It Happened Here -- The Ghost of Duncan Campbell

Duncan Campbell's gravestone describes who he was: "Here lyes the Body of Duncan Campbell, of Inverawe, Esq.re, major to the old Highland Regiment, aged 55years, who died the 17th July.1758, of the Wounds he received in the Attack of the Retrenchment of Ticonderoga or Carillon, on the 8th July, 1758." But what distinguishes him from the other 1,943 British and American colonial troops who were killed, wounded or missing, the result of the disastrous attack the British made on the French fort Carillon in the French and Indian War was, according to tradition, the way he was forewarned of his death.

Campbell's Marker *

Union Cemetery, U.S. 4, Ft. Edward

Francis Parkman, one of the nineteenth century's greatest historians, relates the story told him by one of Campbell's descendants, in the appendices to Wolfe and Montcalm, the last book of Parkman's epic seven volume France and England in North America, published in 1884.

As Parkman relates it, late one night Duncan Campbell, the Laird (Lord) of Inverawe was sitting alone in the great hall of his ancestral castle at Inverawe, in the wild western highlands of Scotland. Hearing a loud knocking at the gate he opened it to find a man beside himself with fear in ripped clothes and a blood stained kilt. The stranger begged Campbell to hide him, explaining he had gotten in a fight; a man had died and now he was being pursued by the man's companions, who were bent on revenge. Campbell took pity on the stranger and agreed to hide him, in the process swearing that he would not betray him. He had barely hidden away the fugitive in the dark depths of his castle when he heard another loud commotion at his gate. Two armed men confronted him declaring they were looking for a man who had just murdered Campbell's cousin, Donald.  Campbell, feeling bound by his oath to the fugitive, lied to the two men saying he had not seen the murderer, and the two left.

In an agony of guilt and remorse, the Scottish lord retired for the night and eventually fell into a fitful sleep. Suddenly he was awoken by a figure standing next to his bedside, a ghost -- the ghost of his murdered cousin. In a hollow voice it spoke to him, 'Inverawe! Inverawe! Blood has been shed. Shield not the murderer.' In the morning Campbell rushed to where the man was hiding and told him he must leave. When the man reminded him of his oath, Campbell wavered, promising again not to betray him but insisting he could no longer give him sanctuary, and took him to cave in a nearby mountain in which to hide.

The next night, the apparition again appeared to Campbell, waking him from a restless sleep, sternly repeating his admonishment 'Inverawe! Inverawe! Blood has been shed. Shield not the murderer.’ As soon as it was light the shaken Campbell rushed to the cave where he had taken the man, but the man was gone.

The third night Campbell was visited by the ghost, now more pale than before, appearing only long enough to call to him, 'Farewell Inverawe. Farewell, till we meet again at Ticonderoga'

Duncan Campbell went on to join the Black Watch, the Royal 42nd Regiment, comprised of his fellow highlanders, and eventually became it's major. But the memory of the apparition's words and the strange sounding place the ghost spoke of were never far from his thoughts. After the French and Indian/ Seven Years War had begun he learned his regiment was being deployed in America. Arriving in America he found to his horror that the regiment would be part of the attack on the French Fort Carillon, known to the British, through their Indian allies, as Ticonderoga!

Despite Campbell's personal premonitions of disaster, the expedition moved confidently from its base in Ft. Edward to the head of Lake George. On July 5, 1758 in four columns, 900 hundred bateaux, 135 whaleboats and several large flat bottomed scows carrying the heaviest artillery moved up the lake in a procession seven miles long. With some 15,000 men it was then the largest army ever assembled in North America. The army's nominal leader was General James Abercromby. The General was an aging and declining figure with extensive staff, but little battlefield experience, who had never held an independent command. But the army's operational leader, was a charismatic, 34 year old, George Augustus, Viscount Howe, the personal choice of the Prime Minister. Howe was a serious student of frontier warfare, making many innovations to turn his army into an effective force for frontier warfare.

The young General was able to inspire both British army regulars and Provincial volunteers. In their journals and letters, both career British officers and Yankee ship carpenters, building the bateaux for the expedition wrote glowingly of him. It is not surprising that, after landing, Howe was out in front of the advance party of Rangers and Light Infantry scouting out a route from the landing site to the Fort. Suddenly, they collided with a force of some 350 French troops retreating from the position they had occupied when the English had arrived at the head of the lake. In the sharp fight that ensued, one of the first to fall with a musket ball through his chest was Brigadier General Howe. 

On Lord Howe St., along the LaChute river

The Army, and General Abercromby in particular, reacted with shock and confusion, doing virtually nothing the rest of the first day, then taking two days to make the two hour march to the French Sawmill, wasting additional time to fortify their encampment.

It was in this encampment that the next chapter of Duncan Campbell's story unfolded.

Many of Campbell's officers knew of his strange story. The night before the Army was to begin its attack on Carillon his officers tried to ease his mind, telling him that the immediate objective of the attack was actually  'Fort George', and that Ticonderoga was another fort further down the lake. But the following morning Campbell greeted the officers with a devastated look. 'I have seen him. You deceived me. He came to my tent last night! I shall die to-day.'

Ticonderoga from Rattlesnake Mt. aka. Mount Defiance

Only a week before, French General Montcalm had arrived to take over command at Carillon. At first he did nothing, vacillating between several undesirable alternatives, as the bad news about the strength of the forces arrayed against him continued to pour in from his scouts and advance troops. Mustering no more than 3,526 men with rations at the fort for no more than eight or nine days he debated about retreat. And the fort itself was far from impregnable. It had been constructed in haste after the French victory over Ft. William Henry, in 1755 and though it effectively commanded the narrows at the southern end of Lake Champlain and could block passage north, it was located in the shadow of the 700 foot Rattlesnake mountain. Any sizable force could take that hill, mount cannon on it and rain cannon fire down on the fort with impunity. His own chief engineer had said 'Were I to be entrusted with the siege of it (Carillon), I should require only six mortars and two cannon.' At the last moment, with the British force already landed, Montcalm decided to fortify the neck of the peninsula on which the fort stood. The General sent virtually his whole army to cut a swath of standing trees across the peninsula. Even the General and his officers swung axes to emphasize the urgency of their work. A low trench was dug and tree trunks were piled up some eight or nine feet high. Loopholes were cut along the top of the barricade, to fire through. Swivel guns were mounted in strategic locations. The tree's tops were dragged in front of the barricade, facing outward with their branches interlocking and sharpened to form a natural abbattis.¹

In the British camp the inaction that had settled over the camp was replaced by a sense of urgency bordering on panic when French prisoners, recently captured, told their captors of thousands of reinforcements expected any day. (In fact, raids planned along the Mohawk valley had been canceled when the French got wind of the Abercromby expedition but the troops slated for them were never dispatched to Montcalm.) Abercromby ordered several junior officers forward to survey the French defenses. When they reported they might be taken, he ordered the assault to proceed immediately the next morning without taking time to bring up the heavy artillery. (Historian Fred Anderson commented that with the 16 heavy cannon, 13 howitzers, 11 mortars and 8000 rounds of ammunition the expedition brought with it, Abercromby could have pulverized the French works and had "enough for sieges against every post from Ft Carillon to Montreal") By noon on Friday July 9th, 7000 regulars were lined up ready to attack with 6000 Provincial troops in reserve. At 12:30 the first regiments stepped off into a hail of musketry and grape shot, throwing themselves against the tree top abattis that proved virtually impenetrable. When the attack ground to a halt and turned into a retreat Abercromby re-formed the survivors and sent them in again with other regiments. When a second assault failed he followed it up with a third assault. And again. And again and again. From 12:30 to about 7:00 pm the British regulars attacked the French lines six times, breaking through only occasionally, most of the time getting close enough to only see the tops of the defenders hats and the muzzles of their muskets.

As dusk was falling the mauled British forces withdrew to their staging area at the French Sawmill.

A few hours later Abercromby ordered them to the original landing place, a more secure area, to reorganize for another attack a second day. But the men, not knowing the reason for this second withdrawal began to fear a French attack. Panic set in. There was a stampede for the boats. Dawn the next day saw the once proud columns of boats making their painful way back to the head of the lake.

In one of the boats lay the major of 42nd Black Watch regiment with a musket ball shattered arm.

Baldwin Rd., Ticonderoga

He would linger on in the military hospital at Ft.Edward for nine days before succumbing to a fate forewarned by a ghost, decades earlier.

*In 2005 Colonial Archeologist David Starbuck did a forensic investigation of Jane McRae's grave.  After that investigation, McRae, her companion Sara McNeil, and Duncan Campbell received new headstones. Campbell's badly deteriorated red sandstone marker was replaced with a red granite copy.

1 The effectiveness of this makeshift abbatis should not be underestimated. A few years ago when I was a Scoutmaster I camped with my Troop at an event at Ticonderoga. There we came across a medium sized maple tree that had been cut down. To illustrate for them the effectiveness of this defense I sat on the trunk and instructed the boys to climb through the branches and try to tag me. The only restriction was they could not run around the tree. After five minutes of trying, none of them, even the smallest and most agile boys, were able to reach me.

The Marker of the Week --the Mysterious "Throne" in Kingsbury
Europe has its share of mysterious runic stones; and Mezo America its stellae; and the Dessert Southwest United States its rock petroglyphs but you just don't find stones with mysterious writing or symbols in the Northeast. This is one notable exception. (So notable I will bend my rules for what constitutes a New York Historic Marker, a little.)

Co. Rte.36, 1.9 mi. West of US. Rte 4. Ft. Anne

Was this the instructions for a group of runaway slaves to meet their next "conductor" on the underground railroad at Fort Anne on May 23, 1841? One can only surmise.