They also erected a small stockade fort near the Oswego Falls, and built Fort Stanwix, on the Mohawk. Thus, in a military point of view, Oswego remained until our war for independence broke out. **
This post was rather too remote for active operations, during the first years of the war, to attract the serious attention of either party, and the fort was garrisoned by only a few men until the summer of 1777, when St. Leger, with seven hundred Hangers, detached from the army of Burgoyne at St. John's, on the Sorel, made this his place of rendezvous preparatory to his incursion into the Valley of the Mohawk. Here he was joined by Sir John Johnson and Colonel Daniel Claus, with nearly seven hundred Indians, under Brant, and four hundred regular troops. Here a war feast was given, and, certain of success, the party, in high spirits, departed to invest Fort Stanwix. A different scene was exhibited a few weeks later at Oswego. St. Leger, foiled, and his troops utterly routed, came hastening back in all the terror and confusion of a retreat, the victors in hot pursuit. His Indian allies, greatly alarmed, were scattered over the vast forests, and a mere remnant of his army,
1757.
1758.
* His note to Colonel Littlehales was as follows: "The Marquis of Montcalm, army and field marshal, commander-in-chief of his most Christian majesty's troops, is ready to receive a capitulation upon the most honorable conditions, surrendering to him all the forts. They shall be shown all the regard the politest nation can show. I send an aid-de-camp on my part, viz., Mons. de Bougainville, captain of dragoons; they need only send the capitulation to be signed. I require an answer by noon. I have kept Mr. Drake for a hostage. "Montcalm." "August 14, 1756."
* Mrs. Grant, of Edinburgh, Scotland, in her "Memoirs of an American Lady," gives a charming picture of the scenery about Oswego in 1761-2. She was then a child, and resided there with her father; and her book presents all the vividness of a child's impressions. She noted, in particular, a feature in the forest scenery which now delights the sojourner upon the southern shores of Lake Ontario—the sudden bursting forth of leaves and flowers in the spring. Major Duncan, who was in command of the fort at that lime, was a gentleman of taste, and, in addition to a large and well-cultivated garden, he had a bowling green and other pleasure grounds. These were the delight of the author of the "Memoirs," whose pleasing pictures may be found in chapters xliv. to xlvii. inclusive.
Willett's Attempt to Capture Fort Oswego.—Oswego in 1798.—Attack upon Oswego in 1814.—Fort Oswego
without arms, half naked, and nearly starved, followed him to Fort Ontario, whence he fled to Montreal. The details of the siege of Fort Stanwix will be given hereafter.
There was no engagement at Oswego during the Revolution. Just at the close of the war, Washington conceived the design of securing Fort Ontario, and sent an expedition thither under the command of Colonel Marinus Willett, who had been an efficient officer in the Mohawk Valley from the time of the siege of Fort Stanwix. Preliminary articles of peace had been signed in November previous, but as the terms were not definitely agreed upon, it was the policy of the commander-in-chief to be prepared for the reopening of hostilities, and, therefore, until the settlement was finally made, in September, 1783, by the signing of the definitive treaty, his vigilance was unrelaxed. This enterprise was undertaken in mid-winter. Willett assembled his troops at Fort Herkimer, on the German Flats, and on the 9th of February crossed the Oneida Lake on the ice, and reached Oswego Falls 1783 the next morning. Not being strong enough in numbers to attempt a siege or an open assault, he there prepared scaling-ladders, and determined to surprise the garrison that night. A deep snow lay upon the ground, and the weather was so intensely cold that one of the soldiers was frozen to death. A young Oneida Indian acted as guide, but the snow and the darkness caused him to lose his way.