Chapter 5

If, also, the siege of Yorktown, in 1781, was conducted by few against few, as compared with modern armies, it is well to note the historical fact that, at the second siege, in 1861, the same ravine was used by General Poe (United States Engineers) to connect "parallels," and thereby save a "regular approach." Numbers did not change relations, but simply augmented the physical force employed and imperilled.

He who can seize the local, incidental, and seemingly immaterial elements which enter into all human plans, and convert them into determining factors, is to be honored; but the man who can so anticipate the possibilities and risks which lie ahead, that the world counts as a miracle, or, at least, as marvelous, that which is only the legitimate result of faith, courage, and skill, is truly great. Washington did it. His retreat from Long Island was deliberately planned before he had a conference with his subordinates; and the entire policy and conduct of his operations at and near New York will defy criticism. To hold the facts of the issue discussed, right under the light on that military science (that is, that mental philosophy which does not change with physical modes and appliances), is simply to bring out clearly the necessity for the occupation of New York and Brooklyn by Washington in 1776.

The mere statement of the British forces which were available in 1776 will show that if Washington knew, in advance, exactly what he had to meet, then he had a right to anticipate a successful resistance. As early as July, 1775, he demanded that the army should be enlisted "for the war." In a previous article, the policy of the Commander-in-chief and of General Greene was noticed, and the formulated proposition, then accepted by both, gave vitality and hope to the struggle. When the issue ripened at New York, and, swiftly as possible, the besieging force before Boston became the resisting force at New York, there was one man who understood the exact issue. The temper of the British press, and that of the British House of Commons, was fully appreciated by the American Commander-in-chief. He knew that General Gage had urged that "thirty thousand men, promptly sent to America, would be the quickest way to save blood and end the war." He also knew that when John Wesley predicted that "neither twenty, forty, nor sixty thousand men would suppress the rebellion," the British Cabinet had placed before Parliament a careful statement of the entire resources which were deemed available for military purposes abroad. As early as May, 1776, Washington was advised of the following facts:--

First, That the contracts at that time made with continental States, including that with Hesse and Brunswick, would place at British disposal a nominal strength of fifty-five thousand men.

Second, That, with all due allowance for deficiencies, the effective force, as claimed by the ministry, could not exceed, but might fall below, forty thousand men.

The debate in Parliament was so sharp, and the details of the proposed operations were so closely defined and analyzed, that Washington had full right to assume, as known, the strength of his adversary.

When, during May, 1776, the American Congress sent troops from New York to Canada, he sharply protested, thus: "This diversion of forces will endanger both enterprises; for Great Britain will attempt to capture New York as well as Canada, if they have the men." He did not believe that they would capture New York, if he could acquire and retain the force which he demanded.

The point to be made emphatic, is this: That, from the date of the call of Massachusetts, early in 1775, for thirty thousand men, up to the occupation of New York, the force which he had the right to assume as at his own disposal was equal to the contingencies of the conflict; and that, when he did occupy New York, and begin its exterior defences at Brooklyn, the British ministry had admitted its inability to send to America a force sufficiently strong to capture the city. The maximum force proposed was less than that which Congress could easily supply for resistance. In other words, Washington would not have to fight Great Britain, but a specific force; namely, all that Great Britain could spare for that service; so that the issue was not between the new Republic and England, but between the Republic and a single army, of known elements and numbers. In fact, the opinion that France had already made war upon England had so early gained credit, that Washington, while still in New York, was forced to issue an order correcting the rumor, and thus prevent undue confidence and its corresponding neglect to meet the demands of the crisis.

Thus far, it is clear that there was nothing extravagant in the American claim to independence; nor in the readiness of Washington to seize and hold New York; nor in his belief that the colonial resources were equal to the contest.

One other element is of determining value as to the necessity for his occupation and defence of Brooklyn Heights. New York was the only base from which Great Britain could operate against the colonies as an organized State. By Long Island Sound and the Hudson River, her right hand would hold New England under the guns of her warships, and by quick occupation of Chesapeake and Delaware Bays and their tributary streams, her left hand would cut off the South.

If the views of Lord Dartmouth had prevailed, in 1775, there would have been no siege of Boston; but New York would have had a garrison fully equal to its defence, while sparing troops for operations outside. But the prompt occupation of New York, as the headquarters of revolution, was a clear declaration to the world, and to the scattered people of the colonies, that a new nation was asserting life, and that its soil was free from a hostile garrison. The occupation of New York centralized, at the social, commercial, and natural capital of the Republic, all interests and resources, and gave to the struggle real force, inspiration, and dignity.

Just as the men at Bunker Hill fought so long as powder and ball held out, but could not have been led to assail, in open field, the veterans whom they did, in fact, so effectively resist; and, as very often, a patriotic band has bravely defended, when unequal to aggressive action,--so the possession, defence, and even the loss, of New York, as an incident of a campaign, were very different from an effort to wrest the city from the grasp of a British garrison, under cover of yawning broadsides.

History is replete with facts to show how hopefully men will seek to regain lost positions, when an original capture would have been deemed utterly hopeless. Poland wellnigh regained a smothered nationality through an inspiration, which never could have been evoked, in a plan to seize from the Russian domain a grand estate, upon which to establish an original Poland.

To have held but to have lost New York, would simply show the defects of the defence, and the margin wanting in ability to retain, while no less suggesting how, in turn, it might be regained, at the right time, by adequate means and methods. The occupation and defence of Brooklyn Heights was the chief element of value in this direction. It not only combined the general protection of the city and post, in connection with the works upon Governor's Island, but to have neglected either would have admitted an inability to retain either.

British troops at Brooklyn would command New York. American troops at Brooklyn presented the young nation in the attitude of guarding the outer doorway of its freshly-asserted independence. It put the British to the defensive, and compelled them to risk the landing of a large army, after a protracted ocean voyage, before they could gain a footing and measure strength with the colonists. It does not lessen our estimate of the skill of Washington to know that Congress failed to supply adequate forces; but he made wise estimates, and had reason to expect a prompt response to his requisitions.

That episode at Breed's Hill, which tested the value of even a light cover for keen sharpshooters, had so warned Howe of the courage of his enemy that the garrison of Bunker Hill had never worried Putnam's little redoubt across the Charlestown Isthmus; neither had the troops at Boston ever assailed, with success, the thin circumvallation which protected the besiegers.

At Brooklyn, Washington established ranges for firing-parties, so that the rifle could be intelligently and effectively used, as the British might, in turn, approach the danger line. All these preparations, although impaired by the illness and absence of General Greene, had been so well devised, that even after General Howe gained the rear of Sullivan and Stirling and captured both, he halted before the entrenchments and resorted to regular approaches rather than venture an assault.

If that portion of the proper garrison of New York which had been sent to Canada, to waste from disease and fill six thousand graves, had been available at New York, they might have made of Jamaica Ridge and Prospect Hill a British Golgotha before the lines of Brooklyn.

If we conceive of an invasion of New York to-day, other than by some devastating fleet, we can at once see that the whole outline of defence as proposed by Washington, until he ordered the retreat, was characteristic of his wisdom and his settled purpose to resist a landing, fight at every ridge, yield only to compulsion, enure his men to face fire, and "make every British advance as costly as possible to the enemy."

The summary is briefly this: There was an universal revolt of the colonies, and a fixed purpose to achieve and maintain independence. There was, at the same time, in England, not only a vigorous opposition to the use of force, but a clearly-defined exhibit of the maximum military resources which its authorities could call into exercise. Imminent European complications were already bristling for battle, both by land and sea, and Great Britain was without a continental ally or friend. As the British resources were thus definitely defined, so was the military policy distinctly stated; namely, to make, as the first objective, the recovery of New York, and its acceptance as the permanent base for prosecution of the war. The first blow was designed to be a fatal blow. It was for Washington to take the offensive. He did so, and by the occupation of New York and Brooklyn put himself in the attitude of resisting invasion, rather than as attempting the expulsion of a rightful British garrison from the British capital of its American colonies.

Not only did the metal of such men as he commanded stand fire on the seventeenth of June, 1775, at Breed's Hill, but when he followed up the expulsion of the garrison of Boston by the equally aggressive demonstrations at New York, he gave assurance of the thoroughness of his purpose to achieve independence, and thereby inspired confidence at home and abroad. The failure to realize a competent field force for the issue with Howe, and the circumstances of the retreat and evacuation, do not impair the statement that, in view of his knowledge of British resources and those of America, the occupation and defence of Brooklyn and New York was a military necessity, warranted by existing conditions, and not impaired by his disappointment in not securing a sufficient force to meet his enemy upon terms of equality and victory. It increases our admiration of that strategic forethought which habitually inspired him to maintain an aggressive attitude, until the surrender at Yorktown consummated his plans, and verified his wisdom and his faith.

* * * * *

LOWELL.

Twenty-six miles northwest from Boston, on the banks of the Merrimack at its confluence with the Concord, is situated the city of Lowell,--the Spindle City, the Manchester of America. The Merrimack, which affords the chief water-power that gives life to the thousand industries of Lowell, takes its rise among the White Mountains, in New Hampshire, its source being in the Notch of the Franconia Range, at the base of Mount Lafayette. For many miles it dashes down toward the sea, known at first as the Pemigewasset, until finally its waters are joined by the outflow from Lake Winnipiseogee, and a great river is formed, which, in its fall of several hundred feet, offers immense power to the mechanic. Past Penacook the river glides, its volume increased by the Contcocook; through fertile intervales, over rapids and falls, past Suncook and Hooksett, it comes to the Falls of Amoskeag, where Lowell's fair rival is built; thence onward past Nashua, to the Falls of Pawtucket, where its waters are thoroughly utilized to propel the machinery of a great city.

The men are still living who have witnessed the growth of Lowell from an inconsiderable village to a great manufacturing city, whose fabrics are as world-renowned as those of Marseilles and Lyons, or ancient Damascus.

With the dawn of American history, the Penacooks, a tribe of Indians, were known to have occupied the site of Lowell as their favorite rendezvous. Here the salmon and shad were caught in great abundance by the dusky warriors. Passaconaway was their first great chief known to the white man, and he was acknowledged as leader by many neighboring tribes. He was a friend to the English. Before the coming of the Pilgrims a great plague had swept over New England, making desolate the Indian villages. Added to the terrors of the pestilence, which was resistless as fate to the children of the forest, was the fear and dread of their implacable enemies, the fierce Mohawks of the west. The spirit of the Indian was broken. In 1644, Passaconaway renounced his authority as an independent chief, and placed himself and his tribe of several thousand souls under the protection of the colonial magistrates. The Indian villages at Pawtucket Falls, on the Merrimack, and Wamesit Falls, on the Concord, the Musketaquid of the aborigines, were first visited in 1647 by the Reverend John Eliot, the Apostle to the Indians. In 1652, Captain Simon Willard and Captain Edward Johnson made their tour up the Merrimack Paver to Lake Winnipiseogee, and marked a stone near the Weirs as the northern boundary of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The following year the work of settlement swept onward, crowding in upon the cornfields of the red men; and Eliot, caring for his charges, procured the passage of an act by the General Court reserving a good part of the land on which Lowell now stands to the exclusive use of the Indians.

The towns of Chelmsford and Billerica were incorporated May 29, 1655.

In 1656, Major-General Daniel Gookin was appointed superintendent of all the Indians under the jurisdiction of the Colony. By his fair dealing he won their entire confidence. They had good friends in Judge Gookin and the Apostle Eliot, who were ever ready to protect them from encroachments of their neighbors.

In 1660, Passaconaway relinquished all authority over his tribe, retiring at a ripe old age, and turning over his office of sachem to his son Wannalancet, whose headquarters were at Penacook. Numphow, who was married to one of Passaconaway's daughters, was the chief for some years of the village of Pawtucket. In 1669, Wannalancet, in dread of the Mohawks, came down the river with his whole tribe, and located at Wamesit, and built a fortification on Fort Hill in Belvidere, which was surrounded with palisades. The white settlers of the vicinity, catching the alarm, took refuge in garrison-houses.

In 1674, there were at Wamesit fifteen families, or seventy-five souls, enumerated as Christian Indians, aside from about two hundred who adhered to their primitive faith in the Great Spirit. Numphow was their magistrate as well as chief, his cabin standing near the Boott Canal. The log chapel presided over by the Indian preacher, Samuel, stood at the west end of Appleton Street near the site of the Eliot Church. In May of each year came Eliot and Gookin; the former to give spiritual advice; the latter to act as umpire or judge, having jurisdiction of higher offences, and directing all matters affecting the interests o£ the village. Wannalancet held his court, as sachem, in a log cabin near Pawtucket Falls.

King Philip's War broke out in 1675. Wannalancet and the local Indians, faithful to the counsels of Passaconaway, took sides with the settlers, or remained neutral. Between the two parties they suffered severely. Some were put to death by Philip, for exposing his designs; some were put to death by the colonists, as Philip's accomplices; some fell in battle, fighting for the whites; some were slain by the settlers, who mistrusted alike praying and hostile Indians.

During the following year, 1676, the able-bodied Indians of Wamesit and Pawtucket withdrew to Canada, leaving a few of their helpless and infirm old people at the mercy of their neighbors. Around their fate let history draw the veil of oblivion, lest the present generation blush for their ancestors. The Indians of those days, like their descendants, had no rights which the white men were bound to respect.

During the war the white settlers were gathered for protection in garrison-houses. Billerica escaped harm, but Chelmsford was twice visited by hostile bands and several buildings were burned. Two sons of Samuel Varnum were shot while crossing the Merrimack in a boat with their father.

In April, 1676, Captain Samuel Hunting and Lieutenant James Richardson built a fort at Pawtucket Falls, which, with a garrison, was left under command of Lieutenant Richardson. A month later it was reinforced and the command entrusted to Captain Thomas Henchman. This proved an effectual check to the incursions of marauding Indians.

When the war was over, Wannalancet returned with the remnant of his tribe, to find the reservation in possession of the settlers. The tribe was placed on Wickasauke Island, in charge of Colonel Jonathan Tyng, where they remained until their last rod of land had been bartered away, when they retired to Canada and joined the St. Francis tribe. Colonel Tyng and Major Henchman purchased of the Indians all their remaining interest in the land about Pawtucket Falls.

During the nine years of King William's War, which followed the English Revolution of 1688, the people of Chelmsford and neighboring towns again took refuge in forts and garrison-houses. Major Henchman had command of the fortification at the Falls. August 1, 1682, a hostile raid was made into Billerica and eight of the inhabitants were killed. August 5, 1695, fourteen inhabitants of Tewksbury were massacred. Colonel Joseph Lynde, from whom Lynde Hill in Belvidere derives its name, was in command of a force of three hundred men who ranged through the neighboring country to protect the frontier.

The town of Dracut was incorporated in 1701. It contained twenty-five families, and was set off from Chelmsford.

The Wamesit purchase was divided into small parcels of land and sold to settlers. Samuel Pierce, who had his domicile on the Indian reservation, was elected a member of the General Court, in 1725, but was refused his seat on the ground that he was not an inhabitant of Chelmsford. Accordingly the people of the reservation refused to pay taxes to the town of Chelmsford until an act was passed legally annexing them to the town. The place was afterward known as East Chelmsford.

The year 1729 is memorable for the great earthquake which occurred on October 29, and did considerable damage in the Merrimack valley.

Tewksbury was incorporated in 1734, its territory before having been included in Billerica.

At the battle of Bunker Hill two companies of Chelmsford men were present, one under command of Captain John Ford, the other under Captain Benjamin Walker; and one company composed largely of Dracut men was under Captain Peter Colburn.

Captain Ford had served previously at the siege and capture of Louisburg, in 1745. When the first man in his company fell at Bunker Hill, an officer prevented a panic by singing Old Hundred. When closely pressed by the British, and the ammunition had been exhausted, Captain Colburn, on the point of retreating, threw a stone at the advancing enemy and saw an officer fall from the blow.

Colonel Simeon Spaulding, of Chelmsford, was an active patriot during the Revolution and did good service in the Provincial Congress.

During Shays' Rebellion, in 1786, a body of Chelmsford militia under command of General Lincoln served in the western counties.

The people of Chelmsford, from the earliest settlement, gave every encouragement to millers, lumbermen, mechanics, and traders, making grants of land, and temporary exemption from taxation, to such as would settle in their town. It became distinguished for its sawmills, gristmills, and mechanics' shops of various kinds. Billerica, Dracut, and Tewksbury gave like encouragement. About the time of the Revolution a sawmill was built below Pawtucket Falls and owned by Judge John Tyng.

Toward the close of the last century the lumbering industry on the Merrimack grew into prominence; and, in 1792, Dudley A. Tyng, William Coombs, and others, of Newburyport, were incorporated as "The Proprietors of the Locks and Canals on Merrimack River." This canal, which was demanded for the safe conduct of rafts by the Falls, was completed in 1797, at an expense of fifty thousand dollars. The fall of thirty-two feet was passed by four sets of locks.

The first bridge across the Merrimack was built, in 1792, by Parker Varnum and associates; the Concord had been bridged some twenty years earlier.

In 1793, the proprietors of the Middlesex Canal were incorporated. Loammi Baldwin, of Woburn, superintended the construction. The canal began at the Merrimack, about a mile above Pawtucket Falls, extended south by east thirty-one miles, and terminated at Charlestown. It was twenty-four feet wide and four feet deep and was fed by the Concord River. It cost $700,000, and was completed in 1804,--the first canal in the United States opened for the transportation of passengers and merchandise. For forty years it was the outlet of the whole Merrimack valley north of Pawtucket Falls.

The first boat voyage from Boston, by the Middlesex Canal and the Merrimack River, to Concord, New Hampshire, was made in 1814; the first steamboat from Boston reached Concord in 1819.

The competition of the Middlesex Canal ruined the Pawtucket Canal, as it in turn, in after years, was ruined by the Boston and Lowell Railroad. Navigation finally ceased on its waters in 1853, since which date its channel has been filling up and its banks have been falling away.

In 1801, Moses Hale, whose father had long before started a fulling-mill in Dracut, established a carding-mill on River Meadow Brook,--the first enterprise of the kind in Middlesex County.

In 1805, the bridge across the Merrimack was demolished and a new bridge with stone piers and abutments was constructed. It was a toll-bridge as late as 1860.

The second war with England stimulated manufacturing enterprises throughout the United States; and several were started, depending upon the water-power of the Concord River. In 1813, Captain Phineas Whiting and Major Josiah Fletcher erected a wooden cotton-mill on the site of the Middlesex Company's mills, and were successful in their enterprise. John Golding, in the same neighborhood, was not so fortunate.