Jane McRae and how Public Affairs helped turn the American Revolution

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Jane McRae and the Turning
Point of the American Revolution
Public Affairs and the Battle of Saratoga

Warfare and Information Operations
“One cannot wage war under
present conditions without the
support of public opinion, which is
tremendously molded by the press
and other forms of propaganda.”
-- General Douglas MacArthur

18th
Century Information Operations
“The slaying of Miss McCrea was, to
the people of New York, what the
battle of Lexington was to the New
England colonies.”
-- William L. Stone, “The Jane McCrae Tragedy,” Jan., 1867
“The American Joan of Arc."
-- Paul Revere

Burgoyne’s Northern Invasion, 1777
• Cutoff the New
England Colonies
from the rest of the
rebellion
• Effect a juncture of
forces at Albany
• Employ Hessian,
Tory and Native
forces as economy
of force
•Defeat in detail
follows military and
economic isolation of
Massachusetts

Gentleman Johnny Burgoyne
"One Hundred
Indians in the
Woods do us more
harm [than] 1,000
British troops.
They have been
the Death of many
brave Fellows.”
-- Colonial Paymaster for
Gen. Philip Schuyler,
spring 1777

Death of Jane
McCrea by
John
Vanderlyn,
1804
How History Remembers Jane McCrae

The story tells that as Jane McCrea was on her
way July 26, 1777 from Fort Edward to meet her
fiancé, Tory Lieutenant Jones, at the British
camp near Lake George, under the protection of
two Indians, a quarrel arose between the two as
to which should have the promised reward for
her escort;
One of them, to terminate the dispute, "sunk his
tomahawk into the skull" of their unfortunate
charge.
Burgoyne needed Indian scouts, and did not
punish the guilty parties, inciting local civil
resentment and upsurge in American militia
callups.
How History Remembers Jane McCrae

Caught Between Enemies
• Jane McRae, 26, originally from New Jersey,
lived on her brother John’s farm near Fort
Edward, along the axis of attack for Burgoyne
towards Albany
• Her brothers John, Samuel and Stephen were
patriots, serving in various capacities with the
Continental armies
• Her husband-to-be, Lt. David Jones, was a
loyalist officer with Burgoyne’s army along with
brothers Robert and Creighton

The Capture of Jane McRae

A Different Version of Events
Another account, however, of the Jane McCrea
Tragedy, was gathered from the statement made
by Mrs. Sara McNeal, 55, to General Burgoyne
on August 5, 1777, just days after the attack,
and corroborated by several people acquainted
with Jane McCrea.
The events were retold to Judge Hay of Saratoga
Springs –an industrious historian and taken
down from their lips.
Mrs. McNeal was an older cousin to British
General Simon Fraser, part of Burgoyne’s
expedition.

McRae and McNeal were in Fort Edward preparing
to move to Fort Miller when an Indian raiding
party encountered American troops, killing the
platoon leader and giving chase.
The Indians captured the two women and placed
McCrae on a horse for transport, very likely in
anticipation of a reward from the British.
While departing the scene and under fire, the
Indians claim that McCrae was struck by musket
fire from Americans firing uphill.
McNeal was separated from McRae and learned
only of her fate after arriving at the British camp.
A Different Version of Events

The Fate of Jane McRae

The (Most Likely) Truthful Account
• Jane McRae was most likely killed by
American troops during their meeting
engagement with Burgoyne’s Indian
raiders, under whom McRae sought transit
to the British Camp
• The fact that McRae was scalped by her
Indian escort did little to uncover the true
account of her death as the Indians
sought compensation for their effort

The PR Campaign Message
• McRae was murdered by savages employed by
the crown and Burgoyne to employ terror
• American General Horatio Gates wrote to (and
then widely published) a letter to Burgoyne,
“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”
• McRae’s loyalist politics didn’t matter; she was
an attractive white woman slain by savages
• Exceptional press and public attention

Telling Stories Through Imagery

Outcome of the PR Campaign
• Story soon embellished to include McRae’s
intent to be wed after meeting her fiancée that
very day inflamed sentiment among colonists
• Edmund Burke rails in British Parliament against
the crown policies in the colonies, calling for a
halt to all Native American payments for service
• British and Hessian soldiers coming to relieve
guard posts often found dead British or Indian
sentries and on their bodies scraps of paper that
read,
“For Jane McCrae”

Keep Your Cool

Expanding the PR Campaign
• Benedict Arnold hit on the idea of having scouts
go to each frontier settlement and spread the
story of the murder of Jane McCrae
• Loyalists in upstate New York turn away from
the crown and their support to Burgoyne’s army
• Thousands of militia volunteers who had not
previously mustered rallied to protect their
homes and families; the threat was real
• The troop surge played a vital role in American
force strength and ultimate victory at Saratoga

The Media Carries the Message
• The Massachusetts Spy quoted a report from
Saratoga saying Indians were everywhere--very
bold-- killing and scalping sentries in sight of the
army and murdering and scalping about sixty
women and children, "making no distinction
between Whigs or Tories.“
• The New Hampshire Gazette noted that terrified
Albany residents were moving down-country
after two little girls who were picking berries
were scalped.

I will let loose the dogs of hell,
Ten thousand Indians who shall yell,
And foam and tear, and grin and roar,
And drench their moccasins in gore,
To give these I give full scope and play,
From Ticonderoga to Florida.
They’ll scalp your heads, and kick your shins,
And rip your guts, and flay your skins
I swear by St. George and by St. Paul,
I will exterminate you all!
-- Francis Hopkinson, Declaration Signer and poet
Boston Independent Chronicle, 1777

Benjamin Franklin, writing under a
pseudonym as “Capt. Garish” for a
Boston newspaper, described his
“interception of eight bales of scalps
sent to Canada by Indians with
Burgoyne.”
Franklin (“Garish”), describes the age
and gender of these “victims” in great
detail.

The Battle of Bennington

The Battles of Saratoga

Freeman’s Farm, Sept 19, 1777

Freeman’s Farm

The Second Battle, Oct 7, 1777

Freeman’s Farm, Oct 7, 1777

Benedict Arnold’s Charge

The death of Brig. Gen. Frasier

Storming Breymann’s Redoubt

Surrender at Saratoga
• On October 17, 1777, 5,895 British and
Hessian troops surrendered their arms.
General John Burgoyne had lost 82% of
his original expeditionary force that
marched into New York from Canada in
the early summer of 1777.
• By this time, Gates had 22,000 troops,
with 14,000 N.Y. or New England militia, a
surge from approx. 3,000 in July

Surrender at Saratoga – c.1782

The Rest of the Story…
• One of the first extended literary renditions of the McCrea tale was
Michel Rene Hilliard-d’Auberteuil’s 1784 novel, Miss McCrea: A
Novel of the American Revolution. Within the confines of this novel,
the story of McCrea slightly deviates from the historical record.
• McCrea is a single sixteen-year-old girl living with her elderly father
in New York City. When the British invade the island, and before the
McCreas can escape to their country estate in upstate New York,
Jane meets and falls in love with the British Captain Belton.
• Turned by love from revolutionary to loyalist leanings, McCrea
forsakes her father, her friends, and falls for the deceitful charm of
this British soldier.
• Jane, although having fought Belton on one occasion to secure her
chastity, continues to love him and is lead astray by both him and a
false female servant. In an attempt to meet Belton at camp and
marry him against her father’s wishes, Jane is captured, stripped
naked, and killed by a group of Indians.

• Jane McCrea was later dug up and relocated
twice because of her prominence as a tourist
attraction.
• In 1822, she was moved to State Street
Cemetery in the Village of Fort Edward where
her remains were placed atop the vault of Sara
McNeil (who passed away naturally in 1799).
• In 1852, she was exhumed again and moved to
the newly-created Union Cemetery in Fort
Edward.

A disturbing story appeared
in a local newspaper in
1852, describing how the
box containing Jane
McCrea’s bones had been
“broken open and nearly all
the bones stolen.”

Jane McCrea’s Final Rest
• April 23, 2005—the second
"modern" exhumation of Jane
McCrea's grave. The exposed
coffin, containing the bones, is
the new one placed in the grave
in 2003.

Jane McRae and how Public Affairs helped turn the American Revolution

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