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14 - Mohawk Valley by W. Max Reid · Mohawk Valley

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  Speaker 1: Chapter thirteen of The Mohawk Valley. This LibriVox recording is
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  Speaker 1: in the public domain. Recording by Roger Moline. The Mohawk Valley,
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  Speaker 1: Its Legends and its History by W. Max Reid, Chapter thirteen,
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  Speaker 1: Some accounts of the notorious Butler family. Shakespeare says, the
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  Speaker 1: evil that men do lives after them. The good is
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  Speaker 1: oftenterred with their bones. Perhaps there is no name in
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  Speaker 1: American history that is more abhorred throughout the length and
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  Speaker 1: breadth of the Mohawk Valley than the name of Butler.
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  Speaker 1: Through the evil deeds of Colonel John Butler and Lieutenant
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  Speaker 1: Walter N. Butler father and son, Colonel John for his
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  Speaker 1: connection with the massacre of Wyoming and Lieutenant Walter as
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  Speaker 1: the leader of the Cherry Valley massacre. And still their
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  Speaker 1: evil deeds were apparently confined to about four years of
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  Speaker 1: their life. In history, nothing is spoken of but the
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  Speaker 1: evil they have done, and their early lives are wrapped
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  Speaker 1: in comparative obscurity. We do not know when they were born,
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  Speaker 1: and the histories of the Revolution do not mention their ancestors.
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  Speaker 1: On account of a recent visit to the old Butler
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  Speaker 1: place on Switzer Hill, I have become interested in the
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  Speaker 1: subject and have taken the time and trouble to gather
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  Speaker 1: together facts about this family that appear in different documents
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  Speaker 1: relating to the early history of the Mohawk Valley and
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  Speaker 1: the province of New York. Lossing's cyclopedia merely states that
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  Speaker 1: John Butler was born in Connecticut and died at Niagara
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  Speaker 1: in seventeen ninety six, and makes no mention of the
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  Speaker 1: date of his birth or the name of his father.
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  Speaker 1: Among the colonial documents, however, we find the name of
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  Speaker 1: a Walter Butler, who was appointed lieutenant August sixteenth, seventeen
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  Speaker 1: twenty six, by Governor Burnett of New York. He was
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  Speaker 1: probably connected with the family of the Irish Dukes of
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  Speaker 1: Ormond and Aaron, who were patrons of the Burnett family.
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  Speaker 1: On May sixth, seventeen twenty eight, Lieutenant Walter Butler was
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  Speaker 1: assigned to Captain Holland's company at Albany. In seventeen thirty three,
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  Speaker 1: the Crown granted to Walter Butler and forty two others
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  Speaker 1: a tract of land near the Scohari Creek, running south
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  Speaker 1: to Scohery and then falling the line of Schenectady County
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  Speaker 1: to the Mohawk River. In seventeen thirty five, fourteen thousand
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  Speaker 1: acres of this land, extending from Fort Hunter along the
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  Speaker 1: Mohawk to Phillips Locke, came into the possession of Sir
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  Speaker 1: Peter Warren, the uncle of Sir William Johnson. On December
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  Speaker 1: thirty first, seventeen thirty five. The Crown also granted Walter
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  Speaker 1: Butler and three others a tract of land in the
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  Speaker 1: town of Johnstown and Mohawk, comprising four thousand acres. On
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  Speaker 1: the try And Map of seventeen seventy nine, this grant
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  Speaker 1: is shown as lying between Trips Tribes Hill and Johnstown.
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  Speaker 1: This seems to connect Walter Butler Senior with the Butler
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  Speaker 1: Place near Switzer Hill. Bear in mind that this Walter
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  Speaker 1: Butler was the grandfather of Walter N. Butler of the
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  Speaker 1: Cherry Valley Massacre notoriety. In seventeen thirty three, he was
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  Speaker 1: a witness to a deed at Fort Hunter. In seventeen
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  Speaker 1: forty seven, Sir William Johnson sent Lieutenant Walter Butler on
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  Speaker 1: a mission to Crown Point. A little later, Captain Walter Butler,
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  Speaker 1: having been promoted, was sent to Oswego with his son
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  Speaker 1: John as interpreter. Between seventeen fifty six and seventeen sixty five,
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  Speaker 1: Captain John Butler was frequently in attendance at conferences of
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  Speaker 1: the Indians and Sir William Johnson at Fort Johnson, sometimes
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  Speaker 1: as one of the interpreters. We know that Captain John
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  Speaker 1: Butler was afterward made a colonel and his son Walter
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  Speaker 1: a lieutenant of the British troops. In seventeen forty three,
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  Speaker 1: Walter Butler Senior erected a frame house on this grant
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  Speaker 1: on Switzer Hill, which afterwards became the home of his son,
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  Speaker 1: Colonel John and grandson Lieutenant Walter N. Butler, and was
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  Speaker 1: confiscated when Colonel John fled to Canada during the War
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  Speaker 1: of the Revolution with Sir John Johnson and his tories.
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  Speaker 1: The Reverend Gideon Hawley on his journey to Broome County
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  Speaker 1: in seventeen fifty three records that Lieutenant John Butler was
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  Speaker 1: in charge of a sergeant and a few privates at
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  Speaker 1: Fort Hunter, where he resided with his family. Sometime previous
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  Speaker 1: to seventeen fifty three. He is said to have been
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  Speaker 1: one of the Connecticut colony that located in the Wyoming
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  Speaker 1: Valley Pennsylvania. This I think is a mistake, as he
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  Speaker 1: is known to have been located in the Mohawk Valley
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  Speaker 1: at the time of the local troubles between the colony
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  Speaker 1: from Connecticut and the Pennsylvanians. It is recorded that the
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  Speaker 1: valley Wyoming was purchased of the Six Nations in seventeen
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  Speaker 1: fifty four by an association formed in Connecticut and called
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  Speaker 1: the Connecticut Susquehanna Company, but no permanent settlement was attempted
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  Speaker 1: till seventeen sixty two. The next year the settlers were
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  Speaker 1: dispersed by the Indians. In seventeen sixty nine a body
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  Speaker 1: of forty Connecticut pioneers was sent thither by the Susquehanna Company,
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  Speaker 1: but found themselves forestalled by some Pennsylvanians. The Six Nations
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  Speaker 1: having in the preceding year again sold the territory of
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  Speaker 1: the proprieties of Pennsylvania, and for the next six years
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  Speaker 1: Wyoming was the scene of numerous conflicts between settlers from
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  Speaker 1: the two colonies, both of which, under their charters as
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  Speaker 1: well as by purchase, claimed possession of the soil. This
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  Speaker 1: contest was at its height at the time of the Revolution,
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  Speaker 1: and undoubtedly was one of the causes that led to
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  Speaker 1: the attack and massacre of the settlers of the Wyoming
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  Speaker 1: Valley July third, seventeen seventy eight, or at least for
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  Speaker 1: some of the atrocities that were committed by former neighbors
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  Speaker 1: and acquaintances. That Major John Butler was in command of
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  Speaker 1: the rangers and Indians at Wyoming is a well authenticated fact,
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  Speaker 1: as we have it from his own reas port to
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  Speaker 1: Lieutenant Colonel Bolton, dated July eighth, seventeen seventy eight. He says,
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  Speaker 1: in this action were taken two hundred and twenty seven
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  Speaker 1: scalps and only five prisoners. This report alone is enough
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  Speaker 1: to brand him as an incarnate fiend. No doubt the
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  Speaker 1: Senecas were responsible for more of the atrocities, but Butler
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  Speaker 1: knew what to expect from his savage allies and made
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  Speaker 1: no attempt to restrain them. The Senecas were in command
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  Speaker 1: of a noted chief, Gillanguita, and a half breed called
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  Speaker 1: Queen Ester, probably a daughter of Catherine Montour. She is
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  Speaker 1: said to have killed fourteen of the inhabitants of the
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  Speaker 1: valley with her own hand. It is said that sixteen
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  Speaker 1: of the prisoners were arranged in a circle around a
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  Speaker 1: large stone, and held there by a large number of Indians.
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  Speaker 1: This little party had been assigned to Queen Ester. Striking
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  Speaker 1: up a chant, she passed from one victim to the next,
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  Speaker 1: and with a death mal dashed out the brains of
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  Speaker 1: fourteen of her victims. Two escaped by making a sudden
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  Speaker 1: dash through the lines and fled to the woods and
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  Speaker 1: finally escaped in safety. Catherine Montour the Elder is an
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  Speaker 1: interesting character in Indian history. According to tradition and her
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  Speaker 1: own story, her father was a governor of Canada, probably Frontenac,
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  Speaker 1: and her mother a Huron woman. Until about ten years
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  Speaker 1: of age, she had been carefully reared and educated. During
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  Speaker 1: the war between the Six Nations and the French and Hurons,
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  Speaker 1: she was captured and adopted by the senecas Lord Cornbury.
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  Speaker 1: In a letter to the Lords of the Board of
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  Speaker 1: Trade in London, August twentieth, seventeen o eight says, there
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  Speaker 1: is come to Albany one Montour, who was a son
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  Speaker 1: of a French gentleman who came about forty years ago
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  Speaker 1: to settle in Canada. He had to do with an
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  Speaker 1: Indian woman by whom he had a son and two daughters.
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  Speaker 1: The man I mention is the son. He had lived
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  Speaker 1: all along like an Indian. Some time ago, the elder
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  Speaker 1: Monteur had left the French and had lived among the
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  Speaker 1: far Indians Senecas. And it is chiefly by his means
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  Speaker 1: that I have prevailed with those far nations to come
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  Speaker 1: to Albany. In sixteen ninety four, mister Monteur was wounded
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  Speaker 1: by two Mohawk Indians near Fort La Motte. A letter
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  Speaker 1: dated Quebec November fourteenth, seventeen o six and written by
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  Speaker 1: Monsieur de and Androi, says he was devoted to the
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  Speaker 1: English and in their pay lived with the Senecas. He
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  Speaker 1: was killed by Lieutenant s de Jonquire by order of
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  Speaker 1: Monsieur de Vandroi. Captain Andrew Montour, the son spoken of above,
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  Speaker 1: acted as an interpreter for the Indian Commissioners in seventeen
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  Speaker 1: fifty six, also sang Indian war songs before Sir William
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  Speaker 1: Johnson at Fort Johnson, and presented scalps to Sir William
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  Speaker 1: at Johnson Hall in seventeen sixty four. There is also
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  Speaker 1: a record of Missus Montour as an interpreter in seventeen
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  Speaker 1: eleven at Albany Stone. In his Life of Sir William
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  Speaker 1: Johnson speaks of missus Montour and describes her as she
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  Speaker 1: appeared at a council of the Indian Commissioners and delegates
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  Speaker 1: from the Six Nations at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in seventeen forty four.
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  Speaker 1: Although so young when made a prisoner, she had nevertheless
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  Speaker 1: preserved her language, and being in youth and middle age,
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  Speaker 1: very handsome and of good address. She had been greatly
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  Speaker 1: caressed by the gentlewomen of Philadelphia during her occasional visits
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  Speaker 1: to that city with her people on business. Indeed, she
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  Speaker 1: was always held in great esteem by the white people,
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  Speaker 1: invited to their houses, and entertained with marked civility. It
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  Speaker 1: is pretty hard to believe that the woman described above should,
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  Speaker 1: in her old age, have become a fiend incarnate. It
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  Speaker 1: is said of her. After the Battle of Wyoming, Catherine Montour,
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  Speaker 1: who might well be termed a fury, acted a conspicuous
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  Speaker 1: part in this tragedy. She followed in the train of
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  Speaker 1: the victorious army, ransacking the heap of Slain, and with
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  Speaker 1: her arms covered with gore, barbarously murdered the wounded, who
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  Speaker 1: in vain supplicated for their lives Campbell. Among the Indians
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  Speaker 1: that were driven out of the Seneca country by General
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  Speaker 1: Sullivan was Catherine Montour. This creature was treated with considerable
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  Speaker 1: attention by some of the British officers. It is said
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  Speaker 1: that she had two sons who were leaders of bands
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  Speaker 1: at the Massacre of Wyoming, which fact consequently imparted additional
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  Speaker 1: consequence to her. One of Catherine Montour's sons took a
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  Speaker 1: mister Cannon prisoner at Cherry Valley. He was an aged
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  Speaker 1: man and had been severely wounded by a musket ball.
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  Speaker 1: On their arrival in the Indian country, Catherine addressed her
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  Speaker 1: son in English in the presence of mister Cannon, saying
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  Speaker 1: why did you bring that old man a prisoner? Why
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  Speaker 1: did you not kill him when you took him prisoner?
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  Speaker 1: I am indebted to William Campbell's Annals of Try and
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  Speaker 1: County for the above incident. A John Montour is found
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  Speaker 1: among Lieutenant Walter N. Butler's forces after the Massacre of
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  Speaker 1: Cherry Valley, in command of a party of Seneca's and
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  Speaker 1: rolland Montour defeated Colonel Cairns near Catawaits during General Sullivan's
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  Speaker 1: raid and was wounded in the arm and died a
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  Speaker 1: few weeks later. These men were probably sons or grandsons
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  Speaker 1: of Catherine Montour. In E. Cruckshank's Butler's Rangers, published at
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  Speaker 1: Fort Erie in eighteen ninety three, we find the following
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  Speaker 1: account of the Butler family. Lieutenant Walter Butler, a young
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  Speaker 1: Irish subaltern claiming descent from the illustrious family of Ormond,
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  Speaker 1: came with his regiment to America in the early part
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  Speaker 1: of the eighteenth century, from which he was exchanged into
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  Speaker 1: one of the independent companies formed for service in the colonies,
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  Speaker 1: and afterward incorporated as the Royal Americans or sixtieth. In
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  Speaker 1: the course of his service, he made himself useful to
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  Speaker 1: Sir William Johnson, who in return exerted himself for the
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  Speaker 1: advancement of the Butler fan Emily. He had two sons,
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  Speaker 1: John the eldest, was born at New London, Connecticut, in
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  Speaker 1: seventeen twenty five and educated in the same province, and
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  Speaker 1: Walter Junior, who was killed at Crown Point on September eighth,
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  Speaker 1: seventeen fifty five at the same time that Farrell Wade,
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  Speaker 1: Johnson's brother in law, and the celebrated Mohawk chief Hendrick
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  Speaker 1: were killed. Walter Butler Senior died in seventeen sixty at
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  Speaker 1: the age of ninety, having been a lieutenant in the
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  Speaker 1: British Army for seventy years. Lieutenant Walter, the brother of
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  Speaker 1: Colonel John Butler, who is spoken of as having been
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  Speaker 1: killed at Crown Point in seventeen fifty five, was undoubtedly
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  Speaker 1: a son in law of Jan wemp Wemple of Fort Hunter,
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  Speaker 1: who died in seventeen forty nine, as in his will
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  Speaker 1: he bequeathed a portion of his estate to mya daughter,
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  Speaker 1: Maria Butler, wife of Lieutenant Walter Butler Junior. Cruckshank, speaking
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  Speaker 1: again of Captain John Butler, says he went in seventeen
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  Speaker 1: sixty with General Amherst to Montreal as second in command
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  Speaker 1: of the Indians. During Pontiac's War, he was actively employed
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  Speaker 1: in the difficult task of restraining the Six Nations from
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  Speaker 1: joining the hostile Indians. Owing to his intimate knowledge of
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  Speaker 1: several Indian languages, he was constantly employed by Sir William
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  Speaker 1: Johnson up to the hour of his death as interpreter
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  Speaker 1: at the most important councils. He then resided at his
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  Speaker 1: fine estate at Butlersburg Switzer Hill, near Cognawaga, and was
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  Speaker 1: one of the judges of the County Court and lieutenant
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  Speaker 1: colonel of Guy Johnson's militia. Sir William Johnson had nominated
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  Speaker 1: him an executor of his will, but for some unknown
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  Speaker 1: because he had incurred the pronounced dislike, if not the
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  Speaker 1: positive enmity of Sir John Johnson. Besides his wife, his
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  Speaker 1: family consisted of Walter N, the eldest son, lately admitted
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  Speaker 1: to the Bar, a youth of spirit, sense and ability,
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  Speaker 1: Thomas still under twenty two younger sons, and a daughter.
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  Speaker 1: It may be said that Colonel John Butler appears to
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  Speaker 1: have been a close friend of Sir William Johnson and
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  Speaker 1: associated with him in many of the political and military
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  Speaker 1: schemes of those early days. In seventeen seventy two, the
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  Speaker 1: first Court of General Quarter Sessions was held at Johnstown
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  Speaker 1: and the judges were Guy Johnson, John Butler and Peter Cownine.
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  Speaker 1: After the death of Sir William Johnson on July eleventh,
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  Speaker 1: seventeen seventy four, John Butler and his son, Walter NN
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  Speaker 1: are said to have been in close a fees official
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  Speaker 1: and social relations with Sir John Johnson, and the elder
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  Speaker 1: Butler is spoken of as being a wealthy and influential
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  Speaker 1: resident of Tryan County. Of Walter N Butler, we know
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  Speaker 1: that he was about the age of Sir John Johnson,
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  Speaker 1: and that he was his playmate and boyhood, and the
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  Speaker 1: comrade and friend of his manhood. The only description we
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  Speaker 1: have of Walter N. Butler is found in Herald Frederick's
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  Speaker 1: Charming Book in the Valley. In this book, his descriptions
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  Speaker 1: have been so true to history that it is safe
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  Speaker 1: to assume that his researches have enabled him to give
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  Speaker 1: a pretty correct account of Walter N. Butler's person and character.
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  Speaker 1: He speaks of him at the age of twenty three
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  Speaker 1: and says he was a handsome youth with features cut
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  Speaker 1: as in a cameo, and pale brown, smooth skin, and large,
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  Speaker 1: deep eyes. He was not told all, but formed with
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  Speaker 1: perfect delicacy. He dressed, too, with remarkable taste, contriving always
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  Speaker 1: to appear the gentleman, yet not out of place in
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  Speaker 1: the wilderness. He wore his own black hair, carelessly tied
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  Speaker 1: or flowing, and with no thought of powder. He speaks
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  Speaker 1: of him as being of a solemn and meditative nature,
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  Speaker 1: and filled to his nostrils with pride about his ancestors,
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  Speaker 1: the Dukes of Ormond. He was, however, of excitable nature,
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  Speaker 1: and his being a constant companion of the Johnsons and
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: their dissipations undoubtedly changed his nature somewhat. During the next
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  Speaker 1: trying six years, he studied law and is spoken of
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  Speaker 1: as a pretty able young lawyer. Both father and son
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  Speaker 1: were at the siege of Fort Schuyler in seventeen seventy
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  Speaker 1: seven with Colonel Saint Leisure, Sir John Johnson, and Joseph Brandt.
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  Speaker 1: As we read of Colonel John Butler and two others
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  Speaker 1: entering the fort under a white flag with a bombastic
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  Speaker 1: demand for its surrender, which was indignantly refused by the
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  Speaker 1: commanding officer, Colonel Ganswort. We also read of Colonel John
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  Speaker 1: Butler at the Battle of Oriskany, where he caused the
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  Speaker 1: Royal Greens to turn their coats in order to deceive
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  Speaker 1: Herkimer's men by pretending that they were friends from the fort.
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  Speaker 1: The ruse was discovered and the Royal Greens were put
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  Speaker 1: to rout. After the Battle of Oriskany, Lieutenant Walter secretly
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  Speaker 1: came to the house of one Shoemaker near Fort Clayton
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  Speaker 1: on a secret mission from Sir John Johnson, and together
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  Speaker 1: with han Yost, Schuyler and others, were captured at Shoemaker's house,
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  Speaker 1: tried by order of General Benedict Arnold, and condemned to
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  Speaker 1: death as a spy. Owing to the solicitation of some
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  Speaker 1: of the American officers, the sentence of his death was
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  Speaker 1: remitted and Walter and Butler was sent to Albany and
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  Speaker 1: placed in prison, feigning sickness, and through the clemency of Lafayette,
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  Speaker 1: he was removed to a private house, from which he managed,
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  Speaker 1: with the help of friends, to escape and returned to
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  Speaker 1: the British Army, burning with indignation at what he termed
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  Speaker 1: the outrage of having his sacred person confined in a
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  Speaker 1: rebel prison. He made his way direct to Niagara and
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: requested and obtained command of a detachment of his father's
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  Speaker 1: rangers called the Butler Rangers, with permission to employ the
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  Speaker 1: force of Indians under Captain Joseph Brandt. On his way
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  Speaker 1: from Niagara, Butler met Brandt, who was displeased at the
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  Speaker 1: idea of being assigned to a subordinate station under a
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  Speaker 1: man he disliked. However, he finally turned back with his
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  Speaker 1: force of five hundred Indians. This expedition culminated in them
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  Speaker 1: massacre of Cherry Valley November eleventh, seventeen seventy eight, with
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  Speaker 1: all of its heartrending atrocities, undertaken by Walter N. Butler
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  Speaker 1: in a spirit of revenge on innocent men, women, and
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  Speaker 1: children to wipe out the disgrace of having been confined
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  Speaker 1: in prison as a spy. Campbell says that thirty two inhabitants,
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  Speaker 1: principally women and children, were killed and sixteen Continental soldiers
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  Speaker 1: and all of the houses, barns, and outbuildings were burned,
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  Speaker 1: many of the barns being filled with hay and grain.
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  Speaker 1: Campbell also says, whatever may have been the motives or
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  Speaker 1: the conduct of Brandt and his Indians, it will not
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  Speaker 1: wipe away the stain from the character of Walter N. Butler.
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  Speaker 1: The night previous to the massacre, some of his rangers,
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  Speaker 1: who were acquainted in Cherry Valley requested permission to go
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  Speaker 1: secretly into the settlement and toprize his and their friends
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  Speaker 1: of their approach, that they might escape the fury of
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  Speaker 1: the Indians. This he peremptorily refused, saying that there were
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  Speaker 1: so many families connected that the one would inform the
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  Speaker 1: others and all would escape. He thus sacrificed his friends
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  Speaker 1: for the sake of punishing his enemies. After this massacre,
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  Speaker 1: Walter and Butler returned to Niagara with his forces and prisoners.
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  Speaker 1: On July thirty first, seventeen seventy nine, General Sullivan's expedition
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  Speaker 1: against the Senecas was organized, which succeeded in driving the
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  Speaker 1: main body of Indians to Fort Niagara and Canada. During
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  Speaker 1: his raid, he destroyed the crops and buildings of the Senecas, and,
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  Speaker 1: with the help of the friendly Oneidas, did not fail
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  Speaker 1: to kill and scalp many of the Indian men, women,
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  Speaker 1: and children, for which acts he has been severely condemned.
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  Speaker 1: In May seventeen eighty Sir John Johnson and the Butlers
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  Speaker 1: made their first raid through the Mohawk Valley, proper killing
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  Speaker 1: and plundering in every direction, and finally returned to Canada
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  Speaker 1: without being molested. In the autumn of seventeen eighty one,
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  Speaker 1: another raid of Indians and Tories under Major Ross and
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  Speaker 1: Walter N. Butler met with a different reception. They first
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  Speaker 1: appeared at Currytown near Canaji Harry October twenty fourth of
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  Speaker 1: that year, and passed rapidly on to the vicinity of
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: Fort Hunter and Warrens Bush, killing and capturing all that
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: they met. Then crossed the river and directed their course
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: to Johnstown, with Colonel Willett and four hundred and sixteen
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: men in hot pursuit. In the vicinity of Johnson Hall,
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: Willett overtook the enemy and at once prepared for battle,
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: notwithstanding the fact that Major Ross his force was greatly
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: superior in numbers. In a recent visit to Johnstown, the
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: battlefield was pointed out to me by mister Edward Wells,
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: a son of Elizer Wells and a brother of the
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: late john S Wells, whose family now own and occupied
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: Johnson Hall. The chief object of our late visit to
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: Johnstown was for the purpose of visiting the old battlefield.
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: William Campbell, in his Annals of Tryon County, published in
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: eighteen thirty one, says Major Ross and Walter Butler's force
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: was encamped on the elevated ground a little north of
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: Johnson Hall, the edifice erected by Sir William Johnson, and
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: in which he resided at the time of his death.
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: Is situated about one mile distant from the court house
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: in the center of the village, and upon ground descending
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: gradually from the northwest to the south and southeast. The
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: village plot descends to the north, thus forming a small
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: valley between the hall and the village. To a person
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: in the village, Johnson Hall appears to be situated on
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: a lawn beyond which no prospect opens to the site.
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: When arrived at the hall, he perceives in an easterly
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: direction the range of Mayfield Hills or Mountains, while to
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: the south are seen Anthony's Nose on the Mohawk. Beyond
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: that Charleston, and still further on the hills between Canaji
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: Harry and Cherry Valley, and at a distance of between
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: thirty to forty miles the blue cloud like mountains leading
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: to the Catskills and Delaware. Colonel Willett, with his inferior force,
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: was compelled to resort to strategy in attacking. Accordingly, he
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: detached one hundred men under Colonel Harper to gain the
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: rear of the enemy by a sir kitchenous march around
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: the hill to the west and north of the hall
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: and fall upon them in the rear, while Colonel Willett
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: attacked them in front. A short distance above the hall.
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: Colonel Willet was met by Ross with all his force,
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: and his men gave way at the first fire and retreated.
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: Will it endeavored to rally them at the hall, but
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: failed at the stone church Old Saint John's in the village.
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: He at last induced them to make a stand, and,
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: being joined by two hundred militia who had just arrived,
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: again advanced to the attack. The detachment under Colonel Harper,
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: having gained the rear, opened a vigorous fire on the
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: enemy and obstinately maintained an unequal contest, which gave Willet
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: time to form his men anew and again attack the
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: enemy in front. At nightfall. After a severe struggle, Major
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: Ross's force, overcome and harassed on all sides, fled in
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: confusion to the woods, not halting to encamp until they
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: had gone several miles. In this engagement, the Americans lost
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: about forty the enemy about the same number killed and
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: fifty taken prisoners. Major Ross retreated up the north side
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: of the Mohawk, marching all night after the battle. In
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: the morning, he was pursued by Colonel Willett, but was
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: not overtaken. It was in this retreat that Walter N.
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: Butler was killed. He was pursued by a small party
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: of Oneida Indians. When he arrived at West Canada Creek,
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: about fifteen miles above Herkimer. He swam his horse across
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: the stream, and then, turning around, defied his pursuers, who
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: were on the opposite side, and Oneida Indian immediately distrit
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: He charged his rifle and wounded him, and he fell,
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: throwing down his rifle and blanket. The Indian plunged into
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: the creek and swam across. As soon as he gained
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: the opposite bank, he raised his tomahawk and with a yell,
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: sprang like a tiger. Upon his fallen foe, Butler supplicated,
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: though in vain, for mercy. The Oneida, with uplifted axe,
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: shouted in his broken English, Sherry Valley, Remember Sherry Valley,
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: and then buried it in his brains. He tore the
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: scalp from his victim, still quivering in the agonies of death,
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: and when the remainder of the Oneida joined him, the
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: spirit of Walter and Butler had gone. The body was
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: left unburied where he fell. The place where he crossed
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: is called Butler's Ford to this day. The following story
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: is told by DAWs in his Battles of the United States.
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: It occurred in Sullivan's expedition against the senecas Lieutenant Boyd
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: and Sergeant Parker were taken prisoners by the Indians. Knowing
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: the certainty of his fate unless immediate relief was afforded,
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: Lieutenant Boyd asked for Joseph Brandt, who commanded the Indians
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: who had captured him. On being taken before Brandt, he
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: gave the Masonic sign of distress and claimed from him
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: the protection of a brother, and was assured by the
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: chief that he should suffer no harm. The prisoners were
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: conducted to Little Beardstown and Boyd was well treated, but
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: during a short absence of Joseph Brandt, Colonel John Butler,
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: the infamous Tory chief, called on the prisoners for information
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: respecting the American Army. Declining to answer, they were threatened
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: with torture, but still refused, and with fiendlike cruelty, such
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: as none but Butler and his kind could invent, and
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: none but savages execute. The threat was enforced, and Boyd
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: and Parker fell martyrs in the cause of their country.
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: The remains of these brave soldiers were found two days
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: afterward by their comrades and buried at Little Beardstown. In
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: August eighteen forty two, their bodies were disinterred and buried
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: with appropriate ceremonies in Mount Hope Cemetery near Rochester, New York.
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: When I began this record with a quotation from Shakespeare,
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: I expected to be able to prove its truth by
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: showing that although the evil these men did lives after
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: their death, there must have been some inherent goodness in
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: their lives that was overshadowed by their acts and buried
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: with their bones. But I have searched in vain for
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: a single kindly act or generous impulse of Captain Butler
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: and his infamous son Walter n. When their acts are
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: compared with those of Joseph Brandt, their deeds are the
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: deeds of savages, and Brandt's the acts of a noble,
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: generous man. The Butlers appear to have been not only
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: arrogant and supercilious in a high degree, but barbarous, treacherous, revengeful, ferocious,
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: merciless brutal, diabolically, wicked, and cruel, with a spirit of fiends.
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: They committed cruelties worthies of the dungeons of the Inquisition.
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: No wonder their lives are not attractive to historians. In
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: a statement addressed to the New York Legislature December twentieth,
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: seventeen eighty, I find an account of some of the
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: worst done by the quartet consisting of Sir John Johnson,
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: Joseph Brandt, Colonel John Butler, and his son, Lieutenant Walter N. Butler.
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: It is estimated that seven hundred buildings had been burned
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: in Tryon County, six hundred and thirteen persons had deserted
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: to the enemy, three hundred and fifty four families had
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: abandoned their dwellings, one hundred and ninety seven lives had
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: been lost, one hundred and twenty one persons had been
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: carried into captivity, and twelve thousand farms lay uncultivated by
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: reason of the enemy. Truly, those were the times that
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: tried men's souls. Robert Campbell says of the Butlers, Colonel
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: John Butler had some good traits of character, and in
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: his calm moments, would regret the ravages committed by the
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: Indians and Tories, but Walter N. Butler was distinguished from
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: youth for his severe acrimonious disposition. After the massacre at
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: Cherry Valley, he went to Quebec, but General Haldeman, Governor
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: of Canada, gave out that he did not wish to
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: see him. When Colonel John Butler went to Canada, he
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: left his wife and children in Montgomery County. The Committee
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: of Safety refused permission for them to join him. Walter N.
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: Butler wrote to the Committee proposing an exchange of Missus
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: Campbell and her children, who had been taken prisoners at
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: Cherry Valley, for his mother and brother. This exchange was
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: finally agreed to, and the family were reunited at Niagara.
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: A Canadian E. Cruckshank, in a book called Butler's Rangers,
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: has given a short history of the Johnsons and the
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: raids of Butler's Rangers from the English or Canadian standpoint
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: of course. He assumes that Sir William, if he had
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: lived and taken part in the stirring scenes of the revolution,
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: would have been loyal to King George, and that his
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: influence would have made Tories of a lat large number
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: of the residents of the Mohawk Valley, who were afterward
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: bitter opponents to his unpopular son, Sir John Johnson. It
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: is quite interesting to note his reasons and cause for
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: the revolution in the province of New York, some of them,
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: no doubt, will be new to many of my readers.
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: He says, the power of the loyalist Tory Party was
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: probably greater in New York than in any other province,
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: but their leaders lacked the courage needful to turn it
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: to the best advantage. The wealthy merchants, the proprietors of
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: the great feudal manners, the adherents to the Church of England,
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: the Dutch farmers, and the recent German immigrants were generally
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: disposed to be loyal or absolutely neutral. In the city
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: of New York, two thirds of the property was owned
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: by loyalists, and outside there was scarcely a symptom of disaffection.
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: But there was a small party of violent revolutionists prepared
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: to go to any length, and they dangled before the
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: eyes of many discontented lawless men, almost irresistible temptations to
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: join them. There was an enormous quantity of land held
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: by a few active loyalists, which might be parceled out
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: among their followers. There was two a debt of eight
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: or nine millions of pounds due to British merchants, which
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: might be repudiated. There was, besides illimitable liberty to gratify
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: their passions and do whatever seemed right in their own eyes,
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: rather as sordid view, to take of the causes that
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: produced the birth of our glorious republic. Nothing said about
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: the injustice and depression of rulers, nothing about love of
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: country and the desire for political and religious freedom, and
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: hatred of monarchical government, which had been simmering and boiling
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: in the hearts of the provincials ever since the murder
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: of the martyred Lieutenant Governor Jacob Leisler, who was executed
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: in New York City on May sixteenth, sixteen ninety one.
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: After speaking of the apathy of the people in New
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: York and the fact that the inhabitants of Tryon County were,
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: to all appearance among the most loyal and contented, he says,
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: the great proprietors and wealthy families here were loyalists, tories
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: to a man, besides the Johnson family the Brats, fries Hares, Herkimer's,
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: Thompson's and Young's, John Butler, Joseph Dees, Robert Loathridge, Hendrik Nellis,
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: Peter ten Bruck, Alexander White, and many others imperiled handsome estates,
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: which in the end were confiscated. Large tracts of land
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: were owned by absentee loyalists such as the Cosbies, Delanceys,
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: de Pasters, Walton's, and Governor Tryon himself, and these eventually
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: shared the same fate. Despite the influence of all these men,
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: the spirit of discontent continued to make headway. Sir William
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: Johnson's latest project for improving his estates and peopling the
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: country in seventeen seventy three, one year before his death,
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: which was being vigorously carried out by his son, Sir
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: john filled the minds of many of the original settlers
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: with vague suspicions and alarm. For the most part, they
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: were descendants of sturdy palatines that had suffered the extremity
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: of ill for conscience's sake, and to whom the very
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: name of papist was abominable. For once, Sir William failed
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: to fathom the intensity of their religious prejudice. Though born
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: in Ireland and bearing an Anglicized name, he traced his
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: descent in the direct line from the Maceean branch of
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: the McDonalds of Glencoe. A feeling of kinship prompted him
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: to enter into a correspondence which led to the immigration
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: in seventeen seventy three of the McDonalds of Ashalander, colashee
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: Leek and Scottis in Glengarry, with many of their relatives
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: and dependents, forming a body of more than six hundred persons.
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: They were all Roman Catholics. A few of the leaders
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: purchased land. The remainder were established as tenants on the
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: Johnson estates and were supplied by Sir John with food, cattle,
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: and agricultural implements valued by him at two thousand pounds
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: during the next two years. To the peaceful German farmers
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: around them, they seemed a rude, fierce quarrelsome race, constantly
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: wearing dirk and broadsword, and much given over to superstition
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: and idolatrous practices. Accordingly, when Sir John Johnson fortified the
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: hall at Johnstown and surrounded himself with a body of
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: Highland Roman Catholics for its defense. They could not have
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: appealed to the inhabitants in a more effective way. They
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: had already learned to dislike the Highlanders, and they detested
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: their religion. On January twentieth, seventeen seventy six, Sir John
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: and about three hundred of his Scotch Highlanders surrendered their
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: arms to General Schuyler and were dismissed with assurance of
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: protection while they remained peaceable. In May seventeen seventy six,
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: they and their dependents fled to Canada with Sir John
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: and settled on lands in what is known as the
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: Country of Glengarry in the Province of Ontario, named after
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: their home in Scotland. Although some of these Highlanders returned
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: to the Mohawk Valley with Sir John Johnson's Rangers under
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: Captain John MacDonald and participated in the Battle of Oriskany
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: and the raids on Cherry Valley, Wyoming, and the skirmish
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: at Johnstown, it is probable that none of them or
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: their descendants ever remained in the Mohawk Valley. In seventeen
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: thirty seven, the year before Sir William Johnson made his
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: advent in the Mohawk Valley. It was proposed to people
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: the Upper Mohawk Valley with Scotch Highlanders. Captain Campbell, a
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: Highland chief, came over to view the land offered, which
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: to the amount of thirty thousand acres. It is said
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: Governor Clark promised to grant free of charge except the
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: cost of survey and the King's quick rent. Satisfied with
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: the land and the assurance has given him, Captain Campbell transported,
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: at his own expense from Scotland more than four hundred
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: adults with their children, but on their arrival they were
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: prevented by the intrigues of interest officers from settling on
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: the tract indicated, and after suffering many hardships, settled in
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: and about Saratoga, becoming the pioneers in that locality. As
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: the Palatines were on the Mohawk. On November seventeenth, seventeen
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: forty five, France and England being at war, this Scotch
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: settlement was surprised by over six hundred French and Indians
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: and completely destroyed, almost the whole population being killed or
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: carried into captivity. It is said that thirty families were massacred.
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: The settlement of Saratoga mentioned above was not located on
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: the site of the Saratoga of the present, but was
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: situated on the bank of the Hudson, near the mouth
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: of Fish Creek, the outlet of Saratoga Lake. The surrender
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: of Burgoyne also took place in the plains near this
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: old village in seventeen seventy seven. This post was established
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: about sixteen eighty nine, while it is said that the
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: present village had for its first settler Derek Scouten, who
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: built the first log cabin in seventeen seventy three. The
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: medicinal properties of the High Rock Spring are said to
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: have been known to the Iroquois at the period of
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: Jacques Cartier's visit to the Saint Lawrence in fifteen thirty five.
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: It is believed that Sir William Johnson was the first
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: white man to visit this spring, being carried there by
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: the Mohawks on a litter in seventeen sixty seven. It
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: is said that the name Saratoga Mohawk Sarahogo signifies the
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: place of herrings, which formerly passed up the Hudson and
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: Fish Creek into Saratoga Lake. This I hardly think it
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: is true. As it is said that herrings do not
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: run up rivers the same as the shad and other fish,
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: and that they are always found in salt water. About
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: the period of the Revolution, many Scots came to the
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: Valley of the Mohawk and settled on land north of
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: the present city of Amsterdam, in the towns of Galway, Perth,
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: broad Alban, bred Albane and Johnstown. Many who settled in
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: Perth came from bred Albane and gave that name to
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: their new home. It seems the irony of fate that
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: the descendants of the three principal actors in one of
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: the most tragic events in the history of Scotland should
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: choose the Valley of the Mohawk for their future home.
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: The McDonalds of Glencoe, the Campbells of Argyle, the clansmen
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: of the Earl of Bretelbane, and in later years a
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: descendant of Sir John Dalrymple, the Earl of Stairs, in
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: the person of Missus Edward Reid, the godmother of the writer.
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: The following story of the Massacre of Glencoe is taken
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: from McCauley's History of England and the Tales of a
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: Grandfather by Sir Walter Scott. In the year sixteen ninety
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: all of Scotland had submitted to the rule of King
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: William and Queen Mary, except a few of the warlike
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: clans of the Highlands, among whom were the Camerons, maclean's,
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: MacGregor's and McDonald's. The duty of subjugating the above Highlanders
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: was entrusted to the Earl of Stairs and the Earl
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: of Bredalbane, and an order was issued requiring the clans
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: to submit to King William and Queen Mary, and offering
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: pardon to every rebel who honour before the thirty first
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: of December sixteen ninety one should swear to live peacefully
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: under the government of their majesties. It was proclaimed that
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: all who should hold out after that day would be
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: treated as enemies and traders. The Highlanders became alarmed, and
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: most of the chiefs and clansmen came forward and gave
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: the pledge demanded. In the mouth of a ravine situated
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: not far from the southern shore of Lochleven, an arm
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: of the sea which separates Argyllshire from Invernesshire, dwelt the
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: McDonalds of Glencoe, whose chief was known as Mceon of
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: the McDonald's, one of the fiercest and most rebellious chiefs
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: of the mountains. Near his house were two or three
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: small hamlets inhabited by his tribe, the whole population not
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: exceeding two hundred adults. In the neighborhood of the villages
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: was some copsewood and a little pasture land, while the
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: hills and crack eggs were bleak and barren. To the
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: north towered the peak of ben Nevis, and somewhere farther
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: to the east flowed the ConA, on whose banks, in
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: the third century was born the poet Ossian. In the
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: Gaelic tongue, Glencoe signifies the glen of weeping mists and
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: storms brood over it through the greater part of the
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: finest summer, and even in the brightest sunshine. The impression
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: is sad and awful. The path lies along a stream
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: which issues from the most sullen and gloomy of mountain pools.
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: Huge precipices of naked stone frown on both sides. Even
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: in July. Streaks of snow are often seen in the
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: rifts near the summits. All along the sides of the crags,
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: heaps of ruin mark the headlong paths of the torrents,
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: mile after mile. The only sound that indicates law life
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: is the faint cry of a bird of prey from
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: some storm beaten pinnacle of rock. All the science and
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: industry of a peaceful age can extract nothing valuable from
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: that wilderness. But in an age of violence and rapine,
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: the wilderness itself was valued on account of the shelter
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: it afforded to the plunderer and his plunder. Nothing could
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: be more natural than that the clan to which this
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: rugger desert belonged should have been noted for predatory habits.
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: Successive governments had tried to punish this wild race, but
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: to no purpose, as a small force could be easily
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: resisted or eluded by men familiar with every cavern and
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: every outlet of the natural fortress in which they had
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: been born and bred. It is said that the people
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: of Glencoe would probably have been less troublesome neighbors if
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: they had lived among their own kindred. They were papists,
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: and operated from every other branch of their family, and
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: almost surrounded by hostile tribes, and were impelled by enmity,
• 48:07
  Speaker 1: as well as wont to live at the expense of
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: the campbells and bread albanes. When the thirty first of
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: December arrived, the McDonalds of Glencoe had not come in,
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: but on that day mcgean and his principal vassals offered
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: to take the oaths, but could find no person competent
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: to administer them. In great distress, he set out over
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: the mountain of Inverary, but owing to snowstorms and the
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: natural obstructions of the route, he was not able to
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: present himself before the Sheriff of Inverary until the sixth
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: of January sixteen ninety two. After considerable hesitation on the
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: part of the Sheriff because the prescribed time had elapsed,
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: he at last agreed to administer the oath and issued
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: a certificate, which was transmitted to the Council Edinburgh. It
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: is charged that King William was not informed that McKean
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: had taken the oath, and that the papers were suppressed
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: by Argyle, Stairs and Bredalbane for the purpose of destroying
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: their enemy. The King was induced to sign the following
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: order to the Commander of the Forces in Scotland. As
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: for McKean and his tribe. If they can well be
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: distinguished from the other Highlanders, it will be proper for
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: the vindication of public justice to exportate that set of thieves.
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: The extirpation planned by the Earl of Stare was of
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: different kind from that intended by the King. Stairs's design
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: was to butcher the whole race of thieves, the whole
• 49:48
  Speaker 1: damnable race. The pass of Ranach must be secured. The
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: Laird of Weems must be told that if he harbors outlaws,
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: he does so at his head peril. Brad Albane promises
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: to cut off the retreat on one side, mcallum Moore
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: on another. In due time, a strong detachment was placed
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: in command of Lieutenant Colonel Hamilton, and it was determined
• 50:16
  Speaker 1: that the Glencoe men should perish not by military execution,
• 50:20
  Speaker 1: but by the most perfidious and dastardly form of assassination.
• 50:26
  Speaker 1: On the first of February one hundred, twenty men of
• 50:29
  Speaker 1: Argyle's regiment, commanded by Captain Campbell, marched to glen Coe.
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: Campbell was one of the few men who were likely
• 50:37
  Speaker 1: to be trusted by the McDonald's, as his niece was
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: married to Alexander, the second son of McKean. At the
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: sight of the redcoats, John the eldest son of the chief,
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: advanced to meet them with twenty clansmen, and asked what
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: the visit meant, and was told that the soldiers came
• 50:57
  Speaker 1: as friends and wanted nothing butters. They were kindly received
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: and were lodged under the thatched roofs of the little community.
• 51:08
  Speaker 1: Provisions were liberally supplied. There was no want of beef,
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: nor was payment demanded. During twelve days, the soldiers lived
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: familiarly with the people of the glen, waiting for the
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: time agreed upon when Colonel Hamilton, Bredalbane and others would
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: have secured all the passes and cut off all chance
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: of escape. The officers spent much of their time with
• 51:34
  Speaker 1: Old McKean and his family, and the long evenings were
• 51:38
  Speaker 1: cheerfully spent with the help of some packs of cards
• 51:42
  Speaker 1: and a little French brandy. Captain Campbell appeared to be
• 51:46
  Speaker 1: warmly attached to his niece and her husband, and came
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: every day to their house to take his morning draft,
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: and all the while observed all of the avenues of
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: escape from the glen and reported the result to Colonel Hamilton.
• 52:02
  Speaker 1: Hamilton fixed five o'clock in the morning of the thirteenth
• 52:05
  Speaker 1: of February for the deed, as he hoped to arrive
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: at Glencoe before that time with four hundred men and
• 52:13
  Speaker 1: have stopped all avenues of escape for the doomed chief
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: and his clansmen. But at five precisely Captain Campbell was
• 52:22
  Speaker 1: to fall on and slay every MacDonald under seventy. The
• 52:27
  Speaker 1: night was rough and Hamilton was not able to reach
• 52:30
  Speaker 1: the pass on time, and while they were contending with
• 52:34
  Speaker 1: wind and snow, Campbell was supping and playing cards with
• 52:38
  Speaker 1: those he meant to butcher before daybreak. In fact, he
• 52:43
  Speaker 1: and Lieutenant Lindsay had engaged themselves to dine with the
• 52:46
  Speaker 1: old chief on the morrow. It was five in the morning.
• 52:51
  Speaker 1: Hamilton and his men were still some miles off, and
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: the avenues which they were to secure were open. But
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: the orders which Campbell had received were precise, and he
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: began to execute them. At the little village where he
• 53:05
  Speaker 1: himself quartered, his host and nine other McDonald's were dragged
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: out of their beds, bound hand and foot, and murdered.
• 53:15
  Speaker 1: A boy twelve years old clung round the Captain's legs
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: and begged hard for his life, but a ruffian named
• 53:24
  Speaker 1: Drummond shot the child dead. At another house, a highlander
• 53:29
  Speaker 1: was up early that morning and was sitting with aid
• 53:33
  Speaker 1: of his family round the fire when a volley of
• 53:36
  Speaker 1: musketry laid him and seven of his companions dead or
• 53:40
  Speaker 1: dying on the floor. His brother, who alone escaped unhurt,
• 53:45
  Speaker 1: called to Sergeant Barber, who commanded the slayers, and asked
• 53:50
  Speaker 1: as a favor to be allowed to die in the
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: open air well, said the sergeant, I will do you
• 53:57
  Speaker 1: the favor for the sake of your meat, which I
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: have eaten. The mountaineer, bold athletic and favored by the darkness,
• 54:06
  Speaker 1: came forth, rushed on the soldiers who were leveling their
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: pieces at him, flung his plaid over their faces, and
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: was gone in a moment. Meanwhile, Lindsey had knocked at
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: the door of the old chief and had asked admission
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: in friendly language. The door was opened. Mcgeean, while putting
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: on his clothes and calling to his servants to bring
• 54:31
  Speaker 1: refreshments for his visitors, was shot through the head. Two
• 54:36
  Speaker 1: of his attendants were slain with him. His wife was
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: already up and dressed in such finery as the princesses
• 54:43
  Speaker 1: of the rude Highland glens were accustomed to wear. The
• 54:47
  Speaker 1: assassin pulled off her clothes and trinkets, and tore her
• 54:51
  Speaker 1: rings from her fingers with its teeth. She died. On
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: the following day, Campbell and his men committed the air
• 55:00
  Speaker 1: of dispatching their hosts with firearms instead of using cold steel.
• 55:06
  Speaker 1: The peel and flash of gun after gun from three
• 55:09
  Speaker 1: different parts of the valley gave notice at once that
• 55:12
  Speaker 1: murder was doing. The sons of the old chief escaped,
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: and from fifty cottages. The half naked men, women and
• 55:21
  Speaker 1: children fled under cover of the darkness two caverns in
• 55:25
  Speaker 1: the glen, and when Hamilton arrived in broad daylight, the
• 55:30
  Speaker 1: work of destruction, as he said, had not been half performed.
• 55:36
  Speaker 1: Thirty two corpses lay wallowing in blood on the snow
• 55:39
  Speaker 1: before the doors. One or two women, and the tiny
• 55:44
  Speaker 1: hand of an infant lopped off were seen among the
• 55:48
  Speaker 1: heaps of slain. One, aged MacDonald over seventy, was found alive,
• 55:55
  Speaker 1: probably too infirm to fly. Hamilton murdered the old man
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: in cold blood. The hamlets were burned and the troops departed,
• 56:06
  Speaker 1: driving away with them over a thousand head of cattle.
• 56:11
  Speaker 1: How many old men and delicate women and children perished
• 56:14
  Speaker 1: in the snow of the mountains on that fearful night
• 56:18
  Speaker 1: can never be known, probably as many as were slain
• 56:22
  Speaker 1: by the assassins. When the troops had retired, the McDonalds
• 56:27
  Speaker 1: crept out of the caverns of Glencoe, ventured back to
• 56:31
  Speaker 1: the spots where their rude dwellings had been, and performed
• 56:35
  Speaker 1: some rude rites of sepulture for their murdered kinsmen. Was
• 56:40
  Speaker 1: it fate or retribution that brought about four hundred of
• 56:44
  Speaker 1: the kinsmen of these murderers to the valley of the Mohawk.
• 56:47
  Speaker 1: A half a century later, the settlement at Saratoga was
• 56:52
  Speaker 1: composed of clansmen of the Campbells, and in seventeen forty
• 56:56
  Speaker 1: five met with precisely the same fate from the Canadian
• 57:00
  Speaker 1: Indians that they had inflicted upon the McDonald's of Glencoe
• 57:05
  Speaker 1: in sixteen ninety two, end of chapter thirteen, recording by
• 57:12
  Speaker 1: Roger Molin