Copyright USGenNet Inc., 2013, All Rights Reserved U.S. Data Repository Please read U.S. Data Repository Copyright Statement on this page: Transcribed and submitted by Linda Talbott for the US Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ ========================================================================= U.S. Data Repository NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization. Non-commercial organizations desiring to use this material must obtain the consent of the transcriber prior to use. Individuals desiring to use this material in their own research may do so. ========================================================================= Formatted by U.S. Data Repository Chief Archivist, Linda Talbott All of the above information must remain when copied or downloaded. =========================================================================== A Memoir of the Late William Hodge, Sen. Bigelow Bros., Buffalo, N.Y. - 1885 (47-54) THE BATTLE OF BLACK ROCK, 1813 -------- In this paper my object is, chiefly, to point out and correct some errors that have gone into history concerning this affair, and to relate a few incidents connected with it. In the summer campaign of 1813, our army was withdrawn from Canada by our commander, GEN. MCCLURE. He then, after blowing up Fort George, opposite Fort Niagara, also very unwisely and needlessly burned Newark, formerly called Butlersbury, and now Niagara Village. This proceeding greatly enraged the Canadians, and they boldly declared that they would be revenged by the burning of some of our villages, and especially that Buffalo should be destroyed by fire. All the residents of Buffalo felt sure that they would carry out this threatened retaliation, if possible. In consequence of this, and the presence of English troops across the river, militia-men were raised in different parts of the country, and sent on to Buffalo for our protection. For a number of weeks, and up to the time when the British crossed the river, the militia con- tinued to pour into the village, until it was said that we had between three and four thousand men here under arms. The British force that afterwards crossed, proved to have amounted to twelve hundred regulars and two or three hundred Indians. It was supposed that our army had strength sufficient to drive back and "whip" any force that would be sent against us. I remember well how much our commander. GENERAL HALL, was censured for rousing our men from their slumbers, and marching them down Niagara street on one of the darkest of dark nights to meet the British regulars in open fight; and for allowing our troops to be outflanked by the Indians, whose savage yells coming on all sides from an unseen foe, were enough to frighten even bolder hearts than were possessed by these new recruits, only a few days away from their homes and farms. It was the universal judgment that our men should have been kept where they were in safety, and simply prepared to meet the enemy when they should arrive near the village, which would have been after daylight. All events of the war were fully related and discussed in the bar- room of my father's tavern, and I, although but a boy, being required to be there a large part of the time to wait on the guests, heard and remembered much that was said. Boys, too, notice and remember many things that older people sometimes forget, or do not think of suf- ficient importance to be put on record as matters of history, —yet it is the little things, grouped together, that make up the whole. Upon examination of the different historical accounts of the occurrences in our immediate vicinity on the morning of the day that Buffalo was burned, I fail to find any full and correctly detailed description; but I do find some statements published in the journals of the day, evidently written by persons who knew but little of the actual facts, or certainly they would not have been so incorrect in their accounts. The events of that memorable morning, December 30, 1813, as I re- member them, and heard them many times related during weeks and months afterward, were as follows: The British were discovered between one and two o'clock that morn- ing, as related in my leading paper, by a patrol of the company of horsemen then stationed at my father's public house. The enemy had landed a short distance below Squaw Island, had then marched up and crossed Scajaquada (Conjockety's) creek on the old bridge, which was not far from its mouth, and continuing their march had easily captured our lower battery. This was nearly opposite the head of Squaw Island. They had thus far met with little or no opposition. But at or near this point they were met by our militia. It was then nearly daylight. At about this time another force of the enemy had crossed, and landed nearly opposite to the place where the first body stood formed in line, and at this point the battle was fought. Many of our men on the night-march down to Black Rock had left the ranks; and when our force met the enemy, more than half of our militia had deserted and fled through the woods. Those who remained fought well for a time, but very soon broke ranks and fled; and there ensued a general stampede into and through the forest, eastward. Meanwhile the British continued their march up the Black Rock road (Niagara street), meeting with no opposition excepting from the brave COL. (DR.) CYRENIUS CHAPIN and a few followers who brought to bear on them a small field-piece. It was commonly reported after the battle that the British officers had said that they were on the point of surrendering to our force, and that if our men had stood their ground and given them one more volley, they would have surrendered. This erroneous statement, published in many of the eastern newspapers, was probably obtained from those who first left the scene of action (if they were in it at all); and the editors of course published the first accounts that they could get, being undoubtedly those of the persons who first ran away. Two of my uncles, LORIN and ALFRED HODGE, with a number of our neighbors and townsmen, were in that battle. After it these two returned to their homes in the vicinity of Cold Spring, and with my father were the last to leave the neighborhood, and then not till the flames were doing their destroying work down in the village. In the Manlius Times, published January 4, 1814, there is an account of this battle which is copied into the Appendix to KETCHUM'S history of Buffalo, and which contains several errors. It states that "the skirmish which took place with our militia was where the enemy landed, and lasted several hours," while in truth our force stationed there, being small, retired almost immediately. Again it says: "Toward daylight a body of regulars, from eight hundred to one thousand, with cannon, etc., landed at the mouth of Buffalo creek directly above the village." This is entirely false. Then it states that "our men find- ing themselves attacked on both flanks, immediately retreated through the woods on to the road near MAJOR MILLER'S" (at Cold Spring). So far as the retreating or fleeing is concerned, this is true; but then it is further asserted that "here GEN. HALL rallied them, and conducted them towards Buffalo, where they met the enemy, and considerable hard fighting took place." This is not true. There was no marching back, no rallying and no fighting at Buffalo. This must have been written by one who drew largely on his imagination for his facts. From a letter given in KETCHUM'S history, dated January 30, 1814, to GENERAL PORTER at Albany, I quote as follows: "The enemy then" (that is, after the battle) "marched to Buffalo, a detachment taking the road to GRANGER'S Mills" (on Conjockety's creek). This was not so. None of the enemy went out there that day with the exception of some scouting Indians. A few Indians did come up the "Guide Board road" (North street) and shot at our people passing on the old main road near the present Delaware street, wounding one man in the knee; but they did not come up to the main road. What little Mr. TURNER says in his "History of the Holland Pur- chase" in relation to the battle of that day is very correct except this statement: "Looking up Main street JUDGE WALDEN saw a small force approaching, and immediately started to meet it. It proved to be a detachment of forty regular soldiers, under the command of LIEUT. RIDDLE, marching in to save the village," etc. I think this statement must be without any good foundation, as I never heard or saw any other account of such an event. If it had been a fact, I think that some of us would have known of it, and that it would have been spoken of at that time or immediately afterwards. We (of my father's family), fleeing from home late that morning, were on the road all the way to Williamsville and three miles beyond, and nothing was seen or heard of any soldiers going towards Buffalo. The fact is, all had their faces turned the other way, and seemed to be moving on in a great hurry. Indeed, when our men had broken ranks and commenced to run, there was no such thing as stopping them. After getting through the woods, our "gallant" soldiery covered the fields between the Guide-board road and Cold Spring. One man, wounded in the shoulder by a musket-ball, came across the fields to the house of the widow COTTON (a near neighbor). While GEORGE W. COTTON, her son, was getting off the man's coat to examine and dress the wound, the cry was so strong that the British and Indians were coming, that the wounded man could not wait, but ran across the road and into the woods, following scores of others who were on a full run. And yet Mrs. COTTON and her family, and most of the other families there and in the village, had not as yet left their homes. In truth, our militia army and most of the officers went far ahead of the inhabitants in fleeing before the enemy that morning; some of the officers manifesting as much cowardice as the men. There was a feeble effort made to rally the men at the Cold Spring; but they could no more be stopped than a flock of sheep when it has once started to go by you. At Williamsville bridge there was better suc- cess, some being stopped and continuing on guard at that place. Another account says: "The enemy remained on this side until Sat- urday." This, too, is a mistake. They all returned across the river the same day on which they came over, Thursday, December 30. It became known afterwards that they said they dared not remain over night, fearing that their retreat would be cut off. These things were talked of at that time, and no doubt were true. The enemy were over here Saturday, January 1, 1814, as a separate expedition, of which and its incidents I write in another article. I add a few incidents of the battle. Mr. JOB HOISINGTON is re- ferred to in the memoir of my father (see page 10) and from two accounts of his death during the battle of Black Rock, which I have published, one in the Buffalo Historical Society's publications,* vol. i., page 53, the other in the Buffalo Commercial Advertiser, Dec. 30, 1871, I here give a single and full account of the event. It will be suitable to mention concerning him that his son, the REV. HENRY HOISINGTON, was for many years a devoted missionary in the Island of Ceylon. Mr. HOISINGTON, "gallant JOB HOISINGTON" he has well been called, was an intelligent, resolute, patriotic man; and when the news of the approach of the British towards Buffalo came, he took his musket and left his family early in the morning, to meet the enemy. He went into the ranks with CAPT. HULL'S Buffalonians, and they stood their ground well; but when the three thousand and odd of new levies broke and fled precipitately, only a few hundred were left to face as many Indians, and over a thousand disciplined British regulars. For a brief period they contested the field, but seeing that they were flanked, they re- treated, along the Guide-board road, now North street, eastward. But here HOISINGTON lingered, withdrew a little, stopped, and said, "I will have one more shot at them," and started to go back. His companions urged him to go on with them, but could not prevail on him to do so. This was the last that was known of him by his friends till, in the following spring, some eight weeks later, his remains were found beside a log in the woods (near the spot on which the residence of the late FREDERICK GRIDLEY, on North street, stands, —a block or two west of the Normal School building) and not far from the place where he had left his companions. A bullet had perforated, and a tomahawk had cleft, his skull; while his scalp had been torn from his bleeding head, as a trophy of savage conquest and a token of British inhumanity. His faithful musket lay empty by his side, and no doubt his death was avenged ere it occurred. He was buried in the old Cold Spring cemetery, and in 1850, his remains were reinterred with those of nearly a hundred others buried there, in "Forest Lawn." Mr. Hoisington's family (a wife and six children), left their ----------------------------------------------------------------------- * Publications of The Buffalo Historical Society. Bigelow Bro's, Publishers, Buffalo. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ home on foot that cold morning, having no one to help them, and went along the Batavia road towards Williamsville. Two or three of the smaller children were picked up by some of our horsemen who were escaping, and carried away some fifteen or twenty miles, into the town of Clarence, and one of them many miles further, into Genesee County, and left with strangers. It was several days before the mother learned where her children were. In the battle that morning were two others of our neighbors, who went to meet the enemy, and fought "on their own hook." They were my uncle, ALFRED HODGE, and a Mr. ESTEE. After fighting some time, they had to retreat for their lives. They were being outflanked by the British Indians, as, a little after daylight, they were running along up the old Guide-board road, Mr. ESTEE rid himself of his overcoat and outran Mr. HODGE, who could not get rid of his so easily, having a rifleman's cartridge-box belted tightly around him. He saw that two Indians were gaining on him, and would surely overtake him soon. He had reached the back field of SACKET DODGE'S lot, —about where Delaware street now crosses North, —the road being through the woods and bushes, and just there there was a crook in the track of the road which put him out of sight of the Indians for a moment, and in that moment he jumped the fence, and hid behind a log close by, quite out of breath, but cocked his gun and laid it across the log. Some bushes partially screened him from sight, as he looked over the log. His object was to have the first fire, if discovered. The Indians soon came up, halted and looked around and across the field, but did not discover him. While standing there in the road they fired several shots at persons going along on the main road, one taking effect in a man's knee. At one moment they both stood in range with Mr. Hodge, and he thought that he could bring them down at one shot, but they changed position too quickly for this. They soon re- turned towards Black Rock, and he left his hiding-place and made his way across the fields to the house of his father, BENJAMIN HODGE, on farm lot No. 54, on the northwest corner of our Main and Utica streets. On this morning of the battle the few families in our neighborhood, before starting off (as numbers did) on foot, to flee, disposed of some of their household goods in a manner not very secure. Behind stumps and logs in the adjoining fields were hastily put baskets or pails of crockery, articles of furniture, cooking utensils, etc. All live-stock was left to shift for itself, and this in the dead of winter. Mr. BENJAMIN HODGE, Sen., thinking it more merciful to knock his old sow in the head than to leave her to starve in the cold, took his axe and aimed a blow at the creature, which however she dodged, and so saved her life; —for she managed to exist without his care until Mr. HODGE returned, about a week later. ===========================================================================