Ethan Allen, the Robin Hood of Vermont

by Henry Hall

The fire continued for some time on both sides; and I was confident that such a remote method of attack could not carry the ground, provided it should be continued till night; but near half the body of the enemy began to flank round to my right, upon which I ordered a volunteer by the name of John Dugan, who had lived many years in Canada and understood the French language, to detach about fifty Canadians, and post himself at an advantageous ditch which was on my right, to prevent my being surrounded. He advanced with the detachment, but instead of occupying the post made his escape, as did likewise Mr. Young upon the left, with their detachments. I soon perceived that the enemy was in possession of the ground which Dugan should have occupied. At this time I had but about forty-five men with me, some of whom were wounded; the enemy kept closing round me, nor was it in my power to prevent it; by which means my situation, which was advantageous in the first part of the attack, ceased to be so in the last; and being entirely surrounded with such vast, unequal numbers, I ordered a retreat, but found that those of the enemy who were of the country, and their Indians, could run as fast as my men, though the regulars could not. Thus I retreated near a mile, and some of the enemy with the savages kept flanking me, and others crowded hard in the rear. In fine, I expected in a very short time to try the world of spirits; for I was apprehensive that no quarter would be given to me, and therefore had determined to sell my life as dear as I could. One of the enemy's officers boldly pressing in the rear, discharged his fusee at me; the ball whistled near me, as did many others that day. I returned the salute and missed him, as running had put us both out of breath; for I concluded we were not frightened. I then saluted him with my tongue in a harsh manner, and told him that inasmuch as his numbers were so far superior to mine, I would surrender provided I could be treated with honor and be assured of a good quarter for myself and the men who were with me; and he answered I should; another officer, coming up directly after, confirmed the treaty; upon which I agreed to surrender with my party, which then consisted of thirty-one effective men and seven wounded. I ordered them to ground their arms, which they did.

The officer I capitulated with then directed me and my party to advance toward him, which was done; I handed him my sword, and in half a minute after a savage, part of whose head was shaved, being almost naked and painted, with feathers intermixed with the hair of the other side of his head, came running to me with an incredible swiftness; he seemed to advance with more than mortal speed; as he approached near me, his hellish visage was beyond all description; snakes' eyes appear innocent in comparison to his; his features distorted, malice, death, murder, and the wrath of devils and damned spirits are the emblems of his countenance, and in less than twelve feet of me, presented his firelock; at the instant of his present, I twitched the officer to whom I gave my sword between me and the savage; but he flew round with great fury, trying to single me out to shoot me without killing the officer, but by this time I was nearly as nimble as he, keeping the officer in such a position that his danger was my defence; but in less than half a minute, I was attacked by just such another imp of hell. Then I made the officer fly around with incredible velocity for a few seconds of time, when I perceived a Canadian who had lost one eye, as appeared afterward, taking my part against the savages; and in an instant an Irishman came to my assistance with a fixed bayonet, and drove away the fiends, swearing by —— he would kill them. This tragic scene composed my mind. The escaping from so awful a death made even imprisonment happy; the more so as my conquerors on the field treated me with great civility and politeness.

The regular officers said that they were very happy to see Colonel Allen. I answered them that I should rather choose to have seen them at General Montgomery's camp. The gentlemen replied that they gave full credit to what I said, and as I walked to the town, which was, as I should guess, more than two miles, a British officer walking at my right hand and one of the French noblesse at my left; the latter of which, in the action, had his eyebrow carried away by a glancing shot, but was nevertheless very merry and facetious, and no abuse was offered me till I came to the barrack yard at Montreal, where I met General Prescott, who asked me my name, which I told him; he then asked me whether I was that Colonel Allen who took Ticonderoga. I told him that I was the very man; then he shook his cane over my head, calling me many hard names, among which he frequently used the word rebel, and put himself in a great rage. I told him he would do well not to cane me, for I was not accustomed to it, and shook my fist at him, telling him that was the beetle of mortality for him if he offered to strike; upon which Captain M'Cloud of the British, pulled him by the skirt and whispered to him, as he afterward told me, to this import, that it was inconsistent with his honor to strike a prisoner. He then ordered a sergeant's command with fixed bayonets to come forward and kill thirteen Canadians who were included in the treaty aforesaid.

It cut me to the heart to see the Canadians in so hard a case, in consequence of their having been true to me; they were wringing their hands, saying their prayers, as I concluded, and expected immediate death. I therefore stepped between the executioners and the Canadians, opened my clothes, and told General Prescott to thrust his bayonet into my breast, for I was the sole cause of the Canadians taking up arms.

The guard in the mean time, rolling their eyeballs from the General to me, as though impatiently waiting his dread command to sheath their bayonets in my heart; I could however, plainly discern, that he was in a suspense and quandary about the matter; this gave me additional hopes of succeeding; for my design was not to die, but to save the Canadians by a finesse. The general stood a minute, when he made the following reply: "I will not execute you now, but you shall grace a halter at Tyburn, —— you."

I remember I disdained his mentioning such a place; I was, notwithstanding, a little pleased with the expression, as it significantly conveyed to me the idea of postponing the present appearance of death; besides, his sentence was by no means final as to "gracing a halter," although I had anxiety about it after I landed in England, as the reader will find in the course of this history. General Prescott then ordered one of his officers to take me on board the Gaspee schooner of war and confine me, hands and feet, in irons, which was done the same afternoon I was taken.

The action continued an hour and three-quarters by the watch, and I know not to this day how many of my men were killed, though I am certain there were but few. If I remember right, seven were wounded; one of them, Wm. Stewart by name, was wounded by a savage with a tomahawk after he was taken prisoner and disarmed, but was rescued by some of the generous enemy, and so far recovered of his wounds that he afterward went with the other prisoners to England.

Of the enemy, were killed a Major Carden, who had been wounded in eleven different battles, and an eminent merchant, Patterson, of Montreal, and some others, but I never knew their whole loss, as their accounts were different. I am apprehensive that it is rare that so much ammunition was expended and so little execution done by it; though such of my party as stood the ground, behaved with great fortitude—much exceeding that of the enemy—but were not the best of marksmen, and, I am apprehensive, were all killed or taken; the wounded were all put into the hospital at Montreal, and those that were not were put on board of different vessels in the river and shackled together by pairs, viz., two men fastened together by one handcuff being closely fixed to one wrist of each of them, and treated with the greatest severity, nay, as criminals.

I now come to the description of the irons which were put on me. The handcuff was of common size and form, but my leg irons I should imagine would weigh thirty pounds; the bar was eight feet long and very substantial; the shackles which encompassed my ankles were very tight. I was told by the officer who put them on that it was the king's plate, and I heard other of their officers say that it would weigh forty weight. The irons were so close upon my ankles, that I could not lay down in any other manner than on my back. I was put into the lowest and most wretched part of the vessel, where I got the favor of a chest to sit on; the same answered for my bed at night; and having procured some little blocks of the guard, who day and night, with fixed bayonets watched over me, to lie under each end of the large bar of my leg irons, to preserve my ankles from galling while I sat on the chest or lay back on the same, though most of the time, night and day, I sat on it; but at length having a desire to lie down on my side, which the closeness of my irons forbid, I desired the captain to loosen them for that purpose, but was denied the favor. The captain's name was Royal, who did not seem to be an ill-natured man, but oftentimes said that his express orders were to treat me with such severity, which was disagreeable to his own feelings; nor did he ever insult me, though many others who came on board did. One of the officers, by the name of Bradley, was very generous to me; he would often send me victuals from his own table; nor did a day fail, but he sent me a good drink of grog.