1KRR drummer boy and a Canadien lad. When Thompson stepped in to separate the boys and make peace between them, Pierre Charlebois, the local lieutenant of militia, assaulted him with a stick, striking and cutting him in the face and knocking him down. Whereupon, Charlebois’s son, Etiat (who may have been the boy involved in the fight), jumped on Thompson. Helmer noted that the Volunteer’s eye was “greatly swelled.” Why Helmer had stood aside watching this outrage was unstated.
Canadiens were jaded with having “foreign” troops quartered in their villages who often indulged in thoughtless, and frequently drunken, pranks. Due to their declining fortunes, the loyalists were equally distressed, and, being unable to make the rebels pay sufficiently for their grief, there was a danger that the Canadiens could become a target of their resentment. An ugly incident such as this beating was precisely what Haldimand feared — a potential spark to tinder.24
On November 5, Riedesel reported to the governor that the Yamaska Blockhouse, a key installation in the defence of lower Quebec province, was strong enough for temporary defence, but represented very “dull and dreary” duty.25
That same day, Haldimand wrote to Powell about more unrest in Butler’s Rangers’ officer corps, which had begun during the 1777 siege of Stanwix when three Indian Department officers — captains Walter Butler and Peter Ten Broeck and Lieutenant William Ryer Bowen — were captured in German Flatts in the Mohawk Valley. The following year, Butler and Bowen seized the opportunity to escape, but Ten Broeck chose not to join them. Meantime, a company in the newly founded Butler’s Rangers was being held in Ten Broeck’s name at Niagara. When he failed to appear for another two years, suspicions were raised that he either lacked the courage to rejoin, or was lukewarm in his attitude toward the king’s cause. That his rebel brother Abraham was a rebel militia brigadier complicated the issue. So, Peter Ten Broeck was discontinued on the regiment’s pay list and his company was given to another officer. When he suddenly reappeared in Niagara, he requested full reinstatement. Haldimand consulted Sir John Johnson and the baronet thought that Ten Broeck had suffered a great deal, so the governor instructed Powell to set up an inquiry to investigate the issue.26
The map traces the Mohawk River from its junction with the Hudson River to Fort Stanwix, then over the Oneida Carry and along the waterways to Oswego on Lake Ontario.
On November 6, Ross sent Haldimand a detailed report of his expedition, including a chronological return of the men killed, wounded, and missing. He assured the C-in-C that the provisions cached at Ganaghsaraga would be brought back to Oswego, indicating that he was, as yet, unaware that Captain Gilbert Tice, 6NID, had found them either consumed or carried off, probably by Captain David Hill’s party of Mohawks that had been sent to destroy the boats. Ross deplored the loss of Captain Butler and Lieutenant Docksteder and commended Rangers’ serjeant Solomon Secord, who had performed some unspecified exceptional service.
A major thrust of the report was a condemnation of the support he had received from the natives and Colonel Guy Johnson. “The promised succour of Indians was a mere Illusion,” those that joined were the dregs of the tribes and there were no important leaders amongst them. To Haldimand, who was already stressed over 6NID’s expenses and incensed about the natives’ inadequate support in the far west, the criticisms struck deep and resulted in an uncharacteristically angry outburst.27
Counterespionage was an important function of Canada’s Secret Service. Dr. George Smyth, the service’s second-in-command, had been warned that a Canadian named Mrs. Cheshire was providing a safe haven for enemy spies. He set a trap, selecting “three cunning fellows with Old Clothes, Yankee Firelocks, a number of Vermont and Connecticut Bills & a Forged Letter which contains Instruction from, & is signed by Bailey [Vermont General Jacob Bayley] &, I hope they will soon find out Madam Cheshire & her connections.” His ruse must have succeeded, as there was no more mention of the lady in the records.28
Major Balthasar von Lücke arrived from New York City with a further 231 exchanged Brunswick soldiers, which allowed Riedesel to re-establish the original regiments of 1777, except for von Breymann’s Grenadier battalion, which had its few remaining companies distributed to the other regiments. One company went to the very badly depleted Regiment von Rhetz, as did another from Prinz Friedrich’s. Captain of Cavalry Carl von Schlagenteuffel took command of Prinz Ludwig’s Dragoon regiment; Lieutenant-Colonel Christian Prätorius retained command of Prinz Friedrich, as did Lieutenant-Colonel Ferdinand Albrecht von Barner of the Light Infantry battalion. Lieutenant-Colonel Johann Gustavus von Ehrenkrook commanded von Rhetz; Lieutenant-Colonel Friedrich von Hille took the Regiment von Riedesel, and Major von Lücke headed up the Regiment von Specht.
Riedesel noted that the regiments’ companies were about half their 1777 strength and that there was an inadequate number of non-commissioned officers — only seventy-four across all of the regiments. Consequently, only one serjeant, a quartermaster, a captain at arms, and three corporals could be allotted per company and a number of “vice-corporals” had to be appointed to offset the deficiency. As well, a great many companies lacked sufficient subalterns and those available were equally distributed.29
At Saratoga, the New Hampshire Continental general, John Stark, resumed the routine of commanding the district now that St. Leger’s expedition had retired to Canada. He notified General William Heath (Washington’s surrogate while the C-in-C was in Virginia) that he had ordered local teams to draw timber for the two blockhouses he had been ordered to construct, which he expected would be complete in a fortnight. To promote the work, he had promised the Massachusetts Levies an early discharge if they cut and drew the timber and they had fallen to work with “unremitted vigor.”
Stark asked Heath to remember the poor half-naked New Hampshire Continentals at Saratoga, many of whom were unfit for duty for want of proper clothing, noting that the surgeon had attributed their nakedness to the “inflammatory disorders epidemical in camp.”30
Governor Clinton wrote to Colonel Willett on November 8 to offer effusive praise for his “successes over the Enemy…. I am sensible of the Dangers & Difficulties you had to encounter on this Occasion & I am persuaded much is due to your Personal Exertions & that nothing was wanting on your part to have Conceived a complete Victory & I trust the vigor with which the Enemy was attacked, routed & pursued will be attended with the most salutary Consequences to the Frontier Settlements.”
Willett had earlier taken advantage of his success to criticize Stark’s removal of two companies of Weissenfel’s New York Levies from Johnstown just a few days before Ross appeared, so it was undoubtedly music to his ears when the governor commented in his letter that, from the beginning of the alarms, he had believed the enemy’s true object lay west of Saratoga, and that “being the case I leave you to judge of my sentiments respecting the Removal of Major Logan & his detachment.” Clinton had recommended that the legislature adopt “seasonable &proper Measures for the future Defence of the Frontiers,” but candidly feared these would be inadequate. He closed by asking Willett to accept
