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Her Loyalist Lover
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The Death of Jane Macrae
Jane Macrae became one of the best known women of the 19th
century after her sensational murder on
July 27, 1777. She was a casualty of the American
Revolution.
The truth about her death was another casualty of the war. She
was a young Loyalist who went to upstate
New York to meet her fianc, a lieutenant in Lt. Gen. John
Burgoynes army.
According to the myth that grew up about her, she was tall,
beautiful, accomplished and much loved. She
was captured near the town of Fort Edward, N.Y., by Iroquois
Indians on her way to meet her lover at
Ticonderoga. Two were taking her to the British for, quarreled,
killed her and took her scalp. To make
matters worse, Burgoyne refused to punish the murderers.
The news of her unavenged murder spread quickly, fueling outrage
and fear throughout upstate New York
and Vermont (then the New Hampshire Grants). Continental Army
enlistments spiked and resistance to the
British was so strengthened the patriots that they won the
Battles of Saratoga. Propaganda about her
murder also built support for the 1779 Sullivan Expedition, a
campaign led by Maj. Gen. John
Sullivan against Loyalists and the four American Iroquois tribes
that sided with the British. And James
Fenimore Cooper used the tale in The Last of the Mohicans.
Some of it is true. Some of it isnt. Some well never know.
Accounts VaryAt least this is known: There was a Jane Jenny
Macrae, or McCrea, or MacCrea, the daughter of a
Presbyterian minister born sometime in New Jersey in 1752. She
was engaged to a Loyalist neighbor, David
Jones, who joined the British Army.
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Gen. John Burgoyne
Horatio Gates
A newspaper account described her as "lovely in disposition, so
graceful in manners and so intelligent in
features, that she was a favorite of all who knew her." Her hair
"was of extraordinary length and beauty,
measuring a yard and a quarter." James Wilkinson, who actually
saw her, described her as "a country girl
of honest family in circumstances of mediocrity, without either
beauty or accomplishments."
Her hair was described as reddish, black and blonde.
It is certain that Burgoyne was leading an invasion down
the Hudson River Valley from Canada that summer. Patriot
fighters were harassing his army, and he encouraged his
Iroquois allies to hunt and kill them.
There is consensus that Jane Macrae traveled to Fort
Edward to meet her fianc. She was staying with an elderly
friend, Sara McNeil. With the approach of British forces,
many of the townspeople fled to Albany. Jenny and Sara
stayed behind. She had received a letter from David Jones,
saying,
In a few days we will march to Ft. Edward,
.where I shall have the happiness to meet
you.
What happened next will never be known for sure.
According to a 19th century version of events, David Jones
sent two Indian escorts to fetch her so they could be married
that day. And then:
When pretty Jane Macrae, imagining herself safe under the escort
of two Indians, was on her
way to join her betrothed lover at Fort Edward, the escort
quarreled about her, and as the
easiest way of settling it, drove an ax into her skull. The
deed, committed under such
circumstances, sent a thrill of horror through the country.
PropagandaAccording to other accounts, she was -- or they were
-- captured by the Indians. One of the Indians later
said she was shot by pursuing rebels. An American soldier
claimed to have been captured with them and
saw the Indian shoot, then scalp her. Another British officer
said she was taken against her will and
tomahawked.
Whether propaganda about her death increased recruitment into
the patriot cause and solidified resistance
to the British forces in the run-up to the Battles of Saratoga
is also open to question.
John F. Luzader, in Saratoga: A Military History of the Decisive
Campaign of the American Revolution,
reviewed muster rolls and found no increase in enlistment; in
fact, it dropped.
He also questioned how much fear and loathing
was spread by the news of her murder.
It is true that Burgoyne complained to Gen.
Horatio Gates about the way British prisoners
were treated after the Battle of Bennington. Gates
replied in a letter:
That the savages of America should
in their warfare mangle and scalp
the unhappy prisoners who fall
into their hands is neither new nor
extraordinary; but that the famous
Lieutenant General Burgoyne, in
whom the fine gentleman is united
with the soldier and the scholar,
should hire the savages of America
to scalp europeans and the
descendants of europeans, nay more, that he should pay a price
for each scalp so barbarously
taken, is more than will be believed in England. [...] Miss
McCrae, a young lady lovely to the
sight, of virtuous character and amiable disposition, engaged to
be married to an officer of your
army, was [...] carried into the woods, and there scalped and
mangled in the most shocking
manner...
Gates circulated the letter and boasted he had run a successful
propaganda campaign. Gates claims may
have prompted the myth that eventually grew up around Jane
Macrae.
Not only did she appear as Dora in The Last of the Mohicans, but
Joel Barlow wrote about it in his 1807
poem The Columbiad. Mercy Warren wrote about it in her 1805
Historyof the American Revolution. Delia
Bacon made it into a play in 1839, The Bride of Fort Edward.
John Vanderlyn painted the portrait of her in
1804.
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