"The corporal says I am to give you his dutiful compliments, and to say that if his life is spared, by the blessing of God, he will capture Ticonderoga before we come back.
"As for me, I wish I was at home now, though it will be a fine thing if we do what the old man says is our duty in these times, without being hanged.
"I haven't yet found out why people think there is so much honor to be gained in being a soldier. To my mind it's much like any other way of running around the country; but the corporal says if he had the management of affairs things would be different, because he'd keep the men right up to their work, though I don't see how it could well be done. For my part, I shouldn't carry a musket over my shoulder when I was lame and tired just because any man said so. It would be as well whatever fashion I lugged it, providing the labor was lessened; but the corporal says it would make all the difference in the world if we marched the same as we would at a muster.
"I love you all very much, and shall be precious glad to find myself at home again.
In this letter the young recruit, who although having enjoyed the teachings of Corporal 'Lige, was certainly not a soldier at heart, has told the main facts in the case regarding the halt of the militia at Castleton; but it will be observed that his modesty was too great to permit of his mentioning the brave part he played in the rescue of Corporal 'Lige from the Tories.
He has failed, however, most probably through ignorance, in giving Colonel Arnold's authority for claiming his right to lead the expedition.
That officer had brought to Cambridge from New Haven a company of which he was the captain, and upon arriving there at once reported to the Massachusetts Committee of Safety that it would be possible, before the forts had been reinforced, to seize the works at Ticonderoga and Crown Point with a comparatively small body of men.
He proceeded to organize an expedition for such a purpose, and to this end was supplied with the money and munitions of war mentioned by Isaac, together with a colonel's commission, which gave him the chief command of troops, not exceeding four hundred in number, which he might raise to accompany him against the lake fortresses.