Archibald Murray Howe

“ If, when he rode from Ticonderoga on horse at a high rate of speed to Philadelphia, to inform the Continental Congress that his friend Ethan Allen had taken possession of the fortress with its guns and materials for war, some poet had described his ride, as Longfellow portrayed Paul Revere's, the school children would still recall Brown of Pittsfield; but, my friends, 'tis of little moment that we are soon forgotten, if it be certain that, while we live, we live with moral courage in the life of every day. ”

“ The inventory of his estate, giving in detail the names of law books, a surveyor's guide, a theological treatise, and a Bible, with farm implements and military clothing, show something of the life of his time, when a man was farmer, surveyor, lawyer, and soldier altogether, and, if as active as John Brown, not much more able to write well-considered essays and books than if he had never seen Yale College. ”

“ Sparks, the historian, a Unitarian clergyman, when writing Arnold's life, detailed his sins, his youthful desertion from the British army, his financial dishonor at New Haven, his overbearing self-assertion, and yet he added, when telling of the attitude of the members of Congress towards Arnold, that "these stern patriots, regarding virtue as essential to true honor, did not consider great examples of valor, resource, and energy even of arousing and sustaining the military ardor of a country as an adequate counterpoise to a dereliction of principle and a compromising integrity." ”

“ John Brown, of Pittsfield, Mass., now almost forgotten, was a patriot in our Revolution of 1775 whose career has been described more than once by men in New York and in Berkshire County, but, as it is now time to give more impartial views of the controversy, perhaps another sketch of the life of this leader may encourage others to search for clearer views of the ways by which our ancestors established the institutions which we hope are to endure. ”

“ Reason fails to have even its usual part in man's destiny during all wars. Chance has sway, and men often get what is called glory when others, almost unknown to fame, should win the approval of all men.
Whether Washington had his doubts about Arnold's character may never be known, but more than once he gave him [Pg 8] opportunities to hold high command because he fought battles through. So Lincoln, when told that Grant drank whiskey, asked for more such whiskey for other generals. ”

“ Sir John Johnson's career, his apparent acquiescence in Schuyler's demands, his conduct when taking and when breaking his parole, his apology being that the Patriots had no established authority, and his repeated invasions of this country showed him to be the growth of the treachery which is bred among men who use the sordid and brutal nature of savages for evil purposes. ”

“ Sir John Johnson and his career in Tryon County and elsewhere in New York is well known. To me the whole subject of Indian warfare in all our wars seems to open every possible avenue to the extremest horrors and brutalities of war. Philip Schuyler, one of the noblest men who ever lived in New York State, had from his early youth been friendly to Indians. ”

“ As he rode one day from New Haven towards Cambridge, he met Captain Parsons, who was going to Hartford to plan with some Connecticut leaders for the capture of Ticonderoga. Hearing Parsons's plan, Arnold pushed on to Watertown and got a commission from the Massachusetts government as colonel as well as an order for power to recruit men, for horses and ammunition. Meeting Ethan Allen on his way to Ticonderoga, Arnold produced his Massachusetts authority, but not his men, on the same day that Allen was fully prepared for his work. ”

“ Brown's sister Elizabeth had married Oliver Arnold, attorney-general of Rhode Island, a cousin of [Pg 2] Benedict, and it is reasonable to suppose that he was well informed of Arnold's misdeeds, which thus became known to John Brown.
In 1771, when he was graduated from Yale, only twenty men were of his class. Quite a large number of Yale graduates took part with the patriots, and Humphreys, one of the class of 1771, was aide-de-camp to Washington. He, I believe, is the only writer in verse who extolled this John Brown. How often we are indebted to poets for our heroes! ”

“ Washington wrote to the Continental Congress: "It is thought, and perhaps not without foundation, that this invasion [of the Mohawk Valley] was made by Sir John Johnson upon the supposition that Arnold's treachery was successful."
If Johnson acted upon that supposition, Arnold was in some measure the cause of Brown's death, but, however that may be, John Brown died honorably after living honorably at Stone Arabia the 19th of October, 1780,—it is said between nine o'clock and ten o'clock in the morning. ”

“ The Patriots very early realized that [Pg 15] the Indians were to become a stumbling-block to any attempt at treating with Canada or maintaining what is called civilized warfare (can any warfare be civilized?) . Schuyler, Hawley, Oliver Wolcott, and other distinguished men of high character attempted in vain to hold the Indians to neutrality. Congress at one time voted that Indians should not be employed in the service excepting where a whole nation, after full consideration, decided to act together. At another time Congress asked Schuyler to employ two thousand Indians for military service. ”

“ Furthermore, the narrative is often far from correct; and as Allen was reckless in act and statement, and as Brown was continued in service under Montgomery, who was friendly to him, we may infer that Brown's failure was unavoidable. Allen's plan was not approved by Schuyler or Montgomery. Washington hoped that Allen's misfortune "would teach a lesson of prudence and subordination to others who may be anxious to outshine their general officers." ”

“ Arnold's application for a trial were imbarrassed on all Quarters, and no doubt laboured under high prejudices with Respect to your Petitioners Character owing perhaps to the Representations made them by Genl. Gates, who 'tis possible has been mistaken to his Sorrow with respect to his Friend—which prejudices your Petitioner hopes time and events have eradicated, he therefore can assure Congress, that he hopes and wishes for nothing more than common justice altho the History of the War and his present infirmities received therein, might entitle him to something more. ”

“ John, his youngest son, is described as tall and powerful, an athlete able to kick a football over the elm-tree on the college green at New Haven when he entered at twenty-three years of age, older in years than most college students of the year 1767. ”

“ Brown was chosen judge of the Common Pleas by the General Court of Massachusetts for 1779, but never held court, probably because his fellow-citizens were not submissive to the existing authority of the General Court as exercised before the adoption of the new Constitution of Massachusetts. In such a state of affairs Berkshire took her part largely in her way when she sent men to fight the battles of the United Colonies. ”

“ On the 21st of May, 1780, his forces divided, and poured into the lower valley of the Mohawk along a line of ten miles. From Tribes Hill upward they plundered, murdered, and destroyed. Every man capable of bearing arms was said to have been killed. Johnson withdrew hastily, as he was pursued by militia. Of course hundreds of people fled to Albany and Schenectady. Governor Clinton hurried at the head of troops from Kingston to Fort George, and, ordering others to meet him at Ticonderoga, he pushed on to Crown Point, but was too late to capture Sir John. ”

“ The question of plunder and the martial law governing it must have been a great source of trouble in this war among Indians and white men in the invasion of Canada and the Tory invasions hereabouts. [See Note 4.] It seems probable that, when Arnold falsely charged Easton and Brown with plundering the baggage of British officers at the Sorel, he could easily cast a shadow because of the uncertainty about the rules of war and the orders given by general officers. ”

“ Each soldier was equipped at his own expense with a good fire-arm, with a steel or iron ramrod and a spring to retain the same, a worm priming wire and brush, and a bayonet fitted to his gun, a scabbard and belt therefor, and a cutting sword or a tomahawk or hatchet, a pouch containing a cartridge-box that will hold fifteen rounds of cartridges at least, a one-hundred buckshot, a jack-knife and tow for wadding, six flints, one pound of powder, forty leaden balls fitted to his gun, a knapsack and blanket, a canteen or wooden bottle sufficient to hold one quart. ”

“ On December 10, 1772, a few months after graduation from Yale College, he was admitted to practise law in New York in the courts of Tryon County, a part of which is now Montgomery County, bearing the name of one of our noblest American generals, who led the attack on Quebec in December, three years later, where Brown served under him as a major of a Berkshire County regiment. Some writers call Brown king's attorney at Caughnawaga, whether rightly I know not, nor do I know why he came to the Mohawk Valley from Berkshire, [Pg 3] for Pittsfield was a growing frontier town. ”

“ Plunder or pillage always incident to war, and, whatever rules exist for restraint, the conflict usually leads to authorized devastation and plunder, retaliatory to exhaust the enemy. For instances, in Civil War of 1861-65, Sherman's destruction of property in march through Southern territory, Sheridan's destroying agents in the Shenandoah Valley. ”

“ On the 18th of September, 1777, early in the day he made sudden and successful attacks on the landing-place near Ticonderoga, Mount Defiance, and that neighborhood, demanding the surrender of the fortress; but this time General Powel, of the [Pg 12] British army, made a manly reply. His captures of men and material were very valuable. Some American prisoners were released, and a Continental standard of colors was recaptured and sent to General Lincoln with much delight. ”

“ New York Colony on the west, though directed largely by men of high character like Philip Schuyler, was torn by bitter political differences, the Loyalist element being strong in social and political affairs. Then, although the Berkshire towns were active from the earliest days of 1774 in sharing with other towns the plans for resistance to royal authority, they were very jealous of any continuance of unnecessary power in the Provincial Congress. Pittsfield by the quill of a cousin of Ethan Allen, the Rev. ”

“ On that day and the 18th Sir John Johnson laid waste the whole of Stone Arabia district after burning Caughnawaga.
Brown's defeat in the morning of October 19 did not, however, involve Fort Paris, which was held by Major Root. Although immediate relief of the fort and pursuit of Johnson were essential, Van Rensselaer did not cross the Mohawk until afternoon, crossing at Fort Plain. The enemy was entrenched on the north side of the river, about St. Johnsville, near a stockade or block-house at Klock's. ”

“ It may be that some of his men were stationed in different forts or block-houses in other places than Stone Arabia, and that only 217 men of the Berkshire Regiment were in the battle of October 19, 1780. The killed and wounded are all from three of the five companies. [See Note 4.] Some writers say that Colonel Brown had New York men with him, and one statement refers to Captain John Kasselman, of Tryon County Rangers, as being in conference with Brown on the day he fell. ”

“ For giving unjustifiable, unwarrantable, cruel and bloody orders, directing whole villages to be destroyed, and the inhabitants thereof put to death by fire & sword, without any distinction to friend or foe, age or sex. ”

“ Brant delayed his attack until late in July, 1780, and then made a feigned attack on Fort Schuyler. General Van Rensselaer, then at Stone Arabia, hastened to the relief of Fort Schuyler, and Brant in early August fell upon the Canajoharie settlements and destroyed them mercilessly. Troops were sent from Albany to protect the settlements, but they were not sufficient.
September 7 an extra session of the New York legislature sat at Poughkeepsie, and authorized Governor Clinton to order out such number of militia as he thought necessary. ”

“ Her officers and men were often too independent to submit willingly to proper military authority, and in some trying emergencies the Berkshire men were insubordinate or were disposed to follow their leaders in attacks not always wisely chosen. ”

“ Grider describes the battle as a running or moving fight extending from the eastward to the south-west at least across six farms, and you all know how valuable the evidence is showing that the large boulder with its inscription was the stone behind which six men found refuge and shelter until surrounded and killed. ”

“ Fort Paris, Dec. 19, 1776, Captain Christian Getman's Rangers, Tryon County militia, were stationed at Stone Arabia, and were ordered, when not ranging, to cut timber for building a fort, under direction of Isaac Paris, Esq. (Mr. Paris was in Provincial Congress and later in State Senate.) It was a palisaded enclosure of stone and block-houses for a garrison of from two to three hundred (200-300) men. ”