Part 15

On July 20th occurred one of the many skirmishes for which the "Half-Way Brook" is noted. One of the several scouting parties sent out by Montcalm to attack and harass the soldiers and convoys on the "Lidius" (Fort Edward) road and to take scalps and provisions, made one of their usual hawk-like descents, falling upon Col. Nichol's regiment, then quartered at the "Half-Way Brook" block house. Pouchet says, the detachment, five hundred in number, was made up of Canadians and Indians, commanded by M. de Courte-Manche, and that it succeeded in taking twenty-four scalps and making ten prisoners. Only the Indians' impatience prevented a complete massacre of the troops in the block house. Regarding this affray I quote the following in full from the Thompson Diary, as it gives the names of the officers and men killed in this skirmish.

"20--Thursday, in the morning, 10 men in a scout waylaid by the Indians and shot at and alarmed the Fort, and a number of our men went out to assist them, and the enemy followed our men down to our Fort, and in their retreat, Capt. Jones and Lieut. Godfrey were killed, and Capt. Lawrence and Capt. Dakin, and Lieut, Curtis and Ensn. Davis, and two or three non-commissioned officers and privates, to the number of fourteen men, who were brought into the Fort, all scalped but Ensn. Davis, who was killed within 20 or 30 rods from the Fort; and there was one grave dug, and all of them were buried together, the officers by themselves at one end, and the rest at the other end of the grave; and Mr. Morrill made a prayer at the grave, and it was a solemn funeral; and Nath. Eaton died in the Fort and was buried; and we kept a very strong guard that night of 100 men. Haggit (and) William Coggin wounded.

"A list of Men's Names that were killed in this fight:

"Capt. Ebenezer Jones of Washington (of diarist's company). Capt. (Samuell) Dakin of Sudbury. Lieut. Samuel Curtice of Ditto (Curtis). Private (William) Grout of do. Lieut. Simon Godfrey of Billerica (of diarists Company). Capt. (Thomas) Lawrence of Groton. Corp. ____ Gould of Groton Gore. Private Abel Satle (Sawtell) of Groton. Private Eleazer Eames of Groton. Do. Stephen Foster Do. Serg. Oliver Wright, Westford. Private Simon Wheeler Do. Ensn. ____ Davis of Metheun. Sergt. ____ Russell of Concord. Private Abraham Harden (Harnden?) of Pembroke. Private Payson, of Rowley. Private (Jonathan) Patterson, of Sudbury.

"We have also an account that there are seven of our men carried into Ticonderoga, which make up the number of those that were missing.

"21--Friday, in ye afternoon, a party of about 150 went out to find more men that were missing, and we found 4 men who were scalped, and we buried them, and so returned; and at prayer this evening we were alarmed by a false outcry. Nicholas Brown died and was buried; and Moses Haggit died."

This account thus corroborates in detail the French official dispatches and Pouchet's description of the attack.

Under date of Friday, July 28th, Lieut. Thompson, who that day had been down towards the Narrows, "to peal bark for to make camp," returned to Lake George and says: "In the evening there came news that the Indians had killed a number of teams and their guard below ye Halfway Brook, and there was a scout fitting to go after them."

As this massacre to which the Thompson Diary so briefly refers, is probably the most important event which took place at the "Half-Way Brook," we quote fully from Holden's History of Queensbury, concerning it:

"On Thursday the twenty-seventh of July, a detachment of four hundred men, consisting of Canadians and Indians, under the command of M. St. de Luc la Corne, a French-Colonial officer, attacked an English force of one hundred and fifty men consisting of teamsters and an escort of soldiers, while on their way from the station at the Half-Way Brook, to the Camp at the head of the lake. The account here given is as nearly as can be remembered in the language of a Mr. Jones of Connecticut, who was a member of Putnam's company which arrived on the ground soon after the affray took place. In the year 1822 he related the circumstances as here recorded, to the late Herman Peck of Glens Falls, while on a visit to Connecticut. It is from Mr. Peck that I obtained the narrative, which corresponds so completely with the French version of the affair that there can be no question whatever as to its general accuracy and reliability.

"A baggage train of sixty carts, loaded with flour, pork, wine, rum, etc., each cart drawn by two to three yoke of oxen, accompanied by an unusually large escort of troops, was despatched from Fort Edward to the head of Lake George to supply the troops of General Abercrombie, who lay encamped at that point. This party halted for the night at the stockade post at the Half-Way Brook. As they resumed their march in the morning, and before the escort had fairly cleared the picketed enclosure, they were suddenly attacked by a large party of French and Indians which laid concealed in the thick bushes and reeds that bordered the stream, and lined the road on both sides, along the low lands between the block house and the Blind rock.

"The night previously to this ambuscade and slaughter, Putnam's Company of rangers having been to the lake to secure supplies, encamped at the flats near the southern spur of the French mountain. In the early morning they were aroused from their slumbers by the sound of heavy firing in a southerly direction, and rolling up their blankets they sprang to their arms and hastened rapidly forward to the scene of action, a distance of about four miles. They arrived only in time to find the slaughtered carcasses of some two hundred and fifty oxen, the mangled remains of the soldiers, women and teamsters, and the broken fragments of the two wheeled carts, which constituted in that primitive age the sole mode of inland transportation.

"The provisions and stores had been plundered and destroyed. Among the supplies was a large number of boxes of chocolate which had been broken open and their contents strewed upon the ground, which dissolving in the fervid heat of the summer sun, mingled with the pools and rivulets of blood forming a sickening and revolting spectacle. The convoy had been ambushed and attacked immediately after leaving the protection of the stockade post, and the massacre took place upon the flats, between the Half-Way Brook, and the Blind rock, or what is more commonly known at the present day as the Miller place.

"Putnam with his command, took the trail of the marauders, which soon became strewed with fragments of plunder dropped by the rapidly retreating savages, who succeeded in making their escape, with but little loss of life. The Provincials unable to catch up with the savages, returned immediately to the scene of the butchery, where they found a company from Fort Edward engaged in preparing a trench for the interment of the dead.

"Over one hundred of the soldiers composing the escort were slain, many of whom were recognized as officers, from their uniforms, consisting in part of red velvet breeches. The corpses of twelve females were mingled with the dead bodies of the soldiery. All the teamsters were supposed to have been killed. While the work of burial was going forward the rangers occupied themselves in searching the trails leading through the dense underbrush and tangled briars which covered the swampy plains. Several of the dead were by this means added to the already large number of the slain. On the side of one of these trails, the narrator of these events found the corpse of a woman which had been exposed to the most barbarous indignities and mutilations, and fastened in an upright position to a sapling which had been bent over for the purpose. All of the bodies had been scalped, and most of them mangled in a horrible manner.

"One of the oxen had no other injury, than to have one of its horns cut off. This they were obliged to kill. Another ox had been regularly scalped. This animal was afterwards driven to the lake, where it immediately became an object of sympathy and attention of the whole army. By careful attendance and nursing, the wound healed in the course of the season. In the fall the animal was driven down to the farm of Col. Schuyler, near Albany, and the following year was shipped to England as a curiosity. Far and wide it was known as 'the scalped ox.' The bodies of the dead were buried in a trench near the scene of the massacre, a few rods east of the picketed enclosure.

"The French version of the affair, states the oxen were killed, the carts burned, the property pillaged by the Indians, the barrels of liquor destroyed, one hundred and ten scalps secured, and eighty-four prisoners taken; of these twelve were women and girls. The escort which was defeated consisted of forty men commanded by a lieutenant who was taken. The remainder of the men who were killed or taken prisoners consisted of wagoners, sutlers, traders, women and children."

The loss of this convoy was keenly felt by the English. General Abercrombie lost some baggage and effects, and, according to the French reports, his music as well. He, as soon as possible, sent Rogers and his body of Rangers across country to try and intercept the marauders before they reached Lake Champlain. Rogers was too late to accomplish his purpose, and on his way back he fell into an ambush near Fort Ann, about a mile from "Clear River" (or the Half-Way), on August 8th, and was badly defeated by M. Marin and his force of three hundred Regulars, Canadians and Indians. In this fight, Israel Putnam was taken prisoner, but was later released from captivity through the intercession of Col. Schuyler. [FN]

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[FN] For other and corroboratory original accounts of the attacks of July 20th and 27th see French despatches in Col. Doc. N. Y., Vol. X, pp. 750, 816, 817, 849, 850, and English reports in Watson's Essex, pp. 96, 97; Pouchot's Memoirs, Vol. I, p. 123; Rogers' Journals, p. 117; Putnam's Journals, pp. 72-73; Sewall's Wobum, Mass., pp. 550, 551, 552, 553; Dawson's Hist. Mag, Aug., 1871, pp. 117, 118; Cutter's Putnam, pp. 96, 97; Stark's Memoirs, pp. 26, 436. These accounts differ some in details but are alike in essentials.

This massacre was the cause of a permanent guard of about eight hundred men being stationed at the "Half-Way Brook," which is referred to in the Thompson Diary under date of August 1st, he being one of the eighty out of Col. Nichol's regiment who were ordered on duty at that spot. And from that time until the close of the campaign late in the fall, the road between Lake George and the "Half-Way Brook," and Fort Edward and the same point, was constantly patrolled by detachments from the two forts, practically putting an end to further assaults and surprises.

The diaries of those days show that, as yet, the temperance idea half a century or so afterward to arise in this locality, had no place among the hard drinking, hard swearing, and hard fighting men of that period, as these extracts from the Thompson Journal prove:

"August 28, Monday: Certified that Cape Breton was taken, and 63 cannon shot at Fort Edward and small arms. In joy we made a great fire, and every soldier had a jill of Rum at the Half Way Brook; and it was a very rainy night.

"August 29, Tuesday: 140 of us went and made a breastwork; and we had a jill of rum; and we had a remarkable drink of flip this evening; a very cold night.

"Sept. 5, Tuesday: I on guard; and we earned half a jill of rum by making great many bonfires."

This diary tells of one more attack, which seems to have escaped the notice of other historians, and is therefore inserted at this point. Under date of Sept. 9th, it says:

"Saturday: the picquet guard went to meet the teams; a Sargeant and four men went forward to tell Half Way Brook guard that the picquet was coming; and the Indians shot the Sergeant and scalped him before one man got to him; and then the Indians ran away." [FN]

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[FN] In passing we may say that Lieut. Thompson returned home safely, served at Concord and Lexington, and, his biographer says, finally "became one of the most useful men in the Town of Woburn." To him is attributed the discovery of the "Baldwin Apple," and a monument commemorating this gift to mankind, has been erected to his memory, making applicable in peculiar fashion Milton's lines, "Peace hath her victories no less renowned than war."

With the close of the Abercrombie Campaign, and the abandonment of headquarters at Lake George, Fort Edward became once more the northern outpost of Colonial civilization. [FN]

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[FN] General Abercrombie, according to documents in William L. Stone's possession, also spelled his name "Abercromby." Montresor spells it with a "y," but leading American historians use the termination "ie."

In 1759, Sir Geoffrey Amherst was made Commander-in-Chief of the English forces in America. He was a brave, able, but perhaps over-conservative general, since after his easy victory over Montcalm's forces, he occupied himself more in fort building than in active operations of warfare, and in following up advantages gained. During this campaign the "Half-Way Brook" post was first occupied in March, 1759, by Rogers, the Ranger (with his scouting party of three hundred and fifty-eight men, including officers), who was starting out to go down Lake George on the ice on one of his usual disastrous spying expeditions. In the month of May, troops and new levies were beginning to assemble at Albany, under General Amherst's supervision. While they were being drilled, detachments of the regular forces were being sent forward to Fort Edward. Meanwhile, Colonel James Montresor, Engineer-in-Chief, had been charged with the duty of drawing up plans for fortifications at Lake George, and along the line of march. Accordingly Major West, of his Majesty's troops, with laborers and mechanics, was sent forward to construct an intermediate post between Fort Edward and the lake. A site was chosen near the former "Garrison Grounds," on the south bank of the "Half Way," and a few rods east of the old military road. A stockaded fortress was erected, surrounded on three of its sides by a ditch and counterscarp; while the rear was protected by an impassable swamp (now covered by the Brick Kiln Pond), which at that period existed at that point. This fortification was given the name of Fort Amherst, in honor of the then Commander.

Major West was placed in charge of the small garrison, and the post was equipped with artillery and the necessary supplies and ammunition. A number of huts, barracks and log structures were also built here at this time (whose sites were easily traceable in the early thirties), some of which were in existence at the beginning of the Revolutionary War, and were used by the pioneers of Queensbury, as well as the American forces later on.

Local tradition also has it that the block house on the opposite side of the brook, was then rebuilt, enlarged and strengthened. On some old maps Fort Amherst is laid down as on the site of the old block house, but this is incorrect.

In passing the writer wishes to state that the committee in charge of the erection of the memorial tablets, have chosen to give the block house, back of the Parker residence, the name of "The Seven Mile Post," applied to it in Knox's Military Journal under date of June 28, 1759, and to the fort on the "brickyard road," now called Glenwood Avenue, the name of "Fort Amherst." The remains of the ditches on this road were in evidence up to the early seventies, but in building up and remaking the highway at that point, they were covered over and no vestiges of them now remain.

General Rufus Putnam, at that time orderly sergeant, during the month of June, 1759, describes in his Journal the forwarding of the troops and supplies from Albany, as far as Fort Edward, where he encamped until the 18th, when the regiment with which he was connected, was marched to the "Half-Way Brook," where they were occupied in making roads and keeping the highway secure for the passage of troops and supplies. Under the dates of July 1st and 4th he writes the following, which is an epitome of the events going on at that time:

"From the time that we came to this place till now, nothing remarkable; but bateaux, cannon and all kinds of stores carrying up, forces marching daily to the Lake and duty exceeding hard.

"The Artillery was carried from Fort Edward to Lake George and was guarded by Col. Willard's Regiment of the Massachusetts. There was carried up 1062 barrels of powder. Col. Montgomery's Regiment marched up as a guard for the Artillery."

Towards the close of June the army, amounting to six thousand men, came up to the "Half-Way," and headed by Rogers' Rangers, marched northward, "formed in two columns," to the head of Lake George, where they pitched their camp, near the ground occupied by Abercrombie the year before. The captures of Forts Ticonderoga and Crown Point, late in July, and the subsequent surrender of Quebec, brought in a great degree, a peace, quiet and safety to the northern frontier to which it had long been a stranger. [FN]

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[FN] According to the Montresor Journals, the "Half-Way Post was occupied by small detachments of guards as late as November, 1759, when the various northern outposts were abandoned as usual, and troops withdrawn for the winter."

Some time between 1759 and 1762, at the period following the conquest of Canada, General Amherst granted a permit to one Geoffrey "Cooper," or Cowper, as his name is spelled in Colonel Montresor's Journal, to whom he was a sort of messenger or servant, to occupy the small post at "Half-Way Brook," between Fort Edward and Lake George, for the preservation of the barracks, etc., that had been erected there, and for the convenience of travelers. General Amherst, according to his despatches, deemed it unnecessary after the reduction of Canada, to leave a garrison at that post. This Cowper was probably the first white inhabitant of the town of Queensbury. According to tradition, he was originally a seafaring man. He resided here several years, and, in the town records, his name appears as having been elected to the office of Assessor at the first town meeting held 1766.

Hardly had the sounds of warfare died away, than the pioneer's ax and saw were heard resounding among the yellow pines in this vicinity, as clearings were made and homesteads started.

In September, 1759, James DeLancey, Governor of the Colony of New York, issued a proclamation calling attention to the availability for settlers of "three Several Spotts of cleared Ground, two of them capable of containing half a dozen Families each and the other not less than twelve." These clearings were located on the site of the picket forts at Green's Bridge, where the Imperial Wall Paper Mill now stands, at the "Half-Way Brook," which was the largest one, and near the Half-Way House, French Mountain (site of old Fort Williams).

In response to this invitation to settle in the northern wilderness, on May 20, 1762, the Patent of Queensbury was granted to Daniel Prindle and others, consisting of a township of twenty-three thousand acres of land lying on the Hudson River and taking in the three clearings heretofore mentioned. Part of this property was acquired by certain Quakers or Friends, living at the Oblong, in Dutchess County, New York.

On August 28, 1762, Abraham Wing, the founder of the town of Queensbury, accompanied by a surveyor, Zaccheus Towner, made his first visit to the place which was thereafter to become the scene of his life work. He stopped at the "Half-Way Brook" post with Jeffrey Cowper. At this time "The Town Plot," in the center of which the memorial marker now stands, was surveyed and laid out. This consisted of a plot of forty-four ten acre lots, six lots deep from north to south, and eight lots deep from east to west, forming an oblong square, intersected by central highways and necessary roads. The center lots being reserved for public buildings. Here, the village was to have been located, but it had been ordained otherwise. The settlement was made at "The Falls," and nothing but the name in legal papers now survives to show that this was once intended to be the center of local population.

In 1763 the first attempt was made towards the permanent settlement of the Town of Queensbury; later on the first religious structure in the town, the original Friends' church, was erected of logs on the lot standing on the southwesterly side of the "Half-Way Brook," on the Bay road, and here, also, was located the first burial place in Queensbury. Here the founders and earliest settlers of the town were laid to rest, their place of sepulture being to-day unmarked and unknown.

During the Revolution the name of the "Half-Way Brook" appears in the lime-light of history but a few times, although the buildings still standing there were doubtless used by the troops passing to and fro between Lake George and Fort Edward, till the time of the Burgoyne Campaign. There, too, was located a ford for watering horses and cattle, which was in use up to the present century.

According to William L. Stone, the well-known historical writer and authority, General Burgoyne detached Baron Riedesel with three battalions to "John's Farm between Forts George and Edward," in order to keep open the roadway between the two places, and also to look after and progress the provisions, stores and supplies from Lake George to Fort Edward, preparatory to Burgoyne's advance south. In Baron Riedesel's Memoirs, he states that "in that place he was completely cut off from the army, so he entrenched himself in a strongly fortified camp so that he might be able to defend himself to the last man."

The place of his encampment has been quite definitely fixed by Dr. Holden, Mr. Stone and the late Judge William Hay, one of the best of authorities on local matters, as having been on the site of the old "Half-Way" block house, heretofore spoken of, on the north of the brook and the fortified camp at the "Garrison Grounds" on the opposite or south side of the stream. Here they remained until the 11th of September, when the camp was broken up and the march southward begun.

After the seizure of Fort Edward by General Stark and his command, a fortified camp commanding the Lake George road was constructed by the Americans in the vicinity of Glens Falls, cutting off the possibility of a retreat by Burgoyne to the northward. William L. Stone, in his "Burgoyne's Campaign," says: "This was located on the site of Fort Amherst." The Marquis de Chastelleux in his travels also speaks of this camp as follows: "On leaving the valley and pursuing the road to Lake George is a tolerable military position which was occupied in the war before last. It is a sort of an entrenched camp, adapted to abatis, guarding the passage from the woods and commanding the valleys." [FN]

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[FN] Stone's Burgoyne, pp. 92, 343, 344.

Assuming that this was the spot in question, the "Half-Way Brook" post was a factor in bringing on the surrender at Saratoga, for Burgoyne's Council of War, held Oct. 13, 1777, on being informed "that the enemy was entrenched at the fords of Fort Edward and likewise occupied the strong position on the Pine Plains between Fort George and Fort Edward," decided a retreat was impossible and an honorable capitulation should be considered.