[cruikshank] FROM ISLE AUX NOIX TO CHATEAUGUAY 71 



Hampton retired the same afternoon to Champlain and next day 

 began a leisurely march westward by a somewhat circuitous and diffi- 

 cult road through the woods along the left bank of the Little Chazy 

 river. ' Early on the morning of the 25th, when at Pomeroy's house, 

 only thirteen miles from the Four Corners, he received a letter from 

 Armstrong, dated at Sackett's Harbour on the 19th, asking him to 

 delay his movement for five or six days, as Wilkinson would certainly 

 be unable to leave Niagara before the 30th and warning him of a 

 rumour that Prévost was about to return to Montreal. Colonel 

 Atkinson, Inspector General of the division, was at once sent off 

 to give the Secretary the most complete information of the state of 

 the troops, whose "perfect rawness," Hampton wrote, "caused him 

 much anxiety." He also requested that the First Dragoons, then 

 marching from Utica to Ogdensburg, might be ordered to join him. 

 In his next letter, Armstrong warmly approved of the Four Corners 

 as a starting point. "Hold it fast till we approach you," he said. 

 He considered an advance by this route much preferable to the one 

 at first proposed as it wouul "ensure safety and concert," and added 

 that he was not disposed "to incur any risks by separate attacks when 

 combined ones are practicable and sure." In compliance with these in- 

 structions Hampton encamped at the Four Corners and remained there 

 awaiting further orders for twenty-six days. This time was employed 

 in training his troops, in cutting and improving a more direct road to 

 Plattsburg, and in bringing forward his artillery and provisions and 

 supplies for two months. 



To create a diversion and to terminate what he described as 

 "the shameful and corrupt neutrality on the lines," he directed 

 Colonel Clark, whom he had left in command at Burlington, to make 

 an incursion into Canada in the vicinity of Mississquoi Bay. 1 



Reports from different sources on the frontier were strongly 

 corroborated by a short message in cypher from Thomas Barclay, the 

 British agent for prisoners in New York city, stating that all the 

 regular troops stationed in the forts and garrisons on the seaboard 

 had been relieved by militia and placed under orders to march to 

 the seat of war on the lakes and that the most capable officers in the 

 army had been selected to command them. It was intended that 

 the invasion of Canada should be made simultaneously from three 

 directions at once, the frontier near Lake Champlain being named as 

 one of these bases. 2 



Prévost immediately decided to remove his own headquarters 

 from Kingston to Montreal, where he arrived on S eptember 25, 



1 Hampton to Armstrong, Oct. 4. 



2 Barclay to William Hamilton, Sept. 5. 



