I am heartily ashamed. Gavin K. Watt
James Rogers, Robert’s brother, during Carleton’s raid of 1780 and St. Leger’s expedition of 1781, as well as the Rangers’ performance on Secret Service, garrison, and marine duties. As it was now unlikely that James’s small battalion would be recalled to New York City or sent to Nova Scotia, the governor had decided to make the best of the situation and officially recognize them. He continued:
The Impossibility of Messrs Jessup and Peters compleating separate Corps is evident from their unsuccessful Endeavours during four years, in which time, the former has got together no more than 127 Men, and the latter only 82 — These two Corps will therefore be formed into one, including Lieut. Fraser’s Men, which will compose a Body of about 260 Men these to be formed into Six Companies consisting of one Major, five Captains, six Lieutenants and Six Ensigns — to be completed to 3 Serjeants, 3 Corporals, 2 Drummers and 50 Private Men each — The Officers to be chosen from each Corps, and to Rank according to the number of Men they have raised, provided there are no other material Objections to their Appointment, and they will receive full Pay from the dates of their Commissions. This Corps will be augmented by as many Companies as can be raised, and the Officers will be appointed from the Supernumerary, or Pension, List according as they shall raise Men.
Putative officers’ button of the King’s and Loyal Rangers.
The Invalid States of Messrs Ebinezer Jessup and Peters Healths render them incapable of active Service, they will be removed to the Company of Pensioners, upon their present subsistence the Command of which to be given to one of these Gentlemen — and to insure to them His Majesty’s gracious Bounty of Half Pay, they will be mustered as belonging to the Corps formed, should it be completed only to nine Companies, in confirmation of which, Letters will be given to them from His Excellency the Commander-in-Chief. Mr. Edward Jessup’s robust Constitution, his Personal Activity, Merit and Experience having served last war, are Circumstances which render Him a fit Person to command the above mentioned Corps, with the Rank and Pay of Major.15
Peters was devastated by this decision and later wrote:
The cruel degrading change was worked while I was at Skenesborough, where I had been sent by Gen. Haldimand with a flag and rebel prisoners, with a view to gain intelligence from the Southern Army, which I performed and reported to him. On my return to Quebec I complained to the General of the hard measures he had dealt out to me by degrading me below those who had been under my command in 1777; nor did I understand why I was invalided. Mr. Mathews, a secretary to Gen. Haldimand, gave me for answer I had a wife and eight children and I might starve if refused captain’s pay; besides I should not be allowed rations if I refused. My subsistence money being stopped, I was obliged to accept the pay of a captain … or perish with my family. My son John, the oldest ensign in the Queen’s Loyal Rangers, was neglected by Gen. Haldimand when he drafted the Provincial corps in Canada, and a son of Major Jessup’s[,] quite a boy, who had never done any service, was appointed lieutenant over my son and all the ensigns who had served during the war.
Peters’s cause had in no way been helped by his former major, Zadock Wright, refusing to accept an exchange and rejoin his corps after three years’ absence. Whether Eben Jessup shared Peters’s outrage has not been determined; however, he had virtually retired from active duty and the governor’s decision in his regard was more understandable. Besides, it was his elder brother who was favoured with command of the new regiment.
The summary continued:
Captain [Robert] Leake’s Corps will be incorporated with Sir John Johnson’s second Battalion, together with about 24 Men who will probably attach themselves to Mr. [James] McAlpin, having belonged to the late Major McAlpin’s Corps. The Remainder of which, are claimed by Mr. [Peter] Drummond and others, and may be thrown into Sir John Johnson’s second Battalion or Major Jessup’s Corps.
There are 21 Men of Captn Leake’s Corps who were raised by a Lieutenant [Henry] Ruyter now serving in it — as he is not nominated for Sir John’s second Battalion, he will expect that his men continue with Him to whatever Corps he shall be placed — On the other Hand, there are about the same number mustered in Mr. Peters’s Corps, claimed by Mr. [Jeremiah] French who will accompany Him to Sir John’s second Battalion, in which he is nominated a Lieutenant.
The Supernumerary Officers, and all those Subsisted in the Company of Pensioners who are able to carry Arms, are to serve as Voluntiers upon all occasions where their Service may be required, until such Time as they shall be entitled to Commissions by raising their Proportions of Men for the Augmentation of Major Jessup’s Corps.
A company of artificers was later formed from Jessup’s new corps to work with the Engineers, but its men continued to be mustered and subsisted in the companies they were drawn from.16
On October 28, a Brunswick surgeon named Julius Wasmus noted that the fall fleet, composed of two hundred transports and an escort of six frigates, lay in the basin at Quebec City ready to sail for Britain.17
Still angered by the revelations of fraudulent misspending in the Six Nations’ Indian Department, Haldimand wrote to Major Arent DePeyster at Detroit on November 1 to express his annoyance that the pursuit of the Virginia rebel, George Rogers Clark (who had enjoyed so much success in prior years on the far western frontier), had been abandoned “owing to the caprice of the Indians in dispersing at the time their assistance was most wanted to give an ultimate blow to the enterprise and hopes of Mr. Clark in that country.” He continued in full torrent:
Southeast view of the basin of Quebec. Surgeon Wasmus observed two hundred transports and an escort of six warships assembled on this body of water ready to sail to Britain.
But this conduct has been uniformly their system, and notwithstanding the treasure which has been, I must say from their conduct, thrown away upon them this year, it appears that no more than one hundred could be brought to action, and those from the influence and under the direction of Joseph, a Six Nations Chief. If even as many more and the Company of Rangers had joined that party, Mr. Clarke’s fate would have been decided … and in the meantime, you will have perpetual demands for assistance, equipment, &c, to oppose incursions upon the Indian villages…. [T]hose Indians who distinguish themselves with Brant should be well rewarded from the donations intended for those who have not so well deserved them.18
The governor was clearly already primed for the complaints he would soon receive from Major Ross when he returned from his arduous expedition.
The same day that Haldimand wrote his angry letter to DePeyster about the Lakes’ and Ohio Indians, he had Mathews deliver a tough message to John Butler:
I am directed … to acquaint you that however sensible His Excellency is of and desirous to reward Captain [Walter] Butler’s merits, he cannot, in justice to the Army, promote him to the rank of Major over the heads of so many elder and more experienced officers, and to the Service commit to his care and direction the economy and discipline of a young Corps, a task so arduous that Officers possessed of approved military knowledge and long experience without entering into a detail of the many requisites, find it difficult and are very fortunate when they accomplish it. Could His Excellency get over the first difficulty, he appeals to yourself … whether a young Corps now complete to ten companies, and to be recommended to His Majesty, should be delivered up to the direction of (allowing him every possible merit to be derived from his experience) a very young Officer. Or whether it would be more for the advantage of the Service (which is His Excellency’s chief care), and of the Corps (which is yours), to find out some officer of experience in every respect, or as nearly as can be found, qualified to take upon him that very serious charge. Such a person, His Excellency is now looking out for. He thinks it still more necessary as there are so few of your Officers who have been brought up in the Army and consequently require themselves instruction.
Mathews’s