Part 100

When Washington matured his plans to cross the Delaware River above the falls at Trenton with his main army, the two smaller divisions, under Generals Ewing and Cadwalader were ordered to cross at the same time at points lower down the shore. Cadwalader could not pass through the ice, but finally got across on the 27th from Bristol and remained on the Jersey side, the troops from Burlington having retreated. Ewing’s command crossed on the 28th and 29th and took possession at Bordentown.

General Washington made the crossing on Christmas night, and the morning of the 26th took Trenton with more than 900 prisoners: General Rall, who commanded the Hessians, was mortally wounded in the engagement.

General Washington thought it best to get back to the Pennsylvania side and before night had crossed with his forces, prisoners and other trophies of victory. But in several days he crossed again and joined the divisions of Cadwalader and Ewing. Mifflin brought to Bordentown 1800 recruits from Pennsylvania.

The British were alarmed by the blow at Trenton and broke up their encampments along the Delaware, and retired to Princeton. Washington thereupon reoccupied Trenton, where he was speedily joined by Pennsylvania Militia.

On January 3, 1777, Washington made an attack on Princeton. This battle was sharp and decisive. Mercer’s forces were furiously attacked with the deadly bayonet, and they fled in disorder. The enemy pursued until, on the brow of a hill, they discovered the American regulars and Pennsylvania Militia, under Washington, marching to the support of Mercer, who, in trying to rally his men, had his horse disabled under him, and was finally knocked down by a clubbed musket and mortally wounded.

Washington checked the flight and intercepted the British who were in pursuit. In this action the Pennsylvania militia bore the brunt of the attack, and but for the personal leadership of General Washington and the timely arrival of reinforcements, would have been compelled to yield the field.

In this short but sharp battle the British lost in killed, wounded and prisoners about 430 men. The American loss was about 100, including Colonels Haslet and James Potter, Major Morris and Captains Shippen, Fleming and Neal. General Hugh Mercer died nine days after the battle.

Here General Cadwalader distinguished himself as an able and brave officer.

Washington in his report to the president of Congress alluded to General Cadwalader as “a man of ability, a good disciplinarian and a man of good principle and of intrepid bravery.”

Chief Justice John Marshall, who was at that time an officer in the army, in a letter speaks of General Cadwalader’s “activity, talents and zeal.”

General Joseph Reed in a letter to the President of Pennsylvania, dated Morristown, January 24, 1777, said: “General Cadwalader has conducted his command with great honor to himself and the province; all the field officers supported their character; their example was followed by the inferior officers and men; so they have returned with the thanks of every general officer of the army.”

It was also in the Battle of Princeton that the Philadelphia City Troop, under command of Captain Samuel Morris, and the company of marines under Captain William Brown, belonging to the Pennsylvania ship Montgomery, distinguished themselves by their bravery.

Cornwallis was about to sail for England when the Battle of Trenton took place, and Howe detained him and rushed him to take command of the troops at Princeton. When he arrived there Washington and his little army and prisoners were far on their way in pursuit of two British regiments.

On account of the fatigue of his soldiers, Washington gave up this chase and moved into winter quarters at Morristown, N. J.

It is said that Frederick the Great of Prussia declared that the achievements of Washington and his little band of patriots between December 25, 1776, and January 4, 1777, were the most brilliant of any recorded in military history.

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Paxtang Boys Wipe Out Conestoga Indians on December 27, 1763

It was during the Pontiac War that Governor James Hamilton, in reply to earnest appeals for help and protection, said he could give the frontiersmen no aid whatever. Neither the Governor nor the Assembly showed the proper spirit. It was a time when the tomahawk, the scalping knife and the torch were desolating the frontiers of the Province.

The Indians set fire to houses, barns, corn, hay, in short, to everything that was combustible, so that the whole frontier seemed to be one general blaze. Great numbers of back inhabitants were murdered in the most shocking manner and their dead bodies inhumanly mangled.

Paxtang, near what is now Harrisburg, became truly the frontier, for west of the Susquehanna so great was the terror that scarcely an inhabitant was left. At this juncture the Reverend John Elder, the revered pastor of the Paxton Presbyterian Church, at Paxtang, organized his rangers under authority of the Provincial Government. They were mostly members of his own and the Hanover congregations.

These brave men were ever on the alert, watching with eagle eye the Indian marauders. The Paxtang rangers were truly the terror of the red men, swift on foot, excellent horsemen, good shots, skillful in pursuit or in escape, dexterous as scouts, and expert in maneuvering.

In August, 1763, Colonel John Armstrong, the “hero of Kittanning,” with 200 Paxtang and Hanover rangers and some soldiers from Cumberland County, marched to the Indian town at Great Island (now Lock Haven). Several skirmishes were fought, and some killed in the Muncy Hills. These volunteers returned home enraged at learning that the Conestoga Indians had sent messengers to inform their friends of the expedition.

Subsequently, on September 9, 1763, the rangers who were scouting in Berks County, were apprised by their out-scouts of the approach of Indians. The savages intended to take the rangers by surprise, and during a short engagement, it was discovered these Indians were from the Moravian settlement in Northampton County. The “Paxtang Boys” were determined to ascertain the treacherous.

In October occurred the murder of the Stinson family and others; the Paxtang men solicited their colonel to make an excursion against the enemy. The first massacre at Wyoming occurred October 15. Two companies in command of Captain Lazarus Stewart and Captain Asher Clayton were sent by Colonel Elder to Wyoming. Upon their arrival they learned first handed of the awful outrages committed by the bloodthirsty savages under “Captain Bull.”

Indians had been traced by these scouts to the wigwams at Conestoga, and some to those of the Moravian Indians at Nain and Wichetunk. The rangers insisted on captivating the murderers but the merciful colonel dissuaded them. It was then that Colonel Elder advised Governor Hamilton to remove the Indians from Conestoga.

Colonel Timothy Green wrote to the Governor: “We live in daily fear of our lives. At the Indian town the incarnate devils are secreted, and the people here demand that those Indians be removed from among us.”

John Harris wrote: “I hope Your Honor will be pleased to cause these Indians to be removed to some other place, as I don’t like their company.”

Governor Penn replied: “The Indians of Conestoga have been misrepresented as innocent, helpless and dependent on this Government for support. The faith of this Government is pledged for their protection. I cannot remove them without adequate cause.”

The rangers resolved on taking the law into their own hands. The destruction of the Conestoga Indians was not then projected. That was the result. Colonel Elder approved the capture of the most notorious Indians.

The “Paxtang Boys” reached the Indian settlement about daybreak, when the barking of a dog made their approach known. The Indians rushed from their wigwams, brandishing their tomahawks. This show of resistance was sufficient excuse for the rangers to make use of their guns.

In a few minutes every Indian fell before the unerring fire of the brave frontiersmen. Unfortunately a number of Indians were absent from Conestoga, prowling about the neighboring settlement.

Soon as this attack was known some Indians were placed in the Lancaster workhouse and several, well known to Parson Elder’s scouts, were hurried to Philadelphia, where they were secreted among the Moravian Indians protected in that city.

Governor Penn did not act with dispatch in removing the Indians from Lancaster, nor did he seem to care for them.

The “Paxtang Boys” realized their work was only half done. Captain Stewart proposed they capture the principal Indian outlaw, in the Lancaster workhouse, and take him to Carlisle jail, where he could be held for trial. This plan was heartily approved and fifty of the “Paxtang Boys” proceeded to Lancaster on December 27, broke into the workhouse, and but for the show of resistance would have effected their purpose.

But the rangers were so enraged at the defiance of the Indians that before they could be repressed the last of the so-called Conestoga Indians had yielded up his life. In a few minutes the daring rangers were safe from pursuit.

The excitement throughout the Province was great. No language could describe the outcry which arose from the Quakers in Philadelphia, or the excitement along the frontiers.

Fears were entertained for the safety of the Moravian Indian converts, and they were removed to Philadelphia and lodged in the city barracks.

This open and avowed protection of the Indians exasperated the frontiersmen, and they started for Philadelphia with the avowed purpose of killing the Indians and punishing the Quakers.

The city was greatly alarmed. Military companies were organized. Even the staid, reverent, peaceful Quakers shouldered guns and drilled. The wildest rumors were current as to the numbers and anger of the Scotch-Irish.

But the “Paxtang Boys” when they learned the effective measures for protection taken in the city, halted their march at Germantown. A delegation of leading men composed of Benjamin Franklin, Israel Pemberton and Joseph Galloway was sent by Governor Penn to meet the insurgents and hear their grievances.

The “Paxtang Boys” presented their side, and left a committee consisting of Captain Matthew Smith, afterward vice president of the State, and James Gibson, to accompany the Provincial Commissioners to Philadelphia, where they met the Governor and the Assembly, to whom they presented their grievances in the form of a declaration. The remaining members of the party returned to their homes, and the inhabitants of the city to their peaceful avocations. And thus ended the “Paxtang Boys’ Insurrection.”

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Benjamin Franklin Presents Treaty Plan to King of France, December 28, 1776

So soon as the idea of independence had taken the practical shape of a resolution and declaration adopted by the Continental Congress, the Americans began to contemplate the necessity of foreign aid, material and moral. Congress appointed a Secret Committee of Correspondence for the purpose and sent Silas Deane, of Connecticut, upon a half-commercial, half-diplomatic mission to France.

Franklin was at first opposed to seeking foreign alliances. “A virgin state,” he said, “should preserve the virgin character, and not go about suitoring for alliance, but wait with decent dignity for the application of others.”

But Franklin soon became chief suitor in Europe.

Later in the autumn of 1776 Dr. Franklin was sent by the Continental Congress as a diplomatic agent to France. He sailed in the ship Reprisal. The passage occupied thirty days during which that vessel had been chased by British cruisers and had taken two British brigantines as prizes.

Franklin landed at Nantes, December 7. Europe was not prepared for his arrival, having had no advance notice of his coming and the event was in consequence one of great surprise. By this time Franklin’s fame was world-wide.

The courts were filled with conjectures, and in England the story was current that Dr. Franklin was a fugitive for his own personal safety. Burke said, “I never will believe that he is going to conclude a long life, which has brightened every hour it has continued, with so foul and dishonorable a flight.”

On the Continent it was concluded that he was in Europe on a most important mission. To the French he spoke frankly, saying that twenty successful campaigns could not subdue the Americans, that their decision for independence was irrevocable and that they would be forever independent states.

On the morning of December 28, Franklin, with the other commissioners—Silas Deane, of Connecticut, and Arthur Lee, of Virginia—waited upon Vergennes, the French Minister of Foreign Affairs, when he presented the plan as suggested by the Continental Congress for a treaty, by which it was hoped the states might obtain their independence.

The Commissioners were instructed to press for an immediate declaration of the French Government in favor of the Americans. Knowing the desire of the French to widen the breach and cause a dismemberment of the British Empire, the Commissioners were to intimate that a reunion of the Colonies with Great Britain might be the consequence of delay.

Vergennes spoke of the attachment of the French nation to the American cause and requested a paper from Dr. Franklin upon the condition of America and that in the future intercourse with the sage might be in secret, without the intervention of a third person. Personal friendship between these two distinguished men became strong and abiding.

The French Minister told Franklin that as Spain and France were in perfect accord, he might communicate freely with the Spanish Minister, the Count de Aranda.

With him Franklin, Deane and Lee held secret but barren interviews, for Spain was quite indifferent. Aranda would only promise the freedom of Spanish ports to American vessels.

As for France, she was at that time unwilling to incur the risk of war with Great Britain, but when the defeat and surrender of Burgoyne was made known at Versailles late in 1777, and assured thereby that the American Colonies could help themselves, the French Court was ready to listen to Franklin. To him was chiefly due the successful negotiation of the treaty of alliance which meant so much to the American cause at that critical period in the War for Independence.

The presence of an agent of the British Ministry in Paris, on social terms with the American Commissioners, hastened the negotiations, and February, 1778, two treaties were secretly signed at Paris by the American Commissioners and the Count de Vergennes on the part of France. One was a commercial agreement, the other an alliance contingent on the breaking out of hostilities between France and Great Britain.

It was stipulated in the treaty of alliance that peace should not be made until the mercantile and political independence of the United States should be secured.

Franklin continued to represent the States in France until 1785, when he returned home. He took an important part in the negotiations for peace. In 1786 he was elected Governor of Pennsylvania; and, in 1787 he was the leading member in the convention which framed the National Constitution.

Dr. Franklin had deserved confidence in his ability and honesty. To Silas Deane was intrusted the receipt and expenditure of money by the Commissioners to France. The jealous, querulous Arthur Lee, who was the third Commissioner, soon made trouble.

Lee wrote letters to his brother in Congress (Richard Henry Lee), in which he made many insinuations against both his colleagues. Ralph Izard, of South Carolina, Commissioner to the Grand Duke of Tuscany, who felt offended because he was not consulted about the treaty with France, when he also was in Paris, sent home similar letters to those of Lee.

William Carmichael, of Maryland, a secretary of the Commissioners, who had returned to Philadelphia, insinuated in Congress that Deane had appropriated the public money to his own use. Deane was recalled.

Out of this incident sprang two violent parties. Robert Morris, of Philadelphia, and other members of Congress, who were commercial experts, took the side of Deane, and Richard Henry Lee, then chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, opposed him.

Deane published in the Philadelphia Gazette an “Address to the People of the United States,” in which he referred to the brothers Lee with much severity and claiming for himself the credit of obtaining supplies from France through Beaumarchais. Thomas Paine replied to Deane, making use of public documents in his charge.

The statement called out loud complaints from the French Minister and Paine’s indiscretion cost him his place as secretary of the Committee on Foreign Affairs.

This discussion among diplomatic agents soon led to the recall of all of them except Franklin, who remained sole Minister at the French Court.

Franklin testified to Deane’s strict honesty and private worth, but Arthur Lee had the ear of Congress, and Deane had to suffer. He died in obscurity and poverty at Deal, England, August 23, 1789. He has since been vindicated and all unjust suspicions have been removed, thus confirming the judgment of the wise Franklin.

From Franklin’s advent in the French Court, December 28, 1776, until he sailed for his home in Philadelphia, in 1785, he was held in the high esteem which his talents, experience and personality entitled him.

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Franklin Begins Building Chain of Forts on December 29, 1755

Governor Robert Hunter Morris summoned the Provincial Assembly for November 3, 1755, when he laid before them an account of the depredations committed by the enemy, and demanded money and a militia law.

Petitions began to pour in from all parts of the Province; from the frontier counties praying for arms and munitions; from the middle counties, deprecating further resistance to the views of the Governor, and urging, if necessary, a sacrifice of property for the better defense of their lives. All wished that the religious scruples of the members of the Assembly might no longer prevent the better defense of the Province.

By the middle of November, and while the Assembly was receiving these petitions, the Indians entered the passes of the Blue Mountains and broke into the Counties of Lancaster, Berks and Northampton, committing murder, devastation and every other kind of horrid mischief, and yet the Assembly debated and debated the measures for defense.

The Governor, wearied with this delay, sent a message requesting the Assembly to strengthen his hands and afford assistance to the back inhabitants, but this time they made the excuse that in so doing they might alienate the affections of the Indians, and to a large degree refused to grant the means necessary for the protection of the frontiers. This was truly an unfortunate position.

But at this time the alarming news of Braddock’s defeat reached the proprietaries in England, and they came forward with a donation of £5000 for defense, to be collected from arrears in quit-rents; but they refused to grant it on any other ground than as a free gift. The Assembly waived their rights for a time, in consideration of the distressed state of the Province, and passed a bill to strike £30,000 in bills of credit, based upon the excise. This bill was approved by Governor Morris.

The population of the Province was not yet satisfied with the cold indifference of the Assembly at such a crisis and throughout all the counties there were indignant protests. Public meetings were held throughout Lancaster and the frontier counties, at which it was resolved that the people should “repair to Philadelphia and compel the provincial authorities to pass proper laws to defend the country and oppose the enemy.”

In addition, the dead bodies of some of the murdered and mangled were sent to Philadelphia and hauled about the streets with placards announcing that they were victims of the Quaker policy of nonresistance.

A large and threatening mob surrounded the House of Assembly, placed the dead bodies of their neighbors in the doorway and demanded immediate relief for the people of the frontiers. Such indeed were the desperate measures resorted to in their effort to obtain better defense.

One of the results of these demonstrative measures and the protests of the people was the erection of a chain of forts and block-houses. These were designed to guard against the Indian incursions and were erected by the Province, at a cost of £85,000.

This chain extended from along the Kittatinny Hills, near where Stroudsburg now stands, southeasterly through the Province, to the Maryland line. They were constructed at the important passes of the mountains and at important places, almost equi-distant, so that they would the better serve as havens of refuge when attacked suddenly.

These forts were garrisoned by troops in the pay of the Province, twenty to seventy-five men always under the command of a commissioned officer. Even the Moravians at Bethlehem cheerfully fortified their town and took up arms in self-defense.

Benjamin Franklin and James Hamilton were selected to repair to the forks of the Delaware and raise troops for the execution of the plan. They arrived at Easton, December 29, and appointed William Parsons to be major of the troops to be raised in Northampton County.

In the meantime Captain Hays, with his company from the Irish Settlement, in that county, had been ordered to New Gnadenhutten, which had recently been the scene of an Indian raid, in which they applied the torch, many being burned to death and others escaped to Bethlehem in their nightclothes in the cold winter air.

The troops erected a temporary stockade and a garrison was placed there to guard the Brethren’s mills, which were filled with grain, and to protect the few settlers who had the hardihood to return and again settle there.

Captain Hay’s detachment was attacked on New Year’s Day, 1756, while some of the troops were amusing themselves skating on the ice of the river, near the stockade. They noticed some Indians in the distance and thinking it an easy matter to capture or kill them the soldiers gave chase, and rapidly gained on these Indians, who proved to be decoys skilfully maneuvering to draw the untrained Indian fighters into an ambuscade.

After the troops had gone some distance a party of Indians rushed out behind them, cut off their retreat and, falling upon them with great fury, as well as with the advantage of surprise and superior numbers, quickly dispatched them. Some of the soldiers, remaining in the stockade, filled with terror by the murder of their comrades, deserted, and the few remaining thinking themselves incapable of defending the place, withdrew.

The savages then seized upon such property as they could use and set fire to the stockade, the Indians’ houses and the Brethren’s mills. Seven farm houses between Gnadenhutten and Nazareth were burned by those same Indians, who also murdered such of the people as they discovered.

This incursion was the inception of Fort Allen. It seems that “it was the intention to build a fort at New Gnadenhutten, and Colonel Franklin started to Bethlehem to carry that plan into operation.” But the situation required him to change his plans and he marched to what is now Weissport, in Carbon County, and there erected Fort Allen. The site of this provincial fort is now occupied by Fort Allen Hotel. The old well is still in existence.

The Assembly requested Franklin’s appearance and when he responded to this call he turned his command over to Colonel William Clapham.

It is interesting to note that the chain of forts began with Fort Dupui, built on the property of Samuel Dupui, a Huguenot settler, in the present town of Shawnee, on the Delaware River, five and one-half miles from the present town of Stroudsburg. Then Fort Hamilton was built on the present site of Stroudsburg, where Fort Penn was also in the eastern part of the town. These forts were in the heart of the territory which the Minsink, or Munsee, Indians occupied.