French & Indian War AAR: Caravan to William Henry

Many of my readers may remember that a few weeks ago I posted about a discovery of two separate documents relating to a battle during the French and Indian War. (Click here for the reference) I received many e-mails asking for more information about the battle and the prominent men featured in the action. After searching online and library sources I have finally found a reference to a few of these men. In particular, I found an early reference to Sergeant Duncan Kelley. This reference also contains mention of Jerome Long Tree, the Indian chief from the Abenaki Indians.

The reference was found in the memoirs of Captain Blaine Downs. It seems that this was an unpublished memoir that he wrote some years after the war but before the Revolutionary war. It is unclear as to the exact year he wrote the memoir but Captain Downs had left the Colony of New York and moved to Scotland by this time. The details of the events must have been blurred over the years but his account of the action is quite interesting.

His account begins as follows. "It was two years before the beginning of the war that I had joined the county militia. I was elected Lieutenant for our company. Militia service was one of the best times of my life. Our unit was far less martial and far more social. Most of our musters took place in the local tavern than on any parade field. As the Provincial units were being assembled in the year before the war, I was offered a commission with the Provincial unit as a captain of infantry. I was told my experience as a militia officer was valuable."

Given this background the following report of the battle that follows is slightly more clear. Captain Downs continued with his description of the training that they underwent. It seems that despite his lack of military efficiency, his battalion officer was an energetic officer and managed to teach the rudiments of drill to the company. We will skip on to the interesting bits.

"It was in the first year of the war, prior to the fall of Fort William Henry. My company was selected to escort a party of civilians and some essential military stores forward to Fort William Henry. From the edge of civilization it was over 14 miles through the darkest wilderness to the fort. It is no wonder that we could not hold the place."

"It was before our departure that I had the dubious honor of meeting Sergeant Duncan Kelley of the Rangers. The Rangers at this time were not the most military of units. None of Kelley's men had uniforms. Yet these backwoodsmen were reputed to be among the best troops when engaging the Indian in his natural habitat. I was not to find this to be the case. Kelley, a mere sergeant, accosted me before we left and informed me that he was related to my new ensign. Now I believe his name was Moss. Yes, Tyler Moss. The lad was not yet fifteen years in this world and his father had purchased his ensign's commission. The boy was worthless. Yet he was some kind of cater cousin to this Kelley who appeared to be fond of the boy. I was actually threatened by him to ensure that nothing would happen to him. Well, I informed him that my duty was to my King and my orders were to supply the fort and not play nursemaid to some pimply boy who had no business being an officer. I do not think this was a stellar beginning to our professional relationship."

"The trees were absolutely stunning as it was a crisp fall day. We approached the river we had to ford in order to reach the fort. We were still miles from the fort. The Rangers were no where in sight. I was told that if I could not see the Rangers, then they were doing their job. Needless to say, I was skeptical."

"I had deployed my small company with two thirds of the men at the head of the column and the remaining third in the rear under the capable command of Sergeant Mike Iggluden. The man was huge. A giant of a fellow. Just the thing to lead when under the guns of the enemy. Had to have come from some kind of foreign stock with a break teeth last name like that. The men took to calling him Sergeant Iggy. I could not disapprove as I could not pronounce that name either. I placed Moss with the men to for fore and myself directly behind the leading group. Behind myself was two cannon and their limbers, two ammunition wagons and many civilians. Also a strange Mohawk warrior was with us. A dour individual that barely spoke a word the entire trip."

"We had barely advanced far enough to have the river in sight when the woods to either side of the road erupted in gunfire. It was quite alarming. Reacting quickly, I placed the lead units in a line and halted the caravan. In addition, I called Sergeant Iggy and his men forward. As the gun fire continued to either side of the road, I decided to utilize the assets that we had. I ordered one of the guns to be unlimbered and brought forward. Being unfamiliar with artillery, we had a gun crew with us as part of the caravan. They rushed forward to get the gun into action."

"I was to learn several days later that the fight on the right hand side of the road went very poorly for the Rangers. It seems that they had stumbled upon an Indian and French Marine ambush on both sides of the road. Hopelessly outnumbered, the Rangers on the right were routed. However, most of those men survived the action. I was assured that they stood and fought for as long as they could but one has to wonder given their extraordinarily light butchers bill. I believe that the group on the right only lost one man of the twelve."

"Kelley, I was to later learn, led another group of twelve men on the left hand side of the road. His men fought on much longer than those on the right. But they too were repulsed. Kelley himself stayed to fight even though his men had fled the field, or so I have been told. I did hear the odd pop of a musket from the left apart from the shooting from the French and Indians."

"My men were engaged from the right hand side of the road by a large party of Indians. In their first volley, the Indians cut loose with a ferocious war cry that turned our bowels to water. Their musketry left much to be desired but one round did happen to find the young Mr Moss. The Ensign was struck between the eyes with a single shot and dropped dead at my feet. Not one man in the formation he was with even noticed the loss of the boy. My drummer was shaking in his boots yet he stood beside me throughout the entire fusillade."

"Our men fired back into the woods but not one man saw an Indian fall. Sergeant Iggy was able to get his men in a line on our left. The gunners were struggling to get the artillery into position. It seemed to take forever to move the gun and each second that ticked away cost my men their lives."

"Half of the men on the right had fired so much that their barrels were fouled and fighting was no longer an option. The other half had lost four men. Neither group could remain in the line and began to flee to the rear regardless of the encouragement and threats shouted at them. I ordered Sergeant Iggy to fall back but he was so involved in the firefight with the Indians to his front that he could not move. Finally, the gun was in position and loaded. A beautiful target presented itself. The French Marines formed a line near the road that was directly in line with the gun. We promptly fired on this target before it moved and we saw several men fall."

"The civilians had fled back down the road. Most of my command had fled as well. I was able to save Sergeant Iggy and his men and pull them back from the engagement. Unable to save the guns, I ordered them spiked and we set the ammunition carts alight as we fled the field. I was to later learn that the only Indians killed in this action were those that perished when the ammunition carts detonated. A French Marine officer that was captured two years later spoke to me of the skirmish. It seems that he was present at the time. The Indians rushed the ammunition carts looking for loot when the carts exploded. Three of the savages simply disappeared. So there was no bodies to be found. The French officer informed me that the Indians were lead by some fellow named Jerome Long Tree. A fierce individual that proved a terror to the settlers in the wilds of New York for years to come."

"The outcome of this embarrassing episode was that I was posted to a provincial unit guarding an island in New York harbor for the next year."

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Saturday I had the privileged to play one of Mark's French and Indian War games. I commanded the Provincial unit and led them to ignominious defeat. The game was great fun even though my Captain's card seemed to cling to the bottom of the chip bag as if it were glued there. The player commanding the Rangers by pure luck destroyed the carefully planned ambush set up by the Indian and French players. However, his forces being so split had no real chance to win the fight against the Superior numbers of French and Indians.

Mark has more images of the game on his Flicker site. It was great fun. Sergeant Kelley attempted to use his Longue Carbine ability several times but failed to hit both times. The Rangers and Provincial troops could not buy good die rolls. The French rolled very well but the casualties were very light. Mostly alarming amounts of shock were accumulated that led to both units of Rangers breaking and nearly all three groups of Provincials breaking. I look forward to the next game in this series.

AAR - La Longue Carbine (F&IW Sharp Practice)

A recent discovery was made while going through my wife's family heirlooms. In the back of an old desk that was recovered from the family home place in Oxford, Georgia. Taking the desk to an appraiser to determine if there was any value to this antique revealed a secret compartment in the back of the desk where in a bundle of yellowed and faded letters were found. These turned out to be a series of correspondence of a distant relative Elihu Roberts. In addition to the letters was a surprising roll of charcoal drawings depicting scenes from Elihu's military service. These are reproduced faithfully here.

What we have discovered was that Elihu was the second generation of the family to live in the United States. Born on a frontier farm in New Hampshire, Elihu served as a Ranger during the French and Indian War. What makes the letters interesting is that they provide some colorful and insightful glimpses into the small actions that occurred in the back woods during this conflict. The only action we have discovered so far that Elihu details that an official report verifies is a brief action that took place where Elihu's Ranger Company were attempting to rescue some hostages captured by a band of hostile Abenakis Indians. The letter is dated 1756. The month and day are obscured with the age of the document.

The letter begins with a personal greeting to his wife Martha. Quickly he moves to the meat of the story. He begins with outrage at the "Damnable lies and outright falsification of facts offered by that yellow cur dog in an officer's uniform." It was this sentence that led for a search for another account of the action. It was found in the papers of Colonel Sir Bradly Pascall, then a lieutenant of Light Infantry serving on the frontier. What is fascinating is the descriptions of the skirmish read as if they were two separate actions except for the personnel referenced and the situations being identical.

What both accounts agree upon is that there were a body of captives taken by the Indians. The previous day, an unsuccessful attempt was made to secure the captives in a fight near a beaver pond. Here both accounts agree. The next day, the Rangers continue the pursuit and reach the party on the downward slope of a mountain before the Light Infantry arrive. It is here that the similarities begin to diverge. I will begin with quoting from Elihu's letter. His spelling and verbiage are maintained except for a few instances where his script is unintelligible.

From Elihu's letter, "Our Serjeant was one of the best marksmen and trackers in all of the Rangers. He was as quiet in the woods as any red injun and twice the man of any Regular we had ever met. Serjeant Duncan Kelley was acting as captain of the company and led us in pursuit of the red villains that done took them folks. We were in hot pursuit. Sending a couple of fleet footed boys ahead of the company, they fouled up the ambush ole Burning Brook had set for us. Spyin them out, Kelley had us split into two parties. He took ten men with him and Corporeal ??? took the other ten. I was with the Corporeal. Kelley took his party straight at those red devils and commenced to fire upon them. Kelley's men fired accurate and true. I personally saw several of them fall from his men's fire. Our bunch tried to move through the woods in order to catch'em up from behind."

At this point lets look at the official report of the action as filed by then Lieutenant Pascall. "In the morning the Rangers that accompanied our party moved off into the wilderness in pursuit of the savages. The Sergeant leading their number had spied a party of red skins and began to engage them from an impractical distance doing little harm other than notifying the enemy of the presence of his men."

It appears that Elihu was aware of the text of the official report and would comment on this report throughout his letter. "That no account liar was not even present when the Serjeant began to fight. We fought them from no more than 20 yards away."

Continuing his account, "We had difficulty moving through the rough ground. We had only moved about half way around them rascals when the Corporeal spotted some movement down toward the lake. Looking closely, he spotted a group of Canadian Militia in the woods. We had climbed on top of a rocky outcropping and had the drop on them Frenchies. The Corporeal ordered us to fire and it shook them mighty hard. I am pretty sure my round struck home as as saw my man fall. This put the militia into considerable confusion."

What is interesting to note is that Pascall's report does not feature the Canadien Militia at all. He only mentions the French Compaigne Franche de la Marine soldiers who came to the Indians aide. Elihu also discusses the French Marines in his letter. Their arrival was after the initial arrival of the British Light Infantry led by Pascall.

"After firing on the Frenchies, we backed down off the hill to approach the Injuns from their flank. Once we had backed down the hill, we had a good sight of the path on the other side of the Injun war party. That is when I recognized their chief - Black Brook. This was definitely the bunch we was looking for. I never did spy out the other fellow, Big Tree. Once we spotted them, they spun and turned their backs to us. We next saw what had spooked them, the Light Infantry had finally arrived. They stopped some 20 feet from Black Brook's bunch and just looked at them. It was the oddest thing. Black Brook fired into the Light Infantry but it did not appear to have any effect as the next thing you knew, the Lights got their backs up and charged. What I thought odd was that they did not fix bayonets. The one advantage they had over the savages in a fight and they did not use them. Well that decision cost them dearly. I spotted at least two red coats laying on the ground and the backs of the Lights as they ran away from Black Brooks band. Ole Black Brook seemed dazed by the exchange and did not pursue."

The account provided by Pascall differs considerably. "We burst upon the trail and spotted a large formation of the Abenakis Indians. We promptly charged into the backs of the Indians. In a fierce fight, I lost two men under my command. Given their strong position we were obliged to fall back, but not before taking a terrible toll on them. From our new position we began a murderous fire upon them. This broke them and they fled down to flee in their canoes across the lake. It was at this point that we rescued one of the captives. The man had taken the initiative and fled from the Indians as they approached the lake. From his story, I learned that the head start that Chief Jarome had was just too great. The captives had surely been taken across the lake before we even fired a shot. To continue pursuit would incur too great a loss for no chance of reward."

Elihu contends that upon being repulsed, Pascall began to fall back. "Once the Lights were compelled to fall back from loosing their fight against Big Tree, the French Marines made their appearance. The appearance of the French Marines was the straw that broke the cowardly camels back and the lobster backs began their flight away even though we were so close to rescuing the whole body of captives."

It appears that Elihu and the Rangers were not aware that Pascall's men had rescued one of the captives. They believed that the captives were just ahead at the lake shore, there to be rescued. "We watched in horror as the light infantry backed away. They left us to deal with the French and Injuns by ourselves. However, it is at this point that the most humorous event occurred. The French Marines moved to the wood line to take an advantageous position to fire on the retreating Light Infantry. When all of a sudden they fled across the path opening themselves to Serjeant Kelley's men. A bear chased them from the wood. The look of fright upon their faces caused many a man among the rangers to laugh. The beast was a scrawny hungry thing that was looking for any scrap of food to last it through the winter. The Marines sorted themselves out and detailed some men to put down the poor creature. Kelley's boys took advantage of the exposed Marines and began to pick them off. I learned from Buford that Kelly took careful aim at the French Captain and shot his hat from the man's head in a show of great marksmanship."

"Later I learned that it was not all of the Lights that were yellabellies, just their officer. Their serjeant ordered a volley fire during their retreat that took a considerable toll on the French Marines. We added our fire to their and Kelley's men. Surely it was hot work for for those Frenchmen pinned three ways on the trail."

It is important to note the differences in Pascall's claims. "Knowing that the captives were lost, we fell back along the path that we came up. We formed a line and put volley after volley into the French Marines that had come to support their fleeing Indian allies. The French Marines were shaken badly by the force of our volleys and we were able to safely make our way back to the fort."

Elihu notes that the skirmish was hardly over when they left. "The echoes of the Light Infantry muskets fades as they ran back to the fort when out of the woods, the Canadien Militia burst out upon us. We exchanged volleys briefly but both parties had enough for that day. In the fighting, our Corporeal was gravely wounded. I was one of the men who carried him from the wood back up the mountain. We lost one other man before we were able to break away. The militia turned on their heels and fled back as well. Kelley moved with great discipline backwards keeping the French Marines pinned as they pulled away. Kelley lost two good men dead in this foolishness."

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I played the game on Saturday, September 24th, 2011. Mark created a whale of a scenario that the two of us played through. It was made for four players but only the two of us were available. The pictures do not show it, but the game was absolutely beautiful. Mark modeled a mountainside leading down to a lake where the Indian's canoes were waiting for them.

The game was great fun. The bear appearance was very humorous. The Indians under Black Brook fled to the lake and actually sank two of their canoes in their haste. The Indians under Jarome/Big Tree attempted to recapture one of the captives who got loose early on in the game. This prevented them from fleeing early on. Once the men returned, the Indians made their escape with 4 or 5 of their captives. Lieutenant Pascall was generally disliked by his men. As such, I made him a weasel who fled out on the Rangers when things looked tough. The Rangers did not do badly but never came close to the captives. They got stuck in a fight with the Indians first and the French Marines after them. I hope Mark publishes this one in a special or supplement of some kind as it was not only a good scenario, but great fun too.

One of these days, we need to have a games day here in Atlanta.