Part 4

“Our General is beloved by his soldiers, Honoured and Esteem’d by his officers, Carful of mens lives and healths, in short he is the man I would choose to serve under of any I know in the service. Our Regiment are healthy and in High spirits as are the whole army, and I hope we soon will stricke a stroke that will bring credite and Glory to our General and Army and Satisfaction to our Country and friends.”

Amherst never remained long in one place without building a fort. Fortified places were built at intervals of three or four miles along the road to Fort Edward and especially at the station called Halfway Brook, while for the whole distance a broad belt of wood on both sides was cut down and burned to deprive a skulking enemy of cover. At Lake George he started a fort, now called Fort George, the ruins of which are in the Lake George Battle Ground Park of which this Association is custodian.

July 21st, 1759, Lake George again witnessed a military pageant as the army embarked for its second attack on Fort Ticonderoga. At daylight they landed, beat back a French detachment and marched by the portage road to the sawmill. There was little resistance and the army marched to the former line of entrenchments which had proved so fatal to Abercrombie. These had been reconstructed partly of earth and partly of logs, and as the French made no attempt at their defence the English encamped along their front and found them excellent shelter from the cannon of the fort. It is the general impression that the French retreated with only faint resistance and that there was hardly a shot fired at the second attempt to capture Fort Carrillon but the following letter from Capt. Murray would correct this impression:

“Camp at the Lines of Burning Theanderoga, 27 July, 1758.

My Dear Brother:--I write you these few lines to acquaint you that I am in perfect good health and that the army landed at this end of the lake the 22nd, invested the Fort the 23rd and was very buisy carying on the worcks till the 26th in the night, at which time we had three batteries ready to open, when the enemy abbandoned and set fire to the fort. During the time that the enemy remained they could not keep a hotter fire, for I dare say that fired ten thousand cannon shott and five hundred bombs and I don’t believe there has been forty men killed and wounded during that hott fire, altho’ all the Bombs fell in different parts among us and that we were nigh point blank of the cannon shott but the line that had been of so much hurt to us last year saved our men this.

Your most afft. Brother, James Murray.”

I also add Amherst’s report to Governor James DeLancey:

Camp at Ticonderoga 27th July 1759.[34]

Sir:--

On Saturday morning last I embarked with the army at Lake George, the next day landed without opposition and proceeded to the saw mills, and took post on the commanding grounds, meeting only a trifling opposition from the enemy. We lay on our arms all night and early on the 23rd we continued our march to the ground which I took possession of in the forenoon, the enemy having abandoned the lines without destroying them, first having carried off their effects as well as sent away the greatest part of their troops. As soon as I was set down before the place and after having reconnoitered it, I ordered the trenches to be opened and batteries to be made, which were finished last night, and were to have opened at break of day, but the enemy did not think proper to wait till then, having about ten of the clock yesterday evening blown up a part of the Fort, and made their escape all to about 20 deserters. Our loss considering the fire we sustained is inconsiderable. We have only two officers killed, vis. Colonel Townshend, Deputy Adjutant General and Ensign Harrison of late Forbe’s.

Bourlamaque had on receipt of orders from Vaudreuil retired down Lake Champlain leaving four hundred men under Hebecourt to defend the fort as long as possible and then to abandon Ticonderoga and later when pressed Crown Point and to retreat to Isle-oux-Noix at the outlet of Lake Champlain, where defense was to be made to the last extremity. When the English battery was ready to open fire Hebecourt saw that further resistance was useless and lighting a slow match to the magazine the French escaped down the lake in their boats and a few hours later an explosion which hurled one bastion of old Fort Carrillon skyward shook the promontory. Thus did French Carillon become English Ticonderoga and “Ticonderoga 1758-9” should be among the battle honors to be borne on the colors of the Black Watch. It is true that these honorary distinctions are awarded by the King only in case of victory but Ticonderoga 1758-9 would certainly be as much a victory as “South Africa 1899-1902,” which has been granted. South Africa was not all victory and the Black Watch suffered at Magersfontein as it did at Ticonderoga under Abercrombie.

The length of time elapsed since the battle would also be no objection to the honor being now granted as it was not until 1910, two and one half centuries later that the armies that upheld British honor on the Coast of Morocco were authorized to bear “Tangier 1662-1680” on their colors and appointments.

Ticonderoga is the one place on the American continent where Great Britain and France, Canada and the United States can all unite on one common ground. The Yankees and British can meet here and clasp hands over the time when they once fought together and there is not even a sectional feeling which detracts from the unanimity. The North, South, East and West of the United States all join with equal fervor. Each nation had its defeats here at different times but each also had its victories. Therefore there is no battle honor which could be conferred on any British regiment that would please more people of different nations than “Ticonderoga 1758-9.” The fact that there is at present in the village of Ticonderoga a public library and historical building dedicated to a British Regiment, even though this same regiment in its line of duty fought against us in a later war, is sufficient proof that we consider Ticonderoga of international history and above matters of local prejudice.

The rest of the story is soon told. Crown Point was captured and the army was to have moved forward to Isle oux-Noix and to the St. Lawrence but a succession of storms so delayed operations that further active movements were abandoned for the remainder of the season. Amherst profiting by the fatal precipitation of his predecessor was slow but sure and in this campaign was successful in every enterprise that he undertook.

After the capture of Crown Point the army under Amherst was mainly employed in building operations on Lake Champlain, Fort Amherst at Crown Point and Fort Ticonderoga in place of old Fort Carrillon at Ticonderoga. The Black Watch was stationed at Crown Point and helped to build Fort Amherst. In November, they went into camp for the winter and in his report of “Garrisons and Winter Quarters of His Majesty’s forces in North America under the command of His Excellency, Major General Amherst, Headquarters at New York, 15 Dec., 1759” in the Public Record Office, the stations of the Black Watch were as follows: 1st Battalion Royal Highland Regiment, 1 company Halfway Brook, 5 companies Fort Edward, 1 company Fort Miller, 1 company Saratoga, 1 company Stillwater and 1 company Halfmoon, 2d Battalion Royal Highland Regiment, Albany, one Battalion of the Inniskilling (27th Foot) and two companies of the Rangers were left at Crown Point, six companies Late Brig. Gen’l Forbe’s (17th Foot) at Ticonderoga, and four companies 17th Foot at Fort George. The following season (1760) the Black Watch was with Amherst at the capture of Montreal which was the end of the French domain on the American Continent.

In 1761 the Black Watch with ten regiments embarked for Barbadoes there to join an armament against Martinique and Havana. After the surrender of Havana, the first battalion of the 42nd and Montgomery’s Highlanders embarked for New York which they reached in the end of October, 1762. Before leaving Cuba most of the second battalion of the 42nd fit for service were consolidated with the first, and the remainder shipped to Scotland where they were reduced the following year.

The Black Watch was stationed at Albany until the summer of 1763, when they, with a detachment of Montgomery’s Highlanders and another of the 60th, under command of Col. Henry Boquet were sent to the relief of Fort Pitt then besieged by the Indians. The 42nd passed the winter at Fort Pitt and during the summer of 1764, eight companies were sent with the army of Boquet against the Ohio Indians. After subduing the Indians they returned to Fort Pitt, January 1765. The regiment remained in Pennsylvania until the month of July, 1767, when it embarked at Philadelphia for Ireland. Such of the men who preferred to remain in America were permitted to join other regiments. These volunteers were so numerous that along with those who had been previously sent home disabled and others discharged and settled in America, the regiment that returned was very small in proportion to that which had left Scotland.

Let us now turn our attention to Major Duncan Campbell as not only would no sketch of the Black Watch of Ticonderoga be complete without the legend with which his name is associated, but we are perhaps more interested in him than any other officer of the Regiment of that time because he lies buried in the cemetry midway between Hudson Falls (formerly Sandy Hill) and Fort Edward. The other officers and men who were killed July 8, 1758, were doubtless buried on the field of battle and if the graves were ever marked, these marks have long since been destroyed.

No ghost story is more widely known or better authenticated than that of Duncan Campbell of Inverawe. It has been made the subject of an address before this Association by the late Robert O. Bascom at the meeting of July 30, 1901, and has been repeated in many forms and in various publications but it will bear still one more repetition. The following is taken from Parkman’s “Montcalm and Wolfe” and is the story as was told by Dean Stanley and endorsed by the family of the hero of the tale:

“The ancient castle of Inverawe stands by the banks of the Awe, in the midst of the wild and picturesque scenery of the Western Highlands. Late one evening, before the middle of the last century, as the laird, Duncan Campbell, sat alone in the old hall, there was a loud knocking at the gate; and, opening it, he saw a stranger, with torn clothing and kilt besmeared with blood, who in a breathless voice begged for asylum. He went on to say that he had killed a man in a fray, and that the pursuers were at his heels. Campbell promised to shelter him. “Swear on your dirk!”[35] said the stranger; and Campbell swore. He then led him to a secret recess in the depths of the castle. Scarcely was he hidden when again there was a loud knocking at the gate, and two armed men appeared. “Your cousin Donald has been murdered, and we are looking for the murderer!” Campbell, remembering his oath, professed to have no knowledge of the fugitive; and the men went on their way. The laird, in great agitation, lay down to rest in a large dark room where at length he fell asleep. Waking suddenly in bewilderment and terror, he saw the ghost of the murdered Donald standing by his bedside, and heard a hollow voice pronounce the words: “Inverawe! Inverawe! blood has been shed. Shield not the murderer.” In the morning Campbell went to the hiding place of the guilty man and told him that he could harbor him no longer. “You have sworn on your dirk” he replied; and the laird of Inverawe, greatly perplexed and troubled, made a compromise between conflicting duties, promised not to betray his guest, led him to the neighboring mountain (Ben Cruachan) and hid him in a cave.[36]

In the next night, as he lay tossing in feverish slumbers, the same stern voice awoke him, the ghost of his cousin Donald stood again at his bedside, and again he heard the same appalling words: “Inverawe! Inverawe! blood has been shed. Shield not the murderer!” At break of day he hastened, in strange agitation, to the cave; but it was empty, the stranger had gone. At night, as he strove in vain to sleep, the vision appeared once more, ghastly pale, but less stern of aspect than before. “Farewell, Inverawe!” it said; “Farewell, till we meet at TICONDEROGA!”

The strange name dwelt in Campbell’s memory. He had joined the Black Watch, or Forty-Second Regiment, then employed in keeping order in the turbulent Highlands. In time he became its major; and, a year or two after the war broke out, he went with it to America. Here, to his horror, he learned that it was ordered to the attack of Ticonderoga. His story was well known among his brother officers. They combined among themselves to disarm his fears; and when they reached the fatal spot they told him on the eve of the battle, “This is not Ticonderoga; we are not there yet; this is Fort George.”[37] But in the morning he came to them with haggard looks. “I have seen him! You have deceived me! He came to my tent last night! This is Ticonderoga! I shall die today!” and his prediction was fulfilled.”

As will be seen by the preceding pages, Inverawe lived nine days after the battle and was not even mortally wounded if it had been possible in those times to have had antiseptic treatment, but the real point of the legend is that he had been warned of Ticonderoga when he did not know there was such a place, years before there was any prospect of his being sent there and when Ticonderoga was only the Indian name for a point of land on a lake in the wilderness of a far off continent.

To one interested no place could be more fascinating than old Inverawe;[38] everything connected with it breathes of legend and romance and naturally this was one of the first places visited in our Black Watch pilgrimage last summer. Taynuilt, the railroad station nearest Inverawe is a small village across the Awe and about a mile away as the crow flies, but to drive to our destination, one must follow the road two miles up the River to the old bridge which was being built at the time that the Major left for the war in America in 1756. The builder was Captain William Pitman apparently a good friend of Duncan of Inverawe as he charged him with the safe keeping during his absence of his daughter Janet and his favorite dog. History does not record what happened to the dog but the Captain married the daughter and in time Inverawe became her property.

After crossing the Awe the road turns down the north side of the River and winds through a magnificent park, some of the trees of which must certainly have been there before the Major’s time. This is all the more remarkable because with the exception of the parks of the private estates, Scotland is nearly a treeless country and even the mountains and wild land which with us would be covered with forests, have there only grass and heather. Then at the end of a delightful four mile drive was old Inverawe house and a most cordial and hospitable welcome from its present owner.

The old house has had many additions in the past one hundred and fifty years but the entrance hall and the main part of the building and particularly the room where Duncan Campbell saw the ghost, are still very much as they were in his time. We endeavored to learn as much as possible of the family history of the Campbells of Inverawe, but like the records of the Black Watch of that time, there was in 1910, little left but tradition.

_The Campbells of Inverawe_

Twenty years have passed since the account of the Black Watch at Ticonderoga as written for the 1910 meeting of the New York State Historical Association was published, and while we regret that very little can be added, we are pleased to say that few corrections have had to be made in the story as then told. It was thought that the records of the Regiment of the 18th Century were discovered in 1913 among the military manuscripts in the Royal United Service Institution, but while they purported to be the original records, careful examination disclosed that they had been written early in the nineteenth century so nothing new was learned of the Regiment of the Ticonderoga period. The preceding pages therefore are practically unchanged.

The part, however, about the family history of Major Duncan Campbell of Inverawe has been entirely rewritten. We are indebted for this additional information to the descendants of Alexander, a brother of Duncan of Inverawe, to the late Major Sir Duncan Campbell of Barcaldine, to the late Captain Douglas Wimberly, and others. No one feature of the Black Watch at Ticonderoga has been of such general interest as the ghost story of its Major, Duncan Campbell of Inverawe, and the straightening out of the family puzzle which was such a mystery in 1910 has been a fascinating study.

The Major’s memory has been honored recently by two celebrations. In 1920 when his bones were moved to the Jane McCrea enclosure, just inside the main gate of the Union Cemetery between Hudson Falls and Fort Edward, where his ancient tombstone now has the protection of a high iron fence, and in 1925 when a monument to the Black Watch and its Major was unveiled at Fort Ticonderoga. Both occasions were under the auspices of the St. Andrews Society of Scots of Glens Falls and vicinity, and the New York State Historical Association.

Of all the new material which has been found since 1910 none is so important or so interesting as the following letter from Major Duncan Campbell of Inverawe:

Albany, 14th March, 1758.

Dear Sir,

I received your letter from Inveraw of the 25th November and the first from you since we parted, tho I have been informed by letters that come to hand, of your writing formerly. The State you sent me of my affairs is not very agreeable nor encouraging for me to make a retreat that I had in view, and in a little time I believe might be in my power but I am not disappointed; and notwithstanding I shall do all in my power to assist you. I am sorry that no other scheme of living can be accomplished upon the fund, than the one fixed on; to me it gives uneasiness of minde, tho I’m sensible the consequence may be worse if it is not followed, and therefore bear it with concern. I don’t choose to mention my reasons or enter upon particulars as letters from this part of the world to yours are lyable to inspection and many accidents. I see a separation must be that will expose them to the disrespect and ridicule of many; coud they live together in the way proposed it might prevent much of that but I can’t hope or expect it from what I know.

As to my advice or directions with regard to any plan you, and my other freinds, to whom I fear I have given much trouble and to whom in any event I shall rekon myself oblig’d there is no sort of use for them, you are best judges, and as I am well satisfied that everything will be don and ordered for the best, I shall be as satisfied with any consequence. I am glade you think of raising nurseries and planting, I sent from this Country to be forwarded by Mr. Gatty from Belfast two Barrels of the different kindes of Timber tree seeds &c. but I doubt they will be too late excepting the Pines which seed will do when two year old.

Your letter came a few days ago by an advice Ship of War, which superceeded My Lord Loudoun in the Command and General Abercrombie appointed in his place, with many other changes and promotions in our Military affairs in this Continent, how far they may change our Luck I shall not pretend to judge, but we have need of some sort of medicine for that end. We have a prospect of a very warm and vigorous campaign, and I hope it will be successful. Our Regiment is appointed for the Lewisburgh Expedition, but as we are so far up in the Country where the Generall is to have his department and opperations it is yet uncertain but he may keep us with him; we are all in very good health and compleat for service.

I cannot yet know what remittance I can make for this year, some I will and shall, sometime before we take the field or the midle of May. To prevent a relaps of my last years companion I travelled to the Southard during the severity of the winter to N. York and Philadelfia &c. which have had the desyrd effect and I’m now as chois as ever, but it will not enlarge the remittance.

I have had no letter from Sandy Campbell since Aprile last, Nor from Jesie since July, I received one from Mr. Richardson with yours which I shall answer by next Pacquett and tell him so with my compliments. Lykways please tell Peter Campbell that his letter came at the same time, and that as Adam Fisher is here I had are opportunity of enquiring about his son who is at present out as master, not Capt. of a Privateer there was no such prizes or Fortoune as Peter believed what may be now I know not but there is no great prospect of it. This is the only letter I write by the first Pacquett, so that you may communicate it to my friends as a proof of my being well and youll in the same course make my compliments to them all.

I’m sorry that Captain Campbell should make objections to the payment of his Bill; he brought me 3 * * * for which I cleared him all his charge and gav * * * at that time 20 guineas over for his own trouble * * * expense this he knows and will appear by my * * * which you can see; * * * this indeed I thought suitable any expense he coud incur in Mull and that it * * * my power to give him or not the raising of an * * * rather than have any difference about it let h * * * what I had allowed me by the Regiment which was £3 per man for the first two years and two guineas for the remaining years that at a medium or the full as you please but I hope he’ll allow interest upon what Ballance may be due by him upon such an amot from the time it fell due April 46 when he went to the Regt.

I am, My dear Sir, Your affect, humble servant. Dun. Campbell.

To

John Campbell of Cloichombie Esqr. Inveraray, North Brittain.

(edge of letter torn off--hence gaps) (J.F.C.)

The letter bears the Inverawe arms on seal and is endorsed, probably by the addressee “14th March 1758, from Inveraw concerning his familie and affairs and Lieut. Collonel Dugd. Campbell’s Bill.”