John Butler's success in employing Indians and whites together at the Battle of Oriskany in August of 1777 convinced Sir Guy Carleton, that Butler's request to form a corps of rangers, separate from the Indian Department, had merit. In orders to Butler on 15 September 1777, Carleton directed him to:

...by Beat of Drum, or otherwise, forthwith to raise on the frontiers of the Province so many of His Majesty's subjects as will form one company of Rangers, to serve with the Indians as occasion shall require...

The Beating Order in effect set the establishment of the Corps, the rates of pay and the method of clothing and arming the Rangers. By the end of the war much of the original instructions would be changed by subsequent orders from Carleton and his successor, General Frederick Haldimand.

Recruiting began almost immediately. Butler wrote to Captain Francis Le Maistre, the Deputy Adjutant General, "The men, except those I have already, are not to be engaged here; they must be sought on the Frontiers of the Provinces of New York and Pennsylvania."

By February of 1778, two companies had been brought to strength and passed muster. In March of the following year the monthly return listed one major, three captains, five first lieutenants, five second lieutenants, one quartermaster, one surgeon, and 294 rank and file. The same return noted that Captain Peter Ten Broeck and 19 other ranks were being held prisoner by the Americans, five had deserted, five had been killed or had died of wounds, two had died and one man had drowned.

Six companies had been mustered by September of 1779. A General Order, dated 4 September 1780, stated:

In order to distinguish the zeal of the Officers of such Regiments as shall be completed to ten companies of fifty six rank and file of each company inclusive (including 3 Contingent Men per company), His Majesty will upon recommendation of the Commander-in-Chief, make the rank of those Officers permanent in America, and will allow them half-pay upon the reduction of their Regiments, in the same manner as the Officers of British reduced Regiments are paid, and to facilitate these services, His Majesty is further pleased to order that the sum of twenty two shillings and six pence Sterling be given a Bounty to each able bodied man.

In December, on receiving the order, Butler wrote requesting permission to raise the two additional companies. Haldimand's response was that he would authorize one company, and on its mustering complete, Butler would be allowed to recruit the second. This approach was due in part to the poor recruiting in most Provincial Corps in the Northern Command. The tenth company was mustered and paraded before Brigadier-General Henry Watson Powell at Niagara on 18 September 1781. Notwithstanding the military importance of an additional two companies, the promise of Half-Pay gave the commissioned officers had a personal stake in a ten-company Corps.

The General Order also detailed the relationship of commissioned officers in the Provincial Corps to officers in the regular army: "All Officers of the Provincial Corps that are or shall be raised in America shall, when on Service with the Regular Troops, take rank as junior of the rank to which they belong."

The King had also approved compensation for officers and men who were wounded:

Such Officers as may be wounded in Action, so as to loose a limb or be maimed, shall be entitled to receive the same gratuity of one year's advanced pay as Officers of the Established Army in that predicament are entitled to receive, and it is further His Majesty's gracious intention to make provision for all such Non-Commissioned Officers and Privates, as shall be disabled from wounds received in His service.

Gavin Watt as Colonel John Butler

The Beating Order appointed John Butler "Major Commandant" of the Corps, a reduction of rank from that of Lieutenant Colonel which he had held in the New York Militia. Thereafter, there would be some confusion as to Butler's rank and both American contemporaries and historians would make the error of confusing John Butler's eldest son, Walter, with him, although Walter Butler was never promoted to the rank of Major.

Carleton indicated to Butler that when there were sufficient companies mustered, he would promote him to Lieutenant Colonel in the Provincial Service. Haldimand promulgated the promotion on 12 February 1780.

Throughout the war, the administration of the Corps would weigh heavily on the time and effort of Butler and his officers. Confusion in the interpretation of the Beating Order, seniority in the army, pay and allowances occupied many hours and necessitated many exchanges between Niagara and Quebec.

Appointment of officers to the Corps, and promotion within it, caused a number of problems. Butler was of the understanding that each new company was to be raised and mustered complete by officers he would appoint to carry out the enlistment. While Carleton was Commander-in-Chief, commissions were routinely completed and forwarded to the Corps as Butler requested. Haldimand, however, viewed the appointments as prerogatives of the Commander-in-Chief, and numerous letters were exchanged on this subject before an appointment would be confirmed. Although officers purchased commissions and promotions in the British regular army, this practice was not permitted in Provincial Corps raised in Canada. Butler was eager to fill the officer vacancies within his Corps as he saw fit, and he thought it "a hardship on my officers to have others put in on them," and when others were named by Haldimand he was "a good deal hurt." Haldimand's reply was that Butler "ought not to think extraordinary what is every day unavoidably practised in established Regiments," and was unable to understand how Butler "can reconcile representing as a hardship upon his Corps the introducing into it...an officer of long Service and Experience." He concluded that the problems which had arisen in respect to appointments and promotions could be prevented if Butler would "in future delay putting appointments in orders until they are really made." Commissions and promotions in Provincial Corps were not purchased, as they were in the British regular army.

The Captains who would eventually end up commanding the ten companies were men of mixed background and experience. Butler's son, Walter, had seen service with him in the Indian Department and had served as an Ensign in the 8^th Foot; William Caldwell had served on the frontiers of Virginia and had been sentenced to death at Philadelphia for providing Butler with intelligence; Andrew Thompson and Peter Hare had served in the Indian Department; George Dame and John McDonell had been subalterns in the 84^th Foot; Bernard Frey was an old friend of Butler's in the Mohawk Valley; Andrew Bradt was a nephew; Lewis Geneway had served in the 60^th Foot and at Haldimand's headquarters at Quebec; and Peter Ten Broeck had been a Captain in the New York Militia in the Mohawk Valley.

Butler had difficulty with three company commander appointments which would cause some dissention amongst the others.

Captain Peter Ten Broeck, a Captain in the York Provincial Regiment during the Seven Year's War, was taken by the Americans at Shoemaker's Tavern with Walter Butler in September 1777. He was subsequently commissioned in the Rangers on 4 May 1778. Walter Butler registered a complain against Ten Broeck for his conduct while a prisoner:

Herewith you have a state of Captain Ten Broeck's conduct and the opinion of the Officers of the Corps thereon.

This behaviour of Captain Ten Broeck answers to his conduct when I came off. He was then confined in the same room with me, and in a better state of health than I ever knew him, at least much better than myself. He told me he did not think we could succeed in making our escape, and as he was not under sentence of Death like myself, he would therefore wait and see whether he would not get exchanged.

I told him in our situation I could not give him advice, but for my own part I was determined to make the attempt as my case was more desperate. I at the same time told him that he was much more capable than myself to undertake the journey and added that as his brothers and General Ten Broeck had declared that he should never have leave to join the Royal Army again, he had very little prospect of having an exchange. Therefore this was the only opportunity he in all probability ever would have again to expect an escape; still as matters stood, he must judge for himself.

Those matters I made you acquainted with on meeting you in the Indian Country last spring, and in consequence thereof you empowered men to request Colonel Bolton would not fill up the then vacant company in favour of Captain Ten Broeck, but on my arrival at Niagara I found the company fill up in his favour, and as having no desire to injure him or any other man living, after having done my duty have never moved the matter since.

Subsequent to the escape of Walter Butler, Lieutenant Joseph Ferris was sent to try to assist Ten Broeck in escaping, but the mission was a failure. Eventually, Ten Broeck was exchanged in the fall of 1780. When Ten Broeck rejoined the Corps of Rangers on 24 April 1781 his status in the Corps immediately came under question. He had been removed from the pay lists effective 4 May 1778 (the day of his commissioning), and believed that Butler mistakenly harboured some animosity. Haldimand ordered him Court-Martialled. The decision of the Court-Martial was published in General Orders:

The Court Martial ordered to be held at Niagara, December 7^th 1781, by order of Brigadier General Powell to examine a charge exhibited by Lieutenant Ferris of the Corps of Rangers against Captain Ten Broeck when prisoner with the rebels for his not making his escape from them when favourable opportunities were procured for him. The Court, from the examination which appear and the documents laid before them, are of the opinion that Captain Ten Broeck was not in a situation to come off at the time Lieutenant Ferris went for him -- that his conduct during his confinement as prisoner with the rebels appears irreproachable and that he took the earliest opportunity of joining his Corps. His Excellency, the Commander-in-Chief, is pleased in consequence of the said opinion to order Captain Ten Broeck to resume his rank and to do duty in the Corps of Rangers commanded by Lieutenant Colonel John Butler.

Butler convinced Haldimand that due to Ten Broeck's long absence, he should take rank after John McDonell, which angered Ten Broeck. On a return by Jacob Ball, Ten Broeck's name is annotated "Resigned 10 January 1783", but Ten Broeck signed a muster roll of on 1 December of that year. In any event, he is carried on a roll of officers at the end of the war.

In March 1780, Captain John McKinnon, a Scot who had raised and commanded a company of volunteers under Sir William Howe at Philadelphia in 1776, gained a recommendation from Lord George Germain for employment in Canada. Germain described him as behaving "as a faithful and diligent officer" and asked for Haldimand's support in finding him a position.

Haldimand commissioned McKinnon on 1 January 1781, and appointed him to command the 8^th Company of Butler's Rangers. Butler objected, which gave rise to Haldimand's comments that Butler should not think it a hardship when experienced officers were introduced into the Corps.

This appointment did not rest well with Captains John McDonell, Peter Hare and Bernard Frey. They put their objections in writing to Butler. When McKinnon arrived at Niagara in the fall of 1781 he noted that "some of the Captains of this regiment is much dissatisfied and has wrote against me."

However, McKinnon saw little active service with the Rangers. In August 1782, the Physician General certified that McKinnon "is for the present rendered incapable of pursuing his duty as an officer in consequence of a paralytic affection of one side of the body." He recommended that McKinnon be permitted to return to England "to try the powerful efficacy of the waters at Bath in Somersetshire, which in all probability may facilitate his recovery." Haldimand agreed, and requested authority from England to replace him in the Corps. McKinnon was not replaced, and was carried on the roll until the end of the war. He died in Scotland sometime before 1800.

In October 1783, the military secretary to General Haldimand wrote to Butler informing him that the General had decided to appoint Lewis Geneway, his assistant secretary to command the tenth company of the Rangers. Geneway was born in Switzerland, and had served in the 60^th Foot until 1762, and later the British militia during the Seven Year's War. In 1775, he was appointed Adjutant of the 3^rd Battalion of the 60^th Foot. Geneway's commission was dated 17 September 1781, "the same date as the first muster roll of that company."

Geneway did no duty with the Corps, but remained on Haldimand's staff throughout the war, and continued his military service after the conclusion of the Revolution. A memorial to Geneway stands on the corner of Dorchester (now Rene Levesque) and St Urbain Streets in Montreal:

To add confusion to the appointment of officers to command companies is a reference to a Charles Smith. Smith was recruiting in the area of Harpers Field in July of 1778 when one of his parties was engaged by Americans and Smith was killed in the skirmish. His name appears on a casualty return in February 1779 next to that of Peter Ten Broeck, and is annotated "vacant company, killed Cobus Kill, June 1778."

The subalterns were also men of varied backgrounds. Most were young men of the older established families of the Mohawk and Susquehanna Valleys. Many had friendship ties with the Butler family -- like Ralphe Clench whose father, Robert, was a Masonic lodge brother of John Butler; others had previous service in other regiments -- like David Sutherland and Alexander McDonell of the 84^th; some had been rewarded for outstanding service by promotion and appointment to the Corps -- like John Turney, a former sergeant in the 8^th Foot; John and Peter Bradt and Richard Hansen were relatives; and, of course, Andrew and Thomas Butler were sons of Colonel Butler.

In respect to the promotion of some of these young men within the Corps, Haldimand commented:

...to advance so rapidly young officers who have neither time nor opportunities to acquire a sufficient Knowledge of their profession, I conceive it to be a great injustice to the army and may be productive of bad consequences where important commands my devolve to the eldest officer -- I have no objection to the vacant first Lieutenancy being filled up according to seniority as they may have time in that rank to learn their profession.

Fortunately, whether by chance, Butler's ability to select carefully these men, or by the subtle guidance of more experienced non-commissioned officers, no junior officer in the Rangers who succeeded to command failed in his duty.

Haldimand was also opposed to the commissioning of non-commissioned officers within the Corps. Butler had recommended Sergeant Solomon Secord for a Lieutenancy in recognition of his exceptional conduct and behaviour while serving on Major John Ross's expedition to the Mohawk Valley in the fall of 1781. Haldimand replied:

I do not wish Promotions of this Kind to take place, for altho' they may give emulation, yet mankind are so blind to their own imperfections that they will seldom acknowledge a superiority to those of their new rank, and the rewards of merit are construed into partiality, which, of course, creates discontent.

He also made the shrewd comment, "...it often happens that a good Sergeant is lost for a bad officer..." He left the final decision to Butler, who, on consideration, agreed with him.

The Beating Order failed to provide the Corps with the staff positions necessary for the efficient administration that the very employment of a unit of this type would demand. In the original order, Butler was appointed to command the Corps and the first company, a common practice. He was not allowed a second-in-command, an adjutant, a secretary, a paymaster, a surgeon, or a quartermaster. By improvising and doubling duty assignments, Butler was able to deal with the administration of the Corps, even while dispersed on the frontier, the harbouring of Loyalist refugees, and for a considerable time the complete command of the Indian Department at Niagara. In time, however, concessions had to be made.

Numerous representation were made for Walter Butler's promotion to Major and his appointment as second-in-command. Haldimand thought him too young. He acknowledged Walter Butler's "zeal for the Service," but found that he could not "in justice to the army promote him to the rank of Major over the Heads of so many elder and more experienced officers." Even the offer by Walter Butler to purchase a majority in the regular army was refused. Only after Walter Butler's death, when it became apparent to all that the administration was too much for John Butler, did Haldimand appoint Major William Potts of the 8th Foot to be second-in-command of the Corps.

By 1779 two staff positions were authorized. Jesse Pawling was appointed Quartermaster and served in that position to the end of the war. Robert Guthrie was appointed Surgeon, and he was succeeded by John Reilly in October of 1782. Eventually Patrick Burke was appointed as Surgeon's Mate. Haldimand appointed William Smith, a sergeant from the 47^th Foot, as Adjutant in 1782.

For a period Richard Cartwright served as Butler's secretary. This must have been a private arrangement between Butler and Cartwright (whose father, Richard, Snr, had been Master of Union Lodge No 1 of Albany, the lodge in which John Butler had entered the Masonic Order in 1766), for nowhere does Cartwright's name appear on official muster rolls.

The Corps never did have a Paymaster. This duty was performed by Walter Butler, and after his death by John McDonell. These men were required to command their respective companies and make long and numerous trips to Montreal and Quebec with the muster rolls and pay bills of the Corps.

Men were recruited in a variety of ways, the most common, and the method by which most recruits were enlisted, was to send parties to the back settlements on the frontier and convince young men to accompany them back to Niagara. Shortly after the issuing of the Beating Order, Butler reported to Captain Francis Le Maistre:

...I have sent Mr Depue down to the frontiers of the Province of Pennsylvania with direction to bring up the Rangers absent by leave of Colonel St Leger and as many other active, able-bodied men as he can pick up who are willing to shew their loyalty to their King in these times of discord and Rebellion.

The Rangers mentioned here were men of the Indian Department who had been given leave after the Battle of Oriskany.

Usually these recruiting parties were out for months at a time. They would live in Indian villages and collect a sizable group of Loyalists. They would take them to Niagara, or send them with Indian guides. This was an assignment filled with danger, for the parties were never large and always susceptible to discovery. If captured, the men were bound to be treated as spies and traitors and faced the possibility of execution. One officer recruited almost one hundred men from the back settlements on the Susquehanna River; Lieutenant Andrew Bradt brought back forty-five men from New Jersey; Lieutenant Peter Ball and Second Lieutenant Joseph Ferris brought in fifty-nine men from the Mohawk Valley.

The recruiting parties were not backward in gathering as many recruits as possible. Their efforts strained relations with other Provincial Corps who were competing for recruits. Andrew Bradt was censured by Haldimand for his conduct when he forced a Captain Meyers to give up his recruits so that they might be enlisted in the Rangers. Joseph Brant, according to Daniel Claus, claimed that ninety of his men had to conceal themselves to evade the Ranger recruiting parties, and Claus stated that he believed that there were not "25 Rangers in Col Butler's Corps that engaged voluntarily." The completion amongst the Provincial Corps for recruits was so strong, Haldimand eventually prohibited the Rangers from recruiting in Montreal and restricted their recruiters to the frontiers.

The parties in the Indian country certainly acted as spies. Brigadier-General Allan Maclean, commanding at Niagara, reported that a Sergeant and three men of the Rangers had spent the winter of 1782/83 within 18 miles of Washington's army. "The sergeant, a very intelligent man, had daily access to see all the American papers, and brought in several."

All major expeditions brought back recruits, and Butler's expedition to Wyoming is one example. He was careful to ensure that the Loyalists were well treated and encouraged to return with him to Niagara. When he detached William Caldwell to protect Indian villages from a possible rebel threat, he gave them explicit instructions to "inlist as many...into my Corps of Rangers..." as possible.

Others enlisted at Niagara after making their way to that post. If their families had accompanied them, the women and children were normally sent down to Montreal and Machiche to reduce the consumption of food at the fort, and because there was limited suitable accommodation for them at Niagara.

In June 1778, Butler suggested recruiting a company of French Canadians. He believed that their active participation with the Rangers would remove any suspicion in the minds of the Indians that the French were at sympathetic to the Americans. Nothing came of this suggestion.

After Burgoyne's surrender at Saratoga in 1778, many British and German soldiers who were able to escape their American captors were able to join paries of the Rangers on the frontier. Butler reported in June 1779 that six British soldiers, two sailors from Lake Champlain, and twelve Germans had joined his Corps on the frontier. They had told him that a proclamation issued in New York by the Commander-in-Chief had stated that "every person that could make his escape from the rebels should be allowed to engage in any Corps he thought proper." These men usually remained for a time with the Rangers, but eventually Butler would write asking Haldimand for instructions on their disposition. Haldimand was not enthusiastic for them to join the Rangers:

Those English and German soldiers that are coming in to Major Butler may, for the present, continue with him, but are by no means to be considered in his Corps. It would be a very bad precedent and might even encourage desertion from other Corps on account of the high pay.

In many cases, they were sent down to Montreal or Quebec to be re-mustered in other regular regiments, British or German as appropriate, if their regiment was not in Canada. Sometimes, a soldier would be re-mustered to a regular regiment at Niagara, on orders of the British commander there. Some muster returns clearly list these soldiers, but others do not, creating some difficulty in establishing accurate muster returns. An example of this is reflected on the subsistence return for the Rangers dated 9 June 1783. Six men, who were in all likelihood German soldiers, are listed as being discharged, but they must have been carried as Rangers on earlier returns that year.

Recruiting had problems:

The Rangers, when they join the Corps, are nearly destitute of clothing and necessaries, and having no bounty allowed them confirmed by the General, their being obliged to pay for their arms brings them greatly in debt.

Recruiting parties often found that they would have to exchange items of their clothing and equipment to pay the Indians for food and items such as canoes or horses, but in 1780 Haldimand allowed Butler "Ten Dollars per man Bounty money" to defray the expenses the men were faced with on enlisting; and to cover the costs of the recruiting parties, the Corps was allowed "Bateau and Forage" money.

As expected by the Beating Order, many of the men joining the Corps would provide their own weapons. Some of their muskets were "such extreme bad arms" that Lieutenant Colonel Mason Bolton, commanding at Niagara, had to issue weapons from the King's store. These muskets would have been the Long Land Service Musket, commonly known as the Brown Bess. They were flintlocks of .75 calibre with a barrel length of 46 inches and weighed approximately 10 pounds. A rolled tube with six or eight drams of powder and a lead bullet served as a cartridge.

The soldier bit off the rear end of the cartridge and primed the pan with a small amount of powder. The remaining powder was poured into the muzzle, followed by the ball and paper which served as a wad. The ramrod was used to force the entire charge down the barrel to the breech end.

From the descriptions in various accounts of ambuscades, it appears that the tactical use of the musket was its shock effect when used in large numbers. At Oriskany, for example, after one or two sudden volleys, both Indians and Rangers attempted to close and finish off the enemy with the bayonet or tomahawk.

The Beating Order had established two rates of pay, and this came to be a cause of some discontent and concern. The wording of the order gives an indication to Carleton's concept as to how the Rangers would be employed: two companies living and working intimately with the Indians, the others as quasi-regulars. In actual fact, the men of both types of companies came to be employed under much the same circumstances, and the differences in pay led Butler to suggest revision of the pay scales. In March, 1779, Walter Butler wrote:

Major Butler, therefore, wishes the pay might be levelled, and after duly considering the Hardships the Men are subject to, the very great expense they must be at for extra-ordinary clothing, in a service of this kind, the high Price of every article in the Quarter they serve and the losses they meet with on Service with the Indians, proposes...the reducing of the Corps to seven companies...

Butler proposed that all Corporals be paid at four shillings per day, all Drummers at three, and all private soldiers at three. He estimated that the pay for the seven companies (excluding officers) on the proposed footing would total £64/1/0 per day, while the pay for the eight companies on the original footing was £65. Haldimand agreed to this "levelling" of pay, but altered the scale to the private soldier to two shillings six pence per day from April 1780. From that date, the daily rates of pay of the Corps would be:

Haldimand was not happy with the expenses of the Corps and had occasion to comment on the Pay Bills and confusion of allowances for the Rangers. He expressly forbade the charging of Contingency which the Corps had been claiming as this allowance was made to regular troops to defray the cost of arming and clothing themselves. He pointed out that the Beating Order was specific in this regard, that the Rangers were to bear the costs of arming and clothing themselves. Contingency was claimed by adding "three contingent men per company. These men were simply names added to the muster rolls and the money paid to these non-existent men would be used as the Colonel or company commander wanted..."

To compensate the soldier for his expenses on enlisting in the Rangers, Haldimand agreed to a one-time payment of ten dollars bounty, while noting "the subsistence of your eight companies when complete is nearly equal to that of seventy-five companies of Regulars of the same strength." His explanation for the close examination of the accounts was that "It is a duty I owe to the King" to ensure that all troops be paid "agreeable to the custom and usage of the Army."

A typical pay warrant to cover extraordinary expenses while in the field read:

Quebec
17 January 1783

You are hereby directed and required out of such monies as are or shall come to your hands for the contingent or extraordinary expenses of His Majesty's Forces under my command to pay, or cause to be paid, unto Robert Ellice, Esq (by virtue of a power invested in him by letter of attorney from Lieutenant Colonel John Butler) two hundred and eighty four pounds twelve shillings six pence Sterling at 4/8 each, being an allowance made the Corps of Rangers under his command for 165 days, for the campaign 1782, in consideration of their great fatigue.


Lieutenant Colonel	£37	2	6
8 Captains @ 20.12.6	165	0	0
15 Lieutenants @ 4.2.6	61	17	6
1 Adjutant	4	2	6
1 Quartermaster	4	2	6
1 Surgeon	8	5	0
1 Acting Mate	4	2	6
	——	——	——
	£284	12	6

Haldimand's concern regarding the cost of the Rangers to the Treasury, is reflected in the following abstract prepared in November 1784 by the Paymaster General at the end of the war. By far the most expensive of the Corps in the Northern Command was Butler's Corps.

In July 182, Butler wrote to Haldimand's military secretary that he would "I shall esteem it a particular favour if you will take an opportunity of speaking to His Excellency respecting my regiment, and request him to give it a name, as I wish it might have some other than merely Butler's Rangers." Nothing seems to have come of this suggestion.

In the fall of 1782 Haldimand decided to appoint Captain William Potts to the Rangers in order to give Butler "some relief." Potts was an experienced officer of the 8^th Foot, doing duty at Detroit. He would be promoted to the acting rank of Major, and allowed an addition five shillings per day to make up his pay to that of Major. Butler wrote in May of 1783:

Major Potts has lately joined my Corps in quarters here, which now leaves me more than I have been at leisure to the attention of the Indian Department.

It gives me great pleasure to hear Major Potts express himself with so much satisfaction at the honour done him by Your Excellency in the appointment, and which he is pleased to distinguish be a most ready and assiduous attention to every military improvement of my Corps, and which induces me here to repeat my requisition to Your Excellency of the appointment of the vacant Company in my Corps to his charge, which is really in need of such an officer to put it in that due order and respectable footing which from want of a Captain it has not so effectually acquired as it ought otherwise to have done.

Potts took up his duty, and reported to Haldimand on the state of the Corps of Rangers consistent with his interpretation of his duty:

To give Your Excellency for your particular information from me a report of the Corps as early as from my observation and knowledge could be able to distinguish and draw a due and just conclusion of their general turn and disposition towards a real military discipline line of conduct, and to communicate to you the general tendency of their present and future views, in which, if I have assumed more than was necessary or to Your Excellency's wish, I have most humbly with the utmost submission to be Your Excellency will pardon an error arising, perhaps, in a too anxious disposition in me to be confirmed regarding a military point for which in that case I must stand corrected.

I must own that I am sorry to have it to say that I have found from the general condition and disposition of the Corps that they have not only ever been (particularly since the death of Captain Butler) but still are not only void of, but in general have reluctant to the present and practice of regularly military discipline, the becoming due attentions to which the Officers in general have scarcely the most distant idea of. Their manner, their education, disposition, want of practical knowledge and the time of life most of them, are insurmountable obstacles in the way to effect the necessary requisites of an established Corps.

During the course of the war, upon the service they have been employed, I believe they have ever (in general) behaved bravely and done their duty and are deserving of whatever His Majesty may be graciously pleased to favour or reward them with, but the reports heretofore made to Your Excellency during the war of their services will give an impression and more certain conclusion upon their merit and deserts than anything in my power to say here. I must not omit to observe to Your Excellency that two thirds of the private men are at present as fine fellows as ever I saw collected together, worthy of applause and by no means wanting in the customary requisites to effect in every respect good soldiers and might, should they be wanted, form a most complete small Corps of five or six Companies at 50 men per Company, and might answer every purpose that could be wished for to effect the service of this Upper Country regarding the connection with the Indians. But in that case, Officers of a real military turn should be appointed who would establish the necessary reform to their utmost expectation.

I might venture to name four or five Officers to Your Excellency, and not more to my knowledge, in the Corps who are competent to the necessary attentions of that service.

Any endeavours of Colonel Butler have been frustrated most shamefully respecting the interior detail, appointment and economy of the Corps from the incapacity or inexperience of his Officers, the Paymaster's Department excepted, which has been lately conducted by Captain McDonell. And it requires every reform possible to put the Corps in that respect upon proper military footing, but which I fear can never be established or permanent without officers capable to comprehend and conduct those matters in a manner very different from what has been practical hitherto in the Corps.

Some aspects of this report probably was not of a major concern to Haldimand for he believed:

In regard to high discipline nothing of the kind is expected, the business of a Ranger being to march well, to endure fatigue and to be a good marksman. Any time they have to spare ought to be employed in these exercises. The little minutiae and forms of parade are totally out of their province, nor can their situation admit of a possibility of their acquiring them.

The new recruit soon found that accommodation at Niagara was very limited. The fort was garrisoned by soldiers of the 8^th and 34^th Foot, the Royal Artillery, and the Royal Engineers. Buildings which were not used for storage were used as barracks, and in the early part of the war the Rangers were put up in tents and ramshackle huts outside the fort.

In 1778 Butler began construction of proper barracks on the west side of the Niagara River (now Niagara-on-the-Lake) on land which had been purchased from the Indians by Sir William Johnson after the defeat of the French in 1763. The barracks, including accommodation for Loyalists, cost £2,447/2/3½, Haldimand wrote of his concern regarding the costs for rum associated with the construction. "I cannot help expressing my surprise at a charge of £1150.13.9 in Mr Robinson's account for rum for the Rangers and workmen employed in building the Barracks, which I desire may be fully explained." An account of Robinson's for the period 11 May 1778 to 10 May 1779, records an issue of 650 gallons and 5½ pints of rum to the Rangers. Walter Butler justified the expenses in his description of the construction of the barracks:

Genesee River
8 August 1779

The following particulars relative to the building of the Ranger Barracks at Niagara, and the expenses attending the same, were made by the desire of Captain Brehm, Aide-de-Camp to His Excellency General Haldimand, Commander-Chief of the Northern Department.

On Captain Butler's arrival from Canada the latter end of August 1778 (Major Butler having arrived but a few days before from the Indian Country in a very ill state of health), he found a barrack in building and the frame nearly ready to be put up, which Colonel Bolton told him was to be a barracks for the Rangers. On finding the place very ill situated for quarters, either for Officers or men, and out of the fort, in the bottom, where in fall and spring there is half a leg deep of water and mud, and no more ground than to erect one barrack which was not sufficient quarters for the Officers; and even were there ground sufficient, such a situation no Officer could be answerable for his men in justice to the Service, from the place being open to Indians day and night, and they constantly drinking and after being troublesome when an unhappy consequence might arrive from such a number of men mixed with them, for those reasons Captain Butler waited on Major Butler, and though he was very sick, represented those matters to him. He desired Captain Butler to mention the same to Colonel Bolton. He accordingly immediately took the first opportunity to lay those things before Colonel Bolton and made free to give it as his opinion that the fort was the proper place for the Ranger barracks to be built, and that it would have a very good effect, the Rangers doing duty with the garrison as they would thereby sooner be brought to order and discipline and tend in that respect to the good of the Service.

Colonel Bolton made answer there was not sufficient room in the fort. Captain Butler said that in his humble opinion he had conceived there might still be barracks built for fifteen hundred men, but Colonel Bolton was best judge, and added as the barracks was not to be put in the fort, the place they were then going to be put would by no means answer, for the reasons before mentioned. He therefore conceived the Navy Hall side was a much better situation than the bottom, and where the men could be kept to order.

On this, the ground was viewed and the place fixed. The workmen ordered to take the timbers over the water by Captain Butler in consequence of Colonel Bolton's approbation and leave.

This was the only order given by Captain Butler relative to the building the barracks, except after the 8^th December, when he came in from the Indian Country, and then, only in such matters as related to the men on fatigue, who were not allowed a shilling.

Captain Butler, in two or three days after the ground was viewed, left Niagara and did not return till winter.

Colonel Bolton told Captain Brehm that the barracks for the Officers of the Rangers was built by him, and the expenses attending the same not included in the barrack account transmitted to the General, but paid by him. In this Captain Butler must humbly beg leave to differ, and to assure Captain Brehm that not only the expenses in building the barracks were included in the General Barrack Bill, but the tools made use of by the artificers in building the Ranger Barracks and log houses were purchased by Mr Bennett and charged in the same account, likewise the tents the Rangers were quartered in from the 8^th of December to the 18^th or 20^th January following. A number of oil cloths, part for above purposes, not a sufficient number of tents to be purchased, and part to cover barracks for Indian Officers on Niagara side, not having boards for upper floors, and if Captain Butler is not greatly mistaken, the artificers employed in repairing said barracks and putting in repair the log houses in the bottom for several Indian families, were paid in the Ranger Barracks Accounts.

The tents, on the Rangers going into the barracks, were given to a number of the Indians who came in to the succour of His Majesty's bounty, to cover them from the weather, and never have been returned. Some of the oil cloths were converted into powder bags this spring, the rest to the fort, one at the Ranger barracks, the rest at the Indian Officer's quarters. Some of the artificers were not in the Service. Such as were, belonged to the King's Regiment or Rangers and what allowance was made them will appear by the pay bills to have been as much to the former as the latter.

Whether carpenters or masons, Mr Bennett, the Master Carpenter, and Mr Campbell having the extraordinary pay, can clear up who fixed the artificer's and mason's pay much better than Captain Butler, as he knew not anything of the matters till the evening before he left Niagara for Canada in March last, when Colonel Bolton made Colonel Butler acquainted of, who declared he did not ever before that moment consider himself to have any thing to do with it. Captain Butler can declare with a safe conscience that he exerted himself in giving every assistance to the artificers and masons by turning out sometimes 150 men for fatigues and seldom less than 50 men, from the time of his coming to quarters till the barracks were habitable, and that not one of those men were paid anything, only to be allowed a gill of rum, which in so cold a season of the year, the men not half clothed, having just came in, and laying in the tents, the carrying stone from out the river on their backs (the river having rose by the great fall of rain) and others employed getting timber, making mortar and attending the workmen, &c, tendered absolutely necessary.

Captain Caldwell could have well informed Captain Lernoult of the untruth of his saying Colonel or Captain Butler, allowing the Rangers 4/ per day when put to work and which was unreasonable demand they would never have presumed to have made had either of them been there. Captain Butler gave Colonel Bolton, in writing, that the artificers employed by him repairing the barracks were not to have more than was allowed other soldiers in the garrison so employed. He had added a gill of rum each, to six only, to make them exert themselves. Every other Ranger on fatigues were ordered by him to do it as their tour of duty, and to receive neither rum nor pay. He mentioned verbally to Colonel Bolton that if Captain Brehm did not approve of the allowance of rum, he would stop it in future and pay what was given out of his own pocket.

A sketch of the plan of the barracks shows two buildings, in an "L" shape; the building at right angles to the river is the smaller of the two. Included in hollow of the "L" are what appear to be huts, perhaps houses for the Loyalist families.

Walter Butler complained in July 1780 that:

We are very ill off for barracks. The two buildings have but twenty rooms, which you know are not sufficient for the Officers of eight companies agreeable to the regulations for quarters. We are endeavouring to repair the huts and put the men into them, and likewise building others as well for the Officers and the men at our own expense. This, we think hard, and particularly so as we can't get a board, nail, or even tools to assist us.

In July 1782, a report from the Barrack Master General noted that the barracks had four rooms occupied by Butler, five occupied by officers, and 240 men were quartered in 15 rooms, 16 men to a room.

It would appear that the barracks had more than enough room to accommodate those present at Niagara, but if the whole Corps were present there, there would be a shortage of space:

At Detroit on 3 Aug 82 there were 120 men (excluding officers)
At Oswego on 9 Sep 82 there were 90 men (excluding officers)
In Fort Niagara on 1 Sep 82 there were 27 men (by counting palliasse)
In the barracks on 1 Sep 82 there were 119 men (by counting palliasse)

For a total of 356 men, with room in the actual barracks at Niagara for only 240 men.

But even this count is suspect, as a subsistence return dated 17 Oct 82 has a total rank and file of 578. The same report gives some detail as to the living conditions in the barracks:

A map dated 1790 shows the barracks located close by the river, as does the plan. The area in front of the barracks is annotated "Marsh overflows in the Spring" and is clearly shallow water. This could account for Brigadier-General Powell's comment in 1780 that "There certainly could not be found a more improper spot for the Barracks of the Rangers," although he was also expressing concern about the defensive position of the barracks.

In December 1788, John Collins, Deputy Surveyor General, reported to Sir Guy Carleton:

Of the Rangers' Barracks, one pile has been so far dismantled as to be past re-establishing; one end, indeed, might perhaps with some fitting up to be made to serve for some time as a blacksmith's shop to the Indian Department, which they say is much wanted. The other pile is capable of being repaired and might also answer the temporary purpose of accommodating (at least in part) the said Department. Their storehouses, &c, on the Niagara side, as already observed being in absolute ruins and not repairable. The fitting up of this pile of building would cost about £35.

And in 1800, a "General Statement of Public Property in this Province commencing with the year 1792 and ending in 1799" noted the final disposition of the barracks:-

The house generally called Butler's Barracks:
This house underwent a thorough repair and two wings were added for the Legislature to meet in. This house has since been burnt.

The Rangers had their share of disciplinary problems, including desertion, murder, and charges of cowardice in action. Unfortunately, only passing references to some of these problems exist, and the Court Martial files have disappeared from the records in the British Library.

In February 1781 Brigadier-General Henry Watson Powell, commanding at Niagara, transmitted a letter from Butler to Haldimand. Butler forwarded an anonymous which had been circulated in the Corps, accusing John Butler and his sons of "villainous charges." Haldimand ordered a Court Martial, and Powell charged Lieutenant Peter Ball, 2^nd Lieutenant Joseph Ferris, and Sergeant Freylick. He ordered the trial for 8 June 1781, and 14 officers from the 8^th Foot, 47^th Foot, Royal Artillery and Butler's Rangers sat in judgement. Powell acted as President.

The Court Martial papers have not survived, but a sense of the crime can be determined in the General Order:

At the General Court Martial held at Niagara on the 8^th of June 1781, Lieutenant Jacob Ball of the Corps of Rangers, tried for and answering to stir up a mutiny and sedition in said Corps, and to render the ruin of said Corps discontented, and for being concerned with Lieutenant Peter Ball, 2^nd Lieutenant Joseph Ferris and Sergeant Freylick in writing an anonymous letter directed to Brigadier General Powell, Commanding the Upper Posts, and charging Lieutenant Colonel Butler and the other Officers of said Corps with Capital Crimes, and for not behaving becoming the character of a Gentleman, is honourably acquitted of the charges against him, not being supported.

Lieutenant Peter Ball of the Corps of Rangers, tried for endeavouring to stir up a mutiny (as above) is acquitted, the Court being unanimous of opinion that he is not guilty of any of the Crimes laid to his charge.

2^nd Lieutenant Joseph Ferris (as above) is acquitted of the first and second part of the charge laid against him, but the Court think his conduct repressible, so far as it relates to his conversation with Sergeant Smith and his mode of expression in a letter, No 3, addressed to Brigadier General Powell, therefore find him guilty of breach of the 3^rd Article of the 20th Section of the Articles of War and sentence him to ask pardon of Lieutenant Colonel Butler publicly and likewise to be reprimanded in such manner as His Excellency, the Commander-in-Chief, shall be pleased to direct.

Sergeant Freylick, tried for being concerned with Lieutenants Jacob Ball and Peter Ball and 2^nd Lieutenant Ferris in writing an anonymous letter to Brigadier General Powell, Commanding the Upper Posts, and charging Lieutenant Colonel Butler and other Officers of said Corps with Capital Crimes, and to stir up a mutiny and sedition among the men of the Corps of Rangers, and for speaking disrespectfully of the Commanding Officer of the Regiment, is found guilty of the 3^rd Charge exhibited against him, and sentenced on account of the undoubted testimony of his general and good character in the Corps, and likewise on sundry occasions, only to be reduced to the ranks.

The Commander-in-Chief approves of the above sentences and directs that Lieutenants Ball be forthwith released from their arrests and that Lieutenant Ferris be made acquainted how highly displeased he is with his conduct which, however, he is willing to attribute in great measure to his inexperience.

Apparently the charge against Peter Ball dealt with his conduct while with Captain John McDonell on Sir John Johnson's raid into the Mohawk Valley:

...it appeared orders had been delivered him, sent by Captain McDonell, who commanded the Corps last fall near Fort Herkimer, for him to come up with the rear of the Regiment (where he was posted) to support the main body of the Corps there engaged with the enemy. This he refused to obey, saying, "It was too dangerous" and likewise prevented several of the men supporting Captain McDonell by telling them not to go, it was too dangerous. The Court conceived that this would not fall under the charge of stirring up a sedition and mutiny, but that it fell under a particular article of the Articles of War...Captain McDonell says from the separation that took place immediately at the affair at Fort Herkimer was the reason he was not informed why the rear did not support him as he would wish. He never, till joining the Corps this spring, knew the cause.

Butler wrote Haldimand that, "should Lieutenant Ball be acquitted for what he has been tried, the Corps will not do duty with him 'till he clear this up."

In September, Haldimand wrote of Ferris, "he is in every respect entitled to promotion as he was acquitted by a Court Martial. I think it would be unjust to stop it merely because he was in arrest when the 9th Company happened to be mustered."

A dispute between Captain George Dame and Lieutenant John Turney was also to be heard by the Court in June, but Powell was able to defuse the situation without formal charges being laid. The nature of the dispute has not been uncovered.

On the expedition to Wyoming, the first test of the newly raised Rangers, Butler was cognizant that there might be American sympathizers in the Corps, so he issued stringent orders to deal with them:

In the spring of 1778, I found it absolutely requisite for the good of His Majesty's Service, with the consent and approbation of Lieutenant Colonel Bolton, Commanding the Upper Posts, and on the application of the chiefs and warriors of the Five United Nations of Indians in alliance with the Crown, to proceed to the frontiers of the colonies in rebellion, with as many Officers and men of my Corps as were then raised, in order to protect the Indian settlements among the enemy.

The men I had raised had come from the colonies, and professed they were Loyalists; but as I then had not had an opportunity to try but very few of them, and from my situation of several hundred miles from this post (the nearest garrison to me), and on the enemy's frontiers, should any of them deserted to the enemy it would in all probability been the ruin of the whole Corps and the destruction of many of the Indians, and from their suspicious disposition would induce them to believe we were in league with the rebels to form their destruction. At any rate, it would in a great measure have ruined our interest with the Indians, and from the great offers then daily made to them by the rebels, have inclined such an unsettled people to accept of them.

From those reasons, I was under the necessity to give out in orders that should any of the Rangers desert from the Corps, the Commanding Officer should in that case immediately send out a party of Rangers and Indians with orders if the deserter or deserters were met with to fire on him or them and not to take them prisoners. By that means to make immediate examples of them. This order I found of the greatest service and prevented any desertion during my expedition to Wyoming.

Notwithstanding Butler's orders, two men absented themselves from duty and were dealt with immediately as Butler had ordered:

On my return to the Indian Country, I found the Indian villages of Ocquago and Tuscarora were threatened by the rebels. Those people applied to me for assistance. My ill state of health prevented my going in person, but I sent Captain Caldwell (the next oldest Officer present with the Corps) and as many of the Rangers as were fit for service with the enclosed instructions (the originals are in his possession).

During Captain Caldwell's stay at Ocquago, he had continued accounts of the rebel troops posted at Schoharie and Cherry Valley making preparations to attack said villages, which filled the Indians with great apprehensions. During this, Jacob Hutsinger and Peter Simmons, Rangers, deserted while on the Castle guard, and took not only their own arms, but took or destroyed two stands of arms, &c, belonging to said guard. This gave the Indians a suspicion of our good intentions towards them and a bad idea of the Rangers, and that they could expect no support from us.

Captain Caldwell was under the necessity to send out a party with instructions if they met or came up with the deserters to put in execution the above mentioned order.

This had every effect which could be wished, removing all the bad impressions made on the Indians by the enemy and prevented any deserting from my Corps in the campaigns of '78, '79 and '80, excepting two or three spies who could not be overtaken.

Richard McGinnis, a soldier in the Rangers, while acknowledging that Simmons and Hutsinger did not have permission to absent themselves, had different feeling about the incident:

While we were at Tioga, there was two men who had wives and children there that had lived somewhere down the river, the name of the place I don't remember. Their sir names were Hotsinger and the other Simmons. These two men was good subjects and had been at the Orisque battle with Colonel Butler and Captain Brant and behaved with honour to themselves. These men told me more than once that Colonel Butler had gave themselves leave to stay and go and gather in their harvest for the use of their families to support them on the road to Niagara. But on the whole Captain Caldwell would not let them go at any rate. Upon this these men, to wit Hotsinger and Simmons, took leave and went off by stealth.

Captain Caldwell immediately sent off Lieutenant Turney with a party to Tioga. When they came to Tioga they were informed by the people going to Niagara they had not seen them. When on the way back they met those unhappy men and Turney immediately gave orders to shoot them, which was executed accordingly. Their scalps were taken likewise and brought to Oughquaga and hung up at Captain Caldwell's tent.

In my judgement this was not well done, as they might have made prisoners of them.

A monthly return of the Rangers dated late in 1778, did not reflect the desertion of the two men, just recording that they were killed at Tioga on 18 August 1778. In April 1779, Henry Simmons, Peter's father was paid £12, the balance due for his son's outstanding pay.

In the late fall of 1782, Solomon Atkins, William Evans and Lewis Williams were tried by Court Martial and convicted of intending to desert. Williams had been an American deserter from Fort Pitt, who joined Captain William Johnson at Kadaragaras in June of 1782. Butler wrote that he "would not wish to keep suspected persons in the Corps as it might in all probability be detrimental to the Service, such as mine is." All three were discharged.

In February 1783, a General Court Martial was held at Quebec, and:

John Clark private soldier in Lieutenant Colonel Butler's Corps of Rangers, found guilty of Desertion, in breach of the 1^st Article of the Sixth Section of the Articles of War, sentenced to receive One Thousand Lashes with a Cat of Nine Tails on his back.

At first Clark was to remain in "the Provost Prison until he can be conveyed to his Regiment to receive the punishment allotted to him," but in November he was put on board the transport ship "Grace," to serve on a Ship of War, "in lieu of the punishment ordered him by the sentence of a General Court Martial." This appears to be the only punishment of this nature imposed on a soldier of the Rangers.

Many of the recruits probably enrolled because it was the lesser of a number of evils. They then waited for an opportune circumstance and deserted. The number of deserters is difficult to determine from the records, but at least 36 men deserted between 24 October 1778 and 1 May 1784.

In early 1782, Private John Rose, of the Rangers, and his wife were charged with the murder of Private Thomas McCormick. They were sent prisoner to Montreal. In late September they were being held in Montreal as civilian prisoners, not military. John Rose attempted to escape, but was retaken.

James Gates, being examined, says that he and the other prisoners had planned the escape for a week before. They went away and that they agreed to meet at a remarkable tree by the Tanyard, above the St Lawrence suburbs, and thence to continue by what means they were to get off the Island of Montreal.

Memorandum of What Robert Pickin Knows of John Rose's Coming and Being at His House Last Saturday Night.

First. Mrs Welch, who has a room in his house, came into his bedroom late in the night and asked if his wife was awake. He said, no, but immediately wakened her. Mrs Welch then said there is one at the door wants to speak to Mrs Rose. He wondered who it could be, but desired her to get up and see. She opened one of the front windows and looked out but seen no body. She returned and opened Mrs Welch's door and told her there was no one there. She said it was at the back door. He told her to open the window and see who it was, which she did and asked who is there and what do you want. He heard some low remark to his wife which he did not understand, nor did he hear his wife speak. But she said go about your business and do not disturb people at this hour of the night. Immediately after he heard Mrs Rose's window open and he sent his wife to see what was the Mrs Rose's room. She went and stayed some little time and while she was away, Mrs Welch came through his room and said she wanted to light a candle for that she was all in a tremble.

He seen that there was another candle lighted just afterwards and then his wife came in and lay down, upon which he asked her if there was any body at the window and who it was. She said it was Rose. He desired her to go directly and drive him from there for that he would not have him taken there (he was sure he would) for the world. She immediately went and stayed a short time and came back. He asked her if he was gone. She said, yes. She then told him that he said he was going to Quebec and would from there to Jutond...It was in this Picken' house that Rose, the prisoner confined for murder, was retaken.

John Rose, was discharged from the Rangers on 13 August 1782. Further details of the case have not been recovered.

In all, the raising and administering a Corps at a remote outpost like Niagara was a complicated and tedious undertaking. It placed tremendous burdens on the officers and non-commissioned officers, and the success of the Rangers is a reflection of their leadership. It also is indicative of the character of the private soldier who endured hardship and deprivation for seven long years.

The tremendous costs of fighting the war in the north is illustrated in a return dated 1784, in which the extraordinary expenses (that is, costs incurred because of the war) were listed. The Rangers did not come cheap.

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