Chapter 15 - TABLE OF CONTENTS
On Monday morning the 28th of October, the booming of the alarm gun on the advanced guard-boat down the lake, announced that the enemy were in motion. By a preconcerted arrangement this gun was instantly followed by another from the Jersey redoubt, which was followed by another from the main battery in the French lines, and still another, in quick succession, from the semi-circular redoubt on Mount Independence. The reverberations of these alarm guns had not died out in the neighboring hills, before every man who could carry a musket was in line, marching with a firm and confident step to the intrenchments. « Nothing could exceed, » wrote General Gates, « the spirit and alertness which was shown by all officers and soldiers in executing every order that was given. » They had done days and nights of hard and vigilant duty, lest this signal should come upon them unawares. It found them ready. In a few minutes every man was at his post, coolly, confidently, and courageously awaiting the enemy’s approach. It was a beautiful autumn day and the thousand forest tints were just dying out of the beautiful landscape about them. In an hour five of the enemy’s largest gun-boats appeared in sight, and landed troops, including Indians and Canadians, on Three-Mile Point, on the west side of the lake, half an hour’s march from the American alarm post. Two of the gun-boats then proceeded up the lake, inclining toward the eastern shore for the purpose of avoiding the Jersey redoubt on the eastern point of Ticonderoga. They approached within three-quarters of a mile when a fire was opened upon them from the redoubt, and also from the row-galley Trumbull, stationed over the boom. One shot took effect, killing two men, after which the boats hastily withdrew. Thirteen small bateaux and birch canoes, bearing troops, also crossed from Three-Mile Point to the east side of the lake, and landed the men about four miles below the redoubts on Mount Independence. It was believed that this party intended to occupy the point of land directly opposite the stone redoubts on the eastern point of Ticonderoga where the lake is less than half a mile wide and engage the redoubts from there. These movements indicated that the enemy were concentrating their main force on the west side of the lake, as was expected, and contemplated an immediate attack upon the French lines and redoubts. The regimental colors were stuck in the top of the earthworks there, and were floating defiantly in the October breeze. General Horatio Gates immediately ordered Poor’s, Reed’s, and Greaton’s regiments to cross the lake from Mount Independence and reinforce the troops in the French lines and redoubts. The order was obeyed with alacrity and dispatch. The guard-boat was ordered in. The nature of the country permitted the enemy to have a full view of the whole of the American works and the troops that defended them. « Ticonderoga, » writes Colonel John Trumbull, the Adjutant-General, « must have had a very imposing aspect that day when viewed from the lake. The whole summit of cleared land on both sides of the lake was crowded with redoubts and batteries, all manned, with a splendid show of artillery and flags. The number of our troops under arms on that day (principally, however, militia,) exceeded thirteen thousand. » Upwards of one hundred pieces of heavy cannon were mounted on the works.
In this state of uncertainty and anticipation, the situation remained all day, when the enemy withdrew. About four o’clock they began to re-embark their troops, and the thirteen boats and canoes returned with the troops from the eastern shore of the lake. By sunset it was observed that the body of the enemy had retired. The guard-boat was ordered to resume its place, and General Horatio Gates thanked the troops “for the alert and spirited manner with which they prepared to face the enemy.”
The British advance post, consisting of all the light infantry, grenadiers, and a large body of Indians and Canadians, was still maintained behind Putnam’s Creek, and three large vessels remained at anchor off Putnam’s Point. The British also still continued their occupation of Chimney and Crown Points.
An attack was still daily expected, and the troops at Ticonderoga were kept constantly supplied with two days’ cooked provisions. The same state of suspense and vigilance was prolonged throughout the entire week following, day and night.
On Saturday evening, the 2d of November, at eight o’clock (the American works having been completed and placed in the best possible order), a detachment of four hundred men under Major James Dunlop of the Sixth Pennsylvania was sent down the west side of the lake, and simultaneously, a detachment of five hundred men under Lieutenant-Colonel Samuel Conner, of Connecticut, was sent down the east side of the lake for the purpose of “beating up” the enemy’s advance post at Putnam’s Creek, and the side of the lake opposite. They were provided with three days’ cooked provisions. It was their intention to have attacked the enemy on Sunday morning. They found both posts abandoned. Major Dunlop took possession of Putnam’s Point. They reported that they saw the enemy embarking, a vessel with live stock on board still remaining to protect the retreat. The last of the British troops abandoned Crown Point at ten o’clock on Monday morning, November 4th, leaving behind them evidences of precipitation. On the day the British evacuated Crown Point there was not a barrel of flour in the storehouse at Ticonderoga, and for a week thereafter a daily supply of only twenty to thirty barrels was drawn from the stores at Bennington by land.
General Carleton, with the fleet, sailed down the lake and anchored in the vicinity of St. John’s. Here the fleet was dismantled and prepared to withstand the rigors of a Canadian winter. The troops went into winter quarters in the settlements along the Sorel and St. Lawrence, and not a British soldier remained in front of the Northern army on American soil. Two or three of them were quartered in each of the houses of those inhabitants who had been loyal to the crown, and a greater number upon those who had sympathized with the colonies. The troops were obliged to gather their own fuel. Their rations were furnished to them raw, and such things as they obtained from their hosts they were obliged to pay for. From these quarters they emerged in the following spring to embark upon the expedition which ended in the surrender of John Burgoyne.
When General Horatio Gates learned that the British had evacuated Crown Point, he dispatched Colonel Edward Wigglesworth down the lake to Isle aux Noix with a flag of truce for the purpose of obtaining definite information of the designs of the enemy. Being thus reliably advised of the British retreat into Canada, he dismissed the militia, and detailed about fourteen hundred men, consisting of St. Clair’s, Wayne’s, and Irvine’s, Pennsylvania; Dayton’s New Jersey; Burrell’s Connecticut, and Whitcomb’s Massachusetts regiments, as the permanent garrison of Ticonderoga, under command of Colonel Anthony Wayne. He ordered the First Pennsylvania Regiment, then numbering four hundred and seventy-two men, and the First and Second New Jersey Regiments, with Generals Arthur St. Clair and Maxwell, to embark on Lake George for their homes at sunrise on the morning of the 15th of November. The earth was then frozen hard and ice was beginning to form on the lakes. They marched to Albany, and from there descended the Hudson on sloops to New Windsor.
In the meantime Washington sent pressing orders for them to join his army. Schuyler, therefore, countermanded the orders to march to their homes, and ordered them to join Washington with all possible dispatch. It was one of the conditions of their re-enlistment under the new establishment that they should be allowed to visit their homes before again engaging in active service. The regimental order at the time of their re-enlistment at Ticonderoga, being that they should receive « a full assurance of returning to Pennsylvania as soon as the enemy are defeated, which the colonel hopes will be in a few days, perhaps in a few hours. » « I shall not fail to do everything in my power to inspirit the troops, » wrote General Arthur St. Clair, in reply to Philip Schuyler’s orders, « but I doubt very much that they will not easily be kept together. I hope to get them to General Washington’s army, and if they once come in sight of the enemy they will be satisfied. » From New Windsor, the First Pennsylvania Regiment marched by the way of Haverstraw and Pompton to Morristown, New Jersey, and from there continued their march to Pluckamin, about thirty miles north of Trenton, at which place they arrived about the 3d of December.
Washington, who was then at Trenton with his army, ordered them to halt at Pluckamin, and to be kept together, if they could possibly be prevailed upon to do so, until further orders. They marched to New German- town, six miles to the west, where on the 8th they mustered only forty-seven rank and file fit for duty, and seventeen sick. On the same day the rear of Washington’s army crossed to the Pennsylvania side of the Delaware. The advance division of the British army under General Howe reached the Delaware at Trenton a few hours after Washington’s army had crossed, and the rear division under Lord Cornwallis reached the river at Coryell’s Ferry (now Lambertville) on the next day. Washington having collected or destroyed all the boats, their further progress was arrested at this point. The hilly country to the north remained in the occupation of the Americans. General Sullivan, with Lee’s division of the American army, was at New Germantown when Lee was captured at Baskingridge on the 13th.
On a return of his officers, dated Philadelphia, January 10th, 1777, Colonel John Philip de Haas made the following endorsement : « This is to certify that during the time I had the honor to command the above gentlemen, they behaved themselves like gentlemen, and as became good soldiers. »
Toward the close of November, General Gates left Ticonderoga, with Bond’s, Porter’s, Reed’s, Bedel’s, Stark’s, Poor’s, Greaton’s, and Patterson’s regiments for the purpose of reinforcing General Washington’s army, which was then on its retreat across the Jerseys, reduced to three thousand men. They descended the Hudson in boats from Albany to Esopus, and marched from there to Sussex Court House, in New Jersey. Greaton’s, Bond’s, and Porter’s marched from Sussex to Morristown, where they remained under command of General William Maxwell, for the protection of the surrounding country which had been abandoned by the militia. General Horatio Gates, with Reed’s, Bedel’s, Stark’s, Poor’s, and Patterson’s regiments crossed the Delaware above Easton and marched to Bethlehem where they were joined by Lee’s division under General John Sullivan, which had marched from New Germantown, and crossed the Delaware at Easton. Together these troops joined Washington’s army at his camp above Trenton Falls, on the 20th of December.
Wingate’s and Wyman’s New Hampshire regiments left Ticonderoga for Number Four by the new road which had been opened from Mount Independence to Rutland. Swift’s and Mott’s Connecticut regiments marched for their homes by the Skenesborough and Bennington road by which they had come. Brewer’s, Willard’s, Read’s, Wigglesworth’s, and Phinney’s Massachusetts regiments marched down to Albany and from there to their homes by the way of Hadley on the Connecticut river. Wheelock’s, and Woodbridge’s Massachusetts regiments, not being able to obtain bateaux for transportation across Lake George, went home on November 25th, by the way of Skenesborough and Number Four.
Thus ended the Northern campaign of 1776, « an enterprise, » writes a distinguished historian, « bold in its conception, daring and hardy in its execution; full of ingenious expedients, and hazardous exploits; and which, had not unforeseen circumstances counteracted its well-devised plans, might have added all Canada to the American confederacy. »
Generals Burgoyne and Phillips had strongly advocated an attack upon Ticonderoga and resisted the evacuation of Crown Point, but were over-ruled by General Guy Carleton, the wisest soldier of them all. Though greatly depressed in spirit at the result of the campaign, he had determined to send the army into winter-quarters in Canada. The demonstration of the 28th of October was not with the intention of making an attack upon the Americans, but was rather a reconnaissance in force made in the hope that, discouraged by the loss of their fleet, they would be driven by such a display of force upon his part to evacuate the place. Little did he understand his enemy. Disappointed at his failure, he at once made preparations to withdraw his forces down the lake, and on the 15th went himself to his winter residence at Quebec.
Sir Guy Carleton had sent his aid-de-camp, Captain Le Maitre, to England, with dispatches, in one of the vessels which had brought out the reinforcements in June. On the 22d of August, Lord George Germain had sent a dispatch to Sir Guy Carleton by this officer, who sailed from Falmouth, in the packet Swallow, on the 1st of September. He succeeded in getting into the gulf of St. Lawrence three times, but owing to adverse winds he found it impossible to ascend to Quebec. He therefore returned to England carrying the dispatch with him. It directed that as soon as Carleton had succeeded in driving the Americans out of Canada, he should return to Quebec, taking with him such portions of the army as he should deem sufficient for the defence of the province, and detach LieutenantGeneral Burgoyne, or such other officer as he should think proper, with the remainder of the troops, « and direct the officer so detached to proceed with all possible expedition to join General Howe and put himself under his command. » Had that dispatch reached its destination, Burgoyne would doubtless have hurled his well-equipped legions against the works at Ticonderoga and been repulsed with frightful slaughter. The result of the campaign would in all probability have been the same, but by this action of the elements it was accomplished without the shedding of blood.
On the 24th of October, Sir Guy Carleton, wrote to Lord George Germain as follows: « The season is so far advanced that I can not yet pretend to inform your lordship whether anything further can be done this season. » The lateness of the season was not the cause of his failure. It was only a pretext with which Carleton sought to forestall the unfavorable impression which the news of his retreat was sure to produce upon the government at home. He only used it to prepare the way with them for the reception of the news of that event. It deceived no one, not even himself. Two months later Washington’s little army, including many of the troops who were then at Ticonderoga, passed the Delaware through the ice and, leaving their blood in their frozen tracks, marched against the Hessians at Trenton, retrieved the fortunes of the war, and regained New Jersey. From the time the British army reached St. Johns on the 19th of June, there remained but one issue between the contending armies – the control of the way to the Hudson. The British army was fresh from Europe, well supplied and equipped in everything. The American army had endured the hardships of a winter campaign, and was wasted by disease, famine, nakedness, and defeat. Yet notwithstanding this disparity between them the Americans conquered their misfortunes, and on the 3d of September had their fleet at the northern end of Lake Champlain, almost within the British lines, and with two months of the finest campaigning weather of the year before them. The Americans during all this time were in constant expectation of an attack from the British, and their delay was a continued source of surprise and perplexity to them. The true cause of Carleton’s retreat was a want of confidence in his ability to carry the American works, and a dread of the consequences of defeat. He had come with all the pomp and circumstance of war to the very gates of the fortress, and when defied by the troops that held it, he retired hastily beyond the waters of the lake, knowing as he did that any attempt upon the works must result in fearful loss of life, if not in the destruction of his army. Had he adopted any other course, the fate of Abercrombie’s legions might have been repeated. General John Burgoyne (1) returned to England toward the close of the year with news of the failure of the expedition, and the retreat of the army to Canada. This unwelcome intelligence occasioned so much disappointment and dissatisfaction that both Guy Carleton and John Burgoyne were in great disfavor with the government. Lord George Germain stigmatized the campaign as « operations conducted without sense or vigor. » He had expected far different results. When he heard that the siege of Quebec had been raised, and had issued a gazette extraordinary announcing that event, he sat down and wrote to Governor Tryon, in the exultation of the moment, that he had no doubt Crown Point and Ticonderoga would be restored to his Majesty’s possession before the campaign was ended. He was in no humor, therefore, to welcome John Burgoyne, and it was some time before the King would grant him an audience.
Too great measure of praise and gratitude can not be meted out to this heroic little American army, which, in so short a time, and under so many disadvantages, had arisen out of its own ashes, and turned back the same proud British army which under the same officers perished in fire and blood at Saratoga, in the following year. It was then quite as numerous as it was at Saratoga, quite as well if not better equipped, quite as boastful and defiant. It was flushed with the victory on the lake which had destroyed the American fleet, and given it undisputed control of the waters of Champlain. It was bent upon the same mission of forming a junction with the British army in New York under Howe, and by thus controlling the water line from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to New York bay, to effectually sever all communication between the eastern colonies and those to the south.
Had Carle ton not been compelled, by the defiant front presented by the American forces at Ticonderoga, to stay the blow which he had lifted his hand to strike, history would now record as bloody if not a bloodier scene there, and the story of Saratoga might never have been told. Gates, who was popular with the army, was there prepared to meet the issue then, as at Saratoga. Schuyler had not then been unjustly and ungenerously superseded by Congress. Arnold was there ready to surpass, if possible, his brilliant achievements at Saratoga, for his relations with Gates were then more cordial. John Stark was there, also, to anticipate, if it had been necessary, under more favorable auspices (for he had not then been driven from the army by the ingratitude of Congress) his brilliant victory at Bennington. Enoch Poor was there also; and in addition to this brilliant array of names, which acquired new lustre at Saratoga instead of acquiring it there, they had among them the gallant and fearless Anthony Wayne.
An eminent writer, in speaking of those times which tried men’s souls, has said that « all the defeats, indeed, all the struggles, the battles, the sacrifices, the sufferings at all times, and in every colony, were indispensable to the great result – all essential lights and shades in the immortal picture. » « The severest trials of the Revolution, » writes another, « in fact, were not in the field, where there were shouts to excite and laurels to be won, but in the squalid wretchedness of ill-provided camps, where there was nothing to cheer and everything to be endured. To suffer was the lot of the Revolutionary soldier. »
Though posterity does not recall with the same interest, and the historian has not felt it to be fiecessary to dwell upon this bloodless victory at Ticonderoga and the sad events which preceded it, with the same detail that the glory of Saratoga is recorded, yet in sufferings and sacrifices,, as well as in results, it was one of the most important victories of the war. No one will now admit that if those brave, vigilant, and poorly-clad men had not successfully stood in the intrenchments at Ticonderoga day and night through those bleak autumn weeks, ready to shed their blood in defence of their liberties, the result would have been fatal to the cause of American Independence. There can be little doubt, however, that it would greatly have embarrassed that cause, at a time when it already had more than it could bear; indeed, that it would have prolonged the struggle, if it had not crushed it outright for the time being. If Carleton had defeated them, and Ticonderoga had been evacuated, as it was in the following year, Congress, which had fled to Baltimore, and the colonists, who were then entering upon the darkest days of the whole struggle, would not have been as able to prevent him from going into winter quarters at Albany, as they were to prevent Burgoyne in the following year. Washington, with his weak and dissolving army, then fleeing across New Jersey before the victorious British forces, would not have been as able to send them reinforcements, and to prevent Howe and Cornwallis from co-operating with Sir Henry Clinton by engaging their attention with the army of Brandywine and Germantown, as he was in the following year. Moreover, Washington would not then have received the reinforcements which enabled him to regain New Jersey.
The repulse of Carleton was the only event which shed a ray of hope upon the dark despondency of that fall. It not only effectually disposed of a great danger from the north, but it turned the tide of fortune in favor of the American arms to the south by releasing the troops that enabled Washington to strike the successful blow at Trenton.
The confidence inspired by the repulse of Carleton, doubtless led to the supineness which enabled Burgoyne to advance, without resistance, to the Hudson in 1777.
In July, 1783, whilst awaiting the arrival of the definitive treaty of peace, Washington, accompanied by Governor Clinton, visited Ticonderoga and Crown Point, and examined with interest each spot made memorable by the events that have just been recited. He was thus among the first of the long line of pilgrims who have followed in the century that has since elapsed.
The story of the sufferings, the zeal, the patience, the patriotism, the perseverance, and the valor of the men who won this victory at Ticonderoga, should be held in grateful remembrance by their countrymen to the latest generation. Like the story of Valley Forge, it is not told in startling deeds of blood. Though but few had perished by the sword, yet five thousand who had gone out at the call of their country never returned. More than one out of every three became the victims of pestilence, want, and exposure, and many of those who passed through the campaign, came out of it with broken constitutions to fill premature graves.
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(1) John Burgoyne was the natural son of Lord Bingley, and adopted the profession of arms at a very early age. He eloped while a lieutenant, with a daughter of the Earl of Derby. He served as a captain in France. In August, 1759, he was appointed lieutenant-colonel of the Sixteenth Regiment of Light Dragoons, and served in 1761 at Belle Isle. In 1762 be was made brigadier-general, and sent with a force to join Count Lippe, in Portugal, to fight against Spain. In that campaign he distinguished himself by the surprise and capture of Valentia d’Alcantara. He was elected to Parliament from the borough of Middlesex, and made major-general in 1772. He was in Parliament when the American Revolution began, and obeyed a summons to take part in it with the rank of lieutenant-general. He landed at Boston in time to witness the battle of Bunker’s Hill, and praised the Americans for the courage and ability displayed by them on that memorable day. He returned to England and sailed for Canada, in April, 1776. He again returned to England at the close of the campaign of that year, and came back to Canada in the spring of 1777 to undertake the expedition which resulted in his surrender to General Gates, at Saratoga, in October, 1777. Upon his return to England after that disaster he was denied an audience of the King, and refused a court-martial. He was again elected to Parliament from Preston in Lancashire, and was one of the managers for conducting the impeachment of Warren Hastings. After the close of the American war he was made commander- in-chief in Ireland. He resigned this position two years later, and devoted the remainder of his life to literary pursuits. He possessed considerable literary vanity. Horace Walpole ridiculed his early literary efforts, but was obliged to admit that his later comedy “The Heiress,” possessed decided merit. He was tall, handsome, and graceful in manner, but, though his career was conspicuous and brilliant, he was not great in either civil, or military life. His polished manners and accomplishments made him a great favorite in society, and he was one of the most fashionable gentlemen of his day. His successful and fortunate career came to a dismal close in his humiliating surrender at Saratoga, from the effects of which his reputation never recovered. He died June 4th, 1792.