Washington observed in a letter to Congress: “My reason for pointing out Prescott as the object who is to suffer for Allen’s fate, is that I am given to understand that Prescott is the cause of Allen’s sufferings. I thought best to be decisive on the occasion, as did the generals whom I consulted thereon.”
Shortly afterwards, Washington received a letter from Levi Allen, a brother to the Colonel, and of like enterprising and enthusiastic character. It was dated from Salisbury, Connecticut, and enclosed affidavits of the harsh treatment his brother had experienced, and of his being confined on board of the Gaspé, “with a bar of iron fixed to one of his legs, and iron to his hands.” Levi proposed to go to England, where he supposed his brother was, raise a mob and set him free, bribe the jailor, or in some way deliver him from confinement. Washington kindly advised against Levi’s wild project. The measure of retaliation was actually meted out to Prescott, of which Washington spoke in his letter to Howe.
The efforts of Washington and Congress to effect the exchange of Ethan Allen, “the brave, but eccentric captor of Ticonderoga,” were meritorious. The daring exploits of that chieftain had cost him a world of trouble. “Thrown into prison as a felon; threatened with a halter; carried to England to be tried for treason; confined in Pendennis Castle; retransported to Halifax; and now a prisoner in New York.” He writes: “I have suffered everything short of death. I am fired with adequate indignation to revenge both my own and my country’s wrongs. I am experimentally certain I have fortitude sufficient to face the invaders of America in the place of danger, spread with all the horrors of war. Provided you can hit upon some measure to procure my liberty, I will appropriate my remaining days, and freely hazard my life in the service of the colony, and maintaining the American Empire. I thought to have enrolled my name in the list of American heroes, but was nipped in the bud.”
Allen was finally exchanged for Colonel Campbell, after three years of captivity. Washington, in a letter recommending that something be done for him, observes: “His gratitude and firmness seemed to have placed him out of the reach of misfortune. There is an original something about him that commands admiration, and his long captivity and sufferings have only served to increase, if possible, his enthusiastic zeal. He appears very desirous of rendering his services to the States, and of being employed; and at the same time he does not discover any ambition for high rank.” On the strength of this recommendation, Congress voted Allen a brevet commission of Colonel.
Montgomery, during his campaign in Canada, retained Colonel Warner and his regiment of Green Mountain Boys, who contributed their services to the downfall of the strongholds of Chamblee, St. Johns, and Montreal; having served out the time for which they had enlisted, they were dismissed and returned home.
In 1776, soon after the death of Montgomery at the storming of Quebec, the Hampshire Grants raised a second regiment under Colonel Warner, which marched to Quebec, and gave essential relief to the besieging army of that place. At the beginning of May the siege was raised in consequence of the bad state of health of the troops, and the arrival of reinforcements from England. General Sullivan conducted the retreat in a masterly manner; the army arrived at Crown Point in due time, in a deplorable state.
CHAPTER IX.
ESTABLISHMENT OF A CIVIL GOVERNMENT.
This disastrous retreat exposed the frontiers of the Grants to an invasive war; most of the inhabitants of Onion River and along the shore of Lake Champlain instantly removed, and the militia was organized for the general defense. Internal dissensions were rife regarding the establishment of a civil government. Some were for joining with New Hampshire; others were in favor of forming a new state; and a few proposed uniting with New York during the war; but this last too much effected the title to lands to be seriously considered.
Vermont was likely to be devastated as a common battle-ground; yet the people met in Convention at Dorset, January, 1776, and drew up a petition to Congress, in which they declared their readiness to furnish their quota of men in support of the war, and bearing an equal proportion of the expense, and asked that their rights might be secured them. Congress recommended that they submit to the authority of New York for the present, and assist their countrymen in the contest with Great Britain.
Colonel Allen being in captivity, Baker dead, Warner, Cockran, and others, engaged in the army, the Council of the New Hampshire Grants was greatly weakened, and months passed without any decisive results. The government of the province was conducted by committees and conventions as before the war, though the bitterness of the dispute with New York seemed to be lost in the common cause of the struggling colonies; for those who had been outlawed for high treason against the government of New York, now passed freely through that province.