Part 4

If we may be excused for speaking from a very slight experience, we should say, there is no reason to suppose that any of Ward’s orders to his officers, on the occasion of the battle, were in writing. In 1814, when the British forces, freed from European service, were pouring into Canada, and apprehensions were entertained that they would make their way into our country, we joined the army under Gen. Izard, on the Champlain frontier, as one of the Massachusetts volunteers, and served in his staff through the campaign as topographical engineer. The general was soon ordered to the Niagara frontier, to save Gen. Brown from Drummond’s superior force, which we found posted on the north bank of the Chippewa River, and with very formidable fortifications along the southern shore likewise. Gen. Izard, finding that the enemy’s position was unassailable in front, was desirous of discovering whether the British fleet, with the large frigate they had been building, which was to give them the mastery over Commodore Chauncey, was out on Lake Ontario, so as to prevent him from getting on the enemy’s flank or rear. To gain this information, he ordered me, and not in writing, to go with a small detachment of infantry across the Niagara River in a boat, and proceed to the vicinity of Lake Ontario, to obtain the requisite information. That region was abandoned to the enemy, and deserted by all the Americans, excepting a few men who frequented it occasionally, to look after their property, though their fine crops were rotting on the ground. We embarked on the Canada side of the Niagara; and, as we neared the opposite shore, we were challenged by a body of musketeers demanding who we were. Neither party had any uniform, or other badge of nationality; and as they, being on _terra firma_, had us at a great disadvantage, my tactic was to gain time, while we were fast approaching the shore. But as I was only a soldier “by the book,” and very little of that, I was confounded with my situation. Having often pondered on Maj. André’s egregious indiscretion, in disclosing to his captors who he was, in place of claiming to be an American, which would have insured his safety, I was disposed to avoid his mistake, and pass our party off for English. But no simile goes on all–fours. In our case, had I guessed wrong as to their character, they would have responded with their guns. To gain time, I cried out, “Friends!” but that trick did not take; their muskets were levelled at us, and they swore they would fire, if we did not answer them directly. We were prepared for them, and I was compelled to show our colors. I cried out, “Americans!” when they hailed us, “Brothers!” to our great delight. We soon gained the information we were in pursuit of, and had the melancholy though magnificent view, with our glass, of the British fleet in the offing, on Lake Ontario. We reported these unpleasant tidings to Gen. Izard; and his whole plan of campaign was frustrated, and the war virtually over. The general, in his dilemma, consulted one of the most distinguished officers in the army, and as great a military genius probably as the world has produced,—young Col. M’Cree, of the engineers. On our arrival at Fort Erie, we found him in Gen. Brown’s staff; and he had really been the principal staff on which Brown had leaned to gain his brilliant success on the Niagara frontier. Gen. Izard was desirous of reaping the same advantage from M’Cree, who advised to a very ingenious and scientific expedient to extricate the general from his embarrassment. It was to construct a floating bridge at some distance above the enemy, on our side of the Chippewa, with one end fastened on our side, while the rest of the bridge was to be floated off into the river; and the other end, when the current had carried it to the opposite shore, to be attached there, for our army to pass over. But Gen. Brown, once relieved by Izard from Drummond’s superior force, seemed not at all disposed to assist him to gain any laurels in return. There was a marked jealousy and coldness between those officers, that precluded any joint enterprise of theirs from succeeding.

Brig.–Gen. Totten, now head of the engineer department, was a young engineer in Gen. Izard’s staff, and gained his first laurels at Plattsburgh. The forts he built there would have done him honor, even had he then gained his present high advancement. With the most unmanageable material, the sand of Plattsburgh, he contrived, with the aid of carpentry, to construct his forts with a skill, science, and ingenuity that would have rendered them impregnable, Gen. Izard declared, against the overwhelming force of Prevost, even if it had not been crippled by the naval victory of the gallant Com. M’Donough. When we left Plattsburgh for Fort Erie, Totten remained behind to test and fight his own works, which he did with great _éclat_. Winstanley, the gallant civil engineer, who bravely dared to prove his own light–house against as fierce an elemental strife as ever raged, fell a noble sacrifice to an inscrutable decree of Providence; but Totten, more fortunate, found his works were not to be subdued by man.

PAGE 30.

The author thinks we are mistaken as to the number of cannon belonging to the corps of artillery at Cambridge. Our informants, in 1818, were Col. Popkin and Capt. Trevett, captains in the corps; and they are so well known yet, from their high character, and the public stations they held, that we need say no more of their testimony. Capt. Trevett will be recollected as the distinguished officer in the battle, and for a great number of years commander of the revenue cutter at Boston. Col. Popkin was born at Boston, of Welsh descent. He had been in Paddock’s corps, was a major in Greaton’s regiment, and in the battle of White Plains; in the engagements at Saratoga as Aid to Gen. Lincoln; afterwards lieutenant–colonel of artillery under Crane, and left the army at the peace a colonel. He was a custom–house officer under Gen. Lincoln, in 1789, and remained in office till his decease, 1827, aged eighty–four. He was father of the learned, beloved, and respected Professor John S. Popkin, of Harvard University, for more than half a century past dear to all the friends of that institution, and whose sermons would do honor to any man.

PAGE 30.

Gen. Burbeck, who was with the army at the time of the battle, says, the following is an accurate description of Col. Prescott:—“Figure to yourself a man of sixty, six feet high, and somewhat round–shouldered, sunburned from exposure, with coarse leather shoes, and blue stockings, coarse home–spun cloth small–clothes, a red waistcoat, and a calico banian, answering to the sack worn at the present day, a three–cornered hat with a red cockade, and a bandoleer, or belt, with a sword hung high up under the left arm. You will say that it is a complete caricature; but such was the fact, and such was the dress of the heroes who fought at the Battle of Bunker Hill.”

“On the day of the battle,” Burbeck says, “Gen. Putnam rode between Charlestown and Cambridge without a coat, in his shirt sleeves, and an old white felt hat on, to report to Gen. Ward, and to consult on farther operations.”[18]

FOOTNOTES:

[1] The regular number to line the front of the redoubt would be 132.

[2] The author’s mode of stating evidence, by this extract of a note out of a whole trial, equals the clergyman who fulminated the following text against the flaunting top–knots our foremothers wore on their heads:—“Top–knot, come down,” leaving out the other words of “Let him on the house–top not come down.” Colman, in his “Broad Grins,” describes a very large man as three single gentlemen rolled into one: our author has contrived to roll up most of Scammans’s officers, who testify in his case, into a single witness. Page 164.

[3] Page 168. Note 1.

[4] Hon. Daniel Sargent.

[5] The author’s declaration, that Callender was tried for disobedience, 27th June, seems to be a poetic license. Ward orders the court–martial at that time, without the slightest intimation of such a charge. Fearing our readers’ incredulity, we have omitted hitherto another of our author’s mistakes: he sometimes, like St. Patrick, carries his head under his arm, instead of wearing it on his shoulders.

[6] For an interesting description of Putnam, see Appendix.

[7] Col. Putnam’s Letter.

[8] Frothingham says there was another anonymous general there. No other army general was there; and, if a militia one was, though of no importance, we should have heard of it, from some one of the mass of witnesses who were present.

[9] Of Canterbury. All the names we give are of the highest respectability: from their residences any one may inquire.

[10] Of Killingley.

[11] His pamphlet generally, especially page 13.

[12] Of Canterbury and Oswego.

[13] Shrewsbury.

[14] Gloucester.

[15] Letter of Capt. Holden, of Leicester.

[16] Warren was at Ward’s quarters; and, on the British coming out, Ward called him from his bed, as he promised to do, to go to Bunker Hill without any known restriction.

[17] The author says, Judge Prescott’s understanding and belief was, that the order to his father was in writing,—a very natural supposition for that eminent lawyer; but Ward had no adjutant–general to make out orders. His order to Col. Scammans on the 17th June was verbal: “Go where the fighting is.” And that to Prescott on the 16th was probably not more formal, or in writing: it could be only, “Go where the intrenching is.” (See Appendix.)

[18] June 15, ’75, a committee of Mass. Congress report Little’s regiment to have eight companies, 509 men, 382 of them with bayonets, and seven of the companies at Cambridge. Little’s orderly book is extant.

The British fired without aim, holding their guns below the shoulder, as, by reason of the recoil, they did in our war of 1812.

We conclude, as we commenced, with expressing our belief in the intentional honor and honesty of the author.

TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE:

—Obvious print and punctuation errors were corrected.