10 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



Canada does not appear."'-' At any rate, Peters tells Haldimand that 

 in September he mustered 317 men at Saratoga;! doubtless that num- 

 ber included the contingent brought in there by Gershom French, 

 which was incorporated with Peter's corps. It probably also included 

 whatever remained of Captain Justus Sherwood's company of Tories, 

 for Sherwood, who had entered Canada in 1776, had raised a com- 

 pany and served under Peters throughout the campaign, returning 

 to Canada immediately after the Convention. + 



* During the battle of Bennington, Burgoyne and his main army 

 were at Ft. Edward, where they remained until September 13. On 

 that and the following day the}^ crossed to Ft. Miller on the west side 

 of the Hudson, being accompanied by the loyalist companies and corps. 

 It was, indeed, from the corps of Peters, Jessup, McAlpin, and Mackay 

 that Burgoyne supplied the losses of his regiments of the line after an 

 engagement with the Congress troops at Bemis Heights, September 19, 

 ordering the transfer of a hundred and twenty "men of tried bravery 

 and fidelit}'^" for this purpose.* That the loyalists suffered in this 

 encounter is indicated by Peters' statement of heavy losses from certain 

 companies of his own militia regiment, which had joined him. Lieu- 

 tenant Colonel Kingston, who served as Burgoyne' s adjutant and secre- 

 tary, testified before the committee of inquiry of the House of Commons 

 that at the opening of the campaign, July 1, there were no more than 

 eighty-three provincials in the army, exclusive of Canadian troops, 

 and that two months later they had increased to six hundred and eighty, 

 their maximum number, according to his statement.^ Burgoyne. 

 writing to Lord George Germaine from his camp at Skenesborough, 

 July 11, after mentioning the battalions of Peters and Jessup as being 

 still "in embryo but very promising," said that "some hundreds of men, 

 a third part of them with arms," had joined him since penetrating to 

 that place; that some wished to serve to the end of the war and some 

 for the campaign only, and that he had not hesitated to receive them. ' 

 Skenesborough was one of the earlier camps, but we know that loyalists 

 did not cease coming in after that point was reached. There are 

 reasons for supposing that some did not continue long with the expedi- 

 tion; but on the other hand, many more served Burgoyne nobly on 

 the battlefield, as we have seen. Nevertheless, after the destruction 

 of Baum's force, the British Commander began to disparage the loyalists 



♦Haldimand Papers H. 167, pp. 17-19. 



tibid., B. 21.5, p. 210. 



Jlbid., B. 228, p. 107; Second Report Bureau of Archives, Pt. II., 218. 



*Burgoyne's Orderly Book, 116; Kingsford, History of Canada, VI., 249, 250. 



"Burgoyne, State of the Expedition, 97, 113, ap. li. 



' Burgoyne, State of the Expedition, ap. xxxvi, xxxvii. 



