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THE CAMP-FIRE AT MOUNT INDEPENDENCE
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The memorable invasion of Canada, in 1776, so full of successes, defeats, hardships, and sufferings, had terminated in the retreat of the American troops. In the place of the able and faithful General Schuyler, General Gates was appointed to command the northern army, and through his exertions it soon became more regular in its discipline, and improved in condition in every respect. Instead of mediating the commencement of offensive operations, Gates was compelled to prepare to repel an invasion threatened by the British in Canada. The army under Gates had increased, during the summer, to 12,000 men. Upon learning that Sir Guy Carleton had evacuated Crown Point, General Gates dismissed the militia that had joined him, with many thanks for their services; this lessened the trouble of procuring provisions, a difficulty that became greater as the winter set in.
The famous post of Ticonderoga, on Lake Champlain, was the head-quarters of General Gates. The possession of this strong position was absolutely necessary to any power which was contending for the command of the adjacent country. Its eastern side was naturally almost impregnable: being situated on a rocky promontory, it presented a rugged front to the lake. The northern and western sides were protected by strong lines of defense, aided by an extensive morass. The surrounding country, beyond the morass, was composed of a thick and tangled wood. In this fortress, a large portion of the troops was stationed. Mount Independence, directly opposite to Ticonderoga, was strongly fortified, and well supplied with artillery. On the summit of the Mount, which is table-land, was erected a strong fort, in the centre of which was a convenient square of barracks, which were occupied by the troops. It was about the first of November. The weather was chilly and raw, but winter's approach was not yet severely felt. For about two weeks previous, there had been an anxious expectation that Sir Guy Carleton would make an attempt to capture the posts of Ticonderoga and Mount Independence; but expectation had been disappointed, for Carleton, convinced of the strength of the works, was induced to abandon the project, and return to Canada. This, of course, gave a feeling of security to the garrisons of the two posts. They had nothing to fear till about the middle of January, when the lake would be frozen over, capable of bearing horses, and an attack might be made with more prospect of success. It was a moonlight night; beautiful, though cold. The soft light was flowing upon the scene of lake, and hill, and valley, bathing them in beauty. The bosom of the lake was gently ruffled by the chilly breeze, and the ripples sparkled in the silvery light. The black-mouthed cannon loomed from the fort on the mount as if to warn a foe, if such were near, of the death that awaited an attack. Most of the men were in the barracks, glad to get near a good cheerful fire, and enjoy each other's conversation. Some, more sensible to the beauties of such a night, were walking out on the open space within the walls of the fort, enjoying the scene presented to their view. The company around a fire in one of the apartments in the barracks, shall interest us at present with their conversation. The fires were built upon a large hearth on one side of the apartment; and about a dozen men were sitting around it, in the form of a semicircle. They were comfortably clothed, but without that uniformity that would designate them as soldiers, at the first glance. Some of them were pale and thin-looking, as if they had just recovered from sickness. Others, and the greater portion of them, were stout, hearty-looking men whose appearance denoted that they had encountered many hardships, but could yet brave much more fatigue and privation. "Bill," said one of the party, to a pale, sickly -looking individual, "we must keep the log rollin'. It's your turn next. Bob come first, and then it'll come around in this direction. Tell us about anything you know and think we don't know." "Yes," keep it movin'," said another. "you must pour out somethin'." "Really," said Bill. "I don't think I could amuse you with anything I know." "You were with the army on the Canada expedition; weren't you?" enquired the one who had first spoken. "Yes; but I suppose you've all heard about that, long ago," returned Bill. "I've heard that there was an invasion of Canada, and that Montgomery was killed there, and our troops were forced to retreat," remarked another. That's pretty near the extent of my knowledge'" said another of the group. I should like to hear an account of it, by one who went through it all." "Come, Bill, you'll have to tell us something; so you might as well give us that as anything else, said the one nearest the fire, on one side, who had been called Bob. "It's our law, that every one in the mess must either tell a story, or sing a song." "Well," replied Bill, "while I run over some of the details in my mind, so as to bring them up fresh in my memory let John, here, next to me, sing a song." "I kick against that arrangement," said John. "I don't pretend to sing; besides, I don't know anything you'd care about hearin'." "You can sing, returned Bob; " and you do know somethin' that I, at least, care about hearin'. You want a little coaxin', I guess. There's that song I heard you singin' the other night, about throwin' the tea overboard in Boston harbor. That's a good song." "I can sing you that song very easy; but I don't think it's a good one," John replied. "It's called 'The Destruction of the Tea,' and is sung to the tune of 'Hosier's Ghost.'" "Go on then," said Bob; and John, with sundry of the customary preliminaries, proceeded to sing the ditty that follows: --- As near beauteous Boston lying "That's a good song, and it was well sung," said one of the men, called Jake, for shortness. "I like to hear a song that's got a chorus to it, a good deal better than one that hasn't though." "You like to help to roar it out, I suppose," remarked Bob. "Not for that alone," said Jake. " There seems to be a good deal more life abut it." "Well," enquired Bob, "have you 'most got your memory raked up, Bill." "Yes, I think I can go on with the story now," was the reply. "Then push ahead." "Well," Bill began, "when I heard there was going to be an invasion of Canada, I was at work on my father's farm , up here near Schenectady. I heard that they were raising troops for the invasion both in this State and Massachusetts; and in spite of all my father's objections, I would go. Accordingly, I joined the troops under Arnold, then at Cambridge. You see, the expedition under Arnold was going through a route that had scarcely ever been explored, and that promised something new. I preferred to go with that detachment, because there would be more glory acquired by accomplishing such a march as was expected; besides, there were several other young men of our neighborhood going with the same party. I had then no thought of its being so full of hardship as it proved to be. "Well, we started from Cambridge in the middle of September. We were to penetrate into Canada, by ascending the Kennebec, and descending the Chaudiere rivers, till we got to the St. Lawrence. We were pretty well fitted out with clothing, ammunition, batteaux for ascending the rivers, and many other things. It wasn't certain how long we would be on the route, and that was the reason why we didn't take provision enough. The commander of the expedition had scarcely any idea of the obstacles we would have to overcome, and didn't calculate to be more than half the time going that we really was. Well, after sailing from Newburyport in transports, for two days, we commenced to ascend the Kennebec river. "The current was very strong, and we had to work all the time against it. We would often come across a fall in the river, and then the whole party would have to get out of the boats, and carry them on the land till we got above the fall. I tell you, that one day's journey in this way was almost as much as one would want to perform. When night would come on, we would get out of the boats, and hauling them up on the shore, encamp in the woods for the night; and hard as was our beds, the days work was so much harder, that we were glad to get ashore and rest anywhere. "Some of the men, that had come from the town, and weren't used to such work, fell sick after two or three days' travel, and they of course, added to the encumbrances we had to bear. It was rather a bad time and place for men to get sick. The comforts and attendance sick people ought to have, weren't to be had with us --- and they knew it, too; for they held out till they almost dropped down with weakness. One of my companions, that came from the same neighborhood as I did, fell sick among the rest, and I paid him all the attention I could, but that wasn't much. He had a sort of a fever, brought on by exerting himself too much. Rest being the thing he wanted most, he soon got better; and although he couldn't do any work of any account, he ceased to be an encumbrance." "That is," said Bob, "you hadn't the trouble of carrying him like the baggage." "Exactly," replied Bill. "well, we continued on in the rough way we began for two days; working very hard all day, rowing; and dragging the boats up places where the stream was too rapid for us to row or push the boats while in them. Colonel Arnold worked among the men, and pretty near as hard; and so did Colonel Greene, and Major Bigelow, and Major Meigs. Captain Daniel Morgan was at the head of the riflemen. He is a brave man; and I think if he's only spared long enough, he'll be something great." "Whose regiment were you in?" enquired John. "Greene's regiment --- Colonel Christopher Green," replied Bill. "You'll hear of him one of these days, I warrant you." "You must have had a great many batteaux, to take a thousand men up the river,: remarked bob. "Had you them all prepared before you started on the expedition?" "Yes," was the rely. "A company of carpenters had been sent from Cambridge some days before we left there. They had built two hundred batteaux for the party, at a small place called Pittston, on the Kennebec. They were all prepared when we got there. I didn't mention that circumstance, because I thought you might have heard about it. Well, you may judge of the toil we endured, burdened with our arms, ammunition, provisions, and clothing. When we carried the batteaux around a cataract or a rapid, we had all the baggage to carry with them. That was work such as I don't want to try again. "We passed up the river in this way slowly. A reconnoitring party of six or seven men had been sent ahead under the command of Lieutenant Steel, with orders to go as far as Lake Megantic, or Chaudire Pond, as the French called it, and procure such intelligence as they could from the Indians, who were said to be in the neighborhood, on a hunting excursion; and another party of seen men, with a surveyor and a guide, under the command of Lieutenant Church, to take the exact courses and distances of a stream called the Dead River. "I forgot to tell you the order in which we journeyed. Morgan went ahead with his riflemen; then came our party, under Greene and Bigelow, consisting of three companies of musketeers; next came Meigs, with four companies; and last came Colonel Enos, with the three remaining companies. On the third day of our progress, we came in sight of Norridgewock falls. A short distance below these falls, on the eastern bank of the river, was a wide and beautiful plain, where we were told, an Indian village had stood belonging to the tribe that the falls was named after --- the Norridgewocks. "They had once been a powerful tribe, and a French priest had come to civilize them, and lived there in that village among them for twenty-six years. The village had been attacked suddenly by the colonial forces sent against the Norridgewocks, and the priest and eighty Indians killed. The foundations of a church, and the ruins of an altar, were to be seen on the plain, and they looked rather strange in that neighborhood. At the Norridgewock Falls was a portage, where all the batteaux had to be taken out of the river, and carried a mile and a quarter by land. "Then came the hardest work. The banks on each side were uneven and rocky, and that made our progress slower still. We found, to mend the matter, that much of the provisions, particularly the bread, was damaged. The boats had been badly made, and were leaky. The men not knowing how to navigate them, was the cause of a good many accidents in ascending the rapids. The carpenters we had with us were set to work to repair the worst of the boats, and that kept us back some days. The two first divisions of the army, --- that is , Morgan's and ours, --- started two days before the rest. I think it was seven days, before the whole army was in motion again. "Colonel Arnold rode in a birch canoe, with an Indian for a guide, and was the last one to embark, as one of the men that was in the rear told me. However, we had scarcely arrived at the Great carrying-Place, about twelve miles below the mouth of the Dead river, before he overtook us. He must have traveled very fast. We had got along thus far tolerable well, considering everything. We were very tired. We had only lost one man by death, but some were sick, and a few had deserted, after tasting of the dangers we had to meet, and the work we had to perform. I didn't like it much; but there was no back-out in me. When I undertake to go anywhere, and do anything, I go through with it. So I resolved to brave it out, no matter what we might have to do. We mustered about nine hundred and fifty effective men, when we reached the Great Carrying-Place. We had passed four portages, or places where the boats had to be taken out of the water and carried a short distance on land. Colonel Arnold reported that he had twenty-five days' provisions for the whole detachment; and said he was pretty certain he could reach the Chaudiere River in eight or ten days." |
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