Colonel Henry Ludington: A Memoir

by Willis Fletcher Johnson

Henry Ludington enlisted in Captain Foote’s company of the Second Connecticut Regiment, a notable body of troops which was put forward to bear much of the brunt of the campaign. The regiment was at first commanded by Colonel Elizur Goodrich, and later by Colonel Nathan Whiting, one of the most distinguished Colonial officers of that war. The regiment was assigned to duty under Major-General (afterward Sir) William Johnson, who, with a Colonial army and numerous Indian allies under the famous Mohawk chieftain Hendrick, was moving to meet the French at Lake George. The march from New Haven was made by way of Amenia and Dover, in Dutchess County, New York, to the Hudson River, and thence northward to the “dark and bloody ground” of the North Woods. Young Ludington was of a lively and venturesome disposition and, as family traditions show, had a propensity to practical joking which more than once put him in peril of not undeserved punishment, which, however, he managed to avoid.

It was early in September, 1755, when he was in only his seventeenth year, that the young soldier received his “baptism of fire” in the desperate battle of Lake George, near the little sheet of water afterward known as Bloody Pond because of the hue its water took from the gory drainage of the battlefield. General Johnson, with his Colonial troops and Indian allies, was moving northward. Baron Dieskau, with a French and Indian army, moving southward, embarked at Fort Frederick, Crown Point, came down the lake in a fleet of small boats, and landed at Skenesborough, now Whitehall. On the night of Sunday, September 7, word came to Johnson that the enemy was marching down from Fort Edward to Lake George, and early the next morning plans were made to meet them. It was at first suggested that only a few hundred men be sent forward to hold the enemy in check until the main army could dispose and fortify itself, but Hendrick, the shrewd Mohawk warrior, objected to sending so small a force. “If they are to fight,” he said, “they are too few; if they are to be killed, they are too many.” Accordingly the number was increased to 1,200, comprising and, indeed, led by the Connecticut troops. Colonel Ephraim Williams, a brave and skilful officer, was in command, with Colonel Nathan Whiting, of New Haven, as his chief lieutenant. They came upon the enemy at Rocky Brook, about four miles from Lake George, and found the French and Indians arrayed in the form of a crescent, the horns of which extended for some distance on both sides of the road which there led through a dense forest. The devoted Colonial detachment marched straight at the center of the crescent, and was quickly attacked in front and on both flanks at the same time. Williams and Hendrick were among the first to fall, and their followers were cut down in great numbers. Thereupon Colonel Whiting succeeded to the general command, and perceiving that the Colonials were outnumbered and outflanked, ordered a retreat, which was skilfully conducted, with little further loss. When the army was thus reunited, hasty preparations were made to meet the onslaught of the foe, and at noon the conflict began in deadly earnest. The forces were commanded, respectively, by Johnson and Dieskau in person, until the former was disabled by a wound, when his place was taken by General Lyman, who fulfilled his duties with singular ability and success. After four hours of fighting on the defensive, the English and Colonials leaped over their breastworks and charged the foe with irresistible fury. The French and Indians were routed with great slaughter, and Baron Dieskau himself, badly wounded, was taken prisoner.

Old gun used by Henry Ludington in the French and Indian War. Now owned by Frederick Ludington, son of the late Governor Harrison Ludington, of Wisconsin.

(From sketch made by Miss Alice Ludington, great-great-granddaughter of Henry Ludington.)

Henry Ludington was in the thickest of both parts of this battle, having been in the detachment which was sent forward in advance. He came off unscathed, but he had the heartrending experience of seeing both his uncle and his cousin shot dead at his side. These were probably his uncle Amos Ludington (called Asa in the “East Haven Register,” as already noted), son of Eliphalet Ludington, and his cousin Ezra, son of Daniel Ludington. The uncle fell first, pierced by a French bullet. The cousin sprang to his side and stooped to lift him, and in the act was himself shot, and a few moments later both died. Soon after this battle the term of enlistment of the Connecticut militia expired, but reënlistments were general. According to the French and Indian War Rolls, and the Connecticut Historical Collections as searched by Mr. Patrick, Henry Ludington again enlisted on April 19, 1756, served under Colonel Andrew Ward at Crown Point, and was discharged at the expiration of his term on November 13, 1756. Again, he was in Lieutenant Maltbie’s company, under Colonel Newton, at the time of the “general alarm” for the relief of Fort William Henry, in August, 1757, on which occasion his time of service was only fifteen days. Finally, he was in the campaign of 1759, in the Second Connecticut Regiment, under Colonel Nathan Whiting, being a member of David Baldwin’s Third Company. In this year he enlisted on April 14, and was duly discharged on December 21, 1759. During this memorable period of service the young soldier marched with the British and American troops to Canada, and participated in the crowning triumph at Quebec, on September 13, 1759, and a little later was intrusted with the charge of a company of sixty wounded or invalid soldiers, who were to return to New England. The march was made across country, from Quebec to Boston, in the dead of the very severe winter of 1759-60, and the labors and perils of the journey were sufficient to tax to the utmost the skill and resourcefulness of the youth of only twenty years. For many nights their camp consisted of caves or burrows in the snowdrifts, where they slept on beds of spruce boughs, wrapped in their blankets. Provisions failed, too, and some meals were made of the bark and twigs of birch trees and the berries of the juniper. Through all these hardships young Ludington led his comrades safely to their destination. Then, in the spring of 1760, he proceeded from Boston to Branford, and thus terminated for the time his active military career. In recognition of his services he received from King George II the commission of a lieutenant in the British Colonial Army, which he held until, in the succeeding reign, news came of the enactment of the Stamp Act, when he resigned it. Later, on February 13, 1773, he accepted a captain’s commission from William Tryon, the last British governor of New York, which he held until the beginning of the Revolution. This commission was in the regiment commanded by Beverly Robinson, that eminent British Loyalist who was the intermediary between Sir Henry Clinton and Benedict Arnold. It was at Robinson’s country mansion that much of Arnold’s plotting was done, and it was there, while at dinner, that the traitor received the news of the failure of his treason through the capture of his agent, Major André.

Reduced Fac-simile of the Commission of Henry Ludington as Captain in Col. Beverly Robinson’s Regiment.

From William Tryon last British Governor of the Province of New York.

(Original in possession of Charles H. Ludington, New York City.)