BEN AND AMOS JOIN ROGERS'S RANGERS AND MARCH TO THE WEST
A few days after this Amos and I went up to Concord and enlisted in the
Rangers. We had no showy uniform. Our clothes were of strong homespun of
a dull colour that would not attract attention in the woods. We brought
our own guns, and they gave each of us a blanket, a greatcoat, a
hatchet, and a wooden bottle in which to carry our drink. We were also
given rackets and skates.
We waited till the end of January, when Rogers marched into town with
five companies of men whom he had collected in New Hampshire. Most of
them were rough, stern frontiersmen from the Amoskeag Falls, skilled in
Indian fighting.
The recruits from Middlesex were distributed among these companies, and
Edmund had us placed in his squad. On my right in the ranks was
McKinstry, a grizzled old trapper, and to the left was John Martin, a
hardy fellow a few years older than myself. Both of them had served
before with Rogers.
[Sidenote: ROGERS INSTRUCTS THE RANGERS]
Four of the companies set sail from Boston for Cape Breton, to take part
in the siege of that place, and our company, under Rogers, started on
the march for Fort Edward. The snow was deep, and we travelled on
snowshoes. Rogers made us march in single file, with a man some distance
ahead, and another behind. On either side were flankers to detect the
enemy. As we shuffled along over the snow he taught us how to act in a
hostile country.
"Don't crowd up together. Keep several paces apart. Then if the enemy
fires at you, one shot will not hit two men. When you come to low,
marshy ground, change the order of your march and go abreast, for if you
went in single file, you would wear a path in the ground that the enemy
could follow. If you are to reconnoitre a place, make a stand in a safe
spot when you get near it, and send a couple of men ahead to look the
ground over. If you have to retreat and come to a river, cross it
anywhere but at the usual ford, for that is where the enemy would hide
on the farther side ready to pick you off. If your march is by a lake or
river, keep at some distance from it, that you may not be hemmed in on
one side and caught in a trap. When you go out, always return by a
different way, and avoid the usual travelled paths."
Thus, as we marched along, Rogers kept talking to us, instructing us in
the methods of wood-fighting.
We went through Worcester, Brookfield, and Northampton to Pontoosuc
Fort, where a party of Mohegan Indians from Stockbridge joined us, under
their chief Jacob. Then to a Dutch settlement called Kinderhook, and to
the Hudson River. The weather was very cold, and the river was frozen
over. Rogers told us to put on our skates, and we skated up the river to
Fort Edward.
This was a very strong fort, with much artillery. The fort was on the
left shore, and a very strong blockhouse was on the right bank. The
Rangers' camp was on an island in the Hudson. Their barracks were made
of logs, with bark roofs, and their camp was not in bad condition.
[Sidenote: HATRED OF INDIANS]
The Rangers were mostly frontiersmen from New Hampshire, who had lived
in the woods all their lives, and had fought against wild beasts and
Indians. The life they were now leading was simply their old life on a
larger scale. Most of them were dressed in deerskin. They were rough,
stern men, who had been so much exposed to danger, and were so used to
it, that they seemed to have no fear. They looked upon the French and
Indians as a dire plague, to be wiped off the earth by any means. They
had heard the war-whoop at their own homes, and had seen their close
relatives scalped by Indians. No wonder they classed the redskins with
wolves and snakes, as a plague to be wiped off the earth. Living in the
woods so much, they seemed to have acquired the keen senses that wild
animals have. They were ever on the alert. Their eyes and ears noticed
all the signs and sounds of nature. They had fought savages for years,
and their own ways were savage. Many of them took scalps.
I do not believe that a bolder or more adventurous set of men than these
Rangers ever existed.
As I looked them over and saw what a lot of keen, fearless, and
self-reliant men I was among, I was very proud to think that I was one
of this chosen corps.
McKinstry said: "They're a tough set, Ben. But when you get in your
first fight, you'll be glad you're with a tough set. Not much school
learning among them; but they know all about the woods and Injun
fighting, and that's what we want here."
Every evening at roll-call we formed on parade, equipped with a
firelock, sixty rounds of powder and ball, and a hatchet, and were
inspected, that we might be ready at a minute's warning. The guards were
arranged and the scouts for the next day appointed.
After we had been at the camp a couple of days Rogers came out of his
hut and said to me:--
"Come, Comee, I'm going over to the fort and may want some one to bring
back a few things."
[Sidenote: THE BLACK WATCH]
We crossed the ice to the shore and went up to the fort. It was a great
sight for me to see the regulars in their bright scarlet coats, the
Scotch Highlanders with their kilts and tartans, and our own provincial
troops in blue, though there were not many of them, as they had mostly
gone home for the winter.
Rogers walked up to the headquarters of Colonel Haviland, the commander.
"I shall be busy here some time. Come back in an hour and wait for me."
I went over to the Scotch regiment, the Black Watch it was called, and
listened to them talking their curious language.
One of the men turned to me and asked if I was looking for any one.
"Well, I'm of Scotch descent, and I thought I'd see if there were any
McComees or Munros among you."
He looked over to another group and shouted: "Hector! Hector Munro!
Here's one of your kinsmen." A strong, active fellow of some
twenty-eight or thirty years came over.
"How's that? I didn't know that any of our kin were over here."
"My grandmother was a Munro, and her father was taken prisoner while
fighting for King Charles the First, and was sent to America."
"Hear that now! My brother Donald and myself were out with Charlie in
forty-five, and we had a hard time of it afterward, hunted about till
they made up their minds to form some Highland regiments and give pardon
to those who enlisted, and here we are fighting for King George."
He led me to his brother and made me acquainted with him. We went to
their quarters, and I learned more about the clan in a short time than I
ever heard before or since. It seemed as if most of the great generals
in almost every army were Munros, and they traced their ancestry back to
the time of Noah.
At last I said that I must go to headquarters to meet Captain Rogers.
[Sidenote: ROGERS ASSUMES ENGLAND'S DEBT]
"So you belong to the Rangers? They're a braw set of men, and there's
many a gude Scotchman among them. We'll come over and see you."
I returned and waited for Rogers, and when he came out, he said: "Come
over to the sutler's hut; I want to buy some things we haven't got on
the island."
Rogers made some purchases and then listened to two English officers who
were seated at a table, drinking. They had reached a maudlin state, and
were bewailing the fate of England.
"This is a sad day for old England, my boy."
"Yes, the country will never be able to stand up under the great debt
that we have incurred for these miserable Provinces."
Rogers went over to them and said:--
"Don't let that trouble you, my friends. Make yourselves easy on that
score, for I will pay half the national debt, and my good friend here
says he will take the other half on his shoulders, and the nation will
be rid of her difficulties."
"By Gad! I'm blessed if you're not fine fellows. Sit down and have a
drink with us."
Rogers introduced me to them as the Earl of Middlesex. They took off
their hats to me and ordered some grog for us. I barely tasted mine, for
I had no heart to drink with the besotted fools. We bade them good-by, I
took up the things which Rogers had bought, and we walked away.
"Well, Comee, we've settled the nation's debt. That's one good thing off
our hands. There's another thing I wish we could get rid of as easily.
The old country has sent us over some curious commanders. There was
Braddock, who threw away his army and his life; Webb, who was a coward;
Loudon, our present commander, is always running hither and thither,
giving orders, but effecting nothing. He is like the pictures of St.
George on the tavern signs,--always on horseback, but never getting
anywhere. But this Colonel Haviland, the commandant here, beats them all
hollow. A worse specimen of stupidity or rascality I never saw. Captain
Israel Putnam of the Connecticut troops was sent out on a scout a week
ago. Before he went Haviland said publicly that on his return he should
send me out against the French with four hundred men. One of Putnam's
men deserted to the enemy and one of the Rangers was captured, so that
the enemy knew all about it. Putnam says there are about six hundred
Indians near Ticonderoga; and now this Haviland sends me out, not with
four hundred men, but with one hundred and eighty, all told. You will
see all the fighting you want inside the next week and I hope we may
both get through it alive."
[Sidenote: A PLEASANT PROSPECT]
When I returned to the island, I told Edmund and Amos what Rogers had
said, and we felt pretty glum. "It looks to me," said Edmund, "as if the
rest of the campaign wouldn't interest us very much."