Class. Book. COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT ; ; :■ i i gii'jff,ftgj&Sj|ij£^'^.£^ i^ i ',.,"!r S''< i ^li m i i i 1 m nil } 1609.- ^\^^^^iy -OF- SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK. t-^^sWITH^^Sv-i itsfraftoiis 'diul |6iogrH|!liiol Slteklie^ SOME OF ITS PROMINENT MEN AND PIONEERS. NathjSniel Bartlett Sylvester, AUTHOR OF HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF NORTHERN NEW YORK AND THE ADIRONDACK WILDERNESS, SARATOGA, AND KAY-AD-ROS-SE-RA, ETC., ETC. 7v PHILADELPHIA: J '^■^-.o... )f the +0 the 1878.- • ^-'■7?):"'T'! . /'»-!''--j'-Jii^-i:i.>-±i~-<->;i-;Vi:.t>i--^i-'-'i-'^-i-J-i'----^-i-'i~-=«i^ U^ yi.tj i*SETiS.iSTJ PRESS OF J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO., PHILADELPHIA. Entered according tu Act of Cougress, in the year 1878, by NATHANIEL BARTLETT 8YLVESTER, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. PEEFACE. Around the name of Saratoga there clusters a wealth of liistoric lore. Since tliis name was first transferred from the oral language of the red man to the written page of the white man, in a word, from the favorite old iuinting-ground of tiie river hills, first, to the little hamlet of the wilderness, and then to the town and county, it has been associated, in peace as well as in war, with the most important events which have been chronicled in our country's history. It will, therefore, readily be seen that, upon taking up the task of writing the history of Saratoga County, an almost overwhelming mass of material presented itself for consideration. In one catalogue of books alone, entirely devoted to the subject, or in which important reference is made to Saratoga, there are more than one hundred volumes. To all this must be added the vast accumulation of public records in tlie State and county archives. Tlie important question then was, not what could be got, but what should be taken. A broad field lay before us, filled with mingled tares and wheat, and we must cull from it what best suited our purpose. Yet in all this vast field of literature, so rich in many things, there was little to be found relating to the early settlement of the towns and county. In search of this pioneer history, the public records must be searched, the wiiole ground must be gone over afresh. But a hundred years in passing had removed three generations of men, and what could once have been so accurately learned from living lips, now that those lips are sealed forever, must be gathered by the dim light of uncertain tradition. As this is the first history of the county which has been published, it seems to us tliat it should be, more tiian anytiiing else, a history of the pioneers. The pioneers of a country, those who brave the dangers and endure the toils of its early settlement, be their lives ever so humble, are worthy of notice, wiiile those who come after them, be tlieir social position ever so high, cannot expect to receive the historian's attention, unless they mingle much in affiiirs, or perform historic deeds. It is to the pioneers, therefore, that we have devoted a large part of the following pages. In making our selections from tlie public records and in gleaning from the literature of the subject we have doubtless often been unwise. Yet we have not attempted to put everything into the work that would interest everybody. In gathering material for the history of the early settlements, doubtless we have sometimes, owing to the imperfections of human memory, been misinformed as to names, dates, and circumstances. There ^^•ere doubtless, too, many pioneers in the "diiferent towns, whose names we have not been able to learn, and therefore we give no account of them in these pages. The reader should bear in mind that, at the time of the organization of the county, in 1791, there were upwards of seventeen thousand people living M'ithin its borders. Of how few of these, comparatively, is there now much known ? So our work, like all things human, notwithstanding our best endeavors, is doubtless to some extent scored with errors, marred by omissions, faults, and imperfections, and we beg the reader to pass them over with indulgent eye. PREFACE. In pursuing the subject we have selected such topics for insertion as we thought would best illus- trate the progress of the people of the county during the century of its growth and development, from their rude beginnings in the old wilderness to tlieir present state of enlightened culture and refinement. To those in different parts of the county wlio have kindly assisted us, — and we would like to mention all tiieir names liere, but want of space will not pern\it, and to name a part would seem invidious, — to all such we return our heartfelt acknowledgment. To the publishers of this volume it is due to say, that they have done everything in their power which they could do, to assist us in the endeavor to make it acceptable to their patrons. To do this they have spared neither pains nor expense. To the writer it has been mostly a labor of pleasure ratiier than of profit. If the reader can find anything in it to approve, we are sure his generous commendation will not be withheld. Wliat he sees in the execution of tiie work — in what it contains and in what it does not contain — to disap- prove, may his condemnation come rather in sorrow than in anger. And now, whether good or evil I'eport betide it, the task is done. X. B. S. Saratoga Springs, X. Y., .July 9, 1878. CONTENTS. HZISTOK^IO-A-Xj. HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTV. CHAPTEIt PAGK CIIAPTKll FADE XXVI. —Statistical Tables 131 I. — Introduction ........ 9 XXVII. —Biographical Sketches 137 II. — Extent — Original Counties — Civil Division 10 III. IV. V. VI. — Topographical Features ...... — Geological Outlines — The Indian Occupancy ...... —Early Explorations— 1 535-1009 .... 12 15 18 22 HISTORY OF THE VILLAfJES AND TOWNS OF SAKAT0»;A COUNTY. Village of Saratoga Springs 14S VII. — Founding of Albanv, Schenectady, and Montreal — Town of It It . 213 1614-1662 26 Village of Ballston Spa . 22S VIII. —Indian Wars — The Mission of Isaac Jogues — 1642- 1646 29 Town of Ballston Saratoga . 246 . 259 IX. — French and Indian Wars — The Northern Invasion of 1666 32 •' Stillwater . Charlton . 286 . 313 X. —French and Indian War of 1689-90 . . . . 34 Waterford . . 324 XI. —The Northern Invasion of 1693— A Battle in Sara- toga 37 Ilalf-Moou . Oalway . 343 . 35S XII. —French and Indian Wars— 1709-4S .... 38 Edinburgh . . 369 XIII. —Last French and Indian War — 1755-03 . 39 Malta .... . 3Sn XIV. — The First Period of the Burgoyne Campaign t»f 1777 43 Corinth . 39! XV. — The Second Period of the Burgoyne Cam])aign 53 Northumberland . 401 XVI. — The Third Period of the Burgoyne Campaign . 60 Hadley . 414 XVII. -The Northern Invasion of 17SU 70 Moreau . 422 XVIII. —Early Land Grants— 1684-1713 . . . . 73 Greenfield . . 435 XIX. — Early Settlement — County Organization — Civil Gov- ernment and Civil List ...... 77 Day .... Wilton . 454, . 462 XX. —Military Rolls 90 Clifton Park . 472 XXI. — County Societies ....... 95 Milton . 48.^ XXII. —The Press of Saratoga 100 Providence . 495 XXIII. —Saratoga County in the Great Rebellion of 1801 106 XXIV. XXV. ^Centennial Celebrations —Internal Improvements — Canals, Railroads — 1795- 120 1838 128 Patrons Rkcoud and Diukctor T . 503 IIjIjTJSTI?.^TI03SrS. PAGE Clerk's Oflice and Court-House, Ballston (frontispiece) facing itle. PAGK Map of Saratoga County, colored, by towns . . facing 9 Residence of J. H. Farrington . facing 168 Table of Geologic Time s ...... . 10 Portrait of Captain J. P. Butler {{ 158 Plan of Encampment and Position of Burgoyno's Army at Views of the (icyser Spring Property t( 161 Swords' House, Sept. 17 and 19, 1777 . . facing 60 Vermont House . Ra^&mes af T. S. I>«5-je Skcis «I I " ^. 0- ftttt . . td* ■*■ 3fr«. J-rha Harrrs . i. 5l^»t«£C 414 *W 4t* If Lug ei ■^ «2> *ii-443 -. 442 ,4*3 STItrWATEK- ■^ Sei^aasm W. Snrer . . . . . tsaTTitig 444 : . . ; : - ''■i fh-" T -i piirtraifs .jiiLj^ 3U " 4lii 4jl •^ BgnJ:imfn 5. ^. :-_ i^ii WATCRFOKD, Kssiiese- Elm P»rs- P'jrtrmic of DiuimLf 324 BAY. POEOaik •£ S. T. Kss>i -'•-I'V^ :i tii . 4l>a P^cteut? •Claim But asdVae . nitffni^ 4«S sAU'-aoox. Ke«!.i«"i>F» '»f Frnik yi-nau, M.'t-banr._-^TI» Stems 5+-; CLirrOX PAKS. -. V r^ : ■ . - '' ^j . - . . bioa^ 4^: , - - _ ■ 1 vich. purtrait^) - - 47* . atifuT^fcui^ . ■*■ «r* Ptosraftrf Coi- . . portraits! .£ 4S1 •* Ca^fi. a- J>- SxKiW'jfii ;.;■; 2±t"- <■-'.' Ijl •* 4S2 ae». F. S. Parka . J. jo -■U-TOX. «4I.WAT. Rasiiiisnce of til* Citte latntfr Bluuii , wicb. portraic, . fimmg 4S4 Ktf^tience af T^omof Jfazrs (vitb. p«ctt«3t; Sasat^ 355 •* Isaac yas&. wxtk p»irtraiK) - *£ 4iStf ■* A. L. Scotte [ wft& portraits) " -K- ■^ Isaac H. J'j&nsoa . pijrtrai of Hariuw Tan C^aaami .£ 4. ^^KXX- .^ 3A«^i o>y<( KA^-^^ ^vhfiii'ctiitlif Sriilv iil'JhIes o I i •>. ^ ■■'': I'll Ir tit yi? A^rj/„ll .W«u/(^ f Viyt"'''''' ul iX\ 0: H I ST O E Y OF SARATOGA COUNTY, NEAV YORK. CHAPTEK I. INTRODUCTION. I.- SINGULAR GEOGRAPHICAL POSITIO>f. Saratoga County, it may of a truth be said, owes its historical importance to the striking peculiarity of its geo- graphical position. From the Island of Montreal, in the River St. Lawrence, a narrow depression, or valley, in the earth's surface ex- tends due south, on a line aluiost as straight as the crow flies, for the distance of nearly four hundred miles, to the Island of Manhattan, at the mouth of the Hudson river, on tlie shore of the Atlantic ocean. This long and narrow valley, which seems to be a deep, downward fold in the mountain ranges, separates the high- lands of New England from the highlands of New York. The summit level of this long northern valley being less than one hundred and sixty feet above the level of the sea, and lakes and streams of navigable water stretching through it either way, it forms a natural highway and route of travel between the great valley of the St. Law- rence on the north and the Atlantic seaboard on the south. From the " sprouts" or mouths* of the Mohawk river, nearly in the centre of this great northern valley, another long and narrow valley, al.so caused by a downward fold in the mountain ranges, extends nearly due west, and reach- ing to the basin of the great lakes, opens the way to the valley of the Missi.ssippi beyond. This great intersecting western valley separates the highlands of northern from the highlands of southern New York, and, like the great northern valley, i.s also a natural highway and thoroughfare, with low summit level, and teeming with the travel of a continent. Between the nor:hern or Champlain valley, and the western or Moliawk valley, and the valley of the St. Law- rence to the southwestward, rises the rugged Laurentiaa * The Mohawk, just before it flows info the Hudson, separates into four .spreadiuf; branches, which the early Dutch settler signifi- cantly called Sp>iii/tca, which is from the Danish Spiuiten, or Sa.'con Spryttau, from which comes our English word Sproula. — Vide " An- nals of Albany," vol. ii. page 226, and " Saratoga and Kay-ad-ros- se-ra," by the author, page lU. 2 mountain chain of the Adirondack wilderness. Forming the backbone of the Atlantic slope of the continent, the Apalachian mountain range extends from Nova Scotia on the north Uj Florida on the soutli. These vast mountain ranges thus present, through the whole distance from the northern to the .southern gulf, a most formidable barrier between the Atlantic seaboard and the great central valleys of the continent. And these two deep narrow valleys thus stretching around the Adirondacks, and one running north and south and the other trending east and west through the State of New York, are the only mountain passes that lejid through or over the Apalachian mountain range. Everywhere else, from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to the Gulf of Mexico, except through these two narrow valleys, the traveler must pass over high mountain barriers in going to and fro between tlie Atlantic seaboard and the basin of the great lakes and the valleys of the Mississippi and the St. Lawrence. Over the great natural highways and routes of travel leading through these mountain passes ran the most im- portant of the old Lidian trails ; through them marched the armies of the long colonial period ; and through these valleys now passes the world's commerce in ce;iseless flow from the teeming west into the lap of our State's great metropolis, the city of New York, which sits by the sea at the foot of the great northern valley, still holding her proud position, rendered possible by her great natural advantages as the queen city of tlu; New World. In the angle formed by the junction of these two long deep valleys or passes through the mountain ranges, in the angle between the old Indian war-trails, in the angle between the pathways of armies, in the angle between the great modern routes of travel, in the angle formed by the junction of the Mohawk and Hudson rivers, lies the territory now known and distinguished on the map of the State of New York as the county of Saratoga. II.— ITS PLACE IN HISTORY. It will thus easily be seen that its singular geographical position like that of the county of Albany, which lies in the opposite southern angle of the two rivers, gives to tlie county of Saratoga its important strategical position in 9 10 HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK. time of war, places it al(jnfi tlie jircat centres of traffic and travel in times of jieace, and has already given it a long and eventful history. And it will i|uite as readily also be seen that, in order to give an intelligible history of the county of Saratoga, so often the theatre of stirring events during the long colonial period, some account must be given, more or less in detail, of all the numerous expeditions and excursions which, both in peace and in war, traversed the great northern and west- ern valleys. During the indefinite period of the Indian occupancy terminating with its discovery by white men, that part of the State now called Northern New York was disputed ground. The Ak/oiiquin races of the valley of the St. Lawrence contended for its possession with the fierce Iru- qiiois nations of the valley of the Mohawk and of central New York. After its discovery by white men, the French allies of the A/(/oiiqiiiiis and the English allies of the Iroquois took up and continued the long ijuarrel for its mastery. Thus for two hundred and seventy years, during which its authentic history runs back before the clo.se of the War of the Revolution, there was scarcely an hour of peaceful rest unbroken by the fear of the savage invader in these great war-w^orn valleys' in the angle of which lies tlie county of Saratoga. During this whole period it was the midnight war-whoop, the uplifted tomahawk, the cruel scalping-knife, the burn- ing dwelling, the ruined home, that made the whole country a wide scene of desolation and blood. At lenarth this lonsr wilderness warfare culminated in the surrender of General Burgoyne, on the 17th of October, 1777, at Saratoga. From that day, with Lexington and Bunker Hill, with Trenton, Monmouth, and Ticonderoga, with Germantown and Yorktown, Saralogd will remain one of our country's high historic names. In the following pages an attempt will be made to trace the history of Saratoga County, fi'om its rude beginnings in the old howling wilderness of more than two hundred years ago, up to times within the ready memory of many men and women now living. But this attempt is not without many and serious diffi- culties. A hundred years even in passing have taken one by one all the old .settlers from us, and much that could once have accurately been learned from living lips now that those lips are sealed forever must be sought in the all-too- nieagrc records left us, or we must grope our way for it among the conflicting stories of the fragmentary lore of uncertain tradition. CHAPTER IL EXTENT— ORIGINAL COUNTIES— CIVIL DIVISIONS. I.— BOUNDARIES. The county of Saratoga is centrally distant thirty-one miles from the capitol at Albany. It is bounded on the north by Warren county ; on the east by the counties of Warren, Washington, and Rensselaer; on the south by the counties of Albany and Schenectady, and on the west by the counties of Schenectady, Montgomery, Fulton, and Hamilton. The county of Saratoga is situated between latitude 42° 47' and 43° 22' north, and longitude 2° 47' and 3° 20' cast from Wasliington. Its extreme length from north to south is about 43 miles, and its greatest width from east to west is about 28 miles. It contains 862 si[uare miles or 551,680 acres. Of this, according to the State cen.sus of 1875, 317,201 acres are improved land, and 148,218 acres unimproved ; there being of the latter 89,192 acres of woodland. This enumeration by tie census-takers leaves a remainder of 96,261 acres to be accounted for, doubtless mostly repre- sented by the waste, non-resident lands of the northern part of the county lying within the boundaries of the Adiron- dack wilderness. The total population of the county in 1875 was .")5,137. In the '■• Revised Statutes of the State" this county is described and its boundary lines defined as follows, to wit : " The county of Saratoga* shall contain all that part of this State bounded, northerly, by the couuty of Warren; easterly, by the coun- ties of Rensselaer, Washington, and AVarrcn ; southerly, by a line beginning at a point in the middle of Hudson's river opposite to the middle of the most northerly branch of the Mohawk river, and run- ning thence through the middle of said northerly branch and of tlie Mohawk river, westerly to the east bounds of the county of Schenec- tady ; then along the easterly and northerly bounds of the said county of Schenectady to the northwest corner of said county; then north one degree and twenty-live minutes west along a line heretofore estab- lished, drawn from a point on the Mohawk river at the northeast corner of the tract, granted to George Ingolsby and others, to the southwest corner of the county of Warren." The line above described as " a line heretofore established, drawn from a point on the Mohawk river," and as running " north one degree and twenty-five minutes west,'' is inter- esting to the student of history as being what is known as the " old Tryon county line." II.^THE FORM.\TION OF ORIGINAL COUNTIES. From the time of the first division of the State into counties, under Charles II., on the 1st day of November, in the year 1683, until the 24t.h day of March, 1772, all the territory lying northerly and westerly of what was then the county of Ulster was included in the county of Albany. On the 24th day of March, 1772, the vast county of Albany was divided, and two new counties set off, namely, the counties of Tryon and Charlotte. The county of Tryon included all that part of the State lying westerly of the aforesaid " established line," which ran from the Mohawk, as above set forth, to the Canada line, at a point near the present Indian village of St. Regis. Tryon county was thus nearly two hundred miles wide on its eastern border, and stretched out westward two hundred and seventy miles to the shores of Lake Erie. The shire- town of Tryon county was Johnstown, near the Mohawk, the residence of Sir William Johnson, Bart. It was named in honor of William Tryon, the last colonial governor of the State. ' The county of Charlotte, scarcely less in size than Tryon » See Sec. 2, Title I., Chap. II., Part I., N. Y. Rev. Stat. HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK. 11 county, included within its boundaries all the northern part; of the State that lay easterly of the " Tryon county line," and northerly of the present county of Saratoga and the Batterskill in Washington county. Charlotte county also included the westerly half of what is now the State of Vermont, and was then the disputed territory known as the New Hampshire grants. The easterly half of Ver- mont, lying west of the Connecticut river, also claimed by New York, and since forming part of Albany county, was set off into two counties, — Cumberland, in 17G6, and Gloucester, 1770. Charlotte county was so named in honor of the Princess Charlotte, daughter of George III., or, as some say, of the Queen Consort Charlotte, of Mecklenburg .Strelitz. The county-seat of Charlotte county was Fort Edward. The first court was held in that village on the 19th of October, 1773, by Judge William Duer. The first clerk of the court was Daniel MeCrea, a brother of Jeanie JlcCrea, whose tragic deatli soon after occurred near where the court sat. On the 2d day of April, 1784, the legislature of the then new State of New York passed an act by which it was ordained that : '* From and after the ])assing of this act, the county of TnvoM shall be called and known hy the name of Munigumcri/, and tlte county of Chahlotte by the name of Wdnliiiii/lnn." " Thus these two counties," says Judge Gibson, in his " Bench and Bar of Washington County," " organized origi- nally by one legislative act, and simultaneously named in compliment to royalty and its satellite by a subsequent legis- lative act, after passing through a sea of fire and famine and desolation and war, were simultancou.sly born again in a baptism of blood, and one of them named after the greatest of its slaughtered heroes on the battle-field, Montgomery, and the other after the most distinguished of its living survivors, the immortal Washingto.v." It will thus be seen that what is now the county of Saratoga was not set off in the division of the 24th of March, 1772, but constituted and remained a part of Albany county until the 7th day of February, 1701, when Albany county was again divided, being reduced to its present limits, and the counties of Rensselaer and Saratoga set oflf. Besides the county of Albany there are nine other origi- nal counties in what is now the State of New Yoi'k, namely, the counties of Duchess, King's, New York, Orange, Queen's. Richmond, Suffolk, Ulster, and Westchester. These ten original counties were all formed on the 1st day of November, 1683, by order of the Duke of York, then the sole proprietor of the provinces, and who ascended the throne of England on the Gth of February, 1G85, as James II., of unfortunate memory. These counties were all named after James and his near relatives. Thus, the counties of New York and Albany were so called in honor of his two titles of the Duke of York, in England, and Duke of Albany, in Scotland. The counties of Kind's and Queen s (now Kings and Queens without the possessive) were named in honor of the Duke's royal brother, then King Charles II., and his wife, Catharine of Braganza. DiicJicKK (now Dutchess), containing also what are now Columbia and Putnam counties, complimented James' wife, Mary Hyde, Duchess of York. Suffolk county was named after King Charles, in whom was then vested the title of Duke of Suffolk. This title was lost by Charles Grey, father of Lady Jane Grey, in consequence of her rebellion. Richmond county was named in honor of Charles Lenox, Duke of Richmond, a natural son of Charles II., by a French woman, Louise de Querouaille. The royal duke- dom of Richmond had descended from the brother of Henry Stuart, the father of James I., of Etigland, and had become extinct on the death of James Stuart, son of the first cousin of Charles I. It was then conferred by Charles II. upon the son of his favorite mistress above named, the ancestor of the present family of Richmond. Orange county, then including Rockland county and all of the present county of Orange lying south of a line run- ning west from the mouth of jMurderer's creek, was called in honor of William, Prince of Orange, and his wife, Mary of England, the daughter of James, wh(}, with her hu.sband, ascended the throne of England as William and JMary. In 1683 the younger brother of King Charles had the Irish title of tlie Duke of Ulster, and Ulster county was named in his honor. The county has since been divided, and from it taken the counties of Sullivan, Greene, and Del- aware, and the northern part of Orange. On the death of the last Earl of Chester, the most important of the peerages of the old Norman kings, the title became merged in the crown, but was always conferred upon the Prince of Wales. As Charles II. had no legitimate son, he himself retained the title, and it was also in his honor that the county of Westchester received its name . But at the time of the division of Nov. 1, 1863, there were two other counties made out of what was then con- sidered the duke's province of New York, viz., the counties of Duke's and Cornwall, and where are they ? The title of Duke of Cornwall also remains with the crown of Eng- land when there is no Prince of Wales to hold it, and the islands on the sea-coast of Maine being claimed by James, were erected into the county of Cornwall. Martha's Vine- yard and Nantucket islands, also claimed by him, were set oft' as Duke's county, tiut Massachusetts, having the pos- session of all these Islands, refused to give them up. James therefore yielded his claims, and Cornwall and Duke's became the lost counties of New York. III.— CIVIL DIVISIONS OF SARATOGA COUNTY. At the time of the division of the county of Albany, and the formation of Tryon and Charlotte counties, on the 24th day of March, 1772, the part still remaining in Albany county, now constituting the county of Saratoga, was divided into two districts, the " District of Saragh- toga" and the " District of Half-Moon." The district of Half- .Moon embraced the present towns of Waterford, Half-Moon, and Clifton Park. The district of Saraghtoga then contained all the remaining north part of the county, embracing the territory now divided into seventeen towns. On the 1st day of April, 1775, another district was 12 HISTOKY OF SAKATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK. carved out of the district" of Saraghtoga, and named the " District of Balls-Town." This new district of Balls-Town then included the present towns of Ballston, Milton, Charlton, Galway, Providence, Edinburgh, and part of Greenfield. What is now Saratoga County remained thus divided into three districts until after the War of the Revolution. On the 7th day of March, 1788, three years before Saratoga County was set off, the name " district" was dropped, and Balls-Town, Half-Moon, Saraghtoga, and Stillwater were organized as linvns of Albany county; and when Saratoga County was formed, on the 7th day of February, 1791, these towns, Balls-Town, Half-Moon, Saraghtoga, and Stillwater, still remained, forming the four mother towns of Saratoga County. The town of Stillwater was originally taken off from the Saraghtoga District, and when erected included the present town of Stillwater, a part of Easton, in Washington county, and all but the north part of the town of Malta. From these four " motlier towns" of Saratoga County other towns have been from time to time set off and subdi- vided, until the county contained its present number of twenty towns, as follows, viz. : Charlton, Milton, and Galwat were all formed from Balls- Town on the 17th of March, 1792, and the line of Charlton changed in 1795. Greenfield was taken from Saratoga and Milton, on the 12th of March, 1793, having first been called Fcdrfield. Providence was taken from Galway on the 5th day of February, 1796. Northumberland was formed from Saratoga, on the 16th of March, 1798. Edinburgh, as Northfiehl, was taken from Providence on the 13th of March, 1801, and its present name given April 6, 1808. Hadley was formed from Greenfield and Northumber- land, on the 27th of February, 1801. Malta was taken from Stillwater on the 3d day of March, 1802, and that part of Saratoga lying south of the Kayadrossera creek annexed March 28, 1805. Moreau was taken from Northumberland, on the 28th of March, 1805. Waterford was formed from Half-Moon, on the 17th of April, 1816. Half-Moon was changed to Orange on the 17th of April, 1816, but the original name was restored on the 16th of January, 1820. V Wilton was taken from Northumberland, on the 20th of ApyjJ, ll818. CoktNTH was taken from Hadley, April 20, 1818. Saratoga Springs was set off from Saratoga on the 9th of April, 1819. Day, as Concord, was formed from Edinburgh and Hadley, and its present name adopted, December 3, 1827. Clifton Park, as Cliftmi, was formed from Half-Moon, March 3, 1828, and its present name given March 31, 1829. In the following pages, after devoting several chapters to the general history of the county of Saratoga, from its earliest exploration by white men, in 1609, to the present time, each of the several towns will be taken up in their order, and, so far as it has been possible in the necessarily limited space allowed, a history of each will be given. CHAPTER III. TOPOGRAPHICAL FEATURES. :.— GENERAL VIEW. The .surfiiee of Saratoga County is extremely diversified. Towards the north it rises into the rocky crags and towering mountain peaks of the Adirondack ranges of the mountain belt of the great wilderness. Towards the south it slopes into low rounded hills and gentle undulations, bordered by long river- valleys. Through the westerly part of the towns of Old Saratoga and Stillwater, and easterly of Saratoga lake, extends an isolated group of hills which rise to the height of some five hundred feet, with rounded summits and terraced declivities. Along the bank of the Hudson there stretches a broad intervale, bordered on the west by a range of clay bluffs rising from forty to two hundred feet in height. From the summits of this range of clay bluffs an extensive sand plain reaches westerly to the foot of the mountain chains, and extends southwesterly from the Hudson, near Glen's Falls, across the county, a distance of thirty-five miles, to the Mohawk, at Clifton Park. This belt of " Saratoga Sands" covers the greater part of six townships, of land, viz., Mo- reau, Wilton, Northumberland, Saratoga Springs, Malta, and Clifton Park. II.— MOUNTAINS. The great wilderness of northern New York, now oftener called the Adirondack wilderness, is an upland region of a mean height of about two thousand feet above the level of the sea, and comprises greater or lesser parts of eleven counties of the State, viz., Saratoga, Warren, Clinton, Essex, Franklin, St. Lawrence, Lewis, Hamilton, Herkimer, Oneida, and Fulton. A line beginning at Saratoga Springs and running westerly across the country to Trenton Falls, near Utica, on the Mohawk ; thence northerly to Potsdam, near Ogdensburg, on the St. Lawrence ; thence easterly to Dan- nemora, near Plattsburg, on Lake Champlaiu ; and thence southerly to the place of beginning, will nearly coincide with the outlines of the great wilderness. A few small settlements, confined mostly to the fertile valleys of the streams, lie within the boundaries above de- scribed. But in many places the ancient woods stretch down beyond these lines to the very shores of the water-courses, and cast their shadows over the great routes of travel that surround northern New York. The Adirondack wilderness is quite the size of the whole State of New Jersey, or of Vermont, or of New Hampshire. To compare it with European countries, it is three-fourths as large as the kingdom of Holland, or Belgium, or of the republic of Switzerland, whose Alpine character it so much resembles. Within the borders of this wilderness are more than fifteen hundred lakes and lakelets, and from its moun- tain heights run numberless rivers and streams of water in every direction. Over it all is spread a primeval forest, — HISTORY OF SAEATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK. 13 "covering the land as the grass covers a garden lawn, sweeping over hill and hollow in endless undulations, burying mountains in verdure, and mantling brook and river from the light of day." The southeastern part of this great wilderness, into wliose sombre shades the northern half of Saratoga County stretches, is traversed by no less than five distinct ranges of mountains. These ranges cover what is known as the Mountain Belt of the Wilderness. They run about eight miles apart and parallel with each other. The chains are not always quite distinct, but often their lateral spurs inter- lock, and sometimes single mountains are so vast in size that they occupy the whole space between the ranges and choke up the intervening valleys. These mountains are not regularly serrated, but consist of groups of peaks joined together by immense lidges. From the south these moun- tains rise continually higher and higher, until at length they culminate in the highest summits of the Adirondack range proper, the old giants of the wilderness. On every hand this mountain belt of the great wilderness presents the most striking features of an Alpine landscape. In every part are seen towering mountain peaks, deep, yawn- ing abysses, gloomy gorges, rough granite blocks, sweeping torrents, fresh fountains, and green mountain meadows. The five mountain ranges of the wilderness are called, beginning with the most easterly one, the Palmertown range, the Kayadrossera range, the Scarron range, the BoQUET range, and the Adirondack range. Of these five mountain ranges two of them, viz., the Palmertoivn and the Kayadrossera ranges, stretch a great part of their length far down into the county of Saratoga, almost com- pletely filling all the northern part of the county with their rugged mountain masses. palmertown mountains. The Palmertown mountain range is the most easterly of the five ranges of the mountain belt of the Adirondack wilderness. It begins in Sugarloaf mountain, near Ticonde- roga, on Lake Champlain, runs down on both sides of Lake George, and stretching southward across the Upper Hudson, which breaks through it, it extends through Corinth, Moreau, Wilton, and Greenfield, and terminates in the rocky, forest-covered hills over which North Broadway runs in the village of Saratoga Springs. At Lake George this range forms the beautiful highlands which add so much to its wild and picturesque beauty. French mountain, overlooking the old battle-ground at the head of Lake George, so rich in historic memories, is more than two thousand feet above tide-water. In Saratoga County one of the highest peaks is JMount MauGregor, while Glen Mitchell lies at the foot of a mountain gap or gorge of this range. Long before the northern part of Saratoga County was settled by white men, tradition says a band of Indians, flee- ing from the east after King Philip's war, settled at the foot of this mountain range, in what is now the town of Wilton, calling themselves Palmertown Indians. From them the region round about was called by the earlier settlers, soon after the French war, Palmertown. From this comes the name Palmertown mountains. KAY-AD-ROS-SE-RA RANGE. The range of mountains next easterly of the Palmer- town range is the Kay-ad-ros-se-ra range. This range be- gins on Lake Champlain, near Crown Point, and runs down through Warren county into Saratoga County. The range enters this county in the town of Hadley, and runs through that town and the towns of Day, Edinburgh, Corinth, Greenfield, Providence, and terminates in the highlands of Milton, Galway, and Charlton. From Sara- toga Springs this range is plainly to be seen, filling up the southwestern horizon with its dark-green forest-crowned mountain masses. This range derives its name from the old Indian hunting-ground of which it forms so conspic- uous a natural feature. The Hudson winds along for many miles in a deep valley lying between the mountain ipasses before it turns eastward and breaks through the Palmer- town range. The Sacondaga breaks through the Kayadros- sera range from the west, and enters the Hudson in this valley. The highest peak in this range is Mount Pharaoh, whose Indian name is On-de-wa. This mountain is on the border of Essex county, and its summit is four thousand feet above the sea. THE SCARRON (sCHROON) RANGE. Across the extreme northwest corner of Saratoga County, in the towns of Day and Edinburgh, extends a part of the third great mountain range of the Adirondack wilderness. This range begins in the promontory of Split Rock, in Essex county, on Lake Champlain. Thence it runs down through Warren into the southeast corner of Hamilton and across the northwest corner of Saratoga, and ends in the rounded, drift-covered hills that rise from the valley of the Mohawk, in Fulton county. Scarron (Schroon) lake lies at the foot of this range in Warren and Essex coun- ties, and Schroon river there winds through its deep valleys. From this lake and river this great mountain chain de- rives its name. The name is now commonly written Schroon, but on all the older maps it is written Scarron. It is a tradition, which seems well grounded, that this name Scarron was given to this lake and river by the early French settlers at Crown Point, on Lake Champlain, in honor of Madame Scarron, the widow of the celebrated French dramatist and novelist, Paul Scarron, who was styled in his day " the emperor of the burlesque." After her poet husband, who was a paralytic and a cripple, died, being still a most beautiful and fascinating woman, she captivated even royalty itself by her wondrous charms. By some means the young widow became the secret governess of the natural children of Louis XIV. by Madame de Montespan, and soon became the rival of the latter in the afi'ections of the voluptuous and dissolute king. After the queen, Maria Theresa, of Austria, died, the king made the charming widow Scarron his wife by a secret marriage. Louis then settled upon her a large es- tate, named Maintenon, and made her Marquise de Main- tenon. As Madame de Maintenon, for thirty years she controlled the destinies of France. But this mountain chain, the lake, and the river bear her more humble name, — the name of her poor, brilliant poet-husband, Scarron. 14 HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK. The next two mountain ranges of the wilderness, the Boquet range and the Adirondack range proper, neitlier of them lie within the bounds of Saratoga County. The mountains of the great Adirondack wilderness be- long to the old Laurentian system of Canada, and not to the Apalachian system of the Atlantic slope, as is by some writers erroneously stated. A spur of the vast Canadian Laurentian chain crosses the river St. Lawrence at the Thousand Islands into northern New Y'ork. After, by its rugged, broken char- acter, forming the Thousand Islands in crossing the St. Lawrence, this spur of the Laurontides spreads easterly to Lake Champlain, southerly to the valley of the Mohawk, and westerly to the Black river, forming the whole rocky groundwork of the upland region of the great wilderness. In the interior these mountains rise into a thousand lofty peaks, towering above thousands of crystal lakes and " emerald mountain meadow,s. Prom the high, rounded hills on the east side of Saratoga lake, the well-defined ridges of the two great ranges that fill up all the northern part of the county with their wild grandeur can be distinctly traced. First, the Palniertown, ending at Saratoga Springs, and beyond them the Kay-ad- ros-se-ra, in bold relief against the western sky, extending still farther southward into Galway and Charlton. III.— r, I VERS. The Hudson river for more than seventy miles of its course sweeps along and washes the eastern border of Sara- toga County. The Hudson is fed by a system of forest branches that spread over the whole mountain belt of the Adirondack wilderness, but only one of these main branches — the Sacondaga — enters the borders of Saratoga County. The Mohnwhs called the Hudson Skd-Hch-la-de, mean- ing "the river beyond the open jiiiies." To the Mohaioks, when going across the carrying-place from the Mohawk river at Schenectady to the Hudson at Albany, the latter river was literally " the river beyond the pines," and thus they so called it in their language. Its Algonquin name, however, was Ca-Jw-tii-ie-a, meaning " the river that comes from the mountains lying beyond the Cohoes flills." Henry Hud.son, its first white discoverer, translating its Algonquin name, called it the " River of Mouutain.s." The early Dutch settlers on its banks sometimes called it " Tiie Nassau,'' after the reigning family of Holland, and sometimes " J'/ic Mauritius" in honor of the Stadtholder, Prince Maurice. But it was not called The Hudson until the English wrested it from the Dutch, in 1664, when they so named it in honor of their countryman, its immortal dis- coverer and first explorer. The Hud.son is literally a " river of the mountains." It is born among the clouds on the shaggy side of Mount Mcln- tyre, and in the mountain meadows and lakelets near the top of Mount Marcy, almost five thousand feet above the level of the sea. The infant Hudson is cradled in the awful chasms of the Panther Gorge, the Gorge of the Dial, and in the Indian Pass, called by the Indians Da-yali-Je- ga-go, '■ the place where the storm-clouds meet in battle with the great serpent." Near the centre of this wondrous chasm of the Indian Pass, high up on the rugged side of Mount Mclntyre, two little springs issue from the rocks so near to each other that their limpid waters almost mingle. From each spring flows a tiny stream. The streams at first interlock, but soon sepa- rate and run down the mountain side into the chasm, which is here two thousand nine hundred and thirty-seven feet above tide. After reaching the bottom, one runs southerly as the head-waters of the Hudson, the other northerly into the St. Lawrence. Upon the south side of Mount Marcy is a little lake called " Summit Water" by the old guides, and by Ver- planck Calvin, in his Adirondack survey, " Tear of the Clouds." This little lakelet is four thousand three hun- dred and twenty-six feet above tide-water. It is the highest lake-source of the Hudson. After thus rising upon its highest mountain peaks, the Hudson in its wild course down the southern slope of the wilderness crosses four of the mountain chains, which all seem to give way at its approach, as if it were some way- ward child of their own. After bursting through the Palniertown range, its last wilderness mountain barrier, it encounters in its more placid course to the sea the great Apalachian system of mountains, and seems to rend them from top to bottom. Or. rather, from the natural head of tide-water, some two miles above Waterford, in Saratoga County, the Hudson virtually ceases to be a river and becomes an estuary, or arm of the sea, in which the tide throbs back and forth, and on whose peaceful bosom now float the navies and the commerce of th.e world. The JMoH.iWK ritek, before it mingles its waters with the Hud.son, washes almost the whole southern side of the county of Saratoga. The Indian name of the Mohawk was Te-uge-ga. It rises on the highlands of the Lesser Wil- derness of Northern New York, northerly of Oneida lake, near the head-waters of the Salmon river, which runs into Lake Ontario. The Salmon river was the ancient River de la Famine of the old French explorers. The Cohoes falls, in the iMohawk, on the border of this county, were called by the Indians Ga-lia-oose, meaning "the falls of the shipwrecked canoe." The Sacondaga river enters the county of Saratoga on its western border, and breaking through the mountain barriers crosses the whole width of the county, and enters the Hudson on its eastern border. For twenty miles of its course before it enters the Hudson there is a reach of .still water which is navigable by small steamers. Sacondaga is an Indian name, signifying " The river of the sunken or drowned lands," in allusion to the large Ylaie, or moun- tain meadow, through which it runs just before it reaches the border of the county. This great vlaie was the favorite hunting-ground of Sir William Johnson, and near it he built his two huntinsr-lodtres. called the Fish House and the Cottage, on Summer House Point.* The Kay-ad-ros-se-ra river is the largest stream whose whole course lies within the borders of the county of Saratoga. It rises on the southern slopes of the Kayad- rossera mountains in Greenfield and Corinth, and running *Sce "Trappers of New York," by Jeptha R. Simms. HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK. 15 tlienec southerly between the nuHiiitaiii ranges, through I\IiltoQ to Biillston Spa, it then tui'ns easterly into Saratoga lake. From the lake to the Hudson it is known as Fish creek. The other numerous smaller streams of the county are mentioned in the history of the several towns through whic-h they run. IV.— LAKES. The prineipal lakes of the county of Saratoga are now called Saratoga lake, Round lake, Ballston lake, and Lake Desolation. As the old Indian name for Lake Champlain was Cmiind- cvi.-gu(tr}iiite, " The door of the country'," and that of Lake George was Cuiiidd-eri-dit, '-The tail of the lake," so the Indian name for Saratoga lake was Caniad-eri-os-se-ra, " The lake of the crooked stream." The name was after- wards written Cai-ad-cr-ros-se-fa, and since, Kojj-ad-ros- se-ra, its present fliic and hislovi- cnl geology, leaving to the interested stu ( Lower or Gray. Upper Cretaceou; Mi'ldle Cretaceous (Upper Green-Sand). Liiwer Cretaceous (Lower Green-Saiid). Wealden. Upper Oolite. 1^";^'^'=' p«r*'^",;'' ^"ia- yote-hn-o-no-ga, the country of the Oneidas. It was the custom of the Indians, whenever the hunting- grounds of a nation bordered on a lake, to include the whole of it, if possible ; so the line of property between the Onei- das and the Onondagas bent westerly around the Oneida lake, giving the whole of that to the Oneidas, and deflected easterly again around Lake Ontario in favor of the Onon- dagas. These three nations claimed the whole of the territory of northern New York. But the northern part of the great wilderness was also claimed by the Adirondacks, a Canadian nation of Algonquin lineage, and, being disputed territory, was the " dark and bloody ground" of the old Indian traditions, as it afterwards became in the French and English colonial history. v.— TWO FAMILIES OF NATIONS. The Indians who inhabited the Atlantic slope and the basin of the great lakes were divided into two great families of nations. These two great families were known as the Iroquois and the Algonquin families.* They differed radi- cally in both language and lineage, as well as in many of their manners and customs. The principal nations of the Iroquois family were grouped around the lower lakes. The Five Nations of central New York — the Iroquois proper — were the leading people of this family. To the south of the Five Nations, on the banks of the Susquehanna, were the Andastes, and to the westward, along the .southern shore of Lake Erie, were the Fries. To the north of'Lake Erie lay the Neutral Nation and the Tobacco Nation, while the Hurons dwelt along the eastern shore of the lake that still bears their name. There was also a branch of the Iroquois family in the Carolinas, — the Tuscaroras, — who united with the Five Nations in 1715, after which the confederacy was known as the Six Na- tions.f Surrounding these few bands of Iroquois were the much more numerous tribes of the great Algonquin family. To the people of Algonquin speech and lineage belonged the Iloricons and the Mohicans and other tribes of river In- dians who dwelt along the Hudson, and the Pequots, Wam- ® See Morgan's League of the Iroquois, and Parkman's Pioneers of France in the New World, f See Colden's Five Nations. panoags, Narragansetfs, and all the other New England tribes. I Northward of the Iroquois were the Nipissings, La Pe- tite Nation, and La Nation de I'lsle, and the other tribes of the Ottawa. Along the valley of the St; Lawrence were the Algonquins proper, — called Adirondacks by the Iro- quois, — the Abenaquis, the Montagnais, and other roving bands around and beyond the Saguenay. Thus were the Indian nations situated with respect to each other when Samuel de Champlain, in the early sum- mer of 1609, entered the territory of northern New York from the north, and Henry Hudson, in the beginning of the coming autumn, approached it from the south. VI.— THE "PEOPLE OF THE LONCx HOUSE." Among all the Indians of the New World, there were none so politic and intelligent, none so fierce and brave, none with so many germs of heroic virtues mingled with their savage vices, as the true Iroquois, — the people of the Five Nations. They were a terror to all the surrounding tribes, whether of their own or of Algonquin speech. In l(j50 they overran the country of the Hurons; in 1651 they destroyed the Neutral Nation; in 1652 they extermi- nated the Fries ; in 1672 they conquered the Andastes and reduced them to the most abject submission. They fol- lowed the war-path, and their war-cry was heard westward to the Mississippi and southward to the great gulf. The New England nations, as well as the river tribes along the Hudson, who.se warriors trembled at the name of Mohawlc, all paid them tribute. The poor Montagnais on the far-off Saguenay would start from their midnight sleep and run terror-stricken from their wigwams into the forest when dreaming of the dreadful Iroquois. They were truly the conquerors of the New World, and were justly styled the "Romans of the West." "My pen," wrote the Jesuit Father Ragueneau, in 1650, in his Relations des Hurons, — " My pen has no ink black enough to describe the fury of the Iroquois." They dwelt in palisaded villages upon the fertile banks of the lakes and streams that watered their country. Their villages were surrounded with rudely-cultivated fields, in which they raised an abundance of corn, beans, squashes, and tobacco. Their houses were built within the protect- ing circle of palisades, and, like all the tribes of the Iroquois family, were made long and narrow. They were not more than twelve or fifteen feet in width, but often exceeded a hundred and fifty feet in length. They were made of two parallel rows of poles stuck upright in the ground, suffi- ciently wide apart at the bottom to form the floor, and bent together at the top to form the roof, the whole being nicely covered with strips of peeled bark. At each end of the wigwam was a strip of bark, or a bear-skin, hung loosely for a door. Within they built their fires at intervals along the centre of the floor, the smoke passing out through openings in the top, which served as well to let in the I After the defeat of King Philip, of Pocanokett, in 1675-76, a part of the Wamjyinnags and Narragannetts Bed from their ancient hunting-grounds and settled at Schaghtlcokc, on the Hudson, and were afterwards known as the Schaghticuke Indians. See paper by John Fitch, in " Historical Magazine" for June, 1870. HISTOKY OF SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YOKK. 21 light. In every house were many fires and many families, every family having its own fire within the space allotted to it. From this custom of having many fires and many fimi- ilies strung through a long and narrow house comes the signification of their name for the league, "the people of the long house." They likened their confederacy of Five Nations, stretched along a narrow valley for more than two hundred miles through central New York, to one of their long wigwams. The Mohawks guarded the eastern door of this long house, while the Senecas kept watch at the western door. Between these doors of their country dwelt the Oneidas, Onondngas, and Cayiigas, each nation around its own fire, while the great central council fire was always kept brightly burning in the country of the Onondngax. Thus they were in fact, as well as in name, the people of the long house. Below are given, in the order of their rank therein, the Indian names of the several nations of the league ;* Mohawks — Ga-ne-a-ga-o-no. " People possessors of the flint." Onondngns — 0-nun-do-ga-o-no. " People on the hills." Senecas — Nun-da-wa-o-no. " Great hill people." Oneidas — O-na-yote-ka-o-no. "Granite people." Cagiigas — Gwe-u-giceli-o-no. "People at the mucky land." Tiiscaroras — Diis-ga-o-wch-o-no. " Shirt-wearing peo- ple." Vir.— THEIR GOVERNMENT. It may of a truth be said that this wild Indian league of the old savage wilderness, if it did not suggest, in many respects it formed the mode after which was fashioned our more perfect union of many States in one republic. The government of this "league of the Iroquois" was vested in a general council composed of fifty hereditary sachems, but the order of succession was always in the female and never in the male line ; that is to say, when a .sachem died, his successor was chosen from his mother's descendants, and never from his own children. The new sachem must be cither the brother of the old one, or a son of his sister; so in all cases the status of the children followed the mother, and never the father. Each nation was divided into eight clans or tribes, which bore the following names: Wolf, Deer, Bear, Snipe, Beaver, Heron, Turtle, and Hawk. The spirit of the animal or bird after which the clan was named, called its totem, was the guardian spirit of the clan, and every member used its figure in his signature as his device. It was the rule among them that no two of the same clan could intermarry. If the husband belonged to the clan of the Wolf, the wife must belong to the clan of the Bear, the Deer, and so on, while the children belonged to the clan of the mother, and never to the father's clan. In this manner their relationship always interlocked, and the people of the whole league were forever joined in the closest ties of con- sanguinity. The name of each sachem was permanent. It was the name of the office, and descended with it to each successor. When a sachem died, the people of the league selected the * Sec Morgan's League of the Iroquois. most competent brave from among those of his family, who by right inherited the title, and the one so chosen was raised in solemn council to the high honor, and, dropping his own, received the name of the sachcmship. There were two sachemships, however, that, after the death of the first sachems of the name, forever remained vacant. These sachemships were Da-ga-no-we-da of the Oiion- d'lgas and Ha-yo-went-ha (Hi-a-wat-ha) of the Mohawks. Da-ga-no-we-da was the founder of the league. His head was represented as covered wii;h tangled serpents, and Hi-a- wat-ha, meaning " he who combs," straightened them out, and assisted in forming the league. In honor of their great services their sachemships were afterwards held vacant. There was another class of chiefs, of inferior rank to the sachems, among whom were the war chiefs, whose title was not hereditary, but who were chosen on account of their bravery or personal prowess, their achievements on the war- path, or their eloquence in council. Among this latter were found the most renowned warriors and orators of the league, such as King Hendrick and Red Jacket, but they could never rise to the rank of sachem. The whole body of sachems formed the council league. Their authority was entirely civil, and confined to the afi'airs of peace. But, after all, the power of the sachems and chiefs was advisory rather than mandatory. Every savage, to a great extent, followed the dictates of his own wild will, controlled only by the customs of his people, and a public sentiment that ran through their whole system of affairs, which was as inflexible as iron. YIII.— THEIR FESTIVALS AND RELIGIOUS BELIEF. The Indian was a believer in spirits. Every object in nature was spiritualized by him, while over all things, in dim and shadowy majesty, ruled the one great spirit, the supreme object of his fear and adoration, whom he called Ha-wen-neya. There was likewise an evil spirit, bom at the same time as the great spirit, which he called Ha-ue- go-ate-ga, "the evil minded." There was also He-no, "the thunderer," and Ga-oh, " the spirit of the winds." Every mountain, lake, stream, tree, shrub, flower, stone, and foun- tain had its own spirit. Among his objects of worship were the three sister spirits, — the spirit of corn, the spirit of beans, and the spirit of squashes. This triad was called De-oha-ko,f mean- ing " our life," " our supporters." Upon the festal'days sacred to the three sisters they were represented by three beautiful maidens, each one gayly dressed in the leaves of the plant whose spirit she represented. The Ho-de-no-sau-nee observed six great feasts every year. There was the new year's festival, or the " sacrifice of the white dog," which was celebrated with great pomp for seven days early in February. Then, as soon as the snow began to melt, and the sap to flow from the maple- trees, and the sugar-boiling began in earnest, came the maple-feast. The next great festival was the A-yent-wa-ta, or " plant- ing festival," which came on as soon as the leaves on the butternut-trees were as big as squirrels' ears, indicating the ' •[■ See Morgan's League of the Iroquois. 22 HISTORY OF SAEATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK. time for planting corn. The fourth feast was Ha-nan-da-yo, the " feast of strawberries," which came in the moon of roses. The fifth was Ah-dake-wa-o, the " feast of the green corn moon," and the hist was the " harvest festival," observed at the gathering of the crops in autumn. Dwelling forever among the wildest scenes of nature, — himself nature's own wildest child, — believing in an unseen world of spirits in perpetual play around him on every hand, his soul was filled with unutterable awe. The flight or cry of a bird, the humming of a bee, the crawling of an insect, the turning of a leaf, the whi.sper of a breeze, were to him mystic signals of good or evil import, by which he was guided in the most important afiairs of life. Tiie mysterious about him he did not attempt to unravel, but bowed submi.ssively belbre it with what crude ideas he had of religion and worship. To his mind everything, whether animate or inanimate, in the whole domain of nature is immortal. In the happy hunting-grounds of the dead the shades of hunters will follow the shades of ani- mals with the shades of bows and arrows, among the shades of trees and rocks, in the shades of immortal forests, or glde in the shades of bark canoes over shadowy lakes and streams, and carry them around the shades of dashing waterfalls.* In dreams he placed the most implicit confidence. They were to him revelations from the spirit world, guiding him to the places where his game lurked and to the haunts of his enemies. He invoked their aid upon all occasions. They taught him how to cure the sick, and revealed to him his guardian spirit, as well as all the secrets of his good or evil destiny. IX.— THEIR SOCIAL LIFE. The Iroquois were extremely social in their daily inter- course. When not engaged in their almost continual public feasting and dancing, they spent the most of their time in their neighbors' wigwams, playing games of chance, of which they were extremely fond, or in chatting, joking, and rudely bantering each other. On .such occasions their witticisms and jokes were often more .sharp than delicate, as they were " echoed by the shrill laugh of young squaws untaught to blush."! In times of distress and danger they were always prompt to aid each other. Were a family without shelter, the men of the village at once built them a wigwam. When a young squaw was married, the older ones, each gathering a load of sticks in the forest, carried her wood enough for a year. In their intercourse with each other, as well as with strangers, their code of courtesy was exact and rigid to the last degree. But the Indian is still the untamed child of nature. " He will not," says Parkman, " learn the arts of civilization, and he and his forest must perish together. The stern, unchanging features of his mind excite our admiration from their very immutability, and we look with deep interest on the fate of this irreclaimable son of the wilderness, the child who will not be weaned from the breast of his rugged mother. . . . The imprisoned lion in the showman's cage ^ See Charlevoix's Voyage to North America, f Francis Parkman. differs not more widely from the lord of the desert than the beggarly frequenter of frontier garrisons and dram- shops differs from the proud denizen of the woods. It is in his native wilds alone that the Indian must be seen and studied."! CHAPTER VI. EARLY EXPLORATIONS, 1535-1609. I.— JACQUES CARTIER. The long series of hostile invasions from the north which, during the two hundred and seventy years of the colonial period, so often wore bloody pathways over the rugged surface of the county of Saratoga, all came from the valley of the St. Lawrence. The history of the river St. Law- rence is, therefore, so intimately connected with the history of Saratoga, that some account of its early discovery and explorations by Europeans seems necessary to an intelligible understanding of the subject. The great river St. Lawrence, whose old Indian name was Ilo-che-la-ya, and which serves to drain the larger part of the waters of northern New York into the ocean, was discovered and first explored by Jacques Cartier, who was an eminent mariner of St. Malo. St. Malo is a quaint mediasval seaport town of the ancient province of Brittany, on the northern coast of France. The city is built on a huge rock that seems to rise like a wall out of the sea, it being separated from the mainland by a salt marsh, which is covered by the waters at high tide. In 1709 an earthquake turned it into an island. Many a superstition still flourishes among its simple people. Its quaint mediaeval customs were carried into the New World by the old mariners, and once started found an echo among the Thousand Islands of the St. Lawrence, and along the mountain shores of Lake Champlain. Thus, too, in the wilds of the New World were introduced by these mariners the stories of the dwarfs and giants of the fairy mythology, which the Northmen of the tenth century brought from their ancient home when they invaded Brittany. In the year 1535, Cartier was sent on a voyage to the New World by Francis I., King of France, at the instigation of Philippe de Chabot, his grand admiral, in quest of gold and empire. The little fleet with which Cartier sailed con- sisted of three ships only, ranging from forty to one hundred and twenty tons burden. This fleet was under the command of Cartier, who was styled the " Captain and Pilot of the King." In his .ship's company were several of the young nobility of France, among whom were Claudius de Pontc Briand, cup-bearer to the Lord Dauphin, Charles de Pome- rasces, John Powlet, and other gentlemen. The dai-ing but devout navigators of those days, before venturing upon their long and perilous voyages to the dreary, cheerless solitudes of an almost unknown and unex- % Parliraan's Conspiracy of Pontiao, vol. i. p. 44. Consult, also, Schoolcraft's worlis, Clark's History of Onondaga, Heckewclder's History of Indian Nations, The Iroquois, by Anna C. Johnson, Documentary Hi.story of New York, Cusick's History of the Five Nations, Charlcvoi.v's Letters to the Duchess de Lesdiguifcres, and Jesuit RL-lations of 1656-57 and 1659-60. HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK. 23 plored ocean, were accustomed to attend upon the solemn offices of religion, as if they were departing to " The unriiscovered country, from whose bourne No traveler returns." Therefore, just before setting sail on Whitsunday, this company of adventurers went in solemn procession to the cathedral church of the town, where each was absolved and received the sacrament. Then, all entering the choir of the church in a body, they were presented to the lord bishop and received his blessing. They embarked from St. Malo on the 19th of May, and, after a stormy passage, arrived off the coast of Newfound- land on the 7th of July. On the 10th day of August, in that year, which day was the festival of Saint Lawrence, they discovered and entered the broad bay which forms the mouth of the great river, and named it in honor of the saint. Proceeding on their voyage up the wild stream, they soon reached the dark gorge of the Saguenay, and arrived at the island of Orleans, which lies a short distance below the city of Quebec. On account of the abundance of wild grapes found upon this island, which hung in clusters from all the trees along its shores, Cartier named it the Isle of Bacchus. Continuing their voyage, they soon reached the narrows in the river opposite the rocky cliffs of Quebec. This strong- hold, on which is now situated the city of Quebec, was then occupied by a little cluster of Indian wigwams, and was called by the savages Sta-da-go-ne. The chief of this little Indian town, whose name was Don-na-co-na, met these strange mariners at the landing, and made a speech to them, and gave them bread and some wine pressed from the wild grapes that grew so abundantly upon the shores of the island and on the banks of the stream. These Indians told Cartier that many days' journey up the river there was another Indian town, that gave its name to the river and to the country around it. Taking on board some Indian guides, the mariners proceeded up the river in quest of this wonderful city of the Great Forest State. In a few days the Indians led Cartier to the spot where now stands the beautiful city of Montreal, on the island now known as the Island of Montreal, and which, as hits been stated in a previous chapter, lies at the head of the great northern valley on whose borders the county of Sara- toga is situated. Cartier found an old palisaded Indian town, containing many wigwams, built long and narrow after the fashion of the Iroquois. In this village at that time were more than a thousand savage inhabitants of Algonqtiin or Iroquois lineage. Cartier had discovered the famous Indian Ilo-che-la-ga, which was the capital of the great forest State of the same name, that lay along on botli sides of the St. Lawrence above the mouth of the Ottawa. Like Sta-da-co-ne, at rocky Quebec, this Indian town on the Island of Montreal was one of the centres of Indian population on the great river, Ho-che-la-ga. On the second day of October, Cartier landed at Ho-chc- la-ga, amid the crim.son and golden hues of the lovely Canadian autumn. So glorious, so fair, so wild, so savage a scene these wondering mariners of the old world had never seen before. When the.se bearded white men, clad in glittering armor and gorgeous attire, landed at the Indian village Ho-che- la-ga, on the wild Lsland of Jlontreal, the half-nude savages crowded around them in speechless wonder, regarding them more as gods than men. They even brought their chief, whose name was Ag-ou-han-na, who '-was full of palsy," says an old narrative, " and his members shrunk together," and who was clad in rich furs, and wore upon his head a wreath or crown of red feathers, and laid him upon a mat before the captain that he might give the limbs a healing touch, — such was their simple faith in the powers of the pale-faces, who for the first time stood before them. " Then did Ag-ou-han-na," continues the old chronicler, " take the wreath or crown he had about his head and gave it unto our captain. That done, they brought be- fore divers diseased men, some blind, some crippled, some lame, and impotent, and some so old that the hair of their eyelids came down and covered their cheeks, and laid them all along before our captain, to the end that they might of him be touched, for it seemed unto them that God was descended and come down to heal them."* Then the Indians led Cartier and his followers to the top of the mountain at whose foot their villages nestled. Car- tier planted a large cross of cedar wood upon the summit of the mountain, and solemnly took possession of the great forest state of Ho-che-la-ga in the name of the French king, and then named the mountain on which he stood Mount Royal, from which comes the modern Montreal. On the 5 th of October, Cartier left the Ho-che-la-ga, and regaining his ships pas.sed a long and gloomy winter in that part of the river St. Lawrence since called Lake St. Peters. In the spring, Cartier returned to France. In 1541 he made another voyage to Ho-che-la-ga. After his return to his native city of St. Malo, from this last voyage to the new world, the name of Cartier passes out of history. It is supposed that he lived in retirement and died at a good old age. When Champlain, upon his first voyage to New France in 1603, sixty-eight years after Cartier's visit, landed upon the still wild and savage Island of Montreal, scarcely a vestage of Ho-che-la-ga, the ancient Indian metropolis on the great river, remained to be seen. All its savage glory had departed forever. Its race of Iroquois house-builders had been driven to their new hunting-grounds in the rich valleys of central New York. Champlain found the site of the village occupied only by a few families of a roving tribe of Algonquin lineage, who lived in some temporary huts built of the decaying remnants of the ancient village. Such was the fate of the old forest state of Ho-che-la-ga. II.— SAMUEL DE CII.iMPLAIN. Samuel de Champlain, the discoverer of the beautiful lake of northern New York that bears his name, was the founder of New France and its first governor-general. No name in Canadian annals is more illustrious than his. He was born in Brouage Saintonge, about the year 1570, of a noble family. In his youth he served in the French navy, and was pensioned and attached to the person of King Henry IV., of France. * Pinkerton's Voyages, vol. xii. p. 653. 24 HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK. In 1603, M. de Chastes, governor of Dieppe, obtained permission from the king to found a new settlement in Nortli America. De Chastes appointed Champlain as his substitute, and the king gave him the title of general-lieu- tenant of Canada. On the 15th of March, Champlain set sail for America in a ship commanded by Pont-Grave, an enterprising mariner of St. Malo, like Cartier. They sailed up the St. Lawrence and up the river as far as Jacques Cartier had proceeded with his ships in 1535, and, after carefully examining its banks, returned to France, having effected nothing by way of settlement. Upon his return, Champlain published his first book, entitled " Des Sauvages." In the mean time, De Chastes had died, and his concessions had been transferred to Sieur de Monts. De Monts was made vice-admiral and lieutenant-general of his majesty in that part of Acadia called Norumbega. Armed with these plenary powers, De Monts and Champlain sailed for Acadia, and attempted a settlement at Port Royal, but returned to France in 1 607. Champlain's third voyage to America was undertaken at the solicitation of De Monts in tiie year 1608. In this year he founded his colony of Quebec, in the heart of the old savage wilderness, upon the site of the old Indian ham- let Sta-da-co-ne, found by Jacques Cartier seventy years before. In the beginning of the summer of the year 1609, months before Henry Hudson sailed up the North river, and eleven years before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock, Champlain discovered the lake which still bears his name, and planted on its shores the cross and the lilies of France. While at Quebec, during his hunting excursions with the Indians, they told him marvelous stories of a great inland sea, filled with wonderful islands, lying far to the southward of the St. Lawrence, in the land of the terrible Iroquois. His curiosity was excited, and as soon as the melting snows of the next spring would permit, he set out upon a voyage for its discovery. He was accompanied by two companions only, besides his savage allies, who numbered sixty wan-iors, with twenty- four canoes. They were Jlurons, Algonquias, and 3Ion- layaais. The Montagnais were a roving tribe of the At- gonqniii family who inhabited the country of the Saguenay, called by the French the paupers of the wilderness. After a toilsome passage up the rapids of the Richelieu, Champlain entered the lake, — the far-famed "wilderness of the Iroquois." It was studded with islands that were clothed in the rich verdure of the early summer, its tran- quil waters spreading southward beyond the horizon. From the thickly-wooded shores on either side rose ranges of mountains, the highest peaks still white with patches of snow. Over all was flung the soft blue haze, sometimes called mountain-smoke, that seemed to temper the sunlight and shade off the landscape into spectral-like forms of shadowy-like beauty. Who does not envy the stern old forest ranger his first view of the lake that was destined to bear his name to the latest posterity ? Champlain and his allies proceeded cautiously up the lake, traveling only by night and resting on the shore by day, for they were in the land of the much-dreaded Iroqnois, the hereditary enemies of the Alyonquiii, nations. On the morning of the 29th of July, after paddling, as usual, all night, they retired to the western shore of the lake to take their daily rest. The savages were soon stretched along the ground in their slumbers, and Champlain, after a short walk iu the woods, laid himself down to sleep upon his bed of fragrant hemlock boughs. He dreamed that he saw a band of Iroquois warriors drowning in the lake. Upon attempting to save them, his Algonquin friends told him that " they were good for nothing, and had better be left to die like dogs." Upon awakening, the Indians, as usual, beset him for his dreams. This was the first dream he had remembered since setting out upon the voyage, and it was considered by his superstitious allies as an auspicious vision. Its relation filled them with joy, and at early night- fall they re-embarked flushed with the hope of an easy vic- tory. Their anticipations were soon to be realized. About ten o'clock in the evening, near what is now Crown Point, they saw dark moving objects upon the lake before them. It was a flotilla of Iroquois canoes. In a moment more each party of savages saw the other, and their hideous war- cries, mingling, pealed along the lonely shores. The Iroquois landed at once and barricaded themselves upon the shore with fallen trees and brushwood. The Al- gonquins lashed their canoes together with long poles within a bow-shot of the Iroquois barricade, and danced in them all night their hideous war-dances. It was mutually agreed between the hostile bands that the battle should not 'come off till morning. At dawn of day the Algonquins landed, and the Iroquois marched in single file from their barricade to meet them, full two hundred strong. They were the boldest, fiercest warriors of the New World, and their tall, lithe forms and noble bearing elicited the warmest approba- tion of Champlain and his white companions. The chiefs were made conspicuous by their tall plumes. Champlain, who in the mean time had been concealed, now advanced to the front, with arquebuse in hand, clad in the metallic armor of the times. The Iroquois warriors, seeing for the first time such a warlike apparition in their path, halted and stood gazing upon Champlain in mute astonishment. " The moment we landed," says Champlain, in his nar- rative, " they (the Algonquins and Hurons) began to run about two hundred paces towards their enemies, who stood firm, and had not yet perceived my companions, who went into the bush with some savages. Our Indians commenced calling me in a loud voice, and, opening their ranks, placed me about twenty paces in advance, in which order we marched until I was about in thirty paces of the enemy. The moment they saw me they halted, gazing at me and I at them. When I saw them preparing to shoot at us, I raised my arquebuse, and, aiming directly at one of the three chiefs, two of them fell to the ground by this shot, and one of their companions received a wound of which he afterwards died. I had put four balls in my arquebuse. Our party, on witnessing a shot so favorable for them, set up such tremendous shouts that thunder could not have been heard ; and yet there was no lack of arrows on one side or the other. The Iroquois were greatly astonished at seeing two men killed so instantaneously, notwithstanding they were provided with arrow-proof armor woven of cotton- thread and wool. This frightened them very much. Whilst HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK. 25 I was reloading, one of my companions in the bush fired a shot, which so astonished them anew, seeing their chiefs shiin, that they lost courage, took to fliglrt, and abandoned the field and their fort, hiding themselves in the depths of the forests, whither pursuing them I killed some others. Our savages also killed several of them and took ten or twelve prisoners. The rest carried oflF the wounded. Fifteen or sixteen of our party were wounded by arrows. They were promptly cured." The Tmqnoix afterwards became the friends and allies of the English, and this first forest encounter was the forerun- ner of a long and bloody warfare between the French and the English and their respective Indian allies, of which the soil of Saratoga County often formed the battle-ground. Four years afterwards Chaniplain made a long journey up the Ottawa river to the country of the Huroiis. On his return he discovered Lake Ontario, the name meaning, in the Indian tongue, the '' beautiful lake." He fought an- other battle with the Iroquois, to the south of the lake in western New York. He explored its shores along the western border of northern New York, in the vicinity of what was afterward known to the French as La Famine. On his return he passed near the head of the St. Lawrence, thus becoming the first explorer of the lake of the Thousand Isles. In 1620, Champlain was made governor-general of Can- ada, and died at Quebec, in ItioS. In 1620 his wife ac- companied him to Quebec. Madame Champlain was Flelen Boute, daughter of Nicholas Route, secretary of the royal household at Paris. She remained four years in America, returned to France, founded a convent of Ursulines at Jleaux, entered it as Sister Helen, of St. Augustine, and died there in 1654. Madame Champlain, as she was married to him when she was only twelve years of age, was still very young. The Indians, struck with her frail and gentle beauty, paid homage to her as a goddess. " Champlain," says Park- man, " was enamored of the New World, whose rugged charms had seized his fancy and his heart, and as explorers of the Arctic seas have pined in their repose for polar ice and snow, so did he, with restless longing, revert to the fog- wrapped coast, the piny odors of forests, the noise of waters, the sharp, piercing sunlight, so dear to his remembrance. Fain would he uuveil the mystery of that boundless wilder- ness, and plant the Catholic fliith and the power of France amid its ancient barbarism."* III.— UENRY HUDSON. At the beginning of the seventeenth century, the little republic of Holland had already become one of the first commercial and maritime powers of the world. In those days hardy navigators and bold explorers were flocking from every nation in Europe to sail under the Dutch .standard in search of fame and fortune. Among the most noted of these was Heury Hudson, a mariner of England, who was the discoverer and first ex- plorer of the river that now bears his name. Henry Hud- son was born about the middle of the sixteenth century. • See Parkman'a Pioneers of France, Palmer's History of Lake Champlain, Champlain's Voyages de la Nouvullo France, and Docu- mentary History of New York. but of his early life little is known. His first voyage was in 1607, in the employ of a company of London merchants, to the cast coast of Greenland, in the search of a northwest passage to India. On April 6, 1609, he began a voyage, in the service of the Dutch East India Company, to the northern coast of Asia. For some reason or other he turned his ships toward North America, and on the 12th day of September, in that year, discovered and entered the mouth of the beautiful river, now called by his name, that serves to drain the waters of the mountain belt of the great wilderness of northern New York. It is believed that Hudson explored the stream as far up as the old Indian hunting-ground, called Nach-tc-nak, which lies around and upon the islands that cluster among the " .sprouts" or mouths of the Mohawk. In his voyage up the stream he had numerous adven- tures, and had two or three battles with the Indians, who were jealous of the strange intruders. The stanch little ship in which he sailed up the river was named the Half- Moon. The following i.s taken from his own narrative of the voyage, in the quaint language of the time : " The thirteenth, faire weather, the wind northerly. At seucn of the clocke in the morning, as the floud came, we weighed, and turned fourc miles into the riuer. The tide being done wee anchored. Then there came foure canoes aboard : but we suffered none of them to come into our ship. They brought great store of very good oysters aboord, which wee bought for trifles. In the night I set the varia- tion of the compasse, and found it to be thirteen degrees. In the afternoone we weighed and turned in with the flood two leagues and a halfe further, and anchore all night, and had fine fathoms of .soft ozie around, and had a hi"h point of land, which showed out to us bearing north by east fine leagues of us. " The fovrteenth, in the morning being very faire weather, the wind southeast, we sayled vp the riuer twelue leagues, and had fiue fathoms and fiue fathoms and a quarter lesse; and came to a streight between two points, and had eight, nine, and ten fathoms ; and it trended northeast by north one league, and we had twelue, thirteene, and fourteene fathoms. The riuer is a mile broad ; there is very high land on both sides. Then wee went vp northwest a league and a halfe deepe water ; then northeast by north fiue miles, then northwest by north two leagues, and anchored. The land grew very high and mountainous. The riuer is full of fish. " The fifteenth, in the morning, was misty vntil the sunne arose; then it cleered. So wee weighed with the wind at South, and ran vp the riuer twentie leagues, passing by high mountains. Wee had a very good depth, as six, seuen, eight, nine, twelue, and thirteen fathoms, and great store of salmons in the riuer. This morniutr our two sauaires cot out of a port and swam away. After we were under sayle they called to us in scorne. At night we came to other mountains, which lie from the riuer's side. There wee fovnd very louing people and very old men ; where we were well vsed. Our boat went to fish, and caught gi-eat store of very good fish. "The sixteenth, faire and very hot weather. In the 26 HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK. morning ovr boat went againc to fishing, but could catch but few, by reason their canoes had beene there all night. This morning the people came aboord and brovght vs eares of Indian come and pompions and tobacco, which wee bought for trifles. Wee rode still all day, and filled fresh water ; at night wee weighed and went two leagues higher, and had shoaled water ; so we anchored till day. "The seuenteenth, faire, sun-shining weather, and very hot. In the morning as soon as the sun was vp, we set sayle, and run vp six leagues higher and found shoales in the middle of the channel, and small Hands but seuen fathoms water on both sides. Toward night we borrowed so neere the shoare that wc grounded ; so we layed out our small anchor, and heaued off againo. Then we borrowed on the banke in the channell and came agrounde againe. While the floud ran, we houed off againe, and anchored all night. " The eighteenth, in the morning, was faire weather, and we rode still. In the afternoone our master's mate went on land with an old sauage, a gouernoer of the countrey, who carried him to his house and made him goode cheere. " The nineteenth was faire and hot weather. At the floode, being neere eleuen of the clocke, wee weighed and ran higher vp two leagues aboue the shoalds, and had no lesse water than fine fathoms. We anchored, and rode in eight fiithoms. The people of the countrie came flocking aboord, and brought vs grapes and pompions, which wee bought for trifles. And many brought vs beuers' skinnes and otters' skinnes, which wee bought for beades, kniues, and hatchets So we rode there all night. " The twentieth, in the morning, was faire weather. Our master's mate, with four men more, went vp with our boat to sound the riuer, and found, two leagues aboue vs, but two fathoms water and the channell very narrow, and aboue that place between seuen or eight fathoms. Toward night they returned, and we rode still all night. " The one and twentieth was faire weather, and the wind all southerly. We determined yet once more to goe far- ther vp into the riuer, to trie what depth and breadth it did beare ; but much people resorted aboord, so we went not this day. Our carpenter went on land and made a fore- yard, and our master and his mate determined to trie some of the chiefe men of the countrie, whether they had any treacherie in them. So they took them down into the cab- bin and gave them as much wine and aqua vitic that they were all merrie ; and one of them had his wife with him, who sat as modestly as any of our countrie-women would do in a strange place. In the end one of them was drunke which had been aboord of our ship all the time we had been there ; and that was strange to them, for they could not tell how to take it. The canoes and folke went all on shore, but some of them caime againe and brought stropes of beades — some had six, seven, eight, nine, ten — and gaue him. So he slept all night quietly. " The two and twentieth was faire weather. In the morning our master's mate and foure more of the companie went vp with our boat to sound the river higher vp. The people of the country came not aboord till noone ; but when they came, and saw the sauages well, they were glad. So at three of the clocke in the afternoone they came aboord and brouirht tobacco and more beades, and iraue them to our master, and made an oration, and shewed him the coun- trey all around about. Then they sent one of their companie on land, who presently returned and brought a great platter full of venison, dressed by themselves, and they caused hira to eat with them. Then they made him reverence and de- parted, — all saue the old man that lay aboord. This night, at ten of the clocke, our boate returned in a shower of raine from sounding of the riuer, and found it to be at an end for shipping to goe in. For they had beene vp eight or nine leagues, and found but seuen foot water and unconstant soundings. "The three and twentieth, fliire weather. At twelue of the clocke wee weighed and went downe two leagues to a shoald that had two channells, one on the one side, and an- other on the other, and had little wind, whereby the tide layed vs upon it. So there wee sate on the ground the space of an houre till the floud came. Then we had a little gale of wind at the west. So wee got our ship into deepe water and rode all night very well." It is quite apparent from the above narrative that Hud- son ascended the river to the shallow water near where the village of Waterford now is, and thus, in his explorations, probably reached the southern border of Saratoga County. Hudson then named the stream the River of the Moun- tains, which is a literal translation of the Algonquin name of it, — Cd-ho-ta-te-a. It was reserved for his countrymen, who took the province from the Dutch in 1G04, first to call it in honor of its immortal discoverer. Hudson, a year or two afterwards, discovered the great northern bay, which was also named in his honor. His ship's crew then mutinied. He was sent adrift with eight men in a boat upon the wild northern ocean, and was never heard of more. From these explorations and discoveries by navigators sailing in the interests of rival powers there sprang up con- flicting claims to the territory of northern New York. Out of these claims arose a long series of bloody conflicts be- tween the French and the English and their respective In- dian allies, of which the soil of Saratoga County so often formed the battle-ground, until the brave Montcalm yielded to the chivalrous Wolfe, one hundred and fifty years after- wards, on the plains of Abraham. Since these discoveries and explorations two centuries and a half have passed away, and how manifold and vast are now the human interests that lie stretched along the lakes and rivers which are still linked with the names of those kindred spirits of the olden time, — " romance-loving explorers," — each immortalized by his discoveries, — Jacques Cartier, Henry Hudson, and Samuel de Champlain. CHAPTER VII. FOUNDING OP ALBANY, SCHENECTADY, AND MONTREAL, 1614-62. I.— ALBANY. It has been seen that the county of Albany, of which the county of Saratoga formed a part for more than a hun- dred years, was erected by order of the Duke of York, HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK. 27 the proprietor of the province, as early as the year 1683; but the city ot Albanj' was founded by the Dutch niueli earlier. Of a truth it may be said that Albany is one of the oldest cities of the New World. In the year IC14, five years after the discovery of the Hudson river, and six years beTore the pilitrim lathers landed at PlyuKuith Rock, the city of Albany was founded. After Henry Hud.son had discovered and explored the river that still bears his name, as far up as what is now Waterford, in the month of September, 1609, and taken posses.sion of the country in the name of Holland, in whose interest he had sailed, a number of Dutch adventurers soon followed in his track. These navigators, however, at first made no attempt at settlement, but occupied themselves with making further di.scoveries along the coast and up the river, and pursuing a small trade with the Indians. The most noted of these early Dutch navigators wore Adrian Block, Hendrick Corstiarnsen, and Cornelius Jacobsen Mey. Early in the autumn of 1614 news of their discoveries was received in Holland, and the United Company, by which they were employed, lost no time in taking the necessary steps to secure to themselves the exclusive trade and settle- ment of the country thus explored. They sent deputies to the Hague, who laid bc;fore the States General a map of the new country, which was then for the first time called Nsw Nktuerland, with a report of their discoveries. In this report, notwithstanding their knowledge of the prior discovery of Henry Hudson, in 1609, only five years before, they claimed to be the first explorers of the country. On the 11th day of October, 1614, their High Mighti- ness the States General of Holland made a special grant in their favor. This grant conferred upon Girrit Jacob Witsen, former burgomaster of the city of Amsterdam, and his twelve associates, ship-owners and merchants of Am- sterdam, the exclusive right to " visit and navigate all the lands situate in America, between New France and Vir- ginia, the sea-coasts of which lie between the fortieth and forty-fifth degrees of latitude, which are now named New Netherland ; and to navigate, or cause to be navigated, the same for four voyages within the period of three years, to commence from the first day of January, 1615, or sooner." Having thus obtained the exclusive right to trade in the new country, they assumed the name and title of ''The United New Netherland Company." Thus having the exclusive right to the country, this company took possession of the Hudson river, then called by them " De Riviere van den Vorst Mauritius," and built two forts thereon. One was built on a little island immediately below the present city of Albany, called Castle island, which island has long since become a part of the main land. The other was erected at the mouth of the stream, on what is now the Battery, in the city of New York. The fort at Alban was begun early in the year 1615. It consisted of a trading house thirty-six feet long and twenty-six feet wide. Around this was raised a strong stockade, fifty feet sipiare, which was encircled by a moat eighteen feet wide. It was defended by two pieces of cannon and eleven stone guns mounted on swivels. This post was garrisoned by ten or twelve men, under the com- mand of Jacob Jacoby Elkeus, who continued here four years in the employ of the company, being well liked by the Indians, whose language he soon learned. But the right of this company expired by limitation in the year 1618. In the .spring of that year the fort on Castle island was so injured by a freshet on the river that the company abandoned it and built another on the main- land farther down on a hill at the mouth of the Norman's kill. The Indian name for the Norman's kill was Ta-wa- sfnt-ha, " the place of the many dead." It was here on this hill, called by the Indians Troasgau-shee, that the Dutch, in the year 1G18, concluded their first formal treaty of peace and alliance with the Five Nations, by which they obtained such lasting ascendency over the fierce Indian tribes. In 1623 the rights of this company were transferred to the West India Company, and New Netherlands was erected into a province. In that year Fort Orange Wius built by Adriaen Ivers, near what is now the steamboat dock of the People's line, and eighteen Dutch families built their log huts under its protecting guns and .spent there the ensuing winter. From these few log huts built in the old forest of 1623 has grown the modern city of Albany. On the 1st day of October, 1630, Kiliaen van Rensselaer, a rich diamond merchant of Amsterdam, formed the com- pany which resulted in the settlement of the " Colonic of Rensselaerwych," of which he became the ^rat patroon. ir.— SCHENECTADY. The great flat upon the Mohawk river, lying seventeen miles west of ^^ Fort Orange" as Albany was then called, was bought of the Indians by Arendt van Curler in the month of July, 1661. The deed was signed in behalf of the Mohawks by three chiefs, named Kan-tu-quo, Son-a- rul-sic, and A-ia-Ja-ne. In 1662 this grant was confirmed, and Van Curler and his associates " went west" from Fort Orange and settled the rich Mohawk flats, near which is now the modern city of Schenectady. Arendt van Curler was a cousin of the Van Rensselaers, and played a promi- nent part in the settlement of their manor. He owned a farm on the flats just above Fort Orange, and was a brewer in Beverwyck,as Albany was then called, in 1661. Hisinfluence among the Indians was unbounded. In honor of his mem- ory the Iroijiiois addressed all succeeding governors of New York by his name, which they translated Corlear. He was also a great favorite of the French. On the 30th of April, 1667, the Marquis de Tracy, viceroy of New France, ad- dressed Van Curler a letter, of which we give an extract: " If you find it a;5rcGabIe to come hither this sumuicr, as you have caused me to hope, yuu will be most welcome, and entertained to the utmost of my ability, as I have a great esteem for you, though I have never seen you. Believe this truth, and that I am, sir, your afiec- tiunate and assured servant, Tracv." Van Curler accepted this invitation and prepared for his journey. Governor Nicoll gave him a letter to the viceroy bearing date May 20, 1667, and saying, — " Mons'r Curler hath been importuned by divers of his friends at Quebec to give them a visit, and being aml)itious to kiss your h.Tnd.*, he hath entreated my pass and liberty to conduct a young gentlemiin, M. Fontaine, who unfortun.Ttely fell into the barbarous hands of hi^ enemies, and by means of Mons'r Cuiler obtained his liberty." 28 HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK. On the 4th of July of the same year, Jeremias Van Rensselaer wrote to Holland : " Our cousin, Arendt Van Curler, proceeds overland to Canada, having obtained leave from our general, and been invited thither by the viceroy, M. de Tracy." Thus provided, he set out. In an evil hour, while on this journey. Van Curler attempted to cross Lake Cham- plain in a light bark canoe. A storm coming up, he was drowned, it is believed, near Split rock. Thus died the founder of Schenectady. Lake Champlain was often called afterwards by the French, Lake Corlear, in bis honor. It has been said that JSka-iick-ta-du was the Indian name for Albany. When the Dutch authorities formed the settlers at Fort Orange into a separate jurisdiction, it ran back from Albany .seventeen miles, and included what is now the city of Schenectady, on the Mohawk. To this jurisdiction, thus reaching from the Hudson to the IMohawk, the Dutch gave the old Indian name for Albany, and called it Slcn-nek-ta-ila. After the English conquest of the New Netherlands, in 1664, the jurisdiction of Schenectady was divided, and the part next the Hudson was changed to Albany. But Albany ran back from the Hud.son only sixteen miles. Thus the old jurisdiction of Schenectady was left to that part lying on the Mohawk river only, and it has ever since retained the name first applied to the whole. The true Indian name for what is now Schenectady was 0-no-a-la-go-ua, " pained in the head." III.— MONTREAL. The story of the founding of the city of Montreal is more like a religious romance of the middle ages than verit- able history. The reader will not forget that the island of Montreal was the site of the ancient Jroqnois village, Hoche- laga, the capital of the old Forest State of that name, dis- covered by Jac(|ues Cartier in the year 1535, and that when Champlain first visited the island, in 1603, the old State and its capital had alike disappeared, and its site was occu- pied only by a few Algonqimi fishing huts. But a newer and more brilliant destiny awaited the site of the ancient Ilochelaga, the then wild island of Montreal. About the year 1636, there dwelt at La Fleche, in Anjou, a religious enthusiast deeply imbued with the mysticism of the times, whose name was Jerome Le Royer de la Dau- versiere. It is related of Dauversiere by the pious histori- ans of the period that one day while at his devotions he heard an inward voice, which he deemed a voice from heaven, commanding him to become the founder of a new order of hospital nuns, and to establish for such nuns, to be conducted by them, a hospital, or hotel dieu, on the then wild Lsland of Montreal. It is further related that while Dauversiere was beholding his ecstatic visions at La Fleche, a young priest of similar mystical tendencies, whose name was Jean Jacques Olicr, while praying in the ancient church of St. Germain des Pres at Paris, also heard a voice from heaven, commanding him to form a society of priests, and establish them on an island called Montreal in Canada, for the propagation of the true faith. Full of his new idea, Dauversiere set out for Paris to find some means of accom- plishing his object. While at Paris he visited the chateau of Meudon near by, and, on entering the gallery of the old castle, saw a young priest approaching him. It was Olier. " Neither of these two men," says an old chronicler, " had ever seen or heard of tlie other ; yet, impelled by a kind of inspiration, they knew each other at once, even to the depths of their hearts ; saluted each other by name as we read of St. Paul, the hermit, and St. Anthony, of St. Dominic, and St. Francis, and ran to embrace each other like two friends who had met after a long separation." After performing their devotions in the chapel, the two devotees walked for three hours in the park, discussing and forming their plans. Before they parted, they had resolved to found at Montreal three religious communities — one of secular priests, one of nuns to nurse the sick, and one of nuns to teach the white and red children. By the united efforts of Olier and Dauversiere, an asso- ciation was formed, called the Society of Notre Dame de Blontreal, and a colony projected. The island was purchased of its owners, the successors of the hundred associates of Quebec, and erected into a seigneurie by the king, henceforth to be called Villemarie de Montreal, and consecrated to the Holy Family. But it was necessary to have a soldier gov- ernor to place in charge of the colony, and for this purpose the iissociates of Montreal selected Paul de Chomeday, Sieur de Maisonneuve, a devout and valiant gentleman, who had already seen much military service. It was thought neces- sary that some di.screel woman should embark with them as their nurse and housekeeper. For this purpose they selected Mademoiselle Jeanne Mance, a religious devotee, who was born of a noble family of Nogent-Le-Roi. She was filled with zeal for the new mission. In it she thought she had found her destiny. The ocean, the solitude, the wilderness, the Iroquois, did not deter her from her high purpose, and this delicate and refined woman at once, with enthusiastic devotion, cast her frail life upon the rock of desolation to christianize a strange land, and to soothe with her srentle influence the wildness of barbarous men. At length in the summer of 1641 the ships set sail, with Maisonneuve and his forty men and Mademoiselle Mance and three other women on board. But they reached Que- bec too late in the autumn to think of ascending to Montreal that season. While passing the long tedious winter at Que- bec, the members of the new company were treated with much coldness by Governor Montmaguy, who saw a rival governor in Maisonneuve. Early iu May, 1642, they em- barked for their new home, having gained an unexpected recruit in the person of Madame de Peltrie, another pious lady, who had also ca.st her fortunes in the wilderness, but it was not until 1653 that the gentle Marguerite of Bour- geoys came to bless the young colony with her presence. All was seeming peace as they paddled their canoes along near the banks of the stream, decked in the budding beauties of the opening springtide, — but behind every leafy thicket and rocky island lurked a danger and a terror, the fierce Iroquois on the war-path. On the 18lh of May they arrived at the wild island of Montreal, and landed on the very site chosen for a city by Champlain thirty-one years before. Montmagny was with them to deliver the island in behalf of the company of the hundred associates to Maisonneuve, the agent of the asso- HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK. 29 ciates of Montreal, and Father Vimunt, tlie superior of the Jesuit missions in Canada, was there in spiritual charge of the young colony. 5Iaisonneuve and his followers sprang ashore, and falling on their knees, all devoutly joined their voices in the songs of thanksgiving. Near hy where they landed was a rivulet bordered by a meadow, beyond which rose the ancient forest like a band of iron. The early flowers of spring were blooming in the young grass of the meadow, and the woods were filled with singing birds. A simple altar was raised on a pleasant spot not for from the shore. The ladies decorated it with flowers. Then the whole band gathered before the shrine. Father Vimont stood before the altar, clad in the rich vest- ments of his office. The Host was raised aloft, while they all kneeled in reverent silence. When the solemn rile was over, the priest turned to the little band and said, " You are a grain of mustard-seed that will rise and grow till its branches overshadow the earth. You are few, but your work is the work of God. His smile is on you, and your children shall fill the land." As the day waned and the twilight came on, the darkened meadow, bereft of its flowers, became radiant with twink- ling fire-flies. Mademoiselle JIanoe, I\Iadame de la Peltrie, aided by her servant, Charlotte Barre, caught the fire-flies, and, tying them with threads into .shining festoons, hung them before the altar where the Host remained exposed. Then the men lighted their camp-fires, posted their sentries, and pitched their tents, and all lay down to rest. " It was the birth-night of Montreal."* Old Indian Ho-che-la-ga was no more. A new race had come to people the wilderness, and unfurl the banner of the Cro.ss on the great river of the Thousand Isles. CHAPTER VIII. INDIAN WARS— THE MISSION OF ISAAC JOGUES, 1642-46. I.— LAKE GEORGE. Among the earliest of the many French captives who were dragged by the cruel Iroquois from time to time along the old war-trails which crossed Saratoga, with maimed hands and bleeding feet, was the celebrated Jesuit father, Isaac Jogues, the discoverer of Lake George, and the founder of the Mission of the Martyrs, St. Mary of the Mohawks. In the olden time, when the whole north continent was a vast howling wilderness from the frozen ocean to the flowery gulf land, many bright, fair lakes lay sleeping in its awful solitudes, their waters flashing in the sunshine like gleam- ing mirrors, and lighting up the sombre desolation like jewels in an iron crown ; but the fairest and the brightest of them all was I^ake George. It was the gem of the old wilderness. Of the thousand lakes that adorn the surface of northern New York there is none among them all to-day so fair, none among them all so like "a diadem of beauty," as Lake George — its deepest water as bright and as pure as ■■■ Parkman's Jesuits in North America, p. 208, and Cliarlevoi History of New France, translated by John G. Shea. the dewdrops on the lilies. Its authentic history runs back for two hundred and forty years. Its forest traditions ex- tend into the dim, mythical, mysterious, and unknown romance of the New World. But its waters have not always been so pure as they are to-day, and we shall all grow weary of its story, for it is a story of blood. II.— ISAAC JOGUES. The first white men who saw Lake George were the Jesuit father, Isaac Jogues, and his companions, I{,en6 Goupil and Guillame Couture. They were taken over its waters as prisoners — tortured, maimed, and bleeding — by the Mohawks, in the month of August, l()-t2. Isaac Jogues, the discoverer of Lake George, was born at Orleans, in France, on the Iflth of January, 1G07, and received there the rudiments of his education. In October, 1624, he entered the Jesuit society at Rouen, and removed to the College of La Fleche in 1627. He completed his divinity at Clermont College, Paris, and was ordained priest in February, 1636. In the spring of that year he em- barked as a missionary for Canada, arriving at Quebec early in July. At the time of his first visit to Lake George, Jogues was but thirty-five years of age. " His oval face and the delicate mould of his features," says Parkman, "indicated a modest, thoughtful, and refined nature. He was consti- tutionally timid, with a sensitive conscience and great re- ligious susceptibilities. He was a finished scholar, and might have gained a literary reputation; but he had chosen another career, and one for which he seemed but ill fitted." His companions were young laymen, who froiu religious motives had attached thcm.selves without pay to the service of the Jesuit missions. III.— WAR IN THE WILDERNESS. Thirty-three years before, Samuel de Champlain on his voyage of discovery had first attacked the Iroquois on the shore of the lake that bears his name, and they had fled in terror from the murderous firearms of the first white men they had ever seen to their homes on the Mohawk. Since then they had ceased to make war upon their hereditary enemies, the Canadian Algotigidiis or the French colonists. But they had by no means forgotten their humiliating de- feat. In the mean time they had themselves been supplied with firearms by the Dutch traders at Fort Orange, on the Hudson, in exchange for beaver-.skins and wampum, and now their hour of sweet revenge had come. The war with the Eries, the Iluroiis, and the other western tribes had been undertaken by the Senccas, the Cayiigas, and Onniidagas. It was left to the Mohawlcs and the Oiwidas to attempt the extermination of the Cana- dian AJgoiiqiiins and their French allies. They caiue near accomplishing their bloody purpose. But for the timely arrival of a few troops from France, the banks of the St. Lawrence would soon have become as desolate as the coun- try of the lost Erics or that of the Hnrons. The savages hung the war-kettle upon the fire in all the Mohawk castles and danced the war-dance. In bands of tens and hundreds they took the war-path, and passing through Lakes George and Champlain, and down the river llichelicu, went prowl- 30 HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK. ing about the French settlements at Montreal, Three Rivers, and Quebec, and the Indian villages on the Ottawa. The Iroquois were everywhere. From the Huron country to the Saguenay they infested the forests like so many raven- ous wolves. They hung about the French forts, killing stragglers and luring armed parties into fatal ambuscades. They followed like hounds upon the trail of travelers and hunters through the forests, and lay in wait along the banks of streams to attack the passing canoes. It was one of these prowling hostile bands of MohawJcs that attacked and captured Isaac Jogues and his companions. IV.— CAPTURE OF JOGUES. Father Jogues had come down the savage Ottawa river a thousand miles in his bark canoes the spring before from his far-off Huron mission to Quebec for much-needed sup- plies. He was now on his return voyage to the Huron country. In the dewy freshness of the early morning of the 2d day of August, with his party of four Frenchmen and thirty-six Hurons, in twelve heavily-laden canoes, Jugues had reached the westerly end of the expansion called Lake St. Peters. It is there filled with islands that lie opposite the mouth of the river Richelieu. It was not long before they heard the terrible war-whoop upon the Canadian shore. In a moment more Jogues and his white companions and a part of his Haroiis were captives in the hands of the yelling, exulting Moliawlts, and the remainder of the Hurons killed or dispersed. Goupil was seized at once. Jogues might have escaped ; but seeing Goupil and his Huron neophytes in the hands of their savage captors, he had no heart to desert them, and so gave himself up. Couture at first eluded his pur-suers, but, like Jogues, re- lented, and returned to his captured companions. Five Iroquois ran to meet Couture as he approached, one of whom .snapped his gun at his breast. It missed fire, but Contour in turn fired his own gun at the savage, and laid him dead at his feet. Tiie others sprang upon him like panthers, stripped him naked, tore out his finger-nails with their teeth, gnawed his fingers like hungry dogs, and thrust a sword through one of his hands. Jogues, touched by the suflerings of his friends, broke from his guards and threw his arms around Couture's neck. The savages dragged him away, and knocked him senseless. When he revived they gnawed his fingers with their teeth, and tore out his nails as they had done those of Couture. Turning fiercely upon Goupil, they treated him in the same way. With their captives they then crossed to the mouth of the Richelieu, and encamped where the town of Sorel now stands.* The savages returned to the Mohawk with their suffering captives by the way which they came, — across the old hunt- ing-ground, Kay-ad-ros-se-ra, now Saratoga. On the eighth day, upon an island near the south end of Lake Champlain, they arrived at the camp of two hundred Iroquois, who were on their way to the St. Lawrence. At the sight of the captives these fierce warriors, armed with clubs and thorny sticks, quickly ranged themselves in two lines, be- tween which the captives were each in turn made to run '^ Parkmau's .Jesuits in North America, p. 217. the gauntlet up a rocky hillside. On their way they were beaten with such fury that Jogues fell senseless, half dead, and covered with blood. After passing this ordeal again, the captives were mangled as before, and this time were tortured with fire. At night, when thoy tried to rest, the young warriors tore open their wounds, and pulled out their hair and beard. v.— THE DISCOVERY OF LAKE fiEORGE. In the morning they resumed their journey, and soon reached a rocky promontory, near which ran a forest-covered mountain, beyond which the lake narrowed into a river. It was more than a hundred years before that promontory became the famous Ticonderoga of later times. Between the promontory and the mountain a stream issued from the woods and fell into the lake. They landed at the mouth of the stream, and, taking their canoes upon their shoulders, followed it up around the noi.sy waters of the falls. It was the Indian Chenon-de-ro-ga, " the chiming waters." They soon reached the shores of a beautiful lake, that there lay sleeping in the depths of the limitless forest, all undis- covered and unseen by white men until then. It was the forest gem of the old wilderness, now called Lake George. But it then bore only its old Indian name, Caniad-eri-oit, "the tail of the lake." Champlain, thirty-three years before, had come no far- ther than its outlet. He heard the "chiming waters" of the falls, and was told that a great lake lay beyond them. But he turned back without seeing it, and so our bruised and bleeding prisoners, Isaac Jogues and his companions, Goupil and Couture, were the first of white men to gaze upon its waters. " Like a fair Naiad of the wilderness," says Parkman, " it slumbered between the guardian moun- tains that breathe between crag and forest the stern poetry of war."f Again they launched their frail canoes, and, amid the dreamy splendors of an August day, glided on their noise- less course over the charming waters. On they passed, under the dusky mountain shadows, now over some wide expanse, now through the narrow channels and among the woody islands, redolent with balsamy odors. At last they reached the landing-place at the head of the lake, afterward the site of Fort William Henry, now Caldwell, so fiimous as a sunmier resort. Here they left their boats and took the old Indian trail that led across old Indian Kny-nd-ros- se-ra from Lake George, a distance of forty miles, to the lower castles on the Mohawk. It was the same trail after- wards followed by the Marquis de Tracy, in October, 1666, on his way to the Molunok castles with his army and train of French noblemen, to avenge the death of the youthful Chasy. This old Indian trail, so often the war-path, led from the south end of Lake George, on a southerly course, to the great bend of the Hudson, about ten miles westerly of Glen's Falls. From the bend it led southerly, through the towns of Wilton and Greenfield, along in plain sight of and but four or five miles distant from Saratoga Springs, and through Galway to the lower castles on the Mohawk, t Jesuils of North Aoitrica, p. 2111. HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK. 31 four 111- five miles westerly from what is now Amsterdam, oil the New York Ccutral railroad. VI.— THE CAPTIVITY OF JOGUES. After tlieir arrival at the Mohawk eastlcs, Father Jogues and his companions were again subjected to tlie most inhu- man tortures, with the horrid details of which the reader need not be wearied. Among the Mohtiwhn Jogues re- mained for nearly a year, a captive slave, performing for his savage masters the most menial duties. Soon after his nirival more poor Hurons were brought in and put to death with cruel tortures. But, in the midst of his own sufferings, Jogues lost no opportunity to convert the In- dians to Christianity, sometimes even baptizing them with a few rain-drops which he found clinging to the husks of corn that were thrown him for food. Couture had won their admiration by his bravery, and, after inflicting upon him the most savage torture, they adopted him into one of their fiimilies in the place of a dead relation. But in October they murdered poor Goupil, and after dragging his body through the village, threw it into a deep ravine. Jogues sought it and gave it partial burial. He sought it again and it was gone. Had the torrent washed it away, or had it been taken off by the savases? He searched the forest and the waters in vain. " Then, crouched by the pitiless stream, he mingled his tears with its waters, and, in a voice broken with groans, chanted the service for the dead."* In the spring, while the snows were melting, some chil- dren told him where the body of poor Goupil was lying farther down the stream. The Indians and not the torrent had taken it away. He found the bones scattered around and stripped by the foxes and birds. He tenderly gathered them and hid them in a hollow tree, in the hope that he might some day be able to lay them in consecrated ground. Late in the autumn after his arrival he was ordered to go with a party of braves on their annual deer-hunt. All the game they took they offered to their god Ar-esk-oui, and ate it in his honor. Jogues came near starving in the midst of plenty, for he would not taste the food offered to what he believed to be a demon. In a lonely spot in the forest he cut the bark, in the form of a cross, from the trunk of a large tree. There, half-clad in shaggy furs, in the chill wintry air he knelt upon the fi'ozen ground in prayer. He was a living martyr to the faith before whose emblem he bowed in adoration — a faith in which was now his only hope and consolation. VII.— THE ESCAPE. At length, in the month of July, 1643, he went with a fi.shing-party to a place on the Hudson about twenty miles below Fort Orange. Some of the Iroquois soon returned, bringing Jogues with them. On their way they stopped at Fort Orange and he made his escape from the savages. Jogues was secreted by the Dutch, and the savages made diligent search for him. Fearing his discovery and re- capture by the Indians, the kind-hearted Dutch paid a large ransom for the captive, and gave him a free passage * Jesuits of North America, p. 225. to his home in France. He arrived in Brittany on Christmas-day and was received by his friends, who had heard of his captivity, as one risen from the dead. He was treated everywhere with mingled curiosity and reverence, and was summoned to Paris. The ladies of the court thronged around to do him homage. When he was pre- sented to the queen, Anne of Austria, she kissed his mutilated hands, the hands of the poor slave of the Mohawk squaws. In the spring of 1G44, Jogues returned to Canada, soon to become a martyr to his faith in the valley of the Mohawk. VIII._TIIE LAKE OF THE BLESSED SACRAMENT. For still another year the Iroquois war raged with unabated violence. Early in the spring of 1645, a famous Algonquin chief named Fiskaret, with a band of braves, went out upon the war-path toward the country of the Mohaivks. Upon an island in Lake Champlain they met a war-party of thirteen Iroquois. They killed eleven of the number, made prisoners of the other two, and returned in triumph to the St. Law- rence. At Sillery, a small settlement on the St. Lawrence, near Quebec, Piskaret, in a speech, delivered his captives to Montmagny, the governor-general, who replied with com- pliments and gifts. The wondering captives, when they fairly comprehended that they were saved from cruel torture and death, were surprised and delighted beyond measure. Then one of the captive Mohaivks, of great size and of matchless symmetry of form, who was evidently a war-chief, arose and said to the governor, Montmagny, — " Onnontio, I am saved from the fire. IMy body is de- livered from death. " Onnontio, you have given me my life. I thank you for it. I will never forget it. All my country will be grateful to you. The earth will be bright, the river calm and smooth ; there will be peace and friendship between us. The shadow is before my eyes no longer. The spirits of my ancestors slain by the Alyonquius have disappeared. " Onnontio, you are good ; we are bad. But our anger is gone. I have no heart but for peace and rejoicing." As he said this he began to dance, holding his hands up- raised as if apostrophizing the sun. Suddenly he snatched a hatchet, brandished it for a moment like a madman, then flung it into the fire, saying as he did so, " Thus I throw down my anger ; thus I cast away the weapons of blood. Farewell war. Now, Onnontio, I am your friend forever." Onnontio means in the Indian tongue " great mountain." It is a literal translation of Montmagny's name. It was forever after the Iroquois name for the governors of Canada, as Corlear was for the governors of New York, so called from Arent van Curler, first superintendent of the colonies of Rensselaerswiek, who was a great favorite with the Indians. The captive Iroquois were well treated by the French, and one of them sent home to their country on the Mohawk, under a promise of making negotiations for peace with his people, and the other kept as a hostage. The efforts of the captive chief who returned to the Mo- 32 HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK. hawk were successful. In a short time he reappeared at Three Rivers, witli ambassadors of peace from the Moliawh cantons. To the great joy of the French, lie brought with him Couture, who had become a savage in dress and appear- ance. After a great deal of feasting, speech-making, and belt- giving, peace was concluded, and order and quiet once more reigned for a brief period in the old wilderness. But ambassadors from the French and Algonqidns must be sent from Canada to the Mohawk towns, with gifts and presents to ratify the treaty. No one among the French was so well suited for this office as Isaac Jogues. His, too, was a double errand, for he had already been ordered by his superior to found a new mission among the Mohawks. It was named, prophetically, in advance, " the mission nf the martyrs." At the first thought of returning to the Mohawks, Jogues recoiled with horror. But it was only a momentary pang. The path of duty seemed clear to him, and, thankful that he was found worthy to sufi'er for the saving of souls, he prepared to depart. On the 16th of May, 1646, he set out from Three Rivers, with Sieur Bourdon, engineer to the governor, two Algon- qiiia ambas.sadors, and four Muhnwks as guides. On his way ho passed over the well-remembered scenes of his former sufferings upon the river Richelieu and Lake Champlain. He reached the foot of Lake George on the eve of Corpus Christi, which is the feast of the Blessed Body of Jesus. He named the lake, in honor of the day, "Me Lake of the Blessed Saa-amcnt." When he visited the lake before, as a poor bleeding prisoner, it was clad in the dreamy robes of the early autumn. Now its banks were clothed in the wild exuberance of leafy June. For more than a hundred years afterwards this lake bore no other name. When Sir William Johnson began his military operations at the head of the lake, in the summer of 1755, ho changed its name to Lake George, in honor of England s king. From Lake St. Sacrament, Jogues proceeded on his way to the Mohawk country, and, having accomplished his po- litical mission, returned to Canada. IX.— THE MIS.SION OF THE MARTYRS. His work was only half done. Again, in the month of September, he set out for the Mohawlc country. On his way he again passed over the shining waters of Lake St. Sacrament. Now it was adorned with the gorgeous gold and crimson glories of the mid-autumn forests. This time he went in his true character — a missionary of the gospel. But he had a strong presentiment that his life was near its end. He wrote to a friend, " I shall go and shall not return." His forebodings were verified. While there in July he had left a small box containing a few neces- sary articles, in anticipation of an early return. The superstitious savages were confident that famine, pestilence, or some evil spirit or other was shut up in the box, that would in time come forth and devastate their country. To confirm their suspicions, that very sunmier there was much sickness in their castles, and when the harvest came in the autumn they found that the caterpillars had eaten their corn. The Christian missionary was held responsible for all this, and was therefore doomed to die. He arrived at their village near Cach-na-ua-ga, on the bank of the Mohawk, on the 17th of October, and was saluted with blows. On the evening of the 18th he was invited to sup in the cabin of a chief He accepted the invitation, and on entering the hut he was struck on the head with a toma- hawk by a savage who was concealed within the door. They cut oif his head, and in the morning it was displayed upon one of the palisades that surrounded the village. His body they threw into the Mohawk. Thus died Isaac Jogues, the discoverer of Lake George, at his Mission of the Martyrs, St. Mary of the Mohawks, in the fortieth year of his age. He was but an humble, self- sacrificing missionary of the Cro.ss, yet his was "One of the few, the immortal names That were not born to die." The old trail followed by Jogues through Saratoga County ran from the Hudson at Glen's Falls along the foot of Blount MacGregor, and turning northerly at the Stiles tavern, cro.ssed the whole length of Greenfield, and passed near Lake Desolation, over the Kayadrosseras range, into the Mohawk valley. CHAPTER IX. FRENCH AND INDIAN WARS— THE NORTH- ERN INVASION OF 1666. After the weary feet of Isaac Jogues had ceased to tread the war-trails of old Saratoga and Kay-ad-ros-se-ra, the next expedition of importance which passed from the St. Lawrence to the Mohawk over these old trails was the famous expedition of Governor Daniel de Remi, Sieur de Courcelle, and the Marquis de Tracy, lieutenant-general of Canada, to the Mohawk country in 1666. This expedition was also intimately connected with the naming of the Chazy river, of Clinton county, on Lake Champlain. The Chazy river flows from the beautiful lake of the same name northerly and easterly, and falls into the northerly end of Lake Champlain, nearly opposite the Isle la Motte, of historic fame. The Chazy lake sleeps at the foot of Mount Lyon, one of the central peaks of a mountain group of the Lake Bell of the Wilderness, on the rugged eastern border of Clinton county. This beautiful stream was named in memory of Sieur Chazy, a young French nobleman, who was murdered on its banks near its mouth, by the Indians, in the year 1666. M. Chazy was a nephew of the Marquis de Tracy, and was a captain in the famous French regiment, Carignan- Saliires. This regiment was the first body of regular troops that was sent to Canada by the French king. It was raised by Prince Carignan in Savoy during the year 1544-. Eight years after it was conspicuous in the service of the French king in the battles with Prince Conde in the revolt of the Fronde. But the Prince of Carignan was unable to support the regiment, and gave it to the king, who attached it to the armies of France. HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YOR^. 33 lu 1664 it took a distinguished part with the allied forces of France in the Austrian war with the Turks. The next year it went with Tracy to Canada. Among its captains, besides Chazy, were Sorel, Chambly, La Motte, and others whose names are so familiar in Canadian aunals. The regi- ment was commanded by Colonel de Sali^res. Hence its double name.* In 1GG5, Tracy landed at Quebec in great pomp and splendor.f The Chevalier de Chaumont was at his side, and a long line of young nolt!esse, gorgeous in lace, ribbons, and majestic leonine wigs, followed in his train. As this splendid array of noblemen marched through the narrow streets of the young city at the tap of tlie drum, escorted by the regiment Carignan-Salieres, " the bronzed veterans of the Turkish wars," each soldier with slouched hat, nodding plume, bandolier, and shouldjred firelock, they formed a glittering pageant, such as the New World had never seen before. In the same year the captain Sieur La Motte built Fort St. Anne upon the Isle La Motte, at the south end of Lake Champlain, opposite the mouth of the Chazy river. Young Chazy was stationed at this fort in the spring of 1666, and while hunting in the woods, near the mouth of the river, with a party of officers, was surprised and attacked by a roving band of Jroqnois. Chazy, with two or three others, was killed upon the spot, and the survivors captured and car- ried off prisoners to the valley of the Mohawk. For months the war thus begun raged with unabated violence, and the old wilderness was again drenched in blood, as it had been in the time of Father Jogues, twenty years before. But in the August following a grand council of peace was held with the Iroquois at Quebec. During the council Tracy invited some Mohaxck chiefs to dine with him. At the table some allusion was made to the murder of Chazy. A chief, named Ag-ari-ata, at once held out his arm and boastingly said, — " This is the hand that sjjlit the head of that young man !" " You shall never kill anybody else," exclaimed the horror-stricken Tracy, and ordered the insolent savage to be taken out and hanged upon the spot, in sight of his comrades.]; Of course peace was uo longer thought of. Tracy made haste to march against the MuImwIcs with all the forces at his command. During the month of September, Quebec on the St. Law- rence, and Fort St. Anne on the Isle La Motte in Lake Champlain, were scenes of busy preparation. At length Tracy and the governor, Courcelle, set out from Quebec on the day of the exaltation of the Cross, " for whose glory,'' says the Relation, " this expedition is undertaken." They had with them a force of thirteen hundred men and two pieces of cannon. It was the beginning of October, and the forests were putting on the gorgeous hues of an Amer- ican autumn. They went up T^ake Champlain and into Lake St. Sacrament, now Lake George. As their flotilla « Park.iHin's Old Rtgime, p. 181. t Ibid., p. 178. X Ibid., p. 192. swept gracefully- over the crystal waters of this gem of the old wilderness, it formed the first of the military pageants that in after-years made that fair scene famous in history. Leaving their canoes where Fort William Henry was afterwards built, they plunged boldly on foot into the southern wilderness that lay before them towards the Mo- hawk country. They took the old Indian trail, so often trodden by Father Jogues and by war-parties of savages, which led across the Hudson at the main bend above Glen's Falls, and passed across the old Indian hunting- ground, K'ii/-ad-ros-se-r(i, through what are now the towns of Wilton, Greenfield, and Galway, in Saratoga County, to the lower castles on the Mohawk near the mouth of the Schoharie creek. It was more than forty miles of forests, filled with swamps, rivers, and mountains, that lay before them. Their path was a narrow, rugged trail, filled with rocks and gullies, pitfalls and streams. Their forces con- sisted of six hundred regulars of the regiment Carignan- Salic'res, six hundred Canadian militia, and a hundred Christian Indians from the missions. " It seems to them," writes Mother Marie de I'lncarna- tion, in her letter of the IGth of October, IfiOG, " that they are going to lay siege to Paradise and win it and enter in, because they are fighting for religion and the faith." Ou they went through the tangled woods, officers as well as men carrying heavy loads upon their backs, and dragging their cannon " over slippery logs, tangled roots, and oozy masses." Before long, in the vicinity of what is now known as Lake Desolation, their provisions gave out, and they were almost starved. But soon the trail led through a thick wood of chestnut-trees full of nuts, which they eagerly devoured and thus .stayed their hunger. At length, after many weary days, they reached the lower Mohawk cantons. The names of the two lower Mohawk castles were then Te-hon-da-lo-ga, which was at Fort Hun- ter, at the mouth of the Schoharie creek, and Ga-no wa-ga, now Cach-na-wa-ga , which was near Tribes hill. Tlie upper castles, which were farther up the Mohawk, were the Ca-na-Jo-lia e, near Fort Plain, and Ga-iie-ga-ho-ga, oppo- site the mouth of East Canada creek. They marched through the fertile valley of the Mohawk, the Indians fleeing into the forest at their approach. Thus the brilliant pageant of the summer that had glittered across the sombre rock of Quebec, was twice repeated by this war- like band of noblemen and soldiers amid the crimson glories of the autumn woods in the wild valley of the jMohawk. They did not need the cannon which they had brought with so much toil across the country from Lake St. Sacra- ment. The savages were frightened almost out of their wits by the noise of their twenty drums. '' Let us save ourselves, brothers," said one of the Mohawh chiefs, as he ran away, " the whole world is coming against us." After destroying all the corn-fields in the valley, and burn- ing the last palisaded Mohawk village, they planted a cross on its ashes, and by the side of the cross the royal arms of France. Then an officer, by order of Tracy, advanced to the front, and, with sword in hand, proclaimed in a loud voice that he took possession, in the name of the king of France, of all the country of the Mohawks. Having thus happily accomplished their object without 34 HISTORY OF SAKATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK. the loss of a man, they returned unmolested to Canada over the route by which they came. The death of younj; Chazy was avenged. The insolent Iroquois were for the first time chastised and humbled in their own country. For twenty years afterwards there was peace in the old wilderness, — peace bought by the blood of young Chazy. Surely was the beautiful river, on whose banks his bones still rest, christened with his name amid a baptism of fire at an altar upon which the villages, the wigwams, the corn- fields of his murderera were the sacrificial offerings. And so ended the second French and Indian war, known in colonial annals as the War of lOGG. CHAPTER X. FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR OP 1689-90. I.— THE INVASION OF MONTREAL OF 1689. After the return of Tracy's expedition of 16G6, there was comparative peace in the old wilderness for a period of more than twenty years. But at length, owing to the mis- taken policy of Governor Denonville, the war broke out afresh, and the old northern valley again became the scene of untold horrors. All colonies are sometimes unfortunate in their governors, and the dominion of New France was not an exception to the rule. In the manner in which some of the early Cana- dian giivernors treated the Iroquois of central New York, can easily be traced the persistent enmity of these savages to the French, and their unshaken friendship for the Eng- lish colonists of the Atlantic slope. Previous to 1689 Governor Denonville had for a long time been on unfriendly terms with the Iroquois. In that year he committed warlike depredations upon their hunting- parties near the upper lakes. In the n)ean time, Governor Dongan, of New York, was the warm friend and ally of the Iroquois. Governor Dongan's wrath was kindled anew when he heard that the French had invaded the country of the Senecas, seized English traders on the lakes, and built a fort at Niagara. He at once summoned the Five Nations to meet him at Albany. He told the assembled chiefs that their late troubles had fallen upon them because they had held councils with the French without asking his leave ; and he forbade them to do so again, and told them that, as subjects of King James, they must make no further treaty with the French except with his consent. He enjoined them to receive no more French Jesuits into their towns, and to call home their countrymen whom these fathers had converted and enticed to Cachnawaga. " Obey my com- mands," said the governor, " for that is the only way to eat well and sleep well, without fear or disturbance." The Iro- quois seemed to assent to all this; their orators said, " We will fight the French as long as a man is left." Then arose a long controversy between Governor Dongan and Governor Denonville in reference to the Iroquois. Governor Dongan took the responsibility of protecting the Iroqvois upon his own shoulders. At length James II. consented to own the Iroquois as his subjects, and ordered Dongan to protect them. This declaration of royalty was a great relief to Dongan. He now pursued more vigorous measures against the French. So the controversy ran on year after year between the two governors until the fall of lUSO, when the Iroquois struck a blow which came upon the French like the crash of a thunderbolt. During the latter part of July they assembled their war- riors and started on the war-path. Taking their bark ca- noes, they paddled down the Mohawk, passed the old city of Schenectady, and landed at the mouth of Eel-Place creek, on the right bank of the river. Here they found a large corn-field planted by William Apple and his associates, who were inhabitants of Schenectady. Halting for a few days, they feasted upon the green corn in the ear, destroying the whole field. In after-years what is now known as " Apple patent" grew out of this circumstance. Leaving the Mo- hawk, they then followed up the creek to the carrying-place which leads across into Ballston lake. At the lake they again took to their canoes, and sped across its water. It was a splendid warlike pageant for these now quietly- sleeping waters. The Iroquois were fully fifteen hundred strong, the fiercest warriors of the New World, painted and plumed for the war-path. They reached the outlet of the lake near what is now known as East Line. Again taking their canoes from the water, they carried them over the land into the " Mourning Kill." From the " Mourning Kill" they descended into the valley of the Kay -ad-ros-se-ra river; down the Kay-ad-ros-se-ra they sped into the Kay-ad-ros-se-ra, now Saratoga, lake. Across its trannjuil waters they passed in savage array, presenting a striking contrast with our modern regattas, and, entering the Fishkill, were soon upon the waters of the Hudson. Pro- ceeding up to the great carrying-place, at what is now Fort Edward, they passed over it into Wood creek, and thence down into Lake Champlain. On the 5th of August, 1G89, a violent hail-storm burst over Lake St. Louis, an expansion of the St. Lawrence a little above Montreal. Concealed by the tempest and the ■ darkness, these fifteen hundred warriors landed at La Chine, and posted themselves in silence about the houses of the sleeping settlers, then screeched the war-whoop, and began the most frightful massacre in Canadian history. Men, women, and children were butchered indiscriminately, and the houses reduced to ashes. In the neighborhood were three stockaded forts, and an encampment of two hundred regulars were at the distance of three miles. At four o'clock in the morning, the troops in this encampment heard a can- non-shot from one of the forts. Soon after they were under arms they saw a man running towards them, just escaped from the Indian butchery. He told his story, and passed on with the news to Montreal, about six miles distant. Within a short time thereafter, there came in several fugi- tives one after another, each telling his tale of the frightl'ul massacre. The commander of the troops at once ordered them to march. When they had advanced toward La Chine they found the houses still burning, and the bodies of the inmates strewn among them, or hanging from the stakes HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK. 35 where they had been tortured. The Iroquois, they learned, had been encamped a mile and a half farther on, behind a tract of forest. Advancing towards the Jroqxois sword in hand at the liead of his men, the daring commander entered the forest ; but, at that moment, a voice from the rear commanded a halt. It was that of the Chevalier De Vaudreuil, just come fiom Montreal, with positive orders from Denonville to run no risks and stand solely on the defensive. On the next day eighty men from some of the forts attempted to join them ; but the Iroquois intercepted the unfortunate detachment and cut them to pieces in full sight of the forts. All were killed except Le Moyne, De Longeuil, and a few otliers, who escaped within the gates of the two forts. Montreal was stricken to the earth with terror. But no attack was made either on the town or aii}' of the forts, and the inhabitants, such as could reach them, were safe; while the Iroquois held undisputed possession of the open country, burned all the houses and barns over an extent of nine miles, and roamed in small parties, pillaging and sculp- ing, over more than twenty miles more. They encountered no opposition nor met with any loss. Charlevoix says that the invaders remained in the neighborhood of Montreal till the middle of October; whether this bo so or not. their stay was strangely long. At length, when ready to return, they re-crossed Lake St. Louis in a body, giving ninety yells, showing thereby that they had ninety prisoners of war. As they piissed the forts they shouted, " Onontio, you have deceived us, and now we have deceived you !" Towards evening they encamped on the farther side of the river, and began to torture and devour their prisoners. On that miserable night groups of persons, stupefied and speechless, stood gazing from the Canadian shore at the lights that gleamed along the shore of Chateaugay, where their friends, wives, parents, or children were agonizing in the fires of the Iroquois, and where scenes were enacted of indescrib- able and nameless horror. Under this terrible calamity Canada lay benumbed and bewildered ; but this was nut all. James II., of England, the friend and ally of France, had been driven from Eng- land, and William of Orange had seized his vacant throne. There was now war between England and France. The French not only had to contend against the Iroquois, but now the British colonies, strong and populous, were about to attack them. But Denonville was recalled, and in October sailed for France. His successor was Count de Frontenac. II. THE BURNING OF SCHENECTADY, IX 1000. No event in the long and bloody warfare of the old wilderness possesses a more tragic interest than the sacking and burning of Schenectady in the dead of winter, in the year 1090. Instead of opposing the Iroquois, his former allies, Frontenac at empted to reclaim them. He resolved, therefore, to take the offensive, not only against the Iro- quois, but also against the English, and to strike a few rapid, sharp blows that he might teach both his friends and foes that Onontio was still alive. He formed three war- parties of picked men, — one at Montreal, one at Three Rivers, and one at Quebec; the first to strike at Albany, the second New Hampshire, and the third Maine. That of Montreal against Albany was first ready. It consisted of two hundred men, of whom ninety-six were converted Indians, from the missions near Montreal. D'Aillebout de Mantet and Le Moyne de Sainte-Helene, the brave son of Charles Le Moyne, had the chief command ; they were supported by the brothers Le Moyne D'Iberville and Le Moyne De Bienville, with llepentigny de Mont- tesson, Le Bor Du Chesne, and other of the Canadian nol/lesse. They began their march in the depth of winter, on snow- shoes, each soldier with the hood of his blanket drawn over his head, a gun in his mittened hand, a knife, a hatchet, a tobacco-pouch at his belt, and a pack on his shoulders. They dragged their blankets and provisions over the snow on Indian sledges. Thus they went on across the St. Law- rence up the Richelieu and the frozen Lake Champlain, and then stopped to hold a council. Frontenac had left the precise point of attack discretionary with the leaders, and the men had thus far been ignorant of their destina- tion. The Indians demanded to know it. Mantet and Sainte-Helene replied that ihey were going to Albany. The Indians objected, — " How long is it," asked one of them, " since the French grew so bold?" The commanders answered that, to regain the honor of which their late mis- fortunes had robbed them, the French would take Albany or die in the attempt. After eight days they reached the Hudson, and found the place, at what is now Schuyler- ville, where two paths diverged, the one for Albany and the other for Schenectady ; they all without further words took the latter trail. There was a partial thaw, and they waded knee-deep through the half-melted snow, and the mingled ice, mud, and water of the gloomy swamps. So painful and slow was their progress that it was nine days more before they reached a point two leagues from Schenec- tady. By this time the weather had changed again, and a cold, gusty snow-storm pelted them. At four o'clock in the afternoon of the 8th of February the scouts found an Indian hut, and in it were four Iroquois squaws, whom they captured. There was a fire in the wigwam, and the shivering Canadians crowded about it and warmed them- selves over its blaze. The chief Indian, called by the Dutch •' Kryn," harangued his followers, and exhorted them to wash out their wrongs in blood. They then advanced again, and about dark reached the river Mohawk, a little above the village. Their purpose had been to postpone the attack until two o'clock in the morning ; but such was the inclemency of the weather that they were forced to move on or perish. Guided by the frightened squaws, they crossed the Jlohawk on the ice. About eleven o'clock they saw through the storm the snow-covered palisades of the devoted village. iSueh was their distress that some of them after- wards said that they would all have surrendered if an enemy had appeared. The village was oblong in form and inclosed by a palisade, which had two gates, one towards Albany and the other towards the Mohawks. There was a block-Iiouse near the eastern gate, occupied by eight or nine Connecticut militia- men, under Lieutenant Talmadge. There were also about twenty or thirty Mohau-lcs in the place, on a visit, llie Dutch inhabitants were in a state of discord. The revolution 36 HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK. in England had produced a revolution in New York. The demagogue, Jacob Leisler, had got possession of Fort Wil- liam, and was endeavoring to master the whole colony. Albany was in the hands of the anti-Leisler, or Conserv- ative party, represented in convention, of which Peter Schuyler was the chief. The Dutch of Schenectady for the most part fiwored Leisler, but their magistrate, John San- der Glen, stood fast for the Albany convention ; for this the villagers had threatened to kill him. Talmadge and his militia were under orders from Albany, and, therefore, like Glen, they were under the popular ban. In vain had the magistrate and Talmadge entreated the people to stand on' their guard. They turned the advice to ridicule, and left their gates open, and placed there, it is said, a snow image as mock sentinel. There had been some festivity during the evening; but it was now over, and the primitive vil- lagers, fathers, mothers, children, and infants, lay buried in unbroken sleep. Before the open western gate, with its mock sentinel of snow, its blind and dumb warder, stood the French and Indians. The assailants were now formed into two bands, Sainte- Hclene leading the one and Mantet the other. They passed through the gate together in dead silence. One turned to the right and the other to the left, and they filed around the village between the palisades and the houses, till the two leaders met at the farther end. Tiius the place was completely suri'ounded. The signal was then given ; they all screeched the war-whoop together, burst in the doors with hatchets, and fell to their work. The villagers, roused by the infernal din, leaped from their beds. For some it was but a nightmare of fright and horror, ended by the blow of the tomahawk. Others were less fortunate. Neither children nor women were spared. " No pen can write, and no tongue express," wrote Schuyler, " the cruel- ties that were committed." At the block-house, Talmadge and his men made a stubborn fight, but the doors were at length forced in, the defenders killed or taken, and the building set on fire. Adam Vrooman, one of the villagers, saw his wife shot and his child brained against the door- posts, but he fought so desperately that the assailants prom- ised him his life. Orders had been given to spare Peter Tassemaker, the minister. He was hacked to pieces and his house burned. A few fortunate ones fled towards Albany in the storm to seek shelter. Sixty persons were killed outright, of whom thirty-eight were men and boys, ten were women, and twelve were children. The number cap- tured, it appears, was between eighty and ninety. The thirty Mohawks in the town were treated with great kindness by the victors, who declared that they had no quarrel with them, but only with the Dutch and p]nglish. For two hours this terrible massacre and pillage continued ; then the prisoners were secured, sentinels posted, and the men told to rest and refresh themselves. In the morning a small party crossed the river to the house of Glen, which stood on a rising ground, at what is now called Scotia. Glen had prepared to defend himself; but the French told him not to fear, for they had orders not to hurt a chicken of his. After requiring them to lay down their arms, he allowed them to enter. Glen had on several occasions saved the lives of the French, and owing him therefore a debt of gratitude, they took this moans of repaying it. Ho was now led before the crowd of prisoners and told that not only were his own life and property safe, but that all of his kindred should be spared. So many claimed relationship with Glen that the Indians observed " that everybody seemed to be his rela- tion." Fire was now set to all the buildings except one in which a French officer lay wounded, another belonging to Glen, and three or four more which he begged the victors to spare. At noon Schenectady was in ashes. The French and Indians then withdrew, laden with booty. Dragging their sledges with thirty or forty horses, which were cap- tured, twenty-seven men and boys were driven prisoners into the forest. About sixty old men, women, and children were left behind, without injury by the victors. Only two of the invaders had been killed. The French and Indians returned across the territory of Saratoga County, in the order in which they came, pursued by the English troops. They were overtaken near Lake Champl.iin, and a few prisoners taken. Before reaching Montreal, they came near starving, such was the inclemency of the season and the difficulties of the journey. III.— FITZ .JOHN WINTHROP'S EXPEDITION OF 1690. The first American Congress was held on the 1st of May, 1090, in the fort at New York. It was agreed that while the fleet should attack Quebec the army should proceed by way of Lake Champlain to Montreal and thus effect the con(|ue,st of Canada. The command of this expedition was given to Fitz John Winthrop, of Connecticut. He was commissioned a major- general in the service, being already a member of the coun- cil of Governor Andros. On the 14th of July of this year General Winthrop set out from Hartford with some troops, and was seven days marching through the almost impassable wilderness before he reached Albany, on the Hud.son. Ho had been preceded by two comp.inies under Captains john.son and Fitch. " At Albany," says Win- throp, " I found the design against Canada poorly contrived and prcseeuted, all things confused and in no readiness to march, and everybody full of idle projects about it." The expedition consisted of four hundred troops from New York, one hundred and thirty-five men, being three companies, from Connecticut, thirty Hiver Indians, and one hundred and fifty Mohawks. A sorry array compared to the thousands who, sixty-eight years after,^ swept up the Hudson through Lake George, under Abercrombie and Lord Howe, to find "glory and a grave" at Ticonderoga. On the 30th of July the New England troops and the In- dians moved up four miles and encamped on the flats of Watervliet. On the 1st of August Winthrop's expedition reached Stillwater, where they encamped for the night. The next morning Winthrop took up the line of march for Saratoga, now Schuylerville, where there was a block-hou.se and some Dutch soldiers. At this place he found the re- corder of Albany, Mr. Wessells, and a company of princi- pal gentlemen, volunteers from that city. Here he got letters from Major Peter Schuyler, the mayor of Albany, who had already gone up the river before him with the Dutch troops, to the efi"ect that he. Major Schuyler, who was situated at the second carrying-place, now Fort Miller, HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK. 37 was making canoes for the army. " Thus far," Winthrop says, " the way was good ; only four great wading rivers, only one of them dangerous for horse and man." On the 4th of August the provisions were divided ; to each soldier was given thirly-five cakes of bread, besides pork, and Winthrop moved up eight miks to Fort IMiller; the Dulch soldiers carrying up their supplies in their bark canoes, and the Connecticut troops carrying them on horses. " Here," says Winthrop, " the water passeth so violently, by reason of the great falls and rocks, that canoes cannot pass ; so they were forced to carry their provisions and canoes on their backs a pretty ways to a passable part of the river." This point was then known as "the Little Carrying-Place." On the 5th of August the soldiers marched about eight miles to " The Great Carrying-Place," taking their pro- visions on their horses, the Dutch having already gone up the river in their canoes. On the Cith of August the little army marched over the "Great Carrying-Place" twelve miles, to the forks on Wood creek, since called Fort Ann. The way was through a continuous swamp covered with tall white-pine trees. On the 7th of August, General Win- throp sent back thirty horses to Saratoga, under command of Ensign Thoniilson, for provisions. On the same day the general passed down Wood creek with two files of musketeers, flanked by the Indians under Captain Stanton, to the Hautkill, now Whitehall, where he encamped with Major Schuyler and the Mohawk captains, on the north side of Wood creek. On the 9th of August the general received information through Captain Johnson, who had been sent to Albany some days previous for provisions, that the western Indians whom he expected to meet at the Isle La Motte, near the north end of Lake Champlain, had not left their country on account of the smallpox breaking out among them. The expression the Indians used was " that the great God had stopped their way." The smallpox had also broken out in the army under Winthroj), and seriously reduced the available force. The French claimed that of this expedition four hundred Indians and two hundred English died of the smallpox. While at Hautkill, Major Schuyler sent forward Captain Sanders Glen, — the same who had been spared at the Sche- nectady massacre, — with a company of twenty-eight men and five Indians. At Ticonderoga Glen erected on the 5th of August some stone breastworks, and waited for the expedi- tion to come up ; but it was found that the time was so far spent that bark would not peel, and therefore no more canoes could be built that season. It was further ascer- tained that the commissaries at Albany could forward no further supplies of piovisions. On the 15th of August a council of war was held, and it was resolved to return with the army to Albany. Thus ended the first expedition against Canada undertaken by the English colonists. Cap- tain John Schuyler, however, proceeded on down Lake Champlain, on his first expedition against the French at La Prairie. When the troops, on their return, reached Wood creek. Lieutenant Hubbell died of the smallpox ; he was buried there with much ceremony. All the forts above Saratoga, with the stores and boats, were burned. Winthrop's army reached Greenbush, opposite Albany, on the 20th of August, having been absent just three weeks. CHAPTER XI. THE NORTHEBN INVASION OF 1693^A BATTLE IN SARATOGA. In the month of January, 1693, Count de Frontenac, governor of Canada, dispatched a force from Montreal with orders to invest and destroy the Muhatvk ca.stles, and com- mit as great ravages as possible around Fort Orange. This expedition was under the command of De Manteth Courtemanche and La Nuoe. All the Canadian mission Indians were invited to join it, — the Iroquois of the Saut and mountain ; Ahenakis, from the Chaudiere ; ILirons, from Lorette; and Alc/oiiqiuiis, from Three Rivers. A hundred regular soldiers were added, and a large band of Canadian voyageurs. The whole force mustered six hun- dred and twenty-five men. They left Chanibly at the end of January, and pushed southward on snow-shoes. Their way was over the ice of Lake Champlain, and so on to the Mohawk country. At night, in squads of twelve or more, they bivouacked in the forest ; they dug away the snow in a circle and covered the bare earth with hemlock boughs, built a fire in the middle, and sat around it. It was six- teen days before they reached the two lower Mohawk towns, which were a quarter of a league apart. They surrounded one town on the night of the 16th of February, and waited in silence till the voices within were hushed, when they attacked the place, capturing all the inhabitants without resistance. They then marched to the next town, reached it at evening, and hid in the neighboring woods. Through all the early evening they heard the whoops and songs of the warriors within who were dancing the war-dance. The Mohaivks had posted no sentinels ; and one of the French Indians, scaling the palisade, opened the gate to his com- rades. The fight was short but bloody. Twenty or thirty Mohaicks were killed, and nearly three hundred captured, chiefly women and children. After burning the last Mo- hawk town the French and their Indian allies began their retreat, encumbered with a long train of prisoners. It was the intent of the French to push on to Schenectady and Albany, but they were overruled by the Indian chiefs, who represented that the number of the prisoners was so great they would prevent them from making any farther advances. In the mean time the whole country had become alarmed. Lieut. John Schuyler and fifty-five horse marched from Albany to Schenectady. These were quickly followed by Major Schuyler, who .sent out scouts to watch the enemy's movements. The English crossed the Mohawk, started in pursuit of the enemy with two hundred and seventy-three men, marched twelve miles, and encamped. At one o'clock the next morning they broke camp and marched till six o'clock A.M., when they were advised that the Canadians were eight miles distant. At four o'clock p.m. the Eng- lish forces marched to a place near Tribes hill, where the invaders had remained the night before. On Tuesday, the 15th, they received a reinforcement of Mohawks, who had come down from the upper country, and they marched about ten miles to a place near Galway, where they halted and sent spies to discover the enemy. On Thursday, the 17lh, they marched in the morning to the place where the French had previnuslv encamped, near Greenfield Centre. Two miles 38 HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK. fiirtlier on they learned, through a Christian Indian boy, that the French were then within three miles. They then marched and encamped within a mile of the enemy, where the French had built a fort, Indian fashion, near what is now known as the Stiles' tavern, in Wilton, on the eastern border of the Palmerton mountains. The English soon appeared before the fortified camp of the French. Tlie forest at once rang with the war-whoops of the savages, and the English Indians set at work to intrench them.selves with felled trees. The French and the Indian allies sallied to dis- lodge them. The attack was fierce and the resistance equally so. With the French, a priest of the Mission of the Moun- tain, named Gay, was in the thick of the fight ; and, when he saw his neophytes run, he threw himself before them, crying, " What are you afraid of? We are fighting with infidels, who have nothing human but the shape. Have you forgotten that the Holy Virgin is our leader and our pro- tector, and that you are subjects of the King of France, whose name makes all Europe tremble?' Three times the French renewed the attack in vain. They then gave over the attempt and lay quietly behind their barricade of trees. So did their English opponents also. The morning was dark and dreary ; a drifting snow-storm filled the air. The English were out of provisions and in a starving condition. The Indians, however, did not want for food, having re- sources unknown to their white friends. Schuyler was invited to taste some broth which they had prepared, but his appetite was spoiled when he saw them ladle a man's hand out of the kettle. The Indians were making their breakfast on the bodies of the dead Frenchmen. All through the next night the hostile bands watched each other behind their sylvan ramparts. In the morning an Indian deserter told the English commander that the French were packing their baggage. They had retreated under cover of the snow-storm. Schuyler ordered his men to follow, but they had fasted three days and refused to go. The next morning some provisions arrived from Albany. Five biscuits were served out to each man, and the pursuit began. By great efforts they nearly overtook the fugitives, who now sent word back that if the English made an attack all the prisoners should bo put to death. On hearing this the Indians under Schuyler refused to continue the chase. When the French reached the Hudson, they found to their dismay that the ice was breaking up and drifting down the stream. Happily for them, a large sheet of it had become wedged at the bend of the river, that formed a tempoiaiy bridge, over which they crossed and pushed up to Lake George. Before the English arrived at the river the ice- bridge had again floated away, and the pursuit was ended. Thus was fought on the soil of Saratoga County, within six miles of Saratoga Springs, one of the sanguinary con- tests of the old wilderness warfare. The battle is said to have been on the plain which lies to the northwest of Stiles' tavern. This region of the country was afterwards occu{)ied by the Pitlmerlon Indians. The peace of Ryswyck was declared two years after, in 1 695, and for fourteen years thereafter, and until what is known as Queen Anne's war broke out, there was peace in the old wilderness. CHAPTER XII. FRENCH AND INDIAN WARS, 1709-48. I.— QUEEN ANNE'S WAR. In the year 1709, what is known as Queen Anne's war broke out in Europe and speedily extended to the American colonies, each of which soon became bent on the extermi- nation of the other. Peter Schuyler was now of the executive council, a commissioner of Indian affairs, and a colonel in the service. He was called by the Indians Gtiider, because they could not pronounce his name. His brother John had been advanced to the grade of lieutenant- colonel. Richard Ingoldsby, who had come over with the rank of major, as commamler of Her Majesty's four companies of regulars, w;is now lieuteuant-governor of the province. Again a joint expedition was planned by the colonists for the cuncjuest of Canada. Five regiments of regulars were to be joined with twelve hundred provincial troops, who were to proceed by sea to Quebec. Another body of troops was to rendezvous at Albany- for the attack on Montreal. The forces for this latter ex- pedition were placed under the command of Colonel Vetch, a nephew of Peter Schuyler, and General Nicholson. Nicholson was tendered the command by Governor In- goldsby on the 21st of May, 1709. On the 19th of May, the council had given orders that there should be sent forthwith to Albany a sufficient quan- tity of stores and provisions, and all other things necessary for building storehouses and boats and make canoes. About the 1st of June the vanguard of the expedition, consisting of three hundred men, with the pioneers and artificers, moved out of Albany, under the command of Colonel Schuyler. Proceeding to Stillwater, they built a stockaded fort for provisions, which they named Fort Ingoldsby. They also built stockaded forts at Saratoga, situated on the east side of the river, below the Battenkill, and another at Fort JMiller falls. From Saratoga they built a road up the east side of the river to the Great Carrying-Place. At the bank of the Hudson they built, at the Great Carrying- Place, another fort, whicli they called Fort Nicholson. This has since become Fort Edward. From Fort Edward they went across the (ireat Carrying-Place to the Wood creek, where they built another fort, which they called Fort Schuyler. This name was shortly afterwards changed to Fort Ann. At Fort Ann they built a hundred bark canoes, one hun- dred and ten boats, which would hold from six to ten men each. Lieutenant-Colonel John Schuyler was in command of this place. The number of men was finally increased to eleven hun- dred and fifty. Fort Nicholson was garrisoned by four hundred and fifty men, including seven companies of reg- ulars, in scarlet uniform, from Old England. At the Fort Miller falls there were forty men, and at Stillwater seventy men. In the mean time, Governor Vaudreuil had moved up from Montioal to Chambly, to watch the motions of the invaders. But this expedition overland was simply auxiliary to the fleet by sea from Boston. As this latter failed nothing further came of the invasion, and the summer HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK. 39 passed away in idleness. While at Fort Ann a fatal sickness broke out in the English camp, and a great number died as if poisoned. In October, Colonel Nicholson returned with his crippled forces to Albany. Charlevoix states that this sickness was produced by the treachery of the Indians, who threw the skins of their game into the swamp above the camp. It is probable, however, that it was a malignant dysentery, cau.sed by the extreme heat and the malaria of the swamps. Two years later, in 1711, a second army was fitted out in a similar manner to the last and for the same purpose. It was composed of three regiments, as fol- lows: first, Colonel Ingoldsby's regulars; secondly, Colonel Schuyler's New York troops ; thirdly. Colonel Woodin's troops, from Connecticut. The whole force consisted of about three thousand men, under command of General Nicholson, and left Albany on the 2'lth of August. By the 28th the troops were all on their njarch beyond Albany. They proceeded as far as Fort Ann, which had been de- stroyed two years before. Shortly after arriving at Fort Ann, intelligence was received that Her Majesty's fleet had been shattered by storms in the St. Lawrence, with the loss of one thousand troops, and the expedition was abandoned. Thus the third attempt to conquer Canada proved abortive ; and in 1713 the peace of Utrecht, between England and France, again put a stop to the warfare of the old wilderness. II.— THE ATTACK ON FORT CLINTON, AT SARATOGA. In 1744 war was again declared between England and France. In the midst of the profound peace of the pre- ceeding thirty-one years, the French had advanced up Lake Champlain as far as Crown Point, where they built Fort St. Frederick, in the year 1731. In the month of Novem- ber, 1745, an expedition against the English settlement was fitted out at Montreal ; it was composed of three hundred Frenchmen and as many Indians. Their object was to attack and capture the settlements on the Connecticut river; but, on their arrival at Fort St. Frederick, they changed this purpose and proceeded down to Saratoga. On the night of the IGth of November they attacked the little settlement of Saratoga, plundered and burned about twenty houses, together with the fort. They killed and scalped about thirty persons, and carried oft' sixty prisoners ; only one family escaped by flight, who, as they looked back, saw the fort in flames. Among the killed was John Philip Schuyler, an uncle of General Philip Schuyler of Revolu- tionary memory. Schuyler had made his will a few years before, by which he divided his property between two nephews, one of whom was General Philip Schuyler. In the spring of 1746 the English rebuilt the fort at Saratoga, changing its location, however, to accommodate some wheat-fields which were there growing, giving it the name of Fort Clinton. On the 29th of August, 1746, a band of French and Indians, under command of M. De Repentigny, who were scouting near by, made an attack upon a party of twenty soldiers near the gates of the fort, killing four men, who were scalped by the Indians, and took four prisoners. In June, 1747, an expedition started from Fort St. Frederick to attack and destroy Fort Clinton, at Saratoga. It was under the command of La Corne St. Luc, and con- sisted of twenty Frenchmen and two hundred Indians. On the night of the 11th of June they arrived before the fort. While the main body of the French were lying in conceal- ment near by. La Corne sent forward six scouts with orders to lie in ambush within eight paces of the fort, to fire upon tliose who should come out of the fort the next morning, and if attacked to retire pretending to be wounded. At daybreak in the morning two Englishmen came out of the fort, and they were at once fired upon by the French scouts, who thereupon fled. Soon after the firing began, a hun- dred and twenty Englishmen came out of the fort, headed by their ofiicers, and started in hot pursuit of the French scouts. The English soon fell in with the main body of the French, who rising from their ambuscade, poured a galling fire into the English ranks. The English at first bravely stood their ground and sharply returned the fire. The guns of the fort also opened upon the French with grape and cannon shot. But the Indians soon rushed upon the English with terrible yells, and with tomahawk in hand drove them into the fort, giving them scarcely time to shut the gates behind them. Many of the English soldiers, being unable to reach the fort, ran down the hill into the river, and were drowned or killed with the tomahawk. The Indians killed and scalped twenty-eight of the English, and took forty-five prisoners, besides those drowned in the river. In the autumn following this disaster. Fort Clinton, of Saratoga, was dismantled and burned by the English, and Albany once more became the extreme northern outpost of the English colonies, with nothing but her palisaded walls between her and the uplifted tomahawks of the ever-frown- ing north. In May, 1748, peace was again proclaimed, which lasted for the brief period of seven years, until the beginning of the last French and Indian war of 1755, which ended in the conquest of Canada. During this short peace of seven years, the settler's axe was heard upon many a hillside, as he widened his little clearing, and the smoke went curling gracefully upward from his lonely cabin in many a valley along the upper Hudson. It was in the summer of 1749, during this short peace, that Peter Kalm,* the Swedish botani.st, traveled, in the interests of science, through this great northern war-path. He gives, in his account of the journey, a graphic descrip- tion of the ruins of the old forts at Saratoga, at Fort Nich- olson, and Fort Ann, which were then still remaining in the centres of small deserted clearings in the great wilder- ness through which he pa.ssed. He made many discoveries of rare and beautiful plants before unknown to Europeans, and in our swamps and lowlands a modest flower, the ktdmia fflauca, swamp laurel, blooms in perpetual remembrance of his visit. But there were no mineral springs in the Sara- ' toga visited by Peter Kalm. CHAPTER XIIL LAST FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR, 1755-63. We have now come, in passing through the history of the long colonial wars of the old wilderness, to the last * Viile Kalm's Travels, in Pinkcrton, vol. xiii. 40 HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK. French and Indian war, whicli raged for a period of eight years, ending in the peace of 17G3. In this period was enacted a great drama of five acts : 1. The expedition of Sir William Johnson to Lake George, in 1755. 2. The expedition of General Winslow, of 1756. 3. Montcalm's campaign against Lake George, in 1757. 4. Abercrombie's march and defeat, of 1758. 5. The victory of Amherst on Lake Champlain, and of Wolfe at Quebec, of the year 1759. During this war great armies marched through Saratoga along the old northern war-worn valley, dyeing its streams with blood, and filling its wild meadows with thousands of nameless new-made graves. I.— Sill AVILLIAM JOHNSON'S EXPEDITION IN 1755. In the beginning of the year 1755, a plan of military operations, on a more extensive scale than had ever before been piojected, was adopted by the British ministry for dis- possessing the French upon the English territory. Three expeditions were fitted out : that of Braddock against Fort Du Quesne, another under Shirley against Niagara, and a third under Johnson against Crown Point. To carry out this latter expedition five thousand provincial troops were raised, of which number eight hundred were fuinished by New York. This army assembled at Albany on the last of June, where it was joined by King Hendrick, with a large body of Mohawk warriors. Early in July, about six hun- dred men were sent up the Hudson river to erect a fort at the Great Carrying-Place, on the site of old Fort Nicholson. This fort was first called Fort Lyman, in honor of the officer commanding the advanced corps. In a few years it was changed to Fort Edward, in honor of Edward, Duke of York, grandson of the reigning sovereign, George the Second. It stood upon the bank of the Hud,son, on the north side of Fort Edward creek. Other detachments of the army soon followed, one of which, under command of Colonel Miller, built a fort at the rapids above Saratoga. It was named Fort Miller. Colonel Miller also cut a military road upon the west side of the Hudson to Fort Edward, and thence through the forest to the head of Lake George. On the 8th of August, Major-Geaeral William Johnson left Albany with the artillery, and took command of the army in person. The latter part of August he advanced with the main body of his forces to the head of Lake George, with the design of passing to the outlet of the lake at Ticonderoga, and erecting a fort there to aid in the operations against Crown Point, but the French reached Ticonderoga in advance of him, and strongly fortified them- selves there. Aware of Johnson's enterprise against Crown Point, Baron Dieskau, the commander of the French forces on Lake Champlain, had collected about three thousand men for its defense. Expecting an immediate attack, he selected a force of two hundred grenadiers, eight hundred Canadian militia, and seven hundred Indians, proceeded up the lake, and landed at the head of South bay, to embar- rass Johnson, who was then lying with his army at the head of Lake George. He resolved to capture Fort Ed- ward, thence drop down the river, and menace Albany. Accordingly, on the 7th day of September, he marched south into the edge of Kingsbury, where he halted about seven miles north of Fort Edward. The French and In- dians opposed the idea of assaulting Fort Edward, dreading the cannon, but were willing to attack Johnson at Lake George. Dieskau therefore changed his course, marching toward Lake George, and encamped over night near the southern extremity of French mountain. John.son, learning of the approach of Dieskau on the morning of the eighth, sent out Colonel Ephraim Williams with a thousand troops, and Hendrick with two hundred Indians, with orders to oppose the progress of the French. They had gone but four miles when they encountered the enemy. Diaskau, informed of their approach, had halted and prepared for their reception, forming lii.s forces in a semicircle, the ends of which were far in advance of the centre, and concealed from view by the forest. Into this ambuscade the detachment under Colonel Williams marched wholly unconscious of their danger. Suddenly the war- whoop resounded all around them, and a galling fire was opened all along the front and left side of the column. Colonel Williams hastily changed his position and ordered his men to ascend the rising ground on their right, but this brought them on the other wing of the French forces. Williams and Hendrick, with numbers of their followers, fell, and the detachment retreated in great confusion. A large part of these troops were from western Massachu- setts, and few families there were but mourned the lo.ss of relatives or friends cut off in " the bloody morning scout at Lake George." When this advance was proposed, it was oppo.sed by King Hendrick. He remarked, in the laconic language of his race, " If they're to fight, they're too few ; if they're to be killed, they're too many." And when it was suggested that the detachment should be divided into three bodies, he gathered three stick.s from the ground. "Put these together," he said, "and you cannot break them ; then take them one by one, and you can break them readily." Just before Williams began his march Hendrick mounted a stump and harangued his people. With his strong, mascu- line voice he might have been heard at least half a mile. One who heard him but did not understand his language, afterwards said, '• The animation of Hendrick, the fire of his eye, the force of his gestures, his emphasis, the inflec- tions of his voice, and his whole manner, affected him more than any speech he had ever heard." Williams, who gallantly took his position upon a rock which is now the base of his own monument, fell early in action. Hendrick fell nearly at the same moment. The English forces, reaching Dieskau, doubled up and fled pell- mell to their intrenchments. They were soon relieved by Lieutenant-Colonel Whitting, however, and fought with more valor under cover of a party of about three hundred men, commanded by Colonel Cole, who had made their appearance. The detachment then retreated in good order to their camp. As soon as the stragglers began to come in, showing that the enemy was at hand, a barricade of logs was hastily thrown up in front of the English en- campment. In a .short time, Dieskau's troops made their appearance ; they advanced with great regularity, their burnished muskets glittering in the sun. We can readily HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK. 41 imagine that no small trepidation was caused among the English at the advancing platoons. A short pause was made by the Preueli before commeiioing the attack ; this enabled Johnson's men to recover from their panic, and when uMcc fairly engaged they fought with the calmness and resolution of veterans. Johnson's camp was assailed by the grenadiers in front, and by the French and Indians upon both flanks. A few discharges of artillery against the Indians caused them to fall back and secure them- selves behind logs and trees, from which they afterwards maintained an irregular fire. Genenfl Johnson being wounded early in the engagement, the command devolved upon General Lyman, who stationed himself in front of the breastworks and directed their movements. For nearly four hours the battle lasted, the assailed still standing firm at every point. Dieskau at length or- dered a retreat. So hastily did his men withdraw that their leader, having been wounded in the foot, was unable to keep pace with them. Reclining against a stump to obtain temporary relief from his pain, he was discovered by a soldier. Dieskau sought to propitiate the soldier by offering him his watch. As he searched for it, the soldier, mistaking his action for an attempt to reach his pistol, dis- charged his musket and gave him a wound in the left hip from which he died twelve years afterwards. The French retreated to the ground where the forenoon engagement had occurred, and there paused for the night. In the mean time, Colonel Blanchard, the commanding ofiicer at Fort Edward, had sent out two hundred men to range the woods. Hearing the discharge of cannon in the direction of Johnson's camp, they knew that a battle was there in progress, and they hastened on to the scene of action. Reaching the French encampment after nightfall, they dis- tributed themselves in positions from which they could fire with the most security and effect. A body of the French were washing and refreshing themselves from their packs upon a margin of a marshy pool in a hollow. At the first fire such numbers of these fell dead into and along the pool, and it became so discolored with blood, that it has since borne the name of '■ Bloody Pond." The surprise was so sudden that the French fled at all points, but soon rallied and returned to the charge. They maintained for a time a sharp conflict, but soon gave way and fled through the woods towards South bay, leaving their [lacks, baggage, and a number of prisoners in the hands of the victors, who con- veyed them in triumph to Johnson's camp. With this final rout of the French army, the memorable engagement of the 8th of September, 1755, at Lake George closed. Seven hundred French were killed, and two hundred and thirty English. This engagement takes rank as one of the most import- ant in our nation's history. It exerted a great influence on our country's destiny. It showed that raw troops, fresh from the plow and wo... I op, who before had never been in the service, if properly officered and led, could compete with Veterans of European history. The confidence in their own abilities which the battle nf Lake George gave the pro- vincials had no small influence upon the issue of this war, and in substantially leading our country into and through our Revolutionary contest. General Johnson now erected G a fort at Lake George, which was named in honor of Wil- liam Henry, Duke of Cumberland, brother of George the Third. ir.— WINSLOW'S EXPEDITION OF 1756. In the summer of 175G si.K thousand troops were collected, under Colonel Seth Winslow, who had commanded the ex- jiedition which the previous year had reduced Acadia. Advancing up the Hudson, he halted at Stillwater, and built a fort on the site of old Fort Ingold.sby, which he called Fort Winslow. Proceeding to Lake (jcorge, he re- mained during the summer, effecting little. The operations of this campaign were chiefly confined to Captain Rcjgers' Rangers along the shores of Lake George and Lake Cham- plain. The army of General Winslow returned in the fall, having accomplished nothing. III.— MONTCALM'S INVESTMENT OF FORT GEOIIGE IN 17f-r,. On the 10th of August, 1756, Montcalm invested Os- wego. He leveled the fortres.ses to the ground, and Oswego was left once more a solitude. Returning triumphantly, he lost no time in arranging his expedition against Fort William Henry, on Lake George. At Montreal he held a council of the Indian tribes gathered there from Nova Scotia and Lake Superior. On the 12th of July he pro- ceeded up Lake Champlain to Fort Carillon, at Ticonderoga, accompanied by eighteen hundred and six warriors. In addition to the Indians the French army was composed of three thousand and eighty-one regulars, two thousand nine hundred and forty-six Canadian militia, and one hun- dred and eight artillery, in all six thousand two hundred and fifteen men. General Webb, who was in command of the English forces, upon the 2d day of August dispatched Colonel Monroe from Fort Edward, with his regiment, to rendezvous at and take command of the Fort William Henry garrison, which then numbered two thousand two hundred men, four hundred and fifty of whom occupied the fort, and the remainder were posted in the fortified camp on the ground near the forts. General Webb re- mained at Fort Edward with the main army, amounting to four or five thousand men, which in a few days began to be augmented by the arrival of militia. Upon the 3d of August, Montcalm arrived with his force before old Fort William Henry, which he soon invested. Colonel Monroe sent from time to time to General Webb for assistance, but the pusillanimous Webb la^ inactive, and paid no attention to his recjuests. Thus the garrison at Lake George held out day after day, expecting relief and reinforcements, but none came. On the Sth of June, General Johnson obtained permis- sion of Webb to march to the relief of the garrison, and Putnam and his Rangers volunteered ; but this force had scarcely begun their march when Webb ordered them to return to their po.sts. Giving over all hopes of relief, his ammunition now nearly exhausted, Colonel Monroe, on the !Jtli of August, signed articles of capitulation. The garri- son was to march out with the honors of war, retaining their arms and their baggage, and one cannon. Covered wagons were to be furnislied for their baggage, and an escort of five hundred men to guard the garri.son on their way to 42 HISTORY OP SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK. Fort Edward. A scene now ensued wliicli beggars descrip- tion, and fixes a stain upon Montcalm which dims the lustre of his triumplis. The Indians fell upon the musket- eers, and butchered tliem in tlie most ferocious manner. It is but just to the French, liowever, to say that they did everything in their power to prevent the fiendish massacre ; as savages, when once they have tasted blood, were not to be appeased or controlled. The miserable remnants of this ill- starred garrison, after struggling through the woods, reached Fort Edward in small parties, after sleeping in the open air. The number that was massacred on this occasion was never definitely ascertained. IMtmtcalm soon burned the fort and retired with his forces to Ticonderoga. IV._AI5EKCR0MBIE-S EXPEDITION. The famous but disastrous e.xpeditii)n of Abercrombie, in the year 175S, has been so often and fully related in our histories that it .seems to need but a passing notice here. As his expedition proceeded up Lake George, on the 5th day of July of that year, the old northern wilderness had never witnessed a nxire imposing and brilliant .spectacle. With banners flying and bands of music sending forth their inspiriting strains, more than a thousand boats moved over the broad waters of the lake, in which were sixteen thousand men, their officers richly dressed in scarlet uniforms, and all joyous in the anticipation of the glory they were about to win. Four days afterwards, when this army came back shattered, dismayed, and sorrow-stricken, it presented a sad contra,st. The boats were now filled with their dead and dyins. In one of them was Lord Howe, a young noble- man of the highest promise, the idol of the English army. Of the different corps of thi.s unfortunate army, a Highland regiment, commanded by Lord Murray, suffered the most. Of this regiment one-half the privates and twenty-five officers were killed or severely wounded. After reaching the head of Lake George, load after load of these miserable sufferers were brought to Fort Edward, there to breathe out their dying groans, and to mingle their dust with that of the surrounding plains. Dying, they were placed to rest in unmarked and unremembered graves. Of all that stricken multitude buried at Fort Edward, the name and place of only one grave is preserved to the present day. It is the grave of Duncan Campbell, of Invershaw, major of the old High- land regiment. Abercrombie remained for some time at Lake George, and finally returned to Albany, his expedition, like .so many others, having proved a failure. v.— EXPEDITION OF GENERAL .\MIIEIIST IN ITo'J. In 1759, Major Amherst succeeded Abercrombie as com- mander-in-chief of the British army in America. In the month of June, at the head of an army of twelve thousand men, he advanced to Lake George. While here he com- menced building Fort George, one of the most substantial fortifications ever reared in this direction. When passing down the lake to Ticonderoga, General Amherst, with his staff, landed on a Sunday upon the beautiful headland which is now so much admired by every one who crosses these waters. Since that day it has borne the name of Sabbath- day point. The French had scarcely two thousand men garrisoned in the fortresses on Lakes George and Cham- plain. On the 22d of July, Amherst invested Ticonderoga without opposition, and the advanced lines, which had been the scene of so much slaughter two years before under Abercombie, were immediately abandoned by the French. On the 26th of July the French blew up Fort Carillon at Ticonderoga, and retired down the lake to Crown Point, leaving the heavy artillery and twenty men in possession. Amherst soon advanced against Crown Point. On the 1st of Augu.st Crown Point was abandoned by the French, and they withdrew down Lake Champlain to its northern extremity. Three days afterwards Amherst moved forward with his forces, and occupied the fort at Crown Point. ^Vmhcrst spent the remainder of the season in rebuilding and enlarg- ing the stupendous fortifications at Crown Point, Ticon- deroga, and Lake George. The ruins of these forts at the present day are objects of great interest to the tourist. The works alone at Crown Point, it is said, cost the Briti.sh treasury two millions of pounds sterling. It was during the autumn of this year that Quebec was wrested from Montcalm by the victorious Wolfe, and the sceptre of France over her long-fought-for and much-prized Canadian possessions fell from her grasp forever. VI.— ORIGIN OF YANKEE DOODLE. It was during the next to the last campaign of the French and Indian wars that this famous national air had its birth. In the summer of 1758, before advancing north- ward, the British army lay encamped on the eastern bank of the Hudson, a little south of the city of Albany, on the ground once belonging to Jeremiah Van Rensselaer. Ves- tiges of their encampment remained for a long time ; and after a lapse of sixty years, when a great proportion of the actors of those days had passed away from the earth, the inquisitive traveler could observe the remains of the ashes, the places where they boiled their camp-kettles. It was this army that, under the command of Abercrombie, was foiled with a severe loss in the attack on Ticonderoga, where the distinguished Howe fell at the head of his troops, in an hour that history has consecrated to fame. In the early part of June the eastern troops began to pour in, company after company ; and such a motley assemblage of men never before thronged together on such an occasion, unless an example may be found in the ragged regiment of Sir John Falstafl^, of right merry and facetious memory. It would have relaxed the gravity of an anchorite to have seen the descrndants of the Puritans marching through the streets of our ancient city, to take their station on the left of the British army ; some with long coats, some with short coats, and others with no coats at all, in colors as varied as the rainbow ; some with their hair cropped like the army of Cromwell, and others with wigs, whose curls flowed around their shoulders. Their march, their accoutrements, and the whole arrangement of the troops furnished matter of amusement to the wits of the British army. The music played the airs of two centuries ago, and the lovt ensmnhle exhibited a sight to the wondering strangers that they had been unaccustomed to in their own land. Among the club of wits that belonged to tlu! British HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK. 43 army, there was a physician, attached to the staff, by the name of Dr. Shackburg, wlio combined with the science of a surgeon the skill and talents of a musician. To tease Brother Jonathan he composed a tuue, and with much gravity recommended it to the officers as one of the most cele- brated airs of martial music. The joke took, to the no small amusement of the British corps. Brother Jonathan exclaimed it was nature fine ; and in a few days nothing was heard in the provincial camp but the name of Yankee Doodle. Little did the author or his coadjutors then sup- pose that an air made for tiie purpose of levity and ridicule should ever be marked for such high destinies. In twenty years from that time our national march inspired the hearts of the heroes of Bunker Hill. It was the tune played by the American baud as the con<|uered British took up their march from the " field of the grounded arms" at Old Saratoga, on the 17th day of October, 1777, and in less than thirty years Lord Coruwallis and his army marched into the American Hues to the tune of Yankee Doodle. CHAPTER XIV. THE FIRST PERIOD OF THE BUEGOYNE CAMPAIGN or 1777. I.— DIVISION OF THE SUBJECT. TriE long warfare of the great northern valley at length culminated in the memorable campaign of 1777, the most important events of which took place within the bounda- ries of Saratoga County, making her name of high historic import. In his own narrative of the campaign Gen. Bur- goyne says, " It is my intention, for the more ready com- prehension of the whole subject, to divide it into three periods. The first from my appointment to the command to the end of ray pursuit of the enemy from Ticunderoga ; the second from that time to the passage of the Hudson river; the third to the signing of the convention." In the following pages Gen. Burgoyne's division of the narrative will be observed. II.— ORGANIZING FOll THE CONTEST. The delegates from Albany couuty to the provincial Con- gress that met at the Exchange, in the city of New York, April 20, 1775, were Col. Philip Schuyler, Abram Ten Broeck, and Abrani Yates, Jr. They presented credentials signed by John N. Bleeker, chairman of Albany committee of correspondence. At a meeting of committees of the several districts, held in the city of Albany on the 10th day of May, 1775, to choose delegates to the provincial Congress to meet May 22, 1775, Saratoga district was represented by its committee: Har Schuyler, Cornelius Van Veghten, Cornelius I. Van- denburgh, and Half-Moon by Guert Van Schoouhoven, Isaac Fonda, Wilhelmus Van Antwerp, Ezekiel Taylor. Dirck Swart was one of the delegates chosen at this meeting. In the convention. May 24, 1775, the Albany delegates recommended the appointment of John N. Bleeker, Henry I. Bogert, George Palmer, Dirck Swart, and Peter Lansing to superintend the removal of cannon to the south end of Lake George, and they were given a letter containing minute instructions.* III.— THE EVENTS OF THE W.^R PRECEDING THE BATTLES OP SARATOGA. But in order properly to comprehend a description of the battles of this campaign, and rightly to understand how they came to be fought at the times and places they were, it is necessary briefly to recapitulate the more important events of the war, as well as the stirring incidents of the campaign wliich immediately preceded those battles. The campaign of 1775 was highly advantageous to the American cause. Towards the end of the year the Briti.sh army was successfully resisted, and the imperial authority defied everywhere, from Canada to Virginia. The early April uprising at Lexington and Concord had been followed by the vigorous siege of Gen. Howe's army in Boston. Ticonderoga and Crown Point, tlie key to the Canadian provinces, had been held, the king's troops had been expelled from Charlestown, Lord DnnuKn'e driven from Norfolk, and even Quebec was closely invested by land and water. The campaign of 177G changed matters for the worse. At the opening of the year Sir Guy Carleton drove the Americans from Quebec, yet his I'aid up Lake Champlaiu duiing the summer resulted in no material success to the British arms. In the south the British general. Sir William Howe, carried everything before him, and the Americans were only saved from almost total defeat by the consummate generalship of Washington at Trenton, near the close of the year. Thus the fortunes of war could hardly be said to favor the Ameri- cans at the end of the year 177G, and the ensuing summer of 1777 was looked forward to with great anxiety and many forebodings by the striving colonists. In the mean time the British cabinet was almost exclu- sively engaged in concerting means for the re-establishment of the royal authority, and for that purpose had resolved upon the employment of the whole force of the realm. Gen. Burgoyne, who had been engaged in active service in America, near Boston, and on Lake Champlain in 1776, was, during the. winter, called into the councils of the cabi- net, and invited to submit his views as to the military operations of the ensuing summer. These views he sub- mitted in a paper entitled, " Reflections upon the War in America," and his favorite project, then set forth, — ■" that of an expedition from Canada into the heart of the disaf- fected districts," — was, with some modification made by the king, finally adopted, and himself appointed to command the northern army of invasion. IV.— PLAN OP THE CAMPAIGN OF 1777. The plan of the British campaign in America, for the year 1777, included as its most prominent feature the ad- vance of an army from Canada, by the way of the lakes, under Lieut.-Gen. John Burgoyne, which being increased, as it was hoped would be by the loyalist population of the country through which the army might pass, should force its way down the Hudson as far if po.ssible as Albany, while at the same time the array of Sir Henry Clinton, then block- aded in New York, should break through the lines, advance * Sec .Jiiurnatof Provincial Congress, vol. i. ji. 12. 44 HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK. up the Hudson, and join, at Albany or at any other point deemed practicable, the force from Canada under Burgoyne. By this means it was hoped that, while a free communica- tion would thus be opened between New York and Canada, all communication would be cut oiT between the northern and southern colonies, and that each of them, being left to its own means of defense, without the possibility of co-oper- ation, and attacked by superior numbers, would be reduced to submission. In order to make this desired junction more easy, and for the purpose of distracting the attention of the Americans, Lieut.-Col. St. Leger, with about two hundred British, a regiment of New York loyalists, raised and commanded by Sir John Johnson, and a large body of Indians, was to ascend the St. Lawrence to Lake Ontario, and from that quarter was to penetrate towards Albany, by the way of the Mohawk river. The campaign thus planned had been determined upon after long-considered and mature deliberation, and the ulti- mate failure of the campaign so carefully designed was more significant of the power of the Americans and the weakness of the British than any event that had preceded it. The battle summer of 1777 has ever .since been regarded as the season during which the destiny of the United States as a jurisdiction independent of Great Britain was definitely settled, — as the season when the power of England in this country received the shock from which recovery was im- possible.* v.— BITRGOYNE'.S ARMY. It has been seen that, at the close of the year 1775, the star of the colonists was in the ascendant, and that the ex- pectations of the people rode high on the glittering crest of hope's wave. ' The next change was, of course, a plunge towards the trough of the billow. This trough of the bil- low, this slough of despond, was reached by the people of the colonies when the war-cloud swept down the northern valley, in the early summer of 1777, carrying everything before it. On the 27tb day of March, Burgoyne sailed for America, and arrived at Quebec in the beginning of May, 1777. On the 20th of May he took command of the northern aimy of invasion, and set out on his ill-fated ex- pedition with the flower of the British army and some of the best blood of England in his train. Up the river Richelieu, up Like Chaniplain, his army swept in gorgeous pageantry, like the armies of the old French war of the long colonial period. It was the trail followed by the Marquis de Tracy and Governor Courcelle on their way to the Mo- hawk towns in the autumn of 1G66. It was the pathway of Dieskau to his defeat at Lake George in 1755, and of Montcalm to his victory over Abercrombie at Fort Carillon (now Ticonderoga) of the year 1757. And like those old armies of the French and Indian wars, there was a mixed multitude in this army of Burgoyne. There were in it the bronzed veterans of many an European battle-field, joined with the undisciplined provincial and the savage warrior from the Canadian forests. Burgoyne's army, which thus took the field in July, 1777, consisted of seven battalions of British infantry, viz., the Ninth, Twentieth, Twenty-first, Twenty-fourth, Forty-seventh, Fifty-third, and Sixty-second * See B. H. Hall's account of the battle of Bennington. Regiments. Of these the flank companies were detailed to form a corps of grenadiers, under Major Ackland, and of light infantry, under Major the Earl of Balcarras. The Germans were Hes.sian Rifles, dismounted dragoons, and a mixed force of Brunswickers. The artillery was composed of five hundred and eleven ratik and file, including one hundred Germans. There were a large number of guns, the most of which were left on the lake. The whole original train furnished by Sir Guy Carle- ton consisted of sixteen heavy twenty-four-pnunders ; ten heavy twelve-pounders ; eight medium twelve-pounders ; two light twenty-four-pounders ; one light twelve-pounder ; twenty-six light six-pounders ; seventeen light three-pound- ers ; six eight-inch howitzers ; six five-and-a-half-inch howitzers ; two thirteen-inch mortars ; two ten-inch mor- tars ; six eight-inch mortars ; twelve five-and-a-half-inch mortars ; and twenty-four four-and-two-fifth-inch mortars. Of these, two heavy twenty-four-pounders were sent on board a ship for the defense of Lake Champlain, and the other fourteen were sent back to St. John's. Of the heavy twelve-pounders six were left at Ticonderoga, and four in the " Royal George ;" four medium twelve-pounders at Fort George ; one light twelve-pounder at Ticonderoga ; two light six-pounders at Fort George; four light six-poundcrs at St. John's; four light three-pounders at Ticonderoga; five light three-pounders at St. John's ; two eight-inch howitzers at Fort George, and two at St. John's ; two fivc-and-a-half-inch howitzers at Fort George ; two thirteen- inch mortars, two ten-inch mortars, and four eight-inch mortars in the "Royal George;" four five-and-a-luilf-inch mortars at Ticonderoga ; four royal mortars in the " Royal George;" twelve cobornsat Ticonderoga; and eight cohorns in the " Royal George.' The field-train, therefore, that proceeded with the army, consisted of four medium tweh'e-pounders, two light twenty- four pounders, eighteen light six-pounders, six light three- pounders, two eight-inch howitzers, four five-and-a-half-inch howitzers, two eight-inch mortars, and four royals. The army was divided into three brigades under Major. Gen. Phillips and Brig.-Gens. Eraser and Hamilton. Col. Kingston and Capt. Money acted as adjutant and quarter- master-generals. Sir James Clarke and Lord Petersham were aides-de-camp to Gen. Burgoyne. The total force was: Rank and file, British, 4135; Germans, 3116; Canadians, 148 ; Indians, 503 ; total, 7902. It was an army composed of thoroughly disciplined troops under able and trustworthy officers. John Burgoyne, the general, statesman, dramatist, and poet, was the pet soldier of the British aristocracy. Maj.-Gen. Phillips was a distinguished artillery oflicer of exceptional strategical skill. Maj.-Gen. Riedesel, who commanded the Hessians, had been especially selected for his military experience, acquired during a long service under Prince Ferdinand in the Seven Years' war. Brigadiers Fraser and Hamilton had been appointed solely on the ground of rare professional merit. Col. Kingston had served honorably in Portugal, and Majors Lord Bal- carras and Ackland " were each in bis own way considered officers of high attainments and brilliant courage." Thus officered, equipped, and manned, this army in its flotilla HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK. 45 swept gracefully across the waters of the beautiful Lake Ciianiplain, long before made historic by such hostile pageantry, until every bristling crag and rocky promontory breathed forth " the stern poetry of war." VI.— THE TEEM "HESSFAN." But fully to understand the import of the events of this battle of the summer of 1777, an examination of the an- tecedent circumstances which had aided in bringing to- gether a certain portion of the army of Great Britain in America must not be omitted. For the last century the word " Hessian" has been used in this country : first, to signify a mean-spirited man, who, for money, hires himself to do the dirty work of another, and generally as an epithet of opprobrium. The word with these meanings was never recognized until after the defeat of Burgoyno at Saratoga; and the peculiar infamy which since then has attached to it is derived from the supposed voluntary employment of the Hessian soldiery by Great Britain against the Ameri- cans. That there was no such voluntary emplo3-ment is liistorically true, and the reproach which has so long been connected with the word Hessian in this country is as un- deserved as it is unfounded. The Hessian soldiery had no more option in their employment to fight against Americans than had the negroes of the South, who were brought in slave-ships to this country, in working as slaves for their masters in the cotton-fields of South Carolina. As men the Hessians were honest, industrious, and peculiarly do- mtstic in their tastes and lives, and many, if not all. of them would gladly have given half they were worth or years of labor could they have been peimitted to remain in their fatherland and follow their humble avocations in ob- scurity, or serve their country in their own armies.* ENGLISH TREATIES FOR HESSIAN SUBJECTS. To England belongs the disgrace and infamy of enticing the rulers of these men by large subsidies to compel their subjects to fight the wars of Great Britain. That this statement is correct, an examination of the facts will make apparent. On the 16th day of February, 177(5, Lord Weymouth laid before the House of Lords, first, a treaty with the hereditary prince of Hesse-Darmstadt, dated Jan. 5, 1776; second, a treaty between his majesty George III. of England and the Duke of Brunswick, dated Jan. 9, 1776 ; and third, a treaty with the Landgrave of Hesse- Cassel, dated Jan. 15, 1770, for the hire of troops for the American service to the number of seventeen thousand three hundred men. The same treaties were laid before the House of Commons on the 29th of February of the same year. Lord North moved to refer them to the com- mittee of supply. The motion instantly led to a most vehement debate. The chief arguments u.sed by ministers to excuse or justify this hiring of foreign mercenaries were, that there was no possibility of raising in time a sufficient Dumber of men at home ; that, even if native forces could have been raised, it was not to be expected that raw and undisciplined troops could answer the purpose so well as tried, experienced veterans ; that it would be a terrible loss *' B. n. Hall, (111 the battle of Bonningtn to withdraw so many hands from the manufactures and hus- bandry of the country ; that the expense with native troops would not end with the war, but would leave the nation saddled with the lasting incumbrance of half-pay for nearly thirty battalions ; that foreign troops would cost much less for their maintenance than English troops ; and that there was no novelty in such hiring, as the king had at all times been under the necessity of employing foreigners in the wars of the realm. VII.— ENGLISH OPPOSITION TO THE TREATIES. To these statements the opposition replied that England was degrading her.self by applying to the petty princes of Germany for succor ciffninst her own sulijects, and repro- bated in the strongest terms the practice of letting out to hire men who had nothing to do with the (juarrel in ques- tion. Lord Irnham, in opposing the measures, quoted " Don Quixote" with some humor and efiect, and ended with a compliment to the American people. " I shall say little," observed his lordship, " as to the feelings of these princes who can sell their subjects for such purposes. We have read of the humorist Sancho's wish that, if he were a prince, all his subjects should be blackamoors, as he could, by the sale of them, easily turn them into ready money; but that wish, however it may appear ridiculous and un- becoming a sovereign, is much more innocent than a prince's availing himself of his vassals for the purpose of sacrificing them in such destructive war, where he has the additional criiue of making them destroy much better and nobler beings than themselves." It was also urged by the opposition that these German .soldiers, as soon as they should find themselves in a land of liberty, would join the banner of independence and fight against England, and that they would be specially inclined to such a couise from the fact that already more than one hundred and fifty thousand of their countrymen had emi- grated to the New World, and were making common cause with the Anglo-Americans. It was maintained that these German veterans, " who considered the camp their home and country," would be less inclined to desert than raw English levies. Lord North, who reverenced too highly Gorman tactics and discipline, declared that a numerous body of the very best soldiery in Europe, inspired only with military maxims and ideas, too well disciplined to be disorderly and cruel, and too martial to be kept back by any false limits, could not fail of bringing matters to a speedy conclusion. Others, more .sanguine even than he, were of opinion that these Brunswickers and Hes.sians would have little more to do than to show themselves on the American continent when instantly the rebellion would cease and quiet be restored to the land, as Virgil tells us the tempest cea.sed to beat and the storms subsided when Neptune, rising from the waves, bade the winds retire to their recesses. In closing the debate. Aid. Bull, who sub- sequently became con.spicuous as the friend of Lord George Gordon, in the " No Popery" riots, spoke as Ibllows : " The war you are now waging is an unjust one ; it is founded in oppression, and its end will be distress and di.sgrace. Let not the historian be obliged to say that the Ru.ssian and the German slave were hired to subdue the sons of English- 46 HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK. men and of freedom ; and that in the reign of a prince of the house of Brunswick every infamous attempt was made to extinguish that spirit which brought his ancestors to the throne, and, in spite of treachery and rebellion, seated them firmly upon it." In this debate not much stress was laid upon that " laudable national feeling" which in former times and since led f]nglishmen to " prize British valor above that of other nations," and to exalt the deeds of British infantry in all ages. The treaties were, by a large nuijority, referred to the committee of supply, who, on the 4th of March following, reported favorably upon them. Discussion then arose afresh, and in the House of Lords the whole strength of the opposition was arrayed against the treaties and against the principle of hiring mercenaries to fight the battles of the realm. The Duke of Richmond moved an address to countermand the march of the foreign troops and to suspend hostilities altogether. In a speech, in which he criticised with the utmost severity evei-y para- graph of the treaties, he stated that ever since the year 1702 the German princes had been rising in their demands, until now the present bargain far outstripped all other bar- gains, and would cost the nation not less than a million and a half of pounds sterling a year for the services of these seventeen thousand three hundred mercenaries. As to the influence, whether for good or for evil, that pervaded the councils of the realm in respect to these treaties, he de- clared that it proceeded from the determined character of the king himself. VIEWS OF THE E.\RL OP COVENTRY. But of all the opposition, — among whom were Chatham and Burke, earnest advocates of the most conciliatory mea- sures, — one noble lord, the Earl of Coventry, alone took the right philosophical view of the whole question, in maintaining that "an immediate recognition of the inde- pendence of the United Provinces was preferable to war." In advocating this theorem, his sagacious language was as follows : " Look on the map of the globe, view Great Brit- ain and North America, compare their extent, consider the foil, riches, climate, and increasing population of the latter. Nothing but the most obstinate blindness and partiality can engender a serious opinion that such a country will long continue under subjection to this. The question is not, therefore, how shall we be able to realize a vain delu- sive scheme of dominion, but how we shall make it the in- terest of the Americans to continue faithful allies and warm friends. Surely that can never be effected by fleets and armies. Instead of meditating conquest, and exhausting our own strength in an ineffectual struggle, we should — wisely abandoning wild schemes of coercion — avail ourselves of this only substantial benefit we can ever expect, — the profits of an extensive commerce and the strong support of a firm and friendly alliance and compact for mutual defense and assistance." But in vain were philosophy, eloquence, national pride, an appeal to kingly honor, mercy, or peace. Tlio report of the committee on the treaties was approved (as were all measures whose object was to coerce the Americans), by what Burke called " that vast and invincible majority ;" and Great Britain was compelled by necessity to accept the very terms which the German princes had themselves prescribed in drafting these treaties, the only change produced being embodied in an address to his majesty made by Col. Barre, desiring him to use his interest that the German troops in British pay, then and thereafter, might be clothed with the manufactures of Great Britain. By the conditions of the treaties, nearly £7 10s. levy money was paid for every man, and the princes who hired out the limbs, blood, and lives of their subjects, in a fouler manner than men farm out their slaves, and with none of the humanity that charac- terizes the dealings of those who keep beasts of draught or of burden for hire, took especial care, while driving a very hard bargain with Great Britain, to reap the greater part of the profits thereof in their own subsidies. To the Duke of Brunswick, who supplied four thousand and eighty-four men, was secured an annual subsidy of £15,519 so long as the troops continued to serve, and double that sum, or £31,038, for each of the two years following their dismissal. To the Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel, who furnished twelve thousand men, was secured £10,281 per annum, during the service of the soldiers, which payment was also to be con- tinued until the end of a twelve months' notice of the dis- continuance of such payment, which notice was not to be served until after his troops should all be returned to his dominions. To the hereditary prince of Hesse-Darmstadt, who furnished six hundred and eighty-eight men, was secured an annual subsidy of £0000, and besides all this the king of England guaranteed the dominions of these princes against foreign attack. A little later the Prince of Waldeck, who agreed to furnish six hundred and seventy men, made a bargain for himself equally as good as the bargains made by any of the other princes already named. VIEWS OF EDJiaND BURKE, THE FRIEND OF AMERIC.\. The effect of this employment of foreign troops continued to be felt not only in parliament during the continuance of the war, but exerted an influence on both sides of the Atlantic. In a letter to the sheriffs of Bristol on the affairs of America, published in April, 1777, Edmund Burke, referring to those who were in the habit of petitioning the king to prosecute the war against America with vigor, made use of this lan- guage : " There are many circumstances in the zeal shown for civil war, which seem to discover but little of real magna- nimity. The addressers offer their own persons, and they are satisfied with luring Germans. They promise their private fortunes, and they mortgage their country. They have all the merit of volunteers, without risk of person or charge of contribution ; and when the unfeeling arm of a foreign soldiery pours out their kindred blood like water they exult and triumph, as if they themselves had performed some notable exploit." In the same letter he also observed as follows : " It is not instantly that I can be brought to rejoice, when I hear of the slaughter and captivity of long lists of those names which have been familiar to my cars from my infancy, and to rejoice tliat they have fallen under the sword of strangers, whose barbarous appellations I scarcely know how to pronounce. The glory acquired at the White Plains by Col. Rahl has no charms for me, and I fairly acknowledge that I have not yet learned to delight in finding Kniphausen in the heart of the British dominions." HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK. 47 VIEWS OF THE ELDER PITT AS THE FRIEND OP AMERICA. Oil the 30th of May, 1777, Lord Chatham entered tlie House of Lords wrapped in flannel, and bearing a crutch in each hand. Sitting in his place, with hi.s liead covered, he delivered a powerful .speech in support of hi.s motion for an address to his majesty requesting him to put an end to hostilities in America. In the course of his remarks he said : " What has been the system pursued by administra- tion, and what have been the means taken for carrying it into execution ? Your system has been a government erected on the ruins of the constitution and founded in conquest, and you liave swept all Germany of its refuse as its moans. Tlicrc is not a petty, insignificant prince whom you have Tiot .solicited for aid. You are become t1ie .suitors at every (Jornian court, and you have your ministers en- rolleil in the German chancery, as the contracting parties, in bcliair of tills once great and glorious country. The laurels of Britain are faded, her arms ai'o disgraced, her negotiations are spurned at, and her councils fallen into contempt. Jly lords, you have vainly tried to conquer America by the aid of German mercenaries, by the arms of twenty thousand undisciplined German boors, gleaned and collected from every obscure corner of that country. You have subsidized their master.^. You have lavished the public treasures on them. And what have you effected ? Nothing, my lords, but forcing the colonies to declare themselves independent states." REFERENCE TO THE HESSIANS IN THE DECLARATION. Among the charges brought against George III. in the Declaration of Independence was the following: " He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the work of death, desolation, and tyranny already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation." VIII.— BURGOYNE'S SPEECH TO THE IROQUOIS. On the 17th of June, Burgoyne encamped at the mouth of the Bouquet river, where for several days his army foraged on the deserted fields of Gilliland's manor of Wills- boro'. On the twenty-first he made his speech to the In- dians, couched in their own flowery style, as follows: " Chiefs and Warriors. — The great king, our com- mon father, and the patron of all who seek and deserve his protection, has considered with satisfaction the general con- duct of the Indian tribes from the beginning of the trou- bles in America. Too sagacious and too faithful to be deluded or corrupted, ttiey have observed the violated rights of the parental power they love, and burned to vindicate them. A few individuals alone, the refuse of a small tribe, at the first were led a,stray ; and the misrepresentations, the precious allurements, the insidious promises and diversified plots in which the rebels are exercised, and all of which they employed for that effect, have served only in the end to enhance the honor of the tribes in general, by demon- strating to the world how few and how contemptible are the apostates. It is a truth known to you all that, these piti- ful examples excepted (and they probably have before this day hid their faces in sliaini'), the colli'ctivo voices and hands of the Indian tribes over this vast continent are on the side of justice, of law, and of the king. " The restraint you have put upon your resentment in waiting the king, your father's, call to arms, — tlie hardest proof, I am persuaded, to which your afl'ection could have been put, — is anotlii'r manifest and affecting mark of your adherence to that principle of connection to which you were always fond to allude, and which it is mutually the joy and the duty of the parent to cherish. " The clemency of your father has been abused, the offers of his mercy have been desjiised, and his further patience would, in his eyes, become culpable, inasmuch as it would withhold redress from the most grievous oppres- sions in the province that ever disgraced the history of mankind. It therefore remains for me, the general of one of His Majesty's armies, and in this council his represen- tative, to release you from those bonds which your obedi- ence imposed. Warriors, you are free ! Go forth in might of your valor and your cause I Strike at the common ene- mies of Great Britain and America, — disturbers of public order, peace, and happiness ; destroyers of commerce ; par- ricides of the state. " The circle round you, the chiefs of His Majesty's European forces, and of the prince, his allies, esteem you as brothers in the war. Emulous in glory and in friendship, v?e will endeavor reciprocally to give and to receive exam- ples. We know how to value, and we will strive to imitate, your per.severancc in enterprise and your constancy to resist hunger, weariness, and pain. Be it our task, from the dic- tates of our religion, the laws of our welfare, and the prin- cipal and interest of our policy, to regulate your passions when they overbear, to point out where it is nobler to spare than to revenge, to discriminate degrees of guilt, to suspend the uplifted stroke, to chastise and not to destroy. " This war to yon, my friends, is new. Ujion former oc- casions, in taking the field, you held your.selves authorized to destroy wherever you came, because everywhere you found an enemy. The case is now very different " The king has many faithful subjects dispersed in the provinces; consequently you have many brothers there ; and these people arc the more to be pitied, that they arc perse- cuted or imprisoned wherever they are discovered or sus- pected ; and to dissemble is, to a generous mind, a yet more grievous punishment. " Persuaded that your magnanimity of character, joined to your principles of aflFeetion to the king, will give me fuller control over your minds than the military rank with which I am invested, I enjoin your most .serious attention to the rules which I hereby proclaim for your invariable observation during the campaign. " I positively forbid bloodshed, when you an^ not opposed in arms. " Aged men, women, children, and prisoners must be held sacred from the knife or hatchet, even in the time of actual conflict. " You shall receive compensation for the prisoners you take, but you shall be called to account for scalps. " In conformity and indulgence of your customs, which have affixed an idea of honor to such badges of victory, you shall b.' allowed to take scalps of the dead when killed 48 HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK. by your fire, and in fair opposition ; but, on no account, or pretense, or sublety, or prevarication, are tliey to be taken from the wounded, or even dying ; and still less pardonable, if possible, will it be held to kill men in that condition on purpose, and upon a supposition that this protection of the wounded would be thereby evaded. " Base lurkint;; assassins, incendiaries, ravagers, and plun- derers of the country, to whatever army they may belong, shall be treated with jess reserve ; but the latitude must be given you by order, and I must be the judge of the occasion. " Should the enemy on tlieir part dare to countenance acts of barbarity towards tho.se who may fall into their hands, it shall be yours also to retaliate ; but till severity be thus compelled, bear immovable in your hearts this solid maxim (it cannot bo too deeply impressedj that the great essential reward, worthy service of your alliance, the sin- cerity of your zeal to the king, your father and never-failing protector, will be examined and judged upon the test only of yuur steady and uniform adherence to the orders and coun- sels of those to whom His Majesty has intrusted the direc- tion and the honor of his arms." IX.— ANSWER FROM AN OLD CHIEF OF THE IROQUOIS. " I stand up in the name of all the nations present to assure our father that we have attentively listened to his discourse. We have received you as our father ; because, when you speak, we hear the voice of our great father beyond the great lake. " We rejoice in the approbation you have expressed of our behavior. "We have been tried and tempted by the Bostonians; but we have loved our father, and our hatchets have been sharpened upon our affections. " In proof of professions, our whole villages, able to go to war, came forth. The old and infirm, our infants and wives, alone remained at home. " With one common assent we promise a constant obedi- ence to all you have ordered, and all you shall order ; and may the Father of days give you many and success." From June 21 to June 25, Burgoyne's camp was at the mouth of the river Bou(|uet, where he threw up iiitrencii- ments. While there he took occasion to compliment some of his corps on having learned the art " of making flour-cakes without ovens, which," he adds, " are equally wholesome and relishing with the best bread." On the evening of the 25th his army left their camp at the mouth of the river Bouquet, under command of Maj.-Gcn. Riedcsel, and on the day fol- lowing were quartered at Crown Point, on both sides of Putnam creek, where general orders appropriate to the change in position were issued. The few Americans in garrison there abandoned the fort and retreated to Ticon- deroga. The British quietly took possession, and after es- tablishing magazines and a hospital, and having succeeded in bringing up the rear of the army, and obtaining intelli- gence of the movements of the Americans, moved forward on the 1st of July. X.— BURGOYNE'S PROCLAMATION. But before leaving Putnam creek, Gen. Burgnyiie issued his famous and high-sounding proclamation. In his zeal for sustaining the cause of his royal master, he made u-sc of this extraordinary language : '' To the eyes and ears of the temperate part of the puljlio, and to the bresists of suf- fering thousands in the provinces, be the melancholy appeal, whether the present unnatural rebellion has not been made a foundation for the completest system of tyranny that ever God in his displeasure suffered for a time to be exercised over a fioward and stubborn generation. Arbitrary im- prisonment, confiscation of property, persecution and tor- ture unprecedented in the inquisitions of the Romish church, are among the palpable enormities which verity the affirma- tive. These are inflicted by assemblies and committees who dare to profess themselves friends to liberty, upon the most quiet subjects, without distinction of age or sex, for the sole crime, often for the sole suspicion, of having ad- hered in principle to the government under which they were born, and to which, by every tie, divine and human, they owe allegiance. To consummate these shocking pro- ceedings, the profanation of religion is added to the most profligate prostitution of common reason ; the consciences of men are set at naught, and multitudes are compelled not only to bear arms, but also to swear subjection to an usurpation they abhor." After exhorting all through whose territory he should pass to remain loyal, and offering to them employment .should they j(jin him, and solid coin " for every species of pro- vision at an e(juitable rate," he concluded as follows: "I have but to give stretch to the Indian forces under my direction, and they amount to thousands, to overtake the hardened enemies of Great Britain and America. I con- sider them the same, whei'ever they may lurk. " If, notwithstanding these endeavors and sincere inclina- tion to effect them, the frenzy of hostility should remaiu, I trust I 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 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 retreat." XL— MARCH ON TICONDEROGA. On the 30th of June, Burgoyne prepared to attack Ti- conderoga. Before advancing, in a general order promul- gated to his troops, he used the following language, which was the key-note of the campaign : "The army embarks to-morrow to approach the enemy. We are to contend for the king and the constitution of Great Britain, to vindicate the law and to relieve the op- pressed, — a cause in which His Majesty's troops and those of the princes, his allies, will feel equal excitement. " The services required of this particular expedition are critical and cons]3icuous. During our progress occasions may occur in which no diflSculty, nor labor, nor life, are to be regarded. Tins army must not retreat." The effect produced by the proclamatiou was, in some quarteis, directly contrary to that intended by its author. In many minds its statements gave rise to sentiments of indignation and contempt. Gov. Livingston, of New Jersey, made it an object of general derision by paraphrasing it in HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK. 49 Hudibrastic verse. John Holt, of New York, an old and respectable printer, publi.sbed it in his now.spaper at Pous^h- keepsie with this motto : " Pride sroctli before destruction, and a haui;hty spirit before a fall." In his " State of the Expedition," ]]iiblished several years later. Gen. Rurgoyne fails to record this illjudued docunicnt. "It is remarkable," observes Dr. Timothy Dwii;bt, " that the four most hauj^hty proclamations issued by military commanders in modein times have prefaced their ruin: this of (xen. Ruriioyne ; that of the iJuke of Rrunswick, when he was entering France; that of Bcinaparte in Egypt; and that of Gen. Le Clerc at his arrival in St. Domingo. ' TICONDEROOA AND MOUNT INDEPENDENCE. On the 1st of July the whole of Burgoyne's army moved forward and took positions near Ticonderoga. Brig. -Gen. Eraser's corps occupied a strong post at Three-Mile creek, on the west or New York shore of Lake Champlain ; the German Reserve, under Riedesel, took a position on the east or Vermont shore, opposite Putnam creek, while the main army encamped in two lines, the right wing at a place called Four-Mile Point, on the west shore, and the left wing nearly opposite, on the east shore. Tlie frigates the " Royal George" and "Inflexible," with the gunboats, were anchored just without the reach of the batteries of the Americans, and covered the lake from the west to the east shore. Mean- time, St. Clair, to whom the command of Ticonderoga, on the New York shore, and Mount Independence, in the town of Orwell, on the Vermont shore, had been intrusted by Schuyler on the 5th of June, 1777, had reached his post 'on the 12th of that month. Upon the table-land summit of Mount Independence was a star fort, strongly picketed, in the centre of which was a convenient square of barracks. The fort was well supplied with artillery, and its approaches guarded with batteries. The foot of the hill, towards Lake Champlain, was protected by a breastwork, which had been strengthened by an abatis and by a strong battery standing on the shore of the lake, near the month of East creek. A floating bridge connected the works of Mount Independence with those of Ticonderoga, on the other side of the lake, and served as an obstruction to the passage of vessels up the lake. The battery at the foot of Mount Independence covered and protected the east end of the bridge. The bridge itself was supported on twenty-two sunken piers, formed of very large timber, the spaces between the piers being filled with floats, each about fifty feet long and twelve feet wide, strongly fastened together with iron chains and rivets. A boom, made of large pieces of timber, well se- cured together by riveted bolts, was placed on the north side of the bridge, and by the side of this was a double iron chain, the links of which were one inch and a half of an inch s(|uare. The other end of the bridge was covered by the " Grenadier's Battery,'' a strong redoubt built of earth and stone, which was originally constructed b}' the French and subse(|uently enlarged by the English. On the New York side, at the time of Burgoyne's ap- proach, a small detachment of Americans occupied the old French lines on the height to the north of Fort Ticonde- roga. These lines were in good repair, and had .several in- trenchments behind them, chiefly calculated to guard the 7 northwest flank, and were also sustained by a block-house. Farther to the left of the Americans was an outpost at the saw-mills, now the village of Ticonderoga. There was also a block-house upon an eminence above the mills, and a block- house and hospital at the entrance of Lake George. Upon the right of the American linos, and between tiiem and the old fort, there were two new block-houses, and the Grena- dier's battery, close to the water's edge, w;is manned. MOUNT HOPE AND SUGAR LOAF MOUNTAIN. On the west side of the outlet of Lake George, near the lower falls, rises Mount Hope, an abrupt and rocky eleva- tion, and especially rugged and precipitous on the north- east side. On the south side of the mouth of the outlet of Lake George, and separated from Fort Ticonderoga (which is situated north of the outlet), and opposite Mount Independence, is the lofty eminence of Mount Defiance, then known as Sugar Loaf mountain, which rises abruptly from the water to the height of about seven hundred and fifty feet. Through the vigilance of his scouts, Burgoyne soon learned that St. Clair had neglected to fortify these two important and commanding elevations, and in.stead of making a direct assault upon the fortress of Ticonderoga, he determined to take possession first of these valuable positions. THE FORCES. The American works formed an extensive crescent of which Mount Independence was the centre. The entire lino required at least ten thou.sand men and one hundred pieces of artillery for its deteMise. Rut now when such a force was necessary, St. Clair's whole army consisted of only two thousand five hundred and forty-six Continental troops and nine hundred militia. Of the latter, not one- tenth had bayonets. Besides the lack of men, the food, clothing, arms, and ammunition were insufficient. Congress had been led to believe that Burgoyne was preparing an expedition against the coast towns, and influenced by this belief had turned its exertions in other directions and had left the posts on Lake Cliamplain almost undefended. The army of Burgoyne, on the contrary, amounted on the 1st of July to .six thousand seven hundred and forty men, of whom three thousand seven hundred and twenty-four were British and three thousand and sixteen German troops. In addition to this there were five hundred and eleven men in the artillery service, besides Canadians, Tories, and Indians. THE FIRST SUCCESS. On tlie morning of the second the British observed a smoke in the direction of Lake George, and .soon after the Indians reported that the Americans had .set fire to the farther block-house and bad abandoned the saw-mills, and that a considerable body was advancing from the lines towards a bridge upon the road which led from the .saw- mills towards the right of the British camp. A detach- ment of the advanced corps under Brig.-Gen. Eraser, with other troops and some light artillery under Maj.-Gen. Phil- lips, were immediately sent out, with orders to proceed to Mount Hope, not only to reconnoitre, but to seize any post the Americans might abandon. The Indians, under Capt. Eraser, with his company of marksmen, were directed to 50 HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK. make a circuit to the left of Biig.-Gen. Eraser's line of march, and strive to lieep the Americans from reaching their lines ; but this undertaking failed by reason of the impetuosity of the Indians, who made the attack too soon and in front, thus giving the Americans an opportunity to return ; they having lost, however, one officer and a few men killed and one officer wounded. ST. clair's letter. St. Clair was an officer of acknowledged bravery, yet he was far from being an expert and skillful military leader. His self-reliance and his confidence in the courage of his men led him often to be less vigilant than necessity de- manded. Even with the knowledge of the great disparity in numbers between his force and that of the British, and in spite of the events of the 2d of July which had already occurred in his immediate vicinity, he was enabled to write the following cheerful yet urgent letter to Col. John AVil- liams, of Salem, then White Creek, Washington county, to Col. Moses Robinson, of Bennington, and to Col. Seth Warner. This letter is now published for the first time : " TicoNDEROGA, July 2, 1777. "Gkntlemen, — About two hours ngo I recciverl your letter of this day, ami am very Uajipy to hear that the people turn out so well, though it is not more than I cxpecteil from them. The enemy have been lying looking at us for a day or two, and we have had a liltlo firing, not a great deal. But I believe they will in earnest try what we can do, perhaps this night. I rather think it is their intention, though I may, perhaps, be mistaken ; but be thnt as it will, at all events push on your people with the utmost expedition, and let the cattle remain where they are. Order Col. Lynians and Col. Billany to follow with all e.xpedition. Everything depends upon a spirited push, and I can assure you that the men here are as determined as you can possibly wish them. We took a prisoner and have had Hessian deserters to-day, but I have not yet time to examine them. If you and Col. Warner can bring on six hundred men, or even less, I would wish you to march, part by the new road and part by the old road, to a certain distance. Of that distance you and he can judge much better than me. The party that m.arch on the old road will then turn to the left and fall in upon the new road. These motions will distract the enemy, and induce them to believe that your numbers are treble what they really are, and if you are attacked on either road by an even number, make directly for Mount Inde- pendence and you will find a party out to support you, and fall upon the enemy's flanks or front, as they may happen to present them- selves. If I had only your people here I would laugh at all the enemy could do. But do not forget to have a proper guard for the cattle, and then we can bring in as we want in spite of them. We will want all the men that we can get for all this. I am, gentlemen, your very humble servant, A. St. Clair. " Col. Williams, Col. Robi.nso.v, and Col. Wah.ver." This letter, doubtless, had the effect of hastening forward the promised aid. Cols. Warner and Robinson reached Ticonderoga in time to take part in its evacuation, and the former did gallant service in the battle of Hubbardton on the 7th of July. It is also believed that Col. Williams reached the fort, but whether with or without a command, is not positively known. THE EVACUATION OF TICONDEROGA. On the night of the 2d, Maj.-Gen. Phillips took posses- sion of Mount Hope, and by this movement the Americans were entirely cut off from all communication with Lake George. On the following day, Mount Hope was occupied in force by Eraser's corps. Maj. Gen. I'liillips now held the ground west of Mount Hope, and Eraser's camp at Three-Mile creek was occupied by a body of men drawn from the opposite side of the lake. Riedesel's column was pushed forward as far as East creek on the Vermont side, from which it could easily stretch behind Mount Independ- ence. " During all these movements the American troops kept up a warm fire again.st Mount Hope and against Riedesel's column, but without effect. On the 4th the British were employed in bringing up their artillery, tents, baggage, and provisions, while the Americans, at intervals, continued the cannonade. The same evening the radeau or raft ' Thun- derer' arrived from Crown Point with the battering train. " The British line now encircled the American works on the north, east, and west. The possession of Mount Defiance would complete the investment, and effectually control the water communication in the direction of Skenes- borough. Burgoyne's attention had, from the first, been attracted towards this eminence, and he had directed Lieut. Twiss, his chief engineer, to ascertain whether its summit was accessible. On the 4th, Lieut. Twi.ss reported that Mount Defiance held the entire command of Ticonderoga and Mount Independence, at the distance of about fourteen hundred yards from the former, and fifteen hundred yards from the latter, and that a practicable road could lie made to the summit in twenty-four hours. On receiving this report Burgoyno ordered the road opened and a battery constructed for light twenty-four-pounders, medium twelves, and eight-inch howitzers. This arduous task was pushed with such activity, that during the succeeding night the road was completed, and eight pieces of cannon were dragged to the top of the hill. '■ On the morning of the 5th the summit of Mount Defi- ance glowed with scarlet uniforms, and the guns of its batteries stood threateningly over the American forts. ' It is with astonishment,' says Dr. Thacher, in his Military Journal, ' that we find the enemy have taken possession of an eminence called Sugar Loaf hill, or Mount Defiance, which, from its height and proximity, completely overlooks and commands all our works. The situation of our garri- son is viewed as critical and alarming; a few days will decide our fate. We have reason to apprehend the most fatal effects from their battery on Sugar Loaf hill.' Gen. St. Clair immediately called a council of war, by whom it was decided to evacuate the works before Riedesel should block up the narrow passage south of East creek, which, with the lake to Skenesborough, presented the only possible way of escape." As every movement of the Americans could be seen through the day from Mount Defiance, no visible prepara- tions for leaving the fort were made until after dark on the evening of the 5th, and the purpose of the council was concealed from the troops until the evening order was given. About midnight directions were issued to place the sick and wounded, and the women, the baggage, and such am- munition and stores as might be expedient, on board two hundred bateaux, to be dispatched at three o'clock in the morning under a convoy of five armed galleys and a guard of six hundred men, under the command of Col. Long, of the New Hampshire troops, up the lake to Skenesborough, HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK. 51 wliilt' tlie main body was to proceed by land to tbe same destination, by way of Castleton. The cannons that could not be moved were to be spiked ; previous to striking the tents every light was to be extinguished ; each soldier was to provide himself with several days' provisions ; and to allay any suspicion on the part of the enemy of such a movement, a continued cannonade was to be kept up from one of the batteries in the direction of Mount Hope, until the moment of departure. These directions as to the mode of leaving were strictly obeyed except in one instance. THE PURSUIT. " The boats reached Skenesborough about three o'clock on the afternoon of the same day, where the fugitives landed to enjoy, as they fancied, a temporary repo.se ; but in less than two hours they were startled by the reports of the cannon of the British gunboats, which were firing at the galleys lying at the wharf By uncommon effort and in- dustry, Burgoyne had broken through the chain, boom, and bridge at Ticonderoga, and had followed in pursuit with the ' Royal George' and ' Inflexible,' and a detachment of the gunboats under Gapt. Carter. The pursuit had been pressed with such vigor that, at the very moment when the Ameri- cans were landing at Skene.sborough, three regiments dis- embarked at the head of South bay, with the intention of occupying the road to Fort Edward. Had Burgoyne de- layed the attack upon the galleys until these regiments had reached the Fort Edward road, the whole party at Skenes- borough would have been taken prisoners. Alarmed, how- ever, by the approach of the gunboats, tiie latter blew up three of the galleys, set fire to the fort, mill, and storehouse, and retired in great confusion towards Fort Ann. Occa- sionally the overburdened party would falter on their re- treat, when the startling cry of March on, the Indians are at our heels,' would revive their drooping energies and give new strength to their weakened limbs. At five o'clock in the morning they reached Fort Ann, where they were joined by many of the invalids who had been carried up Wood creek in boats. A number of the sick, with the cannon, provisions, and most of the baggage, were left behind at Skenesborough. " On the 7th a small reinforcement, sent from Fort Ed- ward by Schuyler, arrived at Fort Ann. About the same time a detachment of British troops approached within sight of the fort. This detachment was attacked from tlie fort, and repulsed with some loss; a surgeon, a wounded captain, and twelve privates were taken prisoners by the Americans. The next day Fort Ann was burned, and the garrison re- treated to Fort Edward, which was then occupied by Gen. Schuyler." The fate of the remainder of those who left Ticonderoga now demands our attention. Although every precaution po.ssible wa.s taken, yet so sudden was the departure and so short the notice, that much confusion ensued. The garri- son of Ticonderoga crossed the bridge to IMount Indepen- dence at about three o'clock in the morning, the enemy all the while unconscious of the escape of their prey. " The moon was shining brightly, yet her pale light was insuffi- cient to betray the toiling Americans in their preparations and flight, and they felt certain that, before daylight should discover their withdrawal, they would be too far advanced to invite pursuit." But Gen. De Fermoy, who commanded on Mount Independence, regardless of express orders, set fire to the house he had occupied, as his troops left to join in the retreat with those who had passed over from Ticon- deroga. The light of the conflagration revealed the whole scene to the astonished forces of the British, and through- out their extended camp sounded the notes of preparation for hot and determined pursuit. THE FLIGHT OP ST. CLAIR. Thus on Sunday morning, July 6, 1777, the unfortunate Americans commenced their overland flight. St. Clair, with the main army, directed his course through the Ver- mont towns of Orwell, Sudbury, and Hubbardton, and encamped at evening at Castleton, about twenty-six miles from Ticonderoga. The rear-guard, under the command of Col. Ebenezer Francis, of the Eleventh Massachusetts Regi- ment, left Mount Independence at about four o'clock in the morning, taking the same route as had been taken by St. Clair, and passing onward in irregular order, after a most fatiguing march, rested at Hubbardton, about twenty- two miles from Ticonderoga, and encamped in the woods. These, together with stragglers from the main army, picked up by the way, were left in the command of Cols. Warner and Francis, and there remained duiing the night, not only for rest but also to be joined by some who had been left behind on the march. Tlie jilace of encampment was in the northeast part of Hubbardton, near the Pittsford line, upon the farm then owned by John Sellcck, not fir from the place where the Baptist meeting-house now stands. As soon as the British pereitived the movements of the Americans, Brig. -Gen. Simon Eraser took possession of Ticonderoga, unfurled the British flag over that fortress at daylight, and before sunrise had passed the bridge and Mount Independence, and was in close pursuit of the flying Americans, at the head of a little more than half the ad- vanced corps, and without artillery, which, with the utmosD endeavors, it was impossible to get up. Ticonderoga was placed in charge of the regiment of Prince Frederick, under Lieut.-Col. Priltorious, and the Sixty-second British Regiment were ordered to Mount Independence, both regi- ments being under the command of Brig.-Gen. Hamilton, who was directed to place guards for the preservation of all buildings from fire, and to collect all the powder and other stores and secure them. Without intermission Brig.-Gen. Fraser continued the pursuit of the flying Americans till one o'clock in the after- noon, having marched in a very hot day since four o'clock in the morning. From some stragglers from the American force whom he picked up, he learned that their rcar-gJard was composed of chosen men and commanded by Col. Francis, "one of their best officers." From some Tory scouts he also learned that the Americans were not far in advance. While his men were refreshing themselves, Maj.- Gen. Riedesel came up with his Brunswickers, and arrange- ments for continuing the pursuit having been concerted, Brig.-Gen. Preiser moved forward again, leaving Riedesel and his corps behind, and during the night of Sunday, the Gth, lay upon his arms in an advantageous situation, three 52 HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK. miles in advance of Riedesel and three miles nearer the rear- guard of the Americans. THE BATTLE OP HUBBARDTON. An account of the battle of Hubbardton, which battle took place on the morning of the 7th of July, is given by Gen. Burgoyne in these words: " At throe in the morning Brig-Gen. Fraser renewed his march, and about five his advanced scouts discovered the enemy's sentries, who fired their pieces and joined the main body [of the rear-guard]. The brigadier, observing a commanding ground to the left of his light infantry, immediately ordered it to be possessed by that corps ; and a considerable body of the enemy at- tempting the same, they met. The enemy were driven back to their original post. The advanced guard, under Major Grant, was by this time engaged, and the grenadiers were advanced to sustain them, and to prevent the right flank from being turned. The brigadier remained on the left, whore the enemy long defended themselves by the aid of logs and trees ; and, after being repulsed and prevented getting to the Castleton road by the grenadiers, they ral- lied and renewed the action, and, upon a second repulse, attempted their retreat to the Pittsford mountain. The grenadiers scrambled up a part of that ascent, appearing almost inaccessible, and gained the summit before them, which threw them into confusion. They were still greatly superior in numbers, and consequently in extent ; and the brigadier, in momentary expectation of the Brunswickers, had laterally drawn from his left to support his right. At this critical moment Gen. Riedesel, who had pressed on upon hearing the firing, arrived with the foremost of his columns, viz., the chasseurs company and eighty grenadiers and light infantry. His judgment immediately pointed to him the course to take. He extended upon Brigadier Fraser's left flank. The chasseurs got into action with great gallantry under Major Barney. They [the Ameri- cans] fled on all sides, leaving dead upon the field Col. Francis and many other officers, with upward of two hun- dred men. Above six hundred were wounded, mo.st of whom perished in the woods attempting to get ofi', and one colonel, seven captains, ten subalterns, and two hundred and ten men were made prisoners. Above two hundred stands of arms were also taken. " The number of the enemy before the engagement amounted to two thousand men. The British detachment under Brig.-Gen. Fraser (the parties left the day before at Ticonderoga not having been able to join) consisted only of eight hundred and fifty fighting men." XII.— THE EFFECT OF THE EVACUATION OF TICON- DEROGA. The fort at Ticonderoga was built by the French in 1756, and taken from them by Gen. Audierst in 1759. Early in 1775 it was taken from the British by Col. Ethan Allen, and upon the approach of Burgoyne was garrisoned by an army of three thousand Ameiican troops under command of Gen. St. Clair. It was looked upon as one of the strongest posts in North America, and the colonists confidently hoped and expected that it was a perfect bar to Burgoyne's further progress. But there was a fatal error in its situation, which had been entirely overlooked or ignored by both the French and American engineers. A little to the south of it was a high rounded eminence — now known as Mount Defiance, then called Sugar Hill — which commanded every corner of the fort. The Americans had supposed it to be impossible to occupy this point with cannon, but the keen military eye of Gen. Fraser, long trained in the artillery practice of Europe, saw at a glance the overshadowing importance of the posi- tion. On the 5th of July, Gen. Fraser, at the head of his light infantry, to the utter astonishment of Gen. St. Clair, appeared in force on the top of Sugar Hill, clearing the ground on the top for the purpose of planting his cannon. The Americans saw at once their fatal error, and compre- hending the full danger of the situation, evacuated the fort in the night time, and at the break of day on the Gth of July the English colors again waved over Ticonderoga. Bitter was the disappointment of the colonists at the fall of this fort. The order to evacuate was received in the fort with curses and with tears, but there was no alternative. Mount Defiance was already covered with red-coats, planting the batteries that would soon sweep every corner of their works. "Such a retreat," wrote one of the garrison, " was never heard of since the creation of the world." " We never shall hold a post," said John Adams, " until we shoot a general." Burgoyne wrote home : " They seem to have expended great treasure and the unwearied labor of more than a year to fortify, upon the supposition that we .should only attack them upon the point where they were best pre- pared to resist." Upon the receipt of the news in England', the king rushed into the queen's apartment, crying, " I have beat them — I have beat all the Americans;" and Lord George Germain announced the event in parliament as if it had already decided the fate of the colonies. After the fall of Ticonderoga, slowly and sullenly the Americans, under command of Gen. Philip Schuyler, retreated towards Fort Edward on the Hudson, fighting the bloody battles of Hubbardstown and Fort Ann on the way. On the 28th of July, Burgoyne arrived at the Hudson river, near Fort Edward, and the Americans evacuated that fort as well as Fort George, at the head of Lake George, and retreating down the river to Stillwater left the whole upper valley of the Hudson above Saratoga in the indisputable possession of the victorious British general. The darkest day of the campaign to the Americans had now eome, but it proved to be the darkness which always precedes the early dawn. Great blame fell upon St. Clair, and greater still upon Gen. Schuyler, and it was not until the fiict became apparent that Congress had neglected to garrison and provision Mount Independence and Port Ticonderoga, that the public clamor against these brave and magnanimous officers subsided. Tieondei'oga had been evacuated by the unanimous vote of a full council of war ; yet there were some who boasted that they could tell when that fortress was sold and for how much, while others asserted that Schuyler and St. Clair had both been bribed by Burgoyne, who, it was said, had fired silver bullets into the fort, which were gathered by order of St. Clair and divided between him and Schuyler. One hundred and twenty-eight cannon were lost on that occasion, yet that number, like Falstaft's men, who grew from two to eleven, was examerated to three hundred. There were no HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK. 53 artillerymen either slain or captured at that time, but the report was current tliat not one of them had escaped. Schuyler's proclamation. Soon after Burgoyne had issued his grandiloquent pro- clamation, he on the 10th of July issued anotlier, addressed particularly to the inhabitants of Castleton, Hubbardton, Rutland, Inmouth, Pawlet, Wells, Granville, and of the neighboring districts, also to the people living in the dis- tricts bordering on White Creek, Camdden, Cambridge, etc., calling on them to send from each town a deputation of ten men to meet Col. Skene five days thence at Castle- ton, in order to secure from him further encouragement, if they had acknowledged allegiance to Great Britain, or, if they had not, to hear the conditions " upon which the per- sons and properties of the disobedient" might yet be spared. In answer to this, Gen. Schuyler, on the 13th of July, ad- dressed a counter-proclamation to the same people, in which, after referring to the scenes which had not long be- fore been witnessed in New Jersey, when the deluded in- habitants, who had confided in British promises, had been treated with the most wanton barbarity, he announced to them that those who should "join with or in any manner or way assist or give comfort or hold correspondence with, or take protection from the enemy," would be considered and dealt with as traitors to the United States. Many not only refused to notice the warning of Schuyler, but voluntarily remained " within the power of the enemy," and were obliged " to wear a signal in their hats, and put signals before their doors, and also upon their catties' horns, that they were friends to the king and had stayed on their farms agreeable to Gen. Burgoyne's proclamation." These were known as " protectioners," and in subsequent years suffered many indignities from their neighbors by reason of their Toryism on this occasion. LETTER TO JOHN WILLIAMS. Although terribly grieved on account of the faihire at Ticonderoga, Gen. Schuyler was indefatigable in his en- deavors to restore confidence to the country which was being foraged and ravaged by Burgoyne's forces, and to learn from prisoners and deserters the condition of Bur- goyne's army. As an instance of the care exercised by this brave soldier, even when surrounded by trials of the severest nature, the following letter, never before published, will serve as a specimen. It was written to Col. John Williams, of White Creek, in answer to a letter of Williams sent by a lieutenant who had in charge a suspicious person named Baker, who had been captured by Williams, and is in these words : "Fort Eow.iRD, .July 14, 1777. "Sir, — Your note of this day has been delivered nie by Lieutenant Young. I have e.xamined Mr. Baker and found hiui trii)piug in so many things that I am clearly convinced he is an agent of the enemy, and sent not only to give intelligence, but to intimidate the inhabitants and intluce them to join the enemy. I have closely contincd him, and shall send him down the country. lie informs me that one John Foster is also gone to the enemy and, as he supposes he will be back in a day or two, I beg he may be made prisoner and sent to me under a good guard. You must furnish your militia with provisions in tiie best manner you can, and the allowance will be made for it. I have scouts out in every quarter, and a large body at Fort Ann, and, until they come away, I am not apprehensive that an attack will be made on White Creek. It would bo the height of imprudence to disperse my army into difterent quarters, unless tlicre is the most evident necessity. * I am, sir, your most humble servant, " Ph. Sciihyler. "Colonel Williams." XIIL— BURGOYNE'S ADVANCE. Slowly and cautiously did Burgoyne proceed in his ad- vance. On the 7th of July his head(|uarters were at Skenesborough, at the residence of Gen. Philip Skene, where they remained until the 25th of that month, when they were moved forward to Fort Ann. On the 29th they were advanced to the camp at Pitch Pine Plains, near Fort Edward, and the following day Burgoyne watered his horses in the Hudson at Fort Edward, and the best period of his campaign was over. CHAPTER XV. THE SECOND PERIOD OF THE BURGOYNE CAMPAIGN. I.— .JEANIE McCREA. The second period of the Burgoyne campaign opens in the darkest hour of the American cause. The progress of the British army down along the old war-trail of the great northern valley had thus far been a series of triumphs. The Americans had been dislodged from their stronghold at Ti- conderoga, where they had fondly liojied that the tide of in- vasion could be stayed, and, defeated in every action, and driven from post to post, had virtually abandoned the field of the upper Hudson. Not a single ray of light had yet illumined the gloom that had settled over every American home in the land. It was in this dark hour of the deepest despondency that an event occurred on the banks of the Hudson, at Fort Ed- ward, of itself of seeming insignificance, — simply the death of a single maiden caused by savage hands, — yet really one of those important events which, in the hands of a wise, overruling Providence, are destined to mark a turning- point, — the beginning of a new era, as it were, — in the world's destiny. The defeat of Burgoyne in this campaign resulted in the final success of the American arms and in the independence of the colonies. Burgoyne could date the beginning of his disasters with the murder of the maiden, Jeanie McCrea, near Fort Edward, by his savage allies, at noon on Sunday, July 27, 1777. It was but ten days after, on the tith of August following, that Gen. Herkimer, on the bloody field of Oriskany, turned back St. Leger in his raid down the Mohawk valley, and it was only ten days after the last event, on August IG, that Gen. Stark captured, near Ben- nington, an important detachment sent from the left wing of the British army on a foraging expedition under Major Baum. About the year 17G8 two Scotch families — -the McCreas and the Joneses — came from New Jersey and settled in the woods on the wild western bank of the Hudson, near and I below Fort Edward. 54 HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK. The Widow Jones came with a family of six grown-up sons, whose names were Jonathan, Jolin, Dunliam, Daniel, David, and Solomon. The Joneses took up the fiirm now known as the Roger place, in Jloreau, nearly opposite Fort Edward, being but a mile and a half or so below, and kept a ferry there, then called, and after the war long known, as the Jones' ferry. The McCreas settled three or four miles farther down the river, not far from the line of Northumberland. Jeanie McCrea was the daughter of a Scotch Presbyterian minis- ter, and her mother having died and her father married again, she came to reside with her brother, John McCrea, on the bank of the Hudson, and thus became a pioneer in the settlement of the old north wilderness. The McCrea brothers were strong adherents of the American cause, and men of standing and influence in the neighborhood. In 1773 lier brother, Daniel McCrea, was the first clerk of the first court held in Charlotte county, by Judge Duer, at Fort Edward, and when the first two regiments — the Twelfth and Thirteenth of Albany county militia-men — were commis- sioned by the committee of safety, in 1775, her brother, John IMcCrca, was given the important post of colonel com- manding in the Thirteenth or Saratoga Regiment. But the Joneses adhered to the royal cause. One of them — John — was married, and when the war broke out was settled three miles north of Sandy Hill, at what is now called Moss street, near whose house General Fraser was encamped at the time of the tragedy. In the fall of 1770, Jonathan and David Jones raised a company of fifty men under pretext of roiiilorcing the American garrison at Ticonderoga, but on their march they, passed by the American ford and joined the British at Crown Point, fifteen miles farther down the lake. In the winter following Jonathan and David Jones both went to Canada, and were commissioned in the British ser- vice, — Jonathan as captain and David as lieutenant in the same company, — and, at the time of the inva.sion, they ac- companied the army of Burgoyne as pilots and guides against their own countrymen. In the summer of 1777, Jeanie McCrea was about twenty- three years of age, of middling stature, finely formed, dis- tinguished for the profuseness of her dark and shining hair, and celebrated for her more than common beauty. Tradition says that between her and young David Jones a tender intimacy had sprung up before they left New Jersey, which was continued after they settled on the Hudson, and rudely interrupted by the stern events of partisan warfare. The reader will bear in mind that Burgoyne had broken up his headquarters at Whitehall on the 25th of July, and on the 2Gth his advanced corps was encamped on the " Pitch Pine Plains," four miles north of Fort Edward. It should also be borne in mind that at that time all the inhabitants in the vicinity of Fort Edward had either moved down the river for a place of safety, or, if remaining, had sought protection of Burgoyne, and that there then was only a small garrison of American troops left at Fort Edward, who also moved down the river the morning after Joanie's death. But Jeanie, although admonished by her bruther. Col. John, to go down the river, still remained near Fort Edward. Womanlike, her heart was with the young lieutenant in the ranks of the rapidly-advancing invaders, and woman- like she lingered to await his coming. On the day before her death she proceeded up the river, and crossed over at Jones' ferry. The old ferryman, after the war, often spoke of how well she looked, dressed, as he expressed it, in her wedding clothes. After crossing the river, Jeanie went to the house of Peter Freel (the old " Baldwin house"), which stood close under the walls of the fort, where she stayed overnight. After breakfast the next morning she went to the house of Mrs. McNiel, which stood about eighty rods north of the fort on the main road leading to Sandy Hill. Mrs. McNiel had been a warm fi'iend of Jeanie's father in New Jer.sey, and was a cousin of Gen. Fraser, of the British army, and was doubtless then about to seek his protection, otherwise she would have many days before gone down the river. On the fatal morning — Sunday, the 27th day of July — our people at the fort had sent out a scouting-party of fifty men, under command of Lieut. Palmer, to ascertain the position and watch the motions of the enemy. This party had followed the plain to a deep ravine about a mile north of the fort, where they fell into an ambuscade, or met a party of about two hundred Indians, who were on a maurauding excursion. The Americans at once turned and fled for their lives towards the fort. The Indians pur- sued, and shot down and scalped eighteen of their number, including the commander. Lieutenant Palmer. The Amer- icans rushed off from the plain, down the hill, and across the mtirsh near the river, and such as escaped returned to the jirotecting walls of the fort. Tlie Indians shot Lieut. Palmer near the brow of the hill, and killed the last private still nearer the fort. At the foot of the hill the main body of the Indians halted, and six of them rushed forward across the low ground to the house of Mrs. McNiel. There the Indians found Mrs. McNiel and Jeanie, and seizing them both hurried tliem as captives across the low ground over which they had come to the foot of the hill, where they joined the main body of the savages. At the foot of the hill they placed Jeanie on a horse, and began their march with the two captive women and the scalps of the eighteen soldiers towards Eraser's camp. All their motions were intently watched by the people at the fort, and the Indians had scarcely reached the hill when the report of some guns was heard and Jeanie was seen to fall from her horse. It was but the work of a moment for the scalping-knife, and the dark flowing locks of poor Jeanie were dangling all blood-stained at the belt of an Indian chief Her body was stripped and dragged out of sight of the fort, and the Indians, with Mrs. McNiel, proceeded on their way to the British camp. That day no one dared to leave the fort. The next morning the Americans evacuated Fort Edward and passed down the river. Before going, however, they sent a file of men in search of the body of Jeanie, and found it near the body of Lieut. Palmer, about twenty rods from where she had fallen the day before. The bodies were both taken to the fort, and then sent with a small detachment of men HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK. 55 in advance of the main body of retreating Americans to the ni:;lit bunk of a small creek, about three miles below Fort Edward, where they were buried in rude and hasty graves. It is but just to say that another version of the actual manner of Jeanie's death has come down to us, which finds advocates at the present day. It should be remembered that at the time of Jeanie's death party spirit ran wild, and both parties did not scruple to exaggerate facts in their own favor. While Gen. Gates seized upon the incident of this tragedy to inflame the pas- sions of the Whigs, the Loyalists endeavored to make as light as possible of the matter. The other version of the matter above alluded to seems to have originated with those who, at th(> time, sympathized with the royal cause, and of course wished to extenuate the matter as much as possible. The other account is that the Indians were in turn, after they had taken the two women from the house, pursued by the American troops from the fort, and fired on ; that Jeanic was struck by two or three balls from the American guns, and not shot by the Indians at all. That after she fell, pierced by American bullets, she was scalped by the Indian and left dead, as above related. But this account seems to lack the confirmation of eye-witnesses, especially eye-witnesses among the retreating party of savages them- selves. Mrs. McNeil did not know that Jeanie w;is killed till after she had reached Eraser's camp. On their way to Eraser's camp the Indians stopped at William (jrifSn's, and, showing their scalps, said they had killed Jeanie. But what .seems the strongest evidence of the truth of the version first given above is the manner in which Gen. Burgoyne treated the subject. Upon hearing of the affair Burgoyne was very angry. He called a council of the Indians, and demanded that the Indian who had killed Jeanie should be given up, that he might be punished as his crime deserved. Now, if the Indians had not killed Jeanie, and she had been accidentally shot by the pursuing Americans, they, the Indians, would have said so. In truth there would have been no culprit among them to punish. They themselves were the only ones Burgoyne could learn the facts of the case from, and after hearing their version of the case, Burgoyne demanded a culprit to hang. But Burgoyne's officers, fearing the defection of the Indians, persuaded him to change his mind and let the culprit go. In confirmation of what Gen. Burgoyne did on the occa- sion is the following extract from the testimony of the Earl of Harrington, who was a witness before the committee of the British House of Commons during its inquiry into the failure of the Burgoyne campaign, at London, in the year 1779:* "Queslion. Does your lordship remember Gen, Bur- goyne's receiving at Fort Anne the news of the murder of MLss McCrea ?" "■Answer. I do." "Q. Did Gen. Burgoyne repair immediately to the In- dian camp and call them to council, assisted by Brig.-Gen. Eraser?" "A. He did." * See Burgoyne's State of the E.\pedititni, pa^e fifi. " Q. What passed at that council ?" "A. Gen. Burgoyne threatened the culprit with death, insisted that he should be delivered up, and there were many gentlemen of the army, and I own I was one of the number, who feared that he would put that threat in execu- tion. Motives of policy, I believe, alone prevented hitn from it; and if he had not pardoned the man, which he did, I believe the total desertion of the Indians would have ensued, aiid the consequences, on their return through Canada, might have been dreadful, not to speak of the weight they would have thrown into the opposite scale had they gone over to the enemy, which I rather imagine would have been the case." "Q. Do you remember Gen. Burgoyne's restraining tlio Indian parties from going out without a British officer or proper conductor, who were to be responsible for their behavior ?" "A. I do." "Q. Do you remember Mr. St. Luc's reporting discontent among the Indians soon after our arrival at Fort Edward ?" "A. I do." " Q. How long was that after enforcing the restraints above mentioned ?" "^4. I can't exactly say ; I should imagine about three weeks or a month." " Q. Does your lordship recollect Gen. Burgoyne's telling Mr. St. Luc that he had rather lose every Indian than connive at their enormities, or using language to that effect?" ",1. I do." "Q. Does your lordship remember what pa.ssed in council with the Indians at Fort Edward?" "^4. To the best of my recollection much the same ex- hortation to act with humanity, and much the same rewards were offered for saving their j)risoners." "Q. Do you recollect the circumstance of the Indians desiring to return home at that time? " "A. I do, perfectly well." " Q. Do you remember that many quitted the army without leave ?" "^4. I do, immediately after the council and the next morning." " Q. Was it not the general opinion that the desertion of the Indians, then and afterwards, were caused by the restraint upon their cruelties and habits of plunder?" "A. It was." This testimony was given, it should be remembered, by the earl only two years after the affair occurred, and the matter could not have been otherwise than fresh in his mind. Burgoyne's statement of the affair was that after Jeanie had been taken by one band of Indians, another band coming up claimed her, and to settle the dispute one of the Indians killed her on the spot. If this be true, of couive there was a culprit in the ea.se. This also was the belief of the family relatives of Jeanie ever after her death.* * See Silliman's Jour., second edition, and Charles Neilson's Bur- goyne's Campaign. As to the contlicting versions, see appendix to \Vm. L. Stone's Burgoyne Campaign, published in 1877, and author- ities there cited. 56 HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK. To-day the modern village of Fort Edward stands on this classic ground, made famous by more than a century of forest warfare, and more than a hundred years of smiling peace have passed over the old "great carrying-place" of the wilderness. The old fort at tlie mouth of the crook, the barracks on the island in mid-river, the royal block-house upon the south bank of the river, have crumbled into ruins, aTid for a hun- dred and one summers the sweet wild-flowers have bloomed over the grave of Jeanie McCrea, the one maiden martyr of the American cause, wliose innocent blood, crying from the ground, aroused her almost despairing countrymen to renewed eifort to vengeance, and to final victory over the invader at who.se hands her young life was ended. II.— ORISKANY AND BENNINGTON. The affair at Oriskany, which took place in the upper Mohawk valley, while it exerted groat influence upon the fortunes of the campaign, was yet so fir away from Sara- toga, the subject of this work, that merely a passing notice seems appropriate to these pages. It was at Oriskany, on the 6th day of August, that the gallant Herkimer, the Palatine general, while on his march to the relief of Fort Stanwix, which was alre;idy invested by the British forces under Col. St. Leger, fell into the am- buscade prepared for him by Brant and his Mohawks, and Butler with his Tory rangers, and where his men met their old neighbors with whom they had been reared together on the banks of the Mohawk in a hand-to-hand conflict, each dying in the other's arms in the terrible rage of battle. But the aft'air at Bennington, occurring as it did in an adjoining county, needs something more at our hands. In the concerted instructions prepared for Baum for what was known as " a secret expedition to the Connecticut river," the name Bennington was not mentioned, yet there is no doubt that Bennington was the first objective point of the expedition. It was known to Burgoyne that the Americans had formed there " a considerable depot of cattle, cows, horses, and wheel carriages, most of which were drawn across the Connecticut river from the provinces of New England; and as it was understood to be guarded by a party of militia only, an attempt to surprise it seemed by no means unjustifiable." Some time after the battle, and after his return to England, Burgoyne w;is blamed because he had sent out Baum with instructions which did not apply to Bennington, and that the destination of the expedition had then been changed. To this charge Burgoyne replied as follows: '• But it still may be said the expedition was not orig- inally designed against Bennington. I really do not .see to what it would tend against me, if that supposition were in a great degree admitted. That some part of the force was designed to act there, will not be dL-^puted by any who read Col. Baum's instructions and consult the map. The blame or merit of the design altogether must rest upon the motives of expediency ; and it is of little conseijuenoo whether the first and principal direction was again.st Bennington or Ar- lington, or any other district, as my intelligence might have varied respecting the deposits of corn and cattle of the enemy. At the same time I must observe it is begging the question to argue that Bennington was not the real, orig- inal object, because Bennington was not mentioned in the draft of instructions. A man must indeed be void of mili- tary and political address to put upon a paper a critical design, where surprise was in question, and everything de- pended upon secrecy. Thciugh it were true that I meant only Benniugton, and thought of nothing less than the progress of the expedition in the extent of the order, I certainly would not now aflirm it, because I could not prove it, and because it would seem that I searched for remote and obscure justification, not relying upon that which was manifest ; but surely there is nothing new or improbable in the idea that a general should disguise his real intentions at the outset of an expedition, even from the oflicer whom he appointed to execute them, provided a communication with that oflScer was certain and not remote." INSTRUCTIONS TO BAtJM. The instructions to Baum commenced by stating that the object of the expedition was "to try the aflections of the country ; to disconcert the councils of the enemy ; to mount the lliedesol's dragoons ; to complete Peters' corps, and to obtain large supplies of cattle, horses, and carriages." He was ordered to proceed from Batten Kill to Arlington, and take post there till the detachment of the Provincials under Capt. Sherwood should join him. Then lie was to go to Manchester and secure the pass of the mountains on the road from Manchester to Rockingham, on the Connecti- cut river, and send the Indians of the party and the light troops towards Otter creek. On their return, in case he .should hear that there was no enemy in force on Connecti- cut river, he was to go by the road over the mountains to Rockingham, and there, at the most distant part of the expedition, take post. If prudent, the Indians and light troops were to be sent up the Connecticut, and on their re- turn, the force was to descend the river to Brattleborough, and thence proceed by the quickest march " by the great road to Albany." They were to bring in all hor,ses fit to mount the dragoons or to serve as bat-horses ; also saddles, bridles, " wagons and other convenient carriages," draught oxen, all cattle fit for slaughter except milch cows, which were to be left for the use of the inhabitants. Receipts for articles taken for the use of the troops were to be given to such persons as had remained in their habitations and other- wise complied with the terms of Burgoyne's manifesto, but not to rebels. Particular directions were also given as to the disposition of the force, and people were to bo led to believe that the force was the advanced corps of the army on the road to Boston, and that the main army from Albany was to be joined at Springfield by a corps of troops from Rhode Island. A wholesome dread of Col. Warner doubtless led to the introduction of this passage in the instruc- tions : " It is highly probable that the corps under Mr. Warner, now supposed to be at Manchester, will retreat before you ; but should they, contrary to expectation, be able to collect in great force and post themselves advan- tageously, it is left to your discretion to attack them or not ; always bearing in mind that your corps is too valuable to let any considonible loss be hazarded on this occasion." HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK. 57 DEPARTURE FOR BENNINGTON. Preparations having been thus completed, at five o'clock on the morning of August 12, Col. Baum set out from Saratoga with lii.s command, which consisted of his two hundred dragoons, the Canadian rangers, a detachment of provincials, about one hundred Indians, and Capt. Eraser's marksmen, with two pieces of small cannon, numbering in all about five hundred men. He was a!.so accompanied by Col. Philip Skene, who joined the expedition by the special request of Burgoyne, in order that he might give advice to Banin " upon all matters of intelligence." Having marched a mile, Bauni received a dispatch from Burgoyne to post his force advantageously on the Batteukill till he .should receive fresh in.'itructions. Continuing his march, he reached the Battenkill at about four o'clock in the afternoon and encamped there. At about eleven o'clock the same night he was reinforced by a company of fifty clia.sseurs, sent forward by Gen. Burg03'ne. By four o'clock the next morning the whole body were again in motion, and, after a march of sixteen miles, reached Cam- bridge at four o'clock in the evening, having had a few skirmishes with the Americans, and having taken some cattle, carts, wagons and horses, and having also received the disagreeable intelligence that the Americans were about eighteen hundred strong at Bennington. On the morning of the 14th the little army were on the march long before sunrise. As they approached the northern branch of the Hoosick river, a party of Americans were discovered in front of the farm of " Saiikoick," who, on the approach of the Briti.sh, took to the underwood, whence they fired on the British until they were dislodged. On their retreat they abandoned a mill which they previously fortified, and broke down the •' bridge of Sankoick." BAUM AT " WALLOOMSCOICK." A considerable quantity of provisions was left in the mill, and after the bridge had been repaired, Baum sta- tioned a proper force to guard them both, and that night "bivouacked at the farm of Walmscott, about four miles from Sankoick and three from Bennington." This farm lay upon both banks of the Walloomsac, and was occupied at this time by six or eight log huts, scattered here and there over its narrow expanse of cultivated ground. Heavy rains fell on the morning of the 15th, accompa- nied with a " perfect hurricane of wind." which rendered the shelter of the farm-buildings very grateful to the forces of Baum. Soon, however, shooting was heard at the ad- vanced sentry posts, whereupon Baum sent forth the pro- vincials, supported by Fraser's marksmen, to assist the pickets. It was then discovered that the Indians were threatened by a body of American militia. On the ap- proach of the British, the Indian allies uttered a yell, which seemed to hue an effect upon the Americans, who soon after retired. The Americans advanced a number of times during the day, but the weather was so stormy, and the rain fell so incessantly, that no effective service could be performed by either party of an offen.sive nature. During the remainder of the day Baum was engaged in strengthening the position he had taken. To the left of the '■ farm of Walmscott" was a height which he hastened 8 to occupy. " He posted here the dragoons, with a portion of the marksmen on their right, in rear of a little zigzag breastwork composed of logs and loose earth. Such of the detached houses as came within the compass of his posi- tion he filled with Canadians, supporting them with detachments of chasseurs and grenadiers, likewise in- trenched behind breastworks ; and he kept the whole, with the exception of about a hundred men, on the north side of the stream, holding the woods upon his flanks in his front and rear by the Indians." Such was the situation of affairs when the night of the 15lh of August closed around Baum and his faithful dragoons. THE BATTLE OF THE 1 6tH OF AUGUST. We cannot give a better description of the battle of Bennington than is to be found in the following extract from the narrative of Glieh, one of Lieut. -Col. Baum's ofiicers. Among other things it pays a decided compliment to the bravery and dash of Gen. Stark, who so distinguished him- self on the occasion : " The morning of the IGth rose beautifully serene. The storm of the preceding day having expended itself, not a cloud was left to darken the face of the heavens ; whilst the very leaves hung motionless, and the long grass waved not, under the influence of a perfect calm. Ever3' object around, too, appeared to peculiar advantage ; for the fields looked green and refreshed, the river was swollen and tumultuous, and the branches were all loaded with dew- drops, which glittered in the sun's early rays like so many diamonds. Nor would it be ea.sy to imagine any scene more rife with peaceful and even pastoral beauty. Looking down from the summit of the rising ground, I beheld im- mediately beneath me a wide sweep of stately forest, inter- rupted at remote intervals by green meadows or yellow corn-fields, whilst here and there a cottage, a shed, or some other primitive edifice reared its mode.st head as if for the purpose of reminding the spectator that man bad bsgun his inroads upon nature, without, as yet, taking away from her simplicity and grandeur. I hardly recollect a scene which struck me at the moment more forcibly, or which has left a deeper or more lasting impression on my memory. "I have said that the morning of the IGth rose beauti- fully serene, and it is not to the operations of the elements alone that my expression applies. All was perfectly quiet at the outposts, not an enemy h.aving been seen, nor an alarming sound heard for several hours previous to sunrise. So peaceable, indeed, was the aspect which matters bore, that our leaders felt warmly disposed to resume the offen.sive, without waiting the arrival of the additional corps for which they had applied, and orders were already issued for the men to eat their breakfasts, preparatory to more active oper- ations. But the arms were scarcely piled, and the haver- sacks unslung, when .symptoms of a state of affairs different from that which had been anticipated began to show them- selves, and our people were recalled to their ranks in all haste, almost as soon as they had (piitted them. From more than one quarter scouts came in to report that col- umns of armed men were approaching; though whether with a friendly or hostile intention, neither their appearance nor actions enabled our informants to ascertain. 58 HISTORY OF SAEATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK. " It lias been stated tliat during the last day's march our little corps was joined by many of the country people, most of whom demanded and obtained arms, as persons friendly to the royal cause. How Col. Baum became so completely duped as to place reliance on these men I know not ; but having listened with complacency to their previous assurances that in Bennington a large majority of the popu- lace were our friends, he was, somehow or other, persuaded to believe that the armed bands, of whose approach he was warned, were loyalists, on their way to make a tender of their services to the leader of the king's troop. Filled with this idea, he dispatched positive orders to the outposts that no molestation should be offered to the advancing col- umns ; but that the pickets retiring before them should join the main body, where every disposition was made to receive either friend or foe. Unfortunately for us, these orders were but too faithfully obeyed. About half-past nine o'clock, I, who was not in the secret, beheld, to my utter amazement, our advanced parties withdraw without firing a shot from thickets which- might have been maintained for hours against any superiority of numbers ; and the same thickets quickly occupied by men whose whole demeanor, as well as their dress and style of equipment, plainly and in- contestably pointed them out as Americans. " I cannot pretend to describe the state of excitation and alarm into which our little band was now thrown. With the solitary exception of our leader, there was not a man amongst us who appeared otherwise than satisfied that those to whom he had listened were traitors; and, that unless some prompt and vigorous measures were adopted, their treachery would be crowned with its full reward. Capt. Fraser, in particular, seemed strongly imbued with the conviction that we were willfully deceived. He pointed out, in plain language, the extreme improbability of the story which these desertere had told, and warmly urged our chief to withdraw his confidence from them ; but all his arguments proved fruitless. Col. Baum remained con- vinced of their fidelity. He saw no reason to doubt that the people, whose approach excited so much apprehension, were the same of whose arrival he had been forewarned ; and he was prevented from placing himself entirely in their power only by the positive refusal of his followers to obey orders given to that effect, and the rash impetuosity of the enemy. " We might have stood about half an hour under arms, watching the proceedings of a column of four or five hun- dred men, who, after dislodging the pickets, had halted just at the edge of the open country, when a sudden trampling of feet in the forest on our right, followed by the report of several muskets, attracted our attention. A patrol was in- stantly sent in the direction of the sound, but before the party composing it had proceeded many yards from the lines, a loud shout, followed by a rapid though straggling fire of musketry, warned us to prepare for a meeting the reverse of friendly. Instantly the Indians came pouring in, carry- ing dismay and confusion in their countenances and gestures. We were surrounded on all sides; columns were advancing everywhere against us, and those whom we had hitherto treated as friends had only waited till the arrival of their support might justify them in advancing. There was no falsehood in these reports, though made by men who spoke rather from their fears than their knowledge. The column in our front no sooner heard the shout than they replied cordially and loudly to it; then, firing a volley with de- liberate and murderous aim, rushed furiou.sly toward us. Now then at length our leader's dreams of security were dispelled. He found himself attacked in front and flank by thrice his numbers, who pressed forward with the confidence which our late proceedings were calculated to produce; whilst the very persons in whom he had trusted, and to whom he had given arms, lost no time in turning them against him. These fellows no sooner heard their comrades cry, than they deliberately discharged their muskets amongst Eiedesel's dragoons, and dispersing before any steps could be taken to seize them, escaped, with the exception of one or two, to their friends. " If Col. Baum had permitted himself to be duped into a great error, it is no more than justice to confess that he ex- erted himself manfully to remedy the evil and avert its con- sequences. Our little band, which had hitherto remained in column, was instantly ordered to extend, and the troops lining the breastworks replied to the fire of the Americans with extreme celerity and considerable effect. So close and destructive, indeed, was our first volley, that the assailants recoiled before it, and would have retreated, in all proba- bility, within the woods ; but ere we could take advantage of the confusion produced, fresh attacks developed them- selves, and we were warmly engaged on every side, and from all quarters. It became evident that each of our detached posts was about to be assailed at the same instant. Not one of our dispositions had been concealed from the enemy, who, on the contrary, seemed to be aware of the exact number of men stationed at each point, and they were one and all threatened by a force perfectly adequate to bear down opposi- tion, and yet by no means disproportionately large or such as to render the main body ineflttcient. All, moreover, was done with the sagacity and coolness of veterans, who perfectly understood the nature of the resistance to be expected and the difficulties to be overcome, and who having well considered and matured their plans, were resolved to carry them into execution at all hazards and at every expense of life. " It was at this moment, when the heads of columns began to show themselves in rear of our right and left, that the Indians, who had hitherto acted with spirit and something like order, lost all confidence and fled. Alarmed at the prospect of having their retreat cut off, they stole away after their own fashion, in single files, in .spite of the strenuous remonstrances of Baum and of their own officers, leaving us more than ever exposed by the abandonment of that angle of the intienchment which they had been ap- pointed to maintain. But even this spectacle, distressing as it doubtless was, failed in affecting our people with a feeling at all akin to despair. The vacancy which the retreat of the savages occasioned was promptly filled up by one of our two field-pieces, whilst the other poured de- struction among the enemy in front as often as they showed themselves in the open country or threatened to advance. " In this state things continued upwards of threo-quai*- ters of an hour. Though repeatedly assailed in front. HI?rORT OF SABATOGA COUyTY. XEW YORK. s9 faaks, ami rear, «e maiataaed oaiseh-es whk 90 •jkoBacy as to ia^iie a ha|ie tkc tk ew^J- w^t erea j>«t k k£(!C as baj t3 ife aniTil «f Vt^^mamm's esapa, aov -wimiiflr f-Tji»rtpd. vk^aa Mt i k at rnxmuvi vki^ at Afi»H>l i g to o« fete. TW 3cBt«T flwfl wfciA ttm- aadView ap viA a vieleaee «UA sfcook ifeiayvroaad botk oaoaradeaaddntof ^^KMT. Bm^csbMhw Ae east of oar eafaairr. ckeexed tbeir m^ oa io fie^ TVt Tasked mf (be seeat viik redoalikd - ia ^ite e£ tke hearr rofln- aUeii «« poaied ia to Aetk tb^B. aad, iaJi a g oar saas aleat. Aey ^nms^ff'er At fanfeK aad JrWJ aakia oar wotfcs. For a Sew zammAj tW seeae aiaA e^aed defie aEpoaeref faagai^ CO desmbe. Tke injaaeC, the bait of tke riSe, tke sib^ the pike, acre m £dl pb;^, aad bkb feO, s tk^jatdy&a the &eet Uoas of thdr he aimeed 9 dea hdt«d fiir half I afioaooa, GoL SkeK, «b had bea •• BR^aHMa ai& aragfaes Bat each a ati^^ eodd aet, ia the aatare of dia^ be of loa^ -"■ "■■ ■■ ■ Oacaaadiaed, bnkea. aai ahat A-h >!ite tJ bj fasecxacs, amr |wn|>b' w a r a ed aad ftfl back, or Sm^ amdtj aad aaeoaaeeGnST. iffl t^ aaeatha- eatdoaa M theb- poBts, ohetiaMelj «b'6 a i liag theHselves, or f>pw|rfffnl to saneader. Of BiedeaeFs &- ma ma tf i iu e otms . tew smrtivei to tefl hov aoblr th^- had bcharaL CoL Bna, due thni^ the bod|^ br a lile^aL M Mrtsd;^ aaaaded, »d al Older aad £s|iCae biMg ket ta^ or ™l— i»i«- a^ aloae ihia^bi oL For Toiaap«t.aheAerthefeeBigargeeftoMde?ffritioa or aetidat I naaot tefl, bat I i^olred aot to be takea. As T«i I had «9aped afaaoet aahan, a d^ht MiA aoaad ia the kft ana havi^ ihar filV'a ta sj dnre, aad. gathfriag Jioaad Be aboaK thiitj of ^f rnradr-' a« Made a la^ whuL the eaoaj's ndks af pe aied aeakea, aad baiat This doae, eaA mam Hade haste to ^ifi far ithaat pa^ai^ to colder tdke naeof hisa^^ bar: aad, ka^ oae-tldid of oar aawlwr tnam At ea- (■■j^'s ire. &e leHaiader took r^Ke ia gmmfoe of two or tkee wiihia the Sxest." SBCOSD dat's BAmX- Smtk aas Ae eoafitka of tUac- Ttfleiicd tamets ao^ G^sa. Bans)*^ Aagaat la, at S o'clock, to start at of jageE, a bntfriBn a of chaMMij> 1 eiaaoa to leufuiee de eoipB of Sa.- lied with Uh ^t^ after leeetnag ovdaE. I letcaam^ the BbcteakiL — to aade thro^^ the aatec — he aw ob&asd^to ens, ''tL I- zJ^ of a ammg the way thro^^ the %aacaaee of able to proceed that day oalj to a poiat aeatoiy fioa Caabci^e, vheie he ea- im the a^t. ^j ca the wa^ of the 16A I aet oat, his hocees a^ed, aad onr nn& aboet proc tfc de d Terj sioalj oa hk aar. bat ob- tao o''dkMk ia the tlaaB,3eBt taa 6m imm to detach aa ofieer aad taeatr Mea. aad aead dcai fiiraard to oeewpj , the -mdl as St. Coj^~ s the Afrirja- were ^oaiag s^^ of a dtjwfiag cm. it. Ia^tead of the face ad^ fir, B tqMJaa aeat &mtd CqK. Gkbeaka^ aid the adraaee ' gaaid, «m i 4^iiw; cf axtr •teaafias aad chaseeais aad tasaty y^ets. Biermaaa bJMrlf aish the rest of hk ' Mea. reached the wH ac hsifpas Star, aad fiiaad there I the adTaaes-gaard ia aa&taibed ptwypioa aad si3I aa- I atta^ed by the eaeay. i GoLSkeae,aho«Kat the ain ahoaBfejMa^ anirsd, iaSmaed hia thas Biam was oaly ta» latlr- ^■''■'■* bat ifhekaevof the&etthatBaaa^ abeady defealad £d ' aot mwaaaii a< it to Br^Hiaa Had B iqiMjaa fcaoaa I the real state of the cks, he atadd aot hav« ikked the ea- fiJkiaed. BieyHaaa, dff iag k best to ftrand to ^eet Baaoa's eorps, aad Skeae beiag of the saMe opiaioa ,, both narked orrer the brid^ ia order to rea^ Bmb's oBp k suoa k p jaiiaa's aD espeaded,aad hisaitiDay had ceased firi^ he, B aatiryitioa of the leaeaal of the attack, at- tcaipfeed to take aaay the caaaoa. By tte Boreaeat Bost of hisBea«ere9e!Tiaeiya«aaded. The hoiss aere either the Ha&oa at Fort Edaard. CO HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK. CHAPTER XVI. THE THIRD PERIOD OF THE BURGOYNE CAMPAIGN. I.— THE RAPIDLY-INCREASING AMERICAN ARMY. As early as the 13th of Au;j;ust, the British army com- menced active operations witii the view of soon crossing the Hudson river. An advance was made down the east bank of the Hudson to the mouth of the Battenkill, and the army encamped nearly opposite what is now Schuylerville, — then called Saratoga. After the heavy detachment under Lieut. -Col. Baum was sent off through the woods to Bennington, of which a full account is given in the last chapter, a bridge of rafts was flung across the Hudson, over which, on the 14th of August, Gen. Fraser crossed with the advance corps of the army and encamped on the heights of Saratoga to await the return of Baum. But neither Baum nor his soldiers ever came back : and after the defeat of Baum at Bennina- ton, on the ICth of August, Gen. Fraser led his troops back again to the cast side of the Hudson, where the whole British army remained encamped till the final advance made in September. Meanwhile the Americans under Schuyler had left Stillwater and taken their stand on the islands at the mouth of the Mohawk, where, throwing up intrenchments, they awaited the appioach of the enemy. On the 19th of August Gen. Schuyler, New York's favorite general, was superseded in the command of the ContinenUil forces by Gen. Horatio Gates. Gen. Schuyler was removed iji consequence of the clamor raised over the surrender of Ticonderoga, for which it has been seen Gen. Schuyler was in nowise to blame. But nothing short of his removal from the head of the army would satisfy the disaffected, and the victory he had organized was snatched from his grasp and thrown to the hands of another just as he was on the point of receiving it. The fortunes of war were now turning decidedly in favor of the Americans. The defeat of Baum and the retreat of St. Leger had aroused the sinking hopes of the colonists, and, already flushed with victory, they flocked in crowds to the American camp. On the 23d of August, Col. Mor- gan's regiment of riflemen arrived in the American camp from Virginia. On the 8th of September, Gen. Gates left his encampment at the mouth of the Mohawk, and once more the Continental forces, now consisting of about six thousand men, marched up the Hudson to meet the invad- ing foe. Gen. Gates stopped in the first place near the present village of Stillwater — where old Fort Ingoldsby had been built by Col. Schuyler in 1709, and Fort Winslow in the place of it by Gen. Winslow in 1756 — and began to throw up intrenchments. But not satisfied with the ground at Stillwater, Gen. Gates abandoned it in a day or two, and, marching two miles up the Hudson, took possession of the much stronger position of Bemus Heights. At Bemus Heights the river-hills crowd down quite ab- ruptly to the west bank of the Hudson, leaving there only a narrow defile between them and the river-bank, through ■which what was then the King's highway ran up and down the river from Albany to Saratoga. By the side of the highway at the foot of the hills and near the bank of the Hudson, at the period of the Revolution, was a somewhat famous tavern-stand owned and kept by one J. Bemus. This tavern had for some time been celebrated as one of the best stopping-places on the river-road. Bemus then owned the land in the rear of the tavern, and his farm extended up over the hills, and the hills were consequently known as Bemus Heights. Gen. Gates took possession of the narrow defile at the tavern-stand of Bemus, and extending his line westerly for a mile from the river, over the heights, began to throw up intrenchments, and there awaited the approach of Bur- goyne. He did not wait long. II.— THE PASSAGE OF THE HUDSON. On the 13th and 14th of September, Burgoyne cro.<:sed to the west side of the Hudson with his whole army and encamped on the heights of Saratoga. On the 15th he marched his army slowly down five miles to Dovegat, now called Coveville. The British army, in full dress, with drums beating and colors flying, .set off on this march on a lovely autumn day, " reminding one," says an eye-witness, '' of a grand parade in the midst of peace." At Dovegat Burgoyne halted two days for the purpose of repairing the roads and bridges in his advance, and of sending out scouts to reconnoitre the enemy. But, strange to say, no enemy was discovered. Burgoyne at this time seemed to know nothing about the position or the numbers of the Continental forces, but went on marching blindly through the woods in seaich of an enemy supposed to be somewhere in the forest before him. On the morning of the 17th, Burgoyne him- self headed a scouting-party, and proceeded as far as " Sword's house," which was within four miles of the American lines, encamped his whole army there during the 18th, and until the morning of the 19th, the day of the first great battle. In the mean time the Americans had been busy strength- ening their position at Bemus Heights. Under the direction of Kosciusko their line of intrenchments ran from the river half a mile westwardly over the hills to what is now called the " Neilson house." The right wing occupied the hill- side near the river, protected in front by a marshy ravine, and in the rear by an abatis. The left wing, in command of Gen. Arnold, occupied the heights to the west. Gen. Gates' headquarters were near the centre, a little south of the "Neilson fiirni.' Thus were the two armies situated about four milts apart on the morning of the battle. III.— THE BATTLE OF THE I9TH OF SEPTEMBER. Between the two hostile armies thus sleeping on that pleasant autumn morning, one hundred years ago, stretched four miles of the primeval forest, in which there were four or five little clearings of a dozen acres in extent, in the centre of which was to be seen the deserted log cabin of the settler. Down the slope of the hills ran several small brooks into the river, each having worn a deep ravine through the woods in its passage. Such were the difliculties in the way of the passage of Burgoyne's army. On the opposite side of the river, a few miles to the eastward of the armies, rose a mountain peak since known as Willard's HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK. 61 mountain. From the top of this mountain the American scouts had full view of both armies. On the morning of the 19th of September there was unusual commotion in the Briti.sh camp. Gen. Burgoyne was preparing to make another "reconnaissance in force," and attack the Ameri- cans in their intrenchments. About ten o'clock the whole British army moved out of its camp at '' Sword's house," in three division.s. The left wing, under Gens. Phillips and Riedesel, took the river-road down the flats. The centre, under Burgoyne in person, took the middle route across the ravines, going in a zig-zag course about a mile from the river, while the right wing, under Gen. Fra.ser, took a cir- cuitous route a half-mile farther back from the river than Burgoyne's, towards the extreme American left. It was agreed that upon the junction of the two divisions under Burgoyne and Fraser, about a mile from the enemy, three minute-guns should be fired to notify the left wing on the river-road, and that then the three divisions should in con- cert make their combined attacks upon the American camp. About a mile north of the centre of the American camp was a little clearing which had been made by one Freeman, containing some fourteen acres of land, near the centre of which stood a log house on a slight elevation. This little clearing, then and since called " Freeman's farm," lay directly in the route of the centre division of the army advancing under Burgoyne, and in and around this clearing was fought the famous battle of the 19th of September as well as that in part of the 7th of October following. On the morning of the 19th the American scouts on Willard mountain had seen the forward movement of the British, and had lost no time in informing Gen. Gates of the intentions of the enemy. It was the intention of Gen. Gates to remain quietly in his intrenched camp and await the attack of the British, but Arnold was impatient to meet the enemy in the woods half-way. He said if they were defeated in that encounter they would still have their works to fall back on, and thus stand a double chance of victory. The importunity of Arnold prevailed, and a part of the infantry and Morgan's rifle corps were sent oif, headed by Arnold, to meet the advancing British. A de- tachment of Morgan's riflemen was stationed in the log house and behind the fences of " Freeman's farm." About one o'clock in the afternoon the advanced party of Gen. Burgoyne's division, consisting of the pickets of the centre column under command of Major Forbes, fell in with Mor- gan's men at the log house, and after considerable firing were driven back by them. Upon reaching the main body of the British division, Morgan's men were driven back in terror, and sought shelter in the surrounding forest, await- ing reinforcements. About this time Gen. Fraser, with his grenadiers and light infantry, reached an elevated position about three hundred yards westerly of " Freeman's farm," and was met there by Arnold at the head of a heavy body of troops, each trying to cut the other ofiF from reinforcing the troops at " Freeman's farm." There, in the open woods, a most sanguinary engagement took place between the troops under Arnold and Fraser, which lasted for an hour with great fury. At some places on the field, it is stated, the blood was ankle-deep, such was the carnage. At length Fraser was reinforced, and Arnold retired from the field. In the mean time the British troops of Burgoyne's divi- sion were formed in order of battle on the field of " Free- man's farm," and a large body of Americans advanced to the attack. At three o'clock the action became general, close, and bloody. The struggle of the combatants was for the possession of the clearing. The Twentieth, Twenty- first, and Sixty-second Regiments of British, under Brig.- Gen. Hamilton, were headed by Burgoyne in person, and drawn up in regular order of battle across the field. For six times in succession that bloody afternoon were detach- ments of the Continental troops hurled against the British columns, and as many times driven back by them into the protection of the surrounding forest. The Continentals would rally in the edge of the forest (m their side and drive the British in disoider back into and acro.ss the clear- ing. The British would then rally in the clearing, and, reforming in line, in turn diive the Continentals back again into the woods. Thus the battle swayed back and forth across the bloody field, like the waves of a stormy sea, until darkness put an end tu the contest. In the early part of the action. Gen. Phillips, hearing the firing, made his way with much difliculty through the woods, accompanied by Maj. Williams, with four pieces of artillery, and throwing himself at the head of the Twentieth Regiment, charged the Continentals in time to save Burgoyne from certain defeat. At this juncture, Gen. Arnold, seeing the British reinforcements, rode his gray horse back to Gen. Gates, and addressed him : " General, the British are reinforced ; we must have more men." " You shall have them, sir," replied Gen. Gates, and at once ordered out Gen. Learned's brigade. Arnold, in full gallop, hurried back to the battle, and the men followed after in double-quick time. Again the battle raged until sunset, when the British, who were about being driven from the field, were further reinforced by the Germans, under Gen. Riedesel. The timely arrival of Riedesel and his men saved the army of Burgoyne from utter rout. The British cannon were already silenced, there being no more ammunition for them, and out of forty-eight artillerymen thirty-six, including the captain, were lying dead or wounded on the field. The three British regiments had lost half their men, and now formed a small band in one corner of the clearing, surrounded with heaps of dead and dying. The Americans were already rushing on once more, when they were met by Riedesel and his fresh German troops, and again turned back. The , advantage thus gained by Gen. Riedesel was about being followed up by Gen. Fraser, when Burgoyne counter- manded his movement. But the swift-falling darkness of our American autumn evenings soon covered the bloody field like a shadowy pall, and put an end to the con- flict. Never on a thousand battle-fields had British valor been put to a more severe test. Said the Earl of Balcarras, " The Americans behaved with great obstinacy and courage." The British forces of Burgoyne's central division were eleven hundred strong when they went into the battle. At its close more than five hundred of these were among the dead, the wounded, and the dying. The American loss was between three hundred and four hundred, including Cols. Adams and Coburn. 62 HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK. As the darkness set in the Americans withdrew within their lines. The British bivouacked on the field. Both parties claimed the victory. But it is easily seen that the advantage was decidedly with the Americans. It was the intention of the British not to hold their ground, but to advance. This intention to advance was completely frustrated by this battle. It was the desire of tlie Americans not to advance, but to Iiold their ground. They held it tlien, and have held it ever since. The victory was ours. On the morning of the 20th the Americans expected another attack. Had it been made, Burgoyne would have doubtless achieved an easy victory. The left wing of the Americans under Arnold had expended all their ammuni- tion in the battle of the 19th. The terrible secret was, it seems, known only to Gen. Gates. A supply from Albany was at once sent for, which arrived the next day, and the anxiety of Gen. Gates was relieved. But the British army was too much .shattered by the action of the 19th to make another attempt so soon to turn the American intrenchments on Bemus Heights, and so Burgoyne determined simply to hold his position at " Free- man's farm," and await some future day before he made another advance. This was Burgoyne's fatal error. During his long delay of eighteen days, until the 7th of October, when he made his last abortive struggle, the American army was reinforced by thousands, and was then altogether too formidable a body of troops to be resisted by any force under Burgoyne's command. So Burgoyne remained on the field and threw up a line of intrenchments about three-fourths of a mile in length, extending from the river at what is now called Wilbur's Basin westerly to and surrounding the field of " Freeman's farm," and the small knolls near it, and the large one about three hundred yards to the northwest of it. These intrenchments of the British corresponded in shape and position to the American intrenchments ; the two armies thus lying not quite a mile apart and within easy cannon- shot of each other. But a dense forest, broken by two deep impassable ravines, lay stretched between them, hiding each from the other's view. Thus the two armies lay at bay, continually hara.ssing each other and both in con- tinual alarm, for a period of eighteen days, until the morn- ing of the 7th of October. The situation of the army of Burgoyne each day grew more critical. On the 3d of October it was placed on short rations. Around them on every hand stretched the interminable forests of the old wilderness, broken here and there by little settlements and small scattered clearings. They could go neither to the right hand nor the left. To retreat was quite impossible. To advance was to meet a formidable army, whose pulse they had already felt to their sorrow in the action of the 19th of September. But to advance was the only alterna- tive. The order of Burgoyne was still imperative, " This army must not retreat." IV.— THE BATTLE OF THE 7TH OF OCTOBER, 1777. Gen. Burgoyne, with the centre division of his army, consisting mainly of the regiments engaged in the action of the 19th of September, was encamped on the plain about half-way between '• Freeman's farm" and Wilbur's Basin, on the river. The right wing, under Gen. Frascr, consist- ing of grenadiers under Major Ackland and light infantry in command of Earl Balcarras, was encamped on " Free- man's farm." Breymann's corps, also of Fraser's com- mand, was located on the elevation about three hundred yards north of " Freeman's cottage." The left wing, under Phillips and Riedesel, was encamped on the river at Wilbur's Basin, to protect the hospital located there and to guard the bateaux of provisions on the river. The Americans had not changed the order of their en- campment since the last battle. A disagreement, how- ever, had sprung up between Gates, Wilkinson, and Arnold, and Arnold was suspended from his command for the time being. On the evening of the 5th of October, Gen. Burgoyne had called a council of war. His army had rations only for sixteen days longer. He had heard nothing from Gen. Clinton, whom he expected to meet at Albany. As the British officers sat around the council-board, the gloom of the occasion was heightened by the frequent firing of the American pickets harassing the British lines, and by the dismal howling of the large packs of wolves that had come out of the wilderness to feast on the flesh of the dead. Riedesel and Fraser advised an immediate falling back to the old position on the east side of the Hudson, above the Battenkill. Phillips declined giving an opinion. Burgoyne thus had the casting vote, and he reserved his decision, he said, " until he could make a reconnaissance in force, to gather forage and ascertain definitely the position of the enemy, and whether it would be advisable to attack him." Should an attack be proper he would then advance the next day with his whole army ; but if not he would retreat to the Battenhill. On the 7th of October, 1777, the morning dawned cheery and bright in the old wilderness of the upper Hudson, but the autumn was swiftly advancing, and already the forests had put on their golden and crimson glories. At ten o'clock on this bright morning Burgoyne left his camp on his "re- connaissance in force." He took with him fifteen hundred men, eight cannon, and two howitzers. He was accom- panied by Gens. Phillips, Reidesel, and Fraser. Burgoyne marched his troops in a southwesterly direction about half a mile from " Freeman's farm," and deployed in line on the slope of the rise of ground just north of the middle ravine. The highway now running northerly from the " Neilson house" crosses the centre of this possession. After the British troops formed in line of battle they sat down, and Burgoyne's foragers began to cut a field of grain in their rear. Burgoyne then sent forward towards the American camp on the heights Capt. Fraser's rangers, with a body of Canadian Indians. This scouting-party under Capt. Fraser reached the front of the American intrench- ments near the Neilson house, and after a smart engagement of a quarter of an hour retired from the field. This was the only fighting done near the American lines at Bemus Heights in either action. In Burgoyne's line of battle the grenadiers under Maj. Ackland occupied the left, nearest the '• Freeman farm," the artillery under Maj. Williams the centre, and the extreme right was covered by Lord Balcarras' light infantry under «W POSITION or tl,f AFMYundri ms ESfELLmaRNFJiJL }m(mNE\ ai llH/EMVa HHIGHTS ^fK:j>y^ OH Hudson's HivcR , HiAB Stillwatcr ' "^h^i on.the:;o'''Sep>wUht!u-FosUwn ^(^ ^ of theJktaduncni ii'ui Ike Action of "^ ,^^ \t}u-:'^ofOcl.gc Ou,rosiiwn of iJieAraiy fe*** *'^:J '^ham.lvVarilkinson.MSMAstiirf HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK. 63 Fraser. The Americans soon discovered the movement of the BritiHh, and again, as on the 19th of September, marelied out to meet them. At half-past two o'clock in the afternoon the New York and the New Ilarapshirc troops, under Gen. Poor, marched across the middle ravine and up the slope towards tlie British grenadiers under Ack- land. The 15ritish artillery and grenadiers opened fire upon them ; the Americans rushed forward with great fury, and were soon at a liand-to-hand conflict with the British grenadiers. Thus the Vjattle la.stod for thirty minutes, when, Maj. Ackland being badly wounded, the grenadiers broke and fled, leaving their dead upon the ground as thick as sheaves upon the harvest field. In the mean time Morgan had fallen upon and driven in the British extreme right, and Fraser fell back in tiic rear, and soon came to the as- sistance of the retreating grenadiers. Under Fraser the attack of the Americans wan repelled, and the British again advanced with a loud cheer. " It was at this moment," says De Fonblanque, " that Arnold appeared on the field. He had remained in the camp after beirjg deprived of his com- mand and stripped of all authority ; and when the Ameri- cans prepared for battle he asked permission to serve as a volunt<'er in the ranks. Gates refused his rc((uest, and now his restless spirit chafed as he saw others advancing upon the enemy at the head of those troops which he had formed and led. Eagerly gazing to the front, he listened to the din of battle until, unable to curb his instincts longer, he sprang upon his charger and rushed into the field. In vain did Gates dispatch messengers to recall him. The ad- jutant-general, who attenijited in person to check his pro- gress, was warned ;t.sidc by a decisive wave of his sword, and, calling upon the soldiers, by whom he was known and trusted, to follow him, he tlien himself fell upon the ad- vancing line of British with the reckless fury of a man maddened with thirst for blood and carnage. Gen. Eraser's quick eye saw the danger. Conspicuous wherever tlie fight was thickest, his commanding figure had already become the mark of the American riflemen, and, as he rode forward to sustain the staggering column, Col. Morgan, their com- mander, called one of his best marksmen, and, jioititing to the English general, said, ' That is a gallant oflBccr, but he must die. Take post in that clump of bushes and do your duty.' The order was but too well obeyed. Fraser fell mortally wounded." Meanwhile the American forces were pouring in ever increa.sing ma-sses upon tlie British line, and the contest became a liand-tohand struggle ; bayonets were crossed again and again ; guns were taken and retaken ; but our men were falling fast under the withering fire of the rifle- men, atid there were no reserves to fill the big gaps in their ranks. A desperate struggle ensued in the attempt to recover one of our guns, — finally it was turned against us. Again Arnold, at the liead of a fresh column of troops, charged upon the centre, carrying all before him. Thrown into inextricable di-sorder, Burgoyne's column regained their camp, leaving ten guns and hundreds of their dead and wounded on the field. But the warlike rage of Arnold was not yet appeased, and before the English had completely regained their lines he Was again upon them. Repelled in the centre by a desperate fire of grape-shot, he flung himself upon the German re.«erves on the right with irresistible fury, and crashing through their intrenchments, although himself severely wounded, gained an opening upon the rear of the British camp. Col. Breyniann gallantly resisted the charge, but fell, shot through the heart ; when the Germans, who had hitherto borne themselves well, broke and fled, or surrendered. The abrupt darkness of an American autumn evening now fell upon the blood-stained field, and mercifully inter- posed its shadows between the combatants. There was nothing now left for Burgoyne but to retreat. During the night of the 7th he changed his position, and huddled his whole army down on the bank of the river, at and above Wilbur's Ba.sin. The Americans also advanced, and posted a large force on the plain below the British camp to watch their motions. Burgoyne remained at Wil- bur's Basin all day of the 8th, and at sunset buried Gen. Fraser in the great redoubt on one of the river hills, and at nine o'clock on the evening of the 8th took his line of march up the river to the heights of Saratoga, where, on the 17th of October, he surrendered his whole army pris- oners of war to the victorious Gates. v.— EPISODES AND ROMANCE OF THE BATTLE-FIELD. Now that a century has passed since these battles were fought, and all feelings of resentment are buried with the buried dead, the prominent persons who took part in them begin to appear to us not unlike the figures of some grand historical drama as they flit across the stage. But the strong men who figured on either side were not the only interesting persons who took part in the campaign, and braved its hardships and dangers. Among the women of Burgoyne'.s eonipaign were two, alike 'conspicuous for their noble birth, their beauty, and modest worth. AVe refer to the Baroness lliedosel, wife of Gen. Iliede.sel, and the lady Harriet Ackland, wife, of Maj. Ackland, com- mander of the British grenadiers. The Baroness Riedesel upon her return pul)lished an account of life in America, and her account of the incidents of the battles near Bemus Heights is so interesting that we cannot refrain from copying a part of it for the reader. " But severe trials awaited us, and on the 7th of October our misfortunes began. I was at breakfast with my hu.sband, and heard that something was intended. On the same day I expected Gens. Burgoyne, Phillips, and Fraser to dine with me. I saw a great movemcnit among the troops, and inquired the cause. My husband told me it was merely a reconnaissance, which gave me no concern, as it often happened. I walked out of the house and met several Indians in their war-dre.sses, with guns in their hands. When I asked them where they were going, they cried out 'War! War!' (meaning they were going to battle). This filled me with apprehension, and I scarcely got home before I heard reports of cannon and musketry, which grew louder by degrees till at la.st the noise became exce.s'iive. About four o'clock in the afternoon, instead of the guests whom I had expected. Gen. Fraser was brought on a litter mortally wounded. The table, which was already set, was instantly removed and a bed placed in its stead for 64 HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK. the wounded general. I sat trembling in a corner ; the noise grew louder and the alarm increased ; the thought that my husband might perhaps be brought in wounded in the same way was terrible to me, and distressed me exceed- ingly. Gen. Fraser said to the surgeon, ' Tell me if my wound is mortal ; do not flatter me.' The ball had passed through his body, and unhappily for the general, he had eaten a very hearty breakfast by which the stomach was distended, and the ball, as the surgeon said, had passed through it. I heard him often exclaim with a sigh, ' Oh, fatal ambition ! Poor Gen. Burgoyne. Oh, my wife !' He was asked if ho had any request to make ; to which he replied that, if Gen. Burgoyne would permit it, he should like to be buried at six o'clock in the evening on the top of a hill on a redoubt which iiad been built there. I did not know which way to turn, all the other rooms were full of the sick. Toward evening I saw my husband coming; then I forgot all my sorrows, and thanked God that he was spared to me. He ate in great haste with me and his aid- de-camp behind the house. I had been told that they had the advantage of the enemy, but the sorrowful faces I beheld told a different tale, and before my husband went away he took me one side and said everything was going bad ; that I must keep myself in readiness to leave the place, but not to mention it to any one. I made the pre- tense that I would move the next morning into my new house, and had everything packed up ready. Lady Harriet Ackland had a tent not far from my house; in this I slept, and the rest of the day 1 was in camp. " All of a sudden a man came to tell her that her husband was mortally wounded and taken prisoner. On hearing this she became very miserable. I comforted her by telling her that the wound was only slight, and at the same time advi.sed her to go over to her husband, to do which I cer- tainly could obtain permission, and then she could attend to him herself She was a charming woman, and very fond of him. I spent much of the nigiit in comforting her, and then went again to her children, whom I had put to bed. I could not go to sleep as I had Gen. Fraser and all the other wounded gentlemen in my room, and I was sadly afraid ray children would awake, and by their crying dis- turb the dying man in his last moments, who often addressed me, and apologized for the trouble he gave me. About three o'clock in the morning I was told he could not hold out much longer ; I had desired to be informed of the near approach of this sad crisis, and I wrapped up my children in their clothes and went with them into the room below. About eight o'clock in the morning he died. After he was laid out, and his corpse wrapped up in a sheet, I came again into the room, and had this sorrowful sight before me the whole day, and, to add to this melancholy scene, almost every moment some officer of my acquaintance was brought in wounded. The cannonade commenced again ; a retreat was spoken of, but not the smallest motion was made towards it. About four o'clock in the afternoon I saw the house which had just been built for me in flames, and the enemy was not fur oft'. They knew that Gen. Burgoyne would not refuse the last request of Gen. Fraser, though by his acceding an unnecessary delay was occasioned, by which the inconvenience of the army was much increa.sed. At about six o'clock the corpse was brought out, and I saw all the generals attend it to the hill; the chaplain, Mr. Brude- nell, performed the funeral services, rendered unusually solemn and awful from its being accompanied by constant peals from the American artillery. Many cannon-balls flew close by me, where my husband was standing amid the fire of the Americans, and, of course, I could not think of my own danger. Gen. Gates afterward.s said that if he had known it had been a funeral he would not have permitted it to be fired on." Of equal interest was the experience of Lady Harriet Ackland, who was a niece of the first Lord Holland. In his statement Gen. Burgoyne, in his graceful style, says this of the Lady Harriet : " From the date of that action [the 19th September] to the 7th of October, Lady Harriet, with her usual serenity, stood prepared for new trials ; and it was her lot that their severity increa.sed with their numbei's. She was again ex- posed to the hearing of the whole action, and at last received the shock of her individual misfortune, mixed with the intelligence of the general calamity ; the troops were defeated and Major Ackland, desperately wounded, was a prisoner. " The day of the Sth was passed by Lady Harriet and her companions in common anxiety ; not a tent nor a shed being standing, except what belonged to the hospital, their refuge was among the wounded and the dying. " When the army was upon the point of moving, I received a message from Lady Harriet, submitting to my decision a proposal (and expressing an earnest solicitude to execute it, if not interfering with my designs) of passing to the camp of the enemy, and requesting Gen. Gates' permission to attend her husband. '■ The assistance I was enabled to give was small indeed ; I had not even a cup of wine to offer her ; but I was told she had found, from some kind and fortunate hand, a little rum and dirty water. All I could furnish to her was an open boat and a few lines, written upon dirty and wet paper, to Gen. Gates, recommending her to his protection. " Mr. Brudenell, the chaplain to the artillery (the same gentleman who had oflRciated so signally at Gen. Fraser's funeral), readily undertook to accompany her, and with one female servant, and the major's valet-de-chambre (who had a ball, which he had received in the late action, then in his shoulder), she rowed down the river to meet the enemy. But her distresses were not yet to end. The night was advanced before the boat reached the enemy's outposts, and the sentinel would not let it pass, nor even come to shore. In vain Mr. Brudenell offered the flag of truce and represented the state of the extraordinary passenger. The guard, apprehensive of treachery, and punctilious to their orders, threatened to fire into the boat if it stirred before daylight. Her anxiety and suffering was thus pro- tracted through seven or eight dark and cold hours, and her reflections upon that first reception could not give her very encouraging ideas of the treatment she was afterwards to expect. But it is due at the clo.se of this adventure to say, that she was received and accommodated by Gen. Gates with all the humanity and respect that her rank, her merits, and her fortunes deserved. ku S C . I^r^j,, of .•^ ' //'■• c>(f ^^^ HISTORy OF SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK. 65 " Let sueli as are affected by these circumstances of alarm , hardship, and danj;er recollect, that the subject of them was a woman, of the most tender and delicate frame, of the gentlest manners, habituated to all the soft elegancies and refined enjoyments that attend hijj;h birth and fortune, and far advanced in a state in which the tender cares always due to the sex become indispensably necessary. Her mind alone was formed for such trials." Sueli ai'e a few of the interesting episodes of the Saratoga battle-fields, in the language of the very persons who par- ticipated in the stirring scenes of the campaign. VI.— THE RETREAT OF BURGOYNE TO SARATOGA. The reader will remember that Gen. Fraser was mortally wounded in the battle of the 7th of October, and carried from the field to the Smith house, near the British hospi- tal on the bank of the river, where he lingered in great agony until eight o'clock on the morning of the 8th, when he died. Before his death Gen. Fraser sent, with the " kindest expression of his affection fur Gen. Burgoyne, a request that he might be carried without parade by the soldiers of his corps at sunset to the great redoubt and buried there." This last dying rec[U3st of his favorite general Burgoyne would not refuse, so all through the desolate day of the 8th the British army waited for the burial, amid continual alarms, exposed to the fire of the Americans, and in momentary expectation that another general engagement would be brought on. At length the weary hours passed away, and in the dark- ening gloom of the autumnal evening, which was intensified by the lowering clouds of the coming tempest, the funeral cortege marched to the burial place. In his statement made afterwards, Burgoyne gives this eloquent delineation of the scene : " The incessant cannonade during the solemnity ; the steady attitude and unaltered voice with which the clergy- man ofliciated, though frequently covered with dust which tlie shot threw up on all sides of him ; the mute but ex- pressive mixture of sensibility and indignation upon every countenance ; these objects will remain to the last of life upon the mind of every man who was present. The grow- ing duskiness added to the scenery, and the whole marked a characteristic of that juncture that would make one of the finest subjects for the pencil of a master that the field ever exhibited. To the canvas, and to the page of a more important historian, gallant friend, I consign thy memory. There may thy talents, thy manly virtues, their progress and their period, find due distinction ; and long may they survive — long after the frail record of my pen shall be forgotten." The Americans, seeing a collection of people, without knowing the occasion, at first cannonaded the procession, and their shot covered it with dust, but as soon as tliey saw it was a funeral train they ceased throwing shot at it, and began firing minute-guns in honor of the distinguished dead. The soldier who shot Gen. Fraser was Timothy Murphy, a native of Virginia, and a member of Morgan's rifle corps. After the surrender of Burgoyne, tlie company to which Murphy belonged was sent to Schoharie and Cherry Valley, where Murphy became distiuguished in the 9 border warfare of the period. A romantic incident in his life at Schoharie was his marriage to the girl of his choice, who ran away from her father's house, and braved the dangers of the Indian war-trail, on foot and alone, in her journey from one fort to another to meet her lover. After the burial of Fraser, at nine o'clock in the evening, the retreat of the British army began, Maj.-Gen. Riedesel commanding the van-guard, and Maj.-Gen. Phillips the rear. The wounded and dying who fell in the previous battles were abandoned by the British and left in their hospitals, with a recommendation to the mercy and kind treatment of the Americans couched in touching language by Gen. Burgoyne. On the morning of the 9th the British army arrived at Dovegat, now Coveville, where the rear-guard was attacked by the Americans, but a. pouring rain pre- vented much damage from the encounter. On the evening of the 9th the British army reached the Fishkill, and, crossing the ford, took possession of the heights of Saratoga. They had been twenty-four hours in marching a distjince of eight miles in a pitiless rain-storm, and, scarcely able to stand from cold and exposure, bi- vouacked in the darkness on the sodden ground, without food and without camp-fires, till the morning of the 10th. The Fishkill was swollen by the abundant rains, and poured a turbid torrent down the declivity of the hills through its narrow channel. The artillery was not taken across the dangerous ford till daylight on the morning of the 10th. When the van-guard of the British reached Saratoga, Gen. Fellows was encamped on the west .side of the Hudson, with a small body of Americans, his main force being posted on the hills on the east side of the Hud- son, upon the site of old Fort Clinton of the colonial period. Upon the approach of Burgoyne, Gen. Fellows retired with his detachment to this strong position on the hills on the east side of the river, to cut off the retreat of the British in that direction. A strong detachment of American troops had also been sent by Gen. Gates to take possession of the roads and bridges above Saratoga, in the direction of Fort Edward, and the British army was already most effectually hemmed in and surrounded on every side by the victorious Americans. On account of the pouring rain and the almost impa.ssa- ble condition of the roads, Gen. Gates did not reach the south bank of the Fishkill, with the main body of his army, until four o'clock in the afternoon of the 10th. Upon his arrival there he encamped his army along the heights bordering Fish creek on the south, and supposing that Gen. Burgoyne would continue his retreat, ordered an advance across the creek at daybreak in the morning. On the morning of the lltlr, in pursuance of this order. Col. Morgan crossed the Fishkill, and, to his surprise, found the enemy's pickets in position, indicating that the main body was close at hand. Gen. Nixon, with his brigade, also crossed the Fishkill, and surprised the British pickets at Fort Hardy. Gen. Learned, at the head of two more brigades, crossed the creek and advanced to the support of Col. Morgan. During all this time a thick fog prevailed, through which nothing could be seen at the distance of twenty yards. Gen. Learned advanced, and had arrived within two hun- 66 HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK. died yavds of Buigoyne's strongest post, when the fog suddenly cleared up and revealed to the astonished Ameri- cans the whole British army in their camp under arms. The Americans beat a hasty retreat in considerable disorder across the Fishkill, under a heavy fire from the British artillery and small arms, and soon regained their camp on the heights along the south bank of the stream. The British army was now in a most critical position. The main body of the line under Gen. Burgoyne was en- camped on the heights north of the Fishkill. The Hessians under Riedesel were located on the ridge extending north- erly towards the Marshall House, and the artillery was on the elevated plain extending between the Hessians and the river flats. In this exposed position the British army was completely surrounded by the American forces. There was not a spot anywhere throughout the whole British encamp- ment which was not exposed to the fire of the American batteries posted on the hoiglits around. VII.— THE " CONVENTION" OF SARATOGA. On the 12th of October, Gen. Burgoyne called a council of war, whicli a.ssembled on the lieights of Saratoga. There were present Lieut.-Gen. Burgoyne, 51aj.-Gen. Phillips, Maj.-Gen. Riedesel, and Brig.-Gen. Hamilton. To this council Gen. Burgoyne stated the situation of afiiiirs to be as follows : '' The enemy in force, according to the best intelligence he can obtain, to the amount of upwards of fourteen thousand men and a considerable quantity of artillery, are on this side the Fishkill, and threaten an attack. On the other side of the Hudson's river, between this army and Fort Edward, is another army of the enemy, the number un- known, but one corps, which there has been an opportunity of observing, is reported to be fifteen hundred men. They have likewise cannon on the other side the Hudson's river, and they have a bridge below Saratoga church, by which the two armies can communicate. The bateaux of .the army have been destroyed and no means appear of making a bridge over the Hudson's river, were it even practicable, from the position of the enemy. The only means of retreat, therefore, are by the ford at Fort Edward, or taking the mountains in order to pass the river higher up by rafts or by any other ford, which is reported to be practicable with difficulty, or by keeping the mountains to pass the head of Hudson's river, and continue to the westward of Lake George all the way to Ticonderoga. It is true this last passage was never made but by the Indians or very small bodies of men. In order to pass cannon or any wheel carriages from hence to Fort Edward, some bridges must be repaired under fire of the enemy from the opposite side of the river, and the principal bridge will be a work of four- teen or fifteen hours; there is no good position for the army to take to sustain that work, and if there were, the time stated as neces.sary would give the enemy on the other side of the Hud.son's river an opportunity to take post on the strong ground above Fort Edward, or to dispute the ford while Gen. Gates' army followed in the rear. " The intelligence from the lower part of Hudson's river IS founded upon the concurrent reports of prisoners and de- serters, who say it was the news in the enemy's camp tliat Fort Montgomery was taken ; and one man, a friend to the government, who arrived yesterday, mentions some particu- lars of the manner in which it was taken. " The provisions of the army may hold out to the 20th ; there is neither rum nor spruce beer. " Having committed this state of facts to the consideration of the council, the general requests their sentiments on the following propositions : " First — To wait in the present position an attack from the enemy, or the chance of favorable events. " Second — To attack the enemy. "T/iiid — To retreat, repairing the bridges as the army moves ibr the artillery, in order to force the passage of the fort. " Fuiirih — To retreat by night, leaving the artillery and the baggage ; and should it be found impracticable to force the passage with musketry, to attempt the upper ford, or the passage round Lake George. " Fifth — In case the enemy, by extending to their left, leave their rear open, to march rapidly for Albany. " Upon the first proposition, resolved that the provision now in store is not more than sufficient for the retreat .should impediments intervene, or a circuit of the country become necessary ; and, as the enemy did not attack when the ground was unfortified, it is not probable they will do it now, as they have & better game to play. " The second unadvisable and desperate, there being no possibility of reconnoitering the enemy's position, and his great superiority of numbers known. " The third impracticable. " The fifth thought worthy of consideration by the lieu- tenant-general, Maj.-Gen. Phillips, and Brig.-Gen. Hamil- ton, but the position of the enemy yet gives no opening for it. " Jitsohed, That the fourth proposition is tlie only re- source ; and that, to effect it, the utmost secrecy and silence is to be observed ; and the troops are to be put in motion from the right, in the still part of the night, without any change in the situation." It was soon ascertained by Gen. Burgoyne, who sent out a scouting-party for the purpose, that owing to the strength of the American detachment along the Hudson above Sara- toga the last proposition was also utterly impracticable, and it was therefore likewise abandoned. On the 13th Gen. Burgoyne called another council of war. It was composed of general officers, field officers, and captains commanding corps. As this body of officers was deliberating on the heights at the headquarters of the com- mander, cannon-balls from the American guns crossed the table around which they sat. The following is copied from the minutes : " The lieutenant-general having explained the situation of affiiirs as in the preceding council, with the additional intelligence that the enemy was intrenched at the fords of Fort Edward, and likewise occupied the strong position on the pine plains between Fort George and Fort Edward, expressed his readiness to undertake, at their head, any enterprise of difficulty or hazard that should appear to them within the compass of their strength or spirit. He added HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK. 67 that he had reason to believe a capitulation had been in the conteiii]ilati<)n of some, perhaps of" all who knew the real situation of things ; that upon a circumstance of such con- sequence to national and personal honor, he thought it a duty to his country and to himself to extend his council beyond the usual limits, that the assembly present might justly be esteemed a full representation of the army, and that he should think himself unjustifiable in taking any step in so serious a matter without such a concurrence of sentiment as should make a treaty the act of the army as well as that of the general. "The first question, therefore, he desired them to decide was, whether an army of 35U0 fighting men and well pro- vided with artillery were justifiable upon the principles of national dignity and military honor in capitulating in any possible situation ? " Resolved, Neni. con., in the affirmative. "Question second. — Is the present situation of that nature ? ^'Resolved, Nera. con., that the present situation jus- tifies a capitulation upon honorable terms." Gen. Burgoyne then drew up a message to Gen. Gates, and laid it before the council. It was unanimously ap- proved, and upon that foundation the treaty opened. On the morning of the 14tli of October, Maj. Kingston delivered the message to Gen. Gates, at the American camp, which was in the words following : "■To Major-Gen. Gates: After having fought you twice, Lieut.-Gen. Burgoyne has waited some days, in his present position, determined to try a third conflict against any force you could bring to attack him. " He is apprised of the superiority of your ntirabers and the disposition of your troops to impede his supplies and render his retreat a scene of carnage on both .sidc^s. In this situation he is impelled by humanity, and thinks him- self justifiable by established principles and precedents of state and of war, to spare the lives of brave men upon hun- orable terms. Should Major-Gen. Gates be inclined to treat upon that idea. Gen. Burgcjyne would propose a ces- sation of arms during the time necessary to communicate the preliminary terms by which, in any extremity, he and his army mean to abide." In the afternoon of the 14th, Major Kingston returned to the British camp with the following propositions from Gen. Gates, which are given below, with the answer to each made by Gen. Burgoyne, and approved by his council of war. PROPOSITION. ANSWER. *' I. Gon. Burgojne's jirray Licut.-Gen. Btirgoyne's armj, being reduced by repeated dc- however reduced, will never ad- feat^, by desertion, sicknes.«, eic., mit thiit their retreat is cut otf their i>rovisions exhausted, their while they have anus iu their military horses, tent-i and b.ag- bands, gage taken or destroyed, h ir re- treat cut off, and their camp in- vested, they can only be allowed to surrender as prisoners of war. " I[. The officers and soldiers Noted. may keep the l^agg.^ge belonging to them. The generals oT the Ignited .States never permitted in- dividuals to be pillaged. Agreed. There being no officer in this army under, or capable of being under, the description of break- ing parole, this article needs no answer. All public stores may be deliv- ered, arms excepted. This article is inadmissible in any extremity. Sooner than this army will consent to ground their arms in their encampment, they will rush on the enemy deter- mined to take no quarter. (.Signed) J. BiiuuovsE. " III. The troops under his ex- cellency, Gen. Burgoyne, will be conducted by the most convenient route to New England, marching by easy marches, tmd sufficiently provided for by the way. "IV. The officers will be ad- mitted on parole and treated with the liberality customary in such cases, so long as they by proper behavior continue to deserve it; but those who are apprehended having broke their parole, as sonic British officers have done, must expect to be closely confined. " V. All i)uldic stores, artillery, arms, ammunition, carriages, liorses, etc., etc., must be deliv- ered to commissioners appointed to receive them. " VI. These terms being agreed to and signed, the troo]js under his excellency, Gen. Burgoyne's command, may be drawn up in their encampment, when they will be ordered to ground their arms, and may thereupon bo marclied to the river-side on their way to Bennington. " VII. A cessation of arms to continue till sunset to receive Gen. Burgoyne's answer. (Signed) " IIoitATio Gates. " Camp at Saratoga, Oct. 14." At sunset the same evening Maj. Kingston met the ad- jutant-general of the American army, Gen. Wilkinson, in the American camp, and delivered the foregoing answers to Gen. Gates' proposals, and also the following additional message from Gen. Burgoyne : " If Gen. Gates does not mean to recede from the sixth article the treaty ends at once. The army will to a man proceed to any act of desperation rather than submit to that article. The cessation of arms ends this evening." Gen. Gates was at first disposed to iiusist upon the ob- jectionable article, but after some further negotiation he substituted the following article : " The troops under Gen. Burgoyne to march out of their camp with the honors of war, and the artillery of the in- trenchments to the verge of the river, where their arms and their artillery must be left. The arms to be piled by word of command from their own officers." " A free passage to be granted to the army under Gen. Bur- goyne to Great Britain, upon condition of not serving again in North America during the present contest; and the port of Boston to be assigned for entry of transports to receive the troops whenever Gen. Howe shall order." On the 15tli the above amended proposals of Gen. Gates were presented to the British council of war, and being satisfactory, Gen. Buigoyne was authorized to sign a defini- tive treaty. During the night of the 15th a messenger from Gen. Clinton arrived in the Bl■i^i^h camp with the news that he had moved up the Hudson as far as Ksopus, taking Fort Montgomery from the Americans on the way. This infor- mation seemed to revive Burgoyne's hopes of .safety. He called together the officers of his council and requested them 68 HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK. to declare whether they were of opinion that in case of ex- tremity the soldiers were in a situation to fight, and whether they considered the public fiiith as already pledged to a sur- render, no convention being then signed. A great number of the officers answered that the soldiers, weakened by hun- ger and fatigue, were unable to fight, and all were decidedly of the opinion that the public f;ulh was engaged. But Burgoyne was of a contrary opinion, and hesitated to sign the treaty. Gen. Gates, on the morning of the 16th, hear- ing of Burgoyne's delay, and being aware of the cause, formed his army in the order of battle and sent word to the British general that the time having arrived he must either sign the articles or prepare himself for battle. Bur- goyne hesitated no longer, but signed the paper, which has ever since been known in history as the " convention" of Saratoga. " ARTICLES OP CONVENTION BETWEEN LIEDT.-GEN. BUR- GOYNE AND MAJOR-GEN. GATES. " I. The troops under Lieut-Gen. Burgoyne to march out of their camp with the honors of war, and the artillery of intrenchments to the verge of the river where the old fort stood, where the arms and artillery are to be left ; the arms to be piled by word of command from their own officers. " II. A free passage to be granted to the army under Lieut.-Gen. Burgoyne to Great Britain, on condition of not serving again in North America during the present contest ; and the port of Boston is assigned for the entiy of trans- ports to receive the troops whenever Gen. Howe shall so order. " III. Should any cartel take place by which the army under Gen. Burgoyne, or any part of it, may be exchanged, the foregoing articles to be void as far as such exchange should be made. " IV. The army under Lieut.-Gen. Burgoyne to march to Massachusetts Bay by the easiest, most expeditious, and convenient route, and be quartered in, near, or as conve- nient as possible to Boston, that the departure of the troops may not be delayed when the transports shall arrive to receive them. " V. The troops to be .supplied on their march, and during their being in quarters, with provisions by Gen. Gates' orders, at the same rate of rations as the troops of his own army : and, if possible, the officers' horses and cattle are to be supplied with forage at the usual rates. " VI. All officers to retain their carriages, battle-horses, and other cattle, and no baggage to be molested or searched, Lieut.-Gen. Burgoyne giving his honor that there are no public stores secreted therein. Maj.-Gen. Gates will of course take the necessary measures for the due performance of this article. Should any carriages be wanted during the transpoi'tation of officers' baggages, they are, if possible, to be supplied. "VII. Upon the march, and during the time the army shall remain in quarters in Massachu.setts Bay, the officers are not, as far as circumstances will admit, to be separated from their men. The officers are to be quartered according to rank, and are not to be hindered from assembling their men for roll call and the necessary purposes of regularity. " VIII. All corps whatever of Gen. Burgoyne's army, whether composed of sailors, bateaux men, artificers, drivers, independent companies, and followers of the army, of whatever country, shall be included in every respect as British subjects. " IX. All Canadians and persons belonging to the Cana- dian establishment, consisting of sailors, bateaux men, artificers, drivers, independent companies, and many other followers of the army who come under the head of no par- ticular description, are to be permitted to return there; they are to be conducted immediately by the shortest route to the first British post on Lake George, are to be sup- plied with provisions in the same manner as other troops, are to be bound by the same conditions of not serving dur- ing the present contest in North America. " X. Passports to be immediately granted for three officers, not exceeding the rank of captain, who shall be appointed by Lieut.-Gen. Burgoyne, to carry dispatches to Sir William Howe, Sir Guy Carleton,and to Great Britain, by way of New York, and Maj.-Gen. Gates engages the public faith that these dispatches shall not be opened. These officers are to set out immediately after receiving their dispatches, and to travel the shortest route, and in the most expeditious manner. " XL During the stay of the troops in Massachusetts Bay, the officers are to be admitted on parole, and are to be allowed to wear their side-arms. " XII. Should the army under Lieut.-Gen. Burgoyne find it necessary to send for their clothing and other bag- gage to Canada, they are to be permitted to do so in the most convenient manner, and the necessary pa.s.sports granted for that purpose. " XIII. These articles are to be mutually signed and exchanged to-morrow morning at nine o'clock, and the troops under Lieut.-Gen. Burgoyne are to march out of their intrenchments at three o'clock in the afternoon. (Signed) "Horatio Gates, Mij.- Gen. (Signed) "J. Burgoyne, Lieut.-Gen. "S.\ii.iTOGA, Oct. 16, 1777." VIII.— SURRENDER OF BURGOYNE AND HIS ARMY ON THE 17TI1 OF OCTOBER, 1777. The morning of the 17th of October, 1777, dawned in the old wilderness of the upper Hudson amid full but fading forest splendors. To the British soldiers at Saratoga, lying on their beds of already fallen leaves, the emblems of their withered bop§s, it was the. saddest morning of the j'ear. To the Americans it was full of the brightness of their country's opening glory, typified by the crimson and purple tints which were still blazing over all the forest tops. At nine o'clock Gen. Wilkinson rode over to the British camp and accompanied Gen. Burgoyne to the green in front of old Fort Hardy, where his army was to lay down their arms. From thence they rode to the margin of the river, which Burgoyne surveyed with attention, and asked whether it was fordable. "Certainly, sir," said Wilkinson, "but do you observe the people on the opposite .shore?" "Yes," replied Burgoyne, " I have seen them too long." " Bur- goyne then proposed, " continues Gen. Wilkinson, " to be introduced to Gen. Gates, and we crossed the Fishkill and proceeded to headquarters, Gen. Burgoyne in front with his adjutant-general, Kingston, and his aides-de-camp, Capt. HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK. 69 Lord Petersham and Lieut. Wilfoid, behind him. Then followed Mil). -Gen. Pliillip.s, the Baron Riedesel, and the other preneral officers and their suites according to rank. Gen. Gates, advised of Burgoyne's approach, met him at the head of his camp, — Burgoyne in a rich royal uniform, and Gates in a plain blue frock. When they had ap- proached nearly within sword's length they reined up and halted. I then," continues Wilkinson, " named the gentle- men, and Gen. Burgoyne, raising his hat most gracefully, said, ' The fortune of war, Gen. Gates, has made me your prisoner;' to which the conqueror, returning a courtly salute, promptly replied, ' I shall always be ready to bear testimony that it has not been through any fault of your excellency.' Maj.-Gen. Phillips then advanced, and he and Gen. Gates saluted and shook hands with the familiarity of old acquaintances. The Baron Riedesel and the other officers were introduced in their turn." The general officers then proceeded to the marquee of Gen. Gates, where dinner was served. The dinner consisted of only three or four simple dishes of the plain fare common in those days, and was laid upon a table of rough boards stretched across some empty barrels. The marquee of Gen. Gates was situated near the road leading to xVlbany, about three-fourths of a mile south of the Fishkill. While the officers were at dinner the whole American army were marched out of their camp, with drums beating, and sta- tioned along this road for miles, to view the passage of the now disarmed British troops on their way to Boston. Before this conquering army on the field of old Saratoga our country's flag, the stars and stripes, ?c(/.s Jirst Jlung to the breeze. The glorious old flag has never waved over a prouder scene than that. While the American army was forming its victorious lines along the Albany road, another and a different scene was about to be enacted on tlie green at the verge of the river-side near the ruins of old Fort Hardy. After dinner was over in the marquee of Gen. Gates, the two commanding generals walked out of it together. " The American commander faced front," says Gen. Wilkinson, " and Burgoyne did the same, standing on his left. Not a word was spoken, and for .some minutes they stood silently gazing on the scene before them, — the one no doubt in all the pride of honest success, the other the victim of regret and sensibility. Burgoyne was a large and stoutly-formed man ; his countenance was rough and har.sli, but he had a hand.some figure and a noble air. Gates was a smaller man, with much less of manner and none of the air which dis- tinguished Burgoyne. Presently, as by a previous under- standing. Gen. Burgoyne stepped back, drew his sword, and, in the face of the two armies, as it were, presented it to Gen. Gates, who received it and instantly returned it in the most courteous manner." By this time three o'clock in the afternoon had come, and what was left of the British army was marched to the green on the verge of the river, where, out of view of the American lines, at the command of their own officers, they piled tlieir arms. " Many a voice," says De Fonblanque, " that had rung in tones of authority and encouragement above the din of battle now faltered ; many an eye that had unflinchingly met the hostile ranks now filled with tears. Young soldiers who had borne privation and suffering with- out a murmur stood abashed and overcome with sorrow and shame ; bearded veterans for whom danger and death had no terrors sobbed like children as for the last time they gra.sped the weapons they had borne with honor on many a battle-field." But this was but a remnant of the once proud army which so full of hope in the early summer had crossed the Canadian frontier. In killed and wounded they had lost eleven hundred and sixty, of whom seventy-three were offi- cers. The numbers who now laid down their arms did not exceed three thousand five hundred officers and men, of whom sixteen hundred were Germans. In this procession of conquered men the poor Hessians cut a sorry figure. They were extremely dirty in their persons, their ponderous caps being heavier than the whole accoutrement of a British soldier. They had with them a lars;e number of women, who to the Americans appeared oddly dressed and gypsy featured. They had with them a large collection of wild animals which they had caught on their way through the wilderness. Young foxes peered slyly out from the top of a baggage-wagon, and young rac- coons from the arms of riflemen. A grenadier was here seen leading a lightly-tripping deer, and a stout artilleryman playing with a black bear. After the army of Burgoyne had piled their arms, they were again formed into line, the light infantry in front, and escorted by a company of American light dragoons, headed by two mounted officers bearing the .stars and stripes, they marched across the Fi.shkill, and through the long lines of American soldiers posted along the road to Albany, the band playing " Yankee Doodle." The lonrA]L (ttoc"'"'*! * UP « 'i 7 1 .y I e\it tcorriMiOT'ter^ T"' I Wrrn TV !■■ ^■|7^F'^'"»S »^'« SnCfft fieri.. ■ i^Si raf'r^ 'invi HfU/h Q^'/oy 7 ■5? millwaterfalLi iv^^<-^. VifliK/fS hliiirinii Mills ifmi u lit 'i-toi 7 cs ,Sit\v Mll.i' Clnirrlics ,^ ^ oclijeiiei'tfiili/ ~^" i « > .Scale til'Jmies I, I z ■> 4 ^ M Ki/s>-fki:a 1 HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK. 73 his breakfiist, with his rifle by his side. He seized it, but not haviiij; takeu the precaution to undo the deer-skin cover that protected the lock, was unable to discharge it. They seized liiin and tied him seeurely. He a.skod leave to smoke, and was partially unbound to afford him the oppor- tunity. He went to the fireplace to light his pipe, and took soniothing out of his tobacco-box and threw it into the fire. Corey noticed this and immediately snatched it out with a handful of coals. It was a small leaden box about the eighth of an inch in thickness, and contained a paper in cipher, which afterwards proved to be a dispatch to the British commander in New York, and also contained an order on the mayor of New York for £30 .sterliiijr, in case the dispatch should be safely delivered. Bettys begged for leave to burn the papers, and offered one hundred guineas for the privilege, but his captors refused. He then despairingly said, " I am a dead man." He was taken to Albany, tried by a court-martial, and convicted and hung as a spy, to the great relief of the Whigs in this section of the State. CHAPTER XVIII. EARLY LAN D-GKANTS— 1684-1713. I.— LANDED INTERESTS. The readers of this history, if haply any there shall be, are doubtless by this time weary of the long, long story of the old wilderness warfare that so often empurpled the soil of Saratoga County with the blood of the slain, and will turn with a ■sense of relief to the story of her social and in- dustrial progress, which will form the burden of the re- maining chapters. And if Old Saratoga has become a high historic name in consequence of the heroic deeds of her warfare, she has won scarcely less of world-wide fame by reason of her material development in her time of peace. Of her it may be truly said, in Milton's immortal language. " Peace hath her victories No less renowned than war." Sonnet xvi. In the following pages the principal early land-grants of Saratoga County will be briefly described, and in most cases will be given a copy of the warrant issued to the patentees containing the original description of the patent. These papers have been transcribed from the original land papers on file in the office of the Secretary of State at Albany ex- pressly for this work. II.— THE SARATOGA PATENT. In the earlier years of the colonial period the old Indian hunting-grounds lying within the boundaries of the county of Saratoga were pure' ased one after another from their aboriginal owners, and thereafter became known in history as land-grants or patents. The most famous of these old patents still retain their old Indian names, — the patents of Saratoga and Kay-ad-ros-se-ra. The patent of Old Saratoga, which grew out of the old hunting-ground of the river hills from which the county 10 and the springs derive their name, was among the earliest purclia.ses made of the Indians in Saratoga County. It was purchased of the Mohawks as early as the year 168-t, but the Indian deed was not confirmed by the colonial govern- ment and the warrant for the patent issued till the year 170S, as will appear by the following copy thereof. The Saratoga patent is shown on the map facing this chapter. " WAURANT FOR SARATOGA PATENT. " Bi/ hiti ExcclUtU'ij, Edward^ Vinatunt Citnibiiri/, Cttptain-Genentl aud (rovenior-hi-Chie/ of the Prrtvincea ti/ New York and New Jersei/y and tei'i'itories depending on them in Aniei-ictty and Vice-Admiral of the same, etc., in council this 2oth d-iy of October, 1708. " To Mojor llicldctj, Esq., Attornei/-Gcneral of the Province of New York : " You arc hereby required and directed to prepare a draft of a pateut of confirmation for Colonel Peter Schuyler, Robert Livings- ton, Esq., Dirck Wessels, Esq., Jan .Jan Bleecker, Esq., Johannes Schuyler, Esq., arul to Cornelius Van Dyck, the grandchild and heir- at-law of Cornelius Van Dyck, deceased, for a certain tract of land situate and being to the northward of the city of Albany, on both sides of the Hudson river, formerly granted unto some of them and others, under and from whom the rest do at present hold and enjoy by patent from Cohmel Tomas Dongan, sometime (iovernor-in-Chief of the province of New York, the limits and boundaries of which land are to bo ascertained in the manner, that is to say : Beginning at the south side of the mouth of a certain creek on the west side of Hud- son's river, commonly called by the Indians Tionoondehows, and by the Christians Anthony's Kill, which is the up[)crmost bounds of the land formerly purchased by Goosie Gerritson and Pliilip Peterson Schuyler, and from thence descending westerly into the woods by the said creek, on the south side thereof, as it runs six English miles; and if the said creek do not stretch so far into the wood, then from the end thereof east by a straight line until it shall be six miles dis- tant from Hudson's river, upon a measured straight line; and from thence northerly by a line parallel to the course of Hudson's river, until it come opposite to and bear east from the soulh side from another creek's mouth on the east side of Hudson's river, called Tionoondehows, which upon Hudson's river is computed to be dis- tant from the mouth of Tionoondehows aforesaid about twenty two English miles, be it more or less, and from the left termination by a straight line to be drawn east to the north side of the mouth of the said creek, Tionoondehows ; and from thence continued east six miles into the woods on the east side of Hudson's river, and from thence by a line southerly parallel to the course of the said Hudson's river, and six miles distant from the same, so far southerly until it come opposite to and bear east six miles distant from the north .'-ide of the mouth of Schardhook Kill, which is the boundary of Schard- hook patent, late belonging to Henry Van Rensselaer, to hold it thence, in manner following: that is to say, for so much thereof as by the former patents had been divided for arable land to Peter Schuyler, lot No. 1, and one half the lot No. 6, to and for the use of the said Peter Schuyler, and of his heirs and assigns forever, to Robert Livingston ; his lot, No. 5, and one half the lot No. 5, to and for the sole use to Dirck Wessels ; his lot. No. 3, to and for the solo use to Jan Jans Bleecker; his lot, No. 2, to and tor the solo use to Joh,innes ; his lot, No. 4, to and for the sole use also to Caroline Van Dyck, the grandchild and heir-at-law of the said Caroline Van Dyck, deceased; the lot No. 7 in trust, nevertheless, to and for the use or uses for which the farm is devised by the last will and testa- ment of his said gratidfather, deceased; failing which use or uses, to the use of hituself, and his heirs aud assigns forever, and for so much as reniaius undivided according to the heir's use of, positively, that is to say : to Peter Schuyler and Robert Livingston, to each of them three-fourteenth parts ; and to each of the others two fourteenth parts of the whole undivided land contained in the said patent, the farm being divided in fourteen equal parts, at and under the yearly quitrent of twenty bushels of winter wheat; and for your so doing this shall be your sufficient warrant. Corndirv." Dated as above.*" Land Paper, v. 4, p. 165. 74 HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK. irr.— THE KAY-AD-ROS-SERA PATENT. Bj far the largest iiiid most important land-grant made in colonial times, any part of wliicli lay within the bounds of Saratoga County, was the patent founded on the old Indian hunting-ground of Ka^-ad-ros-se-ra. This large tract includes the greater part of Saratoga County, and runs also on the north into Warren county, and on the west into Montgomery and Fulton. Kaf/-ad-rf>S'Se-ra^ '* the country of the lake of the crooked stream," as 'has already been seen in these pages, was the favorite hunting-ground of the Mohawk branch of the Iroquois or Five Nations of central New York. The Indian deed was obtained of the Molufwk chief in the year 1703, but the jiatent was not granted till tlie year 1708, and the Indians did not ratify the purchase till the year 1768. This patent was, therefore, disputed ground for more than sixty years. The first attempt made to obtain a grant of any part of Kay-ad-ros-se-ra was made in the j^ear 1698. On the 1st day of April, 1698, Robert Livingston, Jr., and David Schuy- ler petitioned for a part of Kuy-tid-ros-se-rd lying north of the Saratoga patent up as far as the Little Carrying-Place, and running as far back into the wood as the Indian prop- erty goes. Ill the year 1702, on the 26th of August, the Indians granted this tract to Livingston and Schuyler, de- scribed as aforesaid. This was the first Indian deed of any part of Kay-ad'Tos-se-ra . When the proprietors of the whole patent acfpiired their title, they obtained a release from Livingston and Schuyler of their interest. The first paper on file in the office of the Secretary of State, at Albany, in relation to the patent of Kny-ad-ros- se-ra, is the following petition : PETITIOM FOIt KAVADROSSKRA, *' Tohii Excellenr}/, Eilicard, Vinconiit Citnihury, Cnptain- General rind Govenior~iii~ Chief in and over the Province of Nriv Ynrk and Ter- ritoriea depeudlny thereon in AmericUj and Vice- Admiral of the ftarne, etc., in council. *' The hnmble pe^V/oJi of Sampson Shehnn Brontjhtim, Esq., Altonicij- Geiieral of the said Province, in Ijfjho/f of h ininelf and Conip. Most humbly sheircth : "That your petitioner being informed of a certain tract of vacant and unappropriated land in the County of Albany, called or known by the Indian name of Kayarossos, adjoining to the north bounds of Schenectady, on the east side thereof, to the west bounds of Saratoga, on the north side thereof, and to Albany river on the west side (hereof. *' Your said petitioner most humbly prays your Excellency that he may have a license to treat with the native Indinns, present posses- Bors and owners of the said tract of land, for the jiurchase thereof, and to purchase the same "And your petitioner humbly, as in duty bound, shall ever pray, etc.* *' Sa. Sh. Broughton." The prayer of this petitioner was not at first granted, and Sampson Shelton Broughton, the petitioner, dying, his widow, Mary Broughton, presented the following petition : MAItY BUOI'GHTON's PETITION. " To kis Excellency, Edward, Viscount Cornhnvy, Captain- G eneral and Oovernor-in- Ch iff in and over Her Majesty's Province of New York and Territories adjoiniiu/ thereon in America, and Vicc-Admiral of the same, etc., in council. " The humble petitinv of Mary lirovghion, widow and relict of Sampson Shelton Urouyhton, deceased, late Attorney-General of the said Province, in behalf of herself and company. Most humbly sheweth : ^ Land Papers, p. 122, v. 3. "That your Excellency's petitioner's late husband in bis lifetime obtained of your Excellency in council, for the benefit of himself and company, a license to purchase of the native Indian proprietors a certain traet of vacant and unappropriated land in the county of Al- bany, called or known by the Intlian name of Kayaderosses, adjoin- ing to the north bounds of Schenectady patent, together with the vacancies that lie between the Ael place down along the river about one mile more or less, on the east side thereof to the west hounds of Saratoga patent, on the north side thereof to Albany river, and on the west side thereof to the native Indians and proprietors thereof, for their improvement, the north bounds running along the said river of Albany thereof; said tract of land your said petitioner's late hus- band in his lifetime did purchase from the native Indians, proprietors, on the 6th of October, 170-i, in pursuance of your Excellency's license for that purpose, obtained on the 2d day of November, 1704, for the use and benefit of your said petitioner's late husband and company, lis by the said receipted license and Indian deed of purchase now ready to be produced to your Excellency, will more at large appear ; and whereas your said petitioner's late husband in his lifetime did petition your Excellency for a grant of the said land for himself and company, David Schuyler and Robert Livingston, Jr., then in this city, did oppose the granting thereof, and entered a caveat against the same; your Excellency upon a full hearing of the parties on both sides, on the 6th day of November, 1 704, being the day appointed for that purpose, was pleased to declare then in council that the pretence of the said David Schuyler and Robert Livingston were groundless and frivohms, chiefly since the purchase was they provided to have made of formed parts of the said tract of land was made {if made it was) without any license from your Excellency for thnt purpose, and ordered therefore, that your caveat then so entered should be dis- missed and also referred the said petitioner to further consideration. " Your Excellency's petitioner therefore most humbly pniys your Excellency will be pleased that the said reference which has been so long depending before your Excellency, may be determined : and your said petitioner's husband being unhappily dead since the said trans- action, to the inexpressible loss of your petitioner and family, your petitioner most humbly prays that her name may be inserted in the said grant in place of that of her said late husband, for the benefit of your said ])etiti(fner's family and company. '•'And your Excellency's said petitioner, as in duty bound, shall ever pray, etc.j" *' Mary Bkoughton." On the 17th of April, 1807, Samuel Broughton, son of Sampson Shelton Broughton, filed a petition in behalf of his mother praying that she might take her husband's interest in the grant. In the mean time Mary Broughton had gone back to England and taken the Indian deed of Kayadrossera with her among her husband's papers. In the year 1808, the other proprietors filed a petition setting forth the ftict of their not having possession of the Indian deed, and accounting for its absence as above stated. A long controversy ensued between the Broughtons and the other patentees, which was finally compromised by mak- ing Siimuel Broughton, the son of Sampson Shelton Brough- ton, one of the jxitentees. The following is the warrant for this patent, which was finally granted to thirteen owners in common. This war- rant contains a description of the patent by which all sur- veys were governed ; ^VARRANT FOR KAYADROSSERA. *• Dyhin Excellency. Edward, Vincount Cornbury, Captain-General and Governor-in- Chief of the Provinces of New York, New Jersey, and Territories dependimj thereon in America, and Vice-Admiral of the same, etc, in council, this 22d day of October, 1701. ^' To Major Bickley, Esq., Attorney-General of the Province of New York : "You are hereby required to prepare a draft of letters-patent for Naning Harmanse, Johannes Eeekman, Rip Van Dam, Ann Bridges, f Land Papers, p. 42. HISTORY OP SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK. To Major Bickley, Peter Fauconnier, Adrian Hoghland, Johannes Fisher, Jubn Tuder, Ixris Hoghland, John Stevens, and John Gatham, for all that traet of land situate, lying, and being in the county of Albany, called Kayadarossera, nllan Queen's Horough, beginning at a place on Schenectady river, about three miles distant from the southwesterly corner of the bounds of Nest igiou's, the said place being the southwest- erly corner of the patent lately granted to Naning Ha-manse, Peter Fauconnier, and others ; thence along the said Schenectady river west- erly to the southeastly corner of a patent lately granteil to William Ap- ple : thence along the easterly, northerly, and westerly lines of said William Apple's patent down to the above said river; thence to the Schenectady bounds, or the southeasterly corner of said patent on said river, so along the easterly, northerly, and westerly bounds thereof down to the sai(i river again; thence along the said river up westerly to the southeasterly bounds of a tract of laud lately granted to Eben- ezer Willson and John Aboot, and so along the said patent round to the southwesterly corner thereof on said SchenCL'tady river ; thence continuing to run westerly up along said Schenectady river to a place or hill calletl Iweelowando, being live miles distant, or thereabouts, from the said southwesterly corner of said Willson's and Aboot's patent; thence northerly to the northwestmost head of a creek called Kayaderossera, about fourteen miles, — more or less ; thence eight miles more northerly ; thence easterly or northeasterly to the third falls on Albany river, about twenty miles, — more or less ; thence along the said river down southerly to the northeasterly bounds of Saratoga ; thence along said Saratoga's northerly, westerly, and southerly bounds on said river; thence to the northeasterly corner of Anthony Van Sch.aiek's land,