Baron Friedrich Adolf Riedesel, ca 1790. Courtesy of the Library of Congress.

Sir: Your Excellency will remember that in the spring, on your arrival at Three Rivers, yon gave me permission always to express my opinion to you freely, whenever an opportunity for doing well to the regiments offered itself. The position in which the army is at present induces me to take this freedom, with the firm confidence that the kindness of heart, and the friendship of your Excellency will pardon it.

Great and rapid successes have at once placed the army in such a position that we will often be forced to be, either with the whole or part of the army, far away from the rivers and our bateaux. The equipment of the army is of such a nature that our bateaux arc very necessary, if we would not find ourselves short of everything. This makes trouble. One-half of a regiment runs around to procure the necessaries for the soldier. The men are weary from toil, and the battalion grows so weak that they look more like slim companies than heavy masses of men. The movements of the army can only be carried out slowly and by piece-meal, lacking, as it does, the means to transport that which is most necessary.

I, therefore, give it as my opinion that there are only two ways for us to do. We must with the army always remain near a river, and not leave it until means offer themselves for transporting the bateaux to another river- the time for their transportation not being more than eight clays. This proceeding, however, in my opinion, is attended with the following disadvantages:

1st. The army are able to move but very slowly; and the advantages which offer themselves upon the sudden retreat of the enemy cannot be availed of in time. Consequently the consternation which might perhaps be produced among the rebels by the presence of the royal army would not be increased.

2d. The inhabitants of the country, who are at present extremely frightened, will voluntarily submit, and the army in a short time be provided with everything, provided we now and then appear with detachments. The latter, however, must not be allowed to go too great a distance from the main body. The enemy has small parties everywhere, and these keep the people in subjection. Therefore, confiscate all the teams, and make a desert of the whole country. Thus your excellency will be able to gain a much wider field for the operations of your army than at present.

3d. The country, which our army has just left, has taken fresh courage; a new militia has been organized; small detachments once more, roam through these districts ; and each partisan cart operate against our communications. This latter circumstance may in future be even more detrimental to us than at present.

To avoid all these evils, our army must be brought into a condition in which it can move with much more celerity than it has been accustomed to. That is, the requisite number of horses must be procured to carry the necessary baggage of the officers, the tents, ammunition, artillery and provisions. It is, in my opinion, very disadvantageous to transport the baggage and tents on Canadian carts. They spoil the good roads, and can get along only with the utmost difficulty on good roads. The column is, therefore, lengthened too much, and the men are very often without tents, the carts not being able to keep up. But a pack horse goes everywhere. It can walk on the flanks of the regiment, and thus always provide the army “with necessaries. Pack horses, therefore, would in my humble opinion, do away entirely with the carts. I would, also, keep no more teams than were absolutely necessary for the transportation of the provisions of the artillery.

When the regiments have a sufficient number of pack horses collected, and when the transportation of the artillery is safely provided for, then your excellency can send out detachments at pleasure; keep a check upon the main body of the enemy; and thus keep the inhabitants in subjection- yea, even break up their militia, and procure the necessary support for the army. You can, also, extend or contract the army as you see fit, and thus freely operate independently of the bateaux and a. thousand other contingencies.

I believe that the army may easily be placed in this independent position in three or four weeks at the furthest.

The country between here and the Connecticut and even fifteen miles beyond that river is destitute of troops and full of the best horses. In fact, there is not an inhabitant who does not possess three or four horses.

If your excellency will detach to the Connecticut, the regiment of dragoons, the corps of Peters and of Yessop, and an officer and thirty of each regiment, under the command of a good stall officer, I am convinced that this corps would procure the necessary number of horses for the army. The regiment of dragoons would thus be mounted, and do all that your excellency would expect from it.

Your excellency might determine upon a proportionate tax of about five to six guineas for each horse. A commissary might go with this corps and give a receipt for each horse to the owner, who, upon producing it, could be paid by the general cashier. The officers who received horses might then have the money for them, gradually deducted from their pay, while the horses for the dragoons would be paid for by the king. This detachment, also, could, at the same time, gather up all the ox teams to be used in transporting the provisions. This plan, if carried out, would pit the army in the most flourishing condition, and your excellency would no longer have any difficulty in carrying out each movement, either in detail or otherwise according to your own plan.

Your Excellency might, perhaps, think it mean to take all the horses from the inhabitants, but it must be considered: 1st. That the chief work here is done by oxen, and that horses are only made use of either for carrying grain to the mill, or for riding. 2d. the horses could be bought at a price much above their value. 3d. If there was a want of horses, they would not be able to convey the news to the enemy so rapidly or so often. 4th. their little bloodletting would, at least, be a just punishment for their treason and bad conduct toward their king. I am convinced that this course can be justified before God, the king and parliament, it being to the material advantage of the army and his majesty.

Having thus communicated my ideas candidly and confidentially to the friendship of your excellency, I rely on your forebarence and pardon for my freedom.

I have the honor etc.,

Riedesel.

Find Hadden’s Journal Here

[excerpts]
The Men are in general tall, active & well made, qualifications absolutely necessary for a Race of Hunters : a small Tuft of Hair is left on the back part of their Heads, To which they fasten & wear a feather for every Scalp taken in War, the rest being plucked out as soon as they are of an Age to go to War, during this operation the young Hero sings a War Song : Their Ears are slit and they wear a number of small Rings round their separated Gristle, they also wear mock jewels &c. by way of Ear Rings, and the Gristle of the Nose being bored serves to support a small kind of Silver Bob & Ring. When prepared for War they paint themselves with Vermilion & other colors. Their dress is a Blanket and Arse Clout, or covering for the Privates ; at great War Dances they are sometimes totally Naked, at the end of the Penis the head & Neck of some handsome bird is fastened, the Nation of Fox Indians were thus equipped on the present occasion, and some others had their Bodies painted in Stripes of different colors.
The Men get rid of their Beards & all other superfluous Hair in this way. It is to be remarked that the natural inhabitants of the Southern parts of America and indeed all over it have few hairs except those on the Head. Their complexions are swarthy, and their Hair very coarse & black. They (particularly the Women) cover themselves with greese as a de fence against ye Mousqueeto’s & other Flies, this makes them far from tempting and we are there fore not surprised to see their Women employed in all Laborious occupations (even carrying their Provisions) except Hunting. The Barter with them is Blankets Cloth, Rum and Trinkets, these go up in Canoes which return loaded with Furs of various kinds. The Savages are immoderately fond of Spirits, of this the Traders make their advantage, tho’ sometimes in a state of intoxication the whole is seized and the unhappy Traders scalped. If the Indians have any Religion ’tis Roman Catholic and in many Towns a Priest of that persuasion lives with them. All the Interpreters are of that Religion; This might prove bad policy in case of a French attack.
The Indians are cunning and Treacherous, more remarkable for rapid marches and sudden attacks than Courage. I heard Gen’l Burgoyne declare that a Thousand Savages brought into the Field cost more than 20.000 Men. The Presents to them are usualy Silver Bracelets, Gold laced Hats, & Coats, Feathers, Paints, Arms of various sorts &c, in all of which both Govern ment and the Indians are much cheated by the Traders who on these occasions are Interpreters. The Time of amusing them with Tinsel & such Baubles is over they want useful or valuable Trinkets, and will always point to the Broach in their Shirt (a present some of the Nations occa sionally use) that being Silver & of intrinsic value. Their Arms are a Wooden Ball fixed to a handle, a Tommy hawk or hand hatchet, and a Scalping Knife. Those employed in our Service had a kind of light Musquet which they use very skilfully. I shall conclude remarking that the most mis chievous and treacherous Nations are those who are nearest & mix most with the Europeans ; they acquire only our Vices & retain their ferocity.

June 21, 1777

Chiefs and Warriors

The Great King, Our common Father and the Patron of all who seek and deserve his Protection; has considered with satisfaction the general conduct of the Indian tribes form the beginning of the troubles of America. Too sagacious and too faithful to be deluded or corrupted, they have observed the violated Rights of the Parental State they lave, and burn to vindicate them. A few individuals alone, the refuse of a small tribe, at the first was led astray; and the misrepresentations, the specious allurements, the insidious promises and diversified plots in which the Rebels are exercised, and all of which they employed for that effect, have served only in the end to enhance the honor of the Tribes in general by demonstrating to the World how few and how contemptible are the Apostates. It is a truth known to you all that these pitiful examples excepted (and they probably have before this day hid their faces in shame) they collective voices and hands and hearts of the Indians tribes over this vast continent, are the side of Justice, of Laws, and of the King.

The restraints you have put upon your resentment in waiting the King your Father’s call to arms (the hardest proof, I am persuaded to which your affection could have been put) is another manifest and affecting mark of your adherence to that principle of connection to which you were always fond to allude, and which is mutually the joy and the duty of the Parent to cherish.

The clemency of your Father has been abused; the offers of his Mercy have been despised; and his further patience would in his eyes become culpable in as much as it would withhold redress from the most grievous oppressions in the Provinces that ever disgrace the history of mankind.

It therefore remains for me, the General of one of his Majesties Armies, and in this Council His Representative, to release you from those bonds which your Obedience imposed—Warriors, you are free—go forth in might of your valor and your cause—strike at the common enemies of Great Britain and America—Disturbers of public order, peace and happiness—destroyers of commerce; parricides of the State.

The circle round you, the Chiefs of His Majesty’s European forces, and the Princes his Allies, esteem you as Brothers in the War. Emulous in glory and in friendship, we will endeavor reciprocally to give and to receive examples. We know how to value, and we will strive to imitate, your perseverance in enterprise, and your constancy to resist hunger, weariness and pain. Be it our task, from the dictates of our religion, the laws of our warfare, and the principles and interest of our policy, to regulate your passions when they overbear, to point out where it is nobler to spare than to revenge; to discriminate degrees of guilt; to suspend the up-lifted stroke; to chastise and not to destroy.

This War to you my friends is new. Upon all former occasion in taking the field you held yourselves authorized to destroy wherever you came, because everywhere you found an enemy. The case is now very different.

The King has many faithful subjects dispersed in the provinces, consequently you have many brothers there; and these people are the more to be pitied, that they are persecuted or imprisoned wherever they are discovered or suspected; and to dissemble is to a generous mind a more grievous punishment.

Persuaded that your Magnanimity of Character, joined to your principles of affection to the King, will give me fuller Control over your minds than the military rank with which I am invested, I enjoin your most serious attention to the rules which I hereby proclaim for your invariable observation during the campaign.

I positively forbid bloodshed when you are not opposed in Arms.
Aged men, women, children and prisoners must be held sacred from the knife or hatchet, even in the time of actual conflict.
You shall receive compensation for the prisoners you take, but you shall be called to account for scalps.

In conformity and indulgence to your customs, which have affixed an idea of honor to such badges of victory, you shall be allowed to take the scalps of the dead when killed by your fire and in fair opposition’ but, on no account, or pretence, or subtlety, or prevarication, are they to be taken from the wounded, or even dying; and still less pardonable, if possible, will it be held, to kill men in that condition on purpose, and upon a supposition that this protection to the wounded would be thereby evaded.

Base lurking assassins, incendiaries, ravagers and plunderers of the country, to whatever army they belong, shall be treated with less reserve; but the latitude must be given by order, and I must be the Judge of the Occasion.

Should the enemy, on their part dare to countenance act of barbarity towards those who may fall into their hands it shall be yours also to retaliate; But ‘till severity shall be thus compelled, bear immovable in your hearts this solid maxim, it cannot be too deeply impressed, that the great essential reward, worthy service of your alliance, the sincerity of your zeal to the King, your Father and never failing protector, will be examined and judged, upon the test only of your steady and uniform adherence to the orders and councils of those, to whom His Majesty has entrusted the direction and the honor of arms.

Answer from an old Chief of the Iroquois.

I stand up in the name of all the Nations present to assure our Father that we have attentively listened to his discourse. We receive you as our Father because when you speak we hear the voice of our great Father beyond the Great Lake.

We rejoice in the approbation you have expressed of our behavior.

We have been tried and tempted by the Bostonians; but we have loved our Father and our hatchets have been sharpened upon our affections.

In proof of the sincerity of our professions our whole villages able to go to War are come forth. The old and inform, our infants and wives alone remain at home.

With one common assent we promise a constant obedience to all you have ordered and you shall order, and may the Father of Days give you many and success.

The intention of this Expedition is to dive into the Sentiments of the Inhabitants, to remount the Regiment of Dragoons and attempt furnishing the Army with Horses, Cattle and Waggons. He was to take the Route of Arlington, Manchester and Rockingham. He was to halt at each of these places; and from Manchester he was to send a detachment of Indians and Provincials up Connecticut River, as far as No. 4. From Manchester he was to continue his march to Rockingham, where he was to take post. The Liet. Col. With his corps of regular troops is not to pass beyond Rockingham. He is there to take the most advantageous situation. All cattle, wagons and horses are to be sent to the Army and driven by provincials well escorted. When the service is effected, he is to take the shortest route by Brattenbourg to Albany, there to join the body of the Army. Wherever he passes he is to make the Inhabitants believe that the corps which he commands is the vanguard of the enemy, which is to take the route of Boston and that he is to be joined at Springfield by a body of Troops from Rhode Island.

In the case that the Army should not be arrived at Albany so soon as the Lt. Col. has finished the business, General Burgoyne will give him advice and will recall him to the army, or will give another route to his corps.

The Lieut. Col. must send intelligence from time to time of his position and of what he has effected.

Should the enemy face him with too great a force Genl. Burgoyne will not fail to send him the most speedy succours, or will so take his measures, that the enemy shall find themselves between two fires.

Signed

Lt. General Burgoyne