** Dr. Cochran was born in Chester, Penn_The Pictorial Field-Book of the Revolution, Vol. 1 (of 2) or, Illustrations, by Pen And Pencil, of the History, Biography, Scenery, Relics, and Traditions of the War for Independence

came from the north of Ireland. He studied medicine at Lancaster, and

served as surgeon's mate in the hospital department during the French

and Indian war. At the close of that contest he settled in Albany, and

married Gertrude, the only sister of General Schuyler. He entered the

Revolutionary army, and in the spring of 1777 Washington appointed him

surgeon general of the Middle Department, and in October, 1781, director

general of the hospitals of the United States. He removed to New York

after the peace, and his eminent services were not forgotten by

Washington, who nominated him commissioner of loans for that state. He

died at Palatine, Montgomery county, April 6th, 1807, aged 76.

*** This view is from the top of the United States Hotel, looking east-

northeast. It was hastily sketched during the approach of a thunder-

storm, and the "huge herald drops" came down just as I traced the

distant water-line of the lake. The objects by the figure in the

foreground are the balustrade and chimney of the hotel, now (1848) a

summer boarding-house for strangers. The first height beyond the water

or the right is the point on which stands Fort Oswego. The land in the

far distance, on the same side, is Four-mile Point, behind which

Montcalm landed his forces. On the left is seen the light-house upon one

of the stone piers, and beyond it spread out the waters of Lake Ontario.

**** Circumstances connected with his election are rather amusing. A

vessel was to be launched upon (I think) Seneca Lake, at Geneva, and, it

being an unusual event, people came from afar to see it. The young folks

gathered there, determined to have a dance at night. A fiddle was

procured, but a fiddler was wanting. Young Cochran was an amateur

performer, and his services were demanded on the occasion. He gratified

the joyous company, and at the supper-table one of the gentlemen

remarked, in commendation of his talents, that he was "fit for

Congress." The hint was favorably received by the company, the matter

was "talked up," and he was nominated and elected a representative in

Congress for the district then comprising the whole state of New York

west of Schenectady. He always claimed to have fiddled himself into

Congress.

Attempted Abduction of General Schuyler by Waltermeyer.--Alarm of the

Family.--Narrow Escape of an Infant.

222place. His lady, many years his junior, was the youngest and favorite

daughter of General Schuyler. She was his traveling companion during his

old age, and constantly enjoyed the advantages of the refined society by

which he was surrounded. When her mother departed from earth, she was

his companion and solace, and was at his bedside, to minister to his

wants, in the hour of death. * Although the stirring scenes of the

Revolution were passed before the years of her infancy were numbered,

her intercourse with the great and honorable of that generation, during

her youth and early womanhood, brought facts and circumstances to her

vigorous mind so forcibly, that their impressions are as vivid and

truthful as if made by actual observation. She related many interesting

circumstances in the life of her father, and among them that of an

attempted abduction of his person in 1781.

At the time in question, General Schuyler was residing in the suburbs of

Albany, having left the army and engaged in the civil service of his

country. Notwithstanding his comparatively obscure position, his aid and

counsel were constantly sought, in both military and civil transactions,

and he was considered by the enemy one of the prominent obstacles in the

way of their success. He was then charged by Washington with the duty of

intercepting all communications between General Haldimand in Canada and

Clinton in New York. For some time the Tories in the neighborhood of

Albany had been employed in capturing prominent citizens and carrying

them off to Canada, for the purpose of exchange. Such an attempt was

made upon Colonel Gansevoort, and now a bold project was conceived to

carry off General Schuyler. John Waltermeyer, a bold partisan and

colleague of the notorious Joe Bettys, was employed for the purpose.

Accompanied by a gang of Tories, Canadians, and Indians, he repaired to

the neighborhood of Albany, but, uncertain how well General Schuyler

might be guarded, he lurked among the pine shrubbery in the vicinity

eight or ten days. He seized a Dutch laborer, and learned from him the

exact position of affairs at Schuyler's house, after which he extorted

an oath of secrecy from the man and let him go. The Dutchman seems to

have made a mental reservation, for he immediately gave information of

the fact to General Schuyler. A Loyalist, who was the general's personal

friend, and cognizant of Waltermeyer's design, also warned him. In

consequence of the recent abductions, the general kept a guard of six

men constantly on duty, three by day and three by night, and after these

warnings they and his family were on the alert.

August, 1781 At the close of a sultry day, the general and his family

were sitting in the front hall. The servants were dispersed about the

premises. The three guards relieved for the night were asleep in the

basement room, and the three on duty, oppressed by the heat, were lying

upon the cool grass in the garden. A servant announced to the general

that a stranger desired to speak to him at the back gate. The stranger's

errand was at once comprehended. The doors of the house were immediately

shut and close barred. The family were hastily collected in an upper

room, and the general ran to his bed-chamber for his arms. From the

window he saw the house surrounded by armed men. For the purpose of

arousing the sentinels upon the grass, and perchance to alarm the town,

he fired a pistol from the window. The assailants burst open the doors,

and at that moment Mrs. Schuyler perceived that, in the confusion and

alarm of the retreat from the hall, her infant child, a few months old,

had been left in the cradle in the nursery below. Parental love subdued

all fear, and she was flying to the rescue of her child, when the

general interposed and prevented her. But her third daughter **

instantly rushed down the two flights of stairs, snatched the still

sleeping infant from the cradle, and bore it off safely. One of the

miscreants hurled, a sharp tomahawk at her as she left the room, but it

effected no other harm than a slight injury to her dress, within a few

inches of the infant's head. As she ascended a private stair-case she

met Waltermeyer, who, supposing her to be a servant, exclaimed, "Wench,

wench, where

* Grief for the loss of his wife, and the melancholy circumstances

connected with the death of his son-inlaw, General Alexander Hamilton,

weighed heavily upon his spirits. His death was hastened by exposure and

fatigue while accompanying two French dukes over the battle-ground of

Saratoga. He was taken ill there, and never recovered.

** Margaret, afterward the first wife of the late venerated General Van

Rensselaer (the patroon) of Albany.

Robbery of General Schuyler's House.--Retreat of the Marauders.

Abduction of other Patriots.--Mrs. Cochran.

223is your master?"

"With great presence of mind, she replied, "Gone to alarm the town."

The Tory's followers were then in the dining-room, plundering it of the

plate and other valuables, and he called them together for consultation.

At that moment the general threw up a window, and, as if speaking to

numbers, called out, in a loud voice, "Come on, my brave fellows,

surround the house and secure the villains, who are plundering." The

assailants made a precipitate retreat, carrying with them the three

guards that were in the house, and a large quantity of silver plate.

They made their way to Ballstown by daybreak, where they took General

Gordon a prisoner from his bed, and with their booty returned to Canada.

* The bursting open of the doors of General Schuyler's house aroused the

sleeping guards in the cellar, who rushed up to the back hall, where

they had left their arms, but they were gone. Mrs. Church, ** another

daughter of General Schuyler, who was there at the time, without the

slightest suspicion that they might be wanted, caused the arms to be

removed a short time before the attack, on account of apprehended injury

to her little son, whom she found playing with them. The guards had no

other weapon but their brawny fists, and these they used manfully until

overpowered. They were taken to Canada, and when they were exchanged,

the general gave them each a farm, in Saratoga county. Their names were

John Tubbs, John Corlies, and John "Ward.

Mrs. Cochran was the infant rescued by her intrepid sister. The incident

is one of deep interest, and shows the state of constant alarm and

danger in which the people lived at that day, particularly those whose

position made them conspicuous. Mrs. Cochran kindly complied with my

solicitation for a likeness of herself to accompany the narrative here

given.

* Major Cochran related to me an incident connected with the booty in

question. Among the plundered articles was a silver soup tureen. He was

at Washington city at the time of the inauguration of Harrison, in 1841,

and while in the rotunda of the Capitol, viewing Trumbull's picture of

the surrender of Bur-goyne, a stranger at his elbow inquired, "Who is

that fine-looking man in the group, in citizen's dress?" "General

Schuyler," replied Major Cochran. "General Schuyler!" repeated the

stranger. "Why, I ate soup not long since, at Belleville, in Canada,

from a tureen that was carried off from his house by some Tories in the

Revolution." This was the first and only trace the family ever had of

the plundered articles.

** She was the wife of John B. Church, Esq., an English gentleman, who

was a contractor for the French army in America under Rochambeau. He

returned to England, and was afterward a member of Parliament.

Departure from Oswego.--The Genesee River.--Storm on the Lake.-- Sea-

sickness.--Fort Niagara.

224It was my intention to go directly from Oswego to Rome, by the plank

road that traverses the old war-paths of the last century between those

points, for the region westward is quite barren of incident connected

with the Revolution. Old Fort Niagara, at the mouth of the Niagara

River, was a place of rendezvous for Tories and Indians while preparing

for marauding excursions on the borders of civilization in New York, or

when they returned with prisoners and scalps. Beyond this it offered no

attractions, for hardly a remnant of its former material is left. But

having been joined at Oswego by another member of my family, who, with

my traveling companion, was anxious to see the great cataract, and

desirous myself to look again upon that wonder of the New World, I

changed my course, and on a August 17, 1848 stormy morning, with a

strong north wind awakening the billows of Ontario, we left Oswego for

Lewiston in the steamer Cataract, commanded by the same excellent Van

Cleve whose vessel got a little entangled, ten years before, in the

affair at Wind-mill Point, near Ogdensburgh. The lake was very rough,

and nearly all on board turned their thoughts inwardly, conversing but

little until we entered the Genesee River in the afternoon. Many lost

the breakfast they had paid for, and others, by commendable abstinence

and economy, saved the price of dinner by shunning it altogether.

The scenery upon the tortuous course of the Genesee is very picturesque.

The stream is deep and narrow, and its precipitous shores are heavily

wooded. The voyage terminated three fourths of a mile below the Lower

Falls of the Genesee, and five miles from Ontario. Here is the port of

Rochester. The city lies upon the plains at the Pipper Falls, two miles

distant. Our boat remained there until toward evening, and, the rain

having abated, I strolled up the winding carriage-way as far as the

Lower Falls. This road is cut in the precipitous bank of the river,

presenting overhanging cliffs, high and rugged, on one side, and on the

other steep precipices going down more than a hundred feet below to the

sluggish bed of the stream. Every thing about the falls is broken and

confused. The stream, the rocks, the hills, and trees are all commingled

in chaotic grandeur, varying in lineament at each step, and defying

every attempt to detect a feature of regularity. There sandstone may be

seen in every stage of formation, from the loose soil to shale, and

slate-like lamina, and the solid stratified rock. The painter and the

geologist are well rewarded for a visit to the Lower Falls of the

Genesee.

We descended the river toward evening. Heavy clouds were rolling over

the lake; and the white caps that sparkled upon its bosom, and the spray

that dashed furiously over the unfinished stone pier at the mouth of the

river, betokened a night of tempest and gloom. The wind had increased

almost to a gale upon the lake while we had been quietly lying in the

sheltering arms of the Genesee. Premonitions of sea-sickness alarmed my

prudence, and by its wise direction I slipped into my berth before eight

o'clock, and slept soundly until aroused by the porter's bell, a little

before daybreak, at Lewiston Landing. The rain continued, though falling

gently. We groped our way up the slippery road to the cars, and,

shivering in the damp air, took seats for Niagara, fully resolved to

give the bland invitation of the "lake route" a contemptuous refusal on

our return eastward. It may be very pleasant on a calm day or a

moonlight night, but _our_ experience made us all averse to the aquatic

journey.

We passed from Ontario into the Niagara River, seven miles below

Lewiston, while slumbering, and, consequently, I have nothing to say of

Fort Niagara from personal observation. We will turn to veritable

history for the record, and borrow the outlines of an illustration from

another pencil.

In 1679, during the administration of Frontenac, a French officer named

De Salle inclosed a small spot in palisades at the mouth of the Niagara

River, and in 1725, two years before Governor Burnet built his fort at

Oswego, a strong fortification was erected there. It was captured by the

British, under Sir William Johnson, in 1759. The forces, chiefly

provincials, that were sent against the fort were commanded by General

Prideaux, who sailed July 7, 1757 from Oswego, and landed near the mouth

of the river in July. He at once opened his batteries upon the fortress,

but was soon killed by the bursting of a gun. The

Attack on Fort Niagara.---Stratagem of the French.--Traditions

respecting the Fort--A Refuge for Tories and Indians

225command then devolved upon Johnson. An army of French regulars,

twelve hundred strong, drawn chiefly from western posts, and accompanied

by an equal number of Indians, marching to the relief of the garrison,

were totally routed by Johnson, and a large part of them made prisoners.

The siege had then continued more than a fortnight, and the beleaguered

garrison, despairing of succor, surrendered the next day. In addition

July 23, 1759 to the ammunition and stores that fell into their hands,

the strong fort itself was an important acquisition for the English.

Within its dungeons were found instruments for executions or murders,

and the ears of the English received many horrid tales from the captive

Indians of atrocities committed there during French rule.

It is said that the mess-house, a strong building still standing within

the fort, was built by the French by stratagem. The Indians were opposed

to the erection of any thing that appeared like a fortress. The French

troops were kindly received by the savages, and obtained their consent

to build a wigwam. They then induced the Indians to engage in an

extensive hunt with some French officers, and when they returned the

walls were so far advanced that they might defy the savages if they

should attack them. It grew into a large fort, with bastions and

ravelins, ditches and pickets, curtains and counter-scarp, covered way,

draw-bridge, raking batteries, stone towers, bakery, blacksmith shop,

mess-house, barracks, laboratory, magazine, and a chapel with a dial

over its door to mark the progress of the hours. It covered about eight

acres. A few rods from the barrier-gate was a burial-ground, over the

portal of which was painted, in large letters, Rest. The dungeon of the

mess-house, called the black-hole, was a strong, dark, and dismal place,

and in one corner of the room was fixed an apparatus for strangling

those whom the despotic officers chose to kill. The walls were profusely

inscribed with French names and mementoes in that language, and the

letters and emblems were many of them so well executed as to prove that

some of the victims were not of common stamp. When, in June, 1812, an

attack upon the fort by the English was momentarily expected, a

merchant, residing near the fort, deposited some valuable articles in

the dungeon. He went there one night with a light, and discovered his

own family name upon the walls. Like other ruins, it has its local

legends. The headless trunk of a French officer has been seen sitting on

the margin of the well in the dungeon; and large sums of money have been

buried there, and their localities pointed out by fingers visible only

to money-diggers. **

During the American Revolution "it was the headquarters," says De Veaux,

"of all that was barbarous, unrelenting, and cruel. There were

congregated the leaders and chiefs of those bands of murderers and

miscreants who carried death and destruction into the remote American

settlements. There civilized Europe reveled with savage America, and

ladies of education and refinement mingled in the society of those whose

only distinction was to wield the bloody tomahawk and the scalping-

knife. There the squaws of the forests were raised to eminence, and the

most unholy unions between them and officers of the highest rank smiled

upon and countenanced. There, in their strong-hold, like a nest of

vultures, securely, for seven years, they sallied forth and preyed upon

the distant settlements of the Mohawk and

* This is copied from one published in Barber and Howe's "Historical

Collections of New York." They copied it from an engraving published

during the war of 1812. It gives the appearance of the locality at that

time. The view is from the west side of the Niagara River, near the

light-house. The fort is on the east side (the right of the picture), at

the mouth of the river. The steam-boat seen in the distance is out on

Lake Ontario.

** See De Veaux's Niagara Falls.

The Niagara River.--Events there of the War of 1812.--American Militia.-

-Brock's Death.--His Monument

226Susquehanna Valleys. It was the depot of their plunder: there they

planned their forays, and there they returned to feast, until the time

of action came again."

The shores of Niagara River, from Erie to Ontario, abound in historic

associations connected with the military operations on that frontier

during the war of 1812. The battles of Chippewa, Lundy's Lane,

Queenston, and Fort Erie occurred in this vicinity; but these events are

so irrelevant to our subject, that we must give them but brief

incidental notice as we happen to pass by their localities.

Fort Niagara was feebly garrisoned by the Americans, and on the 19th of

December, 1813, a British force of twelve hundred men crossed the river

and took it by surprise. The garrison consisted of three hundred and

seventy men. The commanding officer was absent, the gates were open and

unguarded, and the fortress, strong as it was, became an easy prey to

the enemy. Sixty-five of the garrison were killed, and twenty-seven

pieces of ordnance and a large quantity of military stores were the

spoils of victory for the British.

It was broad daylight when our train moved from Lewiston, and across the

Niagara, on the Canada shore, the heights of Queenston, surmounted by

Brock's monument, were in full view. The battle that renders this

towering slope so famous occurred on the 13th of October, 1812. The

Americans were commanded by the late General Stephen Van Rensselaer, the

British by General Sir Isaac Brock. The former were about twenty-five

hundred strong; the latter numbered about the same, besides a horde of

Chippewa Indians. The British were strongly posted upon the heights. At

four o'clock on the morning of the 13th about six hundred Americans,

under Colonel Solomon Van Rensselaer and Lieutenant-colonel Christie,

crossed over in boats to dislodge the enemy. The passage was made in the

face of a destructive fire, and the brave Americans rushed impetuously

up the acclivity and attacked the first battery, captured it, and soon

stood victorious upon the height from which they had driven the enemy.

General Brock endeavored, in person, to rally his scattered troops, and

was fatally wounded while leading them to the charge. * Dismayed when

they saw their leader fall, they fled in great confusion. At this time

Colonel Scott, ** with a reenforcement of six hundred men, regulars and

volunteers, crossed over; and the enemy was also re-enforced by troops

from Fort George, and five hundred Chippewa Indians. The strife was

fierce for a long time. The British, re-enforced, far outnumbered the

Americans, and the militia remaining at Lewiston could not be induced to

cross over to support their friends in the combat. Overwhelming numbers

closed in upon the Americans, and, after fighting eleven hours, they

were obliged to surrender. The American loss was about ninety killed and

nine hundred wounded, missing, and prisoners. The behavior of many of

our militia on this occasion was extremely disgraceful. Taking advantage

of the darkness when they crossed in the morning, they hid themselves in

the clefts of the rocks and clumps of bushes near the shore, where they

remained while the fighting ones were periling life upon the heights

above. The cowards were dragged out from their hiding-places by the

legs, by the British soldiers, after the surrender.

The rail-road cars from Lewiston to the Falls ascend in their course an

inclined plane that winds up what is evidently the ancient southern

shore of Lake Ontario. Deposits of pebbles at the foot of the ridge, and

many other facts connected with this physical feature of the country

from Niagara to Oswego, prove conclusively, to the mind of the close

observer, that this was the shore of Ontario before the great convulsion

took place which formed the

* General Brock was lieutenant governor of Upper Canada. The Legislature

of that province caused a monument to be erected to his memory, on the

heights near the spot where he fell. It is in a position so elevated,

that it may be seen at different points nearly fifty miles distant. The

monument is constructed of freestone. The base, which covers the vault

wherein lie the remains of General Brock and his aid, Lieutenant-colonel

John M'Donald (who was killed in the same action), is twenty feet

square. The shaft rises one hundred and twenty-six feet from the ground.

A miscreant named Lett attempted to destroy it by gunpowder on the night

of the 17th of April, 1840. The keystone over the door was thrown out,

and the shaft was cracked nearly two thirds of its height.

** Now Major-general Scott, of the United States army. The present

General Wool was a captain, and commanded a company in the action.

Arrival at Niagara.--Falls Village.--View from Goat Island. --Biddle's

Tower.--Sublime Voyage in the "Maid of the Mist."

227Falls of Niagara. We leave what questions upon this point remain

open, to be settled by wiser minds, and hasten on to the Falls. We

caught a few glimpses of the green waters from the windows of the car,

and in a few minutes were in the midst of the tumult of porters at the

village, more clamorous for our ears than the dull roar of the cataract

near by. The fasting upon the lake and the early morning ride had given

us a glorious appetite for breakfast, and as soon as it was appeased we

sallied out, guide-book in hand, to see the celebrities. These have been

described a thousand times. Poets, painters, travelers, historians,

philosophers, and penny-a-liners have vied with each other in magnifying

this wonder, and as I can not (if I would) "add one cubit to its

stature" for the credulous, a thought concerning its sublimity and

beauty for the romantic, a hue to the high coloring of others for the

sentimental, or a new fact or theory for the philosophical, I shall pass

among the lions in almost perfect silence, and speedily leave the

excitements of this fashionable resort for the more quiet grandeur and

beauty of the Mohawk Valley, once the "dark and bloody ground," but now

a paradise of fertility, repose, and peace.

We crossed the whirling rapids and made the circuit of Goat Island. In

this route all the remarkable points of the great cataract are brought

to view. From the Hog's Back, at the lower end of the island, there is a

fine prospect of the river below, and the distant Canada shore beyond.

The almost invisible Suspension Bridge, like a thread in air, was seen

two miles distant; and beneath us, through the mist of the American

Fall, glorious with rainbow hues, the little steam-boat, the "Maid of

the Mist," came breasting the powerful current. We looked down from our

lofty eyrie (literally, in the clouds), through the mist veil, upon her

deck, and her passengers appeared like Lilliputians in a tiny skiff.

From the southern side of the island we had a noble view of the Horse-

shoe Fall, over which pours the greater portion of the Niagara River.

The water is estimated to be twenty feet deep upon the crown of the

cataract. Biddle's Tower is a fine observatory, overlooking, on one

side, the boiling abyss below the fall, and standing apparently in the

midst of the rushing waters as they hurry down the rapids above. We

spent two hours upon the verge of the floods, in the shadows of the

lofty trees that cover the island, but these scenes were tame compared

with what we beheld from the "Maid of the Mist" toward noon. We rode

nearly to the Suspension Bridge, and, walking down a winding road cleft

in the rocks, reached the brink of the river at the head of the great

rapids above the whirlpool. There we embarked on the little steam-boat,

and moved up the river to the cataract. As we approached the American

Fall, all retreated into the cabins, and, the windows being closed, we

were soon enveloped in spray. It was a sight indescribably grand. As we

looked up, the waters seemed to be pouring from the clouds. A feeling of

awe, allied to that of worship, pervaded us, and all were silent until

the avalanche of waters was passed. The beautiful lines of Brainerd came

vividly up from the shrine of memory, and aided my thoughts in seeking

appropriate language:

"It would seem

As if God poured thee from his 'hollow hand,'

And hung his bow upon thine awful front,

And spoke in that loud voice which seemed to him

Who dwelt in Patmos for his Savior's sake,

'The sound of many waters,' and had bade

The flood to chronicle the ages back,

And notch his cent'ries in the eternal rocks.

Deep calleth unto deep. And what are we

That hear the question of that voice sublime?

Or what are all the notes that ever rung

From war's vain trumpet, by thy thundering side?

Yea, what is all the riot man can make

In his short life to thy unceasing roar?

And yet, bold babbler, what art thou to Him

Who drowned the world, and heaped the waters far

Above its loftiest mountains? a light wave

That breaks and whispers of its Maker's might."

Buckingham's Lines.--Voyage of the Maid of the Mist.--Romantic

Marriage.--The Whirlpool.--The Suspension Bridge.

228Beautifully has Buckingham expressed the reverential thoughts which

fill the mind and part the lips for utterance in that majestic presence:

"Hail! sovereign of the world of floods! whose majesty and might

First dazzles--then enraptures--then o'erawes the aching sight;

The pomp of kings and emperors in every clime and zone

Grow dim beneath the splendors of thy glorious watery throne.

"No fleets can stop thy progress, no armies bid thee stay,

But onward, onward, onward thy march still holds its way;

The rising mist that veils thee, as thine herald, goes before,

And the music that proclaims thee is the thundering cataract's roar.

"Thy reign is of the ancient days, thy scepter from on high--

Thy birth was when the distant stars first lit the gloomy sky;

The sun, the moon, and all the orbs that shine upon thee now,

Beheld the wreath of glory which first bound thy infant brow!"

Our little boat, after sweeping around as near the great Horse-shoe Fall

as prudence would allow, touched a moment at the landing on the Canada

side, and then returned to her moorings. We felt relieved when we stood

again on land, for there is some peril in the voyage; yet the wonderful

scene yields a full compensation for the risk. It affords an opportunity

to exhibit courage more sensibly than the foolish periling of life in

clambering over the slippery rocks under the Falls, and sentiment has

here some chance for respectable display. The week previous to our visit

a young couple, with a parson, took passage in the "Maid of the Mist,"

and, when enveloped in the spray of the cataract, were united in

wedlock. What an altar before which to make nuptial vows! Can they ever

forget the solemn promises there made, or be unfaithful to the pledge

there sealed?

We visited the whirlpool, and that wonder of art, the Suspension Bridge,

before returning to the village. The former is at the elbow of the

Niagara River, two and a half miles below the cataract, and should never

be left unseen by the visitor at the Falls. The Suspension Bridge spans

the river near the head of the rapids above the whirlpool. The present

structure is only the _scaffolding_ for constructing the one intended

for the passage of a train of rail-road cars. Numerous foot-passengers

were upon it, and a coach and horses, with driver and two passengers,

crossed it while we were there.

The light structure bent beneath the weight like thin ice under the

skater, yet the passage is considered perfectly safe. I visited it again

toward evening, and made the accompanying sketch to illustrate the

method of its construction and its relative position-to the Falls.1 To

attempt to sketch the Falls truthfully is vain. They have never yet been

portrayed

* The bridge from pier to pier is eight hundred feet long. Its breadth

is eight feet. The whole bridge is suspended upon eight cables, four on

each side, which pass over towers fifty-four feet high, built of heavy

timbers. The towers for the large bridge will be of solid masonry eighty

feet high. Each cable is eleven hundred and sixty feet long, and

composed of seventy-two number ten iron wires, around which is wrapped

small wire three times boiled in linseed oil, which anneals it, and

gives it a coat that can not be injured by exposure to the weather, and

preserves the wire from rust. The cables, after passing over the piers

on the banks, are fast anchored in masonry fifty feet back of them. The

suspenders are composed of eight wires each, and are placed four and a

half feet apart. The bridge is two hundred feet above the water.

** This view, looking up the river, comprises about one half the bridge,

a portion of the bank on the Canada side on the right, the American

shore on the left, and a part of the Falls, seen under the bridge, in

the extreme distance.

Departure from the Falls.--A Day upon the Rail road.--Syracuse. --Early

History of that Region.--The French.

229in their grandeur, and never can be. A picture can not convey an idea

of their magnificence to the eye. They must be seen to be known. Art

utterly fails in attempts to transfer their features to canvas, and

degrades nature by its puny efforts. In their _motion_ consists their

great sublimity, and the painter might as well attempt to delineate the

whirlwind as to depict Niagara in its glory.

We left Niagara early on Saturday morning, stopped in Buffalo just long

enough August 19, 1848 to go from one rail-way station to another, and

reached Syracuse at about eight in the evening, a distance of two

hundred miles. That day's journey seems more like a dream than reality,

for hills and valleys, woods and meadows, hamlets and villages, lakes

and rivers, the puff of the engine, the rattle of the train, men, women,

and children in serried ranks, are all mingled in confusion in the

kaleidescope of memory, and nothing but a map or a Traveler's Guide-book

can unravel the tangled skein of localities that was spun out in that

rapid journey of fourteen hours. We remember the broad Niagara, the dark

Erie with white sails upon its bosom, the stately houses and busy

streets of Buffalo, the long _reaches_ of flat, new country, dotted with

stumps, from Buffalo to Attica and beyond, the stirring mart of

Rochester, the fields, and orchards, and groves of lofty trees that

seemed waltzing by us, the beautiful villages of Canandaigua and Geneva,

the falls of the Seneca, the long bridge of Cayuga, the strong prison

and beautiful dwellings of Auburn, and the golden sunset and cool breeze

that charmed us as we approached Syracuse. In that flourishing city of

the recent wilderness we passed a quiet Sabbath with some friends, and

the next morning I journeyed to Rome.

Although a quarter of a century has scarcely passed since Syracuse was a

village of mean huts, * it has a history connected with European

civilization more than two hundred years old. At Salina, now a portion

of the city of Syracuse, where the principal salt-wells are, the French,

under the Sieur Dupuys, an officer of the garrison at Quebec, made a

settlement as early as 1655. The Onondaga tribe then had their villages

in the valley, a few miles from Syracuse, and a good understanding

prevailed between them and the new-comers. The jealousy of the Mohawks

was aroused, and they attempted to cut off the colonists while on their

way up the St. Lawrence. They, however, reached their destination in

safety, and upon the borders of the Onondaga Lake they reared dwellings

and prepared for a permanent colony. But the uneasiness of the Indian

tribes soon manifested itself in hostile preparations, and in the winter

of 1658 Dupuys was informed that large parties of Mohawks, Oneidas, and

even Onondagas, were arming. Unable to procure assistance in time from

Quebec, he succeeded, by stratagem, in constructing some bateaux and

escaping with the whole colony secretly down the river to Oswego, and

thence to Montreal.

Relying implicitly upon the good faith and promised friendship of the

Indians, Dupuys had neglected to preserve his canoes. To construct new

ones in view of the Indians would advertise them of his intentions, and

bring their hatchets upon the settlement at once. He therefore had small

bateaux made in the garret of the Jesuit's house, and kept them

concealed when finished. A young Frenchman had been adopted into the

family of a chief, and had

* In 1820 the late William L. Stone visited Syracuse in company with Mr.

Forman, one of the earliest and most industrious friends of the Erie

Canal. "I lodged for the night," says Mr. Slone, "at a miserable tavern,

thronged by a company of salt-boilers from Salina, forming a group of

about as rough-looking specimens of humanity as I had ever seen. Their

wild visages, beards thick and long, and matted hair even now rise up in

dark, distant, and picturesque effect before me. I passed a restless

night, disturbed by strange fancies, as I yet well remember. It was in

October, and a flurry of snow during the night had rendered the morning

aspect of the country more dreary than the evening before. The few

houses I have already described, standing upon low and almost marshy

ground, and surrounded by trees and entangled thickets, presented a very

uninviting scene. 'Mr. Forman,' said I, 'do you call this a village? It

could make an owl weep to fly over it.' 'Never mind,' said he, in reply,

'you will live to see it a city yet.'" Mr. Slone did, indeed, live to

see it a city in size, when he wrote the above in 1810, and it is now a

city in fact, with mayor and aldermen, noble stores and dwellings, and a

population of some 14,000. Judge Forman was one of the projectors of the

Erie Canal, and the founder of Syracuse. He died at Rutherfordton, North

Carolina, on the 4th of August, 1849, aged 72 years.

Stratagem of a young Frenchman.--Escape of the French.--Early

Explorations.--Monumental Stone.--Silver-bottomed Lake.

230acquired great influence over the tribe. By their customs an adopted

son had all the privileges of a son by birth. When Dupuys had a

sufficient number of bateaux finished, this young man went to his

foster-father, and in a solemn manner related that he had dreamed, the

previous night, that he was at a feast, where the guests ate and drank

every thing that was set before them. He then asked the old chief to

permit him to make such a feast for the tribe. The request was granted,

and the feast was spread. Many Frenchmen were present, and with horns,

drums, and trumpets, they kept a continual uproar. The French, in the

mean while, were diligently embarking and loading their bateaux,

unobserved by the feasting savages. At length the guests, who had been

eating and drinking for hours, ceased gormandizing, to take some repose.

The young Frenchman commenced playing upon a guitar, and in a few

minutes every red man was in a profound slumber. He then joined his

companions, and before morning the whole colony were far on their way

toward Oswego. Late the next day the Indians stood wondering at the

silence that prevailed in the dwellings of the whites, and when, at

evening, having seen no signs of human fife through the day, they

ventured to break open the fastened dwellings, they were greatly

astonished at finding every Frenchman gone; and greater was their

perplexity in divining the means by which they escaped, being entirely

ignorant of their having any vessels. *

Ten years afterward another French colony settled in what now is called

Pompey, about fourteen miles from Syracuse, and for three years it

prospered, and many converts were made to the Catholic faith from the

Onondaga tribe. A company of Spaniards, having been informed of a lake

whose bottom was covered with brilliant scales like silver, arrived

there, and in a short time the animosities of the respective adventurers

caused them to accuse each other to the Indians of foul designs upon the

tribes. The Onondagas believed both parties, and determined to rid

themselves of such troublesome neighbors. Assisted by the Oneidas and

Cayugas, they fell upon the colony on All-Saints' day, 1669, and every

Frenchman and Spaniard was massacred. **

Evidences of much earlier visits by Europeans have been found in the

vicinity, among which was a sepulchral stone that was exhumed near

Pompey Hill. It was of an oblong figure, being fourteen inches long by

twelve wide, and about eight inches in thickness. In the center of the

surface was a figure of a tree, and a serpent climbing it; and upon each

side of the tree was an inscription, as seen in the cut: "Leo X., De

Viz, 1520. L. S." This inscription may be thus translated: "Leo X., by

the grace of God; sixth year of his pontificate, 1520." The letters L.

S. were doubtless the initials of the one to whose memory the stone was

set up. The cross denoted that he was a Roman Catholic, but the meaning

of the inverted U is not so clear. It has been supposed that the stone

was carved on the spot by a friend of the deceased, who may have been

one of several French or Spanish adventurers that found their way hither

from Florida, which was discovered by the Spaniards in 1502. They were

amused and excited by stories of a lake far in the north, whose bottom

was lined with silver, and this was sufficient to cause them to peril

every thing in searching it out. De Soto's historian speaks, in the

course of his narrative of the adventures of that commander in the

interior of America, of extreme cold at a place called by the natives

_Saquechama_. It is supposed that this name and _Susquehanna_ are

synonymous appellations for the country in Central New York, and that

the silver-bottomed lake was the Onondaga, the flakes and crystals of

salt which cover its bottom giving it the appearance of silver. ***

* See extracts from a MS. history of Onondaga county, by Rev. J. W.

Adams, of Syracuse, quoted in the Historical Collections of New York, p.

398.

** Dewitt Clinton's Memoir on the Antiquities of Western New York.

*** See Clinton's Memoir, &c.; also, Sandford's Aborigines, note on page

114. The crystals of salt on the bottom of the lake, into which the salt

springs flow, were, like the scales of mica discovered on the eastern

coast by Gosnold and his party, mistaken for laminæ of silver. There are

not many salt springs near the surface, but under the marshes that

surround Onondaga Lake, and beneath the lake itself, there seems to lie

a vast salt lake, and shafts are sunken from the surface above into it.

The water or brine is pumped up from these shafts or wells, and vast

quantities of salt are manufactured annually in the neighborhood of

Syracuse. A great number of men find employment there, and the state

derives a handsome revenue from the works.

Rome.--Site of Fort Stanwix.--Forts Newport and Ball.--The Portage and

Canal.--The Mohawk Valley.

231We have already noticed the expedition of the French, under

Frontenac, as far as the Onondaga Valley. From that time nothing but

Indian feuds disturbed the repose that rested upon Onondaga Lake and the

beautiful country around, until business enterprise within the present

century began its warfare upon the forests and the rich soil.

I arrived at Rome, upon the Mohawk, toward noon. It is a pleasant

village, and stands upon the site of old Fort Stanwix, on the western

verge of the historical ground of the Mohawk Valley. Here was the

outpost of active operations in this direction, and here was enacted one

of the most desperate defenses of a fortress that occurred during our

struggle for independence. The village, in its rapid growth, has

overspread the site of the fortification, and now not a vestige of

antiquity remains, except a large elm-tree by the house of Alvah Mudge,

Esq., which stood within the southwest angle of the fort. Mr. Mudge

kindly pointed out to me the area comprehended within the fort, and the

portion of the village seen in the picture covers that area. The mason-

work in the foreground is a part of the first lock of the Black River

Canal, at present an unproductive work. The large building in the center

of the pic ture is the mansion of John Striker, Esq., president of the

Rome Bank, and stands near the site of the northeast angle of the fort.

The whole view is only a few rods northwest of the Mohawk River, and a

mile eastward of Wood Creek, the main inlet of Oneida Lake. Here was a

portage of a mile, and the only interruption of water communication

between Schenectady and Oswego. This inconvenience was obviated by the

construction of a canal between the Mohawk and Wood Creek, in 1797.

Fort Stanwix: was built in 1758, under the direction of General Stanwix,

after the defeat of Abercrombie at Ticonderoga. It was a strong square

fortification, having bomb-proof bastions, a glacis, covered way, and a

well-picketed ditch around the ramparts. Its position was important in a

military point of view, for it commanded the portage between the Mohawk

and Wood Creek, and was a key to communication between the Mohawk Valley

and Lake Ontario. Other, but smaller, fortifications were erected in the

vicinity. Fort Newport, on Wood Creek, and Fort Ball, about half way

across the portage, formed a part of the military works there, and

afforded not only a strong post of resistance to French aggression in

that direction, but also a powerful protection to the Indian trade. The

works cost the British and Colonial government two hundred and sixty-six

thousand four hundred dollars, yet when the Revolution broke out the

fort and its outposts were in ruins.

From the commencement of hostilities the Mohawk Valley was a theater of

great activity, and all through the eventful years of the contest it

suffered dreadfully from the effects of partisan warfare. Every rood of

ground was trodden by hostile parties, and for seven years the fierce

Indian, and the ofttimes more ferocious Tory, kept the people in

continual alarm, spreading death and desolation over that fair portion

of our land. So frequent and sanguinary were the stealthy midnight

attacks or open daylight struggles, that Tryon county *

Site of Fort Stanwix.--Sir William Johnson and his Associates.--Effect

of Political Movements upon the People.--Formation of Parties.

obtained232 the appropriate appellation of "the dark and bloody ground,"

and, long after peace blessed the land, its forests were traversed with

fear and distrust.

Here was the seat of Sir William Johnson, agent for the British

government in its transactions with the Six Nations. He was shrewd,

cunning, and licentious, having little respect for the laws of God or

man, and observed them only so far as compliance was conducive to his

personal interest. By presents, conformity in dress and manners, and

other appliances, he obtained almost unbounded influence over the tribes

of the valley, and at his beck a thousand armed warriors would rush to

the field. He died before the events of our Revolution brought his vast

influence over the Indians into play, in active measures against the

patriots. Yet his mantle of power and moral sway fell, in a great

degree, upon his son, Sir John Johnson, who succeeded to his title,

office, and estates. The latter, his cousin Guy Johnson, Thayendanegea

(Brant) the Mohawk sachem, Daniel Claus, and the Butlers were the

leading spirits of loyalty in Tryon county, and the actors and abettors

of scenes that darken the blackest page in the history of our race.

These will be noticed hereafter. For the present we will confine our

thoughts to the most prominent local events immediately antecedent to

the siege of Fort Stanwix, or Schuyler, upon the site of which, at Rome,

we are standing. The excitement of the Stamp Act reached even the quiet

valley of the Mohawk, and implanted there the seeds of rebellion, and

the people were eager listeners while the conflict of power and

principle was going on upon the sea-board, during the ten years

preceding the organization of the Continental army. (a) The meeting of

the general a 1775 Continental Congress caused opinions to take a

definite shape and expression, and in the autumn of that year the

demarkation line between patriots and Loyalists was distinctly drawn

among the people of this inland district.

In the spring of 1775, just before the second Congress assembled at

Philadelphia, at a court holden at Johnstown, the Loyalists made a

demonstration against the proceedings of 1705.

* Tryon county then included all the colonial settlements in New York

west and southwest of Schenectady. It was taken from Albany county in

1772, and named in honor of William Tryon, then governor of the

province. The name was changed to Montgomery in 1784. The county

buildings were at Johnstown, where was the residence of Sir William

Johnson (still standing).

** Sir William Johnson was born in Ireland, about the year 1714. He was

a nephew of Sir Peter Warren, the commodore who was distinguished in the

attack on Louisburgh, Cape Breton, 1745. Sir Peter married a lady (Miss

Watts) in New York, purchased large tracts of land upon the Mohawk, and

about 1734 young Johnson was induced to come to America and take charge

of his uncle's affairs in that quarter. He learned the Indian language,

adopted their manners, and, by fair trade and conciliatory conduct, won

their friendship and esteem. He built a large stone mansion on the

Mohawk, about three miles west of Amsterdam, where he resided twenty

years previous to the erection of Johnson Hall at Johnstown. It was

fortified, and was called Fort Johnson. It is still standing, a

substantial specimen of the domestic architecture of that period. In

1755 he commanded a force intended to invest Crown Point. He was

attacked by Dieskau at the head of Lake George, where he came off

victorious.. For this he was made major general and a knight. He

commanded the assault upon Niagara, after the death of Prideaux, and was

successful there. He was never given credit for great military skill or

personal bravery, and was more expert in intriguing with Indian

warriors, and sending them to the field, than in leading disciplined

troops boldly into action. He died at Johnson Hall (Johnstown) on the

11th of July, 1774, aged 60 years.

Violence of Loyalists.--Assault upon Jacob Sammons.--Caughnawaga

Church.--Meeting at Cherry Valley.--John Johnson.

233the National Council, by drawing up and obtaining signatures to a

declaration disapproving of the acts of that body in the preceding

autumn. This proceeding of the Tories aroused the indignation of the

Whigs, who composed a considerable majority of the whites in Tryon

county. Committees were appointed and public meetings were called in

every district in the county. The first was held at the house of John

Veeder, in Caughnawaga, * where patriotic speeches were made, and a

liberty pole, a most offensive object to the eyes of the Loyalists, was

erected.

Before this was accomplished, Sir John Johnson, accompanied by Colonel

Claus, Guy Johnson, and Colonel John Butler, with a large number of

their retainers, armed with swords and pistols, arrived upon the ground

and interrupted the proceedings.

Guy Johnson mounted a high stoop near the old church and harangued the

people. He expatiated upon the strength of the king and government, and

the folly of opposing the authority of the crown. He had not a

conciliatory word for the people, but denounced their proceedings in

virulent and abusive language, so irritating, that Jacob Sammons, a

leader among the Whigs, could no longer restrain himself, but boldly

pronounced the speaker a liar and a villain. Johnson leaped from his

tribune and seized Sammons by the throat; one of his party felled the

patriot to the ground by a blow from a loaded whip-handle, and then

bestrode his body. When Sammons recovered from the momentary stupor, he

hurled the fellow from him, and, springing upon his feet, stripped off

his coat and prepared to fight, when he was again knocked down. Most of

his Whig friends had fled in alarm, and he was carried to his father's

house, "bearing upon his body the first scars of the Revolutionary

contest in the county of Tryon." ***

A spirited Whig meeting was held soon afterward, in Cherry Valley, where

the conduct of the Tories at Johnstown was strongly condemned; but in

the Palatine district and other places the threats and the known

strength of the Johnsons and their friends intimidated the Whigs for a

while.

In the mean time, Colonel Johnson fortified the baronial hall by

planting swivels around it. He paraded the militia, armed the Scotch

Highlanders (who lived in the vicinity of Johnstown, and were Roman

Catholics), and by similar acts, hostile to the popular movement, the

suspicions of the Whigs were confirmed that he was preparing for the

suppression of all patriot demonstrations in the county, and was

inciting the Indians to join the enemies

* Caughnawaga is the ancient name of the Indian village that stood a

little eastward of the present village of Fonda. Its name signifies

coffin, and was given to the place in consequence of there being in the

Mohawk, opposite the village, a black stone (still to be seen)

resembling a coffin, and projecting above the surface at low water.--

Historical Collections of New York, p. 281.

** This old church, now (1848) known as the Fonda Academy, under the

management of Rev. Douw Van Olinda, is about half a mile east of the

court-house, in the village of Fonda. It is a stone edifice, and was

erected in 1763 by voluntary contributions. Sir William Johnson

contributed liberally. Its first pastor was Thomas Romayne, who was

succeeded in 1795 by Abraham Van Horn, one of the earliest graduates of

King's (now Columbia) College, in the city of New York. He was from

Kingston, Ulster county, and remained its pastor until 1840. During his

ministry he united in marriage 1500 couples. The church was without a

bell until the confiscated property of Sir John Johnson was sold in the

Revolution, when the _dinner-bell_ of his father was purchased and hung

in the steeple. The bell weighs a little more than one hundred pounds,

and bears the following inscription: ''S. R. William Johnson, baronet,

1774. Made by Miller and Ross, in Eliz. Town."--Simms's Schoharie

County, &c. Over the door of the church is a stone tablet, with this

inscription in English, "Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of

the Lord; to the house of the God of Jacob, and he will teach us his

ways, and we will walk in his paths."

*** Stone's Life of Brant, i., 53.

Attempted Removal of Mr. Kirkland.--Hostile Movements of the Johnsons.--

Indian Councils.--Rev. Samuel Kirkland.

234of liberty as soon as actual hostilities should commence. * Another

circumstance confirmed these suspicions. Brant was the secretary of

Colonel Guy Johnson, the superintendent of Indian affairs after the

death of Sir William, and his activity in visiting the tribes and

holding secret conferences with the sachems was unceasing. Suddenly his

former friendly intercourse with Mr. Kirkland, the faithful Christian

missionary, was broken off in 1774, and, at Brant's instigation, an

Oneida chief preferred charges against the pious minister to Guy

Johnson, and asked for his removal. It was well known that Mr. Kirkland

was a Whig, ** and this movement of the wily sachem could not be

misinterpreted. But the Oneida nation rallied in support of the

minister, and his removal was for a time delayed.

During the summer of 1775 the Johnsons were very active in winning the

_Six Nations_. from their promises of neutrality in the coming contest.3

A council of the Mohawks was 1775. held at Guy Park in May, which was

attended by delegates from the Albany and the Tryon county Committees.

_Little Abraham_, brother of the famous Hendrick who was killed near

Lake George, was the principal chief of the Mohawks, and their best

speaker on the occasion. Guy Johnson, the Indian agent, was in

attendance at the council, but the result was unsatisfactory to both

parties. The delegates, cognizant of the disaffection and bad faith of

the Indians, could not rely upon their present promises; and Guy

Johnson, alarmed by the events at Lexington and Concord, and by

intimations which he had received that his person was in danger of

seizure by order of the General Congress, broke up the council abruptly,

and immediately directed the assembling of another at the Upper Castle,

on the German Flats, whither himself and family, attended by a large

retinue of Mohawks, at once repaired. But this council was not held, and

Johnson, with his family and the Indians, pushed on to Fort Stanwix. His

sojourn there was brief, and he moved on to Ontario, far beyond the

verge of civilization. Brant and the Butlers attended him, and there a

large council was held, composed chiefly of Cayugas and Senecas.

Thus far no positive acts of hostility had been committed by Guy Johnson

and his friends, yet his design to alienate the Indians and prepare them

for war upon the patriots was undoubted. His hasty departure with his

family to the wilderness, accompanied by a large train of Mohawk

warriors, and the holding a grand council in the midst of the fierce

Cayu-

* See letter of the Palatine Committee to the Committee of Safety at

Albany, dated May 18th, 1775.

** Samuel Kirkland was son of the pious minister, Daniel Kirkland, of

Norwieh, Connecticut. He learned the language of the Mohawks, was

ordained a missionary to the Indians at Lebanon in 1766, and removed his

wife to the Oneida Castle in 1769. The next spring he removed to the

house of his friend, General Herkimer, near Little Falls, where his twin

children were born, one of whom was the late Dr. Kirkland, president of

Harvard College. The very air of Norwieh seemed to give the vitality of

freedom to its sons, and Mr. Kirkland early imbibed those patriotic

principles which distinguished him through life. His attachment to the

republican cause was well known, and, after the battles of Lexington and

Concord, the provincial Congress of Massachusetts, desirous of securing

either the friendship or neutrality of the Six Nations, sent a letter to

him inclosing an address to the Indians, and requesting him to use his

influence in obtaining the ends in view. Mr. Kirkland succeeded in

securing the attachment of the Oneidas to the patriot cause, and

continued his religious labors among them during the war, when the other

tribes, through the influence of Brant and the Johnsons, had taken up

arms for the king. He officiated as chaplain to the American forces in

the vicinity of his labors, and accompanied Sullivan in his expedition

in 1779. The state of New York, in consideration of his patriotic

services, gave him the lands of the "Kirkland patent," in the town of

Kirkland. After 40 years' service for his God and country, he fell

asleep at Paris, Oneida county, on the 28th of March, 1808, in the 67th

year of his age.

*** General Sehuyler had held a conference with the chiefs of the Six

Nations during the previous winter, and, setting before them the nature

of the quarrel that had led to hostile movements, received from them

solemn promises that they would remain neutral.

**** This was the residence of Guy Johnson, and is still standing, on

the north side of the Mohawk, about a mile from the village of

Amsterdam, in Montgomery county. It is substantially built of stone, and

may stand a century yet. Embowered in trees, it is a beautiful summer

residence.

Alarm of the People of the Mohawk Valley.--Sir John Johnson and

Highlanders.--Orders to General Schuyler.

235gas and Senecas, greatly alarmed the people of the lower valley, *

inasmuch as his reply to a letter from the Provincial Congress of New

York, which he wrote from the council-room July 8, 1775 in the

wilderness, glowed with sentiments of loyalty. It was, moreover,

positively asserted that he was collecting a large body of savages on

that remote frontier, to fall upon the inhabitants of the valley, and

this belief was strengthened by the fact that Sir John Johnson, who held

a commission of brigadier general of militia, remained at Johnson Hall,

then fortified and surrounded by a large body of Loyalists. The alarmed

patriots appealed to the Committee of Safety at Albany for protection,

and every preparation was made to avert the threatened disaster. Guy

Johnson, however, did not return to the valley, but went to Oswego,

where he called another council, and then, accompanied by a large number

of chiefs and warriors of the Six Nations, among whom was Brant,

departed for Canada. He descended the St. Lawrence to Montreal, where he

met Sir Guy Carleton and Sir Frederic Haldimand, then governor of

Canada, with whom the Indians entered into a formal agreement to take up

arms for the king. ** These were the Indians who appeared against the

Americans at St. John's, on the Sorel, and who, in connection with some

Caughnawa-gas, made the terrible massacre of Major Sherburne's corps at

the Cedars in the following spring, noticed in a previous chapter.

These movements of the Johnsons and their friends, the strengthening of

Johnson Hall, the military organization of the Scotch Highlanders in the

vicinity, the increasing alienation of the Indians, the boldness of the

Tories, and the continual alarm of the people of Tryon county, caused

the General Congress, in December, 1775, to take active measures in that

direction. The Dutch and Germans in the Mohawk Valley, Schoharie, Cherry

Valley, and, indeed, in all parts of that extensive country, were ardent

Whigs; and the Highlanders, with the retainers of the Johnsons and their

friends, composed the bulk of the Tory population, except a few

desperate men who looked for plunder and reward. Had these alone been

inimical to the patriots, there would have been little alarm; but the

country swarmed with Indians, who were hourly becoming more and more

hostile to the Whigs, through the influence of the Johnsons and their

powerful ally, Joseph Brant. It was also reported that military stores

were collected at Johnson Hall, and that three hundred Indians were

ready to fall upon the whites when Sir John Johnson should give the

signal. Congress, therefore, ordered General Schuyler (who had returned

to Albany from Lake Champlain, on account of ill health) to take such

measures as he should think proper to seize the military stores, to

apprehend the Tory leaders, and to disarm the loyal inhabitants. He had

no troops at command, but, aided by the Albany Committee of Safety, he

soon mustered seven hundred men and marched to Schenectady. The Mohawks

of the "Lower Castle" (near Amsterdam), with Little Abraham at their

head, had not been seduced by Brant and Johnson, but kept to their

promise to remain neutral. To preserve their goodwill Schuyler sent to

them a messenger (Mr. Bleeeker, the Indian interpreter, then residing at

Albany) with a January 15, 1776 belt, informing them of the object of

his expedition. They were not pleased with the idea of invasion, and a

deputation was sent to the general to persuade him to desist. He

conferred with them at Schenectady, satisfied them of his good

intentions and the necessity of the movement, and then marched on as far

as Guy Park. He dispatched a January 16. letter at the same time to Sir

John Johnson, requesting a personal interview with him. They met at Guy

Park in a friendly way, and General Schuyler proposed terms by

* On the 11th of July, Colonel Herkimer wrote from Canajohario to the

Palatine Committee, that he had received credible intelligence that

morning that Johnson was ready to march back upon the settlement with a

body of 800 or 900 Indians, and that his point of attack would be just

below the Little Falls. This intelligence proved to be untrue.

** British historians assert that General Carleton was averse to the

employment of the savages against the Americans. Mr. Slone, in his Life

of Brant, quotes from a speech of that chief, wherein the reverse is

asserted. The British commanders never failed to employ Indians in

warfare, when their services could be obtained. Their feelings of

humanity doubtless revolted when coalescing with the savages of the

forest to butcher their brethren, but with them principle too often

yielded to expediency in that unrighteous war.

Disarming of the Tories at Johnson Hall.--Perfidy of Sir John Johnson.--

His Flight--Royal Greens.

236which the matter might be settled without bloodshed. He demanded the

immediate surrender of all arms, ammunition, and stores in the

possession of Johnson, the delivery to him of all the arms and military

accouterments held by the Tories and Indians, and Sir John's parole of

honor not to act inimically to the patriot cause. Sir John asked twenty-

four hours for consideration. His reply was unsatisfactory, and Schuyler

marched on to January 18. within four miles of Johnstown. The militia

had turned out with alacrity, and his force of seven hundred men had

increased to three thousand. Sir John, alarmed, acceded to all the terms

proposed by General Schuyler, and the next day that officer proceeded to

Johnson Hall, where arms and other munitions of war were surrendered by

the baronet. About three hundred Scotchmen also delivered up their arms.

Colonel (afterward General) Herkimer was empowered to complete the

disarming of the Tories, and General Schuyler and his forces marched

back to Albany.

It soon afterward became evident that what Sir John had promised when

constrained by fear would not be performed when the cause of that fear

was removed. He violated his parole of honor and the Highlanders began

to be as bold as ever in their opposition to the Whigs. Congress thought

it dangerous to allow Johnson his liberty, and directed Schuyler to

seize his person, and to proceed vigorously against the Highlanders in

his interest. Colonel Dayton was intrusted with the command of an

expedition for the purpose, and in 1776 May he proceeded to Johnstown.

The baronet had friends among the Loyalists in Albany, by whom he was

timely informed of the intentions of Congress. His most valuable

articles were put in an iron chest and buried in his garden * when he

heard of Dayton's approach, and, hastily collecting a large number of

his Scotch tenants and otter Tories, he fled to the woods by the way of

the Sacandaga, where it is supposed they were met by Indians sent from

Canada to escort them thither. ** Amid perils and hardships of every

kind, they traversed the wilderness between the head waters of the

Hudson and the St. Lawrence, and, after nineteen days' wanderings,

arrived at Montreal. Sir John was immediately commissioned a colonel in

the British service, raised two battalions of Loyalists called the

_Johnson Greens_, and became one of the bitterest and most implacable

enemies of the Americans that appeared during the war. He afterward, as

we shall observe, scourged the Mohawk Valley with fire and sword, and

spread death and desolation among the frontier settlements even so far

south as the Valley of Wyoming.

After the flight of Johnson and the Tories, Tryon county enjoyed a short

season of repose, and nothing of importance occurred during the

remainder of 1776 and the winter of 1777. Yet the people did not relax

their vigilance. The Declaration of Independence was received by them

with great joy, but they clearly perceived that much was yet to be done

to _support_ that declaration. Congress, too, saw the importance of

defending the Northern and Western frontiers of New York from the

incursions of the enemy and their savage allies. The fortresses on Lake

Champlain were already in their possession, and General Schuyler was

ordered to repair and strengthen old Fort Stanwix, then in ruins, and to

erect other fortifications, if necessary, along the Mohawk River.

Colonel Dayton was charged with the duty

* Sir John had a faithful black slave, to whom he intrusted the duty of

burying his iron chest. Colonel

Volkert Veeder bought the slave when Johnson Hall was sold, but he would

never tell where the treasure was concealed. Sir John visited the Mohawk

Valley in 1780, recovered his slave, and by his directions found the

iron chest.--Simms.

** This is inferred from a sentence in one of Brant's speeches, quoted

by Mr. Stone, as follows: "We then went in a body to a town then in

possession of the enemy, and rescued Sir John Johnson, bringing him

fearlessly through the streets." Brant and Guy Johnson were both in

England at that time. Lady Johnson was conveyed to Albany, and there

kept for some time, as a sort of hostage for the good conduct of her

husband. Among the articles left in Johnson Hall was the family Bible of

Sir William. When the confiscated property was sold, the Bible was

bought by John Taylor, who was afterward Lieutenant-governor of New

York. Perceiving that it contained the family record of the Johnsons,

Mr. Taylor wrote to Sir John, offering its restoration. A rude messenger

was sent for the Bible. "I have come for Sir William's Bible." he said,

"and there are the four guineas which it cost." The man was asked what

message Sir John had sent. He replied, "Pay four guineas and take the

book."--Stone's Life of Brant, ii., 145

Repairs of Fort Stanwix.--Brant at Oghkwaga.--His hostile Movements.--

Expeditions of Herkimer and of Colonel Harper.

237of repairing Fort Stanwix, with the assistance of the Tryon county

militia, but he seems to have made little progress, for it was not

complete when, in the summer of the next year, it was invested by St.

Leger. He named the new fortress Fort Schuyler, in honor of the

commanding general of the Northern Department, and by that appellation

it was known through the remainder of the war. *

In the course of the spring of 1777, Brant came from Canada, and

appeared among the Mohawks at Oghkwaga, ** or Oquaca, with a large body

of warriors. He had not yet committed any act of hostility within the

borders of New York, nor was his presence at the Cedars known in the

Mohawk Valley. Yet none doubted his hostile intentions, and his presence

gave much uneasiness to the patriots, while the Tories became bolder and

more insolent. In June his intentions became more manifest, when he

ascended the Susquehanna, from Oghkwaga to Unadilla, with about eighty

of his warriors, and requested an interview with the Rev. Mr. Johnstone,

of the "Johnstone Settlement." He declared that his object was to

procure food for his famished people, and gave the whites to understand

that, if provisions were not furnished, the Indians would take them by

force. Mr. Johnstone sounded Brant concerning his future intentions, and

the chief, without reserve, told him that he had made a covenant with

the king, and was not inclined to break it. The people supplied him with

food, but the marauders, not satisfied, drove off a large number of

cattle, sheep, and swine. As soon as the Indians had departed, not

feeling safe in their remote settlement, the whites abandoned it, and

took refuge in Cherry Valley. Some families in the neighborhood of

Unadilla fled to the German Flats, and others to Esopus and Newburgh, on

the Hudson River.

As the Indian forces were constantly augmenting at Oghkwaga, it was

determined by General Schuyler and his officers, in council, that

Herkimer (now a brigadier) should repair thither and obtain an interview

with Brant. Herkimer took with him three hundred Tryon county militia,

and invited Brant to meet him at Unadilla. This the chief agreed to. In

the mean while, Colonel Van Schaick marched with one hundred and fifty

men as far as Cherry Valley, and General Schuyler held himself in

readiness to repair to Unadilla if his presence should be needed. These

precautions seemed necessary, for they knew not what might be the

disposition of Brant.

It was a week after Herkimer arrived at Unadilla before Brant made his

appearance. He came accompanied by five hundred warriors. He dispatched

a runner to Herkimer to inquire the object of his visit. *** Herkimer

replied that he came to see and converse with

* This change in the name of the fort, from Stanwix to Schuyler,

produced some confusion, for there was already an old fort at Utica

called Fort Schuyler, so named in honor of Colonel Peter Schuyler, a

commander of provincial troops in the war with the French and Indians.

** Toward the close of the winter of 1777 a large gathering of Indians

was held at Oghkwaga. The Provincial Congress of New York dispatched

thither Colonel John Harper, of Harpersfield, to ascertain their

intentions. He arrived on the 27th of February, and was well received by

the Indians. They expressed their sorrow for the troubles that afflicted

Tryon county, and gave every assurance of their pacific dispositions.

Colonel Harper believed them, and gave them a feast by roasting an ox.

It was afterward discovered that all their friendship was feigned; their

professions of peaceful intentions were gross hypocrisy. A few weeks

subsequently, while taking a circuit alone through the woods near the

head waters of the Susquehanna, Harper met some Indians, who exchanged

salutations with him. He recognized one of them as Peter, an Indian whom

he had seen at Oghkwaga, but they did not know him. His great-coat

covered his uniform, and he feigning to be a Tory, they told him they

were on their way to cut off the Johnstone settlement on the east shore

of the Susquehanna, near Unadilla. Colonel Harper hastened back to

Harpersfield, collected fifteen stout and brave men, and with them gave

chase to the marauders. In the course of the following night they came

upon the Indians in the valley of Charlotte River. It was almost

daylight when their waning fires were discovered. The savages were in a

profound slumber. Their arms were silently removed, and then each man of

Harper's party, selecting his victim, sprang upon him, and before he was

fairly awake the savage found himself fast bound with cords which the

whites had brought with them. It was a bolder achievement than if the

red men had been killed, and nobler because bloodless. When the day

dawned, and the Indians saw their captors, Peter exclaimed, "Ugh!

Colonel Harper! Why didn't I know you yesterday?" They were taken to

Albany and surrendered into the hands of the Committee of Safety. The

real object of the conference is not known. It is supposed that, as

Herkimer and Brant had been near neighbors and intimate friends, the

former hoped, in a personal interview, to persuade the chief to join the

patriots, or, at least, to remain neutral. It is also supposed that he

went to demand restitution for the cattle, sheep, and swine of which the

savages had plundered the Johnstone and Unadilla settlements.

Conference with Brant. His Frankness. Herkimer's precautionary Measures.

Haughty Bearing of Brant

238his brother, Captain Brant. "And all these men wish to converse with

the chief too?" asked the quick-witted messenger. He returned to Brant

and communicated the reply. The parties were encamped within two miles

of each other, and the whole assemblage made an imposing display. By

mutual agreement, their arms were to be left in their respective

encampments. The preliminaries being arranged, Brant and about forty

warriors appeared upon the skirt of a distant wood, and the parties met

in an open field. A circle was formed, and the two commanders, with

attendants, entered it for conference. After exchanging a few words,

Brant asked Herkimer the object of his visit. He made the same reply as

to the messenger. "And all these have come on a friendly visit too?"

said the chief. "All want to see the poor Indians. It is very kind," he

added, while his lip curled with a sarcastic smile. After a while the

conversation became animated, and finally the chief, being pressed by

direct questions concerning his intentions, firmly replied, "That the

Indians were in concert with the king, as their fathers had been; that

the king's belts were yet lodged with them, and they could not violate

their pledge; that General Herkimer and his followers had joined the

Boston people against their sovereign; that, although the Boston people

were resolute, the king would humble them; that General Schuyler was

very smart on the Indians at the treaty of German Flats, but, at the

same time, was not able to afford the smallest article of clothing; and,

finally, that the Indians had formerly made war on the white people when

"they were all united, and, as they were now divided, the Indians were

not frightened." He also told General Herkimer that a war-path had been

opened across the country to Esopus, for the Tories of Ulster and Orange

to join them. The conference ended then, with an agreement to meet the

next morning at nine o'clock, the respective forces to remain encamped

as they were. *

During the conference, some remarks made by Colonel Cox greatly

irritated the sachem, and on his signal to his warriors, who were near,

they ran to their encampment, raised the shrill war-hoop, and returned

with their rifles. In the mean while the chief became pacified, and the

warriors were kept at a proper distance. Herkimer, however, fearful that

Brant's pacific appearance might be feigned, prepared to act with

decision on the following morning. He charged an active young soldier,

named Wagner, with the duty of shooting Brant, if any hostile movement

should appear on the part of the chief. Wagner was to select two

assistants, who were to shoot the two attendants of Brant at the same

time. He chose Abraham and George Herkimer, nephews of the general, and

the three stood by the side of Herkimer the next morning. There was no

necessity for their services, and, haply, no blood was shed on the

occasion. Mr. Stone seems to have mistaken Herkimer's precaution, in

this instance, for premeditated perfidy, and says that, had the intent

been perpetrated, the stain upon the character of the provincials would

have been such that "all the waters of the Mohawk could not have washed

it away." Mr. Wagner was yet living at Fort Plain when I visited that

place in 1848, and I have his own authority for saying that the

arrangement was only a precautionary one, for which Herkimer deserved

praise. Mr. Stone gives his version upon "the written authority of

Joseph Wagner himself." Simms has declared, in his "History of Schoharie

County," and repeated in conversation with myself, that Wagner told him

he never furnished a MS. account of the affair to any one. Here is some

mistake in the matter, but the honorable character of General Herkimer

forbids the idea of his having meditated the least perfidy.

Again they met, and the haughty chief--haughty because conscious of

strength--as he entered the circle, addressed General Herkimer, and

said, "I have five hundred warriors with me, armed and ready for battle.

You are in my power, but, as we have been friends and neighbors, I will

not take advantage of you." He then gave the signal, and all his

warriors, painted in the hideous colors that distinguished them when

going into battle, burst

* Campbell's Annals of Tryon County.

Breaking up of the Council.--Grand Council at Oswego.--Seduction of the

Indians.--Their Coalescence with the Whites.

239from the surrounding forest, gave the war-hoop, and discharged their

rifles in the air. Brant coolly advised the general to go back to his

house, thanked him for his courtesy on the occasion, expressed a hope

that he might one day return the compliment, and then turned proudly

upon his heel and disappeared in the shadowy forest. "It was early in

July, and the morning was remarkably clear and beautiful. But the echo

of the war-hoop had scarcely died away before the heavens became black,

and a violent storm obliged each party to seek the nearest shelter. Men

less superstitious than many of the unlettered yeomen, who, leaning upon

their arms, were witnesses of the events of this day, could not fail, in

after times, to look back upon the tempest, if not as an omen, at least

as an emblem, of those bloody massacres with which these Indians and

their associates subsequently visited the inhabitants of this

unfortunate frontier." *

A few days after this conference, Brant withdrew his warriors from the

Susquehanna and joined Sir John Johnson and Colonel John Butler, who

were collecting a large body of Tories and refugees at Oswego,

preparatory to a descent upon the Mohawk and Schoharie settlements.

There Guy Johnson and other officers of the British Indian Department

summoned a grand council of the Six Nations. They were invited to

assemble "to eat the flesh and drink the blood of a Bostonian"--in other

words, to feast on the occasion of a proposed treaty of alliance against

the patriots, whom the savages denominated Bostonians, for the reason

that Boston was the focus of the rebellion. There was a pretty full

attendance at the council, but a large portion of the sachems adhered

faithfully to their covenant of neutrality made with General Schuyler,

until the appeals of the British commissioners to their avarice overcame

their sense of honor. The commissioners represented the people of the

king to be numerous as the forest leaves, and rich in every possession,

while those of the colonies were exhibited as few and poor; that the

armies of the king would soon subdue the rebels, and make them still

weaker and poorer; that the _rum_ of the king was as abundant as Lake

Ontario; and that if the Indians would become his allies during the war,

they should never want for goods or money. Tawdry articles, such as

scarlet clothes, beads, and trinkets, were then displayed and presented

to the Indians, which pleased them greatly, and they concluded an

alliance by binding themselves to take up the hatchet against the

patriots, and to continue their warfare until the latter were subdued.

To each Indian were then presented a brass kettle, a suit of clothes, a

gun, a tomahawk and scalping-knife, a piece of gold, a quantity of

ammunition, and a promise of a bounty upon every scalp he should bring

in. ** _Thayendanegea_ (Brant) was thenceforth the acknowledged grand

sachem of the Six Nations, and soon afterward commenced his terrible

career in the midst of our border settlements. ***

We have thus glanced at the most important events that took place in the

Mohawk Valley and adjacent districts prior to the attack of St. Leger

upon Fort Stanwix, or Schuyler (as it will hereafter be called), which

mark the progress of the Revolution there, before Brant and his more

savage white associates brightened the tomahawk and musket, and bared

the knife, in avowed alliance with the enemies of liberty. Volumes might

be, and, indeed, have been, written in giving details of the stirring

events in Tryon county during our Revolutionary struggle. **** To these

the reader is referred for local particulars, while we consider

transactions there of more prominent and general interest.

* Campbell's Annals of Tryon County.

** See Life of Mary Jemison. This pamphlet was written in 1823, and

published by James D. Bemis of Canandaigua, New York. She was taken a

captive near Fort Duquesne (now Pittsburgh) when a child and was reared

among the Indians. She married a chief, and became an Indian in every

particular, except birth. At the council here spoken of she was present

with her husband. Her death occurred at the age of 89. She says that the

brass kettles mentioned in the text were in use among the Seneca Indians

as late as 1823, when her narrative was printed.

*** Soon after Brant joined the Indians at Oghkwaga, he made a hostile

movement against the settlement of Cherry Valley. He hovered around that

hamlet for some days, but did not attack it. Of this a detailed account

will be given hereafter.

**** The most voluminous are Campbell's Annals of Tryon County, Stone's

Life of Brant and Simms'. Schoharie County and Border Wars of New York.

Indian Battle-ground.--Fort Schuyler.--Colonel Peter Gansevoort

240

CHAPTER XI.

"A scream! 'tis but the panther's--naught

Breaks the calm sunshine there;

A thicket stirs! a deer has sought

From sight a closer lair;

Again upon the grass they droop,

Then bursts the well-known whoop on whoop,

Shrill, deafening on the air,

And onward from their ambush deep,

Like wolves, the savage warriors leap."

Street.

E are now upon an Indian battle-ground, in the bosom of the deep forest,

where the cunning and ferocity of the savage had free exercise in the

panther-like maneuvers of the ambuscade, and the unrestrained use of the

hatchet and knife. Hitherto we have seen the red warriors subordinate,

and comparatively ineffective in the conflicts we have considered,

except in the battle at Lake George and in the massacre at the Cedars.

We have seen their method of warfare wholly subverted by European

tactics, and their fiery courage controlled by a policy unknown in their

sanguinary battles, unsuited to their martial training, and

unsatisfactory to their fierce natures when aroused by the flow of

blood.

But in the siege of Fort Schuyler, which we are about to chronicle, and

particularly in the battle of Oriskany, which formed a part of the

operations of that siege, the Indians, commanded by Brant, the most

subtle and accomplished war chief of his time, formed the strong right

arm of St. Leger, and were left free to fight according to the customs

of their race.

In the spring of 1777, Colonel Peter Gansevoort * was appointed to the

command of Fort Schuyler, and held that post in the summer of that year,

when Burgoyne was making his victorious march toward Albany by way of

Lake Champlain. The successful progress of the British commander greatly

alarmed the people of the north, and those of Tryon county were

particularly disturbed by intelligence that a de-

* Peter Gansevoort was born in Albany, July 17th, 1749. He accompanied

Montgomery into Canada in 1775, with the rank of major, and the next

year he was appointed a colonel in the New York line, which commission

he held when he defended Fort Schuyler against St. Leger. For his

gallant defense of that post he received the thanks of Congress, and in

1781 was promoted to the rank of brigadier general by the state of New

York. After the war he was for many years a military agent. He held

several offices of trust, and was always esteemed for his bravery and

judgment as a soldier, and for his fidelity, intelligence and probity as

a citizen. He died July 2d, 1812, aged 62 years. a citizen. He died July

2d, 1812, aged 62 years.

A Spy's Intelligence. Rumored Preparations for an Invasion. Effect on

the Whigs. Approach of St. Leger.

241scent upon them from Oswego might be expected. As early as June, a

man from Canada, arrested as a spy, had disclosed the fact that a

detachment of British troops, Canadians and Indians, was to penetrate

the country by way of Oswego and the Mohawk, to join Burgoyne when he

should reach Albany. This intelligence was soon after confirmed by

Thomas Spencer, a friendly Oneida half-breed sachem, who was sent to

Canada a secret emissary for information. He was present at a council

where Colonel Claus, * a brother-in-law of Sir John Johnson, presided,

and there he became acquainted with the general plans of Burgoyne. The

Oneida further informed the inhabitants that Sir John Johnson and

Colonel Claus, with their families, were then at Oswego in command of

seven hundred Indians and four hundred regular troops; that there were

six hundred Tories at Oswegatchio (Ogdensburgh) ready to join them; and

that Colonel John Butler was to arrive at Oswego on the 14th of July,

from Niagara, with Tories and Indians.

This information, instead of arousing the Whigs of the Mohawk Valley to

prompt and efficient action, seemed to paralyze them with alarm. The

timid were backward in preparing for the field, and the wavering,

considering the patriot cause almost hopeless, became Loyalists, or, at

best, passive Whigs.

Fort Schuyler was still unfinished, and feebly garrisoned, and certain

discomfiture seemed to await the patriots in that region. Colonel

Gansevoort, however, was vigilant, active, and hopeful. He wrote

spirited letters to General Schuyler, imploring aid, and that officer as

urgently laid the condition of Tryon county before the Provincial

Congress of New York, and also the General Congress. But u was then too

late to expect succor from a distance, and the people of the Mohawk

Valley were thrown upon their own feeble resources for defense. St.

Leger and his Rangers, with the forces of Johnson, Claus, Butler, and

Brant, mentioned by the Oneida chief, were already in motion, and on the

1st of August the enemy, one thousand seven hundred strong, came up

Oneida Lake, and near the ruins of old Fort Newport prepared to invest

Fort Schuyler. The Indians were led by Brant, and the whole beleaguering

force, at the beginning of the march at Oswego Falls, was disposed in

admirable order for the journey through the forest. The main body was

led by the Indians, under Brant, in five columns, four hundred and sixty

paces in front of the advanced guard. The Indians marched in single

file, at large distances apart.

Between the five columns and the rear-guard a file of Indians, ten paces

apart, formed a line of communication. The advanced guard was one

hundred paces in front of the main column, which was disposed in Indian

file, the right and left flanks covered by a file of savages. The rear-

guard was formed of regular troops. The advanced guard was composed of

sixty marksmen, selected from the corps of Johnson's Royal Greens, and

led by Captain Watts, a brother-

* Daniel Claus married the daughter of Sir William Johnson, and was a

man of considerable influence. Brant entertained for him sentiments of

the strongest personal hostility, although both were engaged in the same

cause. His wife died in Canada in 1801, and Brant, in the name of the

Five Nations, made a speech of condolence on her death. William Claus,

deputy superintendent of Indian affairs, was his son.--Sabine's Lives of

Ike Loyalists.

* This diagram, representing the order of march of the besieging force,

is a reduced copy of an engraving in Stone's Life of Brant. The original

drawing, beautifully colored, was found in the writing-desk of St.

Leger, which he left behind when he fled from his camp before Fort

Schuyler. The following is an explanation of the diagram: aaaaa, five

columns of Indians in front, flanking the British flag; 6, advanced

guard; n, line of communication between the advanced guard and Indian

columns; cc, dd, the left and right wings of the eighth and thirty-

fourth regiments (the thirty-fourth on the left side); e, rear-guard,

Indians on the right and left flanks; i i, line of communication.

Investiture of Fort Schuyler.--A curious Flag.--Arrival of St Leger.--

His pompous Manifesto

242in-law of Sir John Johnson. Each corps was likewise furnished with

practiced marksmen at short intervals, who were ordered to concentrate

their strength upon any point that might be attacked. St. Leger, as

appears from his private diary, was much annoyed on the way by the

disposition of his Indian allies to proceed according to their own

notions of expediency. They were averse to approaching the fort in a

body, but the commander finally persuaded them to be governed by his

directions, which, at Oswego, they had promised to obey, and 1777 on the

2d of August Lieutenant Bird and Brant commenced the investment of the

fort.

The garrison, under Colonel Gansevoort, consisted of seven hundred and

fifty men. In July, Colonel Marinus Willett, an active and judicious

officer, had joined the garrison with his regiment, and, on the very day

when Bird commenced the investiture of the fort, Lieutenant-colonel

Mellon, of Colonel Wesson's * regiment, arrived with two hundred men,

and two bateaux laden with provisions and military stores. With this

timely addition, the garrison had sufficient provision for six weeks,

and a plentiful supply of ammunition for small arms. But for their

cannon, their most important means of defense, they had only about four

hundred rounds, or nine cartridges for each piece a day for that length

of time. The garrison was also _without a flag_ when the enemy appeared,

but their pride and ingenuity soon supplied one in conformity to the

pattern adopted by the Continental Congress. Shirts were cut up to form

the white stripes, bits of scarlet cloth were joined for the red, and

the blue ground for the stars was composed of a cloth cloak belonging to

Captain Abraham Swartwout, of Dutchess county, who was then in the fort.

** Before sunset the curious mosaic-work standard, as precious to the

beleaguered garrison as the most beautifully-wrought flag of silk and

needle-work, was floating over one of the bastions.

On the 3d, Colonel St. Leger arrived before the fort with his whole

force. It was a motley collection of British regulars, a few Hessians

and Canadians, well-armed Tories, and troops of warriors from the

various tribes of the Six Nations, except the Oneidas, who were faithful

to their agreement to remain neutral. St. Leger dispatched an officer,

bearing a flag, to the fort, immediately after his arrival, with a copy

of a pompous manifesto which he had sent among the people, conceived

very much in the vein of the one issued by Burgoyne from Crown Point, a

few weeks before. He magnified the power, clemency, and justice of the

king, and charged the General Congress, and other assemblies,

committees, &c., with cruelty in the form of "arbitrary imprisonment,

confiscation of property, persecution and torture, unprecedented in the

inquisitions of the Romish Church." He also denounced the patriot civil

authorities everywhere as guilty of "the profanation of religion," and

of "shocking proceedings" of almost every shade of darkness. He then

exhorted the people who were disposed to do right, to remember that he

was "at the head of troops in the full power of health, discipline, and

valor, determined to strike when necessary and anxious to spare when

possible," and tempted them with offers of employment if they would join

his standard, security to the infirm and industrious, and payment in

coin for all supplies for his army that might be brought into his camp.

"If, notwithstanding these endeavors and sincere intentions to effect

them," he said, in conclusion, "the phrensy of hostility should remain,

I trust

* The name of this officer is variously spelled in the books--Weston,

Wesson, and Wessen. At the close of an autograph letter of his among

Gates's Papers (vol. x.), in the New York Historical Society, it is

written Wesson, and, presuming that he spelled his own name correctly, I

give that orthography. It will be remembered that Colonel Wesson and his

regiment were active participators in the battles of Bemis's Heights, a

few weeks later than the time in question.

** It was in Captain Swartwout's company, while at Poughkeepsie, that

Samuel Geake, an emissary of Sir Henry Clinton, enlisted, in the

character of a recruit, insinuated himself into the good graces of the

officers at Fort Schuyler, and acquired much valuable information

respecting the means, designs, and expectations of the Americans. He was

suspected, arrested, tried by court-martial as a spy, and was condemned

to death. He was spared, however, as a witness against Major Hammell,

another recreant American, who had accompanied him to Poughkeepsie, and

who was under arrest at that time. Geake confessed that he was employed

for the purpose of which he was accused. He said that Major Hammell (who

had been taken prisoner by the British) had espoused the cause of the

enemy, and was promised a colonelcy in the British army, and that he

(Geake) was to receive the commission of lieutenant as soon as he should

return to New York from Fort Schuyler.

Siege of Fort Schuyler.--Operations of the Indians.--Visit to the

Oriskany Battle-ground.--General Herkimer and the Militia.

243I shall stand acquitted in the eyes of God and man in denouncing and

executing the vengeance of the state against the willful outcasts. The

messengers of justice and of wrath await them in the field; and

devastation, famine, and every concomitant horror that a reluctant, but

indispensable, prosecution of military duty must occasion, will bar the

way to their return." The patriot people who received the manifesto

treated it with derision, and the little garrison, which had already

counted the cost of a siege, and determined upon, a defense of the fort,

laughed at its threats, and regarded its offer of bribes with scorn.

The siege commenced on the 4th. A few bombs were thrown into the fort,

and August, 1777 the Indians, concealed behind trees and bushes, wounded

several men who were employed in raising the parapets. Similar

annoyances occurred on the 5th, and toward evening the Indians spread

out through the woods, encircled the fort, and, by hideous yells through

the night, attempted to intimidate the garrison. St. Leger, confident of

success, sent a dispatch to Burgoyne at this juncture, expressing his

assurance that Fort Schuyler would be in his possession directly, and

the hope that they would speedily meet as victors at Albany. Let us

leave the besiegers and besieged a moment, and ride down to Oriskany,

eight miles eastward of Fort Schuyler, where a terrible episode in the

siege occurred.

I left Rome (site of Fort Schuyler) at about two o'clock, in an open

light wagon, for Oriskany. * The day was very warm; the road, although

nearly level, was excessively stony, and when I arrived at the village I

was almost overcome by the heat and fatigue. Desirous of reaching Utica

that evening, I stayed at the village only long enough to procure a

competent guide to the battle-ground. Mr. George Graham, a resident of

the village (who was one of the committee of arrangements for the

celebration held upon the battle-ground, on the anniversary of the

event, in 1844), kindly accompanied me to the spot, and pointed out the

various localities which were identified on the occasion referred to by

many August 6 old men who were present, some of whom were in the battle.

The locality is about two miles west of the canal landing in the

village, and in the midst of a beautiful agricultural country. Let us

consult the history while on our way thither, and then we shall better

understand our "topographical survey."

As soon as St. Leger's approach up Oneida Lake was known to General

Herkimer, he summoned the militia of Tryon county to the succor of the

garrison at Fort Schuyler. The timidity which seemed to have abated the

fire of the Whigs, when the first intimations of the invasion were given

by the Canada spy and the Oneida sachem, now disappeared, when the

threatened danger was at their doors, and the call of Herkimer was

responded to with alacrity, not only by the militia, but most of the

members of the Tryon county committee entered the field as officers or

volunteers. They rendezvoused at Fort Dayton, on the German Flats, and,

on the day when the Indians encircled the fort, Herkimer was near

Oriskany with more than eight hundred men, eager to face the enemy. He

August 2 sent a messenger to Gansevoort, informing him of his approach,

and requesting him to apprise him of the arrival of his courier by

discharging three guns in rapid succession, which he knew would be heard

at Oriskany. But the messenger did not arrive until near noon the next

day. Herkimer was brave, but cautious, and determined to halt there

until he should receive re-enforcements or hear the signal guns from the

fort. His officers, influenced by the impatience of their men to press

on toward the fort, were opposed to delay. Herkimer, self-relying, was

firm. Harsh words ensued, and two of his colonels, Cox and Paris, more

impertinent than generous, denounced the old man as a coward and a Tory.

This bitter taunt sank deep into his heart, but his duty governed his

feelings, and he calmly replied, "I am placed over you as a father and

guardian, and shall not lead you into difficulties from which I may not

be able to extricate you." But they persisted in their demands for an

immediate advance, and continued their ungenerous taunts. Stung by

imputations

* Oriskany is a little village about eight miles west of Utica, at the

junction of the Oriskany Creek with the Mohawk. The Erie Canal and the

rail-road both pass through it, and the establishment of woolen

factories there promises growth and prosperity to the pleasant town.

Herkimer's Advance to Oriskany Sortie from Fort Schuyler, under Colonel

Willett.--Biographical Sketch of Willett

244of cowardice, Herkimer at length yielded, and gave the word to "March

on!" at the same time telling those who boasted loudest of their courage

that they would be the first to run on seeing the enemy. St. Leger had

intelligence of the advance of Herkimer, and detached a division of

Johnson's Greens, under Major Watts, Colonel Butler with his Rangers,

and Brant with a strong body of Indians, to intercept him, and prevent

an attack upon his intrenchments.

* Before the arrival of Herkimer's messenger, Gansevoort had observed

the silence of the enemy's camp, and also the movement of a portion of

his troops along the margin of a wood down the river. The arrival of the

courier dispelled all doubts as to the destination of the detachment,

and the signal guns were immediately fired. Herkimer had informed

Gansevoort, by the messenger, that he intended, on hearing the signals,

to cut his way to the fort through the circumvallating camp of the

enemy, and requested him to make a sortie at the same time. This was

done as soon as the arrangement could be made, and a detachment of two

hundred men, consisting of portions of Gansevoort's and Wesson's

regiments, was detailed for the purpose, who took with them an iron

three pounder. Fifty men were also added, to protect the cannon, and to

act otherwise as circumstances might require. The enterprise was

intrusted to Colonel Marinus Willett, * who, by quick and judicious

movements and daring courage, with his small force, accomplished wonders

in a few hours. Rain was falling copiously while preparations for the

sortie were in progress, but the moment it ceased Willett sallied out

and fell furiously upon that portion of the camp occupied by Sir John

Johnson and his Royal Greens, a detachment of whom, as we have seen,

* Marinus Willett was born at Jamaica, Long Island, July 31st (O.S.),

1740. He was the youngest of six sons of Edward Willett, a Queen's

county farmer. He was early imbued with a military spirit, and joined

the army, under Abercrombie, as a lieutenant in Colonel Delaney's

regiment, in 1758. He was in the disastrous battle at Ticonderoga, and

accompanied Bradstreet in his expedition against Fort Frontenac.

Exposure in the wilderness injured his health, and he was confined by

sickness in the newly-erected Fort Stanwix until the end of the

campaign. Willett early espoused the republican cause when British

aggression aroused resistance here. When the British troops in the New

York garrison were ordered to Boston, after the skirmish at Lexington,

they attempted, in addition to their own, to carry off a large quantity

of spare arms. Willett resolved to prevent it, and, though opposed by

the mayor and other Whigs, he captured the baggage-wagons containing

them, and took them back to the city. These arms were afterward used by

the first regiment raised by the state of New York. He was appointed

second captain of a company in Colonel M'Dougal's regiment, and

accompanied Montgomery in his northern expedition. He was placed in

command of St. John's, and held that post until January, 1776. He was

that year appointed lieutenant colonel, and, at the opening of the

campaign of 1777, placed in command of Fort Constitution, on the Hudson.

In May he was ordered to Fort Stanwix, or Schuyler, where he performed

signal services, as noticed in the text. He was left in command of the

fort, and remained there until the summer of 1778 when he joined the

army under Washington, and was at the battle of Monmouth. He accompanied

Sullivan in his campaign against the Indians in 1779, and was actively

engaged in die Mohawk Valley in 1780, 1781, and 1782. In 1792 he was

sent by Washington to treat with the Creek Indians at the south; and the

same year he was appointed a brigadier general in the army intended to

act against the Northwestern Indians. He declined the appointment, for

he was opposed to the expedition. He was for some time sheriff of New

York, and was elected mayor of the city in 1807. He was chosen elector

of President and Vice-president in 1824, and was made president of the

Electoral College. He died in New York, August 23d, 1830. in the 91st

year of his age.

Dispersion of Johnson's Camp.--Capture of Stores and other Valuables.--

View and Description of the Oriskany Battle-ground.

245had been sent to oppose the approach of Herkimer. The advanced guard,

unable to withstand the impetuosity of the attack, were driven in; and

so suddenly was Sir John's camp assailed, that he was not allowed time

to put on his coat. He endeavored to bring his troops into order, but

they fled in dismay. The Indian encampment was then assaulted, and in a

few moments the savages, too, were scattered. Sir John and his troops

fled across the river, to the temporary camp of St. Leger, and the

Indians buried themselves in the deep forest near. No less than twenty-

one wagon-loads of spoil, consisting of clothing, blankets, stores, camp

equipage, five British standards, the baggage of Sir John, with all his

papers, and those of other officers, containing every kind of

information necessary to the garrison, were captured. Having secured

their prize, Willett and his party returned to the fort without the loss

of a man. The five British colors were raised in full view of the enemy,

upon the flag-staff', beneath the uncouth American standard, and the

whole garrison, mounting the parapets, made the forest ring with three

loud cheers. This chivalrous exploit was duly noticed by Congress, and

an elegant sword was presented to Colonel Willett in the name of the

United States.

General Herkimer, in the mean while, had moved from the mills, at the

mouth of Oriskany Creek, toward the fort, entirely unconscious of the

ambuscade that, in a deep ravine two miles distant, awaited his

approach. The morning was dark, sultry, and lowering. His troops,

composed chiefly of the militia regiments of Colonels Cox, Paris,

Visscher, and Klock, were quite undisciplined, and their order of march

was irregular and without precaution. The contentions of the morning had

delayed their advance until about nine o'clock, and the hard feelings

that existed between the commander and some of his officers caused a

degree of insubordination which proved fatal in its consequences. Brant

and his Tory asso-

* This sketch was made from the eastern side of the ravine, looking

west. The marsh in the bottom of the ravine, mentioned in the text, is

partially drained by a rivulet. When I visited the spot (August, 1848),

many logs of the old causeway were still visible, and afforded a

crossing-place for cattle. These logs are seen in the picture. The road

on the left is the present highway between Oriskany and Rome. The barn

stands upon the western side of the ravine, and along the high ground

upon which it is situated, and crossing the road southeasterly, the

ambush was placed. The hottest of the battle occurred upon the high

plain between the ravine in the foreground and another beyond the most

distant trees in the picture The hills seen in the extreme distance, on

the right, are those upon the north side of the Mohawk. The frame-work

in the ravine is the remains of the scaffolding erected for the speakers

at the celebration alluded to, in 1844. The chief speakers on the

occasion were John A. Dix and Senator Dickinson, and the audience was

estimated at 15,000 people. The scaffold was erected upon the spot, as

nearly as it could be defined, where General Herkimer fell. In the

middle of the field beyond the scaffold, in the f lightest part near the

tree, toward the barn, is seen a dark spot. It marks the site, now

indicated by a cavity, where the beach-tree stood under which Herkimer

sat and delivered his orders. The tree was cut down about eight years

ago, and then uprooted the stump to make room for a more precious hill

of potatoes. This view is about two miles west of Oriskany, on the north

side of the main road. Arrow-heads, bullets, bayonets, tomahawks, pipes,

&c., are still found there by the cultivator. The bowl of an earthen

pipe was shown to me by a resident upon the ground (whose house is seen

in the distance, beyond the barn), which he had plowed up the day

before. He had several other relics of the battle, but would not part

with any. The above is a drawing of the pipe-bowl.

Indian Ambush.--Surprise of Herkimer and his Troops.--The General

wounded.--His Coolness.--Desperate Battle.

246ciates had learned from their scouts the exact route the patriots had

taken, and arranged an ambuscade accordingly. A deep ravine crossed the

path of Herkimer in a north and south direction, extending from the high

grounds on the south to the river, and curved toward the east in a

semicircular form. The bottom of this ravine was marshy, and the road

crossed it by means of a causeway of earth and logs. On each side of the

ravine the ground was nearly level, and heavily timbered. A thick growth

of underwood, particularly along the margin of the ravine, favored

concealment. It was upon the high ground on the western side of this

ravine that the ambush of the Tories and Indians was laid, in such a

manner that the causeway was surrounded by them, as by a circle, leaving

only a small segment open where the road entered. Unsuspicious of the

proximity of the enemy, the whole body of provincials, except the rear-

guard, composed of Visscher's regiment, descended into the ravine,

followed by the baggage-wagons. Brant gave a signal, and in an instant

the circle closed, the war-hoop was sounded, and spear, and hatchet, and

deadly rifle-ball fell upon the patriots like hail from the clouds that

hovered over them. The rear-guard, in fulfillment of Herkimer's

prediction, instantly fled, and left their companions in the ravine to

their fate. They were pursued by the Indians, and probably suffered

more, in their cowardly flight, than if they had boldly aided their

environed companions in arms.

This sudden onslaught produced great confusion in the patriot ranks, but

they soon recovered, and fought with the courage and skill of veteran

troops. The slaughter, however, was dreadful. Herkimer was severely

wounded at the commencement of the action, and Colonel Cox and Captain

Van Slyk were killed at the first fire. A musket-ball passed through and

killed the horse of the general, and shattered his own leg just below

the knee. With perfect composure and cool courage, he ordered the saddle

to be taken from his slaughtered horse and placed against a large beech-

tree near. Seated there, with his men falling like autumn foliage, and

the bullets of the enemy, like driving sleet, whistling around him, the

intrepid general calmly gave his orders, and thus nobly rebuked the

slanderers who called him a coward. *

For nearly an hour the fierce action continued, and by slow degrees the

enemy was closing in upon the republicans. The latter then made an

admirable change in their method of repulsion. They formed themselves

into circles, and thus met the enemy at all points. Their fire became so

destructive in this way, that the Johnson Greens and a portion of

Butler's Tories attempted a bayonet charge. This was promptly met by the

patriots, and the battle assumed the terrible form of a death-struggle

in close personal contact. They

"Fought eye to eye, and hand to hand,

Alas! 'twas but to die;

In vain the rifle's deadly flash

Scorch'd eagle plume and wampum sash;

The hatchet hiss'd on high,

And down they fell in crimson heaps,

Like the ripe corn the sickle reaps."

At this moment a heavy thunder-peal broke over the forest, and the rain

came down in such

* It is related that, during the hottest of the action, the general,

seated upon his saddle, quietly took his tinder-box from his pocket,

lighted his pipe, and smoked as composedly as if seated at his own fire-

side.

Intermission in the Battle.--Its Resumption.--Unsuccessful Stratagem of

Colonel Butler.--The Enemy routed.--Mutual Losses.

247torrents that the combatants ceased their strife, and sought shelter

beneath the trees. It was during this heavy shower that Willett made his

preparations at the fort for the successful sortie just noticed; and, as

soon as the rain subsided, he fell upon Johnson's camp, and the battle

was renewed at Oriskany.

During the lull in the conflict, both parties viewed the ground, and

made new arrangements for attack and defense. It had been observed by

the patriots that the Indians, as soon as they saw a gun fired by a

provincial behind a tree, would rush forward and tomahawk him before he

could reload. To meet such an exigency in the renewed conflict, two men

stood together behind a tree, and, while one fired, the other awaited

the approach of the savage with his tomahawk, and felled him with his

bullet. The provincials had also made choice of more advantageous

ground, and, soon after the renewal of the fight, so destructive was

their fire that the Indians began to give way. Major Watts came up with

a detachment of Johnson's Greens to support them, but the presence of

these men, mostly refugees from the Mohawk, made the patriots more

furious, and mutual resentments, as the parties faced and recognized

each other, seemed to give new strength to their arms. They leaped upon

each other with the fierceness of tigers, and fought hand to hand and

foot to foot with bayonets and knives. It was a terrible struggle, and

exhibited the peculiar cruelty and brutality which distinguishes civil

war.

A firing was now heard in the direction of the fort. It was the attack

of Willett upon the enemy's camp. Colonel Butler instantly conceived a

stratagem, and was nearly successful in its execution. He so changed the

dress of a detachment of Johnson's Greens, that they appeared like

American troops. These were made to approach from the direction of the

fort, and were at first (as intended by Butler) mistaken by the patriots

for a re-enforcement from the garrison. But the quick eye of Captain

Gardinier, an officer who performed deeds of great valor on that

memorable day, discovered their real character, and, ordering his men to

fall upon these pretended friends, they were soon scattered in

confusion. The Indians, finding their ranks greatly thinned, and the

provincials still undismayed, raised the loud retreating cry, _Oonah!

Oonah!_ and fled in all directions. The panic was communicated to the

Tories and Canadians, and the whole force of the enemy retreated in

confusion, pursued by the provincials with shouts of victory. Thus,

after a conflict of six hours, ended the battle of Oriskany, the

bloodiest encounter, in proportion to the numbers engaged, that occurred

during the war. Neither party could claim a decided victory. Both had

suffered dreadfully. The patriots remained masters of the field, but

they did not accomplish the design of the expedition, the relief of the

garrison at Fort Schuyler. Their wounded, nearly fifty in number, were

carried from the field on litters, and among them was General Herkimer,

who was taken to his residence below the Little Falls, on the Mohawk,

where he died ten days afterward. The manner and circumstances of his

death will be noticed in the relation of my visit to his mansion, which

is still standing.

The loss in this battle seems not to have been officially given on

either side. St. Leger, in a letter to Burgoyne, dated August 11th, five

days after the battle, says, "Above four hundred [patriots] lay dead on

the field, among the number of whom were almost all of the principal

movers of the rebellion in that county." The enemy also claimed to have

taken two hundred prisoners. Dr. Thatcher, in his Military Journal (page

89), records the loss of the Americans at "one hundred and sixty killed,

and a great number wounded." This is the number stated by Gordon and

other cotemporary writers. The Indians lost about seventy, among whom

were several chiefs. * Major Watts was badly wounded, and left for dead

upon the field. He revived from the faintness produced by loss of blood,

crawled to a brook and quenched his thirst, and there remained until he

was found, nearly three days afterward, by an Indian scout, and taken

into St. Leger's camp. There were many deeds

* Gordon and others relate that, in the course of the battle, a portion

of the Indians became impressed with the belief that there was a

coalition between Johnson's and Herkimer's men to destroy them, and

that, toward the close of the conflict, the savages killed many of the

Tories. "It is thought," says Gordon, "that near as many of Sir John's

Tory party were killed by the Indians as by the militia."

True Aim of History.--Capture of Billenger and Frey.--St. Leger's

Messengers.--Their Threats, Persuasions, and Falsehoods

248of personal courage exhibited in that battle, which, according to the

military ethics of a less benevolent age, would entitle the actors to

the crown of laurel, the applause of multitudes, and the panegyric of

the historian. But the picture is so revolting to the eye of Christian

benevolence, and so repugnant to the nobler feelings of brotherhood,

which are now happily impressing their benignant features upon society,

that it is far better to draw the curtain of silence before it, and

plead for the warriors, in extenuation, the dreadful necessity that

impelled them to deeds so shocking to humanity. It is high time that the

practice of pampering a depraved public taste by giving the horrid

details of slaughter in battle, and of investing with glory, as models

for imitation, those who fight most furiously and slay most profusely,

should fall into desuetude. These details are not essential elements of

history. They contain no useful lesson, no seed of philosophy worthy of

germination, no real benefit for the understanding or the heart. * Thus

far I have avoided such recitals, and I shall do so through the whole

work before me. Neither pen nor pencil shall intentionally contribute

one thought for a panegyric on war or its abettors. The student of our

Revolution, while he may justly rejoice at the vast and invaluable

blessings which followed that event, should be taught to _lament_ rather

than _admire_ the dreadful instrumentalities that were necessarily

employed. He may thus be taught without lessening the veneration which

he ought to feel for those who periled life and fortune in defense of

the liberty we now enjoy. Let us turn from these better contemplations

to the more unpleasant task of tracing out the succeeding events of the

siege of Fort Schuyler.

So completely was the garrison still environed by the besieging force,

after the battle at Oriskany, that no correct intelligence of that event

could reach them. St. Leger took advantage of this circumstance, and, by

false representations of victory for himself, the total discomfiture of

the provincials, and the victorious advance of Burgoyne, endeavored to

bring the garrison to surrender. Colonel Billenger and Major Frey were

made prisoners, and on the evening of the battle they were forced to

write a letter to Colonel Gansevoort, which contained many

misrepresentations, and a recommendation to cease resistance. St.

Leger's adjutant general, Colonel John Butler, delivered the letter to

Gansevoort, and at the same time communicated a verbal demand of

surrender from his commander. Gansevoort refused an answer to a verbal

summons, unless made by St. Leger himself. On the next morning, Colonel

Butler and two other officers approached the fort with a white flag, and

asked permission to enter as bearers of a message to the commander. The

request was granted; they were conducted, blind-folded, within the

fortress, and received by Gansevoort in his dining-room, which was

lighted with candles, the windows being closed. Colonels Willett and

Mellen were present, and the messengers of St. Leger were politely

received. Major Ancram, one of them, more fluent in speech than the

others, made known the wishes of St. Leger. He spoke of the humanity of

his feelings, and his desire to prevent further bloodshed. He assured

Gansevoort that it was with much difficulty the Indians were restrained

from massacre, and that the only salvation of the garrison was an

immediate surrender of the fort and all the public stores. The officers

and soldiers would be allowed to retain their baggage and other private

property, and their personal safety should be guarantied. He ex pressed

a hope that these honorable terms would be immediately complied with,

for, if they were not, it would be out of St. Leger's power to renew the

proposition. The Indians, he remarked, were ready and eager to march

down the country and destroy the inhabitants; and they were reminded

that the total destruction of Herkimer's relief corps, and the fact that

_Burgoyne had possession of Albany_, extinguished all hope of succor for

the garrison.

* An example in an account of the battle in question, given in Stone's

Life of Brant, may be cited as an illustration. A Captain Dillenback was

assailed by three of Johnson's Greens. "This officer," says the

biographer, "had declared he would not be taken alive, and he was not.

One of his three assailants seized his gun, but he suddenly wrenched it

from him and felled him with the butt. He shot the second dead, and

thrust the third through with his bayonet. But in the moment of his

triumph at an exploit of which even the mighty Hector, or either of the

sons of Zeruiah, might have been proud, a ball laid this brave man low

in the dust." It is the last clause which is chiefly objectionable, for

therein the historian, not content with recording the bloody act

(justified by the law of self-preservation), lauds it as a deed worthy

of the highest praise.

Reply of Colonel Willett to St. Leger's Messengers.--St Leger's written

Demand of Surrender.--Gansevoort's Reply

249This speech, made up of falsehood, persuasion, and threats, excited

the indignation of the patriot officers, and Colonel Willett, with the

approbation of Colonel Gansevoort, promptly and properly replied. I give

his words, as contained in his narrative. They were delivered with

emphasis, while he looked the officer, he says, full in the face: "Do I

understand you, sir? I think you say that you came from a British

colonel, who is commander of the army that invests this fort; and, by

your uniform, you appear to be an officer in the British service. You

have made a long speech on the occasion of your visit, which, stripped

of all its' superfluities, amounts to this--that you come from a British

colonel to the commandant of this garrison, to tell him that, if he does

not deliver up the garrison into the hands of your colonel, he will send

his Indians to murder our women and children. You will please to

reflect, sir, that their blood will be upon your heads, not upon ours.

We are doing our duty; this garrison is committed to our charge, and we

will take care of it. After you get out of it, you may turn round and

look at its outside, but never expect to come in again, unless you come

a prisoner. I consider the message you have brought a degrading one for

a British officer to send, and by no means reputable for a British

officer to carry. For my own part, I declare, before I would consent to

deliver this garrison to such a murdering set as your army, by your own

account, consists of, I would suffer my body to be filled with splinters

and set on fire, as you know has at times been practiced by such hordes

of women and children killers as belong to your army."

These words expressed the sentiments of the garrison, and the officers

very justly concluded that Burgoyne could not be at Albany, and the

Tryon county militia all slain or dispersed, else such a solicitude on

the part of the enemy for an immediate surrender, on such favorable

conditions, would not be exhibited. The manner of the messengers and the

tenor of their discourse made the besieged feel stronger, and more

resolved to defend their post.

On the 9th, St. Leger sent a written demand for a surrender, which

contained the August 1777 substance of Major Ancram's speech Gansevoort

immediately replied, in writing, "Sir, your letter of this date I have

received, in answer to which I say, that it is my determined resolution,

with the force under my command, to defend this fort to the last

extremity, in behalf of the United Stales, who have placed me here to

defend it against all their enemies." This prompt and bold stand was

unexpected to the British commander. His cannon had not the least effect

upon the sod-work of the fort, and his "royals had only the power of

teazing." * He therefore commenced approaching the fort by

* Letter of St. Leger to Burgoyne, dated Oswego, August 27th, 1777.

The Pictorial Field-Book of the Revolution, Vol. 1 (of 2) or, Illustrations, by Pen And Pencil, of the History, Biography, Scenery, Relics, and Traditions of the War for Independence · 第 39 / 60 章

** Dr. Cochran was born in Chester, Pennsylvania, in 1730. His father