George Peck's WYOMING, 1858 - Pennsylvania - Chapter 12 Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Judy Banja jbanja@comcast.net USGENWEB ARCHIVES (tm) NOTICE All documents placed in the USGenWeb Archives remain the property of the contributors, who retain publication rights in accordance with US Copyright Laws and Regulations. In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, these documents may be used by anyone for their personal research. They may be used by non-commercial entities, when written permission is obtained from the contributor, so long as all notices and submitter information are included. These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit. Any other use, including copying files to other sites, requires permission from the contributors PRIOR to uploading to the other sites. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/pafiles.htm ________________________________________________ HTML with illustrations: http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/1pa/1picts/peckwyo/peck-wyo.htm WYOMING; ITS HISTORY, STIRRING INCIDENTS AND ROMANTIC ADVENTURES. By GEORGE PECK, D.D. WITH ILLUSTRATIONS. NEW YORK: HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, FRANKLIN SQUARE, 1858 GEORGE P. RANSOM AND OTHERS. 315 XII. THE CAPTIVITY AND ESCAPE OF GEORGE P. RANSOM AND OTHERS. GEORGE P. RANSOM was the son of Captain Samuel Ransom, who was one of the three men who arrived just in time to engage in the battle and fall upon the field of gore and slaughter. - See Mrs. Myers's account of the battle, p. 158. The subject of this sketch entered the army at the commencement of the Revolutionary war, at the age of fourteen. He served for two years as his father's waiter. When Wyoming was threatened with an invasion from the Indians and Tories, two companies which had been raised in Wyoming, under the command of Captains Ransom and Durkee, were consolidated into one, and sent on under the command of Captain Simon Spaulding. This company was encamped at Merwin's, thirty-three miles from the Valley, on the night of the battle.* On the following day, a scout was sent on in advance to learn the position of affairs. The scout met the fugitives, who gave them the sad intelligence of the defeat and slaughter of the little patriot army, and that the settlement was in the possession of the Indians and Tories. Upon their return, Captain Spaulding proceeded with his men to Stroudsburg. After a delay there of several weeks, Spaulding's _____ * So say the historians; but Colonel Hollenback is represented as locating Spaulding's company on that night at Bear Creek, twenty-four miles nearer Wyoming. 316 WYOMING. company, together with some of the settlers under the leadership of Colonel Butler, proceeded to the Valley, and buried the dead who lay upon the battle- field. Young Ransom was in the company, and, after diligent search among the slain, was finally enabled to identify the body of his father from his shoe and knee buckles. His head was severed from his body, and the body was much burned. Another son of Captain Ransom who was in the battle had his arm broken by a ball, and escaped by swimming the river and diving when the savages shot at him from the shore. George P. Ransom joined Sullivan's army, was in the battle at Newtown, and shared in all the dangers and hardships of the expedition into the Indian country. He related with much interest the circumstance of Luke Swetland's meeting the army. Swetland had been taken prisoner by the Indians in August, 1778, and had managed to make his escape. When he met the army, supposing he had fallen in with Butler's Tories, he asked if they had heard any thing of "the rebel army," when, taking him for a stray Tory, the soldiers commenced abusing him with kicks and cuffs. Fortunately, young Ransom happened to be near him, and sung out, "Is that you, Swetland?" "Good God! "exclaimed Swetland, "is there any one here that knows me?" The course of treatment was now suddenly changed from abuse to hearty congratulations, and the supposed Tory was taken into the arms of his Yankee brothers, and, with them, returned to his beloved Wyoming after more than a year's absence. Upon the return of the army to the Valley Mr. Ransom obtained a furlough, and visited his friends at Plymouth. On one Sunday evening in December, GEORGE P. RANSOM AND OTHERS. 317 1780, young Ransom, with two other young men, paid a visit to a house where were three young ladies, for the purpose of whiling away an hour or two in pleasant chat. When they had become agreeably engaged in soft nonsense and relating yarns, three heavy raps fell upon the door. The party knew well the signal, and looked around for some way of escape. Upon looking out of the windows they found them guarded, and, turning to the door, in rushed a band of Indians and Tories, and made captives of the whole company. The lovers were now, in sorry plight, hurried up the mountain, and at a suitable distance from the settlement the Indians and Tories prepared to encamp. Before they had concluded their arrangements for the night they let the girls go. Two of them - Lucy Harvey and Rachel Bullock - took a bee-line to the fort at Wilkesbarre. The venerable Charles Harris, now eighty-nine years of age, was on duty as a sentinel that night. He was then a lad, and wide awake for Indians. He says, "I saw something black, and I thought it moved. I was first at a loss to know what to do; I thought it might be an Indian stealing up to shoot me; but, as it might be a friend, I concluded to call out. `Who is there?' I demanded. A female voice answered, 'A friend.' Then advance, said I, and up came the two girls, and told me the story of their capture and release, and said that the Indians and Tories had the three young men, and were going off with them to Niagara. I awoke Colonel Butler, and he ordered the alarm-gun fired. When it was fired it created terrible confusion; an Irishman jumped out of his bed and ran to the door roaring, and appeared to be half scared to death." The prisoners on the mountain heard the alarm- 318 WYOMING. gun, and from that concluded that their lady-loves had safely reached the garrison. The prisoners were tied, and the Indians and Tories lay down in a ring around them. Before they laid themselves down, one of the Tories told the prisoners, with great emphasis, that if either of them escaped, the Indians would kill the others. When all were asleep, Ransom thought of making his escape, and succeeded in untying the rope which confined his arms. They were situated on the brow of a hill, and he had no doubt but he could dash down the hill among the bushes, and escape without harm. But then he thought of his companions in captivity. From the manner in which the Tory had premonished them of the consequences of the escape of any one of them, he had no reason to doubt but the threat would be executed, and that, too, under circumstances of savage barbarity. Upon reflection, he tied the rope as it was before. He could not sleep; his thoughts were busy. What would become of him? He wore the uniform of Sullivan's army; he remembered the fate of "brave Boyd;" and, almost without willing it, the rope was again slipped. He looked upon the darkness down the hill side; he was upon the point of leaping over the ring of Indians and Tories; he held himself down; he did the deed in imagination over and over. But ah! his two companions in captivity - their fate brought him up again. He could have no hope of releasing them. One might escape, loose as he then was, but to liberate the other two, and for all to run away, would be beyond the bounds of all rational probability. Here he paused, and finally drew the knot up again, and waited for daylight, resolving to share a common fate with his companions in captivity. When the day broke the company made prepara- GEORGE P. RANSOM AND OTHERS. 319 tions to move on. They loaded the prisoners with heavy packs, and moved up the river. It was in the month of December, and they suffered much from fatigue and cold, besides being nearly starved. At Tioga Point they killed a horse, and kept in tolerable case while their horse-beef lasted. Ransom was known from his dress to have been in the army which had devastated the Indian country, and of course was singled out as a special object of vengeance. Before they reached Niagara they fell in with a large body of Indian families, and now it was time to proceed with some ceremony of savage cruelty, in which all who had suffered from the invasion of the "rebel army" might have a taste of sweet vengeance on their enemies. The method resorted to was one of the milder sort in use among the Indians. Ransom was seated on a log, and was told by the Tories that the Indians were about to whip him. The law which governed this ceremony was that the whole body of Indians, squaws, and pappooses would pass by him in single file, and each one would give him a blow he might dodge, but must not leave the log; if he did, he would be killed. The procession was formed, every one having in hand some weapon, generally being armed with sticks or whips. The old chief came up at the head of the procession, and, taking him by the hand, muttered out something in his own language, and gave him a blow. Then came the queen squaw and did the same. Then followed about forty Indians, then about as many squaws. Last of all came on the young brood, and they struck their blow, some of them showing the venom of young vipers. The victim of this savage cruelty dodged the blows so adroitly that he was not much injured excepting in one instance: a 320 WYOMING. young Indian, with murderous intent, flung a tomahawk at his head, which would have cloven his skull had he not dropped his head down as quick as lightning. The deadly weapon passed over his head, but struck his back near the lower extremity of the spine, and inflicted an injury, the effects of which he felt, at times, through the rest of his life. The prisoners were ten or twelve days in reaching Niagara. They were soon removed to what was called "Prisoners' Island," in the St. Lawrence, forty-five miles above Montreal, where there were one hundred and sixty-six American prisoners. The following account of the treatment which the prisoners received there is from Mr. Ransom's own hand, and is taken from Miner's History. He says, "We were guarded by Refugees, or what was called Tories, that belonged to Sir John Johnson's second regiment. The commanding officer of the guard on the island was a young Scotchman by the name of M'Alpin, about eighteen years of age. The winter was very severe, and a great snow-storm came and drifted before the door of the guard, who sent for some of the American prisoners to come and shovel it away. They refused, saying they were prisoners of war, and he had no right to set them at work for his pleasure. Enraged at this, the officer ordered them into irons, and directed others to take the shovels and go to work: these also refused and were ironed. So he went on commanding and meeting with resolute disobedience to what they considered a tyrannical order. They had taken up arms and periled their lives to resist British tyranny, and would not now, though prisoners, submit to it. Some were ironed two together, some to a bar four together; but he kept putting on GEORGE P. RANSOM AND OTHERS. 321 irons as long as he had handcuffs left. Among the last who refused were myself and one William Palmeters. We were then put into an open house without floor or windows, and directions given that we should have neither victuals, brandy, nor tobacco; but our faithful friends contrived to evade the guard, and we were furnished with all. There we remained all night, suffering extremely from the cold. The next morning M'Alpin came, thinking our spirits were broken, and demanded if we would not shovel now. All answered in a word, 'Not for a Tory.' He then took us out of that place and put us into a hut just finished, with a good floor, and we sent for a black man, a good fiddler, for we had two on the island. We then opened our ball, dancing, to keep ourselves warm, jigs, hornpipes, four and six-handed reels. Where four were ironed to one bar, they could dance the cross-handed, or what we called the York reel. We continued in this merry mood until our Scotch gentleman found the place was too good for us. He then took us out and put us into a loft of one of the huts, which stood so low that a man could stand up only under the centre of the ridge. There we were kept in extreme suffering two days and nights. In the mean time, M'Alpin sent for Charles Grandison, our fiddler, and ordered him to play for his pleasure. The black went, but firmly declared that he would not play while his fellow- prisoners were in irons. The officer then ordered a sort of court-martial, composed of Tories, who, of course, brought in the poor negro guilty. The sentence of the court was that he should be stripped, tied up, and receive ten lashes on his naked back, which was done. While smarting with the lash, the officer asked if he would fiddle as he was ordered. 'No; 322 WYOMING. not while my fellow-prisoners are in irons,' was his answer. Again he was tied up and ten lashes laid on; but his firmness was not to be shaken, and the officer sent him to his hut. "M'Alpin then sent a party of soldiers to bring up some of the prisoners, several of whom were flogged severely; and one, against whom the Tories had a particular spite, was tied neck and heels, a rope put around his neck, and he was thus drawn up to the chamber floor and kept until he was almost dead, let down and then drawn up again. One John Albright, a young Continental soldier, was flogged almost to death for speaking his mind freely. But not one American was found to shovel snow." On the opening of spring, Ransom and his two fellow-prisoners, James Butterfield and John Brown, were permitted to make gardens for themselves. They planned their beds with some taste. They now conceived the project of making a raft and escaping on it. They laid out their work and proceeded, one keeping watch while the other two worked. They put together old sticks, and whatever they could procure that could be used, and bound them together, and, as fast as they proceeded, they contrived to bury their work under the sand, leaving the surface in the form of a bed, the outer rails of their raft seeming to be designed to keep the earth from washing away. There is some truth as well as poetry in the lines of Dryden: "For there's the folly that's still mixed with fear, Cowards more blows than any heroes bear; Of fighting sparks some may their pleasures say, But 'tis a bolder thing to run away." They provided themselves with some bread, pork, GEORGE P. RANSOM AND OTHERS. 323 and salt, and on the 9th of June, just after sundown, they dug out the raft and committed themselves to the treacherous current. Their paddles were round sticks flattened at the end with a pocket-knife. They pulled out with might and main, and had but just got under way before the alarm-gun bellowed and reverberated like terrible thunder. The thick darkness now covered the fugitives, and they were borne down the current on their crazy raft, to what haven they knew not. Their raft being constructed of old materials, it absorbed the water until it ran so deep that the adventurous passengers sat in the water some eighteen inches. That was an anxious night, and as perilous as anxious. The doubt which harassed their minds was whether they would not be wrecked and drowned, or be obliged to land where they would be an easy prey to the British soldiers or the Indians. At daybreak they landed on the Canada side, and when they attempted to raise themselves to their feet they found it impossible. Their lower limbs were stiff, being benumbed with their long continuing motionless under water. They succeeded in pulling themselves to land by some bushes, and then commenced rubbing their legs and whipping them with switches. Finally they could walk, and they moved on down the river, and concealed themselves for the day under the trees in a windfall. When night came they started on, looking out for some sort of craft in which they could find their way across to the American side. They saw a bark canoe, but were kept at bay by two savage dogs, which it was not possible for them to pacify. Soon after this they found two bark canoes lying near each other. They took possession of these light vessels, and soon found the American shore. They 324 WYOMING. now directed their course toward the head of Lake Champlain. Their bread was wet and spoiled; they saved their meat and salt. In a written account of this wonderful escape, which we have received from Mr. Samuel Ransom, son of Colonel George P. Ransom, it is said that their meat lasted them seven days, and then they were left without food. They concealed themselves in the daytime for six days, and traveled by night. Their way lay through a fearful swamp, where for more than a week they could find no water fit to drink. They traveled with forked sticks, and with these they captured snakes and frogs, upon which they lived for more than a week. They all became exceedingly weak, and one of the company came to the conclusion that he must lie down and die. The other two stimulated him on by telling him that if he died they would fill their packs with his flesh and eat it. This terrible threat drove him on for a while, but he became feverish, and evidently could go no farther. Providentially they came to a beautiful spring of water. He drank, and lay down by the side of it. He insisted upon being left, as it was better for him to die alone than for the whole company to perish, and no one be left to tell their story. Upon the whole, it was concluded to make the best provision for the poor fellow they could, and then go on. They accordingly gathered a pile of wood, caught a quantity of frogs and snakes, and built a brush booth over him, and bade him farewell. Now Mr. Ransom and one of his companions proceeded, but with feeble and faltering steps, being nearly exhausted. On the fourteenth day of their adventurous journey they found two old horses. Their first GEORGE P. RANSOM AND OTHERS. 325 idea was to kill one of them and fill their packs. The next thought was the wisest one - that was, to mount the horses, and let them go where they would, presuming they would take them to some habitation of man. This plan succeeded. The horses brought them to a house where there was a kind-hearted old lady. She saw their condition, and gave them half a pint of milk each, mixed with about as much water, and a little bread. They took their scanty ration, and lay down upon the floor. They reached this hospitable hut just before night. They slept until about twelve o'clock, and then awoke with such a voracious appetite that they could almost bite the flesh out of each other, or devour their own fingers. They called to their benefactress, who arose and gave them the same allowance as before. They then lay down and slept until morning. They remained here three or four days, and became so recruited that they proceeded with good heart upon their journey. They came to the lake, and three days after reached Hubbertston, Vermont; the next day they reached a fort at Castleton; then they came to Poultney, where Mr. Ransom found a home for the time being with an uncle. Some three weeks after their arrival at Poultney, who should make his appearance but the poor fellow they had left to die by the spring! Rest under his booth, the frogs, broiled by the fire, seasoned with a little salt his companions had left him, and the pure cold water, sustained nature until she had rallied; the fever left him, and he set off upon the track of his comrades, and came through in safety. Colonel Ransom says, "My companions went on to Albany, and there proclaimed the cruelty of the Scotch officer: it was published in the papers. A flag was 326 WYOMING. dispatched to remonstrate against such abuse of our men; and we had the pleasure to hear, not long after, that M'Alpin was tried and broke, the prisoners being called to witness against him." Some of the Wyoming prisoners had the pleasure of seeing M'Alpin drummed out of the camp. About this time a prisoner brought in a report that Cornwallis was taken at Yorktown, and the American prisoners, after due consultation, concluded to give vent to their feelings upon the occasion. Accordingly, on a signal being given, at dead of night, the very ground was made to tremble with three cheers for General Washington. The officers sprang from their beds, and the sentinels almost jumped out of their boots; but, upon examination, all was order and quiet among the prisoners. The iron rule had ended. The time had now come to begin to arrange for the exchange of prisoners, instead of tying Yankees neck and heels, and hanging them up. Henceforth law and decency obtained on "Prisoner's Island." After becoming sufficiently recruited, Mr. Ransom visited his friends in Canaan, Connecticut, and then, after a short stay in Wyoming, returned to the army at West Point, where he remained until the conclusion of the war, when he was honorably discharged. Mr. Ransom married and settled upon lands which his father had occupied before the war in Plymouth. Like nearly every body else in Wyoming, the young couple had hard work to live until they could raise what was necessary for their comfort from the rich flats which they commenced tilling. The greatest difficulty was to obtain materials for clothing. Mr. Ransom sowed flaxseed in the spring, but it would not grow in a day. Before his flax had come to maturity GEORGE P. RANSOM AND OTHERS. 327 he found on the flats a luxuriant growth of nettles; these he mowed, and rotted by sinking them in a pond of warm water, and then drying them in the sun, and of the fibres Mrs. Ransom made coarse cloth for pants for her husband. They were neither elegant nor durable, but they held out until the flax came to maturity. Such was now the pressure of Mr. Ransom's necessities that the flax was pulled, rotted, dressed, spun, woven, and a shirt and pants made in eight days! The ninth day after the flax was pulled the enterprising young farmer was dressed in the fabric which was manufactured out of it. The thing seems scarcely possible, but such, we are assured, was the fact. Mr. Ransom graduated in regular course to the office of colonel of the regiment, and spent a long life on the place upon which he first commenced housekeeping. He lived much respected, and departed this life in September, 1850, in the ninetieth year of his age. Colonel Ransom was a man of high spirits, and was an uncompromising patriot. We are indebted to his son Samuel for the following anecdote, illustrative of the permanence and strength of his feelings as a Revolutionary soldier. While in one of the old taverns in Wilkesbarre, when quite advanced in years, he heard a windy young man speak very disrespectfully of General Washington. The general, he said, was not a great man nor a great soldier, but had taken advantage of fortunate circumstances to palm himself off upon the world as such. This was more than the old soldier could well bear, and he lifted his cane and felled the impudent young sprig to the floor. The whipped puppy prosecuted the colonel for assault and battery. When the case came on, Colonel Ransom appeared in court without an advocate, and simply pleaded guilty, 328 WYOMING. and flung himself on the mercy of the court. Hon. David Scott was presiding judge; his associates were the venerable Matthias Hollenback and Jesse Fell. Judge Scott remarked, This is a case which I choose to leave to my associates, as they are old soldiers, and can fully appreciate the circumstances of the case, and then left his seat. Judge Hollenback asked Colonel Ransom where he was at such a date. The answer was, "In my father's company, in Washington's army." "And where on the 3d of July, 1778?" Answer, "With Captain Spaulding, on my way to Wyoming." "And where the following summer?" Answer, "With General Sullivan in the Lake country, flogging the Indians." "And where the next fall and winter?" Answer, "A prisoner on the St. Lawrence." "Ah!" said the judge, "all that is true enough, Colonel Ransom. And did you knock the fellow down, colonel?" "I did so, and would do it again under like provocation," was the answer. "What was the provocation?" asked the judge. "The rascal abused the name of General Washington," was the answer. The judge coolly said, "Colonel Ransom, the judgment of the court is that you pay a fine of one cent, and the prosecutor pay the cost." A roar of applause succeeded, during which the prosecutor fled from the court-house in great consternation, and immediately left the place for parts unknown. During this singular trial the colonel stood in the calm dignity of a soldier of the old school, with his son standing by his side, indulging no little anxiety with regard to the event. When the affair had terminated, the boy walked out of the court-house with his father, proud of his courage and of his noble bearing before the court, and abundantly flattered with the GEORGE P. RANSOM AND OTHERS. 329 public demonstrations of approbation of an act which, whatever might have been the result of it under other circumstances, he considered both lawful and expedient. We give this anecdote as we received it, for the purpose of illustrating the spirit of the parties concerned, judging comments entirely unnecessary.