26 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



second battalion to the King's Royal Regiment of New York, placing 

 it under Johnson's command, with Captain John Ross as major.* This 

 action was taken in the latter part of July. As the death of Major 

 Daniel McAlpin, adjutant of the several provincial corps at Sorel, 

 occurred at this time, his men were encouraged to join Sir John's 

 regiment,! and probably many of them entered the second battalion. Î 

 It is also probable that the men enrolled by Jeremiah French were in- 

 corporated with this battalion.* By the end of November, Sir John 

 was able to make the assertion that he had enlisted "upwards of 

 a thousand men," meaning, doubtless, from the beginning of the war.' 

 Meanwhile, a pai't of the second battalion under Major Ross, 

 Captain Robert Leake's Independent Company from Sorel, and other 

 troops were sent to Carleton Island." In September, 1781, Ross received 

 instructions concerning an intended expedition to the Mohawk River 

 and frontiers of Pennsylvania, in which he and his forces were to par- 

 ticipate in connection with troops and Indians from Niagara.' Toward 

 the end of the same month, Haldimand wrote to inform Sir Henry 

 Clinton of this incursion, explaining that it was partly to coerce Vermont 

 into loyalty and partly to "afford loyalists an opportunity to escape 

 from the oppression they labour under. "^ On October 4th, Ross with 

 two hundred and fifty troops and about sixty Indians, according to 

 an official report of the time, left Carleton Island for Oswego, where 

 he was joined by the contingent from Niagara under Captain Walter 

 N. Butler, with but few Indians and these of such a character that 

 Ross described them as "the refuse of different tribes." ® From Oswego 

 the march inland began on the 11th, and was accompanied by the usual 

 devastation of the enemy's country until Johnstown was reached on 

 the 25th, when Colonel Willett and his Continentals engaged the invaders 

 and forced them to retreat. It was during this retreat that Walter 

 Butler was killed, and Lieutenant Dockstedder, another loyalist, met 



*Can. Arch., 1888, 663, 665, 723; 1887, 444. 

 tri)i<l., 1888, 665, 661; 1887, 442. 

 Jlbid., 1888, 653, 655. 



* Ibid., 670, 699. 



« Can. Arch., 1888, 653. 



• Ibid., 667. 



^ Ibid., 1887, 248, 249. 



« Ibid., 553. 



' Ibid., 283, 284. The numbers given by Stone and Campbell are much larger 

 than those (juoted above: Stone says the expedition consisted of "four companies of 

 the second battalion . . ., Colonel Butler's rangers, under the direction of Major 

 Butler, his son, and two hundred Indians; numbering in all, about one thousand 

 men, under the command of Major Ross." {Border Wars of the Am. Rev., IL, 168). 

 Campbell reduces the number to 607 men, "477 British and Tories, and 130 

 Indians." {Border Warfare of New York, 208.) 



