[FN] Conversations of the author with John Frank, Esq., of German Flats.
A few incidents of the more distant border operations of the opening season will close the present chapter. The Shawanese and their immediate allies continued to be exceedingly troublesome along the Ohio. Among the single captives taken by them, by stratagem, early in the Spring, was a man named Alexander McConnel, of the Kentucky settlers. He found his captors, five in number, to be pleasant tempered and social, and he succeeded in winning their confidence, by degrees, until they essentially relaxed the rigors of his confinement at night. His determination was of course to escape. At length his fastenings were so slight, that while they were asleep he succeeded in the entire extrication of his limbs. Still he dared not to fly, lest escape from so many pursuers should be impracticable, and his life, should he be re-taken, would surely be required in payment for the rash attempt. To strike them successively with one of their own tomahawks would be impossible. His next plan was cautiously to remove three of their loaded rifles to a place of concealment, which should, nevertheless, be convenient for his own purpose. Then placing the other two at rest upon a log, the muzzle of one aimed at the head of one Indian, and the other at the heart of a second, with both hands he discharged the rifles together, by which process two of his enemies were killed outright. As the three others sprang up in amazement, McConnel ran to the rifles which he had concealed. The work was all but of a moment. Seizing another rifle, and bringing it in range of two of the three remaining savages, both fell with the discharge, one dead and the other wounded. The fifth took to his heels, with a yell of horror which made the forest ring. Selecting the rifle which he liked best, the subtle hunter pursued his way back at his pleasure.
On the 23d of June, Colonel Bird, at the head of five hundred Indians and Canadians, or American refugees, with six pieces of light artillery, fell upon the Kentucky settlement at the forks of the Licking river. Taken by surprise, the inhabitants seem to have made little, if any, resistance. Only one man was killed outright, and two women. All the others were taken prisoners, the settlement plundered, and the inhabitants marched off, bending beneath the weight of their own property for the benefit of the spoiler. Those who sank under their burdens by the way, were tomahawked. This outrage was promptly and severely avenged by Colonel Clarke, commanding at the falls of the Ohio, who immediately led his regiment into the heart of the Shawanese country—laying their principal town on the Great Miami in ashes, and taking seventy scalps, with the loss of only seventeen of his own men. [FN]
[FN] Adventures of Colonel Daniel Boon. The British account of Colonel Bird's expedition, as published in New-York, stated that he destroyed several small forts, and made a number of prisoners. "Most of the inhabitants of these new settlements," it was added, "from the extraordinary mild treatment of the Colonel, accompanied him, preferring to settle in the countries under the King to those of the Congress. Several of them have gone to Detroit, Niagara, &c."—Vide Almon's Remembrancer, Part II. 1780, page 347.
[CHAPTER III.]
Night invasion of Johnstown, by Sir John Johnson, with an army of Indians and loyalists—The Visschers—The route of Sir John—Arrest of the Sammons family—Destruction of their property—March along the river—Burning of buildings, and murders of aged people—Destruction of Caughnawaga—Return to Johnson Hall—Proceedings there—Thomas Sammons escapes—Sir John moves off—Sampson Sammons applies for his liberty—His speech—The object of the expedition—Recovery of the Baronet's plate—A faithful slave—Character of the expedition—Sir John returns to Montreal—Jacob and Frederick Sammons carried into captivity—Imprisoned at Chamblee—Conspiracy to escape—Prisoners refuse to join them—The brothers escape alone—The pursuit— Separation—Journey, adventures and sufferings of Jacob Sammons—Arrives at Schenectady—The narrative returns to Frederick—Perils of his escape—Prosperous commencement of his journey—Dreadful sickness—His recapture—Confined in irons at Chamblee—Removed to an Island—Projects an escape—Plot discovered—Ironed again—Second plan of escape—Perilous leap into the St. Lawrence—Swimming the Rapids—Other surprising adventures, by flood and field—Crossing the woods to Schenectady—Remarkable fulfillment of a dream—Direct history of the Mohawk country resumed—Destruction of Canajoharie by the Indiana—Conduct of Brant—Case of doubtful courage.
Although the struggle had now been maintained more than five years, still the people of the lower section of the Mohawk Valley, severely as they had experienced the calamities of the war, had not yet by any means received the full measure of their suffering. Harassed by perpetual alarms, and oppressively frequent calls to the field—their numbers reduced by death and desertion, and by removals from a country so full of troubles—their situation was far from being enviable. Though unconscious of immediate danger from a formidable invasion, they were nevertheless in more peril than at any former period, from their diminished ability of self-protection. Hitherto, with the exception of small forays upon the outskirts, the lower valley, containing by far the largest amount of population, had not been traversed by an invading enemy. But it was their lot, in the course of the present season, repeatedly to experience the tender mercies of an exasperated enemy, armed with knife, and tomahawk and brand, and to see their fairest villages laid waste, their fields desolated, and their dwellings reduced to ashes.
The first blow was as sudden as it was unexpected—especially from the quarter whence it came. On Sunday the twenty-first of May, at dead of night, Sir John Johnson entered the north part of Johnstown at the head of five hundred men, composed of some British troops, a detachment of his own regiment of Royal Greens, and about two hundred Indians and Tories. Sir John had penetrated the country by way of Lake Champlain to Crown Point, and thence through the woods to the Sacondaga river; and so entirely unawares had he stolen upon the sleeping inhabitants, that he arrived in the heart of the country undiscovered, except by the resident loyalists, who were probably in the secret. Before he reached the old Baronial Hall at Johnstown—the home of his youth, and for the recovery of which he made every exertion that courage and enterprise could put forth—Sir John divided his forces into two detachments, leading one in person, in the first instance, directly to the Hall, and thence through the village of Johnstown; while the other was sent through a more eastern settlement, to strike the Mohawk river at or below Tripe's Hill, from whence it was directed to sweep up the river through the ancient Dutch village of Caughnawaga, [FN-1] to the Cayadutta Creek—at which place a junction was to be formed with Sir John himself. This disposition of his forces was made at the still hour of midnight—at a time when the inhabitants were not only buried in slumber, but wholly unsuspicious of approaching danger. What officer was in command of the eastern division is not known, but it was one of the most stealthy and murderous expeditions—murderous in its character, though but few were killed—and the most disgraceful, too, that marked the progress of the war in that region. During the night-march of this division, and before reaching the river, they attacked the dwelling-house of Mr. Lodowick Putnam, who, together with his son, was killed and scalped. The next house assailed was that of a Mr. Stevens, which was burnt, and its owner killed. Arriving at Tripe's Hill, they murdered three men, by the names of Hansen, Platts, and Aldridge. Hansen, who was a captain of militia, was killed by an Indian to whom he had formerly shown great kindness, and who had in return expressed much gratitude. The houses of all, it is believed, were plundered before the application of the torch. Proceeding toward Caughnawaga, about day-light they arrived at the house of Colonel Visscher—occupied at the time by himself, his mother, and his two brothers. It was immediately assaulted. Alarmed at the sounds without, the Colonel instantly surmised the cause, and being armed, determined, with his brothers, to defend the house to the last. They fought bravely for a time, but the odds were so fearfully against them, that the house was soon carried by storm. The three brothers were instantly stricken down and scalped, and the torch applied to the house. Having thus completed their work, the enemy proceeded on their way up the river. Fortunately, however, the Colonel himself was only wounded. On recovering from the shock of the hatchet, he saw the house enveloped in flames above and around him, and his two brothers dead by his side. But, grievously wounded as he was, he succeeded in removing their mangled bodies from the house before the burning timbers fell in. His own wounds were dressed, and he lived many years afterward. Mrs. Visscher, the venerable mother of the Colonel, was likewise severely wounded by being knocked on the head by an Indian; but she also survived. The slaughter along the Mohawk, to the village of Caughnawaga, would have been greater, but for the alertness of Major Van Vrank, who contrived to elude the enemy, and by running ahead, gave the alarm, and enabled many people to fly as it were in puris naturalibus across the river. [FN-2]