General Abercrombie, who commanded on the northern lakes, was a brave
and able man, though rather too much attached to the military schools of
those days. To accommodate himself to the desultory and uncertain
warfare of the woods, where sagacity, ready presence of mind, joined
with the utmost caution, and a condescension of opinion to our Indian
allies, was of infinitely more consequence than rules and tactics, which
were mere shackles and incumbrances in this contention, with
difficulties and perplexities more harassing than mere danger. Indeed,
when an ambuscade or sudden onset was followed by defeat here, (as in
Braddock’s case,) the result reminded one of the route of Absalom’s
army; where, we are told, the wood devoured more than the sword. The
general was a frequent guest with madame, when the nature of his command
would permit him to relax from the duties that occupied him. He had his
men encamped below Albany, in that great field which I have formerly
described, as the common pasture for the town. Many of the officers were
quartered in the fort and town; but Lord Howe always lay in his tent,
with the regiment which he commanded; and which he modelled in such a
manner, that they were ever after considered as an example to the whole
American army, who gloried in adopting all those rigid, yet salutary
regulations, to which this young hero readily submitted, to enforce his
commands by example.
Above the pedantry of holding up standards of military rules, where it
was impossible to practise them, and the narrow spirit of preferring the
modes of his own country, to those proved by experience, to suit that in
which he was to act, Lord Howe laid aside all pride and prejudice, and
gratefully accepted counsel from those whom he knew to be best qualified
to direct him. Madame was delighted with the calm steadiness with which
he carried through the austere rules which he found it necessary to lay
down. In the first place, he forbade all displays of gold and scarlet,
in the rugged march they were about to undertake, and set the example by
wearing himself an ammunition coat, that is to say, one of the surplus
soldier’s coats cut short. This was a necessary precaution, because in
the woods, the hostile Indians, who started from behind the trees,
usually caught at the long and heavy skirts then worn by the soldiers;
and for the same reason he ordered the muskets to be shortened, that
they might not, as on former occasions, be snatched from behind by these
agile foes. To prevent the march of his regiment from being descried at
a distance by the glittering of their arms, the barrels of their guns
were all blackened; and to save them from the tearing of bushes, the
stings of insects, &c. he set them the example of wearing leggins, a
kind of buskin, made of strong woollen cloth, formerly described as a
part of the Indian dress. The greatest privation to the young and vain
yet remained. Hair well dressed, and in great quantity, was then
considered as the greatest possible ornament, which those who had it
took the utmost care to display to advantage, and to wear in a bag or
queue, which ever they fancied. Lord Howe’s was fine and very abundant;
he, however, cropped it, and ordered every one else to do the same.
Every morning he rose very early, and, after giving his orders, rode out
to the Flats, breakfasted, and spent some time in conversation with his
friends there; and when in Albany, received all manner of useful
information from the worthy magistrate, Cornelius Cuyler. Another point
which this young Lycurgus of the camp wished to establish, was that of
not carrying any thing that was not absolutely necessary. An apparatus
of tables, chairs and such other luggage, he thought highly absurd,
where people had to force their way with unspeakable difficulty, to
encounter an enemy free from all such encumbrances. The French had long
learnt how little convenience could be studied on such occasions as the
present.
When his lordship got matters arranged to his satisfaction, he invited
his officers to dine with him in his tent. They gladly assembled at the
hour appointed, but were surprised to see no chairs or tables; there
were, however, bear-skins spread like a carpet. His lordship welcomed
them, and sat down on a small log of wood; they followed his example,
and presently the servants set down a large dish of pork and pease. His
lordship, taking a sheath from his pocket, out of which he produced a
knife and fork, began to cut and divide the meat. They sat in a kind of
awkward suspense, which he interrupted, by asking if it were possible
that soldiers like them, who had been so long destined for such a
service, should not be provided with portable implements of this kind?
and finally relieved them from their embarrassment, by distributing to
each a case the same as his own, which he had provided for the purpose.
The austere regulations, and constant self-denial which he imposed upon
the troops he commanded, were patiently borne, because he was not only
gentle in his manners, but generous and humane in a very high degree,
and exceedingly attentive to the health and real necessities of the
soldiery. Among many instances of this, a quantity of powdered ginger
was given to every man; and the sergeants were ordered to see, that
when, in the course of marching, the soldiers arrived hot and tired at
the banks of any stream, they should not be permitted to stoop to drink,
as they generally inclined to do, but obliged to lift water in their
canteens, and mix ginger with it. This became afterwards a general
practice; and in those aguish swamps, through which the troops were
forced to march, was the means of saving many lives. Aunt Schuyler, as
this amiable young officer familiarly styled his maternal friend, had
the utmost esteem for him; and the greatest hope that he would, at some
future period, redress all those evils that had formerly impeded the
service, and, perhaps, plant the British standard on the walls of
Quebec. But this honour another young hero was destined to achieve;
whose virtues were to be illustrated by the splendour of victory, the
only light by which the multitude can see the merits of a soldier.
The Schuylers regarded this expedition with a mixture of doubt and
dismay, knowing too well, from the sad retrospect of former failures,
how little valour and discipline availed where regular troops had to
encounter unseen foes, and with difficulties arising from the nature of
the ground, for which military science afforded no remedy. Of General
Abercrombie’s worth and valour they had the highest opinion; but they
had no opinion of attacking an enemy so subtle and experienced on their
own ground, in entrenchments, and this they feared he would have the
temerity to attempt. In the meantime preparations were making for the
attempt. The troops were marched in detachments past the Flats, and each
detachment quartered for a night on the common, or in the offices. One
of the first of these was commanded by Lee, of frantic celebrity, who
afterwards, in the American war, joined the opponents of government, and
was then a captain in the British service. Captain Lee had neglected to
bring the customary warrants for impressing horses and oxen, and
procuring a supply of various necessaries, to be paid for by the agents
of government on showing the usual documents; he, however, seized every
thing he wanted where he could most readily find it, as if he were in a
conquered country; and not content with this violence, poured forth a
volley of execrations on those who presumed to question his right of
appropriating for his troops every thing that could be serviceable to
them: even madame, accustomed to universal respect, and to be considered
as the friend and benefactress of the army, was not spared; and the aids
which she never failed to bestow on those whom she saw about to expose
their lives for the general defence, were rudely demanded, or violently
seized. Never did the genuine christianity of this exalted character
shine more brightly than in this exigency; her countenance never
altered, and she used every argument to restrain the rage of her
domestics, and the clamour of her neighbours, who were treated in the
same manner. Lee marched on after having done all the mischief in his
power, and was the next day succeeded by Lord Howe, who was indignant on
hearing what had happened, and astonished at the calmness with which
madame bore the treatment she had received. She soothed him by telling
him, that she knew too well the value of protection from a danger so
imminent, to grow captious with her deliverers on account of a single
instance of irregularity, and only regretted that they should have
deprived her of her wonted pleasure, in freely bestowing whatever could
advance the service, or refresh the exhausted troops. They had a long
and very serious conversation that night. In the morning his lordship
proposed setting out very early; but when he rose was astonished to find
madame waiting, and breakfast ready: he smiled and said he would not
disappoint her, as it was hard to say when he might again breakfast with
a lady. Impressed with an unaccountable degree of concern about the fate
of the enterprise in which he was embarked, she again repeated her
counsels and her cautions; and when he was about to depart, embraced him
with the affection of a mother, and shed many tears, a weakness which
she did not often give way to.
Meantime, the best prepared and disciplined body of forces that had ever
been assembled in America, were proceeding on an enterprise, that, to
the experience and sagacity of the Schuylers, appeared a hopeless, or,
at least a very desperate one. A general gloom overspread the family;
this, at all times large, was now augmented by several of the relations
both of the colonel and madame, who had visited them at that time, to be
nearer the scene of action, and get the readiest and most authentic
intelligence; for the apprehended consequence of a defeat was, the
pouring in of the French troops into the interior of the province; in
which case Albany might be abandoned to the enraged savages attending
the French army.
In the afternoon a man was seen coming on horseback from the north,
galloping violently, without his hat. Pedrom, as he was familiarly
called, the colonel’s only surviving brother, was with her, and ran
instantly to inquire, well knowing he rode express. The man galloped on,
crying out that Lord Howe was killed. The mind of our good aunt had been
so engrossed by her anxiety and fears for the event impending, and so
impressed by the merit and magnanimity of her favourite hero, that her
wonted firmness sunk under this stroke, and she broke out into bitter
lamentations. This had such an effect on her friends and domestics, that
shrieks and sobs of anguish echoed through every part of the house. Even
those who were too young or too old to enter into the public calamity,
were affected by the violent grief of aunt, who, in general, had too
much self-command to let others witness her sorrows.—Lord Howe was shot
from behind a tree, probably by some Indian; and the whole army were
inconsolable for a loss they too well knew to be irreparable. This
stroke, however, they soon found to be “portent and pain, a menace and a
blow;” but this dark prospect was cheered for a moment by a deceitful
gleam of hope, which only added to the bitterness of disappointment.
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