Lapas attēli
PDF
ePub

inclusive of Lake Champlain and Lake George. In 1742 the fort, having been enlarged, was the strongest work held by the French in Canada-Quebec and Louisburg only excepted. The five years' war, familiarly known as King George's war, involved the subjects of France and England in conflict, both in Europe and in America. A nominal peace was established by the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, in 1748. But soon the Acadian and other boundary contentions between the two Crowns were in ferment.

France practiced subtlety in her diplomatic negotiations, strengthened her frontier posts, and inoculated her Indian allies with hatred of her English colonial neighbors. In 1755 she built Fort Carillon, afterwards Ticonderoga, and thus advanced her outposts. Henceforth, and in a seven years' war, Fort Carillon and Ticonderoga bore the brunt of frontier aggrandizement. In August of that year Dieskau occupied Crown Point with 700 regulars, 1,600 Canadians, and 700 Indians. In 1756, 2,000 men of France were engaged on Fort Carillon; in 1757 it was garrisoned with 9,000 men under the Marquis de Montcalm. On July 8, 1758, Abercrombie, with regulars and provincials, unsuccessfully stormed its works and lost nearly 2,000 men. In the same year Robert Rogers, the intrepid ranger, lost 125 out of a total of 180 men. Upon the evacuation of the region by the French in 1759 General Amherst took possession of Ticonderoga in July, and of Crown Point in August. In 1760 Amherst assembled an army of 15,000 men at Crown Point, and in August of that year Colonel Haviland, with about 3,300 men, opened fire upon the French post at Isle aux Noix, forced the French commander, Bourlamaque, to withdraw, and captured the garrison that remained behind.

For a time after the treaty of Paris, in 1763, the region rested in comparative quiescence. England's acquisition by treaty of the vast domain of Canada eradicated the long-standing imbroglios with France in North America; but the intercolonial wars had schooled the EnglishAmerican colonists in the arts of prowess and of war. The colonists also had greater freedom to consider internal interests, being now relieved from the erstwhile collisions with the French. A narrow colonial policy lent itself toward the growth of a spirit of resentment in the colonies, and England's determination to enforce obedience to her will by the employment of military authority served only to fan the slumbering embers into a conflagration. It was under these conditions in May, 1775, that the audacious Ethan Allen, accompanied by only about 83 men, surprised the English garrison at Fort Ticonderoga and that Seth Warner took Crown Point, in each case without bloodshed. When De la Place, the English officer at Ticonderoga, asked Allen by what authority he demanded the fort's surrender, he replied with those now memorable words: "By the authority of the Great Jehovah and the Continental Congress." "The personality of Allen was and is yet a subject of academic controversy, but his action in this affair is a landmark in the romantic history of America.

Benedict Arnold has been execrated for his treason to his country, yet his name is connected with one of the greatest of patriotic services during the American Revolution. On October 11, 1776, he engaged in an extraordinary naval battle on Lake Champlain against the overwhelming odds of the British fleet under Sir Guy Carleton. This battle is in our naval annals of the Revolution what Bunker Hill is to our military history-"a battle wherein glory and renown were gained in

defeat." Spears, the naval historian, has characterized it thus: "Not only was the moral effect of this battle quite as great in the courage it gave the Americans, and the pause for thought it gave the enemy; it served to head off a victorious invading British army bound for Albany and the subjugation of northern New York. It taught the British that the Americans were not only willing, but they were able fighters. In spite of the tremendous odds against them, at the last they had proved proved themselves as unyielding as the rocks that echoed back the roar of the conflict."

Burgoyne made an unsuccessful attack upon the American occupants of Fort Ticonderoga in June, 1777, but with 7,000 men had forced the abandonment of Crown Point in that month; and in July, having erected a battery on Mount Defiance, which commanded Fort Ticonderoga, forced the Americans to evacuate it on the night of the 6th. The termination of the American Revolution, save for internal controversies between New York and Vermont, ended the storm and stress period in the Champlain Valley for many years, until our second war with Great Britain.

From September 6 to 11, 1814, various land engagements took place about Plattsburg. The British forces, numbering about 11,500 troops and including many of Lord Wellington's veterans, were under Sir George Prevost, governor and commander in chief in British North America; the Americans, commanded by Macomb and Bissell, numbered 4,500 men. On September 11, 1814, the American navy on the lake, commanded by Thomas Macdonough, defeated the British squadron under the command of Commodore George Downie. This naval battle was crucial in bringing the war of 1812 to a termination. The success was acclaimed by the American people everywhere by rejoicing, bonfires, and illuminations, and was sung in the folk and war ballads of the day. Congress recognized its national significance by officially thanking the whole force engaged, and by voting gold medals to Macdonough, Henley, and Cassin, and a silver medal to each of the other commissioned officers. In this victory the United States gained prestige for the demands of the treaty of peace, and an estoppel was put upon England's endeavor to get possession of the northeast corner of the State of Maine.

If the lake itself was the door of the whole northern country, Larrabee's Point, on the Vermont side, opposite Fort Ticonderoga, was a side door to New England, and from that side door the New England frontiers suffered repeatedly the havoc of Indian devastations. But there are other places, besides those hitherto mentioned, whose historic associations are inseparable from a narration of the landmarks of the Champlain Valley. At Burlington, Vt., the first steamboat on the lake was launched in 1808 and bore the name of that State. This was only a year after Fulton's steamer, the Clermont, first plied the Hudson from New York to Albany. Shortly thereafter, during the period of our second war with Great Britain, Burlington was a garrisoned post and a base of supplies.

On the Isle La Motte (named from Pierre de St. Paul, sieur de la Motte-Lussiere, a captain of the famous Carignan regiment), the French built a fort in 1666, which was named Ste Anne, and in July of that year, while garrisoned by several companies of the regiment above alluded to, was invested by hostile Mohawks, whose depredations included the death of Captains de Traversy and de Chazy. In October, 1666, M. de Tracy, governor-general of New France, guided and

H R-60-2-Vol 1-53

assembled an expedition on the Isle La Motte for the purpose of chastising the Iroquois. Twelve hundred combatants, borne by a fleet of 300 bateaux and canoes, and strengthened by two pieces of artillery, were engaged. They penetrated to the remotest hamlets of these Indians and planted the arms of France, in token of taking formal possession of the whole northern part of New York. The French remained undisturbed from the Mohawks for nearly a quarter of a century. Fort Ste Anne became a Jesuit mission station and was visited by Bishop Laval in 1668. In August, 1690, Capt. John Schuyler camped there during his return from a foray into Canada. Gens. Philip Schuyler and Richard Montgomery met on the island in September, 1775, during their advance against St. Johns and Montreal, and laid there the plans for that invasion of Canada. Now the shrine of Ste Anne, on the west side of the island, is visited annually by thousands of devout pilgrims.

Maj. Robert Rogers and 142 men came into Missisquoi Bay in the autumn of 1760, secreted their boats and some provisions, and went off on an expedition against the St. Francis Indians, near the village of Three Rivers, which they burned. Earlier in that year this same intrepid ranger had landed at the place called Rouse's Point, near which he was attacked by a superior body of French from the Isle aux Noix. The French were defeated and their commander was slain. Swanton, in Vermont, at an early period formed a considerable settlement of the French and Indians, being then "probably the largest in the Champlain Valley with the exception of Crown Point." At the mouth of Otter Creek, the largest river in Vermont, where Fort Cassin was built, the American squadron was fitted out in 1814 for battle against the English navy. This fort was named for Lieutenant Cassin of our navy, who, with Captain Thornton of the United States Artillery, in May, 1814, had defended the American fleet then building there from attempted destruction by the British.

A little to the north of Rouse's Point are the ruins of Fort Montgomery, built by error in what was then Canadian soil, and often called on that account "Fort Blunder," but corrected by international boundary concessions. Rouse's Point is a place of commercial interest and the most important port of entry on this frontier. Near by is Point au Fer, fortified in 1776 by the patriot General Sullivan, but occupied by the British in June of the next year and relinquished by them only as late as 1788. At Valcour Island, off Bluff Point and Hotel Champlain, the scene of Arnold's naval battle of 1776, the wreck of the Royal Savage lies under water to this day as a reminder of the beginnings of our national naval adventures. At the head of the lake to the south, near the present Whitehall, Maj. Israel Putnam, in August, 1758, was engaged in watching the enemy's maneuvers, and had a fierce encounter in the forest with French and Indians. He was captured, tied to a tree by the Indians, who made preparations to roast him alive. Only the stern interposition of the French officer, Marin, prevented them from dispatching him thus cruelly and robbing the patriot cause of one of its bravest leaders during the American Revolution.

The New York and Champlain commissions have concluded contracts with Mr. L. O. Armstrong, of Montreal, to present Indian pageants on Lake Champlain during the tercentenary celebration. These will be presented by 150 native Indians, descendants of the original tribes

that occupied portions of the Champlain Valley at the time of its discovery by Champlain. They will reproduce the battle of Samuel Champlain with the Iroquois and also present a dramatic version of Longfellow's Hiawatha on floating barges anchored on the waters of the lake at various places where exercises are to be held.

It is desirable that the United States detail national troops and the States of New York and Vermont regiments from the national guard to present military pageants at Ticonderoga, Plattsburg, and Burlington. The two commissions have decided to hold formal exercises on July 5, 1909, at Crown Point, on July 6 at Fort Ticonderoga, on July 7 at Plattsburg, on July 8 at Burlington, and on July 9 at Isle La Motte, at each of which places Indian pageants will be presented.

The proposed celebration of the discovery of Lake Champlain may also include a celebration of such colonial, national, and international events occurring since the discovery of the lake as to make it eminently proper that the Government of the United States officially participate in the exercises commemorating these historical events. Historical

addresses and other literary exercises are to be held, and it is important that the United States Government invite and entertain representatives of the Republic of France, the Kingdom of Great Britain, and the Dominion of Canada. The celebration is of national and international importance, and the committee recommends that the resolution do pass.

[ocr errors]
« iepriekšējāTurpināt »