[FN] Stone's Burgoyne, pp. 92, 343, 344.
Assuming that this was the spot in question, the "Half-Way Brook" post was a factor in bringing on the surrender at Saratoga, for Burgoyne's Council of War, held Oct. 13, 1777, on being informed "that the enemy was entrenched at the fords of Fort Edward and likewise occupied the strong position on the Pine Plains between Fort George and Fort Edward," decided a retreat was impossible and an honorable capitulation should be considered.
According to Art. IX of the Saratoga "Convention," "All Canadians and persons connected with the Canadian Establishment," "Independent Companies" (which included the Tories) and miscellaneous followers of the army were to be conducted by the shortest route to the first British post on Lake George, under the same conditions of surrender as the regular troops. Pursuant to this agreement, soon after the capitulation on the morning of October 17th, the defeated Royalists, under escort of a guard of American soldiers, were marched to the "Half-Way Brook" on their way to Canada, and from there allowed to pursue their journey to their homes unmolested. [FN]
[FN] Public Papers Gov. George Clinton, Vol. IX, pp. 421, 422.
During 1780, the old military road was infested with roving bands of Tories and Indians. The last massacre of which history has record occurred in June or July of this year, when a man by the name of Koon, from Kingsbury, and three laborers, on their way to Fort George, were found dead and scalped on the highway near the "Half-Way Brook." [FN]
[FN] Holden's Queensbury, p. 477.
In the fall of 1780, Major Christopher Carleton of the 29th Regiment, with about twelve hundred men, regulars, Tories and Indians, made his historic raid through Kingsbury and Queensbury, capturing Fort Ann on the 10th of October, and Fort George on the following day. At this time, all the buildings and structures in Kingsbury and Queensbury, in the path of the raid, were destroyed by fire by the enemy, causing 1780 to go down in local annals as "the year of the great burning."