The Pictorial Field-Book of the Revolution, Vol. 1 (of 2): or, Illustrations, by Pen And Pencil, of the History, Biography, Scenery, Relics, and Traditions of the War for IndependenceLossing, Benson John
History
The Pictorial Field-Book of the Revolution, Vol. 1 (of 2): or, Illustrations, by Pen And Pencil, of the History, Biography, Scenery, Relics, and Traditions of the War for Independence
Lossing, Benson John
United States -- History -- Revolution, 1775-1783
At one time the deaths were so numerous that it was found impossible to
dig a grave for each, and the spot was shown to me where fourteen bodies
were deposited in a single broad grave, about daylight one morning.
Among the hundreds of these mounds of the dead, scattered over the
mount, there was only one individualized by an inscribed stone. The rude
monument is a rough limestone, and the inscription, "M. Richardson
Stoddard," appeared as if carved with the point of a bayonet. The tenant
was probably an officer of militia from a town formerly named Stoddard,
in Vermont. Already some Vandal visitor had broken off a "relic" from
its diminutive bulk, and ere this some patriotic antiquary has doubtless
slipped the whole stone into his pocket, and secured a legacy of rare
value for his wondering children! A propensity to appropriate to private
use a fragment of public monuments, and a pitiful ambition, allied in
kind to that of the Ephesian incendiary, to associate one's name by
pencil or penknife inscription with places of public resort, have
already greatly marred and disfigured a large proportion of our few
monuments, and can not be too severely condemned. Charity, that
"covereth the multitude of sins," has not a mantle broad enough to hide
this iniquity, for none but heartless knaves or brainless fools would
thus deface even the meanest grave-stone in a church-yard. Wolfe's
monument on the Plains of Abraham, and the monuments at Red Bank and
Paoli, bear mournful testimony of this barbarism which is abroad.
At various times Mount Independence, as well as Crown Point and other
localities in the neighborhood of Lake Champlain, has been scarred by
money-diggers. In 1815 a company came hither from Northern Vermont, to
search for military treasures which wise seers and the divining rod
declared were buried there. The chief of the party, entertaining
misgivings on his arrival as to the success of money-digging, purchased
land in the neighborhood, and while his more credulous companions were
digging deep into the mount, he was plowing deep into his land. He
raised grain and esculent roots--they raised gravel and worthless clay.
When their patience and money were exhausted, they shouldered their
picks and departed for Western New York. He remained, became a thrifty
farmer, and, by the unerring divining rod of industry, found the
treasure. Credulous people still dig at these localities, and several
pits were pointed out to me which had been recently excavated. *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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