right of the French lines. Still greater pains had
been taken in fortifying the high circular hill on the eastern shore of
the inlet opposite, known as Mount Independence. On the summit of this
mountain, which is table-land, the Americans had erected a star-fort,
enclosing a large square of barracks, well fortified, and supplied with
artillery. The foot of the mountain, on the west side projecting into the
water, was strongly entrenched to its edge, and the entrenchment lined
with heavy artillery. These lower works were sustained and covered by a
battery, about half-way up the side of the mountain, and were connected
by a bridge across the inlet, which had been constructed at great labor
and expense. [FN-1] These, and other works of defence, had been judged
sufficient to render the post secure. The Commander-in-chief himself,
although indeed the works had not fallen under his own inspection, had
formed a very erroneous opinion of their strength, or perhaps, to speak
more correctly, of the natural advantages of the position, and of the
defensibility of the works. [FN-2] Such, in fact, was his confidence in
the post, that the idea of its loss seems from his correspondence scarce
to have entered his mind.
* * * * *
[FN-1] London Universal Magazine, April, 1782.
[FN-2] "I am pleased to find, by your letter to Congress, that a strong
supply of provisions has been thrown into Ticonderoga. Since that is the
case, I see no reason for apprehending that it can possibly fall into
the hands of the enemy in a short time, even were they to bring their
whole force to a point; but if they have divided it to make the different
attacks that you mention, General St. Clair will, in all probability,
have an opportunity of acting on the defensive; and should he not be
quite successful, he may damage them so considerably, that they will not
be able to attack him in his works; to which, I dare say, he will always
secure a retreat in case of accident."--_Letter of Washington to General
Schuyler, July_ 2, 1777.
But in all their labors, the American engineers had overlooked the high
peak, or mountain, called Sugar Hill, situated south of the bridge, on
the point of land at the confluence of the waters of Lakes George and
Champlain. Originally it had been supposed, and taken for granted, that
the crest of Sugar Hill was not only inaccessible, but too distant to be
of any avail in covering the main fortress. This opinion was an error, to
which the attention of the officers had been called the preceding year
by Colonel John Trumbull, then Adjutant-General for the Northern
Department. When Colonel Trumbull made the suggestion, he was laughed at
by the mess; but he soon proved the greater accuracy of his own vision,
by throwing a cannon shot to the summit; and subsequently clambered up to
the top, accompanied by Colonels Wayne and Arnold. [FN] It was a criminal
neglect, on the part of the Americans, that the oversight was not at once
corrected, by the construction of a work upon that point, which would have
commanded the whole post.
* * * * *
[FN] Conversations of the author with Colonel John Trumbull, and also
his unpublished memoirs, to which the author has had access.
General Burgoyne arrived at Crown Point on the 21st of June; and after
meeting and feasting the Indians, and attempting to instruct them in the
rules and principles of civilized war, and making other necessary
preparations--not forgetting to send forth a manifesto which he supposed
would spread terror through the Northern Colonies--he advanced with great
caution to the investment of Ticonderoga, where he arrived on the 2d of
July. Most unaccountably, the Americans immediately abandoned all their
works in the direction of Lake George--setting fire to the block-houses
and saw-mills; and without sally or other interruption, permitted the
enemy, under Major General Phillips, to take possession of the very
advantageous post of Mount Hope, which, besides commanding their lines in
a dangerous degree, totally cut off their communication with Lake George.
The only excuse for such an early abandonment of this important point,
was found in the fact that General St. Clair had not force enough to man
all his defences.
One of the first objects that attracted the attention of the British
commander, was the unoccupied point of Sugar Hill. It was forthwith
examined, and its advantages were found to be so great, that immediate
dispositions were made for its occupation. A winding road was cut to its
summit, a battery commenced, and cannon to serve it transported thither.
Under these circumstances, finding himself invested on all sides, and
batteries ready to be opened upon him not only from around, but above,
and having, moreover, not half troops enough to man his works--St. Clair
hastily convened a council of war on the 5th of July, and an evacuation
was unanimously decided upon as the only alternative for the
emergency. [FN]
* * * * *
[FN] "The evacuation of Ticonderoga and Mount Independence is an event
of chagrin and surprise, not apprehended nor within the compass of my
reasoning. I know not upon what principle it was founded, and I should
suppose it still more difficult to be accounted for, if the garrison
amounted to five thousand men, in high spirits, healthy, well supplied
with provisions and ammunition, and the Eastern militia marching to their
succor, as you mentioned in your letter of the 9th to the Council of
Safety of New-York."--_Letter of Washington to General Schuyler, July_
15, 1777. The truth, however, is, that the actual force and condition of
St. Clair's army had been universally over-estimated--as well by the
officers at a distance as by the public. The eyes of the nation were
turned upon that post; and when the news of the retreat went abroad, the
disappointment was extreme; and the loud voice of complaint and censure,
against the unfortunate General, was reiterated from one end of the
continent to the other. But, notwithstanding the "chagrin" and
"surprise," so keenly felt by the Commander-in-chief at the loss of this
important post, his strong sense of justice interposed to shield the
unfortunate commander from condemnation unheard. He wrote to General
Schuyler on the 13th of July, that General St. Clair owed it to himself
to insist upon an opportunity of giving his reasons for evacuating
Ticonderoga, but he at the same time said--"I will not condemn, or even
pass censure upon, an officer unheard." Time, however, proved that he had
acted the part of a judicious and skillful officer; but the excitement
of the moment was so great, caused by chagrin on the one hand and alarm
on the other, that all eyes were blind, and all ears deaf, to the true
reasons of the case, and even to the palliating circumstances.--_Sparks's
Life of Gonverneur Morris._
Following up such a promising advantage, the British commander pushed
forward upon the retiring army, with such a degree of vigor that the
retreat became almost a rout. The Americans, however, made a stand between
Skenesborough and Fort Anne in a well-contested battle; but after much
hard fighting, were again compelled to retreat. Another engagement ensued
at Fort Anne, with a like result; and the victorious Briton entered the
valley of the Hudson, and took possession of Fort Edward, which, weak and
unprovided, had likewise been evacuated on his approach by General
Schuyler.
These movements by the British commander had been made with equal vigor
and celerity; and such was the confusion of the Americans in their flight,
that no advices of the disaster were forwarded by express to General
Schuyler, to prepare him for the approach of the victors. Indeed, that
officer was suffered to remain several days without intelligence from St.
Clair of any description, excepting some vague flying rumors of the
evacuation. [FN-1] During this suspense, General Schuyler wrote to the
Commander-in-chief upon the subject, who, in turn, expressed his amazement
at the mystery which seemed to hang over the affairs of the fortress. At
one moment Washington was led to believe that St. Clair and the whole
garrison had been made prisoners, and at another that the rumor of the
evacuation was wholly untrue; and that the silence, for which it baffled
conjecture to account, arose from the circumstance that the Americans
were shut up in their works. [FN-2] But this doubt did not continue long.
Notwithstanding that the advance of the enemy was repulsed at Fort Anne,
Colonel Long, who was in command of that post, immediately evacuated it,
contrary to the express orders of General Schuyler; and Schuyler himself,
at the head of only fifteen hundred men at Fort Edward, "without
provision, with little ammunition, not above five rounds to a man, having
neither balls, nor lead to make any--and the country in the deepest
consternation," [FN-3] was obliged also to fall back in the direction of
Albany. The blow was a severe one; but the Commander-in-chief possessed
a soul equal to every crisis. No undue elevation of spirit followed his
successes; neither did the clouds of adverse fortune, so frequently
darkening the prospect of the American arms, sink him into
despondency. [FN-4] Indeed, each succeeding calamity was but another test
of his moral greatness, for he rose above them all.
* * * * *
[FN-1] Letter from General Schuyler to General Washington, July 9, 1777.
[FN-2] Letter from General Washington in reply.
[FN-3] Letter of Schuyler to Washington.
[FN-4] "This stroke is severe indeed, and has distressed us much. But,
notwithstanding things at present have a dark and gloomy aspect, I hope
a spirited opposition will check the progress of General Burgoyne's army,
and that the confidence derived from his success, will hurry him into
measures that will, in their consequences, be favorable to us. We should
never despair. Our situation has before been unpromising, and has changed
for the better; so, I trust, it will again. If new difficulties arise,
we must only put forth new exertions, and proportion our efforts to the
exigency of the times."--_Letterr of Washington to General Schuyler,
July_ 15, 1777.
Nothing, however, could exceed the terror which these events diffused
among the inhabitants, not only of Northern New-York, but of the New
England States. The consternation was, moreover, increased by the reported
murders and the cruelties of the savages--since all the efforts of General
Burgoyne to dissuade them from the perpetration of their cruel enormities
were ineffectual. Restrain them he could not; and it was admitted by the
British writers of that day, that the friends of the Royal cause, as well
as its enemies, were equally victims to their indiscriminate rage. It was
even ascertained that the British officers were deceived by their
treacherous allies, into the purchase of the scalps of their own comrades.
Among other instances of cruelty, the well-known murder of Miss Jane
McCrea, which happened in the early part of the campaign, filled the
public mind with horror. Every circumstance of this unnatural and bloody
transaction--around which there lingers a melancholy interest to this
day--served to heighten alike its interest and its enormity. Many have
been the versions of this bloody tale. General Gates, who had at this
juncture been most unjustly directed to supersede General Schuyler in the
command of the Northern Department, assailed General Burgoyne in the
newspapers with great virulence upon the subject of these outrages. After
charging the British commander with encouraging the murder of prisoners,
and the massacre of women and children, by paying the Indians a stipulated
price for scalps, Gates, in a letter addressed to General Burgoyne, thus
spoke of the case now specially under consideration:--"Miss McCrea, a
young lady, lovely to the sight, of virtuous character and amiable
disposition, engaged to an officer of your army, was, with other women
and children, taken out of a house near Fort Edward, carried into the
woods, and there scalped and mangled in the most horrid manner. Two
parents, with their six children, were treated with the same inhumanity,
while quietly resting in their own happy and peaceful dwelling. The
miserable fate of Miss McCrea was particularly aggravated, by being
dressed to receive her promised husband; but met her murderer, employed
by you. Upward of one hundred men, women, and children, have perished by
the hands of the ruffians to whom, it is asserted, you have paid the price
of blood."
General Burgoyne replied, and repelled with indignation the charge of
encouraging, in any respect, the outrages of the Indians. He asserted
that from the first he had refused to pay for scalps, and had so informed
the Indians at their council. The only rewards he gave them were for
prisoners brought in, and by the adoption of this course he hoped to
encourage a more humane mode of warfare on their part. In this letter
Burgoyne said:--"I would not be conscious of the acts you presume to
impute to me, for the whole continent of America, though the wealth of
worlds was in its bowels and a paradise upon its surface." [FN-1] In
regard to the hapless fate of Miss McCrea, General Burgoyne
remarked:--"Her fall wanted not the tragic display you have labored to
give it, to make it as sincerely abhorred and lamented by me as it can be
by the tenderest of her friends. The act was no premeditated barbarity.
On the contrary, two chiefs, who had brought her off for the purpose of
security, not of violence to her person, disputed which should be her
guard, and in a fit of savage passion in one, from whose hands she was
snatched, the unhappy woman became the victim. Upon the first intelligence
of this event, I obliged the Indians to deliver the murderer into my
hands; and though to have punished him by our laws, or principles of
justice, would have been perhaps unprecedented, he certainly should have
suffered an ignominious death, had I not been convinced, from my
circumstances and observations, beyond the possibility of a doubt, that
a pardon under the terms which I presented and they accepted, would be
more efficacious than an execution, to prevent similar mischiefs. The
above instance excepted, your intelligence respecting the cruelty of the
Indians, is false." [FN-2]
* * * * *
[FN-1] While these pages are passing through the press, the author has
fallen upon a letter written from Montreal, and published in the
_Remembrancer_ for 1777, in which it was stated that a party of the
Indians had returned to Montreal in a high state of dissatisfaction,
because of the severity of Burgoyne's discipline toward them, and his
refusal to tolerate their mode of warfare, or pay them their accustomed
bounty for scalps. It was further stated that they waited upon Sir Guy
Carleton with their complaints--liking their old "Father" much better
than their new.
[FN-2] Vide Marshall's Life of Washington, Vol. I, Appendix.
The British commander doubtless labored to make the best of his case, and
in respect to Miss McCrea, his statement was much nearer to the truth than
that of General Gates. The actual circumstances of the case, stripped of
its romance, were these:--Miss McCrea belonged to a family of loyalists,
and had engaged her hand in marriage to a young refugee named Jones, a
subordinate officer in the British service, who was advancing with
Burgoyne. Anxious to possess himself of his bride, he despatched a small
party of Indians to bring her to the British camp. Her family and friends
were strongly opposed to her going with such an escort; but her affection
overcame her prudence, and she determined upon the hazardous adventure.
She set forward with her dusky attendants on horseback. The family resided
at the village of Fort Edward, from whence they had not proceeded more
than half a mile before her conductors stopped to drink at a spring.
Meantime the impatient lover, who deserved not her embrace for confiding
her protection to such hands, instead of going himself, had despatched
a second party of Indians upon the same errand. The Indians met at the
spring; and before the march was resumed, they were attacked by a party
of the Provincials. At the close of the skirmish the body of Miss McCrea
was found among the slain--tomahawked, scalped, and tied to a pine tree,
yet standing by the side of the spring, as a monument of the bloody
transaction. The name of the young lady is inscribed on the tree, the
trunk of which is thickly scarred with the bullets it received in the
skirmish. It also bears the date 1777. "Tradition reports that the Indians
divided the scalp, and that each party carried half of it to the agonized
lover." [FN] The ascertained cause of her murder was this. The promised
reward for bringing her in safety to her betrothed, was a barrel of rum.
The chiefs of the two parties sent for her by Mr. Jones, quarreled
respecting the anticipated compensation. Each claimed it; and, in a moment
of passion, to end the controversy, one of them struck her down with his
hatchet.
* * * * *
[FN] Silliman's Tour from Hartford to Quebec. Vide, also, Marshall,
Gordon, and others.
The tale was sufficiently painful according to the simple facts of the
case, and its recital produced a thrill of horror wherever it
came--enlarged and embellished, as it was sure to be in its progress, by
every writer who could add to the eloquence of the narrative or the pathos
of its catastrophe.
As the invader advanced, the inhabitants fled in the wildest
consternation. The horrors of war, however mitigated by the laws and
usages of civilization, are at all times sufficiently terrific; but when
to these the fierce cruelties of a cloud of savages are superadded, those
only who have been familiar with an American border warfare can form an
adequate opinion of its atrocities. Among the fugitives driven from their
peaceful abodes on the present occasion, was Mrs. Ann Eliza Bleecker, a
lady who has been somewhat celebrated as one of the early poets of our
country. She was the daughter of Mr. Brandt Schuyler of the city of
New-York, and the wife of John J. Bleecker, Esq., of New Rochelle, whose
enterprise, together with his lady's love for the wild scenery of the
forest, had induced him to exchange a residence among the busy haunts
of men for a solitary plantation in the vale of the Tomhanic--a mountain
stream flowing into the Hoosic river, about twenty miles from Albany. Mr.
Bleecker's residence lay directly in the march of Burgoyne, on whose
approach he hastened to Albany to provide accommodations for his family.
But a few hours after his departure, Mrs. Bleecker, as she sat at table
received intelligence that the enemy, with tomahawk and brand, was within
two miles of her residence. Instant flight was the only alternative.
Taking one of her children in her arms and seizing the other by the hand,
she started off on foot attended only by a young mulatto girl, and leaving
her house and all its contents a prey to the Indians. The roads were
encumbered by carriages, loaded with women and children, each intent upon
his or her own safety; so that no assistance could be obtained, and her
only recourse was to mingle in the fugitive throng, and participate in
the common panic and common distress. Having traveled about five miles
on foot, however, she succeeded in obtaining a seat for the children in
a wagon which served to facilitate her march. On the following morning she
was met by her husband, who conducted her to Albany, and from thence down
the Hudson as far as Red Hook one of her children dying by the way. [FN]
* * * * *
[FN] The facts of this incident in the life of Mrs. Bleeker are taken
from Kettel's biographical sketches of American poets. The memoirs of
Mrs. B. together with her poems, were published many years ago, but I
sought in vain among the libraries and the Bleekers to obtain a
copy.--_Author._
Amid this scene of desolation and affright, there was yet one woman whose
proud spirit was undaunted. It was the lady of General Schuyler. The
General's country-seat was upon his estate in Saratoga, standing upon the
margin of the river. On the approach of Burgoyne, Mrs. Schuyler went up
to Saratoga, in order to remove their furniture. Her carriage was attended
by only a single armed man on horseback. When within two miles of her
house, she encountered a crowd of panic-stricken people, who recited to
her the tragic fate of Miss McCrea, and representing to her the danger of
proceeding farther in the face of the enemy, urged her to return. She had
yet to pass through a dense forest, within which even then some of the
savage troops might be lurking for prey. But to these prudential councils
she would not listen. "The General's wife," she exclaimed, "must not be
afraid!" And pushing forward, she accomplished her purpose. [FN]
* * * * *
[FN] I have derived this incident, and also that respecting the General,
which follows in the text, from Mrs. James Cochran of Oswego, who was
the youngest daughter of General Schuyler.--_Author._
Before the mansion was evacuated, however, the General himself had a
narrow escape from assassination by the hand of a savage, who had
insinuated himself into the house for that purpose. It was at the hour
of bed-time, in the evening, and while the General was preparing to retire
for the night, that a female servant, in coming in from the hall, saw a
gleam of light reflected from the blade of a knife, in the hand of some
person whose dark outline she discerned behind the door. The servant was
a black slave, who had sufficient presence of mind not to appear to have
made the discovery. Passing directly through the door into the apartment
where the General was yet standing near the fire-place, with an air of
unconcern she pretended to arrange such articles as were disposed upon
the mantel-piece, while in an undertone she informed her master of her
discovery, and said, aloud, "I will call the guard." The General instantly
seized his arms, while the faithful servant hurried out by another door
into a long hall, upon the floor of which lay a loose board which creaked
beneath the tread. By the noise she made in trampling rapidly upon the
board, the Indian--for such he proved--was led to suppose that the
Philistines were upon him in numbers, sprang from his concealment and
fled. He was pursued, however, by the guard and a few friendly Indians
attached to the person of General Schuyler, overtaken, and made prisoner.
Exasperated at his treachery, the friendly Indians were resolved to put
him to death, and it was with much difficulty that they were diverted
from their purpose by the General.
The effect of the incidents we have been detailing, and other recitals of
savage cruelties, not all, as General Burgoyne represented, without
foundation, was extensive and powerful. The cry of vengeance was
universal; and a spirit was aroused which proved of speedy and great
advantage to the American arms.