Note 97 — Chapter III · THE WAR OF AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE

There is an interesting account of the incident at the Cedars in Stone’s Life of Brant (1838 ed.), vol. i, p. 153, &c. Stone says that Forster had with him one company of regulars and nearly 600 Indians, led by Joseph Brant, the celebrated Mohawk chief. But in spite of the note to p. 151 there seems no doubt that Brant, who had gone to England on a visit in the previous autumn, did not start on his return voyage till late in May or June, and did not arrive at New York till July, long after the event at the Cedars. See Colonel Cruikshank’s paper on ‘Joseph Brant in the American Revolution’, April, 1897, Transactions of the Canadian Institute, vol. v, pp. 243, &c., Colonel Cruikshank says that Brant sailed from Falmouth early in June, 1776, and reached New York on July 29, where he fought under Howe. Probably the affair of the Cedars was confounded with the fighting at St. John’s and the attack on Montreal when Ethan Allen was taken prisoner in 1775. Brant seems to have been present in these actions.