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CHAPTER XXII

LATER MILITARY OPERATIONS

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EFORE a State government was organized in
Vermont, military operations were carried on

largely under the direction of a Board of War, or Council of Safety. Among the first acts of the first Legislature were several measures relating to the conduct of the war. Major Fletcher, Lieut. Thomas Jewett and Capt. John G. Bayley were appointed a committee to devise measures for raising men to defend the frontiers of the State. Seth Warner was appointed a Brigadier General and Samuel Fletcher was made a Brigade Major. The pay of the soldiers was increased to four pounds a month. It was voted to place certain Tories in close confinement, and the Council was empowered to dispose of Tory estates and to deposit in the State treasury the money received from the sale of such lands. At the session of the Legislature held in June, 1778, it was voted to comply with the request of General Stark that a subaltern and twenty men be raised to guard the stores at Bennington; that a guard of one hundred men from Colonel Bedel's regiment be sent to guard the frontiers on the west side of the Green Mountains; that a sixth part of the militia south of Danby and Pawlet be sent immediately to guard the frontiers of the State; that twenty men be raised to guard the frontiers "from White River to Strafford and Corinth, to the lakes, etc."; that four pounds and forty shillings be allowed each soldier; that Col. Peter Olcott, Bezaleel Woodward, Major Griswold, Patterson Piermont and Major Taylor be appointed Judges of the Superior Court "for the banishment of Tories, etc."; that a committee be ap

pointed to see what should be done with Tory women and children.

At the third legislative session held in 1778, it was voted to pay all Vermont men, commissioned officers and soldiers raised for defence "for the present campaign,' fifty shillings per month in addition to the amount paid by the Continental Congress. From time to time other laws were enacted relative to the conduct of the war so far as it related to Vermont. Upon the organization of the State government in 1778, Rutland was selected as headquarters for the Vermont troops and Capt. Gideon Brownson was appointed commander of the forces stationed there. A fort was built of unhewn hemlock logs, or pickets, the lower end set in a trench five feet deep, standing fifteen feet above ground, and sharpened at the top. Between these pickets, on the inside of the fort, logs standing eight feet high were set upright. The fort was elliptical in form, and enclosed There were plank gates on the east and west sides, and a wicket gate used by occupants going out to draw water from Otter Creek. In the northwest corner stood a blockhouse of hewn logs, thirty by forty feet in size, two stories high, the upper story projecting two feet, with horizontal and perpendicular portholes. Sentry boxes were erected in the northeast and southwest corners, officers' barracks on the north side and soldiers' barracks on the south side. The accommodations were sufficient for a force of two hundred or three hundred men. Fort Ranger, as it was called, continued to be the headquarters of the State troops until the presence of a British force on Lake Champlain in

two acres or more.

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