Benedict Arnold was a hero of the battle and was wounded at Saratoga. Later, to memorialize his contribution, but not him, they installed a battlefield monument which does not even include his name, but shows his BOOT!
Posted on 04/26/2005 12:20:16 AM PDT by nickcarraway
More than 2 centuries after Jane McCrea's death, questions remain about the circumstances
FORT EDWARD -- Jane McCrea was laid to rest Saturday, more than two centuries after her untimely death. And while details of how this Revolutionary War icon died may never be fully solved, historians and family members can at least find comfort in the knowledge that McCrea, along with her contemporary, Sara McNeil, are now interred in their own graves.
"This is one of those closure points," archaeologist David Starbuck said before remains of the two women, placed in separate baby-size coffins, were taken to Union Cemetery for their funerals.
Some 30 people, including historians, descendents of McNeil and a distant relative of McCrea, attended the funeral at which Presbyterian minister the Rev. Jason Santalucia presided.
McCrea died in 1777, and news that she had been scalped by Native Americans allied with the British became a rallying cry for Colonial troops. Soon after, energized Colonial fighters defeated British Gen. John Burgoyne at Saratoga, helping to turn the tide in the Revolutionary War.
But it was never clear if McCrea, who was in her 20s, was killed by a stray musket ball or by Native Americans. This had been one of the region's vexing historical mysteries and two years ago, researchers thought they were closing in on an answer.
Mary McCrea Deeter, a descendant of the McCrea family who lived in Wichita, Kan., wanted to help solve the mystery and requested that McCrea's remains be exhumed.
When Starbuck exhumed the remains two years ago, he and other researchers had a surprise: McCrea's skull was missing, and her bones were commingled with those of another Revolutionary-era woman, Sara McNeil, a landowner and a cousin of British Gen. Simon Fraser.
Eventually, DNA tests confirmed McNeil's identity. They also were able to provide a good description of McNeil, a hale and hearty woman who still had seven of her teeth when she died in her 70s. "How do I put this?" Starbuck said as he laid her bones out on a table at Rogers Island Visitors Center, where there are numerous Revolutionary-era exhibits. "She was a big strong robust woman."
On Saturday, Deeter's grandson Benjamin Williams of Richland, Wash., along with John and Fred Austin, seventh-generation descendants of McNeil, were at the visitors center, to view the remains of the two women one last time before their burials.
"This story has been in my family for more than 100 years," Williams said of McCrea.
While the coffins, which were small enough to fit in the close confines of Union Cemetery, conveyed an air of finality, Starbuck and John Austin both suggested that efforts to unravel the mystery weren't finished.
John Austin noted local legend has it that McCrea's skull had sat in a local doctor's office for years. When someone mentioned the name of a local doctor, Austin suggested he may launch a search for the missing skull, which could hold the key to how McCrea died.
Added Starbuck: "We could say this is the last burial procession of Jane McCrea and Sara McNeil but given the nature of science, you never know."
The Saratoga Compaign is pivotal in American history because the American victory persuaded the French to join our side. And without the French navy pinning in Corwallis at Yorktown, that final victory would not have happened.
The Saratoga battlefield is a park in which it is very easy to follow the trace of the battle over relatively unchanged terrain.
For those nor familiar with the story, McCrae was a young woman originally from New Jersey. She was traveling north to met her finace who was a soldier with the British army of "Gentleman Johnny" Burgoyne.
She and her party were intercepted by Indian scouts in the pay of the British. Allegedly she was seized by two warriors who fought over the right to capture and return her to Burgoyne. One of them, the infamous Wyandotte Panther, killed her with his tomahawk and scalped her to settle the dispute. When he returned with the scalp for a reward at the British camp, the horrified fiancee recognised it. Burgoyne, equally horrified, was reluctant to retaliate aginst Panther as it might have discouraged the other much needed indian scouts under his command. The event provided an impetus for recruiting among the American colonists who wanted to prevent any further outrages by the British and their indian allies.
There is some dispute as to the details of the event, and she may, indeed, have been accidentally shot instead and then scalped in an attempt to recover some payment from the British.
FWIW, from this link:
Though all that was told was not true, the incident exercised as deep an influence then, - and has ever since in its various forms as if it were. But Jane McCrea was not killed by the Indians, though she was their captive...
Read on at the link for the rest. It's a long paragraph :)
I have been to this park and it is a wonderfully preserved, beautiful place.
Interesting link.
However, we may never know the real details of the event beyond the fact that she was scalped and a Wyandotte Panther was probably the culprit and she was engaged to a British soldier and the event was the cause of American outrage.
Despite the highminded exhortations of the British, the indians had a long tradition of taking these trophies in combat and their standards of conducting warfare were closer to those of the British settlers of the 1600's than to the chessboard type "civilized" warfare conducted in the 1700's.
Burgoyne was certainly aware of the behaivour of the indians in the employ of the French during the French and Indian Wars as well as that of the British indian allies during the same conflict.
But the simple fact was he could not dispense with their services as they were unsurpassed in the kind of scouting and ambush irregular warfaew conducted in the wilderness.
A visit to the musuem at Ticonderoga will provide one with some samples of scalps taken by the indians in the French and Indian wars.
We recently visited Fort Ti. The museum is fascinating, and they've done a wonderful job with the restoration.
And now that I think about it, I suppose that the shot wouldn't have necessarily had to been accidentally fired. The soldier, if McCrea was shot, could've figured he was doing her a favor and shot her deliberately.
Benedict Arnold was a hero of the battle and was wounded at Saratoga. Later, to memorialize his contribution, but not him, they installed a battlefield monument which does not even include his name, but shows his BOOT!
"Benedict Arnold was a hero of the battle and was wounded at Saratoga. Later, to memorialize his contribution, but not him, they installed a battlefield monument which does not even include his name, but shows his BOOT!"
I heard about that but never saw it. Thanks for the picture. I guess its becasue he turned traitor. A real shame as he WAS a hero.
Another one was Robert Rogers of the Rangers. Just read a new book on him called "White Devil" centered on the raid at the Abnaki post at St. Francis in the French and Indian war. It has some new material on him and is a good read. The author wrote another good book called "Recoat" about the British regulars in the 1700s. From what I can gather Rogers may have been induced to turn coat from the treatment he received, like Arnold. Again, a real hero.
On the other hand, the marksman may have been aiming at the indians and hit her instead.
On the other hand, the indians may have deliberately killed their captives and scalped them as they could make a faster getaway without being encumbered by captives - not an unusual occurance. Its more than likely their command of English was poor or non-existant and they didn't understand she was a Tory - or it might not have made an difference if she was. Scalps were scalps and the British paid oney for them, besides being a valued token of warfare in their society.
On the other hand, the marksman may have been aiming at the indians and hit her instead.
On the other hand, the indians may have deliberately killed their captives and scalped them as they could make a faster getaway without being encumbered by captives - not an unusual occurance. Its more than likely their command of English was poor or non-existant and they didn't understand she was a Tory - or it might not have made an difference if she was. Scalps were scalps and the British paid oney for them, besides being a valued token of warfare in their society.
Another interesting Benedict Arnold memorial is a couple hours south of Saratoga at West Point. The old Cadet Chapel (located in the cemetery, which is itself worth a visit) has plaques on the walls listing all the Revolutionary War generals. Apparently, when they put them up in the 19th Century, someone felt duty-bound to include Benedict Arnold. However, his plaque only lasted a few weeks before someone else, obviously outraged that Benedict Arnold's name was up there with George Washington and Nathaniel Greene, etc, snuck into the chapel and chiselled Arnold's name off. The plaque with the chiselled gap is still hanging on the right-hand side wall, close to the rear.
WOW.
I have got to get there. Visited Ticonderoga but never got to Saratoga.
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