The Provisions arrived too late this year to render it possible for me to take possession of Oswego, it would have required more time and workmen that I had to employ to Build a Fort at that Place capable to resist the Force which an enterprising Enemy sensible of Incursions and Devastations which their Country would suffer from it, would not have failed to Employ against it. From many Observations which I have made and many steps which the Enemy have taken during this Summer there is Reason to apprehend that the Plan of Attack found amongst Laurence’s [Lauren’s] Papers will be renewed and prosecuted early next Spring. The great Distance and Difficulty of communication between our different Posts will create obstacles to our resisting the Attack in every Point and as the Posts are, notwithstanding all my Efforts[,] only victualled until Spring, in case a Supply of Provisions cannot be forwarded before any Invasion of the Lower Country takes place, it will be almost impossible to do it.
I have for many Months observed in the Canadian Gentlemen an Expectation of a Revolution which was to take place in the Country, and am the more confirmed in this from a letter, dated Paris the 6th of last March (which has fallen into my hands from a Mr Lotbinière, who after having Received the King’s Bounty, in London went over to the Rebels in Philadelphia) where He tells his son that He expects to see him in 14 or 15 Months from the date of the Letter and in a situation to settle His Affairs to their mutual satisfaction…. Many Letters are in the same stile and are plain indications of some design against this Province in which France cannot, now that the Provinces of Virginia & Carolina are recovered, refuse to give assistance to Congress.1
Two days later, the governor officially accepted the three companies of the 2nd battalion, King’s Rangers (KR) into the Canadian Department, placing them on full support. Whether Sir Henry Clinton had given his blessing is unclear; however, the governor’s need was great and he may simply have chosen to gamble that the small battalion would not be “recalled” south.2
On November 26, Haldimand sent a “most Private” dispatch to Germain enclosing duplicates of his recent messages about “the Critical Turn Affairs may take here in Consequence of Lord Cornwallis’s Misfortune.” Captain Justus Sherwood of the Secret Service had reported there was “not a Shadow of Hope remaining that any terms from Government will be Received by the [Vermont] People, who are now rioting in the Excesses of Licentious exultation.” Even more alarming, “He Says that a Diversion from this Province has been long Expected, and that Measures had been taken under the Veil of Being Alarmed by its approach, to have Cutt off the Retreat of our Detachment had it ventured to penetrate any Length into the Country.” This implied that the Allen faction was not in control and their opponents had sufficient sway to put a major force into action. Further, the rebels were “to make an Early [movement] against Canada next Spring — that in the course of the Winter every Preparation would be made for a General attack & that they would endeavour to get Possession of our advanced Posts upon Lake Champlain & the other Frontiers to facilitate their operations in the Spring, which are to keep Pace with a Fleet by the River St. Lawrence.”3
On November 27, Major Ross wrote from Fort Haldimand with details of his examination into the behaviour of Lieutenant Jacob Adams of the Quebec Indian Department. Before the war, Adams had been a trader with the Mississaugas and he had been lured into the service by the promise of a commission. When Fort Haldimand was built, Adams was assigned to manage the Mississaugas’ war effort. After several years, he succumbed to the lure of his commercial interests and organized his charges to gather ginseng, a medicinal plant with a lucrative world market. Ross noted that the Mississaugas were so often gathering the plant, it was difficult to bring thirty together for military purposes. Adams was dismissed.4
A day later, the ex-officers serving as Volunteers in Eben Jessup’s Pensioners’ company were ordered to submit an exact list of the men they had recruited so that they could be given preferment accordingly when additional companies were formed.5
On November 29, Lieutenant-Colonel Daniel Claus, a deputy superintendent of the Six Nations’ Department, reported to headquarters that he had equipped and sent off a party of six rangers with two trusty Mohawks under the command of Lieutenant Walter Sutherland, 2KRR, “an officer, I flatter myself His Excellency the General will approve of, as being particularly well acquainted with the business and route he is to undertake, and as capable of executing the orders and instructions he carries than any person I know employed in that service.” As the rebels had ordered away everyone suspected of being friendly to government, he predicted Sutherland would have a difficult time finding a safe harbour; however, Reverend Stuart had provided the names of trusty people who might venture to assist. Claus noted that a foot of snow had fallen since the previous night, which would prove tiring for the party.
He reported that the rebels were selling their wheat for four shillings, six pence, New York currency, and the loyalists were compelled to sell theirs for only two shillings. The quality of the wheat was very good, but army worms had damaged the grass and summer grains — the same pest that had done so much damage to Quebec’s crops.
Fort Frederick at Albany (head of State Street) 1765. A notorious jail for housing Tories throughout the Revolution.
On behalf of Stuart, Claus informed headquarters that, as the rebels had received no word about the priest’s exchange, they confined his surety with the common criminals in the Albany jail, which was a most unwholesome, nauseous place. The fellow was in ill health, which gave Stuart much unrest. Obviously, Stuart hoped this news would speed up the exchange process.6
On November 25, two reports of the disastrous news of Cornwallis’s capitulation arrived at Lord George Germain’s London office within hours of each other. Prime Minister Lord North received the news “as he would have taken a ball in the breast … and paced up and down the room exclaiming ‘Oh God! It is all over.’”7
On November 27, the various levels of the rebel command initiated a brisk round of correspondence about the defence of New York’s frontiers. Governor Clinton wrote to General Heath from Poughkeepsie about the imminent expiration of the New York Levies’ terms of service. As it was usual for Continental regiments to replace the Levies over the winter, he asked what arrangements were in train, in case some strategic plan should prevent adequate coverage along the frontiers and make it necessary for him to keep the Levies in service:
For although we have not to apprehend any formidable body of the enemy on our frontiers in the course of the winter, yet they have seldom failed visiting us with small parties, sufficient to annoy these posts, should they find them abandoned or possessed only by the neighbouring inhabitants & desolate the country. The raising of Levies at this season will be attended with a great expence & difficulty and an additional consumption of our provisions & stores. I, therefore, sincerely wish it might be avoided & I would fain hope that such a disposition may be made of the army as to render it unnecessary.