proper to appoint a committee to determine whether New Hampshire shall exercise jurisdiction to the Connecticut River or not. This proceeding appears too weak and frivolous. For men of sense to suppose that New Hampshire would ever consent to an indignity so flagrant, and an abuse so pointed as this seems to be, is what I own surprises me. However, I hope, and indeed have no doubt, that New Hampshire will be more politic than to take notice of this daring insolence. What I mean by notice, is to think of treating with them upon this or any other subject until Congress shall come to a final determination with respect to these people.
The very next day, Vermont’s governor, Thomas Chittenden, sent a letter to Stark requesting him to intercede with New York’s officers and order them to suspend any operations in the Western Union and, more important, that if they should refuse to comply, he asked the general not interfere by sending his Continentals. The governor made a quite astounding offer: “If they comply … and liberate the prisoners they have taken, I will suspend the exercise of jurisdiction or law over any person or persons who profess themselves subjects of New York, during that time.” Had Vermont’s council realized their eyes had grown larger than their stomachs?
On December 16, former New York militia captain John Abott, the architect of the Sancoick insurrection, who now styled himself a Vermont colonel, wrote a petulant message to Colonel Henry Van Rensselaer claiming he had orders preventing him from holding any further negotiations. He would not meet at the time or place previously decided upon, nor would he allow Van Rensselaer to send men into his camp with messages. Little wonder that Yates was disenchanted with negotiating.25
On December 16, Marinus Willett graciously accepted Governor Clinton’s request to remain in command on the northwest frontier over the winter and for the 1782 campaign, but not without some misgivings. He took the opportunity to broach the question of his rank:
But whilst I reflect on my former and present situation, I become the subject of sensations of a very unpleasing nature. Having very early received an appointment in the Continental Army and by proper and regular gradation arrived to command of a regiment, I felt myself rather unhappy when the army became new modeled at the close of the Campaign in the year 1780 to find that it became my lott to retire. The cause, however, of that arrangement being urged by arguments of ecconomical import, and the finances of my Country requiring particular attention to this article, to find fault or to repine at a measure calculated to promote the common cause would be inconsistent with those principals of patriotism which have always bore sway in my breast. However, therefore, contrary to my secret wishes of continuing in the line Millitary (as long as there was a Brittain or a British ally to fight against in the American States) it might be, I determined chearfully to put on the habiliments of a private Citizen and was Industriously employed in arranging my affairs for doing business as such, when I was previous to the opening of the last Campaign called upon to receive the command which I at present possess, and which agreeable to your excellencie’s desire I am quite willing to continue in, if it can be done without Injustice to my former appointments and rank in the Continental army.
Your Excellency is well acquainted with the manner in which the reformed officers were obliged to retire from actual service, and must know that when they retired their former rank ceased. It is not my intention to enter into arguments concerning the propriety, conveniency or illconveniency of this mode. I remember well that one argument which was made use of at the time of its taking place, was, that if reformed officers were to have their rank retained, and be entitled to promotion agreeable to their rank, it might happen that an officer who had spend several Campaigns at home entirely devoted to his private concerns, would step into a vacancy over the head of an officer who had encountered a large portion of fatigue and danger during the whole time in the field. This had the appearance of bearing hard upon the officers who were continued in Service, but this objection can by no means lay against me. Your Excellency well knows that four months had not elapsed from the time of my being obliged to retire from service until I was again called upon, and engaged to accept of military command on the frontiers of our State; a service that has been accompanied with a proportion of Toil and Hazard equal perhaps to any in the United States, and that the short time in which I had a recess from service was when the army was in winter quarters so that the argument which I have before mentioned can no way opperate against me.
Willett went on to provide a précis of his service, starting on June 28, 1775, when he had been appointed the second senior captain, 1NY, and finishing on January 1781 as lieutenant-colonel commandant of the 5NY. He repeated, “Four months had not elapsed before I was again called upon and have served a Campaign accompanied with difficulties superiour to any that has fell to my share in any one Campaign during the war.” Then, he delivered a one-two punch:
I am happy in meeting with your Excellencie’s approbation of my conduct during the Campaign, and am not only willing, but desirous if my country requires my service, to continue in my present Command, if this, as I have before observed, can be done consistent with my former appointments, and rank in the American Army.
Your Excellency cannot be unacquainted, that by the rules for the Government of the American Army, all officers of the same Denomination receiving Commissions from any particular State, are to take rank after officers who have Commissions from Congress, even tho’ the commissions from the State should be of elder date than those from Congress. This being the case, your Excellency must at once see how disagreeable my situation is while I continue to serve under my present appointment, liable every day to be commanded by officer who I have always been accustomed to command and who by no just rule ought on any account to Command me, and a submission to which in the Ordinary course of things would be degrading to the Millitary character. That this cannot be either just or right is I humbly conceive exceeding clear. And for this reason beg leave, to request your excellency’s assistance in endeavouring to procure, for me from Congress, a Power to rank agreeable to my former appointment in the American Army.
Just a day later, Willett wrote to the governor displaying considerable anger over his pay.
[T]o serve another campaign under such disadvantages as I did the last, and to come home in the winter and sit down with empty pockets is what I cannot find a Dissposition to Comply with Unless … some better prospect should open.… The Restoring to me, however, if it can be done my former Rank as the Army appears to be new Established with the prospect of receiving such pay as would free me from present difficulties would make the Command your Excellency desires to keep me in very pleasing to me. But without this I dont see how I can continue. All these things, I think it not amiss to make known in Confidence to your Excellency.26
Adding to the Sancoick uproar, on December 15, several “friends to New York” in the Western Union held a meeting at Schaghticoke and were confronted by a handbill posted by two pro-Vermont Justices of the Peace, commanding all inhabitants of the town “to leave off their advising the people and trying to Disafect them.”
After several futile attempts at negotiation at Sancoick, Colonel Henry Van Rensselaer had scooped up some prisoners and left. Two days later, Vermont’s veteran colonel, Eben Walbridge, sent Henry Van Rensselaer two testy notes about the dangerous unrest in the Western Union. His first letter was critical of Van Rensselaer’s preemptive action and the second referred to the Yorker’s statement that he was not authorized to treat with anyone who was not a subject of his home state. Walbridge demanded the release of the prisoners, the payment of property damages by Yorker troops, and a guarantee that all inhabitants in the Western Union, whether owing allegiance to New York or Vermont, would be allowed to “rest Quiet and Unmolested” until Congress resolved the jurisdictional issues.
From his temporary headquarters at Schaghticoke, Brigadier Gansevoort countered the next day with a tough-worded letter of his own addressed to “the officer commanding Vermont troops”:
[I]n pursuance of a law of this
