Justus sent von Riedesel a copy of his roster, showing only fifteen men at his post. The garrison then consisted of thirty-one men, five corporals, four sergeants, Ensigns John Dusenbury and Elijah Bothum, and Lieutenant Dulmage.10 Soon Mathews told Justus that he need not part with any of his men, but he did not get the extra ones he wanted. He had to ask the garrison to work longer hours and pay the men extra from his own funds.
All the while Justus struggled to balance his books. Supplies for the refugees were an added burden, and he was forever sending requests to Mathews for food and clothing. Many people arrived with little more than what they wore on their backs, needing emergency relief before going on to Fort St. Johns. Dr. Smyth was receiving people from the Mohawk Valley who were piloted by scouts to Pointe au Fer.
On May 9, 1782, Justus sent Captain Pritchard and seven men to kidnap General Jacob Bailey.11 Recent reports showed that he was against Governor Chittenden, and Haldimand ordered his removal. Pritchard was to visit resident agent Thomas Johnson in Newbury, not far from Bailey's home, to seek his advice. Returning on June 22, Pritchard reported that Bailey escaped by crossing the Connecticut River, but his party had kidnapped Bailey's son.12 Sherwood and Pritchard suspected that Johnson had warned Bailey, although Dr. Smyth pleaded that the man they had released was not a double agent.
That month Justus deputized Elijah Bothum to take a flag and forty-two prisoners and conduct an exchange at Skenesborough. Although the Vermont leaders had not suggested sending anyone in exchange for Terence Smyth, Justus released Lieutenant Michael Dunning, of the Vermont army, hoping to pacify the Herrick-Safford faction. When the list of prisoners sent back reached Haldimand, and he learned that Dunning had been exchanged for Terence Smyth, he sent a stiff reprimand to Justus. Dunning should have been exchanged for a commissioned officer, not a refugee civilian like Terence, even though he was Hudibras' son.13 Justus shrugged at the reproof. While there was a shred of hope that Vermont would reunite, anything was worth trying.
Then he received an order from Mathews, now back in Quebec City, to send some agents to see whether they could destroy Captain John Paul Jones' ship America, a vessel of sixty-two guns under construction at Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The admiral who terrorized the coast of Britain and plundered Lord Selkirk's home in the Bonhomme Richard, would continue his depredations once the new vessel was finished. Justus chose William Amesbury and John Lindsay, members of his company from that state, and sent them out to see what they could arrange.14
As August approached, Justus held his men in readiness for an attack. Throughout the exodus of refugees, over everyone's head hung the threat of invasion. He made plans to move his secret papers to Isle aux Noix, should the blockhouse be threatened. His work was interrupted by the arrival of scouts Jacob Lansing and James Breakenridge Jr., and Justus dropped everything and accompanied them to Quebec City to talk with the governor. Lansing reported that Chittenden and Ethan Allen would welcome a secret treaty with Britain that could be made public when 4,000 regulars and supplies for the Vermont army arrived in the Green Mountains.15
Justus' hopes were dashed again, for His Excellency refused to undertake any such aggressive moves. At New York City, Sir Guy Carleton had replaced Sir Henry Clinton as the commander-in-chief. Carleton had orders to withdraw the troops to his base, and he had begun evacuating all units along the southern coast. In July, Haldimand had suggested staging a diversion, to draw Washington's attention away from New York City, but Sir Guy forbad any further offensive operations.16 Haldimand told Justus that he should keep on writing to Vermont proposing a cessation of hostilities, an empty gesture since there had not been any since the truce came into effect in the autumn of 1780.
The news from Vermont was vaguely encouraging. Mobs still gathered to oppose Chittenden, but the republic had practical reasons for preferring reunion with Britain over joining the Congress. The country was in an uproar. Individual states were forced to levy taxes to pay war debts, and paper money issued by the Congress was worthless. Farmers who could not pay their taxes in hard cash saw their properties auctioned off. Mobs gathered to hinder the bidding, and tax collecting was nearly impossible. Since the issue of taxes had started the rebellion, people felt betrayed. Vermont had none of these problems and virtually no debts, as she had been financing herself through the Absentee Act.
Justus could not allow himself to be overly preoccupied with Vermont. Always in the back of his mind was the state of the defences of his blockhouse. The importance of his post was brought home to him by the arrival of the Baron von Riedesel, accompanied by Dr. Smyth, for a tour of inspection. The Baron pronounced himself satisfied with Sherwood's preparations, and he departed. Hudibras remained, for another prisoner exchange was in the making. These arrangements were interrupted by the arrival on August 17 of Privates William Amesbury and John Lindsay to report on what had transpired in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
Lindsay, the more literate of the two, wrote a report for the governor, after discussing its contents with Justus. Admiral John Paul Jones' ship America was being financed by France, for service in that country's line. Pretending to be privateers, the two agents were hired to work for eight weeks, until the vessel was to be launched, at four shillings a day — which was more than Justus was paying them to spy. Lindsay described Jones as ‘A middling sizd man of dark complexion, dressed very grand with two gold aupelets very like Col. St Leger's’. With Amesbury, he worked on the vessel — and helped guard her! Mr. Jones feared a raid from the sea. The work was lagging because carpenters were scarce. Lindsay continued:
We could at any time have put fire in many places on her, but as her inside work was not done & she would not burn well we thought it best to come in with our report, and go again when the General should think proper. When we came away we told Capt. Jones we must go to Boston to git some wages we had due, and we promised to return in Augt. or September and if possible to bring some ship carpenters with us from Boston.
What an audacious pair they were, Justus thought as he read what Lindsay had written. When he said the ship would not burn, he referred to her oak planking. The pine decking, once in place, would be more flammable, better suited to the purposes of arsonists. Amesbury and Lindsay assured Justus that they would be happy to try later, and if they did not succeed would not expect any pay. When the report reached Quebec City, Mathews replied that the men should be kept in readiness.17 Justus was pessimistic. He longed to provide ‘the ship carpenters from Boston’ that Lindsay and Amesbury had promised to take to Portsmouth but Sir Guy Carleton had forbidden further acts of hostility. Sadly he turned his attention to the prisoner exchange.
This time with Dr. Smyth he went aboard the schooner Maria to Crown Point, where they met New York emissaries and traded their prisoners. By September 6 they had returned to the Loyal Blockhouse. Justus took two weeks leave while Hudibras stayed behind to command the post. Samuel was to start school in Montreal, and Justus wanted to see his elder son settled. Then he planned to move Sarah and the two younger children to the blockhouse to economize.18 He had to pay fees for Samuel, and he was no longer satisfied with the education his son was receiving from the Reverend George Gilmour at Fort St. Johns.
The school Justus chose for the not quite eight-year-old Samuel was the classical academy kept by the Reverend John Stuart, the Anglican chaplain. There were other schoolmasters in the city, but Stuart's establishment was sanctioned by His Excellency, and many officers of provincials sent their sons to him. What young Samuel thought of being sent away from his mother by a father he rarely saw was of no importance. Justus was being the Puritan parent, surrounding his son with boys of his own class, preparing him for leadership without taking into account how a mere child might feel.
When Justus reached Fort St. Johns, he helped Sarah pack Samuel's belongings, and father and son set off in a stagecoach for Montreal. Justus stayed in the city a few days, allowing Samuel to become acclimatized to his new surroundings, and he found the s
ocial life almost as glittering as that in Quebec City. Nightly someone gave a party, and he became acquainted With Sir John and Lady Johnson, who had a house at Lachine, sixteen kilometres to the west and entertained frequently.
Back at Fort St. Johns, Justus and Sarah prepared to move to the Loyal Blockhouse, and he suggested that Samuel, his brother, and Thomas Sherwood follow this example. Both declined. Thomas, more thoughtful than his cousin, pointed out that if the rebels got wind of the presence of Sarah and the children, they might be kidnapped. Justus brushed this warning aside. His family would be safe as long as no one ventured outside the picketed area. If his loved ones wanted to go beyond these limits a few of his men would guard them.19
That autumn Thomas Sherwood's elder son, Reuben, fourteen-years-old and five feet (1.5 metres) tall, joined the ranks of Captain Meyers' company, Loyal Rangers.20 When Justus discovered that Thomas had allowed young Reuben to enlist he was appalled, but his cousin reminded him that Meyers was a gentle soul, a luxury afforded large persons. Reuben would be well looked after by Meyers, whose sense of humanity had been the cause of a falling out with Dr. Smyth. At the doctor's request the big German farmer had lent him a black man from his company as a servant. While Meyers was away on a mission, Smyth took the man to Captain James Breakenridge, King's Rangers, complaining that he had been insubordinate. James handed him over to the drummers for a flogging, and when Meyers returned he was furious. Apart from the brutality, Breakenridge had not conducted a court martial.
Meyers had removed the black man from the Smyth house and returned him to duty as a soldier, since which time the doctor had had nothing to do with him.21 For once Justus' sympathies lay with Meyers, but he was relieved that Smyth was disgruntled with the sturdy tenant farmer from the Albany area. Now Justus would not have to worry about impromptu raids such as the one on Ballstown, that might endanger his scouting parties.
By early October Justus had his family settled in the Loyal Blockhouse. When he arrived, another inconclusive letter from Ethan Allen awaited him. This time Ethan made more of Vermont's fear of ‘Sagacious Washington’, the avowed enemy, and of Vermont's unwillingness to shoulder any of the Continental debt. After discussing the advantages of trade with Canada, the natural outlet for Vermont products since goods could travel by water, Governor Chittenden decided to prohibit it. Trade with the British might annoy Herrick and Safford and their followers, while Washington might seize on dealing with the enemy as the excuse he needed to invade Vermont.22
On November 25, Corporal Thomas Welch, of the blockhouse garrison, who had been leading a scouting party, arrived in a vessel from Vermont, escorting two visitors, Nicols and Holmes, who had three tons of beef to sell in Montreal. Justus was in a quandary, and he arrested all three men. He wrote to Major Nairne, the commandant of Isle aux Noix, for advice on how to deal with this infraction of the embargo on trade. The more Justus thought about Corporal Welch's conduct the more agitated he became. How could his man endanger all the carefully maintained relations with Chittenden? Torn by anger, and fear that one-eyed Tom might cancel the truce, sleep eluded Justus that night and he paced the floor of his quarters until dawn.23
A few days later Justus received an order from Major Nairne to conduct a court martial to give Corporal Welch the opportunity to defend himself. The proceedings were held on December 7, and the report was written by Thomas Sherwood, showing Captain Sherwood as the president, Ensigns John Dusenbury, Elijah Bothum and Hermanus Best as the other members of the court. Eliphelet Casswell, Henry Ridout, Adam Vanderhyder and Thomas Brown — members of Welch's scouting party when he arrived with Nicols and Holmes — were sworn and examined separately. In a legible, copybook hand, more readable than his cousin's rapid flowing style, Thomas wrote:
the beef was brought there [Crown Point] by agreement with Capt Pritchard…. Corpl Welch thought he was doing his duty to take in the two men, and he did not think he should be blamed for Taking in the Beef, which he and all his party suppos'd was Brout by Agreement from Capt. Pritchard.
Justus exonerated his man, and informed Major Nairne on December 8 that Welch's:
candid and sincere manner of making the inclosed declaration the Court were fully of the opinion that Welch thought he was doing his Govt Service in bringing in Nicols, and that he supposed he should do a favour to Capt. Pritchard.24
The culprits were Captain Azariah Pritchard and Holmes. Nicols had been duped, and Justus allowed him to return to Vermont. Holmes was sent to Isle aux Noix as a prisoner of war. In accordance with Major Nairne's instructions Justus would sink the beef in Lake Champlain, and he resolved to dismiss Pritchard from the secret service and return him to duty with Major Rogers. Justus paraded the garrison to the west side of the blockhouse to watch while the beef was submerged, a warning to anyone else who might be seduced into aiding Vermont traders.
That season most of the Loyal Rangers were stationed at Rivière du Chêne, a blockhouse on the south shore of Lac St. Pierre, where the stream could give the rebels access to Canada. There the regiment was to muster on January 1, and Justus dispatched Lieutenant James Parrot with as many of the men as he could spare, and a list of those he could not, so that Major Edward Jessup could make complete returns. Samuel Sherwood, a private under his brother until he could get more recruits, accompanied Lieutenant Parrot, and the men left the blockhouse on December 27.25
On the 30th, Justus played host to two men from Claremont, New Hampshire, the Reverend Ranna Cossitt, an Anglican clergyman, and Captain Benjamin Sumner of the militia. They were returning from a visit to Quebec City, where they had talked with Haldimand. Young Samuel was home from school in Montreal for the Christmas holiday, and the Reverend Cossitt took a liking to the lad. He recommended that Justus send him to Dartmouth College where he would be catechized by Dr. Eleazor Wheelock, the most eminent schoolmaster in America. Justus solemnly agreed to consider it, out of politeness, knowing he could never afford the expense.
Cossitt wondered about leading his entire flock to Canada, while Sumner informed Justus that General Roger Enos, who had commanded some Vermont militia in 1776, wanted to raise a regiment for service with Britain. Enos expected to receive the rank of colonel, and to have his corps placed on the regular establishment.26 That raised Justus' hackles. The only provincial corps so honoured was the Royal Highland Emigrants, numbered the 84th Regiment of Foot. Why should an uncertain quantity like Enos receive better treatment than Edward Jessup, whose Loyal Rangers remained a provincial corps, or Sir John Johnson, who had been trying for years to have his regiment placed on the regular establishment?
When Cossitt and Sumner were ready to leave, Justus gave them a boat and an escort from the garrison. Shortly after they set out, they found:
the whole lake as far as they could see froze in such a manner that they dare not attempt to proceed, they therefore put the Gentlemen and the Flag on the Ice, and broke their way back to White's Camp. Corpl. Miller had the Misfortune on his way back to fall on the Ice and break his Collar bone, Corpl Welch, who pretends to know Something of Surgery, has Sett it, but we have nothing to apply to it. I wish we could have a few medicines order'd here.
Agonizing Justus finished ‘It is cruel when we have a man sick or lame which is often the case that we have nothing for his relief’.27
Justus was playing to the gallery because he felt strongly that he should be receiving more supplies at government expense. He deliberately avoided mentioning Sarah, whose knowledge of local remedies was most useful to the garrison. She fetched willow twigs from outside, thawed them and gave them to Corporal Miller to chew, which eased his pain.28
Sarah also brewed spruce beer which, although no substitute for rum, was rich in ascorbic acid and prevented scurvy. When Justus could scrape up the funds, he purchased a few pairs of skates for the use of his scouts, to enable them to travel more rapidly when the surface of the ice was bare, much as Robert Rogers' rangers had skated along Lake Champlain during the Seven Years' War.
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br /> Some weeks after Corporal Miller's accident, the Reverend Ranna Cossitt wrote from New Hampshire advising Justus not to send Samuel to Dartmouth College until Dr. Wheelock had returned from a visit to Europe.29 Justus had never taken the suggestion seriously, for apart from the expense, he did not want to entrust his firstborn to a state that was for the most part a nest of mad rebels. Justus paid a Mr. Gibson to tutor Diana and Levius, and Sarah had the company of several women who did chores for the men. He knew that his family would be more comfortable back in the house at Fort St. Johns, but he was glad to be able to save a few shillings, and he had wearied of the loneliness of duty at the blockhouse without his wife and children. The small island fortress seemed much less bleak than during the previous winter.
Chapter 15
‘Behind the Cloud Topped Hill’
As the year 1783 opened, Justus Sherwood faced some cruel facts. Britain was going to give the rebelling colonies their independence. His cause was lost, and many loyalists would have to make new homes in Britain's remaining North American colonies. There was plenty of room to accommodate the refugees in Canada, and Nova Scotia was convenient for those gathered around New York City. Justus had given his best to the Northern Department, and could take pride in the work he had done assisting prisoners and refugees. Then, too, the future of Vermont was far from settled. If that state decided on reunion, he would some day be back in business with the Allens, buying more tracts from the Onion River Land Company.
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