Chapter 6 of 16 · 3979 words · ~20 min read

Part 6

The late Esther B. Carpenter of Wakefield, R. I., author of a delightful volume of sketches entitled _South County Neighbors_, once alluded to Miss Fitzgerald in a note to the writer. Miss Carpenter said that she remembered to have heard her maternal grandmother say that she valued her Irish line of descent from Miss Fitzgerald above any other she could claim. This Irish connection had always been a common remark in the family. The grandmother in question had named one of her daughters Alice Joanna after her Irish ancestress, whose daughter Joanna had married a Weeden as already stated. Many of the Weeden, Slocum and other families now in Rhode Island trace descent back to Elephell, the gentle Irish girl. Descendants of Elephell (Fitzgerald) Slocum are found today in New Bedford, Mass. The writer recently conversed with one of them.

THE DEFENCE OF FORT STEPHENSON ON THE SANDUSKY.

By J. W. Faulkner, in the Cincinnati _Enquirer_.

“We have determined to hold this place, and, by heavens, we can.” This was the closing sentence of a military despatch written on the night of July 29, 1813. It was penned in the commandant’s room of the rude stockade known as Fort Stephenson, on the Sandusky River.

The writer was Maj. George Croghan, of the Seventeenth United States Infantry, a boy who had just attained his twenty-first year. It was addressed to Gen. William Henry Harrison, in command of the American forces in the Northwest. The reply of General Harrison to this remarkable despatch was an order removing Major Croghan from command and ordering him to report to headquarters under virtual arrest for disobedience.

Young Croghan responded promptly, traversing a dangerous country. Face to face with his general he explained that it was not braggadocio that inspired the language of his message. When it was written it was expected that it would fall into the hands of the enemy, then boastfully advancing to the attack. With the warlike eloquence that came as heritage from his Irish ancestors, Major Croghan showed his general that it was too late to retreat from the fort, and that it was a necessary military maneuver to hold it pending the execution of other movements. His tongue won for him what every great soul desires—opportunity. Restored to command, he returned to the fort and won a victory that will forever live in the annals of the early republic.

Not long ago the body of Major Croghan was interred at the base of the monument erected to the memory of the soldiers of Sandusky County. This imposing shaft marks the site of the old fort where the dead hero won his laurels and where the blow was struck that opened the way to ultimate victory over the British and Indian power in the northwestern country. Over his grave will stand as a silent witness the single cannon used in defense of the fort, an ancient six-pounder, which wears the affectionate feminine sobriquet of “Old Betsy.” It was a single belch from the iron jaws of this that decided the fate of the battle, and though inanimate, still it deserved a share of the glory that surrounded the interment of the gallant Croghan.

Since that eventful day in August many great events have occurred to fill the pages of history. General Harrison became greater and filled the president’s chair. Around the base of the old fort a city has sprung up named after Gen. John C. Fremont, the Pathfinder. In Croghan’s day the little settlement was known as Lower Sandusky, to distinguish it from the city in Wyandot County known as Upper Sandusky. So powerful a pleader as Rutherford B. Hayes, then a practising attorney at the Sandusky County bar, and afterward president of the United States, pleaded that the old name be permitted to stand.

There was pomp and ceremony to mark the final sepulture of the old commander’s dust in the ground that he hallowed with his victory, but no greater tribute could be paid to his soldier memory than to tell again the story of the battle. He came of fighting stock, this young American soldier. The blood of “Kelly, Burke and Shea” flowed in his veins and he smelled the battle from afar off. His father was William Croghan, an Irishman, born in Dublin in 1752, but who was well settled in this country when the War of the Revolution broke out. He fought at Monmouth, Brandywine and Germantown, and froze with the rest of the immortal band at Valley Forge.

Joining in the drift from the Virginias across the mountains, he reached the settlement at the falls of the Ohio, where Louisville now stands. In 1791 he married Lucy Clark, sister of George Rogers Clark, the mighty figure of the Vincennes campaign, who saved an empire to the American republic. Another brother, William, was the Clark who, with Captain Lewis, made the historic exploration tour across the then unknown continent. Of such a union was born the man whom a state and a nation afterward honored for bravery. The exact place of his birth was at Locust Grove, Ky., a few miles below Louisville. When but twenty years of age he gained distinction at the battle of Tippecanoe, and was promoted to a captaincy in March, 1812, being detailed as aide-de-camp to General Harrison, with the rank of major. This was his condition when the events that were to make him famous began to unfold themselves.

The Indians, under Tecumseh, and the British, under General Proctor, had raised the siege of Fort Meigs, in what is now Wood County, and were coming toward the post at Upper Sandusky and Seneca. The British sailed around into Sandusky Bay, while their Indian allies marched across through the swamps and marshes of the Portage River. They expected to meet and make a combined attack upon Lower Sandusky while Harrison was engaged in protecting Forts Winchester and Meigs. The work known as Fort Stephenson was in reality an old stockade used for storage purposes, and inclosed an acre of ground.

Examination by Harrison some days before the allies invested Fort Meigs showed that the stockade was commanded by a hill to the southeast. It was not strong enough to resist heavy artillery, and only 200 men could be accommodated as a garrison. Croghan was left in charge, with orders that if the British approached by water, which carried the presumption that if they had their heavy artillery, he was to retreat, if possible, destroying both the fort and the public stores. If only the Indians came he was to stand fast, as retreat through these wary hostiles was an impossibility and a defense was a certainty.

On July 29 Harrison received word that the siege of Fort Meigs had been raised and that it seemed the intention of the allies to descend upon either Sandusky or Seneca. At a council of war held that night it was decided that Fort Stephenson was untenable and orders were sent to Major Croghan to carry out his original instructions. This order did not reach Croghan until the next morning at eleven o’clock. A council of his officers reached the decision that it was too late to retreat and the famous note was sent and the meeting with Harrison arranged. On August 1 the advance guard of the enemy was seen on the hill over the river. They were the fleet-footed Indians who had been observed by a reconnoitering party from headquarters the day before. There was but one piece of artillery in the fort, “Old Betsey,” and it was promptly fired, causing the redskins to retire. Within a half hour the British gunboats, a part of Commodore Barclay’s fleet, hove into sight. A landing was effected a half mile below the fort and a howitzer disembarked and mounted.

A British officer, Major Chambers, with a flag of truce, was sent forward and was met by Ensign Shipp, of the Seventeenth Regiment. The visitor demanded in the name of General Proctor the immediate surrender of the fort. The Americans were warned that it would be almost impossible to restrain the Indians in case of success, and that the whole garrison would be slain. The gallant answer was returned that the Indians would find no one to massacre when the fort fell, for every man had sworn to die before surrender.

The battle then opened, the gunboats, the land battery, five hundred Wellington veterans and eight hundred Indians joining in the attack. Throughout the evening Croghan fired his six pounder in a desultory way, moving it from place to place to make it appear that he had more artillery. Ascertaining from the enemy’s fire that the northwestern angle of the fort was to be reached, he made preparation to checkmate his plans. During the night the gun was removed to a block house which commanded that angle and the embrasure was masked. The piece itself was loaded with grape and slugs. Croghan’s foresight was vindicated when the next day additional artillery was landed and the hammering of the doomed angle was renewed. The shaking wall was reinforced with bags of sand and even of flour, making it capable of resisting the pounding. On the evening of August 2 the grand assault was launched, Colonel Short leading the principal column.

He rallied his men with great bravery under a destructive rifle fire and gained the ditch beneath the stockade walls. There he ordered his men to cut down the pickets and give the Americans no quarter. At the proper second of time the masked embrasure was thrown open and the slug-charged cannon was permitted to belch its death-dealing contents into the close packed mass of soldiers at short range. Few escaped this destructive fire. Colonel Short was killed.

The second column, led by Major Chambers and Colonel Warburton, was also defeated by the line in charge of Captain Hunter. When night came the enemy withdrew in a disorderly fashion, leaving behind them one of their gunboats, some of the wounded, much ammunition and many guns. At nine o’clock the next morning, Major Croghan sent an express to Harrison announcing his victory and the retirement of the defeated enemy. The defenders of the fort lost only one killed and seven wounded of the 100 men who answered roll call. Ten times that number opposed them, and 2,000 more were in reserve near Fort Meigs to cut off any reinforcement from that direction.

In his official report of the battle Harrison said: “It will not be among the least of Proctor’s mortifications that he has been baffled by a youth who has just passed his twenty-first year. He is, however, a hero worthy of his gallant uncle, Gen. George Rogers Clark.” The brevet rank of lieutenant-colonel was at once conferred upon the young hero by the president of the United States, and he was presented with a sword by the ladies of Chillicothe. Of this victory, Gen. W. T. Sherman, writing from the standpoint of a military expert, said: “The defense of Fort Stephenson by Croghan and his gallant little band was the necessary precursor to Perry’s victory on the lake and of Harrison’s triumphant victory on the Thames. These assured our immediate ancestors the mastery of the great West, and from that day to this the West has been the bulwark of the nation.”

The following year saw him made a full lieutenant-colonel. He served with distinction until 1817, when he resigned and went to New Orleans to live. He was made postmaster of that city in 1824. Some years later he was appointed inspector general of the army, and in 1835 he was voted a gold medal by Congress in recognition of his fight of twenty-two years before.

He died on January 8, 1849, while the guns were thundering their salutes in honor of another great victory, that of General Jackson, another Irishman’s son, over Packenham and the British below New Orleans in 1814. His body was removed to the old family burying ground at Locust Grove and buried near that of his famous uncle, where they were found last June by Maj. Webb C. Hayes, acting for the Fremont Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, which is named after Major Croghan.

They were removed to Fremont on June 10, and were placed temporarily in the vault at Oakwood Cemetery. The pall-bearers were five venerable survivors of the Mexican War who had enlisted in Sandusky County. The youngest was seventy-seven years of age and the oldest eighty-five. As Croghan was inspector-general of the army during the Mexican War, they can be said to have served under him. The dead hero left three children. His only son, St. George Croghan, died on the field early in the Civil War, wearing the gray of the Confederate army. A grandson, also George Croghan, survives, and there are other descendants on the distaff side.

The Daughters of the American Revolution have erected on the British redoubt 250 yards northwest of Fort Stephenson a tablet commemorating the fact that it was there that the cannon from Commodore Barclay’s fleet thundered against Croghan’s walls. Exultingly the fact is proclaimed that Barclay was afterward wounded and his entire fleet, including the cannon which had been used against Fort Stephenson, was captured by Commodore Perry at the battle of Lake Erie in the following September.

IRISH SETTLERS ON THE OPEQUAN.

Compiled from an Article by “Iveagh,” in the _Belfast_ (Ireland) _Witness_.

The year 1718 marks an epoch in the history of America, because in that year a band of sturdy Ulster men turned their faces and fortunes towards the new world. This early and most important organized company of emigrants to leave Ireland in the eighteenth century sailed from Lough Foyle in the year above named, and consisted of about 100 families. (Marmion’s _Maritime Ports of Ireland_.) These people founded a colony in New Hampshire which became famous in the history of America. The emigrants were of as much importance to America as were those of Plymouth, and from them are descended equally if not more distinguished men.

In 1727, 3,000 people sailed for the North American colonies from Belfast Lough. The following year, ships took 1,000 more, and in the next three years as many as 4,200. The tidings of the success of the New Hampshire colonists and of those who preceded them to other parts of America, drew between the years 1720 and 1742 over 3,000 emigrants annually from Ulster alone. (Gordon’s _History of Ireland_.) This enormous emigration, for the period, was stimulated by the rich resources and grand opportunities offered in a new country on the one hand, and on the other by the land laws and the restrictions placed on Irish industries.

In 1736 a number of families emigrated from Banbridge, County Down, and neighborhood; amongst them were members of the Glass, MacDowell, Magill, Mulholland, Linn and other families. These people settled in the Shenandoah Valley on the banks of the Opequan, Virginia.

In the beautiful valley of Shenandoah, three miles south of Winchester, Va., you will find the ruins of the old Opequan Presbyterian Church, destroyed in the Civil War. From the Donegal (Pennsylvania) Presbytery, as early as 1736, the Presbyterian settlers received attention, as they were visited by missionaries and ministers from that Presbytery, making it the earliest preaching place in the valley. The first pastor was John Hodge, who may justly be esteemed the founder of the church, as he gave five acres of land for the church site and graveyard. Mr. Hodge, with many of his large family, are buried there, as well as Samuel Glass, the emigrant from Banbridge.

Samuel Glass, the leader of the Banbridge emigrants, took up his residence at the head spring of the Opequan, after many wanderings through the then almost pathless woods, naming the homestead Greenwood, from the grand old forest which covered for the most part the 16,000 acres of land which he had purchased. His son David settled lower down the river, at a place named Cherry Mead, and Robert, another son, took up his abode at Long Meadows. James Vance, a son-in-law of Samuel Glass, resided in the same neighborhood. Another son-in-law named Becket, lived between the Glass estate and North Mountain.—(Foot’s _Sketches of Virginia_, second edition.) Samuel Glass died at an advanced age, honored and respected by all the settlers over a large portion of the state; he had centered in his person many good characteristics—courage, thrift, perseverance. In the cemetery, near the old homestead, stands a monument to Samuel Glass and his wife, erected by his descendants. It is an obelisk, executed in limestone, standing on a pedestal, in all over ten feet in height. On the south side is inscribed:

Samuel Glass had six children: John, Eliza, Sarah, David, Robert and Joseph—all born at Banbridge. Joseph Glass, the son of Samuel Glass, had twelve children: Mary, Samuel, Robert, Georgetta, Sarah, Elizabeth, Joseph, Martha, Ruth, David, Nancy, and Sophia. Joseph Glass, son of Joseph, son of Samuel, the emigrant, entered the ministry of the Presbyterian Church. He was much esteemed, and widely known as an eloquent preacher. Other members of the family also distinguished themselves.

William Linn, son of one of these settlers, was born at Banbridge and served under Lord Dunmore, Governor of Virginia, in the wars with the Indians. In the several encounters which took place he distinguished himself, and was rewarded with a commission as lieutenant. Soon after the breaking out of hostilities with the mother country, Linn joined the First Virginia Regiment with the rank of lieutenant.

An expedition was organized with the object of securing ammunition from the Spanish authorities at New Orleans. Capt. George Gibson, an Ulsterman, was entrusted with the leadership of the party, and attended by Lieutenant Linn, with a detachment of their company, descended the river Ohio from Fort Pitt on the 19th of May, 1776, reaching New Orleans on the 22d of September, after a succession of adventures that, in narrative, more resemble romance than the features of sober truth. The shores of the Ohio were lined with hostile Indians, and no white man before had attempted the voyage. Captain Gibson having accomplished his mission, and being secretly released from prison, in which he had been confined to remove the suspicion of the British residents, placed Lieutenant Linn in command.

Captain Gibson took ship from New Orleans, taking with him the powder for service on the seaboard, and in due course landed at Philadelphia, and from thence proceeded to Virginia. Linn’s party, with a total strength of forty-three men, arrived at Wheeling in the spring of 1777, with the barges containing the supply of powder for the western posts. The party suffered many hardships and ran considerable risk from the Indians. For this important and arduous service Gibson was raised to the rank of major and Linn to that of captain. In 1780 we find Linn a colonel commanding a battalion at the battle of Pigua or Chillicothe, in which action he distinguished himself with bravery, his battalion having borne the brunt of the battle, losing many of its men. Colonel Linn continued to serve the revolted colonies after they had achieved their independence. He was ordered to the West to assist in the campaign against the Northwest Indians, and was killed in attempting to reach a secret rendezvous at a place called No-Linn-Hill, in Kentucky—a name acquired from the first exclamation of surprise by a party of his men not finding him at the spot.

IRISH PIONEERS IN BOSTON AND VICINITY.

BY HON. JOHN C. LINEHAN,[6] CONCORD, N. H.

Footnote 6:

Died in September, 1905. He was a founder of the Society and its first treasurer-general. This paper was the opening one of a series contributed by him to the Boston _Pilot_, in 1890, and bearing the general title of “How the Irish Came as Builders of the Nation.”

“The Massachusetts Bay” was, of all the original thirteen colonies, the most hostile towards the Irish, and it made but little difference with the Puritans whether the former were Catholic or Presbyterian, all fared alike, and were looked upon as people neither to be encouraged nor tolerated.

However, they continued to come in, despite this dislike, in one capacity or another, and one—Captain Patrick—appears in the records of 1632. Florence McCarthy was a resident of Boston in 1686. He was a butcher by occupation, and one of the founders of the first Episcopal Church in the town.

Esther MacCarty’s name is signed to an indenture, as a witness, about the same period. According to Palfrey, New England, up to the beginning of the great Irish emigration, was more unmixed in blood than any county in England. While this may seem true of Massachusetts, it will hardly apply to New Hampshire, and will not stand investigation in the Bay State, for according to the same authority, 400 or 500 Scotch were transported by Cromwell to Massachusetts in 1651, and thirty-four years later 150 families of French Huguenots came, followed in 1719, by 120 families of Irish, mainly from the North of Ireland. To these mentioned by Palfrey must be added, on the authority of Drake, 200 families of the unfortunate Acadians sent to Massachusetts about 1750.

No mention is made at all of the thousands sold into a kind of slavery by Cromwell to New England and the West India Islands, from Ireland, and yet, between 1651 and 1655, on the authority of Prendergast, over 6,000 boys and girls, mainly from the South of Ireland, were shipped to those two points.

The addition of 400 or 500 Scotch, 150 families of French Huguenots and the unknown number of Irish arriving in Massachusetts in less than twenty-five years from the establishment of the colony of Massachusetts Bay, will justify a contradiction of this statement of Palfrey’s. The Acadians and the Irish are prolific, and in this respect could keep pace with their English neighbors, and a comparison of the well-known New England families of the past hundred years, with an equal number of families in any English county, will prove it, for names, as a rule, are the surest guides to nationalities, and scattered over New England, from the dates named, are families bearing well-known French and Gaelic names, many of them slightly changed, but enough left of the original to trace the transformation. When the War of the Revolution broke out, this mixture of English, Irish, Scotch and French blood was pretty well compounded, and it was not surprising that the men of the new American race humbled Britain, and brought her to her knees.

Adams and Hancock, Sullivan and Knox, Stark and McClary, Revere and Bowdoin were, in New England, representatives of the nations mentioned, while the names of Washington and Jefferson, Moylan and Carroll, Mercer and Paul Jones, Laurens and Marion, showed that the same process was at work throughout the colonies.

Many Americans, no matter whence they sprung, now mount the “Anglo-Saxon” hobby, which, like a circus steed, has been so well padded by writers of history that there is little danger of a dismount, and in order to be in harmony with the aristocratic trend of the age, a double hitch is provided by trotting out the “Scotch-Irish” nag as a running mate, a trifle bony, perhaps, and a little ungainly at first, but time, good feeding and careful grooming, will make a perfect match, for both are of the same stock-humbug—a princely origin, for in this age humbug is king, and its capital, unlimited, is wind.