Double Jeopardy: Canadians in the American Revolution

The Canadian Review of American Studies, Volume VIII, Number 2, Fall, 1977 Double Jeopardy: Canadians in the American Revolution Allan Seymour Everest. Moses Hazen and the Canadian Refugees in the American Revolution. "Published for the New York State American Revolution Bicentennial Commission." Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1976.217 + xi pp. L. F. S. Upton This book provides more than enough information about Moses Hazen and much less than could be desired about the Canadian refugees in the American Revolution. Moses Hazen (1733-1803) first made his mark as a Ranger in the Seven Years' War. A raiding force under his command destroyed St. Anne's (on the site of the future Fredericton) in January, 1759, with a ferocity that the regular army of the day found excessive. When peace came in 1763, Hazen set off on a variety of land speculations, along the middle Saint John River, in the Coos area of the future Vermont, and in Quebec, where he settled. In August, 1764, he and Colonel Gabriel Christie jointly purchased the two seigneuries on the upper Richelieu River, and Hazen managed them both. He was soon in and out of court on a number of civil matters - he showed a tendency to poach timber, for one thing - and by 1770 Christie insisted on dissolving their partnership. The resulting division left Hazen the seigneur of Bleury-Sud, with land holdings around St. John, Quebec. Although all his personal property had been sold for debt in I770, he was able to build himself a twenty room mansion and was operating two saw mills, a forge and an ashery when war came again. According to his own unsubstantiated account, Hazen was offered a commission by Governor Carleton in 1775. He carried despatches to Gage in Boston and was authorized to raise troops to defend Quebec. He also visited the rebel General Schuyler. By September, 1775, neither side trusted him. Again by his own account, he was captured by an American patrol, and re-taken by the British who sent him off to Montreal as a prisoner. I8I ; Refusing further generous offers from Carleton, he was freed from jail , when American forces captured the town. The next thing Everest records ofhimis that he "escaped capture during the attack on Quebec." By the endof 1775 Hazen was totally committed to the rebel cause. In January ofthefollowing year Congress appointed him Colonel of the newly created Second Canadian Regiment; the first, recruited by James Livingston in 1 theearly days of the invasion, was eventually combined with Hazen's 1 regiment. Authorized to raise 1,000 men, Hazen claimed to have enlisted 250 Canadians by April, and was allowed to fill the ranks with Americans. "Hazen'sInfernals;' as the regiment came to be known, was a Congressional force without state affiliation, officered and paid by the Continental Congress. Its numbers fluctuated but never exceeded five hundred, half itsestablishment. It took part in several notable American defeats in 1777: , atStatenIsland, Brandywine, and Germantown. One hundred of its men were detailed to attend the hanging of Major John Andre, the British agent whohad, incidentally, described their commander as a man who "may behad. He is artful and enterprising." Baron von Steuben generally approvedof the regiment, which had a low desertion rate, at least among itsCanadian members who had nowhere to go. Hazen's men marched backand forth across the United States for years while their commander projected one invasion of Canada after another. They had a shoot-out with someLoyalists in Westchester early in 1781 and were present at the surrenderof Yorktown. Themotley nature of the Canadian Regiment can be seen from its roll in1781: 496 men, of whom 279 were described as "Congressional" soldiers, thatis non-Americans. The remaining troops were drawn from ten of the 1, thirteenstates, with Pennsylvanians the most numerous. Those who came from Massachusetts and Connecticut received their pay and clothing regularlyfrom their home states, but everyone else was dependent on the sporadicbounty of Congress. American and Canadian officers quarreled, andthe two groups were organized in separate companies. There was no promotionbecause that was done on a quota basis by state, and there wasno state for Hazen's men. He himself, after much...