llet, and Major
Cochran, marched from fort Schuyler on the morning of the 19th of
April, at the head of between five and six hundred men; and, on the
third day, reached the point of destination. The whole settlement was
destroyed, after which the detachment returned to fort Schuyler
without the loss of a single man. For this handsome display of talents
as a partisan, the thanks of congress were voted to Colonel Van
Schaick, and the officers and soldiers under his command.

[Sidenote: Expedition against the Indians meditated.]

The cruelties exercised by the Indians in the course of the preceding
year, had given a great degree of importance to the expedition now
meditated against them; and the relative military strength and
situation of the two parties, rendered it improbable that any other
offensive operations could be carried on by the Americans in the
course of the present campaign. The army under the command of Sir
Henry Clinton, exclusive of the troops in the southern department, was
computed at between sixteen and seventeen thousand men. The American
army, the largest division of which lay at Middlebrook, under the
immediate command of General Washington, was rather inferior to that
of the British in real strength. The grand total, except those in the
southern and western country, including officers of every description,
amounted to about sixteen thousand. Three thousand of these were in
New England under the command of General Gates; and the remaining
thirteen thousand were cantoned on both sides the North River. The
bare statement of numbers, must show the incompetency of the American
army to the expulsion of the British from either New York or Rhode
Island. On their part, therefore, the plan of the campaign was,
necessarily, defensive; and the hazards and difficulties attending the
execution of even a defensive plan were considerable.

Independent of an extensive coast, at all places accessible to the
invading army, the Hudson, penetrating deep into the country which was
to be the theatre of action, gave great advantages in their military
operations to those who commanded the water.

After the destruction of forts Clinton and Montgomery in 1777, it had
been determined to construct the fortifications intended for the
future defence of the North River, at West Point, a position which,
being more completely embosomed in the hills, was deemed more
defensible. The works had been prosecuted with unremitting indust