I am heartily ashamed. Gavin K. Watt
and took command at Detroit that October.
As to affairs at Niagara, sometime during the fall, a dissatisfied clerk employed by the trading company of Forsyth and Taylor reported that the government was being robbed of vast sums. The company had been Colonel Guy Johnson’s major supplier for the Six Nations’ Indian Department (6NID), particularly when supplies from Britain ran short. The trading partners were arrested and ordered down to Montreal and Guy was instructed to follow with his account books.
All of Haldimand’s suspicions about the superintendent’s lack of acumen and managerial skill were confirmed during the interminable investigation. In the meantime, the sick and grieving father, John Butler, who was the department’s deputy agent at Niagara and the commander of Butler’s Rangers, once again assumed Johnson’s responsibilities.9
On October 20, Brigadier Henry Watson Powell, Niagara District’s commandant, reported news from Major Arent DePeyster, 8th Regiment, the senior military officer at Detroit. Butler’s Ranger captain, Andrew Thompson, had fallen overboard and drowned in Lake Erie en route to Niagara. Not mentioned was the fact that Thompson had quarreled with the vessel’s master and, in a furious attack, was fended off and tumbled overboard to his death. It was an ignominious end to a gallant loyalist officer who had performed such good service in the 1780 October expedition and on detachment in the west in 1781.
Powell reported that Lieutenant Richard Wilkinson, 6NID, was desirous of succeeding Thompson and, “with the greatest pleasure,” forwarded his pretensions “knowing him to be an active, good Officer that Colonel Butler is desirous to have in his Corps.” The brigadier was unaware that Wilkinson had displeased the governor when he earlier quit the Royal Yorkers on what — in Haldimand’s view — was the slim pretense of family affairs.
The report ended with the advice that Butler had sent Captain Caldwell and twenty-five men to Detroit to relieve Thompson’s company. This was all that could be spared, as the commitment to Ross’s expedition was so great.10
In a similar fashion, ordinary military business had continued at the rebels’ northern posts. Just days before Ross struck, Lieutenant-Colonel Marinus Willett, the officer responsible for the defence of the Mohawk region, reported to his political master, Governor George Clinton, that he had received advice about the pay, subsistence, and clothing for his regiment of Levies and a handful of three-years’ men, but there was no word about how they would be mustered. He noted that regulations required that every brigade have a Commissary of Muster, but, as his regiment was not brigaded, he had no one to turn to and earnestly requested the appointment of a major of Levies. The governor complied by appointing a major to muster and inspect the Levies in the valley and arranged for a New Hampshire captain at Saratoga to muster those Levies stationed there.
On October 23, the governor attended the state legislature at Poughkeepsie to remind the assembly that the terms of their regiments of Levies were about to expire and that a new arrangement would be required for the upcoming year. He suggested revising the law for raising three-years’ men on land bounties, as the officers of the current Levies believed that, if further time was allowed and a small additional bounty granted, a number of recruits might be obtained from amongst their men.11
Only a few weeks remained of open navigation when Haldimand made the facile observation in a letter to Germain dated October 22 that Quebec was no longer in danger of invasion for the present campaign. He also agreed with the secretary’s observations that, while offensive operations in the south occupied the Allies’ attention and, as long as Vermont could be prevented from taking an active part, no serious attempt would be made against Quebec, which made his earlier concerns about an attack even less understandable. As to the offensives he was expected to mount, he wrote:
I have always Sent Detachments upon the Frontiers of the Rebel Provinces to alarm the Country and destroy Supplies — These Continued Excursions have so desolated the Settlements and driven in the Inhabitants, that it now becomes necessary for Parties to penetrate so far into the Country, to have any Effect, as to endanger their Safety, every Peasant being now a soldier, and prepared to assemble on the Shortest notice which was Experienced upon Sir John Johnson’s last Excursion to the Mohawk River, from whence his Retreat became difficult & hazardous, & if vigorously opposed would have been very fatal.
The governor then addressed the subject of Colonel Guy Johnson, which had “occasioned to me more uneasiness than I have words to Express.” He had concluded from the tone of Germain’s correspondence that the secretary and the King believed his removal of Johnson was the result of a personal vendetta:
I should be the most unhappy man living, could I suppose His Majesty, or Your Lordship thought my Conduct in that Affair actuated by an unhandsome motive, or any other than that alone which intirely occupies my thoughts & directs my actions, the Good of the Kings Service & the Welfare and happiness of his Subjects entrusted to my Direction — Your Lordship may Depend I shall on all future occasions most punctually Observe His Majestys Commands Conveyed to me in Your Lordship’s Letter, and I firmly Rely on His Majesty’s Justice so strongly Expressed by Your Lordship that he will never Condemn any man unheard, or act upon any Information he may Receive relative to the Province in which I Command, without giving me an Opportunity of Submitting my Sentiments to the Royal Consideration.
As to the great difficulties of controlling Indian Department expenses, he intended “to reduce them more to Method and render them less obscure.”
The next day, the governor wrote a secret dispatch to Germain to advise that he had just received the secretary’s information of May 4, to wit — that the French Court intended to dissuade Congress from any attempt on Canada until all the king’s troops were driven from the thirteen colonies. Germain had recommended that Haldimand co-operate with Sir Henry Clinton by sending a large force to Vermont to encourage their declaration for his majesty and he was able to report that this measure was already in train.
In a second dispatch, he duplicated his private letter of July 8 and added up-to-date information about his Vermont negotiations, including an explanation of the rationale behind the proclamation he had sent with St. Leger:
Guy Johnson habitually put the wrong foot forward in his dealings with Governor Haldimand, which ultimately led to his removal as the senior Indian superintendent.
The very Strong assurances of Sincerity Made, by the agents of Vermont in this Business in Behalf of the Governor, part of the Council, and the obvious difficulties they represent in the Way of a Sudden Revolution Where the Prejudice of a People is So Violent, demand some Credit and Attention, and in a great Measure have removed my Suspicions of the Sincerity of Allen’s Party…. The Prejudice of a great Majority of the Populace, and the Prevailing Influence of Congress are too powerful to admit of a Sudden Change by negotiation. The Leading Men who profess themselves in the King’s Interest advised as a last Resource, My Issuing a Proclamation Confirming to Vermont the late assumed Territory, and Other Privileges … thinking that from a Late Refusal of these by Congress, the Populace May be inclined to accept of Terms from Government.
The Crisis is arrived when Some Serious Measures must be taken with Vermont, their Strength & Influence is growing Rapidly, and the Congress are upon the Point of according to their Demands — In So Critical a Juncture I most Sensibly Feel the Want of Particular Instructions, fearing on one Side to Let an opportunity escape, which May never be recalled, and on the Other, taking upon My Self a Decision of Such Importance as is proposed in my Proclamation…. How far Incroachments by Vermont on New York and New Hampshire May Affect Future Politicks, I know not — at present, I conceive them indiscriminately engaged in Rebellion, and if a Reunion of the Most Valuable of them with the Mother Country Cannot be effected by any other means than by Sacrifising the Interest of one to another, I consider it My Duty to Make the Attempt … But if nothing