subjects of this State residing in the district of Schachtikoke and Hoseck. For this purpose I arrived here this day … to aid the Sheriff of this county to apprehend the insurgents by virtue of legal process. On my arrival here I am informed that a large body of troops from the Grants are marching in force with artillery…. Before I proceed any farther, I thought it expedient to write to you requesting you to inform me … what is the object of your present movement into the interior parts of this State with a military force and by what authority?27
After Willett had been visited in Albany by a number of Oneidas, he approached Governor Clinton with a new concept for the management of the rebel natives. He noted that the few Indians who continued to support the union were primarily Oneidas and Tuscaroras and that they had been, and must continue to be, sustained by the United States. “[I]t is without doubt our wisdom to have as much service from them as we can,” yet whenever they were wanted for some duty, they were not satisfied if they were unpaid, even for the most petty of scouts. To avoid this constant expense, he suggested that they should be assigned to the officer commanding on the frontiers who would be given the charge of supplying them with provisions and clothing. “This will put the officer in such a situation that he can call upon the Indians for their services and pay them for those services with such things as otherways they receive without having the benefit of their services.” He noted that it was true that they were, when inclined, very useful and, in his opinion, the way to create and preserve this inclination was to keep them in a state of dependence upon the person who needs their services. Of course, the officer commanding the frontiers was Marinus Willett.28
December 15 marked the first official appearance of the name “Loyal Rangers” to designate Major Edward Jessup’s new battalion when it was announced in Haldimand’s General Orders that Serjeant-Major Mathew Thompson, 31st Regiment, was appointed as adjutant.
Reverend John Stuart apologized in writing to the governor for his faux pas in naming his new school a “Protestant Seminary.” He had not recognized that this term might be construed to mean that pupils of different religions would not be admitted and he assured Haldimand that “every Person that has offered, Protestants, Catholics, Jews &c” had been accepted. “No Distinction shall be made on the Score of Religious Sentiments. — No Partiality shewn, either on that, or any other Pretence.”
Although painted in a later era, the equipment and clothing is similar to the Revolutionary War and reminiscent of native scouts on patrol.
On December 18, Quebec headquarters reported that Lonas Lovelace, the widow of Lieutenant Thomas Lovelace, who had been executed as a spy by the rebels, would have her husband’s pension continued until the end of the muster and afterwards would be subsisted at £20 per annum and her seven children would continue on the ration list. How she and her offspring would fare on such an allowance was an open question.
The need for reliable intelligence was unending and, on December 19, the accomplished agent, Lieutenant Walter Sutherland, 2KRR, left Ticonderoga with eight first battalion men to scout Johnstown.29
As the State’s agent had still not made adequate deliveries of flour, Heath wrote to Governor Clinton on December 19 with another plea. “The distress of this army for the want of bread has become almost insupportable — they are nearly half their time without — this obliges them to eat a larger quantity of meat than is good for their health — their naked condition for want of clothing obliges many of the soldiers to lay in the barracks nearly the whole of the time; these complicated wants are destroying their health — numbers are falling sick.”30
On December 20, two state judges wrote to Governor Clinton with news about Vermont’s leadership, referring to the republic with the usual dogged Yorker persistence as the “northeast Quarter of this State.” The evidence that Vermont was negotiating with the British to return to the empire kept building up. Two former prisoners from Canada provided specific information about these secret activities. One fellow named the key negotiators on both sides of the question and described some elements of a potential settlement that would see Vermont raising two to three thousand troops to be fed, paid, and clothed by the British, and the Crown supplying and maintaining a twenty-gun ship crewed by Vermont for service on Lake Champlain. The second man confirmed much of this information and gave as his source Han Jost Herkimer, the loyalist captain of the bateaux company at Coteau-du-Lac. As well, the man had personally seen Ira Allen at Isle aux Noix with Sherwood and Smyth and knew that Major Jonas Fay had brought thirty of Burgoyne’s Germans in for an exchange.31
In a personal letter of December 21, Stark wrote to General Washington and, after congratulating the chief on his success at Yorktown, he gave a brief review of events in the north, thoroughly dismissing St. Leger’s expedition with the comment, “they returned, with shame and disgrace.” This made it appear as if he had never suffered a moment’s concern about St. Leger, which was far from the case. As to Ross’s raid in the Mohawk, the Valley had felt “some of the effects of their inveterate malice”; however, the raiders were “driven from that country with indignity.” So much for Canada’s trifling efforts!
He went on to explain that, after St. Leger’s men had killed a Vermont serjeant, the Briton sent an inexplicable letter of apology to Chittenden. In consequence, he had written to Chittenden for an explanation of why the enemy would apologize for a military action and had been told that the subject letter had been forwarded directly to Washington. Stark theorized that a doctored copy had been sent, as the governor would hardly show the original. He continued:
The proceedings of the Vermonters have been very mysterious, until about ten days ago, when they in a manner threw off the mask, and publicly avowed their determination to continue their claim of jurisdiction to the North [Hudson] R. on the part of New York, and to Mason’s patent on the part of New Hampshire, and did actually send an armed force, with a piece of artillery, to protect and defend their adherents on the west side of the 20 mile line; and indeed have done little less than to wage war with the United States …
I believe, sir, that I may venture to predict that unless something decisive is done in the course of this winter, with respect to these people, we may have every thing to fear from them that they are capable of, in case we are under the disagreeable necessity of making another campaign.
This may be considered as strange language from me, who have ever been considered as a friend of Vermont; and, indeed, I ever was their friend, until their conduct convinced me that they were not friendly to the United States. Were I to judge by their professions, they are more mine and the State’s friend now than ever; but their actions and their words appear to carry a very different meaning. During my command, I have been promised everything from their government and their leading men that I could wish for; but they have taken particular care to perform nothing, while, on the other hand, the militia of New York, and those of Berkshire, attended to my requisitions with alacrity and uncommon spirit; and I believe the northern and western frontiers are in a great measure indebted to them for the protection of their houses.32
Brigadier Gansevoort sent two dispatches to Governor Clinton on December 21. The first included several documents detailing the clash with Vermont and a recommendation that the legislature hold a session at Albany where persons from the northeast sections of the state could more readily
