Culver Hill Battle tribute in ceremony, canon fire

BEEKMANTOWN | A weekend of historic commemoration recalls events in 1814 that led up to and through the Battle of Plattsburgh. Though American victory marked Sept. 11 as a date to regale, British forces engaged assaults for a month prior to the final clash on Lake Champlain and the march south made by 11,000 British soldiers. Not the least of these engagements was a stand made by a daring few hundred U.S. Army soldiers on a knoll beside what is now Route 22 in Beekmantown. First bloodshed in this chapter of the War of 1812 was in these fields north of Plattsburgh, Sept. 6, 1814. The commemoration on Friday was framed by 10-foot cornfields and the warmth of a late summer day. Culver Hill is a now neatly kept memorial park with interpretive panels telling the story of how a gallant Maj. John E. Wool and his soldiers rattled the British advance toward Plattsburgh. Wool's regiment picked off the head of the British military column, Lt. Colonel Willington, and the regiment's Ensign Chaplain along with 100 or soldiers five days before the battle waged on Lake Champlain. Beekmantown Historian Gary VanCour has for many years compiled details from first-person accounts. He provided vivid historic context for the march as British columns made their way south. Encamped at West Chazy on Sept. 5, the line began a steady march and split into two columns just north of Beekmantown. Gen. Benjamin Mooers and some 700 militiamen were east of Culver Hill, along Durand Road. Maj. Wool was sent north with 250 regular Army soldiers and 30 militiamen to face British troops coming along what is now Ashley Road. VanCour said historic narrative provided by Henry Dominy after the war recalled a British line so vast it took about 2.5 hours to march past his house just north of Culver Hill. "The enemy was in overwhelming numbers but Wool moved slowly back toward Culver Hill, disputing the way inch-by-inch in desperate skirmishing," history records. "The Americans had no chance at stopping the British advance," VanCour relayed in remarks given when the historic monument was rededicated in 2008. Mooers and his militia had turned and fled back toward Plattsburgh. But Major Wool and his men continued to contest the determined British line as they continued south on the Beekmantown Road, VanCour wrote. "Wool decided to make a major stand at Culver Hill, so named for the Daniel Culver house on the road. The Americans were located not only at the crest of the hill, but also under protection of the stone walls." On a hill marked with a stark memorial obelisk, it's not difficult to imagine the resolve they must have conjured up as a steady stream of red coats approached. "The British marched up the hill toward the awaiting Americans," VanCour wrote. "It is at this location that Lt. Col. James Willington of the 3rd Buffs was killed while rallying his troops." "Nathaniel Chittenden Culver was a boy at the time and was hiding in the basement of his lathed and plastered house with his grandfather, grandmother, an uncle, and another woman. In his recollections to Dr. Kellogg in 1887 (Nathaniel) said, 'The balls went through and through our house.' Colonel W(i)llington was killed just at the top of the hill, north of and near our house. He was urging his men on and, wheeling his horse, was shot right in the throat, in front.'" It is believed that the colonel was shot, VanCour relayed, by Private Samuel Terry, of Peru. Willington was at first buried in a backyard grave near Culver Hill and then reinterred at Riverside Cemetery with full military honors. The British kept on, challenged by American sharp shooters. The militia were mostly teenagers, VanCour said. "The two British columns were rejoined just north of Plattsburgh and proceeded to the village to meet the American forces once more at Halsey's Corners," VanCour wrote. It was Dr. Kellogg who coordinated efforts to have a memorial marker placed on Culver Hill on Sept. 22, 1894. It had been moved to make way for Route 22 and become overgrown with brush. But about 20 years ago, the Town of Beekmantown, local landowners, community historians, militiamen descendants, local and state agencies developed an official site plan for the monument. Culver Hill Memorial Park was officially dedicated on Sept. 12, 2008. Beekmantown and the 1814 Commemoration committee have held a wreath-laying ceremony here every year since as Battle of Plattsburgh events commence. On Friday, Sept. 13, VanCour and Beekmantown Deputy Supervisor Sam Dyer welcomed a cannonade salute, bagpipe interludes, descendants of Culver Hill militiamen and Beekmantown Boy Scout Troop 46 to remember the valiant fight on the hill, taking time to honor both Americans and the British lost. British Royal Navy Lt. Commander Douglas Laird laid a wreath to remember the British forces engaged. It was placed beside a wreath honoring the American soldiers. In his remarks, Laird said, though born of conflict, British and American forces forged a fierce and enduring alliance. It wasn't but a year after the Battle of Plattsburgh, he said, in 1815, that the two nations reestablished relations. Laird is one of a thousand Royal Navy personnel who serve in a military exchange with U.S. forces. A submarine officer, he most recently completed training at Groton, CT. Laird said the alliance is a unique cornerstone of global military dynamics. When the U.S.S. Winston Churchill, an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, was commissioned in 1999, he noted, it was assigned command to a Royal Navy officer and remains so to this day.

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Culver Hill Battle tribute in ceremony, canon fire

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