MILITARY SERVICE OF THE KARRS
OF CARR'S COVE, UNION SPRINGS, NY,
IN AMERICA'S WARS SINCE 1713.
THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR
BACKGROUND ON COLONIAL CIRCUMSTANCES IN 1776-1781
BACKGROUND ON COLONIAL CIRCUMSTANCES IN 1776-1781
When James Karr (Carr) was born, in June 1759, the world of his times were set against a vast international drama involving the empires of Britain, France, Germany, Spain, and the Ottoman Turks. In 1759 Britain's world-wide supremacy at sea was still a half century away: when Britain's Lord Nelson destroyed the combined French and Spanish fleets at Trafalgar in 1805. Shortly after James was born, British Light Colonel Monroe surrendered his British fort just north of where James lived in the town in Londonderry, New Hampshire, and as Colonel Monroe evacuated his troops southward under a French flag of truce, his entire company was set upon and wiped out as depicted in James Fenimore Cooper's famed book, 'Last of the Mohicans.'
The death of Queen Ann and ascension of King George III in 1760 set the stage for the forthcoming American colonial struggle against Britain's mounting financial needs for its huge army and navy, which increasingly fell on its American colonies. The British Parliament levied burdensome taxes, among them the Stamp Act, the Tea Act, and the Acts of Trade. By Parliamentary Act of 1664, these colonies were forbidden to import gold or silver currency, turning them into barter economies. In 1774, when James Carr was fifteen, the British Crown, fearing the Colonies expansion westward would put them beyond the British tax authorities, the King gave all the Colonies western lands beyond the Allegheny Mountains to the French Canadian Province of Quebec. By the time James Carr was into his teen years the Colonial debate about secession included the communities around where James lived in New Hampshire. Recent British Army military defeats at Lexington, Concord and Bunker Hill also convinced many that British rule could be thrown off.
On July 3, 1776, thousands of British troops landed on Staten Island, in New York harbor, and the Continental Congress issued the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia the following day. A summer later in 1777, a series of critical battles would take place throughout upstate New York between the Colonials and two British armies moving up the Hudson River from New York City and another moving south from Canada down Lake Champlain and through the central New York area.
The death of Queen Ann and ascension of King George III in 1760 set the stage for the forthcoming American colonial struggle against Britain's mounting financial needs for its huge army and navy, which increasingly fell on its American colonies. The British Parliament levied burdensome taxes, among them the Stamp Act, the Tea Act, and the Acts of Trade. By Parliamentary Act of 1664, these colonies were forbidden to import gold or silver currency, turning them into barter economies. In 1774, when James Carr was fifteen, the British Crown, fearing the Colonies expansion westward would put them beyond the British tax authorities, the King gave all the Colonies western lands beyond the Allegheny Mountains to the French Canadian Province of Quebec. By the time James Carr was into his teen years the Colonial debate about secession included the communities around where James lived in New Hampshire. Recent British Army military defeats at Lexington, Concord and Bunker Hill also convinced many that British rule could be thrown off.
On July 3, 1776, thousands of British troops landed on Staten Island, in New York harbor, and the Continental Congress issued the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia the following day. A summer later in 1777, a series of critical battles would take place throughout upstate New York between the Colonials and two British armies moving up the Hudson River from New York City and another moving south from Canada down Lake Champlain and through the central New York area.
The Battle of Fort Ann, New York - 8 July 1777
The Late spring of 1777 James Karr joined the militia in the Albany area of New York. Rumors were that the two British armies, then bivouacked in New York City and Canada, were on the move, their objective, to meet in Albany and cut off the New England colonies from those to the south. Colonial levies were urgently called up in the Albany area, one of which was the Malcolm Levy in which James Karr volunteered to serve.
Lake Champlain extends from Whitehall, New York, (birthplace of the U.S. Navy) about 65 miles NNE of Albany northwards almost to the Saint Lawrence Seaway near Montreal. This lake, in early 1777, enabled the British navy to move a British army by water from Canada to South Bay at the southern end of Champlain. At South Bay, a creek (which later became the Champlain canal) extends southward through the heavily forested countryside almost to the Hudson River near Albany. About halfway along this creek in 1777 stood the rude frontier stockade then known as Fort Anne. It was a Fort Anne in early July 1777 that the first land battle of what history would later record as the Saratoga Campaign, took place. Erected two decades earlier in 1757, Fort Anne stood at the junction of Halfway Creek and Wood Creek.
James Karr volunteered for 90 days of military service at Rensselaer, New York, and his unit immediately moved sixty miles northward to Fort Anne. On July 8, 1777 the British and Colonial forces met in the woods and fields a mile northeast of the Fort Anne stockade. 550 colonials led by Lieutenant Colonel Henry van Rensselaer, skirmished across the fields and woods with 190 British redcoats led by Lt. Col John Hill and Major Forbes of the Royal 9th Foot Regiment. By sunset van Rensselaer's troops had driven the British to a forested hilltop and surrounded them. As the sun set van Rensselaer was told that substantial numbers of Britain's Indian allies were approaching the scene, and he withdrew for the night to Fort Anne. James Carr was not among those who withdrew. He along with 30 other volunteers had been captured that day and later taken by the British to a prison camp near Montreal. Five years later in November 1782, James was exchanged in Castleton, Vermont, for British military prisoners captured by American Revolutionary forces.(20)
The day after the battle, believing that a larger British force now confronted him in the woods just to his north, Lt Col von Rensselaer set fire to the fort and gradually withdrew towards Fort Edwards, dropping trees everywhere along the narrow road forcing the British to waste weeks hacking their way through the forests south of Fort Anne. During October 1777, a series of other battles also took place nearby in upstate New York at Albany and Rome, resulting in British defeats. With the winter approaching British forces withdrew back to their starting points in New York City and Canada. The Fort Ann engagement, while not one of the biggest battles of the Saratoga campaign, was a critical delaying operation that denied Britain victory at a decisive moment, and lead to their withdrawal and eventual recognition of United States.
Later in the year 1777 British Army Major Forbes, of the 9th Foot Regiment that fought at Fort Anne, returned to London where he submitted his official military report to the British House of Commons on the Fort Anne engagement. In it Major Forbes stated:
Lake Champlain extends from Whitehall, New York, (birthplace of the U.S. Navy) about 65 miles NNE of Albany northwards almost to the Saint Lawrence Seaway near Montreal. This lake, in early 1777, enabled the British navy to move a British army by water from Canada to South Bay at the southern end of Champlain. At South Bay, a creek (which later became the Champlain canal) extends southward through the heavily forested countryside almost to the Hudson River near Albany. About halfway along this creek in 1777 stood the rude frontier stockade then known as Fort Anne. It was a Fort Anne in early July 1777 that the first land battle of what history would later record as the Saratoga Campaign, took place. Erected two decades earlier in 1757, Fort Anne stood at the junction of Halfway Creek and Wood Creek.
James Karr volunteered for 90 days of military service at Rensselaer, New York, and his unit immediately moved sixty miles northward to Fort Anne. On July 8, 1777 the British and Colonial forces met in the woods and fields a mile northeast of the Fort Anne stockade. 550 colonials led by Lieutenant Colonel Henry van Rensselaer, skirmished across the fields and woods with 190 British redcoats led by Lt. Col John Hill and Major Forbes of the Royal 9th Foot Regiment. By sunset van Rensselaer's troops had driven the British to a forested hilltop and surrounded them. As the sun set van Rensselaer was told that substantial numbers of Britain's Indian allies were approaching the scene, and he withdrew for the night to Fort Anne. James Carr was not among those who withdrew. He along with 30 other volunteers had been captured that day and later taken by the British to a prison camp near Montreal. Five years later in November 1782, James was exchanged in Castleton, Vermont, for British military prisoners captured by American Revolutionary forces.(20)
The day after the battle, believing that a larger British force now confronted him in the woods just to his north, Lt Col von Rensselaer set fire to the fort and gradually withdrew towards Fort Edwards, dropping trees everywhere along the narrow road forcing the British to waste weeks hacking their way through the forests south of Fort Anne. During October 1777, a series of other battles also took place nearby in upstate New York at Albany and Rome, resulting in British defeats. With the winter approaching British forces withdrew back to their starting points in New York City and Canada. The Fort Ann engagement, while not one of the biggest battles of the Saratoga campaign, was a critical delaying operation that denied Britain victory at a decisive moment, and lead to their withdrawal and eventual recognition of United States.
Later in the year 1777 British Army Major Forbes, of the 9th Foot Regiment that fought at Fort Anne, returned to London where he submitted his official military report to the British House of Commons on the Fort Anne engagement. In it Major Forbes stated:
"At half past ten in the morning, they attacked us in front with a heavy and
well directed fire. A large body of them passed up the creek to our left and
fired from a thick wood across the creek on the left flank of the regiment;
then they began to re-cross the creek and attack us in the rear. We then
found it necessary to change our ground to prevent the regiment being
surrounded. We took post on the top of a high hill to our right. As soon as
we had taken post, the enemy made a very vigorous attack and they
certainly would have forced us, had it not been for some Indians that
arrived and gave the Indian whoop."(21)
well directed fire. A large body of them passed up the creek to our left and
fired from a thick wood across the creek on the left flank of the regiment;
then they began to re-cross the creek and attack us in the rear. We then
found it necessary to change our ground to prevent the regiment being
surrounded. We took post on the top of a high hill to our right. As soon as
we had taken post, the enemy made a very vigorous attack and they
certainly would have forced us, had it not been for some Indians that
arrived and gave the Indian whoop."(21)
British forces at Fort Anne suffered 13 killed, 23 wounded, and 15 captured. Van Rensselaer's troops lost 7 killed and 30 captured. Major Forbes accounts of this battle in British Archives also mentions the capture of two Revolutionary battle flags which Forbes took back to England with him and describes in detail in his personal diary as follows:
"thirteen red and white bars with a blue field in the upper left corner.
Embroidered in the center of the blue field are the words, 'In Honor of
Our Freedom, ' and surrounded by thirteen stars. Across the bottom of the
blue field are the words 'United States of America'. The second flag was
mustard colored with a yellow circle in its center. Around the border of
the yellow center was 'American Congress 1776', and in its middle, 'We
Are One'. In the mustard field around the yellow circle are thirteen
interconnecting ovals, each with the name of one of the founding thirteen
colonies.(22)
Embroidered in the center of the blue field are the words, 'In Honor of
Our Freedom, ' and surrounded by thirteen stars. Across the bottom of the
blue field are the words 'United States of America'. The second flag was
mustard colored with a yellow circle in its center. Around the border of
the yellow center was 'American Congress 1776', and in its middle, 'We
Are One'. In the mustard field around the yellow circle are thirteen
interconnecting ovals, each with the name of one of the founding thirteen
colonies.(22)