[cruikshank] from ISLE AUX NOIX TO CHATEAUGUAY 169 



accomplished that day and Dearborn encamped at Rouse's Point. 

 A report that ten thousand men were advancing by the Odelltown road 

 reached de SaLaberry at St. Phihppe next morning. The outposts 

 on the Lacolle river were strongly reinforced. Troops from Laprairie 

 were moved forward to L'Acadie, St. Philippe and St. Pierre. The 

 Montreal brigade composed of two companies of the Royal Scouts, 

 seven of the 8th or King's Regiment, five of the Glengarry Light In- 

 fantry, four of the Montreal Volunteer Militia, the Fifth Battalion of 

 Embodied militia, Piatt's troop of volunteer cavalry and a brigade of 

 light artillery under the command of Colonel Baynes crossed to La- 

 prahie and the town guard was taken over by the 1st Battalion of Mon- 

 treal militia. 



For three days Dearborn's force remained inactive. If his scouts 

 crossed the frontier during that time they must have evaded observa- 

 tion. On the morning of November 20, Captain William McKay of 

 the corps of voyageurs, who was officer of the day at Lacolle, went for- 

 ward as usual shortly before daybreak to visit the outlying piquet on 

 the edge of the woods near Odelltown. This piquet consisted of twenty- 

 four men of the 1st Battalion of Embodied Militia and fifteen Indians 

 under Captain Bernard Panet. As McKay approached its post, he 

 distinctly heard a body of men fording the stream and voices of others 

 moving about in the woods and cocking their muskets. He hastened 

 forward to give the alarm. The piquet had liarely time to turn out 

 when a volley was discharged at such close range that it set fire to the 

 roof of the guard hut but did no further injury. The men of the piquet 

 fired a few shots in reply and then made their escape so quickly and 

 quietly in the darkness that it was unobserved by their assailants 

 who had already fallen into considerable confusion. 



The American troops detailed to surprise the British outposts 

 on this occasion was divided into two separate and independent columns, 

 one composed of the regiments of regular infantry commanded by Colo- 

 nels Pike and Clark, who were considered their ablest officers, and a 

 troop of cavalry, numbering in all about six hundred and fifty men; 

 the other consisting of thiee hundred volunteers and militia, selected 

 with great care and including a considerable part of the battalion 

 lately engaged in the successful raid on St. Regis. Having advanced 

 by different roads they came into collision, each column mistaking 

 the other for the enemy in the dark. They kept up a brisk fire until 

 daylight when he mistake was discovered. Meanwhile the guard- 

 house had been entirely destroyed by the flames and the inmates, 

 if they had not perished in it, as Pike at first surmised, had utterly 

 vanished. The men of both columns were greatly fatigued by their 

 night march and dispirited by its outcome. Pike accordingly deter- 



