[cruikshank] FROM ISLE AUX NOIX TO CHATEAUGUAY 75 



Major Joseph Powell. They had received so little training that he 

 declined to arm any but those actually detailed for guard duty. 

 Clark succeeded in surrounding the place before daybreak. The guard 

 took the alarm and fired a few shots which wounded two of his men. A 

 heavy volley was returned which killed one man and wounded three 

 of the guard. All resistance then ceased. Major Powell with five 

 other officers and eighty men surrendered. Only five escaped. The 

 arms and ammunition held in store for the use of that portion of 

 the battalion were taken. The prisoners were marched off to Bur- 

 lington and eventually sent to the depot at Greenbush with the object 

 of intimidating the remainder of the Canadian militia from serving 

 on the frontier. Bitter complaints were made by several of the in- 

 habitants that their houses had been broken open and pillaged. 



During the morning a much larger force, accompanied with three 

 pieces of artillery arrived in boats from Plattsburg under escort of 

 an armed sloop and two gunboats. Several hundred men were landed 

 with one field piece and marched to Philipsburg while foraging parties 

 were sent about to the neighbouring farms to drive off the horses and 

 cattle. They re-embarked before dark but were compelled to land 

 again by a high contrary gale of wind which prevented them from beat- 

 ing out of the narrow entrance of the bay. Their awkward predicament 

 was soon reported to Lieut. Colonel Weller at Isle aux Noix, who di- 

 rected Captain Pring to proceed to the mouth of the river while he 

 made ready a body of troops with some artillery for a combined attack. 

 Before permission for this operation was obtained from General 

 Sheaffe at Laprairie, the wind changed and enabled the raiders to 

 escape unharmed. The village store and several houses were plundered 

 by them. It seems almost certain that these depredations were com- 

 mitted with the connivance if not the open approval of the officers 

 in command in pursuance of the cynical instructions from General 

 Hampton "tô break the truce and should other means fail, to act the 

 part of the mischievous urchin, who, to get two peacable tabbies at 

 'making the fur fly' holds them together by the tail." 1 



A trifling night attack made a few nights before upon a piquet 

 of the Frontier Light Infantry near Odelltown irritated Major Per- 

 rault, the commandant of that post, to such a degree that he instantly 

 sent a written warning to the inhabitants of Champlain that if they 

 permitted any of the militia there stationed to cross the line, he 

 would make reprisals upon their village. This threat had the desired 

 effect. 2 



1 Hampton to Armstrong, Oct. 4; Kingston Gazette, Nov. 6; Weller to Sheaffe, 

 Oct. 12; Sheaffe to Freer, Oct. 13. 



2 Perrault to Judge Moore and the inhabitants of Champlain, Oct. 10. 



