There was more unpleasant news for John. Haldimand said that Carleton’s promises to the two Butlers must “be considered conditional and entirely depend[ent] upon contingencies.” How this news must have disappointed Butler, a man who had sacrificed so much to ensure the friendship of the Six Nations while his wife, daughter, and two sons were held hostage in the Mohawk Valley and his second-eldest son was imprisoned in New England. Guy Carleton had fully appreciated John Butler’s selfless contributions, but it was Haldimand who sat in Quebec City now.
Mathews gently chided Butler that his regimental return had not been signed by General Powell, as it should have been before being sent to the king with the request for his Royal Bounty. He concluded this painful letter with a tiny bit of positive news. The governor agreed that the 10th company should be the lieutenant-colonel’s and commanded by a captain-lieutenant, which would allow John to draw pay as the company’s nominal captain.19
Mathews then wrote to Brigadier Powell about Lieutenant-Colonel Butler’s memorial on behalf of his officer corps requesting that the phrase “To serve with the Indians” be expunged from their commissions, as it was considered a liability should they fall into enemy hands. The governor acceded to this appeal and promised to send out new commissions accordingly.
Further, he advised that the complaint of the Rangers’ captains concerning the rank of John McKinnon (who had been thrust upon the corps as a patronage appointment) would be answered by the adjutant general and that commissions were coming for a captain-lieutenant and two lieutenants of the 10th company.
On November 2, Mathews wrote to advise Lieutenant-Colonel Butler that his warrants for pay, arms, and medicines had been approved, although the meticulous governor was upset that the indent did not specify the corps involved, nor was it signed by the regimental or post surgeon, and Brigadier Powell.20
As soon as Willett returned to Fort Rensselaer on November 2 from his pursuit of Ross, he celebrated the news of Cornwallis’s capitulation with the firing of a 12-pdr gun and small arms’ volleys by his Levies and local militia, followed by the roasting of an ox.
As the term of Willett’s Massachusetts companies was now expired, their officers were ordered to have their men deliver their ammunition to the Conductor of Ordnance before marching for home.21
Reverend Stuart had received the governor’s permission to establish a scholastic academy in Montreal and on November 3, the priest’s advertisement to attract students came to the governor’s attention. Ever sensitive about Canadien Roman Catholics, Haldimand severely chastised Stuart, noting that, “Principally Intended for the Children of Protestants Could not fail to Create Jealousies, [and was] at all times improper, but more particularly so at present.” Stuart was most apologetic, advising that boys of all faiths were already in attendance at his school.22
Plan of the town and fortifications of Montreal.
On November 4, Major Gray wrote to the adjutant general, Major Richard Lernoult, 8th, with a grim account of the state of the arms in 1KRR:
Sir John Johnson has applied for arms to his Regiment sometime ago, I beg here to mention it again we have not 100 stand of good arms in the Regiment —, its true we goat 150 stand of good arms two winters ago, betwixt Prisoners taken & Arms Brock upon service & great many of them are Lost, what arms we goat before that, were old Repaired Arms not worth sixpence for Service, nor were we ever at any time Completed with Arms, good and Bad arms we have not above 250, now I should be glad to know whether we are to have Arms this winter.23
The next day, 1KRR’s surgeon, Charles Austin, reported that Volunteer John Thompson of the Major’s Company was lying “dangerously ill at his Quarters, in consequence of the ill Treatment he met with from some Canadians last Thursday at Pt Clair.” An examination into the incident was held by James McGill, the commissioner of the peace for Montreal and district. John Helmer, a fellow Royal Yorker, testified that, on the afternoon of November 1, near the church in Pointe Clair, he witnessed an argument between a 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.