CHAPTER VIII
BEN AND AMOS JOIN ROGERS'S RANGERS AND MARCH TO THE WEST
A few days after this Amos and I went up to Concord and enlisted in theRangers. We had no showy uniform. Our clothes were of strong homespun ofa dull colour that would not attract attention in the woods. We broughtour own guns, and they gave each of us a blanket, a greatcoat, ahatchet, and a wooden bottle in which to carry our drink. We were alsogiven rackets and skates.
We waited till the end of January, when Rogers marched into town withfive companies of men whom he had collected in New Hampshire. Most ofthem were rough, stern frontiersmen from the Amoskeag Falls, skilled inIndian fighting.
The recruits from Middlesex were distributed among these companies, andEdmund had us placed in his squad. On my right in the ranks wasMcKinstry, a grizzled old trapper, and to the left was John Martin, ahardy fellow a few years older than myself. Both of them had servedbefore with Rogers.
[Sidenote: ROGERS INSTRUCTS THE RANGERS]
Four of the companies set sail from Boston for Cape Breton, to take partin the siege of that place, and our company, under Rogers, started onthe march for Fort Edward. The snow was deep, and we travelled onsnowshoes. Rogers made us march in single file, with a man some distanceahead, and another behind. On either side were flankers to detect theenemy. As we shuffled along over the snow he taught us how to act in ahostile country.
"Don't crowd up together. Keep several paces apart. Then if the enemyfires at you, one shot will not hit two men. When you come to low,marshy ground, change the order of your march and go abreast, for if youwent in single file, you would wear a path in the ground that the enemycould follow. If you are to reconnoitre a place, make a stand in a safespot when you get near it, and send a couple of men ahead to look theground over. If you have to retreat and come to a river, cross itanywhere but at the usual ford, for that is where the enemy would hideon the farther side ready to pick you off. If your march is by a lake orriver, keep at some distance from it, that you may not be hemmed in onone side and caught in a trap. When you go out, always return by adifferent way, and avoid the usual travelled paths."
Thus, as we marched along, Rogers kept talking to us, instructing us inthe methods of wood-fighting.
We went through Worcester, Brookfield, and Northampton to PontoosucFort, where a party of Mohegan Indians from Stockbridge joined us, undertheir chief Jacob. Then to a Dutch settlement called Kinderhook, and tothe Hudson River. The weather was very cold, and the river was frozenover. Rogers told us to put on our skates, and we skated up the river toFort Edward.
This was a very strong fort, with much artillery. The fort was on theleft shore, and a very strong blockhouse was on the right bank. TheRangers' camp was on an island in the Hudson. Their barracks were madeof logs, with bark roofs, and their camp was not in bad condition.
[Sidenote: HATRED OF INDIANS]
The Rangers were mostly frontiersmen from New Hampshire, who had livedin the woods all their lives, and had fought against wild beasts andIndians. The life they were now leading was simply their old life on alarger scale. Most of them were dressed in deerskin. They were rough,stern men, who had been so much exposed to danger, and were so used toit, that they seemed to have no fear. They looked upon the French andIndians as a dire plague, to be wiped off the earth by any means. Theyhad heard the war-whoop at their own homes, and had seen their closerelatives scalped by Indians. No wonder they classed the redskins withwolves and snakes, as a plague to be wiped off the earth. Living in thewoods so much, they seemed to have acquired the keen senses that wildanimals have. They were ever on the alert. Their eyes and ears noticedall the signs and sounds of nature. They had fought savages for years,and their own ways were savage. Many of them took scalps.
I do not believe that a bolder or more adventurous set of men than theseRangers ever existed.
As I looked them over and saw what a lot of keen, fearless, andself-reliant men I was among, I was very proud to think that I was oneof this chosen corps.
McKinstry said: "They're a tough set, Ben. But when you get in yourfirst fight, you'll be glad you're with a tough set. Not much schoollearning among them; but they know all about the woods and Injunfighting, and that's what we want here."
Every evening at roll-call we formed on parade, equipped with afirelock, sixty rounds of powder and ball, and a hatchet, and wereinspected, that we might be ready at a minute's warning. The guards werearranged and the scouts for the next day appointed.
After we had been at the camp a couple of days Rogers came out of hishut and said to me:--
"Come, Comee, I'm going over to the fort and may want some one to bringback a few things."
[Sidenote: THE BLACK WATCH]
We crossed the ice to the shore and went up to the fort. It was a greatsight for me to see the regulars in their bright scarlet coats, theScotch Highlanders with their kilts and tartans, and our own provincialtroops in blue, though there were not many of them, as they had mostlygone home for the winter.
Rogers walked up to the headquarters of Colonel Haviland, the commander.
"I shall be busy here some time. Come back in an hour and wait for me."
I went over to the Scotch regiment, the Black Watch it was called, andlistened to them talking their curious language.
One of the men turned to me and asked if I was looking for any one.
"Well, I'm of Scotch descent, and I thought I'd see if there were anyMcComees or Munros among you."
He looked over to another group and shouted: "Hector! Hector Munro!Here's one of your kinsmen." A strong, active fellow of sometwenty-eight or thirty years came over.
"How's that? I didn't know that any of our kin were over here."
"My grandmother was a Munro, and her father was taken prisoner whilefighting for King Charles the First, and was sent to America."
"Hear that now! My brother Donald and myself were out with Charlie inforty-five, and we had a hard time of it afterward, hunted about tillthey made up their minds to form some Highland regiments and give pardonto those who enlisted, and here we are fighting for King George."
He led me to his brother and made me acquainted with him. We went totheir quarters, and I learned more about the clan in a short time than Iever heard before or since. It seemed as if most of the great generalsin almost every army were Munros, and they traced their ancestry back tothe time of Noah.
At last I said that I must go to headquarters to meet Captain Rogers.
[Sidenote: ROGERS ASSUMES ENGLAND'S DEBT]
"So you belong to the Rangers? They're a braw set of men, and there'smany a gude Scotchman among them. We'll come over and see you."
I returned and waited for Rogers, and when he came out, he said: "Comeover to the sutler's hut; I want to buy some things we haven't got onthe island."
Rogers made some purchases and then listened to two English officers whowere seated at a table, drinking. They had reached a maudlin state, andwere bewailing the fate of England.
"This is a sad day for old England, my boy."
"Yes, the country will never be able to stand up under the great debtthat we have incurred for these miserable Provinces."
Rogers went over to them and said:--
"Don't let that trouble you, my friends. Make yourselves easy on thatscore, for I will pay half the national debt, and my good friend heresays he will take the other half on his shoulders, and the nation willbe rid of her difficulties."
"By Gad! I'm blessed if you're not fine fellows. Sit down and have adrink with us."
Rogers introduced me to them as the Earl of Middlesex. They took offtheir hats to me and ordered some grog for us. I barely tasted mine, forI had no heart to drink with the besotted fools. We bade them good-by, Itook up the things which Rogers had bought, and we walked away.
"Well, Comee, we've settled the nation's debt. That's one good thing offour hands. There's another thing I wish we could get rid of as easily.The old country has sent us over some curious commanders
. There wasBraddock, who threw away his army and his life; Webb, who was a coward;Loudon, our present commander, is always running hither and thither,giving orders, but effecting nothing. He is like the pictures of St.George on the tavern signs,--always on horseback, but never gettinganywhere. But this Colonel Haviland, the commandant here, beats them allhollow. A worse specimen of stupidity or rascality I never saw. CaptainIsrael Putnam of the Connecticut troops was sent out on a scout a weekago. Before he went Haviland said publicly that on his return he shouldsend me out against the French with four hundred men. One of Putnam'smen deserted to the enemy and one of the Rangers was captured, so thatthe enemy knew all about it. Putnam says there are about six hundredIndians near Ticonderoga; and now this Haviland sends me out, not withfour hundred men, but with one hundred and eighty, all told. You willsee all the fighting you want inside the next week and I hope we mayboth get through it alive."
[Sidenote: A PLEASANT PROSPECT]
When I returned to the island, I told Edmund and Amos what Rogers hadsaid, and we felt pretty glum. "It looks to me," said Edmund, "as if therest of the campaign wouldn't interest us very much."