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Rogers' Rock Lake George

March 13, 1758

A Battle Fought on Snow Shoes

Great-Great-Granddaughter of Major Robert Rogers

MAJOR ROBERT ROGERS--1731-1795

A Battle Fought on Snow Shoes

Great-Great-Granddaughter of Major Robert Rogers

Lake George was frozen and the snow four feet deep in the woods, when on March 10, 1758, Colonel Haviland, commanding at Fort Edward, sent Major Rogers with one hundred and eighty men to reconnoitre the French position at Carillon, or Ticonderoga.

Rogers and his Rangers marched from Fort Edward in snow shoes to the half-way brook, in the road leading to Lake George, and there encamped the first night.

On the 11th they proceeded as far as the First Narrows on Lake George and encamped that evening on the east side of the lake.

At sunrise of the 12th they marched from their encampment. When they had gone some three miles, the Major saw a dog running across the lake. Thinking that the Indians might be lying in ambush, he sent a detachment to reconnoitre the island. None, however, could be seen. To prevent the enemy from discovering his force, Rogers halted at Sabbath-Day Point, on the west side of the lake. From the hills he looked northward over the lake with his perspective glass, but could see no signs of French or Indians. As soon as it was dark the party advanced down the lake. Lieutenant Phillips and fifteen men, laying aside their snow shoes and putting on skates, glided down the lake, as an advanced guard. The main body, flanked on the left by Ensign Ross, marched under the west shore. It was a very dark night and the band of rugged foresters kept close together to prevent separation. In this manner they continued their silent march close to the mountains fringing the lake until within eight miles of the French advanced guards, when they were informed by Lieutenant Phillips, who had hastened back, that a fire had been discovered in the woods on the east shore.

The Rangers, after hiding their sleighs and packs in a thicket, marched to attack the enemy's encampment, but when they reached the place no fires were to be seen. They did not know that the French had discovered their advanced guard and, putting out their fire, had carried the intelligence to Ticonderoga. The Rangers then returned to their packs and there lay the remainder of the night without fire, so that no column of blue smoke would reveal their hiding place.

At sunrise of the 13th the Rangers left the lake and on snow shoes struck into the woods on the west side, keeping on the back of the mountains that overlooked the French advanced guards.

They halted at noon at a point nearly west of the mountain--that from that day was to bear the name of Rogers--and some two miles from the French lines. Little did they know what that tragic afternoon held in store for them. Here they refreshed themselves until 3 o'clock, that the day scout from the fort might return before they advanced, since the Major intended at night to ambuscade some of the roads in order to trap the enemy in the morning.

Once more they began their toilsome march, one division headed by Major Rogers, the other by Captain Buckley; a rivulet at a small distance was on their left, and a steep mountain on their right. They kept well to the mountain, for the Major thought that the enemy would travel on the ice of the rivulet since it was very bad travelling on snow shoes. When they had gone a mile and a half a scout from the front told Rogers that the enemy was approaching on the bed of the frozen stream,--ninety-six of them--chiefly savages. The Rangers, concealed by the bank of the rivulet, immediately laid an ambush, gave the first fire and killed above forty Indians whom they scalped on the spot. The rest retreated, followed by about one-half of the Rangers, who were exulting over their victory, only to be suddenly confronted by more than six hundred Canadians and Indians fresh from Fort Ticonderoga, under Durantaye and De Langry, French officers of reputation, who were fully prepared to meet four hundred Rangers, of whose movements they had been apprized both by the prisoner taken and by the deserter from Putnam's men. Rogers ordered a retreat, which he gained at the expense of fifty men killed; the remainder he rallied and drew up in good order. They fought with such intrepidity and bravery that they obliged the enemy "tho seven to one in number," to retreat a second time, but Rogers had not sufficient numbers to follow up the advantage. The enemy then rallied and, recovering their ground, fought with great tenacity and determination, but were so warmly received that they were put to rout the third time. Finding the Rogers party so much inferior to themselves in number, the enemy again rallied and renewed the fight with vigor for some time. A body of two hundred Indians were now discovered going up the mountain on the right in order to gain the rear of the Rangers. Lieutenant Phillips with eighteen men gained the first possession and beat them back. Lieutenant Crafton with fifteen men stopped the French on the left from gaining the other part of the mountain. Two gentlemen volunteers hastened up and supported him with great bravery. The enemy now pushed so closely on the front that the combatants were often not twenty yards apart, and sometimes were mixed together. Lieutenant Phillips, surrounded by three hundred Indians, surrendered under promise of good quarter, but a few minutes later he and his whole party were tied to trees and hacked to death in a most barbarous manner. The savages maddened, it is said, by the sight of a scalp they found in the breast of a man's hunting frock, revenged themselves on their victims by holding up their scalps. The Rangers were now broken and put to flight, each man for himself, while the Indians, closely pursuing, took several prisoners.

My great-great-grandfather in his modest narrative does not mention his own hairbreadth escape. The Rangers, when put to flight, retreated in the best manner possible. Rogers was singled out by the French; the Indians, closely pursuing, ran him up the steep mountain then known as Bald Mountain, since Rogers Rock, to its face, and there on the brow of the precipice he threw away his knapsack and clothes together with his commission. There was but one chance for his life, and death was preferable to capture and torture by the savages.

Slowly the sun is setting over the mountain tops, gilding the lake below, as down the face of the precipitous rock for more than a thousand feet he slides in his snow shoes to the frozen lake below, and there, quickly changing his snow shoes for skates, glides over the vast white desert. Scarcely had he disappeared from sight when the foremost warrior reached the cliff sure of his prey--"No Roger!" There were his tracks! Other warriors came running up to the cliff sure of the prize--Rogers' scalp--for the enemy dreaded him, and with reason--and gazed upon his tracks.

Soon a rapidly receding form on the ice below attracted their notice, and the baffled savages, seeing that the famous Ranger had safely effected the perilous descent, gave up the chase fully persuaded that Rogers was under the protection of the Great Spirit. The Indians have a superstition, that the witches or evil spirits haunt this place, and seizing upon the spirits of bad Indians, on their way to the happy hunting grounds, slide down the precipitous cliff with them into the lake where they are drowned. Atalapose is their word for a sliding place.

During the one and one-half hours of battle the Rangers lost eight officers and more than one hundred privates killed on the spot. The enemy lost one hundred and fifty killed and some one hundred and fifty wounded, mostly Indians.

Was Colonel Haviland so indifferent and shortsighted as to send Robert Rogers with his brave Rangers to meet this impossible situation at such a great loss of life, or was he influenced by improper motives? Evidently Rogers's suspicions were awakened, for the clause, "but my commander doubtless had his reasons, and is able to vindicate his own conduct," is italicized in his journal.

This is what Major General John Stark, the friend and companion of Rogers says, though not in the engagement, of Colonel Haviland's act: "This officer was the same who sent him out in March, 1758, with a small force, when he knew a superior one lay in wait for him. He was one of those sort of men who manage to escape public censure, let them do what they will. He ought to have been cashiered for his conduct on that occasion. He was one of the many British officers who were meanly jealous of the daring achievements of their brave American comrades, but for whose intrepidity and arduous services, all the British armies, sent to America during the seven years' war would have effected little toward the conquest of Canada."--Memoir of Gen. John Stark, page 454.

Rogers was saved by a miracle and by his own daring. Thus ended his brave but unfortunate battle on snow shoes.

General Montcalm in a letter dated less than a month after the encounter, says: "Our Indians would give no quarter; they have brought back one hundred and forty-six scalps."

We can not with certainty say what Rogers, at this time twenty-six years of age, might have done had he had four hundred strong--but there is every probability that he would have put the enemy to rout.

When I visited this beautiful and romantic region, where one hundred and fifty years ago, and something more, the famous action took place, my mind passed in swift review through that notable afternoon when the Rangers fought one of their most desperate and unequal battles in the "Old French and Indian War."

In fancy I saw this picturesque body of Rangers, clad in skin and gray duffle hunting frocks; each man well armed with firelock, hatchet, and scalping knife, a bullock's horn full of powder hanging under his right arm by a belt from the left shoulder, and a leathern or seal skin bag, buckled around his waist, hanging down in front full of bullets and smaller shot, the size of full grown peas, and in the bottom of my great-great-grandfather's powder horn a small compass, while the French officers were clad in bright uniforms and the Indians in true Indian fashion gaily decorated with war paint.

I seemed to hear this peaceful solitude made hideous with the yells of the savages.

Behind this bank the Rangers lay in ambush for the Indians and killed and scalped about forty of them. Here they were confronted by more than six hundred Canadians and Indians well versed in forest warfare.

In this place the Rangers fought, "seven to one," from behind forest trees, for this theatre of action retains much of its original character preserved, improved and owned by Mr. David Williams. The Rogers Rock property includes the Slide and extends for more than a mile and a half along the shore of Lake George and some half of a mile back of Rogers Rock.

For more than an hour and a half this unequal contest raged. The Rangers after a long toilsome march on snow shoes and having camped three nights, sleeping in hammocks of spruce boughs, the third and last night without fire and chilled--the French and Indians fresh from the Fort.

The brave Rangers were fast falling everywhere, and the snow is crimsoned with their blood. They were the most hardy and resolute young men New Hampshire and other Colonies could produce, and their descendants are now filling their places in the world's niches well to-day.

Here is the trail Rogers followed up the steep mountain to the brow of the cliff, and there is the rock down which he made his miraculous escape. As the vision passes one cannot help saying, "ALL HONOR TO THOSE BRAVE MEN WHO HERE FELL MARCH 13, 1758."

An anecdote which my grandfather used to tell deserves to be mentioned. While Major Rogers was in garrison at Fort Edward in the winter of 1757-8, two British officers, half seas over, were one evening bemoaning their country's enormous debt. Rogers, coming in, and hearing the patriotic bewailing, cried: "Give yourselves no more uneasiness about the matter, gentlemen, I will pay half of the debt and a friend of mine the remainder. We will clear the nation at once of her difficulties."

The officers treated the Major and pronounced him the nation's benefactor. Hence the saying: "To pay one's debts as Rogers did that of the nation."

A Gentleman of the army, who was a volunteer on this party, and who with another fell into the hands of the French, wrote the following letter, some time after, to the officer commanding the regiment they belonged to at Fort Edward.

Carillon, March 28, 1758.

"Dear Sir,

"I have but one thing more to add, which we learned here, and which perhaps you have already observed from what I have said, that we were upon no other ice than that of Lake George; but by the day overtaking us, the morning of the 14th, in the very place we had, in coming, marched during the night, we were entirely unacquainted with it, and obliged to put a confidence in this guide, whose head must have been astray from the beginning, or he could not so grossly have mistaken a place where he had so often been. This information but added to our distress, until we reflected that our not being entirely lost was the more wonderful. That we had parted from South Bay on the 14th, was a point with us beyond all doubt, and about which we never once hesitated, so that we acted entirely contrary to what we had established as a truth; for if, according to that, we had continued our course to the west, we must inevitably have perished; but the hand of Providence led us back contrary to our judgment; and though even then, and often afterwards, we thought it severe, yet in the end it saved us, and obliged us to rest satisfied that we construed many things unfortunate, which tended to our preservation. I am, &c."

Journals of Major Robert Rogers, p. 90-102. 1765.

EXTRACTS FROM THE JOURNAL OF MAJOR ROBERT ROGERS , 1769, pages 69-81.

"Whereas I have this day thought proper to augment the Rangers with five additional companies, that is, four New England and one Indian company, to be forthwith raised and employed in his Majesty's service; and whereas I have an entire confidence in your skill and knowledge, of the men most fit for that service; I do therefore by these presents appoint you to raise such a number of non-commission officers and private men as will be necessary to compleat the said five companies, upon the following establishment, viz. each company to consist of one Captain, two Lieutenants, one Ensign, four Serjeants and 100 privates. The officers to have British pay, that is, the same as an officer of the like rank in his Majesty's regular forces; the Serjeants 4s. New York currency per day, and the private men 2s. 6d currency per day. And the better to enable you to make this levy of men, you shall have one month's pay for each of the said five companies advanced to you; upon these conditions, that, out of the first warrants that shall hereafter be granted for the subsistence of these companies, shall be deducted the said month's pay now advanced. Your men to find their own arms, which must be such as upon examination, shall be found fit, and be approved of. They are likewise to provide themselves with good warm cloathing, which must be uniform in every company, and likewise with good warm blankets. And the company of Indians to be dressed in all respects in the true Indian fashion, and they are all to be subject to the rules and articles of war. You will forthwith acquaint the officers appointed to these companies, that they are immediately to set out on the recruiting service, and you will not fail to instruct them that they are not to inlist any man for a less term than one year, nor any but what are able-bodied, well acquainted with the woods, used to hunting, and every way qualified for the Ranging service. You are also to observe that the number of men requisite to compleat the said five companies, are all to be at Fort Edward on or before the 15th day of March next ensuing, and those that shall come by way of Albany are to be mustered there by the officer commanding, as shall those who go strait to Fort Edward by the officer commanding there. Given under my hand, at New York, the 11th day of January, 1758.

To Capt Robert Rogers. J. Appy."

In pursuance of the above instructions I immediately sent officers into the New England provinces, where, by the assistance of my friends, the requested augmentation of Rangers was quickly compleated, the whole five companies being ready for service by the 4th of March.

Four of these companies were sent to Louisburg to join General Amherst, and one joined the corps under my command; and tho' I was at the whole expence of raising the five companies, I never got the least allowance for it, and one of the captains dying, to whom I had delivered a thousand dollars as advance pay for his company, which, agreeable to the instructions I received, had a right to do; yet was I obliged to account with the government for this money, and entirely lost every penny of it. It has already been mentioned, that the garrison at Fort Edward, was this winter under the command of Lieut. Col. Haviland. This gentleman, about the 28th of February, ordered out a scout under the direction of one Putnam, Captain of a company of one of the Connecticut provincial regiments, with some of my men, given out publickly at the same time, that, upon Putnam's return, I should be sent to the French forts with a strong party of 400 Rangers.

This was known not only to all the officers, but soldiers also, at Fort Edward before Putnam's departure.

While this party was out, a servant of Mr. Best, a sutler to the Rangers, was captivated by a flying party of the enemy from Ticonderoga; unfortunately too, one of Putnam's men had left him at Lake George, and deserted to the enemy. Upon Captain Putnam's return, we were informed he had ventured within eight miles of the French fort at Ticonderoga, and that a party he had sent to make discoveries had reported to him, that there were near 600 Indians not far from the enemy's quarters.

The 11th we proceeded as far as the first Narrows on Lake George, and encamped that evening on the east-side of the lake; and after dark, I sent a party three miles further down, to see if the enemy might be coming towards our forts, but they returned without discovering any. We were, however, on our guard, and kept parties walking on the lake all night, besides centries at all necessary places on the land.

The 12th we marched from our encampment at sunrise, and having distanced it about three miles, I saw a dog running across the lake, whereupon I sent a detachment to reconnoitre the island, thinking the Indians might have laid in ambush there for us; but no such could be discovered; upon which I thought it expedient to put to shore and lay by till night, to prevent any party from descrying us on the lake, from hills, or otherwise. We halted at a place called Sabbath-day Point, on the west-side of the lake, and sent our parties to look down the lake with perspective glasses, which we had for that purpose. As soon as it was dark we proceeded down the lake. I sent Lieutenant Phillips with fifteen men, as an advanced guard, some of whom went before him on scates, while Ensign Ross flanked us on the left under the west-shore, near which we kept the main body, marching as close as possible, to prevent separation, it being a very dark night. In this manner we continued our march till within eight miles of the French advanced guards, when Lieutenant Phillips sent a man on scates back to me, to desire me to halt; upon which I ordered my men to squat down upon the ice. Mr. Phillips soon came to me himself, leaving his party to look out, and said, he imagined he had discovered a fire on the east-shore, but was not certain; upon which I sent with him Ensign White, to make further discovery. In about an hour they returned, fully persuaded that a party of the enemy was encamped there. I then called in the advanced guard, and flanking party, and marched on to the west-shore, where, in a thicket, we hid our sleys and packs, leaving a small guard with them, and with the remainder I marched to attack the enemy's encampment, if there was any; but when we came near the place, no fires were to be seen, which made us conclude that we had mistaken some bleach patches of snow, or pieces of rotten wood, for fire whereupon we returned to our packs, and there lay the remainder of the night without fire.

The 13th, in the morning, I deliberated with the officers how to proceed, who were unanimously of opinion, that it was best to go by land in snow-shoes, lest the enemy should discover us on the lake; we accordingly continued our march on the west-side, keeping on the back of the mountains that overlooked the French advanced guards. At twelve of the clock we halted two miles west of those guards, and there refreshed ourselves till three, that the day-scout from the fort might be returned home before we advanced; intending at night to ambuscade some of their roads, in order to trepan them in the morning. We then marched in two divisions, the one headed by Captain Buckley, the other by myself: Ensigns White and Wait had the rear-guard, the other officers were posted properly in each division, having a rivulet at a small distance on our left, and a steep mountain on our right. We kept close to the mountain, that the advanced guard might better observe the rivulet, on the ice of which I imagined they would travel it out, as the snow was four feet deep, and very bad traveling on snow-shoes.

In this manner we marched a mile and an half, when our advanced guard informed me of the enemy being in their view; and soon after, that they had ascertained their number to be ninety-six, chiefly Indians.

We immediately laid down our packs, and prepared for battle, supposing these to be the whole number or main body of the enemy, who were marching on our left up the rivulet, upon the ice. I ordered Ensign M'Donald to the command of the advanced guard, which, as we faced to the left made a flanking party to our right. We marched to within a few yards of the bank, which was higher than the ground we occupied; and observing the ground gradually to descend from the bank of the rivulet to the foot of the mountain, we extended our party along the bank, far enough to command the whole of the enemy's at once; we waited till their front was nearly opposite to our left wing, when I fired a gun, as a signal for a general discharge upon them, whereupon we gave them the first fire, which killed above forty Indians; the rest retreated, and were pursued by about one half of our people. I now imagined the enemy totally defeated, and ordered Ensign M'Donald to head the flying remains of them, that none might escape; but we soon found our mistake, and that the party we had attacked were only their advanced guard, their main body coming up, consisting of 600 more, Canadians and Indians; upon which I ordered our people to retreat to their own ground, which we gained at the expence of fifty men killed; the remainder I rallied, and drew up in pretty good order, where they fought with such intrepidity and bravery as obliged the enemy to retreat a second time; but we, not being in a condition to pursue them, they rallied again, and recovered their ground, and warmly pushed us in front and both wings, while the mountain defended our rear; but they were so warmly received, that their flanking parties soon retreated to their main body with considerable loss. This threw the whole again into disorder, and they retreated a third time; but our number being now too far reduced to take advantage of their disorder, they rallied again, and made a fresh attack upon us. About this time we discovered 200 Indians going up the mountain on our right, as we supposed, to get possession of the rising ground, and attack our rear; to prevent which I sent Lieutenant Phillips, with eighteen men, to gain the first possession, and beat them back; which he did, and being suspicious that the enemy would go round on our left, and take possession of the other part of the hill, I sent Lieutenant Crafton, with fifteen men, to prevent them there; and soon after desired two Gentlemen, who were there, volunteers in the party, with a few men, to go and support him, which they did with great bravery.

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