Three Rivers
Hudson~Mohawk~Schoharie
History From America's Most Famous Valleys

Border Wars

of the American Revolution
by William L. Stone. Volume I
New York: Harper & Brothers, 1843.

CHAPTER XIII.

SIMULTANEOUSLY with the events rapidly sketched in the preceding chapter, an expedition from New York to the North was undertaken by Sir Henry Clinton, to which an incidental reference has already been made. The obvious intention of Sir Henry was to relieve General Burgoyne: a fact admitted by Sir Henry himself, who excused the delay by stating that he could not attempt it sooner without leaving the defences of New-York too feebly guarded. This expedition consisted of about three thousand men, convoyed by a fleet under Commodore Hotham, who proceeded up the Hudson River early in October, and was destined, in the first instance, against Forts Montgomery and Clinton, near the southern boundary of the Highlands. These fortresses had been constructed chiefly for the purpose of preventing the ships of the enemy from ascending the river, and were not defensible in the rear. They were commanded by Governor Clinton, with the assistance of General James Clinton, his brother.

* The late Colonel Richard Varick, then the military secretary of General Schuyler.

The troops of the enemy were landed at Stoney Point, twelve miles below the forts. A small advanced party of the Americans was met and attacked at about 10 o'clock in the morning of the 6th of October, when within two and a half miles of the fort. This party was, of course, driven in, having returned the enemy's fire. When arrived within a mile of the forts, Sir Henry divided his troops into two columns; the one, consisting of nine hundred men under Lieutenant-colonel Campbell, was destined for the attack on Fort Montgomery ; the other, under the immediate command of Sir Henry Clinton, was to storm the stronger post of Fort Clinton. Ascertaining that the enemy were advancing to the west side of the mountain, to attack his rear, Governor Clinton ordered a detachment of upward of one hundred men under Colonel Lamb, together with a brass fieldpiece and fifty men more, to take a strong position in advance. They were soon sharply engaged, and another detachment of an equal number was sent to their assistance. They kept their fieldpiece sharply playing upon the enemy's advancing column, and were only compelled to give way by the point of the bayonet, spiking their fieldpiece before they relinquished it. In this preliminary encounter the loss of Sir Henry was severe.

Pressing rapidly onward, both forts were in a few minutes attacked with vigour upon all sides. The fire was incessant during the afternoon until about five o'clock, when, a flag approaching, Lieutenant-colonel Livingston was ordered to receive it. The officer was the bearer of a peremptory summons to surrender, as he alleged, to prevent the effusion of blood. Nor would he +treat, unless upon the basis of a surrender of the garrison as prisoners of war, in which case he was authorized to assure them of good usage. The proposition being rejected " with scorn," in about ten minutes the attack VOL. I.-Y; 2001 typist, the word treat is correct here.

was renewed, and kept up until after dark, when the enemy forced the American lines and redoubts at both forts, and the garrisons, determined not to surrender, undertook to fight their way out. The last attack of the enemy was desperate; but the Americans, militia as well as regulars, resisted with great spirit, and, favoured by the darkness, many of them escaped. Governor Clinton himself escaped by leaping a precipice in the dark, and jumping into a boat, in which he was conveyed away. His brother was wounded and taken prisoner. Of the British forces, Lieutenant-colonel Campbell and Count Grabouski, a Polish nobleman, engaged as a volunteer under Sir Henry, were slain. The loss of the Americans, killed, wounded, and missing, was stated at two hundred and fifty. The British loss was stated at two hundred, but was believed to have been much more than that of the Americans.

On the 7th, a summons to surrender, signed jointly by Sir Henry Clinton and Commodore Hotham, was sent to Fort Constitution;* but the flag was fired upon, and returned. To avenge the insult, an attack was immediately determined upon; but on arriving at the fort on the following day, there was no enemy to assault, an evacuation having taken place, so precipitate as to leave considerable booty to the conqueror. Sir Henry Clinton proceeded no farther, but a strong detachment of his army, under General Vaughan, pursued the enterprise, with Commodore Hotham, as far north as Aesopus, + destroying several vessels by the way. At Aesopus Creek there were two small batteries and an armed galley, mounting, however, in all, but six or sev-

* Situated at West Point.
+ The ancient Dutch name of Kingston, the present shire town of the county of Ulster, New-York. It was a large and wealthy inland town, built almost entirely of stone, upon a rich and beautiful plain about three miles from the river. The naked walls of many of the houses destroyed by General Vaughan "were standing, unrepaired, until within five or six years.

en guns. These were easily silenced. General Vaughan then effected a landing, marched to the town, and laid it in ashes. Large quantities of stores had been accumulated at this place, which were, of course, destroyed. Disappointed, however, by the disastrous termination of the campaign of Burgoyne, Sir Henry Clinton made an expeditious return to the city.

But the war was this year fruitful in military events in other parts of the confederation, some of the principal of which may appropriately be passed in review at this stage of the present chapter. In the month of March, after the return of the British troops from their bootless expedition through the Jerseys, to New-York, Colonel Bird was detached against Peekskill, with five hundred men, for the purpose of destroying the American stores deposited at that place. General M'Dougall, commanding a small guard at the depot, on the approach of a force which he had not the power to resist, set fire to the stores and retreated. A similar expedition, for the same object, was directed against Danbury towards the close of April, consisting of two thousand men, under the conduct of Major-general Tryon. Landing at Compo Creek, between Norwalk and Fairfield, the march of Governor Tryon to the point of his destination was almost unopposed. A large quantity of provisions, beef, pork, and flour, had been collected by the Americans at that place, which were guarded only by about one hundred militia and Continental troops. Not being able to oppose the enemy, Colonel Huntington retired to a neighbouring height, and awaited re-enforcements. The town of Danbury and the stores were burned on the 26th of April.* During the afternoon and following night, Generals Wooster, Arnold, and Silli-

* The property destroyed consisted of eighteen houses; eight hundred barrels of pork and beef; eight hundred barrels of flour; two thousand bushels of grain, and seventeen hundred tents.

man collected such militia forces as they could, for the purpose of harassing the retreat of the enemy the next morning. With three hundred men, Wooster gallantly attacked his rear at 11 o'clock on the 27th, while Arnold, with five hundred more, awaited his arrival at Ridgeway. Wooster fell, mortally wounded, and his troops were obliged to give way. At Ridgeway, Arnold skirmished with the enemy for about an hour, but could not make a stand, or prevent them from remaining at that place over night. On the 28th, the march of the enemy was resumed, as also was the skirmishing by General Arnold, which was continued until five o'clock in the afternoon; when, as they approached their ships, the Americans charged with intrepidity, but were repulsed and broken. Embarking immediately, Governor Tryon returned to New York, with a loss of one hundred and seventy men. The loss of the Americans was one hundred. These predatory excursions were retaliated by the Americans under Colonel Meigs, who made a brilliant expedition against Sag Harbour, where the enemy had collected a quantity of stores. The guard was taken by surprise, the place carried by the bayonet, the stores destroyed, including twelve transport vessels, and Colonel Meigs recrossed the Sound to Guilford without the loss of a man.

After the return of the British forces from New Jersey, Sir William Howe suffered them to remain upon Staten Island until near midsummer, when, as the reader has seen in a previous chapter, he embarked with sixteen thousand men, and sailed for the Chesapeake Bay. On the 24th of August he landed at Elkton, whence, after being joined by Generals Grant and Knyphausen, he directed his march upon Philadelphia. Anticipating the design of the British commander, Washington threw himself, with his whole disposable force, between Sir William and Philadelphia, for the purpose of intercepting and bringing him to a general engagement. The disastrous battle of Brandywine was fought on the llth of September. The loss of the Americans was three hundred killed, and six hundred wounded and taken prisoners. That of the enemy was about one hundred killed and four hundred wounded. While General Washington with the main army retreated across the Schuylkill, General Wayne was left at the Paoli with fifteen hundred men, for the purpose of gaining and harassing the enemy's rear. But, notwithstanding the wonted vigilance of this officer, he was surprised in the course of the night, and routed, by General Gray, who had been detached for that purpose with two regiments of the enemy's line and a body of light troops. General Wayne had attempted to conceal himself upon an elevated piece of woodland, having an opening of a few acres upon which his troops bivouacked for the night, in perfect security, as was supposed. The approach of the enemy was so cautious as to take the Americans completely by surprise. Guided by the light of their fires, the enemy succeeded in cutting off their outposts and pickets without noise, and then rushed upon the sleeping camp without firing a gun, and depending alone upon the bayonet. Three hundred were slain, many of whom were transfixed with bayonets as they lay sleeping in their tents. But, though surprised, General Wayne was cool and self-possessed; and, as the enemy himself acknowledged, "by his prudent dispositions" in the moment of alarm, succeeded in bringing off the remainder of his troops.*

* Some twenty years ago the citizen soldiers of the neighbourhood of the Paoli piously collected the remains of such of the brave men who were slain on that occasion as could be found, and interred them on the field of the massacre. A small mound was raised over them, which is walled in, and surrounded by a plain marble monument, a square block, with an urn at the top, bearing inscriptions upon each of the sides, in the following words:

FIRST : " Sacred to the memory of the patriots who, on this spot, fell a sacrifice to British barbarity, during the struggle for American independence, during the night of the 20th of September, 1777."

SECOND : lt Here repose the remains of fifty-three American soldiers, who were the victims of cold-blooded cruelty in the well-known massacre of the Paoli, while under the command of General Anthony Wayne, an officer whose military conduct, bravery, and humanity were equally conspicuous throughout the Revolutionary war."

THIRD : The atrocious massacre, which this stone commemorates, was perpetrated by British troops under the immediate, command of Major-general Gray."

FOURTH: lt This memorial, in honour of Revolutionary patriotism, was erected September 20, 1817, by the Republican Artillerists of Chester county, aided by the contributions of their fellow-citizens."

An annual military parade is held upon this interesting field. The name-The Paoli is derived from a celebrated tavern, at two miles distance, on the great Lancaster road, which was established contemporaneously with the Corsican struggle for independence, and named in honour of the unfortunate chieftain of that enterprise, It bears the same name still.
Y 2

General Washington had taken post on the eastern bank of the Schuylkill, about sixteen miles from Germantown. General Howe marched upon Germantown with his main army, where he arrived on the 26th of September. On the 37th, Lord Cornwallis took possession of Philadelphia without resistance. On the 4th of October, the battle of Germantown was fought, in which it -was claimed by the enemy that the Americans were defeated, although it was, in fact, a drawn battle. This action was produced by an attempt of the commander-in-chief to effect something by way of surprise. Having ascertained the situation of the enemy, the Americans marched all night, and arrived at Germantown at daylight. The enemy was attacked upon two quarters, in both of which the Americans were successful. Indeed, the enemy, as it was afterward ascertained, were thrown into such a state of tumult and disorder, and so panic-stricken, that a retreat to Chester had been resolved upon. But the morning was so excessively dark and foggy, that neither the advantages gained by the Americans, nor the confusion of the enemy, could be perceived. This circumstance, by concealing from the Americans the true situation of the enemy, obliged the commander-in-chief to act with more caution and less expedition than he could have wished ; and, what was still more unfortunate, it served to keep the different divisions of the Americans in ignorance of each other's movements, and preventing their acting in concert. It also occasioned them to mistake one another for the enemy. In this situation, it was considered unsafe to push too far through a strong village, while enveloped in a haze so thick as to border upon positive darkness. The consequence was a retreat by the Americans at the very instant when victory was declaring in their favour. The action lasted two hours, and the fighting was severe, the loss of the Americans being about one hundred men, killed, wounded, and missing. Among the slain was the brave General Nash, of North Carolina. Severe, however, as the action was, the enemy were rendered nothing better by the event; while the result was regarded by Washington " as rather unfortunate than injurious." *

But all the advantages thus gained by the enemy

* This brief account of the battle of Germantown is drawn from Washington's letters to the President of Congress, his brother, and Governor Trumbull. General Washington attributed the successes of Sir William Howe in Pennsylvania, and his own consequent disasters, to the apathy and disaffection of the people of that state. In one of his letters upon the subject, he says, to The Northern army, before the surrender of General Burgoyne, was re-enforced by upward of twelve hundred militia, who shut the only door by which Burgoyne could retreat, and cut off all his supplies. How different our case ! The disaffection of a great part of the inhabitants of this state, the langour of others, and the internal distraction of the whole, have been among the great and insuperable difficulties which I have met with, and have contributed not a little to my embarrassments this campaign." Many other letters from the Commander-in-chief, written during the winter and spring of 1778, complain of the conduct of the people of Pennsylvania in supplying the enemy in Philadelphia with provisions, particularly from Bucks county. In a letter to Major-general Armstrong, of that state, dated at Valley Forge, March 27th, he says, "The situation of matters in this state is melancholy and alarming. We have daily proof that a majority of the people in this quarter are only restrained from supplying the enemy with horses, and every kind of necessary, through fear of punishment; and although I have made a number of severe examples, I cannot put a stop to the intercourse."

had been more than counterbalanced by the reverses of St. Leger, and the nearly simultaneous capture of Burgoyne and his well-appointed army at the North. Another circumstance, gratifying to the friends of the American arms, was the repulse of Count Donop, at Red Bank. The count, a brave and experienced officer, fell, mortally wounded, and about 400 hundred of his troops were killed. The laurels won by Colonel Christopher Greene, the American commander on that occasion, were not the less creditably worn because of the necessity which compelled him subsequently to abandon the post, on the approach of Cornwallis with a greatly superior force.

But neither the fall of Burgoyne nor the flight of St. Leger relieved the border settlements beyond Albany from their apprehensions. Though in less danger of a sweeping invasion, yet the scouts and scalping parties of the Tories and Indians were continually hovering upon their outskirts; and so crafty were the foe, and so stealthy their movements, that no neighbourhood, not even the most populous vil-lages, felt themselves secure from those sudden and. bloody irruptions which mark the annals of Indian warfare. Very soon after the capture of Burgoyne, there was an occurrence in the neighbourhood of Albany, of a highly painful description. Previous to the commencement of the war, a militia company had been organized in the town of Berne, comprising eighty-five men, commanded by Captain Ball. On the breaking out of hostilities, the captain, with sixty-three of his men, went over to the enemy. Thus deserted by their leader, the command of the residue of the company devolved upon the ensign, Peter Deitz. These all embraced the cause of the country, and for the safety of their settlement threw up a little picketed fort, at a place now called the Beaver Dam. Deitz was soon afterward commissioned a captain, and his brother, William Deitz, his lieutenant. On the approach of Burgoyne they marched to Saratoga, and joined the army of Gates. Here the captain was killed by the accidental discharge of the gun of one of his own men. William Deitz immediately succeeded to the vacancy, and rendered such good service in the campaign as specially to incur the vengeance of the Tories and Indians. Availing themselves of an early opportunity to glut their hate, a party of them stole into the settlement of Berne, where they surprised and made prisoner of the captain in his own house. They next brought him forth into the court, bound him to the gate-post, and then successively brought out his father and mother, his wife and children, and deliberately murdered them all before his eyes! The captain was himself carried a prisoner to Niagara, where he ultimately fell a sacrifice to their cruelty. An instance of more cool and fiendlike barbarity does not occur in the annals of this extraordinary contest. It was only equalled by the conduct of the Tories afterward at Wyoming, and transcended by the refinement of cruelty practised by a French officer, during one of the earlier wars of the Indians, upon an unhappy prisoner among the remote tribe of the Dionondadies, as related by La Potherie.

Other incidents occurred at Albany and in its neighbourhood, at about the same period, which are deemed worthy of note. At the time of Sir John Johnson's flight from Johnstown, his lady had remained behind, and was removed immediately, or soon afterward, to Albany. It was in this year that Mr. John Taylor, after having performed several important confidential services under the direction of General Schuyler, was appointed a member of the Albany Council of Safety. He was a man of great shrewdness and sagacity, deliberate in the formation of his purposes, and resolute in their execution when matured. The Whigs of Albany were greatly annoyed during the whole contest by the Loyalists resident among them; many of whom, it was discovered from time to time, must have been in correspondence with the enemy. The duties of the Council of Safety were consequently the more arduous, requiring sleepless vigilance and unwearied activity, together with firmness and energy in some cases, and great delicacy in others. A watchful though general surveillance was necessarily enforced over the community at large, while an eye of closer scrutiny was kept upon the character and conduct of great numbers of individuals composing that community. Mr. Taylor was in every respect equal to the station, and was singularly fortunate both in detecting and defeating the evil machinations of the adherents of the crown.

Among his early discoveries was the important circumstance that Lady Johnson was in active and frequent correspondence with her husband, and that the facilities derived from confidential agents and her powerful connexions enabled her to keep the enemy on either side-in New York and Canada-correctly advised, not only of the movements and designs of each other, but likewise of the situation of American affairs. Under these circumstances, Mr. Taylor proposed a resolution to the council, directing her removal forthwith from that part of the country. The proposition was received with disfavour, and encountered much opposition in the council. Some of the members seemed to lack the firmness necessary to adopt such a resolution, anticipating the resentment and probable vengeance of the baronet, on hearing that his lady had been treated with anything bordering upon harshness; while others, probably, thought the precaution either would be useless, or that it was scarce worth while thus to wage war upon a woman. Convinced, however, of the danger of her longer presence in that section of the country, Mr. Taylor urged her removal so strenuously as at length to prevail, taking upon himself the execution of the order.

Sir John, greatly exasperated at the measure, availed himself of a flag to admonish the mover of the resolution that, should the chances of war throw that gentleman into his possession, he should be instantly delivered over to the fury of the savages. The reply of the councillor was characteristic of the man: " If Mr. Taylor should be so fortunate as to have Sir John Johnson in his power, he should most assuredly be treated as a gentleman." Several attempts were subsequently made by the enemy, probably under the direction of Sir John, to make a captive of that gentleman. It being his custom to ride frequently on horseback for exercise, and often on the road leading towards Schenectady, in company, generally, with his intimate friend through life, Major Pophain, who was then in the military family of General James Clinton, a small scout of Indians, under the direction of Captain Brant, was on one occasion planted in ambush upon that road, at a point where it was supposed he would be sure to pass. Providentially, however, and for reasons never explained, and perhaps not known to themselves, on the morning referred to the friends shortened their ride, and wheeled about without passing the ambuscade, though approaching it within striking distance. One of the Indians, afterward taken prisoner, stated that Mr. Taylor might easily have been shot, but that their orders were to take him alive.

Another, and a yet bolder scheme, was subsequently adopted to effect the capture of the sagacious committee-man, for which purpose a party of the enemy were actually introduced, not only into the city of Albany, but into the loft of Mr. Taylor's own stable, standing in the rear of his house, and upon the margin of the river. In order, moreover, to facilitate their flight with the intended captive, a canoe had been procured and moored at the water's edge. Their design was to enter the house in the night, and seize and bear him silently away. One of the servants happening to step into the yard after the family had retired to rest, the lurking foes thought the time for a rush had arrived. But, in their preparations to spring forward, they alarmed the servant too soon, and he was enabled to get back into the house, bolt the door, and give timely warning. The insidious purpose was, of course, frustrated.

Nor were these the only hostile attempts directed, at about the same period, against individuals at Albany ; General Schuyler was again selected for a victim even of assassination. Smarting under their disappointment in the overthrow of Burgoyne, to which discomfiture the energy and efforts of Schuyler had so essentially contributed, a conspiracy was formed either to capture or destroy him. For this purpose the Tories corrupted a white man, who had been patronised by the general, and who was even then in his employment, to do the foul deed, and also one of the friendly Indians, whose clan had for years been in the habit of hutting upon his premises in Saratoga, during the fishing season at Fish Creek, which ran through his farm, and in which immense quantities of fish were then taken. To effect their object, the two assassins took their station under a covert, in a valley about half a mile from the general's premises, by which they had previously ascertained he was shortly to pass. They soon descried his approach on horseback. As he advanced, they took deliberate aim; when, with a sudden movement, the Indian struck up his associate's gun, with the exclamation, " I cannot kill him : I have eaten his ' bread too often.'"

Early in the autumn, the inhabitants of Unadilla and the contiguous settlements in that direction were again imploring the commander of Fort Schuyler for a detachment of troops to protect them from another expedition, which, the Oneidas had informed them, Colonels Johnson and Butler were getting on foot at Oswego. The project, according to the news obtained from the Oneidas, contemplated a simultaneous descent of the Tories and Indians upon five different points, comprehending all the principal settlements west of Schenectady. These unpleasant tidings were in some degree confirmed by the discovery of a large scouting party of the enemy on the Sacondaga, at the north of Johnstown.

The alarm was increased, towards the close of October, by the arrival of an express at the Canajoharie Castle, announcing that within a few days Sir John Johnson would return to Oswego, with six hundred regular troops and a large body of Indians. It was stated that Sir John had succeeded in raising twenty-two Indian nations in arms against the colonists. They were about sending a belt to the Oneidas, and, in the event of their refusal to take up the hatchet with their brethren in behalf of the king, they were themselves to be attacked, as the first measure of the invasion. These facts were imme-diately communicated to General Schuyler by a letter dated October 25th, announcing also the flight, to the ranks of Sir John Johnson, of Hon-Yost Schuyler, and twelve or fourteen of his neighbours at Fall Hill and in that vicinity, as heretofore stated. The letter contained a strong appeal for an additional force to defend the valley, with an assurance that, in the event of receiving no farther means of security, the greater part of the inhabitants had become so discouraged that they would probably lay down their arms ; in other words, throw themselves upon the protection of the king.

But, after all the alarm, nothing very serious resulted from these threatening indications during the residue of the year 1777. Still the Congress was unwilling that the year should close without making one more effort to win back the Six Nations from the British service, at least to a state of neutrality, if nothing more. With this view, on the 3d of De-

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cember an eloquent and powerful address to the Indians of those nations was reported by the committee on Indian affairs, and adopted.

But the appeal produced no effect. It was one of the misfortunes incident to the poverty of the country at that crisis, that Congress was unable to conciliate the friendship of the Indians by such a liberal dispensation of presents as they had been in the habit of receiving from the superintendents of the crown, and as they were yet enabled to receive from the British government at or by the way of Montreal. Thayendanegea, early in the preceding year, had taunted General Herldmer, at Unadilla, with the poverty of the Continental government, which, he said, was not able to give the Indians a blanket. The charge was but too true; and the officers of the crown were not slow in availing themselves of it, not only by appeals to their cupidity, but by a more lavish bestowment of presents than ever. And under these circumstances, with th e single exceptions of the Oneidas and the feeble band of the Tuscaroras, all the efforts of Congress to conciliate their friendship, or even to persuade them to neutrality, proved unavailing.

Thus ended the military operations of the year 1777. At the close of the Pennsylvania campaign, the British army went into winter-quarters in Philadelphia, and the American at Valley Forge. On the 15th day of November, what are now called the old "Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union" between the thirteen colonies were adopted by Congress; and on the 23d of the same month it was resolved that all proposals for a treaty between the United States and Great Britain inconsistent with the independence of the former should be rejected. It was likewise farther resolved that no conference should be held with any commissioners on the part of Great Britain, unless, as a measure preliminary, the fleets and armies of that power were withdrawn.

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