The Funeral of Gen. Simon Fraser
Wounded at Bemis Heights on 7 Oct 1777, Fraser died the following morning. By then the Crown forces had pulled back to their fortified camp, and the Continentals were attacking them.
Riedesel's memoir, in the 1827 translation, continued:
After he had been washed, he was wrapped in a sheet, and laid out. We then returned into the room, and had this melancholy spectacle before us the whole day. . . .Among those generals was Riedesel’s own husband, making what followed particularly unnerving for her. Especially since she obviously felt the army should be moving to a place of greater safety rather than going through this ceremony.
We were informed, that general [John] Burgoyne intended to comply with general Fraser’s last request, and to have him buried at 6 o’clock, in the place which he had designated. This occasioned an useless delay, and contributed to our military misfortunes. At 6 o’clock, the corpse was removed, and we saw all the generals, with their retinues, on the hill, assisting at the funeral ceremony.
The chaplain who presided was the Rev. Edward Brudenell.
Gen. Burgoyne devoted space in his report to the House of Commons on the failed campaign to Fraser’s funeral:
The incessant cannonade during the solemnity; the steady attitude and unaltered voice with which the chaplain officiated, though frequently covered with dust, which the shot threw up on all sides of him; the mute but expressive mixture of sensibility and indignation upon every countenance: these objects will remain to the last of life upon the minds of every man who was present. The growing duskiness added to the scenery, and the whole marked a character of that juncture that would make one of the finest subjects for the pencil of a master that the field ever exhibited—Can you tell that Burgoyne (shown above) was a dramatist?
To the canvas and to the faithful page of a more important historian, gallant friend! I consign thy memory. There may thy talents, thy manly virtues, their progress and their period, find due distinction; and long may they survive;—long after the frail record of my pen shall be forgotten.
COMING UP: A scene of British fortitude.
3 comments:
The picture Burgoyne paints of an Anglican chaplain going all while shot and shell are landing all around brings to mind a satirical Monty Python sketch, actually!
There is a puzzling remark in Baroness von Riedesel's comments about Gen. Simon Fraser's funeral: "We were informed, that general [John] Burgoyne intended to comply with general Fraser’s last request, and to have him buried at 6 o’clock, in the place which he had designated. This occasioned an useless delay, and contributed to our military misfortunes."
How did the timing or the place of Fraser's burial "contribute to our military misfortunes"?
I interpreted Riedesel’s remark to mean she thought the army would have been better off burying Fraser quickly and then withdrawing from an untenable position, regardless of what hill he wanted to be buried on and when, rather than sticking around there until past six o’clock (not to mention exposing the general officers to artillery fire).
Post a Comment