Author’s note – for more on Dr.
Blank’s adventure, read “A Ranger’s Story, 1756 ©”, HERE, “The Peculiar Case of Dr. Blank,
Part One©”, HERE, and The Peculiar Case of Dr.
Blank, Part Two ©, HERE.
Circumstantial
evidence, inconsistencies, and things that ring true...
Ordinarily, in the absence of direct evidence, it would be “case
closed”, and we would have concluded that Dr. Blank’s tale was nothing but
a tall tale. However, there are so many
details in his narrative that look plausible, sound true, and illustrate a
firsthand knowledge of how Roger’s Rangers and other scouts operated during the
French and Indian War, that it makes me wonder if, even in the absence of any direct
evidence, whether there is some truth to his tale. Was there any circumstantial evidence, evidence
which proves one or more facts from which you can deduce another fact, to
support his story? Was Dr. Blank’s
peculiar tale of adventure as a member of Rogers’ Rangers a true tale, or was
it simply a tall tale? Perhaps by
looking at some of the details in his story, and proving them true, we can find
some indirect evidence to support his story.
_(NYPL_b12647398-74024).tiff.jpg)
“...at Lake George, on the memorable eighth of September...
of September... saw, or imagined he saw, the fall of his brave leader [Colonel Ephraim Williams--Author’s note]; and is quite sure that he put a bullet into the French officer, Mons. St. Pierre”.
Monsieur Jacques Legardeur de Sainte-Pierre at the Battle of Lake George, but who were they and can their deaths help us solve this mystery?
By
late August of 1755, the army commanded by William Johnson of New York, and
made up of 3,000 Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire and New York Provincials, and with 300
allied, mostly Mohawk, Native Americans, reached the south end of “Lac du
Saint-Sacrement” as it was then known to the French. Once there he renamed the lake, “Lake
George”, and began to clear the ground to build a fort.
Meanwhile
Monsieur Jean-Armand, the Baron de Dieskau, the commander of “Fort
Saint-Frédéric”, and the senior military commander of New France, was
leading a column south from Fort Saint-Frédéric, which was known to the English
as “Crown Point”. This force
included 200 French regulars, 600 Canadian militia, and 700 Caughnawaga Mohawk,
and Abenaki, Native American allies. On
September 7th, unknown to the English, Dieskau’s column cut the road
between Johnson’s camp at Lake George and “Fort Lyman”, which was later renamed
“Fort Edward”1, to the south.
an Half”2,
they marched into an ambush, just over 2-½ miles (4 km) from their camp; an
ambush that the provincials called the “Bloody Morning Scout”. Colonel Ephraim Williams was shot in the head
and killed, as he charged the western embankment trying to rally his men and
lead them out of the ambush, by charging the flank. After his death, most of the Third
Massachusetts fled north toward Johnson's camp, while Lt. Colonel Nathan Whiting, commanding
the Second Connecticut, and Lt. Col. Seth Pomeroy, of the Third Massachusetts, rallied
about 100 of the survivors and most of the surviving Mohawks, and with the Second Connecticut provincials conducted a successful
fighting retreat. As Lt. Col. Pomeroy
wrote in his journal, “...this
Morning Sent out about 1200 men near 200 of them our Indians went Down ye Rhode
toward ye Carrying pla [ce ] got about 3 miles they ware ambush'd & Fir'd
upon By Franch and Indians a number of ours yt war Forward Return'd ye Fre
& fought bravely but many of our men toward hind Part Fled ye others being
over match't ware oblig'd to fight upon a Retreet & a very hansom retreet
they made by Continuing there fire & then retreeting a little & then
rise and give them a brisk Fire So Continued till they Came within about 3/4 of a mile of our Camp there was ye Last Fire our men
gave our Enenies which kill'd grate numbers of them Sean to Drop as Pigons...”
It
was during this “Last Fire”, of the rearguard fight, that Monsieur
Jacques Legardeur de Sainte-Pierre was killed.
“Troupes de la Marine” and was born in Montreal on October 24, 1701. He commanded the Canadian Milice and the French allied Native Americans at the “Bloody Morning Scout” ambush. He was well respected and had great influence with the Native Americans and his death was a great blow to the French forces.
The
conclusion of “The Battle of Lake George” brought an end to the English expedition
against Crown Point, and the surviving soldiers began building “Fort William
Henry” at the southernmost point of Lake George, to defend the northern end
of the “Great Carrying Place” road2.
Williams, during the first moments of the ambush of The Bloody Morning Scout, and if so, then he would have to have been part of the Third Massachusetts Regiment of Provincials.
If he also saw the death of Mons. St.
Pierre, then he would have had to have fought in the rearguard action, with the
survivors of the Third Massachusetts and the men of the Second Connecticut,
since Monsieur Jacques Legardeur de Sainte-Pierre was reported to have been
killed at “...ye Last Fire our men gave
our Enenies...”,
which took place only about ¾ of a mile (1.2 km) south of Johnson’s camp on
Lake George.
If
Dr. Blank was Doctor John Manning, and if he did see both Col. Williams and
Mons. St. Pierre both fall during The Bloody Morning Scout, why couldn’t we
find him in the muster rolls of Third Massachusetts Regiment of Provincials, or
even in the rolls of the Second Connecticut Regiment of Provincials?
Was
it because he wasn’t there? Is it
possible he had only read about the battle in a newspaper?
Because,
soon after The Battle of Lake George, newspapers and pamphlets reported the
details of the battle, such as the deaths of Col. Williams and Mons. St. Pierre, however, each reported different
details, in a different way.
General
William Johnson wrote a letter “to the
Governors of the Several Colonies”,
on September 9th, 1755, from his camp at Lake George, reporting the
details of The Battle of Lake George. This
letter reported briefly on both the deaths of Col. Williams and Mons. St.
Pierre, by noting “In this
Engagement we suffer’d our greatest Loss; Col. Williams” and
that “we have killed a great number of the
enemy; amongst whom is Mons. St. Pierre, who commanded all the Indians”.3 This letter in turn was reprinted in
newspapers, both in the American Colonies and in Great Britain.4
when Colonel Williams died, only that he died. Nor did his account describe when Mons. St. Pierre was slain, only that he did not survive the day.
The New-York Mercury, on
September 22nd, 1755, featured a different account of The Battle
Lake George, one that didn’t mention Mons. St. Pierre death at all, and only
briefly mentioned that Col. Williams was killed in the battle.5
Samuel Blodget, a civilian sutler, a merchant who sold wine, rum, tobacco and other goods to the off-duty soldiers and officers at frontier military camps. Blodget, who noted in his account that he “was my self present in the Camp...I took my Post at the Eminence where the Field-Piece was planted, from whence I could, with Advantage, view the Action, in all it’s Parts, from the Beginning to the End of it”. He continued with, “I have not therefore contented my self with my own Observations, but made it my Business to converse with those, at the Camp, who were most capable of enabling me to give a fair and full Account of the Transactions of this memorable Day...As to the Fight of the Detachment of which Col. Williams had the chief Command, I am beholden to others...and I received it immediately from their Mouths”. And just like General Johnson, Samuel Blodget wrote of the death of “St. Pierre, the chief Commander of the Indians”; but interestingly he didn’t even mention the death of Col. Williams at all!6
Legardeur de Sainte-Pierre’s death was widely spoken of in the camp at Lake George, and that both General Johnson, Samuel Blodgett, and the rest of the army, would have known of it. And, they would have also known of the circumstances of Colonel Ephraim Williams’ death, during the initial moments of the ambush of The Bloody Morning Scout.
But the newspapers and the pamphlets which were
published immediately after the battle, and
which each had a different account from that of Dr. Blank’s in one detail or
the other. Dr. Blank remembered that he “...fought ... at Lake George, on the memorable eighth of September... saw, or
imagined he saw, the fall of his brave leader”, Colonel Ephraim Williams, and that he was “...quite sure that he put a bullet into the French officer,
Mons. St. Pierre”.
This is certainly an interesting bit of circumstantial
evidence, but that is all it is, and it cannot be considered conclusive. So once again, we are left without any
conclusive evidence to prove if Dr. Blank’s tale is true, or a just tall tale foisted
upon “New Contributor”; all we have is another big maybe! In future installments of “The Peculiar Case
of Dr. Blank”, we will discuss some other bits of circumstantial evidence,
inconsistencies, and other things that ring true.
Don’t forget to come back
next week and read “How to Survive a Wildfire ©”, where we will talk about what
to do if you are caught in a wildfire!
I
hope that you continue to enjoy The Woodsman’s Journal Online and look for me
on YouTube at BandanaMan Productions for other related videos, HERE. Don’t forget to follow me on both The
Woodsman’s Journal Online, HERE,
and subscribe to BandanaMan Productions on YouTube. If you have questions, as always, feel free
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announce new articles on Facebook at Eric Reynolds, on Instagram at bandanamanaproductions,
and on VK at Eric Reynolds, so watch for me.
That
is all for now, and as always, until next time, Happy Trails!
Notes
1 On
September 21, 1755, Sir William Johnson changed the name of Fort Lyman, to Fort
Edward in honor of Edward, Duke of York and Albany, grandson of George II and
brother of George III.
2
From The London Gazette Extraordinary, Whitehall, October 10; The
Whitehall Evening Post, or London Intelligencer, Thursday October 30 to
Saturday November 1, 1755. No. 1511,
3
This road was the 15-mile “Great
Carrying Place” portage route, known to the Native Americans
as “Wahcoloosencoochaleva”, that bypassed the falls and rapids of the
Hudson River, and took travelers to the southern end of Lake George or if they
took the eastern branch of the trail, Lake Champlain.
4 From
The Papers of Sir William Johnson, Volume II, by James Sullivan, Ph. D.,
page 25
5
Later
the The Gentleman’s Magazine: for November 1755, reprinted the earlier
account, which had originally been printed in the New-York Mercury on
September 22nd, 1755.
6 “A Prospective-Plan of
the Battle Near Lake George”, by Massachusetts
Society of Colonial Wars,
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