Colonel John Brown, of Pittsfield, Ma.s.sachusetts, the Brave Accuser of Benedict Arnold.
by Archibald Murray Howe.
THE BRAVE ACCUSER OF BENEDICT ARNOLD.
John Brown, of Pittsfield, Ma.s.s., now almost forgotten, was a patriot in our Revolution of 1775 whose career has been described more than once by men in New York and in Berkshire County, but, as it is now time to give more impartial views of the controversy, perhaps another sketch of the life of this leader may encourage others to search for clearer views of the ways by which our ancestors established the inst.i.tutions which we hope are to endure.
Daniel Brown, the father of Colonel John Brown, came from Haverhill, Ma.s.s., to the western part of the Commonwealth in 1752, when his son John was eight years old. He seems to have been first in the beautiful town of Sandisfield to take part in its local government, both secular and ecclesiastical. "Deacon Brown" is called prosperous when this new town on the banks of the Farmington River, east of the hills of the Housatonic, bade fair to equal Pittsfield as a trading-place. "The Deacon" was a local magistrate under the king, when laymen served as judges. John, his youngest son, is described as tall and powerful, an athlete able to kick a football over the elm-tree on the college green at New Haven when he entered at twenty-three years of age, older in years than most college students of the year 1767.
It is believed that he prepared for college with some citizen of the neighborhood, and it is known that he married before graduating in 1771.
While at New Haven, he was fully informed of the peculiarities of Benedict Arnold, then a storekeeper, already disgraced in the eyes of respectable citizens because of his desertion from the British army and his reckless disregard for the rights of his creditors; for then the debtor was not allowed to retain his respectability, if he failed dishonestly. Furthermore, his self-a.s.sertion was recognized as too often a display of arrogance and vanity. Brown"s sister Elizabeth had married Oliver Arnold, attorney-general of Rhode Island, a cousin of Benedict, and it is reasonable to suppose that he was well informed of Arnold"s misdeeds, which thus became known to John Brown.
In 1771, when he was graduated from Yale, only twenty men were of his cla.s.s. Quite a large number of Yale graduates took part with the patriots, and Humphreys, one of the cla.s.s of 1771, was aide-de-camp to Washington. He, I believe, is the only writer in verse who extolled this John Brown. How often we are indebted to poets for our heroes! If this John Brown had incited an insurrection and been hanged for killing his fellow-men contrary to law in time of peace, "his soul might be marching on." If, when he rode from Ticonderoga on horse at a high rate of speed to Philadelphia, to inform the Continental Congress that his friend Ethan Allen had taken possession of the fortress with its guns and materials for war, some poet had described his ride, as Longfellow portrayed Paul Revere"s, the school children would still recall Brown of Pittsfield; but, my friends, "tis of little moment that we are soon forgotten, if it be certain that, while we live, we live with moral courage in the life of every day.
I do not intend to put much emphasis upon military glory. I am trying to show that Brown"s life by reason of its entire sincerity, although at times unsuccessful, was led, so far as we can know, by "_a man every inch a man_," holding fast to his ideals, fearless in the a.s.sertion of truth as he saw it, and directed by high principle; that, having all these n.o.ble attributes, his part in public affairs should now and then be rehea.r.s.ed to show the value of goodness even amid the horrors of war.
On December 10, 1772, a few months after graduation from Yale College, he was admitted to practise law in New York in the courts of Tryon County, a part of which is now Montgomery County, bearing the name of one of our n.o.blest American generals, who led the attack on Quebec in December, three years later, where Brown served under him as a major of a Berkshire County regiment. Some writers call Brown king"s attorney at Caughnawaga, whether rightly I know not, nor do I know why he came to the Mohawk Valley from Berkshire, for Pittsfield was a growing frontier town. Perhaps Sir William Johnson"s influence and his busy settlement offered some inducement to the young attorney, but it did not long have weight with him, for we find him in 1773 at Pittsfield, where another attorney of Loyalist tendencies had left town under coercion.
Before I attempt to describe the civil and military career of John Brown from 1773 to his thirty-sixth birthday, when he was killed at Stone Arabia, I wish to call your attention to the peculiarities of the political situation in Berkshire County and its vicinity. On the north the New Hampshire Grants (now Vermont) had recently been disputed territory where local partisans, Ethan Allen and others, used coercion to maintain the claims of settlers against New York men claiming t.i.tle. New York Colony on the west, though directed largely by men of high character like Philip Schuyler, was torn by bitter political differences, the Loyalist element being strong in social and political affairs. Then, although the Berkshire towns were active from the earliest days of 1774 in sharing with other towns the plans for resistance to royal authority, they were very jealous of any continuance of unnecessary power in the Provincial Congress.
Pittsfield by the quill of a cousin of Ethan Allen, the Rev. Thomas Allen, a.s.serted that the town would remain "in a state of nature" [see Note 1] (i.e., simple democracy without representative government) unless it obtained new privileges. If the right of nominating to office is not vested in the people, they said, "_we are indifferent who a.s.sumes it, whether any particular persons on this or the other side of the water_." They did not want any bosses, but no doubt would have voted for Governor Hughes. They were of the belief that the government of the respective committees (County and Town, Committees of Correspondence and Inspection) was lenient and efficacious, but they hoped for a new Const.i.tution "on such a broad basis of civil and religious liberty as no length of time will corrupt as long as the sun and moon shall endure." They wished to elect judges by votes of the people of the county, justices of the peace by the voters of the towns, and of course allow soldiers to elect their company officers.
Brown was chosen judge of the Common Pleas by the General Court of Ma.s.sachusetts for 1779, but never held court, probably because his fellow-citizens were not submissive to the existing authority of the General Court as exercised before the adoption of the new Const.i.tution of Ma.s.sachusetts. In such a state of affairs Berkshire took her part largely in her way when she sent men to fight the battles of the United Colonies. Her officers and men were often too independent to submit willingly to proper military authority, and in some trying emergencies the Berkshire men were insubordinate or were disposed to follow their leaders in attacks not always wisely chosen. It was Captain Asa Douglas, of Hanc.o.c.k, the man who had done much to promote the capture of Ticonderoga by skilful recruiting and by pledge of his estate, who in May, 1776, was Chairman of a convention of Berkshire towns which, deluded by false rumors and influenced by their own prejudices against the n.o.ble General Schuyler, sent to General Washington their doubts concerning his loyalty, although expressing their hope that his name might be handed down to posterity as one of the great pillars of the American Cause. Their hope is grandly fulfilled, but the Berkshire men have left us with some doubt as to their skill in judging of current events. However, on the twenty-sixth day of May, 1776, Mark Hopkins, as Secretary of this Convention, wrote to Washington to tell him their fears concerning Philip Schuyler were groundless.
John Brown was twenty-nine years of age when he began his active citizenship at Pittsfield. He had lived in Berkshire more than one-half his life. His experience on a farm, at college, near the sea, and for a short time in the Mohawk country among the Indians and white men of varying views about the king, made him worthy the confidence of Berkshire men; and he always had their support and their respect. What his literary attainments were we cannot tell. A few letters to General Lincoln and letters relating to military affairs which appear in the archives give little opportunity for judging of his literary and professional skill. The inventory of his estate, giving in detail the names of law books, a surveyor"s guide, a theological treatise, and a Bible, with farm implements and military clothing, show something of the life of his time, when a man was farmer, surveyor, lawyer, and soldier altogether, and, if as active as John Brown, not much more able to write well-considered essays and books than if he had never seen Yale College. Alas! his fate in that regard is not unlike many graduates of our present time, who, having fine natures, strong traits of character, and ability enough to express themselves, are driven by commercial or other present activities to and fro from typewriter to telephone, often to die without using their minds calmly and without imparting to others much that they might have given to help the world, had they been able to have peace in the midst of their busy lives.
Pittsfield frequently employed Brown. In January, 1774, he was chosen to instruct the representative to the General Court in reference to the destruction of the tea at Boston. He was quite discriminating.
While he opposed the useless waste of property by disguised men, he strongly denounced the British tyrannies. Within six months he was one of the Committee of Correspondence and a delegate to the County Congress at Stockbridge. In the fall of 1774 he acted as arbitrator with others to settle disputes following the common law and the Province laws when they did not interfere with the democracy of Berkshire.
He was chosen Ensign of the Company of Minute Men, and finally delegate to the First Provincial Congress. This Congress appointed him to a very important Committee on Correspondence with Canada, and that winter the committee sent him to Canada with full power to get information, confer with Canadians, whether English or French, and report back the condition of affairs and whether they would act with the Colonies. This mission was peaceful in its aim. He conferred with men from Montreal and Quebec, a.s.suring all whom he met that the Colonies desired peace with Great Britain, but, if war came, they would surely respect the rights of all men to worship G.o.d in their own way and would maintain a democratic form of government.
Mr. Brown showed himself to be diplomatic and faithful. He endured much personal hardship and risk during the winter, and his report was most valuable. The part of it best known is under date of March 29, 1775, wherein he recommended that, if war came, Ticonderoga should be taken. "The people in the New Hampshire Grants," he wrote, "have engaged to do the job." Recently it has been stated that in February, 1775, he was at Chesterfield, Ma.s.s., and that about that time he led a party of Berkshire and Hampshire men to Deerfield and arrested a Tory or some Tories who were suspected of being in direct communication with General Gage at Boston. April 27, 1775, there appeared in the Hartford _Courant_ a notice signed "John Brown" by order of the Committee of Inspection in the towns of Pittsfield, Richmond, and Lenox, in the following words: "Whereas Major Israel Stoddard and Woodbridge Little Esq., both of Pittsfield in the County of Berkshire, have fled from their respective homes and are justly esteemed the common pests of society and incurable enemies of their country and are supposed to be somewhere in New York Government moving sedition and rebellion against their country, it is hereby recommended to all friends of American liberty and to all who do not delight in the innocent blood of their countrymen, to exert themselves that they may be taken into custody and committed to some of his Majesty"s jails till the civil war which has broken out in this Province shall be ended." Surely, Brown was an active partisan, though not at Lexington in April, 1775. In May he was at Ticonderoga with Ethan Allen, not holding any military rank. Allen commended him to the government as fit for military command.
The oft-told tale of how Ethan Allen took the fortress, proclaiming its capture in the name of "Almighty G.o.d and the Continental Congress," need not be rehea.r.s.ed here. Allen took possession of Ticonderoga, its garrison, and its valuable military property with the aid of Connecticut and Berkshire men, and at his request Brown rode his horse rapidly to Philadelphia to announce to the Continental Congress the capture which was attained without their authority or aid. At this point Benedict Arnold must be referred to. In April, 1775, he had broken open an a.r.s.enal at New Haven, and with his militia company hurried to Cambridge. As he rode one day from New Haven towards Cambridge, he met Captain Parsons, who was going to Hartford to plan with some Connecticut leaders for the capture of Ticonderoga.
Hearing Parsons"s plan, Arnold pushed on to Watertown and got a commission from the Ma.s.sachusetts government as colonel as well as an order for power to recruit men, for horses and ammunition. Meeting Ethan Allen on his way to Ticonderoga, Arnold produced his Ma.s.sachusetts authority, but not his men, on the same day that Allen was fully prepared for his work. Arnold began his interference with the concerted plan, hoping for a separate command and the glory of victory. He promised payments of money to Berkshire men from the southern towns, which he failed to pay from funds given him for that purpose. This was the beginning of an angry and long-continued dispute between Easton, Brown"s colonel, and Brown, on the one hand, and Arnold, on the other. Unhappily for Easton and Brown, as for all men who possess the truth about the characters of men who are undoubtedly able to fight battles, though brutal and even wicked in their lives, the controversy was long and bitter, but, while war exists, the common law and legal procedure rarely have weight and even martial law becomes ineffective.
"War is h.e.l.l," said the great Sherman. h.e.l.l is irrational, as is war.
Reason fails to have even its usual part in man"s destiny during all wars. Chance has sway, and men often get what is called glory when others, almost unknown to fame, should win the approval of all men.
Whether Washington had his doubts about Arnold"s character may never be known, but more than once he gave him opportunities to hold high command because he fought battles through. So Lincoln, when told that Grant drank whiskey, asked for more such whiskey for other generals.
Sparks, the historian, a Unitarian clergyman, when writing Arnold"s life, detailed his sins, his youthful desertion from the British army, his financial dishonor at New Haven, his overbearing self-a.s.sertion, and yet he added, when telling of the att.i.tude of the members of Congress towards Arnold, that "these stern patriots, regarding virtue as essential to true honor, did not consider great examples of valor, resource, and energy even of arousing and sustaining the military ardor of a country as an adequate counterpoise to a dereliction of principle and a compromising integrity." "How far a judicious policy and a pure patriotism were combined on this occasion," writes Sparks, "as to what extent party zeal contributed to warp the judgment, we need not now inquire."
And here, my friends, is our solemn warning against war. No inquiry will ever justify war. War is justified only upon the sad a.s.sumption that, as men are "poor weak mortals" and naturally wicked, they will go to war, and justice fails where might makes right. Who thinks I can here and now fully justify John Brown as a soldier, if he was too aggressive in attack or too ardent in his antagonism of a dastardly traitor whom he knew through and through, but whom Washington, Schuyler, and other generals felt obliged to support? Perhaps not fully justify on the grounds that seem necessary to the success of war, but I can fully support Brown as a man who fought n.o.bly for his country and in defence of the unprotected inhabitants of the Mohawk Valley, who was never false to his aims as an American patriot, who served with distinction under Allen, Montgomery, Schuyler, Arnold, Lincoln, and Van Rensselaer, and finally died while attempting to defend the Canajoharie settlements from the hostile attack of a murderous foe and acting in obedience to the command of his superior officer.
When the Ma.s.sachusetts government understood the situation at Lake Champlain, Brown was appointed major of the Berkshire Regiment, and sent again to Canada with four scouts. This time the business was very dangerous. The French Canadians often helped him, but he might have been treated as a spy, and a military police chased him for many miles with two parties of fifty men each. On his return he reached Crown Point within a day of the time General Schuyler had expected him, after five days on the lake in a canoe. Early in August, 1775, he urged by letter and every other means in his power the immediate invasion of Canada. Soon he was put in command of a flotilla on Lake Champlain, and then followed his well-known exploits at St. Johns and Chamblee, where he co-operated with James Livingston, a brave New Yorker. His capture of Chamblee on the 19th of October, 1775, just five years before his death, brought promises of reward from Congress.
Then came the reckless expedition of Ethan Allen which led to his capture, and which has long been believed to be the result of a failure on the part of Brown to co-operate with Allen when he could have supported him. Here the burden of proof rests on the accusers of Brown, and they never have had other proof than an implication drawn from the "Allen"s narrative" that he did not make his best effort to help him, although Allen does not make any direct charge. Furthermore, the narrative is often far from correct; and as Allen was reckless in act and statement, and as Brown was continued in service under Montgomery, who was friendly to him, we may infer that Brown"s failure was unavoidable. Allen"s plan was not approved by Schuyler or Montgomery. Washington hoped that Allen"s misfortune "would teach a lesson of prudence and subordination to others who may be anxious to outshine their general officers."
It has been intimated that Brown was one of these junior officers who chafed under the limitations set by his superiors, but he certainly retained his position as a regimental officer, and achieved such results in this Canadian invasion during the advance to Quebec that he was highly commended by his a.s.sociates, promised promotion by Montgomery, and finally given his Lieutenant-colonelcy by Congress. He took part in the attack of December 31, 1775, on Quebec, and on the death of Montgomery served under Arnold for months, commanding a detachment of Berkshire and other men who were willing to re-enlist if he stayed. [See Note 2.] One of his letters written to his wife, March 15, 1776, when commanding an outpost near Quebec, says he expects to be "another Uriah because he does not agree very well with Mr. General Arnold." He had been "ordered to attack with his attachment of two hundred men, one-half of whom were sick in the hospital" (his brave brother, Captain Jacob Brown, died of small-pox). He himself marched out with his men, but the enemy retired into their fort too soon for him to attack them. He "expected another storm from Arnold, or to be punished for disobedience to orders." Truly, he was not easily subordinate to Arnold, but he was not again "set in the forefront of the battle, that others might retire from him and that he might be smitten and die," as David planned for Uriah, because he was truly loyal to the cause he so n.o.bly served, and Arnold did not dare to destroy him.
To fully describe his conduct in denouncing Arnold and Arnold"s tergiversation and intrigues against him would lead me far afield. No doubt his accusations interfered with Arnold"s promotion by Congress,--promotion he earned as a great leader in battle,--but as an officer responsible for property he was repeatedly unsuccessful. Brown again and again renewed his charges against the arch-traitor, but was not able to get proper attention from the tribunals that should have relieved him from Arnold"s false charges. [See Note 3.]
Again and again historians declare that Arnold was led to treason because he had been unjustly treated by the Continental Congress. What a false view this is! He is willing enough to throw himself into battle for glory and for his country"s honor at Saratoga without definite authority, and again he was ready for a fight or an expedition for the relief of this valley _when he could lead_, but he was always in trouble financially. His Philadelphia extravagances and the increase of his indebtedness did not escape all censure.
Although Washington mildly rebuked him, he gave him new offers of high command. It is clear to me that any such statements as are indulged in by historians are of no weight or consequence.
I cannot help referring to Colonel Brown"s hand-bill of the winter of 1776-77, published and posted in public places, wherein he attacked Arnold with great severity, concluding with the words, "_Money is this man"s G.o.d, and to get enough of it he would sacrifice his country_." A prophecy! Unhappily, the same might be said of too many men of to-day.
Another incident painful to recall, but characteristic, was told to my great-uncle in 1834 by Colonel Morgan Lewis, a friend of Colonel Brown"s, and printed elsewhere. At the camp and in the tent where Arnold sat with other officers at some time during the Saratoga campaign, Brown faced the arch-traitor and denounced him as a scoundrel, and then, apologizing to those present, left the tent. His reiterated charges were not regarded as worthy of him as a soldier, although he had resigned from the Continental service because he could not get justice and because Arnold was not tried for his crimes.
Schuyler deplored Brown"s conduct as an accuser though respecting him as a brave man.
I am unable to account for the record which accredits him with thirteen months" and eighteen days" service at German Flats, New York.
From April 1, 1776, to May 18, 1777, he was Lieutenant-colonel of Elmore"s Connecticut Regiment, which was stationed at Albany and later at Fort Stanwix. I suppose his resignation from the Continental army was accepted about May 18, 1777, but, whatever his loyal service in New York may have been, he again marched in September, 1777, in command of Ma.s.sachusetts militia under direction of General Lincoln, from Pawlet, Vt., with a separate detachment to harry the British at Ticonderoga and Lake George. On the 18th of September, 1777, early in the day he made sudden and successful attacks on the landing-place near Ticonderoga, Mount Defiance, and that neighborhood, demanding the surrender of the fortress; but this time General Powel, of the British army, made a manly reply. His captures of men and material were very valuable. Some American prisoners were released, and a Continental standard of colors was recaptured and sent to General Lincoln with much delight. All the joy of conquest is expressed in his report from Pawlet, Vt., October 4, 1777, but in his letter of September 20, written at eleven o"clock at night to General Lincoln, he said he was censured by officers and men for not suffering them to make a rash attempt to carry the fortress at Ticonderoga, although on mature consideration he thought it impossible to take possession without too great loss of life. Here as late as 1777 appears the tendency of the militia to be insubordinate. He withdrew from Lake Champlain, and planned the capture of Diamond Island in Lake George, a place where some German troops were guarding a large amount of supplies. He had manned an armed sloop and boats, but was thwarted by the escape of a prisoner and a sudden and violent storm on the lake.
The prisoner gave warning to the garrison, and the result of the storm gave time for the preparation of a defence, so that after two hours"
hot engagement he withdrew after destroying some of his boats. General Lincoln commended him highly for the success of this expedition. He wrote to General Lincoln September 19, 1777, telling him he had given the men all the plunder to encourage them before the attack, although "going beyond the letter of the law." This action General Lincoln approved.
The question of plunder and the martial law governing it must have been a great source of trouble in this war among Indians and white men in the invasion of Canada and the Tory invasions hereabouts. [See Note 4.] It seems probable that, when Arnold falsely charged Easton and Brown with plundering the baggage of British officers at the Sorel, he could easily cast a shadow because of the uncertainty about the rules of war and the orders given by general officers. Plunder was promised the men by recruiting officers as early in the war as when the plan was laid by Ethan Allen to capture Ticonderoga in April or May, 1775.
[See Note 5.]
In the early part of the summer of 1780 rumors were received tending to show that Sir John Johnson might again invade the Mohawk Valley, this time by way of Lake Ontario and Lake Oneida. Therefore, on the twenty-second day of June, 1780, the General Court of Ma.s.sachusetts, at the earnest request of General Washington, directed that 4,726 men should be raised from the militia by draft, lot or voluntary enlistment, to serve three months in New York territory after they arrived at Claverack on the Hudson. These levies, by reason of apparent danger to the cause in Rhode Island, with the exception of 315 or more men raised in Berkshire County, were sent to General Heath at Tiverton, R.I. Various meagre statements are in print in reference to the men who served under Brown at this time. I find in the Ma.s.sachusetts Archives the names of officers and privates, in all 381 men, who served in the Mohawk Valley probably after August 5, 1780.
[See Note 4.] It may be that some of his men were stationed in different forts or block-houses in other places than Stone Arabia, and that only 217 men of the Berkshire Regiment were in the battle of October 19, 1780. The killed and wounded are all from three of the five companies. [See Note 4.] Some writers say that Colonel Brown had New York men with him, and one statement refers to Captain John Ka.s.selman, of Tryon County Rangers, as being in conference with Brown on the day he fell. [See Note 4.]
Each soldier was equipped at his own expense with a good fire-arm, with a steel or iron ramrod and a spring to retain the same, a worm priming wire and brush, and a bayonet fitted to his gun, a scabbard and belt therefor, and a cutting sword or a tomahawk or hatchet, a pouch containing a cartridge-box that will hold fifteen rounds of cartridges at least, a one-hundred buckshot, a jack-knife and tow for wadding, six flints, one pound of powder, forty leaden b.a.l.l.s fitted to his gun, a knapsack and blanket, a canteen or wooden bottle sufficient to hold one quart.
Long after the Stone Arabia fight, claims were presented to the General Court of Ma.s.sachusetts for felt hats, coats, vests, linen overalls, shirts, shoes, blankets, canteens, and handkerchiefs, and of course for muskets,--all lost on the 19th of October, 1780.
Brown"s major was Oliver Root, his adjutant James Easton, Jr., son of his old colonel. Dr. Oliver Brewster was surgeon, and Elias Willard quartermaster. He a.s.sumed command July 14, 1780, at Claverack, and marched probably August 5 to some of the Mohawk settlements or forts.
His mission was to protect various neighborhoods from sudden raids.
September 5 he was sent with two hundred men from Fort Rensselaer to Fort Schuyler to guard twelve boats with provisions for the relief of the garrison. September 11 he is reported as one of the officers of Van Rensselaer"s force at Fort Rensselaer (part of which--a well preserved stone house--remains at Canajoharie under the care of young citizens of that town, being the place where the Tryon County Committee of patriots met). I cannot tell where he was for the month prior to the 19th of October, when he was in command at Fort Paris, a palisaded enclosure of stone block-houses fit for a garrison of over two hundred men, built in 1776-77 by Captain Christian Getman"s Rangers on a most commanding position on the beautiful plateau called Stone Arabia, north of the Mohawk between Garoga Creek and Johnstown, where Sir William Johnson"s baronial hall was. The fort was more than a dozen miles from Johnstown, and was named for Isaac Paris, who took part in the terrible affair at Oriskany. Sir John Johnson and his career in Tryon County and elsewhere in New York is well known. To me the whole subject of Indian warfare in all our wars seems to open every possible avenue to the extremest horrors and brutalities of war.
Philip Schuyler, one of the n.o.blest men who ever lived in New York State, had from his early youth been friendly to Indians. In fact, before he reached twenty-one years of age, he was given a chief"s name among the Oneidas for his services to that tribe. His skill and patience made him all important in making treaties and negotiations with "_The Six Nations_" and other Indians. The Patriots very early realized that the Indians were to become a stumbling-block to any attempt at treating with Canada or maintaining what is called civilized warfare (can any warfare be civilized?). Schuyler, Hawley, Oliver Wolcott, and other distinguished men of high character attempted in vain to hold the Indians to neutrality. Congress at one time voted that Indians should not be employed in the service excepting where a whole nation, after full consideration, decided to act together. At another time Congress asked Schuyler to employ two thousand Indians for military service. Sir John Johnson"s career, his apparent acquiescence in Schuyler"s demands, his conduct when taking and when breaking his parole, his apology being that the Patriots had no established authority, and his repeated invasions of this country showed him to be the growth of the treachery which is bred among men who use the sordid and brutal nature of savages for evil purposes.
It is interesting to me that Lieutenant-colonel Mellen led Ma.s.sachusetts militia to Fort Schuyler to aid Gansevoort, and that, when in August, 1777, Arnold set out to the relief of Gansevoort he led Ma.s.sachusetts volunteers from Colonel Learned"s battalion, and that again in the summer and fall of 1780 Brown led Ma.s.sachusetts men to defend this neighborhood from the murderous invasion of Sir John Johnson. At Oriskany, Herkimer was hurried into action by his inferior officers in the manner characteristic of the independent and valorous spirit of his time, and Oriskany in 1777 was one of the most brutal conflicts between Tories and Patriots. Sullivan"s retaliating expedition of July, 1778, was as bad in its character and effects as anything ever done on behalf of any cause, good or bad. The destruction of many Indian villages by Sullivan and General James Clinton was no doubt thorough, but of little avail, although it was thought wise to retaliate for the horrors of Wyoming.
Early in May, 1780, the information came to this neighborhood that Sir John Johnson was moving from Lake Champlain towards Johnstown with a considerable force, that Brant was marching against the Canajoharie settlements with a body of savages and that the Tories would join them. Johnson landed at Bulwagga Bay, near Crown Point, and, pushing through the forest and down the valley of the Sacandoga, he appeared near Johnstown. On the 21st of May, 1780, his forces divided, and poured into the lower valley of the Mohawk along a line of ten miles.
From Tribes Hill upward they plundered, murdered, and destroyed. Every man capable of bearing arms was said to have been killed. Johnson withdrew hastily, as he was pursued by militia. Of course hundreds of people fled to Albany and Schenectady. Governor Clinton hurried at the head of troops from Kingston to Fort George, and, ordering others to meet him at Ticonderoga, he pushed on to Crown Point, but was too late to capture Sir John.
Brant delayed his attack until late in July, 1780, and then made a feigned attack on Fort Schuyler. General Van Rensselaer, then at Stone Arabia, hastened to the relief of Fort Schuyler, and Brant in early August fell upon the Canajoharie settlements and destroyed them mercilessly. Troops were sent from Albany to protect the settlements, but they were not sufficient.
September 7 an extra session of the New York legislature sat at Poughkeepsie, and authorized Governor Clinton to order out such number of militia as he thought necessary. Brigadier-General James Clinton was a.s.signed command at Albany and authorized to call for a.s.sistance from the brigades of Generals Ten-Broeck and Van Rensselaer. As I have already said, Colonel Brown on the 18th of October was in command at Fort Paris, subject to orders of General Robert Van Rensselaer. Fort Paris was two or three miles north of the Mohawk. In September and early October Sir John Johnson led his forces by way of the Oswego River, Oneida Lake, and across country to the Susquehanna Valley. He ravaged the Schoharie Valley, laid siege to Middle Fort unsuccessfully, then, turning north, raided all the country from Fort Hunter. He let loose his forces for the general purpose of devastation. He again did his work thoroughly,--brutally, as was customary in Indian warfare at that time. Major Jelles Fonda, one of the victims of this ruthless destruction, who had been a confidential officer under Sir William Johnson, was absent, being a State senator.
Sir John"s forces burned his homestead, "The Nose," at Palatine, and destroyed, it is said, $60,000 worth of his property. On the night of October 18 Sir John encamped with his forces nearly opposite or rather above the Nose, and on the 19th he crossed the river to the north at Keder"s Rifts, near Spraker"s Basin. A detachment of 150 men proceeded at once against Fort Paris, but, after marching two miles, the main body joined them.
October 18 General Van Rensselaer found Caughnawaga in flames. He was in camp on a hill near Stanton Place in Florida, perhaps twenty miles from Fort Paris, when he heard that that fort was to be attacked the next morning. "Tis said he sent a messenger with a letter to Colonel Brown and another to Colonel Dubois at Fort Plain, telling Brown to march out of the fort at nine o"clock the next morning and hold the enemy in check, while Dubois and he with his force were to co-operate.
Furthermore, it is said, Brown"s officers and men advised him to disobey the order, as that was not the time to leave the fort.
However, he marched forth at the head of his detachment, but, being deceived by the false advice of persons pretending to be patriots, he was led to turn aside from the road upon which he marched out into a somewhat narrow clearing in the forest near a small work called Fort Keyser, and was killed nearly two miles from Fort Paris, being attacked on every side in what amounted to an ambuscade.
Captain John Ziele, of the Second Regiment of Tryon County militia, Colonel Klock"s Regiment, had charge of Fort Keyser that day; and after Brown"s defeat George Spraker, John Wafel, Joseph and Conrad Spraker, William Wafel, and Warner (?) Dygert, with two or three other young men, were ready to defend the place from attack, but the enemy fled, whereupon William Wafel, Joseph and Conrad Spraker, and W.
Dygert proceeded to where Brown lay and carried his body to Fort Keyser. His scalp was entirely removed, and he was stripped of all his clothing excepting a ruffled shirt. After hard fighting, thirty men or more being killed, some of his men got back to Fort Paris and defended themselves successfully, thus saving the refugees therein from harm. Major Root was in command, and acted skilfully and bravely.