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CHAPTER XII

JOHN COLBURN TELLS HIS FATHER'S STORY OF THE NORTHERN CAMPAIGNS. – BURGOYNE'S ALLIANCE WITH INDIANS. – KING GEORGE III. HIRES THE GERMANS TO FIGHT THE PROVINCIALS

When on that field his band the Hessians fought,
Briefly he spoke before the fight began:
"Soldiers, those German gentlemen were bought
For four pounds eight and seven pence per man,
By England's King; a bargain, it is thought.
Are we worth more? let's prove it while we can;
For we must beat them, boys, ere set of sun,
Or my wife sleeps a widow." – It was done.

HALLECK.

      IT was my good fortune to meet Mr. John Colburn[1] on the celebration of his ninety-sixth birthday at his home in Hollis, N.H. He was strong in mind and body, and spent the hours of this anniversary in recalling the scenes of the past. It was like breaking the seals of closed volumes to many in attendance.
      I was one of thirteen children born to my parents, James and Susannah (Hardy) Colburn. We had a hard struggle in our youth, for my father was not a strong man. He lost his health


[1] See story of Hollis.

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in the northern campaigns of '76 and '77. My earliest recollections are of his accounts of service in the war. He used to tell us, ‘I was only in my teens when I entered the Provincial service. I passed through the battle of Bunker Hill safely, while my neighbors and townsmen fell around me. But I endured great hardship in the campaign at the north when following up Burgoyne and his army. Bridges were scarce at that time, and we were compelled to ford the rivers. In wading across the Mohawk I took a severe cold, from which I never fully recovered; but we pushed on, filled with contempt for Burgoyne, who had written a long proclamation to the Americans soon after his arrival in the country. He promised great things to them if they would lay down their arms and surrender peaceably to the British, but threatened terrible things if they continued to oppose the king. Among other evils, he said he would let the Indians loose among them if they refused to surrender.
      NOTE. - The manner in which the Indians were inducted into the service of killing the patriots of America is seen by the following: "We went to-day to headquarters in Montreal, to be present at a meeting between General Carleton and all the nations of wild men, since, in order to make it as impressive as possible, all the chief officers of the army were expressly invited to attend. The chiefs of the so-called Iroquois nation, namely, many of the Onantais, Anajutais, Nonlaquahuques, and Kanastaladi, met at six o'clock in the evening, in the old church of the Jesuits, which had been expressly prepared for the occasion. The high choir was covered

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with carpets, upon which were placed a row of stools. In the centre was a large armchair for Governor-General Carleton, who during the whole of the meeting kept his hat upon his head. Behind him was a table, near which sat the adjutant generals, Captains Foy and Carleton, who served as secretaries. There were also benches, upon which sat three hundred wild men, with their pipes lighted. Every nation had its chief and interpreter, the latter acting as spokesman and translating into French all that was said to General Carleton. In order, however, that there might be no mistakes or misunderstandings, General Carleton had also his interpreter. Thus each nation spoke for itself. The substance of what they said was that they had heard the rebels [Americans] had risen against the English nation; that they praised the valor of General Carleton as shown in frustrating the designs of the enemy; that they, therefore, loved and esteemed him, and that they had come to offer their services against the rebels. . . All these nations were engaged for one year, and had their posts assigned them. Before leaving they all passed by General Carleton, shaking hands with him and the rest of the officers. The evening and night were spent by them in feasting and dancing, which had already lasted seven days. They had brought with them a few scalps of rebels whom they had killed, and with which they honored Generals Carleton, Burgoyne, and Phillips." Other Indian nations were also brought into this abominable service. They offered "their grandfather, the King of England, and their father, General Carleton" their services against the Bostonians. One of the leaders of the company wore at this time the coat of General Braddock, whom he had killed in the fatal expedition of 1755. That proud general's vest was also worn by a nine-year-old son of the Indian chief. The appropriation of a dead British general's clothes could not have been a very agreeable sight for the present actors in the great drama.
      "'This announcement filled the Americans with indignation, especially the army engaged in the north. Every day there was a new story told of

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Indian barbarity. Even the British could not safely trust their savage allies. A Tory officer sent a party of Indians to escort a young lady named Jane McCrea, to whom he was engaged in marriage, within the British lines. When on the way, the Indian escorts fell into a quarrel over the reward they were to receive, and in the difficulty, killed the girl, and bore her scalp away, leaving her mangled body in the road.
      "'This brutality committed near her neighbors and friends filled the whole country with horror and indignation, and even General Burgoyne saw that he had made a mistake in placing confidence in such allies.
      "'I was with General John Stark, in whom we had the greatest confidence. Seth Warner and the "Green Mountain Boys" were with us in the latter part of the campaign. About the middle of September, 1777, the two armies of the north were near each other, waiting for action. Burgoyne was on the heights of Saratoga. Gates, the American general who had succeeded Schuyler, was on some heights back of the old tavern known as "Bemis Inn." On the 19th of September we met, near the village of Stillwater, in bloody battle, which lasted several hours without any apparent result to either side. On the 7th of October we had it again, in about the same place. We fought until dark. General Frazer, Burgoyne's favorite general, was shot through the

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body, and soon died. Soon after this battle, when there was yet doubt as to what the final results were to be, we saw the enemy in their intrenchments, and kept up our cannonade, not knowing that they were carrying out the dying request of General Frazer, and burying him in the trench on the height where he had received his mortal wound. While we were waiting in uncertainty, the generals of the two armies were carrying on a correspondence in regard to terms of Burgoyne's surrender. It was at length agreed that his army should lay down their arms, and march to Boston as prisoners of war, and be sent to Europe, under a promise to take up arms no more in the war. I had no love for any of those who were fighting against us, but especially despised the Hessians, whom we thought were willingly hired to come to this country to subdue us. By a special act of generosity on the part of General Gates, none of us were allowed to see the enemy when they marched out to the fields of Saratoga and there stacked their guns; but when the march off towards Boston was begun, it became necessary to have a guard, and I was of that number. Up to this time I had entertained nothing but contempt for the women, wives of the German soldiers, who followed the army; but when I saw the family of the Brunswick general, I came to the conclusion that they were people of distinction, and were actuated by other than sinister motives. My

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sympathies went out for them in the long journey across the country, as we guarded the captured thousands to Cambridge, Mass., where they were lodged in the abandoned barracks of the army which kept the British shut up in Boston.'"
      To the above story of James Colburn, a soldier of the Revolution, as told to me in substance by his son John when lacking but four years of a century of life, I am indebted for the suggestion of the following story of the German soldiers who fought for George III. in the Revolution: --

      NOTE. – Much has justly been said in condemnation of the English Government for employing Germans in the war for the subjugation of her revolted American Colonies, and generations of the descendants of those who fought the hirelings have naturally imbibed feelings of contempt for the German army. But it should be remembered that at that time the German soldier belonged, body and soul, to him to whom he had sold himself. He had no country. He was severed from every tie; in fact, he was, in every sense of the word, the property of his military lord, who could do with him as he saw fit. They did not prove to be as helpful as it was expected, but were found totally unfit for the business in which they were engaged. They could not march through the woods and encounter the difficulties incident to war in our then almost unsettled country. Many of them deserted to our army before and after the surrender, or convention, as it was more tenderly designated at the request of Burgoyne. We have in New England to-day descendants of Hessians for whom the English Government was obliged to pay the agreed price, – being absent from the returning army, they were rated as dead. Descendants of Hoffmaster, Kyar, Patio, and others, have become good citizens of Massachusetts; and no braver soldiers fought for the Union at Gettysburg than some of the representatives of those men who came to this country as Hessians. More of the deserters settled in

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New York, and after a full century, a German's cabin was seen at Charlestown, Warren County, of that State. The Hessian officers were equipped with everything for their comfort, as though their trip to America were only an excursion for pleasure. A tobacco-box, which belonged to one of the unfortunate officials, is now seen in a collection of relics in the town of Bedford. The owner fought and died in the northern campaign. This pocket companion was taken to Canada by a British soldier of the king, and at length became the property of an English lady at Halifax, N.S., and was by her presented to a Boston lady, whose interests in the town of Bedford occasioned it to be finally deposited at her old homestead, and in the house from which the minute-men of Bedford set out for Concord fight on April 19, 1775. In the Salem Institute may be seen a hat which belonged to a Hessian officer who gave up his life in the "Jerseys."

[Photo- "Hessian Tobacco-Box"]

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