1. Brig. Gen. James Clinton’s letter to Schuyler dated 3 May has not been identified. The copy of GW’s letter has not been found, but see GW to New York governor George Clinton, 15 April, and n.1.

George Clinton had written Schuyler from Poughkeepsie, N.Y., on 16 April: “I take the Liberty of inclosing you a Copy of a Letter I have this Moment received from his Excellency Genl. Washington, together with a Copy of the Intelligence therein alluded to communicated by Mr. Fish & of requesting that you will be pleased to make the use of it proposed by the General conducting the Business in the Manner mentioned in his Letter. I am not personally acquainted with either Fish or Harris, but have some Reason to believe they may be both confided in. Fish is Sensible & I immagine will observe a proper Degree of Secrecy on the Occassion. … In addition to the Reward to Harris & Fish promised by the Genl. I have added a Promise in Behalf of the State, of something Handsome in Case of Success, to which I am perswaded you will contribute by every means in your Power” (Hastings and Holden, Clinton Papers description begins Hugh Hastings and J. A. Holden, eds. Public Papers of George Clinton, First Governor of New York, 1777–1795, 1801–1804. 10 vols. 1899–1914. Reprint. New York, 1973. description ends , 6:770–71).

Schuyler wrote George Clinton from Saratoga on Friday, 4 May: “Under cover of a letter from General Clinton of yesterday’s date, I had the honor to receive your Excellency’s favor of the 16th ult: with the several inclosures; both were delivered me by Mr. Fish, whom I have known for some years past as a man of good moral character and firmly attatched to the cause of his country; Harris is an utter stranger to me; Fish informs me that since his return, Harris met, on the 29th ult: at Kingsbury with Thomas Sherwood and John Scouten, who had on that day arrived, from the enemy’s shipping at Crown Point, but received no packet from them; they informed him they had come in order to prevail on some of the inhabitants to go to Canada; that a part of their party, was gone to the Scotch Patent, and another party to Palmertown; that he learnt from some of the inhabitants that a large number of the soldiers now here waited the arrival of a party from the enemy to mutiny, go off and join them; that the Grants had a body of men in readiness to march to Fort Edward and Skensborough as soon as the Committee which is to meet on Tuesday next have consented to a union with the grants. I have requested Fish to send for Harris and to meet me at this place on the 7th instant; when he arrives I shall carefully examine him, and if I find him intelligent, and have no reason to suspect that he is an imposture, shall put him into a train to acquire the full confidence of the enemy, that we may avail ourselves of any information he may receive, and obtain possession of any packets he may be intrusted with, which will be disposed of agreable to the general’s request.

“When I reflect that the people of the Grants are chiefly emigrants from the eastern states, that they have left behind them, their Fathers, Brothers, sons, and other relations, who must in common with others feel the consequences of their defecton from the common cause, I do not know how to beleive that they are in league with the enemy.” Continuing his letter, Schuyler reported that “Tories are removing from all quarters to reside” within “the Grants,” intelligence that caused him to question their “political virtue.” He promised to “spare neither pains nor expence to sift it to the bottom.

“That the enemy intend to take post more to the south than were they are at present, I really believe, but I cannot imagine they mean permanently to do it on this side of Lake George,—should they fortify there at present, it must evidently be, with a design to take advantage of any movements of Sir Harry Clinton. A few days ago, I advised General Clinton that some of the British ships were arrived at Crown Point; as soon as I received that intelligence, I dispatched a trusty person, who will probably go on board, and learn as much of the enemy’s intentions as the officers on board will communicate to him, whom they believe a Royalist, I expect his return by the 10th instant at farthest, and shall communicate to your Excellency the result of his enquiries. …

“The garrisson here has now been ten days without any meat, except what they procure by maroding; every eatable animal in this part of the Country is already expended, not a single scout can be kept out, and I fear that Harris’s last account will speedily be verified, and that a great majority of the troops here will go off to the enemy, (they may move leisurely to Fort George or Skensborough and be there received into the enemies boats) unless provision is instantly procured for them. …

“I learn that the French troops are to march to the North river; if so General Washington may perhaps spare the remainder of our state line and some additional troops; should that be his intention, and your Excellency advised of it, let me intreat you to give me the earliest noti[c]e of it, that I may make the proper use of it amongst the inhabitants” (Hastings and Holden, Clinton Papers description begins Hugh Hastings and J. A. Holden, eds. Public Papers of George Clinton, First Governor of New York, 1777–1795, 1801–1804. 10 vols. 1899–1914. Reprint. New York, 1973. description ends , 6:840–43). For John Fish’s statement, see Hastings and Holden, Clinton Papers description begins Hugh Hastings and J. A. Holden, eds. Public Papers of George Clinton, First Governor of New York, 1777–1795, 1801–1804. 10 vols. 1899–1914. Reprint. New York, 1973. description ends , 6:844–45. Schuyler’s letter to George Clinton on 15 May does not mention intelligence from Crown Point (see Hastings and Holden, Clinton Papers description begins Hugh Hastings and J. A. Holden, eds. Public Papers of George Clinton, First Governor of New York, 1777–1795, 1801–1804. 10 vols. 1899–1914. Reprint. New York, 1973. description ends , 6:880–81).

Harris, who then resided at Queensbury, N.Y., swore an affidavit at Warren County, N.Y., on 16 Aug. 1832: “That he was employed in the Secret Service of the United States … in the Month of February 1781, that he went as far North as Kingsbury Washington County N.Y. that while their he fell in Company with a party of Tories, and feigning himself with them in Sentiment he obtained their Confidence, and was entrusted with Packages to Carry from one post to another, all of which was first Submited to General Schyler—That he obtained information that the Enemy were Marching from Canada … that he Made a Statement of their Movements as near as he Could ascertain, and with a Package on the Same Subject, from Canada to the Tories went to Easton Washington County N.Y. before he Could find a Man that he dare entrust with them he there employed Mr John Fish to Carry them to General Schyler in Albany N.Y. That General Schyler after perusing Said Report and documents Contained in Said Package, Sent for him to devise Some means to have a Letter taken to the Governor of Canada, that he volunteered his Service for that purpose—that General Schyler there wrote a Letter Superscribed and directed to General Washington Congratulating him with the news of the destruction of Rodneys Fleet and Stating that by Calling in General Starks Brigade he might have Spared Several More Regimts for the invasion of Canada and other Circumstances calculated to deceive the Enemy—that he immediately Returned to Kingsbury and their engaged a Tory who held a Commission under the Government of Great Britian to transmit the same to Canada as a prize or an intercepted Letter—on the Reception of which … the Governor immediately Countermanded his Orders and directed the Troops to Return—that he Continued in Said Service until the Month of October following” (DNA: RG 15, Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files, 1800–1900; see also Nagy, Secret Spy War description begins John A. Nagy. George Washington’s Secret Spy War: The Making of America’s First Spymaster. New York, 2016. description ends , 183–85).

2. Schuyler again wrote GW on this date: “the Inclosed is the paper which I mentioned In my Letter of this day and which I had forgot to Inclose” (ALS, DLC:GW; the cover is addressed to GW at New Windsor). The enclosure has not been identified, but it probably relayed the same intelligence that Schuyler sent Clinton (see n.1 above; see also Schuyler to GW, 9 May, DLC:GW).

3. Vermont militia major general Ethan Allen had gone to New York in summer 1780. He entered into negotiations with Quebec governor Frederick Haldimand and other British officials for prisoner exchanges. Some suspected that Allen and other Vermonters made these overtures to establish Vermont as a British province, and Allen came under treason accusations. The origins of the Haldimand correspondence were divulged to the Vermont general assembly in April 1781 to clear Allen of wrongdoing. Allen demonstrated that he rejected the British propositions but also declared: “That Vermont has an indubitable right to agree on terms of cessation of hostilities with Great Britain, provided the United States persist in rejecting her application for a union with them” (Walton, Vermont Records description begins E. P. Walton, ed. Records of the Governor and Council of the State of Vermont. 8 vols. Montpelier, 1873–80. description ends , 2:90–92, quote on 90; see also John Mercereau to GW, 8–9 July 1780, source note, and GW to Mercereau, 12 July 1780; Schuyler to GW, 31 Oct.–1 Nov. and 12 Nov. 1780; and James Clinton to GW, 12 Nov. 1780).

Lord George Germain wrote Haldimand from Whitehall (London) on 12 April 1781: “All late accounts from New York give the strongest reasons to expect Ethan Allen and the people of Vermont are taking their measures very judiciously for a general declaration in our favour as soon as the season will permit you to send a body of troops among them; and as it is not in the power of the Congress to send any of their continental troops against them and the militia have lately shown great backwardness in answering their calls, I am not without hopes that our numerous friends about Albany will find means of connecting themselves with the Vermont people and that the whole of that district will return to the King’s obedience, which must have the greatest effect in extinguishing the rebellion.” (Davies, Documents of the American Revolution description begins K. G. Davies, ed. Documents of the American Revolution, 1770–1783; (Colonial Office Series). 21 vols. Shannon and Dublin, 1972–81. description ends , 20:109–12, quote on 110). When Germain wrote Gen. Henry Clinton from Whitehall on 2 May, he expressed hope that Allen “is acting under General Haldimand’s directions and that when the season admits of the General’s sending up a body of troops into Vermont the inhabitants will declare for the King, which with the reduction of the southern provinces must give the death wound to the rebellion notwithstanding any assistance the French may be able to give it; and if that were the case, a general peace would soon follow and this country be delivered from the most burthensome and extensive war it was ever engaged in” (Davies, Documents of the American Revolution description begins K. G. Davies, ed. Documents of the American Revolution, 1770–1783; (Colonial Office Series). 21 vols. Shannon and Dublin, 1972–81. description ends , 20:131–33, quote on 133).

4. In an effort to “settle the Boundaries between” New York “and the adjacent colonies,’ commissioners in 1664 “determined that a line parallel to Hudson’s River at twenty miles distance from it on the east side thereof should divide the two provinces of New York and Massachusetts Bay from each other.” A similar line east of the Hudson was declared as the boundary between New York and Connecticut and was to apply to all New England colonies (Vt. Hist. Soc. Col. description begins Collections of the Vermont Historical Society. 2 vols. Montpelier, 1870–71. description ends , 2:506–7). In later jurisdiction and boundary disputes involving New York and New Hampshire, it was argued that New Hampshire’s western boundary should correspond to the western boundaries of Massachusetts and Connecticut. That land figured in the disputes between inhabitants of Vermont and the surrounding states (see n.5 below; see also Notes on the Territorial Claim of New Hampshire, in Madison Papers description begins William T. Hutchinson et al., eds. The Papers of James Madison, Congressional Series. 17 vols. Chicago and Charlottesville, Va., 1962–91. description ends , 2:84–86).

5. George Clinton and congressional delegates from New York steadily opposed Vermont statehood (see Thomas Chittenden to Clinton, 22 Nov. 1780, and Clinton to the New York assembly, 5 Feb. 1781, in Walton, Vermont Records description begins E. P. Walton, ed. Records of the Governor and Council of the State of Vermont. 8 vols. Montpelier, 1873–80. description ends , 2:266–67; and New York Delegates’ Memorial, 3 Aug. 1781, in Smith, Letters of Delegates description begins Paul H. Smith et al., eds. Letters of Delegates to Congress, 1774–1789. 26 vols. Washington, D.C., 1976–2000. description ends , 17:468–71; see also Walton, Vermont Records description begins E. P. Walton, ed. Records of the Governor and Council of the State of Vermont. 8 vols. Montpelier, 1873–80. description ends , 2:267–73, 296–307, and Gerlach, Proud Patriot description begins Don R. Gerlach. Proud Patriot: Philip Schuyler and the War of Independence, 1775–1783. Syracuse, N.Y., 1987. description ends , 466–69, 474–75). A congressional resolution adopted on 20 Aug. 1781 required the settlement of land claims as “an indispensible preliminary to the recognition of the independence of the people inhabiting the territory called Vermont, and their admission into the federal union” (JCC description begins Worthington Chauncey Ford et al., eds. Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789. 34 vols. Washington, D.C., 1904–37. description ends , 21:887).

6. See James Clinton to GW, 30 April–1 May, and n.3 to that document.

7. GW replied to Schuyler on 14 May (DLC:GW).