Note 1467 — Chapter IX

Nicollet (p. 81) states that "Capt. Stirling, at the head of a company of Scots, arrived unexpectedly in the summer of 1765;" and Parkman (ii. 298), that "Capt. Stirling arrived at Fort Chartres just as the snows of early winter began to whiten the naked forests." The articles of surrender are conclusive as to the fact that the English troops arrived and took possession of the Illinois country, October 10. Capt. Stirling was relieved by Major Robert Farmar, of the 34th regiment, about the time of which Parkman speaks. Sir William, writing March 22, 1766, says: "Just now I have heard that Major Farmar, who proceeded by the Mississippi, arrived there [the Illinois] the 4th of December, and relieved Capt. Stirling" (N. Y. Col. Doc., vii. 816; Stone's Johnson, ii. 251). Monette (i. 411) states that "Capt. Stirling died in December; that St. Ange returned to Fort Chartres, and not long afterward Major Frazer, from Fort Pitt, arrived as commandant." These errors have been repeated scores of times, and the last repetition I have seen is in F. L. Billon's Annals of St. Louis in early Days, 1886, p. 26. Capt. Stirling lived until 1808: served in the Revolutionary War, became colonel in 1779, and later brigadier, major-general, lieut.-general, general, and was created a baronet. For a biographical sketch of him, by Dr. O'Callaghan, see N. Y. Col. Doc., vii. 786; and for one of Major Farmar, Ibid. 775. F. S. Drake (Biog. Dict.) records Capt. Stirling's extraordinary feat of marching his company of Highlanders overland 3,000 miles, from Fort Chartres to Philadelphia, without losing a man. The facts were that Capt. Stirling floated his company in boats down the Mississippi to New Orleans; thence they sailed to Pensacola, and later to New York, where they arrived June 15, 1766. Gen. Gage, in a letter of that date, wrote to Gov. Penn announcing their arrival, stating that they would march on the 17th for Philadelphia, and asking that quarters be assigned them (Penna. Col. Rec., ix. 318). No officer of the name of Frazer was ever in command at Fort Chartres. Fort Chartres, built by the French in 1720, was in its time the strongest fortress in America. Its ruins are on the left bank of the Mississippi, now a mile from the river, in Randolph County, Ill., 50 miles south of St. Louis, and 16 miles northeast of Kaskaskia. It was abandoned in 1772, in consequence of a portion of it being undermined by a Mississippi flood. See Edw. G. Mason's Old Fort Chartres, in Fergus's Historical Series, no. 12; Pittman, p. 45; Reynolds, My own Time, p. 26, ed. 1879; also his Pioneer History, p. 46, ed. 1887, with plan, from Beck's Gazetteer of Illinois and Missouri. For a plan of the fort, see Vol. V. p.54; and Mr. Davis's collation of authorities regarding its position, p. 55.—Ed.