Camerons of Scotland, who shared their fortunes with the disastrous
Charles Edward, whose star of hope went down on the bloody field of
Culloden. Donald Cameron, their great-grandfather, was a participant in
that memorable battle, and having escaped the carnage made his way to
America, arriving here about 1746. He afterward fought under the gallant
Wolfe upon the heights of Abraham at Quebec.
On his mother’s side, Colonel James Cameron was descended from Conrad
Pfoutz, one of those sturdy German Protestants, whose faith no terrors
could conquer. An exile from his native land for conscience sake, he
sought the western wilds, and was for a time the companion of that
famous Indian fighter, Captain Samuel Brady, the history of whose life
is more captivating than romance.
James Cameron was born at Maytown, Lancaster County, March 1, 1801, and
spent his boyhood there. He was apprenticed to his older brother, Simon,
in the printing trade, and as early as 1827 he became associated with
John Brandon in the publication of the “Lycoming Gazette,” at
Williamsport, but only for a short time, as the business was not
successful, and in December of that year the paper was sold to William
F. Packer, who later became Governor of Pennsylvania.
James Cameron returned to Lancaster County and in 1829 obtained control
of “The Political Sentinel,” which he published for a few years only. In
1839 he was appointed superintendent of motive power on the Columbia
Railroad, succeeding Andrew Mehaffy. In 1843 he was appointed Deputy
Attorney General of the Mayor’s Court, at Lancaster, succeeding S. Humes
Porter.
Thus we find he worked his way through various steps from an orphan in
poverty to a position of distinction in business and society.
When the Northern Central Railroad was constructed he held an official
position under the management with headquarters at Sunbury. It was about
this time that he purchased a magnificent farm along the beautiful
Susquehanna River, just below the borough of Milton.
James Cameron was also stung with the political bee which seemed to hunt
Cameron victims for many years in Pennsylvania. In 1856 he sought a seat
in Congress, but was defeated for the Democratic nomination.
When the Civil War broke out he was called to the command of the
Seventy-ninth New York Regiment of Volunteers, known as the
“Highlanders,” and he marched at the head of his command on the
ever-memorable advance on Bull Run.
He repeatedly rallied his men, who seemed paralyzed at the reverse, and
none of his men felt this more than the brave colonel. He dropped his
sword from his hand as he stared at the retreating mass of troops. Some
of his command were still firing, when one of his lieutenants rushed
forward to receive orders about the wounded soldiers. The colonel turned
suddenly towards him, when at that instant a minnie bullet pierced his
heart and he fell without uttering a word.
After the death of Colonel Cameron the rout became complete and the army
fell back in great confusion on Washington.
Colonel Cameron’s body with hundreds of others, was left on the field
and afterwards buried in a trench. Through the efforts of his brother,
General Simon Cameron, then Secretary of War in President Lincoln’s
Cabinet, his grave was located and his body identified by the peculiar
buckskin shirt he wore, and was removed from the place of its rude
burial. The remains were taken to Lewisburg and reinterred with the
military honors due such a hero. Colonel Cameron left a wife, but no
issue.
Colonel Cameron was the first soldier from Northumberland County to lose
his life in the war. He was the first officer of his rank in the Union
Army and the first officer from Pennsylvania to fall in battle in the
Civil War.
The Northumberland County Soldiers’ Monument Memorial Association was
organized May 25, 1872, and incorporated August 5, following.
On July 4, 1872, a site at the eastern end of Market square in Sunbury,
was marked out by Judge Alexander Jordan and General Simon Cameron, and
from that time plans were perfected for the erection of a memorial which
should do justice to the boys from “Old Mother Northumberland” who had
made the supreme sacrifice in that greatest of all civil wars in the
world’s history.
The cornerstone was laid May 30, 1874, with a great Masonic ceremony.
Robert L. Muench, of Harrisburg, district deputy grand master, acting
for the grand master, was in charge of the exercises, assisted by Maclay
C. Gearhart, Henry Y. Fryling, James M. McDevitt, Jacob R. Cressinger
and William Hoover, the elective officers of Lodge No. 22, Free and
Accepted Masons, of Sunbury.
There were many distinguished members of the order in attendance,
hundreds of veterans of the Civil War, including a large delegation of
the Seventy-ninth New York Cameronian Volunteers and thousands of
citizens from Sunbury and the nearby towns.
The monument itself is an imposing shaft, resting upon a pedestal
elevated upon a mound. At the outer edge are mounted four cannon used in
the Civil War.
This shaft is surmounted by a lifesize statue in granite, of the gallant
Colonel Cameron. It represents him clad in his military uniform and
standing “at ease.” A tablet in one of the panels bears this
inscription:
“James Cameron, of Northumberland County, Colonel of the Seventy-ninth
New York Cameronian Volunteers. Fell at the head of his regiment at the
Battle of Bull Run, July 21, 1861, aged sixty-one years.
----------
Battle of Minisink Fought Opposite
Lackawaxen July 22, 1779
On July 22, 1779, near what is now the little town of Lackawaxen, Pike
County, Pa., was fought one of the fiercest Indian battles on record.
This massacre actually took place in the State of New York at Minisink,
where the town of Port Jervis, Orange County, now is. Only the Delaware
River separated the battleground from Pike County, in this State.
The Shawnee at Minisink are said to have built a town on the east side
of the Delaware, three miles south of the mouth of Flat Brook, which was
called Pechoquealin. They also had a town on the Pennsylvania side of
the river which had the same name, and probably stood near the site of
the present town of Shawnee, at the mouth of Shawnee Run, in what is now
Lower Smithfield Township, Monroe County.
Secretary James Logan stated in a letter to Governor Clark, of New York,
dated August 4, 1737, that when the Shawnee came from the South in 1692
one party of them “was placed at Pechoquealin, near Durham, to take care
of the iron mines.” Their village was probably on the high ground back
of the lower end of Rieglesville, and near the furnace, where traces of
an Indian town still are to be seen.
The territory known as the Minisinks was often the scene of strife with
the red men, and almost every dell, in what is now Pike County, Pa., and
Orange County, N. Y., has its local tradition.
Count Pulaski and his legion of cavalry were stationed at Minisink,
during part of the winter of 1778–79. In February he was ordered to
South Carolina to join the army under Lincoln. The settlement was thus
left wholly unprotected, which being perceived by Joseph Brant, the
accomplished Indian warrior, he resolved to make a descent upon it.
Early in July, Joseph Brant, the daring and treacherous Mohawk chief,
left the Susquehanna with some 400 warriors. The settlers had received
timely warning and threw out scouts to watch the approach of the
invaders.
On the night of July 19 the Indians, with Tories disguised as savages,
stole upon the little town of Minisink, where Port Jervis now stands,
and before the people were aroused from their slumbers several dwellings
were set on fire. Without means of defense, the inhabitants sought
safety in flight to the mountains. Their small stockade fort, a mill and
twelve houses and barns were burned, several persons killed, some taken
prisoners, cattle driven away and the booty carried to Grassy Brook,
where Brant had left the main body of his warriors.
While these events were being enacted a call for volunteers was
responded to and 150 men met the following morning, determined to pursue
the savages.
Colonel Tusten, who knew the craftiness of Brant, opposed pursuit, but
was overruled. Major Meeker, mounting his horse, shouted, “Let the brave
men follow me; the cowards may stay behind.” The line of march was
formed, and they traveled seventeen miles, then encamped for the night.
The march was resumed the morning of July 22, and at Half-Way Brook came
upon the Indian encampment of the previous night. The number of
smoldering fires indicated a large savage force, and the two colonels,
with the more prudent, advocated a return rather than further pursuit.
The majority determined to pursue.
A scouting party was sent forward, but was discovered and the captain
slain. The volunteers pressed onward, and at 9 o’clock the enemy could
be seen marching in the direction of the fording place. Brant had
already deposited a large part of his plunder in Pike County. The
commander of the volunteers determined to intercept them at the ford,
but Brant had been watching the movements of his pursuers and,
comprehending their designs, he wheeled his column and by a strategic
movement brought his whole force in the rear of the Americans. Here he
formed an ambuscade and deliberately selected his battleground.
The volunteers were surprised and disappointed at not finding the enemy
where they expected him to be, and were marching back when they
discovered some of the Indians. One of them, mounted on a horse stolen
at Minisink, was shot. This was a signal for action, and the firing soon
became general. It was a long and bloody conflict.
The Indians greatly outnumbered the whites, and as the ammunition of the
latter was limited, they were careful not to fire at random, but to make
every shot count. The fight began at 11 o’clock and at twilight was yet
undecided. The ammunition of the militia was expended and the enemy
attacked and broke through their line.
The survivors attempted to retreat. Behind a ledge of rocks, Doctor
Tusten was dressing the wounds of seventeen who were injured. The
Indians fell upon them furiously, and all, including the doctor, were
slain.
Some attempted escape by swimming the river; the Indians killed many,
but a few reached the wilds of Pike County. A few more escaped under the
cover of darkness. Of the whole number that went forth, only thirty
returned to relate the dreadful scenes of that day.
This massacre of the wounded is one of the darkest stains upon the
memory of Brant, whose honor and humanity were often more conspicuous
than that of his Tory allies.
He made a weak defense of his conduct by asserting he had offered good
treatment if they would surrender and that his humane proposition was
answered by a bullet from an American musket, which pierced his belt.
In the year 1822, the bones of friend and foe were picked up, put in
boxes, taken to Goshen, in Orange County, and given a decent burial, and
a beautiful monument marks the spot where the mortal remains of the
heroes lay who fought what is known as the battle of Minisink.
----------
General Howe Sails From New York to
Capture Philadelphia, July 23, 1777
General Howe, commander of the British forces in America, sailed with
his army from New York, July 23, 1777, to make a mighty effort to end
the Revolution by capturing Philadelphia, the seat of government of the
Continental Congress. His intentions were to approach the city by the
Delaware.
Soon as this became known every effort was made for the defense of the
river. Howe experienced much difficulty, therefore, in navigating his
immense naval armament and meeting these obstructions in the Delaware
Bay, he decided to make his approach by way of the Chesapeake, where he
anchored at the head of the bay, in Elk River, August 25.
Howe disembarked with 18,000 troops, well equipped, except for horses.
The movement was delayed by heavy rains, but when they reached Elkton
the Philadelphia Light Horse, under Colonel Patterson retired, but
annoyed the enemy by skirmishing.
On September 3, the militia and light horse with 720 Continentals, under
General Maxwell, kept up an attack which checked somewhat the progress
towards Philadelphia of two divisions of British, under Cornwallis and
Knyphausen.
Washington marched his army through Philadelphia to encourage the
partisans of independence and overawe the disaffected, and took up a
position between Chester and Wilmington.
On hearing of the actual invasion of Pennsylvania the Supreme Executive
Council issued a proclamation entreating all persons to march instantly
to the assistance of General Washington, to enable him to demolish the
only British army that remained formidable in America or in the world.
Those addressed were asked to consider the wanton ravages, the rapes,
the butcheries perpetrated in New Jersey, and on the frontier of New
York, and the prospect of Americans being “like the wretched inhabitants
of India, stripped of their freedom, robbed of their property, degraded
beneath brutes, and left to starve amid plenty at the will of their
lordly masters.”
Washington had moved from White Clay Creek, leaving only the riflemen in
camp, and with the main body of his army retired behind the Red Clay
Creek, occupying with his right wing the town of Newport, upon the great
road to Philadelphia; his left was at Hockhesson.
When Howe brought the army to attack the right flank on September 9, the
Americans had slipped away and crossed the Brandywine at Chadd’s Ford in
Chester County, where they awaited the enemy. General Sullivan commanded
the right, General Armstrong the left. The riflemen of Maxwell scoured
the right bank of the Brandywine, in order to harass and retard the
enemy. Stephen’s and Lord Sterling’s divisions were under General
Sullivan.
The British reached Kennett Square September 10. The next morning half
the British army, led by Howe and Cornwallis, moved up the valley road
to cross at the forks of the creek. At 10 o’clock Knyphausen began a
cannonade at Chadd’s Ford.
Sullivan crossed the creek above, while Washington with Greene’s
division was to attack Knyphausen, but Sullivan was too late and had not
made the crossing when the attack began, for Cornwallis had made the
crossing as intended and came down upon the Americans. Sterling and
Stephen faced his attack southwest of the Birmingham meeting house.
Sullivan should have taken his division to their right, and when he
started to change his position, he was put to flight and lost his
artillery.
The story of the Battle of the Brandywine will not be repeated, except
to state that after a terrible day’s battle the Americans retreated at
nightfall, having lost 1000 killed and wounded, Lafayette among the
latter. Howe’s army did not pursue in the darkness, and Washington
reached Chester. Thence it went to Germantown and collected provisions
and ammunition. Battalions of militia joined the main body at the Falls
of the Schuylkill and at Darby.
The public money of Pennsylvania was sent to Easton, the Liberty Bell
and church bells at Philadelphia were sent to Bethlehem and Allentown,
the Market Street bridge was removed and the boats at the ferries of the
Schuylkill brought to the city side.
Washington advanced to the Lancaster road, and Howe and Cornwallis left
the vicinity of Chester and marched toward the road through what is now
West Chester and by Goshen Meeting, and the Sign of the Boot Inn, which
General Howe occupied and made his headquarters.
The two armies on September 16, were drawn in battle array near the
White Horse Inn on the Lancaster Road, where a fight occurred between
Count Donop and his Hessians and “Mad Anthony” Wayne without much
result. A violent and incessant rain storm prevented any general action.
During this storm the American army suffered a heavy loss in ammunition,
which got wet; so it turned aside until a new supply could be obtained.
The enemy moved toward Philadelphia.
The day after the battle of Brandywine, toward evening, the British
dispatched a detachment of light troops to Wilmington. There they took
prisoner the Governor of the State of Delaware, and seized a
considerable quantity of coined money, as well as other property, both
public and private, and some papers of importance.
General Mifflin was too ill to take command of the defense of
Philadelphia, and all was confusion, when at 1 o’clock in the morning of
September 19, the alarm was given that the British had crossed the
Schuylkill.
Lord Cornwallis entered Philadelphia September 26, at the head of
British and Hessian grenadiers. The rest of the army remained in camp at
Germantown.
----------
Captain John Smith Sails From Jamestown,
July 24, 1608, to Explore Chesapeake
Bay
Two Indian messengers hurried to the Susquehannock Indian town situated
on the banks of the Susquehanna River, in what is now Lancaster County,
in midsummer, 1608, and brought the tidings that there were strangers
arrived in the great bay who wished to see them. The Susquehanna
Indians, or Susquehannocks, as they are usually called, went to meet
these white men, whom they believed to be gods worthy of worship.
The strangers were thirteen in number, and under the leadership of
Captain John Smith, who had effected a settlement at Jamestown, Va., the
preceding year. They had sailed away from Jamestown, July 24, on a
voyage of discovery in an open boat of less than three tons burden.
The party had a tedious voyage. The vessel entered Chesapeake Bay, and
the party spent seven weeks exploring its shores, returning to Jamestown
September 7.
It was after Smith reached the head of the bay, on the Tockwogh
(Sassafras) River, that he first met Indians. Here he found “many
hatchets, knives and peeces of yron and brasse, which they reported to
have from the Sasquesahanockes, a mighty people, and mortal enemies with
the Massawomeckes.”
Smith approached these Indians warily, for he had already heard of them
as a ferocious tribe. Smith “prevailed with the Interpreter to take with
him another interpreter, to perswade the Sasquesahoncks to come to visit
us, for their language are different.”
Smith made a visit to the tribe on the east side of the Chesapeake the
following morning, and they received him in friendship.
He navigated his boats as far up the Susquehanna as was possible on
account of the rocks, and there awaited the return of the two Indian
messengers. In four days they arrived, and with them came the Indians.
Captain Smith’s own story says:
“Sixty Susquehannocks came to us, with skins, bows, arrowes, targets,
beeds, swords & tobacco pipes for presents. Such great and well
proportioned men are seldom seen, for they seemed like giants to the
English, yea, and to the neighbors, yet seemed of an honest and simple
disposition. They were with much adoe restrained from adoring us as
gods.
“These are the strangest people of all these countries, both in language
and attire; for their language may well become their proportions;
sounding from them as a voyce in the vault. Their attire is the skinnes
of bears, and wolves, some have cossacks made of beares heads and
skinnes, that a man’s head goes through the skinnes neck, and the eares
of the beare fastened to his shoulders, the nose and teeth hanging down
his breast, another beares face split behind him, and at the end of the
nose hung a paw, the half sleeves coming to the elbowes were the necks
of the beares, and the arms through the mouth with the pawes hanging at
their noses. One had the head of a wolfe hanging in a chain for a
jewell, his tobacco-pipe three-quarters of a yard long, prettily carved
with a bird, a deare, or some such devise at the great end, sufficient
to beat out ones braines; with bowes, arrowes, and clubs, sutable to
their greatness. Five of their chiefe warriors came aboord us and
crossed the bay in the barge. The picture of the greatest of them is
signified in the mappe.
“The calf of whose leg was three quarters of a yard about, and all the
rest of his limbs so answerable to that proportion that he seemed the
goodliest man we ever beheld. His hayre, the one side was long, the
other shore close with a ridge over his crowne like a cocks combe. His
arrowes were five quarters long, headed with the splinters of a white
christall-like stone, in form of a heart, an inch broad, an inch and a
halfe or more long. These he wore in a woolves skinne at his backe for
his quiver, his bow in the one hand and his clubbe in the other, as is
described.
“They can make neere 600 able and mighty men, and are pallisadoed in
their townes to defend them from the Massawomekes, their mortal enemies
* * * They are seated (on the Susquehanna River) 2 daies higher than was
passage for the discoverer’s barge.”
Smith further describes the Susquehannocks, and very much exaggerates
their strength of numbers and other qualifications, but there can be no
doubt that the great adventurer was thoroughly impressed with this
powerful tribe. This was the first contact of white men with the native
people of Pennsylvania. Smith almost reached Pennsylvania on this
voyage.
His map of Virginia made in 1612 also shows a number of Indian villages
in the interior of Pennsylvania. Besides the town of Sasquesahanough, he
locates on the east bank of the Susquehanna, near its head, Tesinigh,
and about midway between these two, Quadroque, which is also on the east
bank. Near the heads of two tributaries of the same river he locates
Attaock, and some distance north, Utchowig. Mr. A. L. Guss places
Attaock as on the Juniata; Quadroque at or near the forks of the North
and West Branches; Tesinigh on the North Branch, towards Wyoming; and
Utchowig, Mr. Guss suggests might have been a town of the Erie, or Cat
Nation.
During another voyage in December, 1607, Captain Smith was taken
prisoner by the Indians, but afterwards released on promise to furnish a
ransom of two great guns and a grindstone. Tradition says that he was
saved from death during this captivity by Pocahontas.
Smith made maps of his exploration and, in 1614, explored the New
England coast and made a map of that shore from the Penobscot to Cape
Cod.
Captain Smith served as president of the colony of Jamestown, but he was
too strict a disciplinarian. When his successor was elected, September
29, 1609, Smith sailed for England and never returned to Jamestown.
He had achieved much for Virginia, he was a good example of Elizabethian
versatility, “bookman, penman, swordsman, diplomat, sailor, courtier,
orator, explorer.” His works have been published.
----------
Colonel Thompson’s Battalion of Riflemen
Among First to Reach Boston,
July 25, 1775
Colonel Thompson’s Battalion of Riflemen, so styled in General
Washington’s general orders, was one of the Pennsylvania regiments in
the Revolutionary War of which every citizen has pardonable right to be
proud.
This command was enlisted in the latter part of June, and in the
beginning of July, 1775, in pursuance of a resolution of Congress, dated
June 14, for raising six companies of expert riflemen in Pennsylvania,
two in Maryland, and two in Virginia, which, as soon as completed, were
to join the army near Boston.
By a resolution adopted June 22, the “Colony of Pennsylvania” was
directed to raise two more companies, which with the six, were to be
formed into a battalion, and be commanded by such officers as the
Assembly or Convention should recommend.
This resolution having been communicated to the Assembly of
Pennsylvania, it resolved, June 24, “that the members of Congress
deputed by this Assembly be a committee to consider of, and recommend
proper officers of the said battalion.”
This committee performed the duty thus delegated them and William
Thompson, of Carlisle, was commissioned colonel; Edward Hand, of
Lancaster, lieutenant colonel; Robert Magaw, of Carlisle, major; and
William Magaw, Carlisle, surgeon.
Each company in this battalion consisted of one captain, three
lieutenants, four sergeants, four corporals, a drummer or trumpeter, and
sixty-eight privates.
On July 11 Congress was informed that two companies had been raised in
Lancaster instead of one, and it resolved that both companies be taken
into the Continental service. The battalion, therefore, consisted of
nine companies, enlisted as follows: