Fort Hamilton

“ But the beer-men curtail my harangue, so I shake my departing fist at the cowering lion, and, leaving this British institution, proceed to investigate another British institution,—the undaunted English army, in its development in Fort Wellington. A wall shuts the world out from those sacred premises; a stile lets the world in,—over which stile we step and stand on the fort grounds. A party of soldiers are making good cheer in a corner of the pasture,—perhaps I ought to say parade-ground. As no sentinel accosts us, we hunt up one, and inquire if the fort is accessible. ”

“ November 4th, they took up the line of march for Hamilton, within two miles of which they were obliged to halt for several hours to build a bridge, near which was a deserted breastwork, leading from the woods across the main road to a fort on the river bank. Hamilton was reached about sundown, and, like Williamston, was found entirely deserted. The town being set on fire by the troops, the sick were placed on board gunboats, and the expedition marched out of Hamilton several miles, and bivouacked for the night. ”

“ There was time to send riders for succor and scouts to watch, to repair the fort, even to raid the Shawnee country before the invaders arrived—one hundred Canadians and four hundred Indians, while Boone’s garrison numbered fifty men and boys, with twenty-five brave women.
By Hamilton’s orders there must be no bloodshed, and he sent forty horses for the old folks, the women and children to ride on their way northward as prisoners of war. ”

“ At nine o'clock an order was passed to cease firing, and a flag of truce was seen going from Clark's headquarters to the fort. It was a peremptory demand for unconditional surrender. Hamilton refused, and fighting was fiercely resumed from behind rude breastworks meantime erected. Every loop-hole and opening of whatever sort was the focus into which the unerring backwoods rifles sent their deadly bullets. Men began to fall in the fort, and every moment Hamilton expected an assault in force on all sides of the stockade. This, if successful, would mean inevitable massacre. ”

“ Just before dark some small parties of our men made their way along the shore to the outer walls of the Old Fort, and when night had fallen the remainder of the infantry from the collier were landed. A good force was now available for attack, but our troops were at such a cruel disadvantage as to position, and the fire of the enemy was still so accurate in the bright moonlight, that all attempts to clear the fort and the outskirts of the village during the night failed one after the other. ”

“ Just after dark the riflemen marched into the streets of the village before the redcoats knew what was going on.
Crack! crack! sharply sounded half a dozen rifles outside the fort.
"That is Clark, and your time is short!" cried Captain Helm, who was Hamilton's prisoner at this time; "he will have this fort tumbling on your heads before to-morrow morning."
During the night the Americans threw up an intrenchment within rifle shot of the fort, and at daybreak opened a hot fire into the portholes. The men begged their leader to let them storm the fort, but he dared not risk their lives. ”

“ Between the far-off and the later phases at New Brighton stretched a series of summers that had seen us all regularly installed for a couple of months at an establishment passing in the view of that simpler age for a vast caravansery—the Hamilton House, on the south Long Island shore, so called from its nearness to the Fort of that name, which had Fort Lafayette, the Bastille of the Civil War, out in the channel before it and which probably cast a stronger spell upon the spirit of our childhood, William's and mine at least, than any scene presented to us up to our reaching our teens. ”

“ Grande and the Anakim make a reconnaissance in force, to see if some unwary postern-gate may not permit entrance. Halicarnassus fumbles in his pockets for edge-tools, as if Queen Victoria, who rules the waves, on whose dominions the sun never sets, whose morning drum-beat encircles the world, would leave the main gate of her main fort on one of the frontiers of her empire so insecurely defended that a single American can carry it with his fruit-knife. Such ideas I energetically enforce, till I am cut short by the slow retrogression of the massive gate on ponderous hinges turning. ”

“ He told all friends of the "hair-buyer general," as he called Hamilton, to repair to the fort and fight like men. At dusk on the evening of the 23rd, he attacked and captured the town, and led his men on to the attack of the fort. The French remained neutral and the bulk of the Indians left the town. The French Creole inhabitants of this coun-
try showed throughout this entire his- tory that dress parade and not battle was their long suit. ”

“ The danger, instead of being over, only deepened, for Hamilton, the Governor of Detroit, was a resolute official, and, burning under the smart inflicted by the audacious American officer, began the organization of an overwhelming force of British and Indians, with which to move up the Ohio, to Fort Pitt, capturing all the settlements on the way, purposing also to lay siege to Fort Kaskaskia itself. ”

“ Although expedition was all-important, the progress made was tedious and slow. Not until December 17 was Vincennes reached. On the news of Hamilton's approach the French militia of Captain Helm, Clark's representative, deserted him. Again, as in the case of the capture of Kaskaskia by Clark, a melodramatic tale is told of the capture of the fort. Helm, with his garrison dwindled to a single man, is represented as standing, lighted match in hand, by a well-charged cannon which he has placed in the fort gate,- 88 - halting the British force, and surrendering with the honors of war. ”

“ For a moment it seemed as though the face opposed to the rush of Captain Vernon and Captain Sandford was a mere wall requiring only to be scaled for the fort to be captured. But, when the men approached within three hundred yards of the fort, rifles rang out from every possible point, and the ground was swept by Mauser and Martini bullets. The men who charged through this zone of fire suffered terribly, and the conclusion must have forced itself upon their minds that they were going to their death. ”

“ Preparing to resist the invasion, Colonel Hore had already manned the earthwork, which from the days of the Warren expedition has been designated as a fort. The distance between the stadt and the fort is about four hundred yards, and around the regimental headquarters (p. 294) lie scattered numerous outbuildings. It is an impossible place to hold with a small number of men, while the outbuildings are so situated as to afford very excellent cover to any troops which may be advancing with the intention of surrounding the main buildings ”

“ Nowadays with the exception of the Kabul positions, Dehdadi, Mazar-i-Sharif and Baldak Spin, the two latter of which he built to command the approaches to Balkh and Kandahar, there are no modern forts in the kingdom. Those that do exist are made of mud and are of insufficient strength to withstand bombardment. The great majority serve merely as garrison depôts and are without interest save as interesting ruins.
The list is as follows:
Kala Afghan.—A fort in the Kunduz district, on the east side of the Lataband Pass, and on the road to Badakshan. ”

“ I approve entirely of all the steps you have taken; and have only to wish, that the exertions of those you have had to deal with, had kept pace with your zeal and good intentions. I hope your health will, before this, have permitted you to push on the rear of the whole reinforcement beyond New Windsor. Some of the enemy’s ships have arrived in the Delaware; but how many have troops on board, I cannot exactly ascertain. The enemy have lately damaged Fort Miflin considerably: but our people keep possession, and seem determined to do so to the last extremity. Our loss in men has been but small. ”

“ Hamilton, and were so certain of my embracing the fair opportunity of possessing myself of that post, that the merchants and others provided many necessaries for us on our arrival; the garrison, consisting of only eighty men, not daring to stop their diversions. They are now completing a new fort, and I fear too strong for any force I shall ever be able to raise in this country. We are proud to hear Congress intends putting their forces on the frontiers, under your direction. A small army from Pittsburg, conducted with spirit, may easily take Detroit, and put an end to the Indian war. ”

“ The remains of Fort Necessity, erected to cover the retreat of Braddock's defeated army, now wear such an antiquarian aspect that if there were no historical data respecting them they would be classed with the mounds. So with Forts Hamilton and Meigs, on the Miami and Maumee Rivers, and others, constructed only about one hundred years ago. When native forest trees are cleared away and the soil is turned over for the purpose of embankments, a new growth of vegetation is quickly started. ”

“ The enemy had carried out their movement so well, that under cover of their guns, and the great annoyance of their enfilading fire, they had made it almost impossible for the defenders of the fort to pay much attention to their advance. They compelled men to take cover, since if anything were seen to move behind the parapet of the fort, the Boers swept the area of the position with most cruel and deadly volleys. ”

“ The steady rush of our men, undeflected by the worst that the enemy could do, was rapidly demoralising those who were firing from behind the loopholes in the fort, and it may have been that, had we not had our responsible officers shot or killed before we reached the walls of the fort, a different story might have to be told. As it happened, when Captain Vernon, with whom was Lieutenant Paton, steadied his men for the wild impetuosity of the last charge, a bullet struck him in the body. ”

“ Scattering quickly, and under the cover of the different houses, he advanced within a very short distance of the fort. In the dim light, obscured by smoke, and in part concealed by the native refugees, it was impossible to tell whether these men were the van of a Boer force or our own outposts in process of retirement upon Colonel Hore. Under the guidance of Trooper Hayes, a deserter from the Protectorate Regiment, seven hundred Boers had rushed the interior lines of the outposts, making their way along the bed of the Molopo and through Hidden Hollow into the stadt. ”

“ The family of Governor Henry Dodge was on this second boat.466
On June 26, 1838, the Burlington was again at Fort Snelling. Among the tourists on this trip was Mrs. Alexander Hamilton who had embarked at Galena where she had been visiting her son, W. S. Hamilton, who was connected with lead mining enterprises in Wisconsin. The fact that Mrs. Hamilton had been a belle in society during the time of George Washington, and the general sympathy felt for her ever since the tragic death of her husband in 1804, caused her to be received with more attention than was usually bestowed on tourists. ”

“ Hamilton surrendered to him, February 25, and was forwarded to Virginia as a prisoner. Early in 1780 he established Fort Jefferson, just below the mouth of the Ohio, and later in the season aided in repelling a body of British and Indians who had come to regain the Illinois country and attack the Spaniards at St. Louis. Leaving Colonel Montgomery to pursue the enemy up the Mississippi, Clark, with what force could be spared, hastened to Kentucky, where he quickly raised a thousand men, and invaded and laid waste the Shawnee villages, in retaliation for Capt. ”

“ If Your Honor should surrender yourself, you will save Fort Douglas for the Hudson's Bay Company. Besides, the whole arrest will prove a farce. The law in Lower Canada provides no machinery for the trial of cases occurring——" Here Hamilton came to a blank and unexpected stop, for his eyes suddenly alighted on me with a look that forbade recognition, and fled furtively back to the group it the table. ”

“ The affair between the outposts began about a quarter to five in the morning. The first 100 lb. shell fell between our trenches and those of the enemy: it seemed that they had wished to secure the range. They had secured it. The three holes which form our advanced position contain no cover whatsoever, since there is none to put up, and whatever earth had been thrown up was commanded by the enemy's fort upon the south-eastern heights. Each hole contained a shelter from the sun, a corrugated iron arrangement, supported by props, with a sprinkling of earth on top. ”

“ Bala Murghab, a sister fortress, is smaller than Maruchak and lies about 46 miles south-east of Pendjeh. The principal work consists of a fort 120 yards square, situated on a mound itself 30 feet in height; the walls of the fort rise a further 15 feet. An underground passage from it leads to the river and there are quarters for 200 cavalry, 300 infantry and one battery of artillery, besides storehouses and a magazine. The interior of the fort in its present size does not afford accommodation for the existing garrison, all of whom are Irregulars with the exception of the officers. ”

“ Hamilton had much diffi- culty in making the journey from De- troit to Vincennes, but he arrived at the latter place on the 17th of Decem- ber. The Creoles deserted Captain Helm, and the Wabash Indians, who had made a treaty with Clark, went over to the British. A party of scouts whom Helm had sent out to watch for Hamilton's approach were captured bv the latter, and Helm with only one or two Americans to assist him was left to defend the fort against five hundred British and Indians under Hamilton. ”