That same day, Powell wrote the governor to report that he had sent an express to Detroit to recall Captain Brant and been advised that there was some doubt that the Mohawk would recover the full use of his leg, which had been infected from a wound said to have been inflicted by the famous Indian Department lieutenant, Simon Girty. Whatever the cause, Brant would have to spend the winter in the west.43
This same busy day, the governor sent Ross his “perfect approbation of your proceedings throughout your late expedition.” His losses were “inconsiderable, which must justly be greatly attributed to your Prudence and Activity, as well as to the Spirited Behaviour of the Troops under your Command, whose efforts, I am sorry to find were so ill seconded by the Indians. A circumstance, I shall not fail minutely to enquire into.” Even Butler’s death was laid at the feet of the natives. “Had the Indians done their duty, it is probable this misfortune … would have been prevented.”
As Carleton Island’s garrison had been depleted, the governor would send one hundred men with officers and non-commissioned officers in proportion. Although unstated, these were Ross’s men of 2KRR who had been training in the lower province. A letter from Mathews reported that three hundred stand of arms had been already sent upriver, although he warned there would be a delay in shipping the requested medicines. As it transpired, severe weather prevented the concentration of the battalion. While the promised issue of arms raised hopes that 2KRR would finally be properly equipped as infantry, Ross’s complaint the following March revealed that more Indian Trade fusils had been sent, rather than military pattern muskets.
An Indian Department fusil and land (Infantry) Pattern muskets. Long and short Pattern muskets (forty-six- and forty-two-inch barrels, respectively) were on issue to the British infantry of the Canadian Army. Both Patterns were robustly made and mounted a socket bayonet with a fifteen-to-seventeen-inch triangular blade, which was the primary assault weapon. In contrast, the Indian Trade fusil was a lightweight, smaller-calibre firearm unable to mount a bayonet.
Surgeon Wasmus of the Brunswick Dragoons returned to his regiment on November 12 after being exchanged in Boston and making a remarkably hazardous voyage from Halifax. He had lost all of his baggage and expensive medicines in a shipwreck on the St. Lawrence River and was fortunate to have escaped with his life. Having arrived at Sorel a virtual pauper, he was pleased to recover pieces of his luggage he had left there in 1777 before embarking on the Burgoyne expedition, but, upon opening them, he discovered that his colleagues had thoroughly looted his coffer and portmanteau and replaced his clothing with dirty, worn-out stockings, shirts, and trousers. Obviously, he had not been expected to return.44
On November 22, Ross reported new information about the boats left at Lake Oneida:
The parties and provisions left at Canasagara and Oswego are safely arrived by the precautions I had taken…. Seven bateaux were obliged to be left behind at Canasagara, which I ordered to be destroyed as they were old and rotten. I had them merely patched up for the expedition, being unwilling to take good bateaux which were then so much wanted for the transport of provisions. All the best have been brought to this place and Niagara, there are still five left at Oswego which, owing to the season being so far advanced, I have declined sending for them until spring. They are also very old and crazy.
Two of the Royal Yorkers “sent out as Spies just before the Action at Johnstown” had returned to Fort Haldimand with a loyalist who reported the rebels had forty-two killed and wounded at Canada Creek, including a colonel and several officers from Schenectady. Such utter poppycock! The fellow must have thought Ross’s ego needed a great deal of stroking. He claimed that, after the Johnstown action, Willett had been “so sensible of his defeat that he acknowledged he was much beholden to night coming,” then added that the rebels were said to have been reinforced overnight and by next morning had assembled 1,400 men. While there may have been that number of troops moving about in the Mohawk Valley, they were certainly not all concentrated at Johnstown.
The fellow also provided details of the number of men who had “delivered themselves up as Prisoners of War.” Ross noted that they amounted to the greater part of the men missing from the expedition and noted that none had been taken during the Johnstown action. He added: “There is great reason to believe that the rebels exercised the greatest cruelty on many occasions which I will endeavour to know the truth of. On our part the greatest humanity was shewn nor did the Indians hurt a Woman or Child.” (Perhaps he had not heard of the murder of the prisoner William Scarborough by one of his officers. On the other hand, perhaps the murder was a rebel invention.) He closed, “I every day expect a prisoner from the Mohawk, [i.e., the Mohawk River] having sent out two scouts for that purpose, by which means further particulars may be learned.”45
General Heath wrote another plaintive letter to Governor Clinton on November 13 regarding the extreme distress in the Highlands Department over a lack of bread. When Clinton answered two days later, he offered little encouragement other than to say that he had referred the matter to the state legislature.
On November 14, Heath wrote to Stark to approve the early release of the New Hampshire militia after they returned all public stores that had been temporarily issued, such as ammunition and camp utensils. He enthusiastically mentioned a new supply of clothing for the army, part of which was already in finished inventory and the balance in materials that were on hand for the regimental tailors. He recommended that the paymasters of the New Hampshire Continental regiments at Saratoga be sent to headquarters with their complete, signed returns to be present for the clothing distribution. While it had been his intention to have these two regiments winter in the northern district, there was now some doubt, but Stark was to make preparations as if they would stay and Heath would reserve their last year’s huts for them at the Continental Village until the matter was determined. The regiments’ artificers and small detachments were ordered to rejoin, as soon as it was set where they would winter.46
On November 16, Willett reported to the governor that the inhabitants’ losses during the Ross raid had been slight. “Many of the Horses as well as the Horned Cattle &c were shot and left lying dead without the enemies receiving any advantage from them.” Such a fatuous observation! The rebels had no advantage of them, either, which was precisely the point of the killings. The colonel sought Clinton’s advice about what troops would winter in the Mohawk, noting, “[A] state of security can never be justified as long as the war lasts and this County continues to be a Frontier.” Further, whatever troops were assigned, a quantity of snowshoes should be provided to ensure mobility.47
Political squabbling between New York and Vermont boiled over in the Western Union. On November 20, Vermont’s governor, Thomas Chittenden, accused a Yorker bureaucrat of “warning the People in Vicinity of the New City to pay a Certain Provision Tax to the State of New York.” He reminded the fellow that Vermont had made proposals to New York State to desist in imposing such “coercive Measures” while boundary disputes were unresolved. The official had better comply, or suffer the consequences. As the New City (formerly Lansinghburgh) was firmly in “old” New York, this was a contentious order to say the least. Obviously, such posturing and threats distracted New York from its war effort.