* See Thompson's pretty fiction, "May Martin, or the Money-diggers."
** Seth Warner was born in Woodbury, Connecticut, about 1744. He moved to Bennington, Vermont, in 1773, and was noted for his skill in hunting. He and Ethan Allen were the leaders of the people of the New Hampshire Grants in their controversy with New York, and on the 9th of March, 1774, the Legislature of the latter province passed an act of outlawry against them. After the capture of Ticonderoga and Crown Point, he received a colonel's commission from the Continental Congress, and joined Montgomery in Canada. His regiment was discharged at St. John's, and, after the death of his general, he raised another body of troops and marched to Quebec. He covered the retreat of the Americans from Canada to Ticonderoga, was with the troops when they evacuated that post in 1777, and commanded the rear-guard that fought a severe battle at Hubbardton. He was one of General Starks's aids at the battle of Bennington, and then joined the army under Gates at Stillwater. His health soon afterward gave way, and he died at Woodbury in 1785, aged forty-one years. The state of Vermont gave his widow and children a valuable tract of land.—Allen's American Biography.
** On the day when Allen captured Ticonderoga, he sent a message to Captain Remember Baker, one of his colleagues in the violent boundary disputes between the New Yorkers and the people of the New Hampshire Grants, to join him at that post. Baker obeyed the summons, and when he was coming up the lake with his party, he met two small boats with British soldiers, going to St. John's with the intelligence of the reduction of Ticonderoga, and to solicit a re-enforcement of the garrison at Crown Point. Baker seized the boats, and with his prisoners arrived at the fort just in time to join Warner in taking posses non of it.—Sparks's Life of Ethan Allen.
Expeditions of Allen and Arnold against St. John's.—Preparations to oppose General Carleton on the Lake.
Arnold arrived at Ticonderoga the same evening, and on the 14th about fifty men, who had enlisted in compliance with his orders given by the way while hurrying on to Castleton to overtake Allen, arrived from Skenesborough, and brought with them the schooner which belonged to Major Skene. He manned this vessel instantly, armed it with some of the guns taken at the fort, and sailed down the lake to St. John's, on the Sorel. There he surprised and made prisoners the garrison, consisting of a sergeant and twelve men; captured a king's sloop with seven men; destroyed five bateaux; seized four others; put on board some of the valuable stores from the fort, and with his prisoners, and favored by a fair wind which had chopped around from south to north just as he had secured his prizes, he returned to Ticonderoga. Colonel Allen, with one hundred and fifty men in bateaux, started upon the same expedition, but Arnold's schooner outsailed the flat-boats, and Allen met him within fifteen miles of St. John's, returning with his prizes. Arnold was on board the king's sloop, where Allen visited him, and, after ascertaining the actual state of affairs, the latter determined to go on to St. John's and garrison the fort with about one hundred men. He landed just before night, marched about a mile toward Laprairie, and formed his men in ambush to attack an expected re-enforcement for the enemy. He soon learned that the approaching force was much larger than his own, and retired across the river, where he was attacked early in the morning by two hundred men. He fled to his boats and escaped to Ticonderoga, with a loss of three men taken prisoners. Thus within one week the strong fortresses of Ticonderoga and Crown Point, with all their dependencies upon the lake, were snatched from the British by the bold provincials, without their firing a gun or losing a man; and their little fleet upon the lake, their only strength left, was captured and destroyed in a day.
These events aroused General Carleton, the governor of Canada, and a re-enforcement of more than four hundred British and Canadians was speedily sent to St. John's. It was determined to send small water craft from Chambly and Montreal, to be armed and manned at St. John's; and other measures were planned for dispatching a sufficient force up the lake to recapture Ticonderoga and Crown Point. Tidings of these preparations soon reached the ears of Arnold, and afforded him an opportunity to sever his connection with Allen, so ill suited to his restless and ambitious spirit. A fleet to oppose the enemy was now necessary, and, having had some experience at sea in earlier life, Arnold assumed to be the commander of whatever navy should be fitted out. His assumption was not complained of, and he proceeded vigorously in arming and manning Skene's schooner, the king's corvette, and a small flotilla of bateaux. With these and about one hundred and fifty men, he took post at Crown Point to await the approach of the enemy. There he organized his little navy by the appointment of a captain and subordinate officers for each vessel. He mounted six carriage guns and twelve swivels in the sloop, and four carriage guns and eight swivels in the schooner He was also active in sending off the ordnance from Crown Point to the army at Cambridge, and at the same time he sent emissaries to Montreal and the Caughnawagas to sound the intentions of the Canadians and Indians, and ascertain what was the actual force under Carleton and the nature of his preparations. He also wrote to the Continental Congress in June, proposing a plan of operations whereby, he confidently believed, the whole of Canada might be conquered by two thousand men. He asserted that persons in Montreal had agreed to open the gates when a strong Continental force should appear before the city; assured Congress that Carleton had only five hundred and fifty effective men under him; and offered to lead the expedition and to be responsible for consequences. His representations were doubtless true, but Congress was not prepared to sanction such an expedition. Allen, in a letter dated Crown Point, June 2d, 1775, made a similar proposition to the Provincial Congress of New York. In the mean while letters had been sent from Ticonderoga to the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts, complaining of Arnold's arrogant assumptions, and otherwise dis-
Commission from Massachusetts.—Re-enforcements for the Lake Forts.—Regiment of Green Mountain Boys.
paraging his deeds. A committee of inquiry was appointed, who proceeded to Lake Champlain. Arnold was at Crown Point, acting as commandant of the fort and commodore of the navy, and, not suspecting the nature of their visit, he was enthusiastic in his discourse to them of his expected victories. The first intimation of their errand aroused Arnold's indignation; and when he fully understood the purport of their commission, he wrote them a formal letter of resignation, discharged his men, and returned to Cambridge, uttering loud complaints of ill usage by the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts. Thus ended the naval operations upon the lake in 1775.
When Ticonderoga and Crown Point were securely in the power of the provincials, Colonel Easton went to Massachusetts and Connecticut, and explained to the respective governments all the transactions connected with the reduction of these important posts. The Massachusetts Assembly wrote to Governor Trumbull of Connecticut, expressing their willingness to allow that colony all the honor, and to withhold all interference in future operations in that quarter. Trumbull immediately prepared to send a re-enforcement for the garrisons, of four hundred men. Meanwhile messages were sent to the Continental Congress, and, through courtesy, to the Provincial Congress of New York, within whose jurisdiction the fortresses were situated, to ascertain their views. The Continental Congress approved the measures of Governor Trumbull, and requested the Convention of New York to supply the troops with provisions. The four hundred men were immediately sent, under Colonel Hinman, who superseded Colonel Allen in the command at Ticonderoga. The latter, with Warner, set off for the Continental Congress at Philadelphia, to procure pay for their soldiers, whose terms had expired, and to solicit authority to raise a new regiment in Vermont. The appearance of these men occasioned a great sensation in Philadelphia, and they were introduced upon the floor of Congress, to make their communications to that body orally. Congress at once acquiesced in their wishes, granted the soldiers the same pay as was received by those of the Continental army, and recommended to the New York Convention that, after consulting General Schuyler, they should "employ in the army to be raised in defense of America those called Green Mountain Boys, under such officers as the said Green Mountain Boys should choose." This resolution was dispatched to the New York Convention, and thither Allen and Warner repaired, and obtained an audience. * The Assembly resolved that a regiment of Green Mountain Boys, consisting of seven companies, and not exceeding five hundred men in number, should be raised. The matter was referred to General Schuyler, who immediately notified the people of the New Hampshire Grants, and ordered them to raise the regiment. Allen and Warner were not members of the regiment, but soon afterward they both joined General Schuyler at Ticonderoga, where he wras stationed with about three thousand troops from New York and New England, August, 1775 preparatory to an invasion of Canada. Early in September Generals Schuyler and Montgomery sailed from Ticonderoga and Crown Point with their whole force, and appeared before St. John's, on the Sorel. Let us for a moment take a general view of affairs having a relation to the northern section of operations at this juncture and immediately antecedent thereto.
* The Assembly of New York was embarrassed when Allen and Warner appeared at the door of its hall and asked for admission, and a warm debate ensued. During the then recent controversy of the Legislature of New York with the people of the New Hampshire Grants, these men had been proclaimed outlaws, and that attainder had never been wiped off by a repeal. There were members of that body who had taken a very active part, personally, in the controversy, and they were unwilling to give their old enemies a friendly greeting. Their prejudices, and the scruples of others who could not recognize the propriety of holding public conference with men whom the law of the land had declared to be rioters and felons, produced a strong opposition to their admission to the hall. The debates were becoming very warm, when Captain Sears (the noted "King Sears") moved that "Ethan Allen be admitted to the floor of the House." It was carried by a very large majority, as was also a similar resolution in regard to Warner. Allen afterward wrote a letter of thanks to the New York Assembly, in which, after referring to the formation of the battalion of Green Mountain Boys, he concluded by saying, "I will be responsible that they will reciprocate this favor by boldly hazarding their lives, if need be, in the common cause of America."