Accompanying this letter were several pages of memoranda, in the same hand-writing, giving particular information upon every point which the enemy could desire. The deplorable situation of Albany, and the whole Mohawk country, was described; the temper of the people in the towns around Albany and elsewhere set forth; the strength of the main army in the Highlands given with all necessary accuracy; and the mission of Ethan Allen to Albany, and the probable defection of Vermont, announced. Indeed, the character of these communications showed but too plainly that treason was deeply and extensively at work, and that the enemy was, beyond doubt, correctly advised of the true situation of the country. [FN]
[FN] See Appendix, No. II.
Under all these circumstances of internal and external danger—with but slender garrisons at the points of greatest exposure, and those so miserably provided that the soldiers were deserting by dozens, showing dispositions not equivocal of going over to the enemy—without provisions or the means of procuring them, and scarcely knowing whom to trust among their own people, lest the disaffection should prove to be even more extensive than recent disclosures had taught the officers to suppose,—the Spring of 1781 may well be counted as the darkest period of the revolution. Had it not been for the gleams of light shooting up from the south, all indeed would have been sullen blackness, if not despair. But the truth of the homely adage, that the darkest hour is always just before day, received a glorious illustration before the close of the year. "Accustomed to contemplate all public events which might grow out of the situation of the United States, and to prepare for them while at a distance, the American chief was not depressed by this state of affairs. With a mind happily tempered by nature and improved by experience, those fortunate events which had occasionally brightened the prospects of his country, never relaxed his exertions or lessened his precautions; nor could the most disastrous state of things drive him to despair." [FN] Fortunately, in the Clintons and their associate officers at the north, the American Commander had subordinates possessing in no small degree the same great characteristics. Every possible precaution against lurking treason within, was taken, and every practicable means of preparation means of preparation and defence against invasion from abroad, was adopted.
[FN] Marshall.
Anticipating, from the presence of the enemy at Ticonderoga, that Tryon county might again be attacked from that direction by the way of the Sacondaga, Captain John Carlisle was despatched into the settlements of New Galway, Peasley, and Ballston, accompanied by Captain Oothout and a small party of Indians, to make prisoners of certain persons suspected of disaffection to the American cause, and to remove all the families from those towns to the south side of the Mohawk river. About sixty families were thus removed, and all the suspected persons arrested. The Captain, in his report of the expedition, gave a deplorable account of the poverty of the people. He could scarcely procure subsistence for his party during his mission. On arriving at Ballston, however, he drew more liberally upon the stores of the disaffected, and then arrested them. But their disposition, Captain Oothout was glad to inform the Commissioners, was such as to "prevent his setting fire to their houses agreeably to the letter of his orders." [FN] Happily these measures of precaution, and the other preparations, were for that time unnecessary—the enemy, if he was in actual force at Crown Point or Ticonderoga, not then venturing another invasion from that quarter.
[FN] Manuscripts of Gen. Clinton. Indeed, the materials for this whole section of the northern history of the Spring of 1781, have principally been drawn from the Clinton papers, so often referred to.
But the Mohawk Valley was continually harassed by the Indians and Tories—even to the very precincts of the stockades and other small fortifications. The spirit of the people had in a great measure been crushed, and the militia broken down, during the repeated invasions of the preceding year. The Rev. Daniel Gros, [FN] writing to General Clinton from Canajoharie, upon the importance of having at least a small detachment of regular troops at Fort Rensselaer, observed—"It would serve to bring spirit, order, and regularity into our militia, where authority and subordination have vanished. If it should last a little longer, the shadow of it will dwindle away; and perhaps the best men in the state will be useless spectators of all the havoc the enemy is meditating against the country. The militia appears to me to be a body without a soul. Drafts from the neighboring counties, even of the levies under their own commanders, will not abate the fatal symptoms, but rather serve to produce a monster with as many heads as there are detachments." Having no other defenders than such as are here described, with the exception of a few scattered companies, or rather skeletons of companies, at the different posts extending along the Valley, the prospect of the opening Summer was indeed gloomy—more especially when men's thoughts reverted to the sufferings of the past. Nor were the inhabitants encouraged to expect any considerable reinforcements from head-quarters, since the Commander-in-chief, in concert with the Count de Rochambeau, was again evidently preparing for some enterprise of higher moment than the defence of those remote settlements against any force that could be brought down upon them from the north.