[siebert] the AMERICAN LOYALISTS 25 



pleting the devastation of the Scoharie and Mohawk country above 

 Schenectady, Sh- John retreated to Carleton Island in the River St. 

 Lawrence near Lake Ontario, thence returning to his headquarters at 

 Montreal at the end of October.* 



Simultaneously with these movements of Sir John, and partly as a 

 diversion in his favour, operations were carried on against the settle- 

 ments south of Lake George and those on the upper Connecticut. The 

 parties engaged in these operations were sent out from St. Johns at the 

 end of September, 1780, under Majors Carleton and Houghton,! and 

 are said to have comprised more than a thousand men, including regular 

 troops, loyalists and Indians. The Lake George region was the scene 

 of Carleton's activities, and supplied a considerable number of loyalist 

 families who accompanied this officer back to Crown Point after his 

 destruction of Fort George. To bring in these loyalists, who appear 

 to have gathered "from different parts of the country," batteaux were 

 sent to Carleton at Miller's Bay (probably Mill Bay) in the latter part 

 of October. X During the following month, refugee families and recruits 

 continued to arrive at St. Johns, whence Major Carleton wrote to 

 Haldimand, November 26, of the expected return of Ensign McDonell 

 with a collection of families" he had been sent for, numbering "about 

 230 souls." " 



The success of these expeditions in rescuing loyalists, while not 

 uniform, cannot be gainsaid. Nevertheless, the results thus attained 

 are not comparable with the results secured through the activities 

 of the small scouting and recruiting parties that were constantly de- 

 spatched into the enemy's country from the frontier posts up to the 

 very close of the Revolution. The incentive to these recruiting 

 activities lay, of course, in the presence of the loyalist corps in Canada. 

 As long as the ranks of these corps remained unfilled or suffered deple- 

 tion, men were needed to fill them. By employing all the means at 

 his command, that is, by enlisting such fugitives as presented themselves, 

 by sending out recruiting parties, and by conducting rescue expeditions, 

 Sir John Johnson had made such rapid progress in organizing his first 

 battalion that as early as 1778, he felt justified in asking Haldimand's 

 permission to form a second.^ But on account of various difficulties 

 the matter hung fire until Sir John delivered the hundred and fifty 

 loyalists from Johnstown, New York, in May, 1780. Apparently in 

 recognition of this success. Governor Haldimand added the desired 



*Can. Arch., 1888, 652. 



flbid., 1887, 351; Stone, Border Wars of the Am. Rev., II. 130. 



ican. Arch., 1887, 352. 



* Ibid., 354. 



" Can. Arch., 1888, 648. 



