"I am, Sir, Your most obedient, and Most humble servant, Chr. Carleton, Major 29th Reg't.
"Colonel Gansevoort.
"P. S. There being no idea of this business, the shipping went down some days ago. I find it will not be in my power to furnish more than five boats. Could not the boat I gave to carry up the last families, be sent down with these?" [FN]
[FN] These letters are contained among the Gansevoort papers, and have been copied from the originals by the author. The same papers, together with a letter from General Haldimand to Lord George Germaine, are likewise the author's authorities for the brief sketch of the expeditions of Carleton and Major Haughton.
No farther outrages were committed on the northern and western frontiers during that Autumn. The next information received of Brant and his associates, was brought to Fort Schuyler by a family of Oneidas who had been released from Niagara. They arrived at the Fort on the 6th of December. Colonel Weisenfeldts, then in command, caused the head Indian of the party, whose name was Jacob Reed, to be examined; and the whole examination was transmitted, as taken down by question and answer, to General Clinton. From this statement it appeared that Joseph Brant, Colonel Butler, and Colonel Guy Johnson, were then in their old winter-quarters at Niagara. Of the Oneida warriors only thirty-seven had been persuaded to join the royal cause; one of whom had been killed, and five others had returned with Reed. The forces at Niagara at this time were stated to be sixty British regulars, commanded by a captain; four hundred loyalists commanded by Colonel Butler, and twelve hundred Indians (including women and children,) commanded by Brant and Guy Johnson. One of the objects of the late expedition to the Mohawk was stated by Reed to be the destruction of Schenectady; but as they had not penetrated so far, Brant and Johnson were meditating another campaign. The prisoners taken from Stone Arabia, after reaching Niagara, had been shipped for Buck Island in the river St. Lawrence; but from the long absence of the vessel, and the fragments of a wreck, drums, furniture, &c., which had been washed ashore, it was believed that she had been lost, and that all on board had perished. Reed farther stated, that as soon as the snow was hard, Brant, with five or six hundred warriors, was coming to the Oneida country, in order to keep within a convenient distance for sending scouts down the Mohawk. One of their objects was to be at all times prepared for cutting off the supplies proceeding for the garrison of Fort Schuyler. The Indians at Niagara, according to Reed's account, were well provided with every thing they could desire. [FN-1] But it was far otherwise with Fort Schuyler at this time. The letters of General Schuyler were full of complaints, not only of the difficulty of procuring provisions, but also of forwarding them to the outposts. In one of his letters, written at that period, he said there was not flour enough in Fort Schuyler to suffice for a single day's consumption. [FN-2]
[FN-1] General Clinton's Manuscripts.
[FN-2] MSS. of General Schuyler.
Thus ended the Indian campaigns of the North for the year 1780. There were, indeed, other petty occurrences on the outskirts, alarms, and now and then a few shots exchanged with a straggling Indian or Tory scout. But no other occurrence of importance within the range of the present history, marked the winter then closely advancing. And never did winter spread his mantle over a scene of greater desolation than lay beneath it in the Valley of the Mohawk.