Lieutenant Benjamin Whitcomb, Part 2 - "Firelock, Blanket, Pouch and Powder Horn"
Lieutenant Benjamin Whitcomb's statement in his report of his scout into Canada that on July 24, 1776, he "fired on an officer, and moved immediately into Chambly road" lacks two key details; who he shot, and what happened to him. It's possible Whitcomb didn't know when he returned to Ticonderoga. The answer explains the intensity of the British effort to locate Whitcomb and the strong reaction on both sides. The British response also shows how "words matter", in regard to a small detail which would take on major significance after the surrender at Saratoga and bedevil some reenactors two hundred years later.
Whitcomb's account of what happened after he fired focused on his escape, as "... being discovered, [I] retreated back into the woods, and staid till night; then taking the road and passing the guards till I came below Chambly, finding myself discovered, was obliged to conceal myself in the brush till dark." [1]
British accounts tell more of the story. The anonymous journal of an officer of the 47th Regiment of Foot indicates that in the days leading up to the event: "Nothing material happened from this Time till the 25th of July, when Brigadier General Gordon was attacked on the Road from St. Johns to LaPrarie, by an infamous skulking party of the rebels, who fired at him, and wounded him mortally, of which he died a few days after." [2] Another British officer, Lieutenant John Enys of the 29th Regiment of Foot similarly noted: “... Nothing of any Consequence happened until 25 of July when Brigadier Genl. Gordon returning from St. Johns was fired upon and wounded from a Woods within 3 Miles of the Camp of which Wound he died on the 1st of August. The person who shot him was afterwards known to be one Lieut. Whitcombe of the Connecticut Rangers, notwithstanding he was Imediately pursued by party’s of Soldiers and Indians found means to escape them all." [3]
Ensign Thomas Anburey, writing nearly two decades after the war, included more detail. "Whitcomb a native of Connecticut [sic] and a great partisan of the Americans ... offered his service to venture through the woods and bring in prisoner an English officer for which purpose he stationed himself among the thickest copses that are between La Praire and St John's. The first officer who happened to pass him was brigadier general Gordon he was mounted on a spirited horse and Whitcomb thinking there was little probability of seizing him fired at and wounded him in the shoulder. The general immediately rode as fast as he could to the camp at St John's which he had but just reached when with loss of blood and fatigue he fell from his horse some soldiers took him up and carried him to the hospital where after his wound was dressed and he was a little at ease he related the circumstance which being immediately made known to general Carleton a party of Indians were sent out to scour the woods and search for Whitcomb but in vain as he hastened back to Ticonderoga. General Carleton however imagining he might be lurking about the woods or secreted in the house of some disaffected Canadian issued out a proclamation among the inhabitants offering a reward of fifty guineas to any one that would bring Whitcomb alive or dead to the camp. A few days after this general Gordon died of his wound in whose death we sincerely lamented the loss of a brave and experienced officer ...". [4]
Lieutenany Willim Digby of the 53rd Regiment of Foot noted the official reaction of the British garrison in Canada, writing: "25th. As brig. gen Gordon, who commanded the first brigade of British, was rideing from St Johns to Lapraire, (about 4 leagues) he was shot by a scouting party of the enemy from the wood; two balls took place in his shoulder, of which he died the following day, and in a general order to the army from his excellency, general Carlton, after having expatiated on such a cowardly and cruel manner of carrying on the war; he describes the dress, person & of the scout, their captain, called Whitcomb, a famous ranger from Connecticut, wishing, should he be taken, he might be spared for the hands of the hangman, a soldier's death being too honourable for such a wretch." [5]
Major General William Phillips, Lieutenant General John Burgoyne's deputy commander in 1777 during the Saratoga campaign, notified the army on July 26 at Chamblee: "The Person who commanded the Party which attacked General Gordon is Whitcomb of Connecticut calling himself Lieutenant. He is between 30 and 40 years of Age, to appearance near 6 feet high, rather thin than otherwise, light brown Hair tied behind, rough Face, not sure whether occasioned by the small Pox or not. He wears a kind of under Jacket without Sleeves, slash Pockets, leather Breeches, grey woolen or yarn Stockings, and Shoes. Hat flapped, a gold Cord tied round it. He had a Forelock [sic - "Firelock"], Blanket, Pouch and Powder Horn. Should he, or any of his Party, of the same nature, come within reach of our Men, it is hoped they will not honor them with Soldier's Deaths if they can possibly avoid it, but reserve them for due Punishment, which can only be effected by the Hangman." [6]
One word in Phillips' description of Whitcomb stands out, "pouch". It was a term that meant one thing to Phillips and the British army, but another to Americans, a distinction that mattered. What was a cartridge pouch to British soldiers (a wooden block covered with leather, drilled with holes to hold ammunition, worn on the right side of a soldier's body suspended from a strap crossing over the left shoulder), was a cartridge box to Americans. A cartridge box in the British army was a wooden block covered with a leather flap, likewise drilled with holes to hold cartridges, but worn on a belt around the waist. In the British army cartridge pouches were privately purchased by each regiment's colonel. Cartridge boxes were government property, issued to each soldier along with his musket and bayonet. A year and a half later, and presumably unaware of this distinction, the Continental Congress would claim that Burgoyne's soldiers failed to surrender their equipment as agreed under the terms of the Articles of Convention, a violation that in part would justify its refusal to allow the Convention Army to return to England, as seen in an excerpt from the "London Chronicle" pictured above. [7]
A year after Whitcomb shot Gordon, Burgoyne had what he thought was the pleasure of reporting that Whitcomb was dead. On August 6, 1777, he updated Sir William Howe on his progress since the capture of Fort Ticonderoga and that he expected to take Albany, New York, by August 22 or 23. Writing from Fort Edward just ten days after Jane McCrea was killed, he informed Howe that despite “infinite difficulty” managing his Native allies, he had “in a great measure Succeeded” and noted “I believe the scalp of the famous Partizan Whitcomb who killed Brigadier Gordon last year to be in their Possession." Both claims would prove false. Burgoyne would not reach Albany until October 18, when he arrived as a prisoner, and Whitcomb was alive and would live another fifty-one years, until his death on July 22, 1828, at the age of 91. [8]
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