Collecting a body of eager young men, he drilled them in military tactics. In December, 1774, he attacked Fort William and Mary, at Newcastle, at the mouth of the Piscataqua river, and took the place in daylight. In spite of the fire of the garrison, he entered without losing a man, and pulled down the British flag. This was the first hostile act of the kind in the war of the Revolution. He carried the cannon and powder to Durham, where it was stored partly in a barn and partly in the cellar of the Congregational church edifice, on the site of which the monument reared to his honor now stands. The powder reached Bunker Hill in time to fill the horns of the militia. Indeed, this was about the only supply that our men behind the breastworks and rail fence had. Sullivan commanded at Boston and on Long Island, and fought at Trenton, Princeton, Brandywine, Germantown and in Rhode Island.
Up to this time, 1779, the French Alliance had not amounted to anything, and there were but fifteen thousand regular Continental soldiers fit for duty. Yet so important did Washington consider this expedition to destroy the Iroquois power that he detached one-third of his whole force, or 5000 picked Continentals. In its organization the army of chastisement consisted of four brigades, a regiment of artillery and eight companies of riflemen, making about five thousand men, with about two thousand pack horses and twenty-five hundred cattle and two fleets of boats for river service, with stores and ammunition. The New Hampshire brigade, then encamped at Redding, Conn., and the New Jersey brigade at Elizabeth, N. J., with the Pennsylvania regiments, were ordered to march to Easton, and thence to move on to Wyoming, from which point the stores and cannon were to follow the army until they should reach Tioga Point, where is now Athens. Here they were to be joined by the New York brigade from Schenectady.
The Chemung and the Susquehanna, flowing from the east and the west out of the heart of the Indian country, approach very near to each other at Tioga Point, enclosing a pretty peninsula shaped like an arrow head. Further down they meet and unite in one stream, the lordly Susquehanna, on which canoes could reach the cities on the Chesapeake Bay or any of the rivers flowing into it. Tioga Point was the Southern Door of the Long House of the Iroquois confederacy, and here, as a base of supplies, a diamond-shaped fort with a block house at each corner, with hospital and barracks, was to be built. Upon this the army could fall back in case of defeat, and here be re-victualed on their return march.
In the rivers, nature provided the only highways, though the Iroquois during centuries of war, trade and travel had made many trails. From Tioga Point the Continentals were to march up the Chemung Valley and thence into the wonderfully fertile lake country of Central New York. Along the ridge overlooking Seneca Lake they would pass, in order to strike the Tory headquarters and center of supplies at the lake’s northern end, where then stood a big Indian village, and now not far away is the city of Geneva. Thence westwardly they were to move to Canandaigua and along the great trail at the southern end of the smaller lakes, Canadice, Hemlock and Conesus, into the valley of the Genesee. Possibly they might be able to reach the British fort at Niagara.
Indeed, in the great virgin wilderness of Central and Western New York there was no other way of advance, save through the river valleys and along Indian trails. When leaving the former and advancing through the forests, it would be necessary for the axemen to chop their way. In miry places the pioneers must cut down trees, lay the logs and make corduroy roads. Swamps must be filled and the smaller streams bridged. In many parts of the country to be traversed there were indeed large open spaces where the cornfields of the Indians furnished stores of food, while their gardens yielded, as our men discovered, twelve kinds of vegetables. Yet in the main, the army would have to march through a country covered with timber and brush wood.
A large force of axemen, pioneers, surveyors and road-makers would be necessary, especially as the artillery must be carried along, for Washington, being himself a backwoodsman and an Indian fighter, knew the persuasive power of cannon with the Indians. Brave as the painted warriors undoubtedly were, they preferred fighting behind logs and trees under cover. They objected, most decidedly, to stand up in ranks and coolly keep their places in the presence of howitzers that could tear them to pieces, not only by a frontal attack, but by sending shells to burst among and behind them. The Indian had physical stamina, but he lacked moral courage. Washington knowing this, ordered Colonel Proctor to take nine pieces of artillery and his regiment of three hundred artillerists.
Of the guns, two were howitzers of five and a half inch caliber that could throw bombs, two were six, and four were three pounders. Then there was a Coehorn mortar, so light that it could be borne by four men. This diminutive implement of war proved to be very effective, being usually posted in the advance and easily carried over hill and valley. Mounted on an iron frame, with hickory legs, it could easily be “laid” or aimed at any angle. After a discharge it always kicked itself over, and, because of its long spindle-like limbs, the soldiers called it “the grasshopper.” Along with Proctor’s (now the Second United States) Artillery went “a band of music,” that is, a fife and drum corps. In all, there were about two hundred musicians with their drum and fife majors. The lively tunes, such as “The White Cockade,” “The Tall Grenadier,” and “Derry Down,” greatly inspirited our men, while at the solemn burials in the forest, “Roslin Castle” was the usual dirge.
Each regiment had its chaplain, and until the advance from Tioga Point in battle array there were frequent services for worship and preaching at the camps.
Washington’s plan was to have a right and a left wing to the main body. While Sullivan advanced through the Susquehanna country, Clinton’s New Yorkers, with part of the Sixth Massachusetts, were to move up the Mohawk river and valley with two field pieces and a fleet of two hundred boats. At Canajoharie he was to load his stores and boats on wagons, each drawn by eight horses, and march over the hills to Otsego Lake, thence to descend the outlet and enter the Susquehanna at Chenango Point where Binghamton now stands. Floating past Owego, he was to join Sullivan at Tioga Point, where the Chemung and Susquehanna unite. This programme was very successfully carried out.
The left wing, at Pittsburg, was led by Colonel Daniel Brodhead, a Continental veteran, afterwards Surveyor-General of Pennsylvania. He had assembled about six hundred men, including some friendly Delawares and Cherokees, with one month’s provisions, and started August 11, transporting his cattle and pack horses to Mahoning. Entering the country of the Mingoes and the Muncey tribes in Western Pennsylvania, and the Seneca towns in Southwestern New York, he desolated their houses and corn fields.