On December 27 Major Robert Mathews, who had received a promotion, ordered Justus to go to the Loyal Blockhouse with Dr. Smyth to send out scouting parties.1 Haldimand wanted a confirmation or denial that Cornwallis had surrendered. If the British army had been captured, His Excellency needed to know what General George Washington and his French allies would do next. Justus and Hudibras set off in a sleigh for the outpost. Reporting to Mathews on January 16 1782, Justus wrote ‘I wish you a pleasant and agreeable succession of three score and five New Years, which I think is enough for this transitory state’. This salutation was for Haldimand, sixty-five years old at the time. Justus continued:
I mean to include the present which I hope you enjoyed with more satisfaction, and less embarrassment than the Doctor and me, poreing over our accounts or wadeing through the snow (from 7 in the morning to 11 at night) to assist the scouting parties to make ready2
The snow, he reported, was very deep and light. A man on snowshoes sank to his knees, and walking outdoors was nearly impossible. Once several parties were out, Justus made a journey to Montreal to purchase equipment he needed for his post. On his return he declared to Mathews that the rumours of a British surrender at Yorktown were merely a ‘Whiggish plot’.3 He soon had cause to eat those words. Scouts came in with reports of a troop build up at Albany, cannon stock-piled at Hartford, Connecticut, and a supply of uniforms at Poughkeepsie, on the lower Hudson River.
The intelligence Justus now sought was whether Washington would decide to attack Canada, turn his attention to the garrison at New York City, or coerce Vermont. However, French troops were wintering in Albany, a matter certain to alarm Haldimand. Justus urged his scouts to bring in firm information on where Washington would strike next. By February morale at the Loyal Blockhouse sagged, and a much fatigued Dr. Smyth returned to Fort St. Johns. Justus himself was exhausted and on the 7th he told Mathews:
As most of my men expect to have little else but secret service to do, and I am not allow'd any rum to give them on fatigue, nor horses to draw provisions, I have no other way to keep up their spirits but to promise them pay for the wood and to work with them like a burly fellow, which I do every day from morning to night till I am thoroughly weary4
A source of dissatisfaction for Justus was the garrulity of certain scouts. At the end of January, Ensign Roger Stevens, King's Rangers, had arrived from Arlington with five prisoners. One, Joseph Randall, from Claremont, professed to be a loyalist, and Justus allowed him to remain at the blockhouse, working with the garrison, until Haldimand decided whether he would be an acceptable resident agent. Justus sent Stevens to Quebec City with a packet, and on February 14, Mathews complained that this courier was very indiscreet. The news of his presence and the content of his packet was known all over the city.5 Writing to Dr. Smyth, still at Fort St. Johns, Justus admitted:
It is easy to trace the source of this unpardonable conduct – Messengers arrive, and the inquisitive and impertinent flock around them for news. They sit down together to pass the evening, and over their glasses make the Business they have been upon the topic of conversation – From there they retire to their Homes and renew the subject with their wives & families – By the first post or express, it is conveyed all over the Country, no matter whether by Friends or Enemies, the effect is the Same.6
The fireplaces in the blockhouse devoured wood, and each day Justus detailed four men to cut three quarters of a cord each, to be measured by a sergeant and reported to the officer of the day. Officers' servants were required to help with the cutting, loading and unloading of wood and supplies from sleighs, or from boats when the lake was open. In fact, only occasionally did an officer have a servant, but Justus thought the item read well when he posted his instructions to the garrison. He wished he had someone to care for him, but Simon Bothum needed the two slaves still in New Haven, Sarah the help of Caesar Congo.
Serving in his company was Private John Jacobs, whose country of origin was listed as Africa, to Justus more diplomatic than calling him a negro, as other officers did when preparing their muster rolls.7 One method of obtaining recruits popular with certain agents was luring slaves to desert their owners with the promise of their freedom once the rebellion had been crushed. Some officers used black men as servants, but Justus respected Private Jacobs' wish to be a soldier.
The danger of fire was a constant worry, and Justus posted this order:
As it appears that the fires of the different rooms frequently roll onto the floor to the great danger of the garrison, a corporal of the guard will inspect the fires of the Block House & the old and new Bake rooms at 11 o'clock every evening; at one o'clock & five o'clock every morning.8
The cooking rooms were in a separate building to reduce the risk of setting the blockhouse afire.
Breaches of discipline were rare among the members of the garrison, for they knew they were working for an officer whom the governor held in high regard. Justus coped with minor offenses with a good scolding, a few threats, or occasionally the back of his hand, never a formal hearing followed by a flogging at the sergeants' halberts. That was for regulars, many of whom had been pressed into the service in the taverns of England.
Money was a headache for Justus, who had to send his accounts to the Château St. Louis and have them approved before he could draw public funds. Haldimand perused all the items, criticising many expenditures. In consequence, Justus' men's pay tended to be in arrears, and he was chronically short of supplies. His agents expected two shillings and sixpence a day when on missions, but Haldimand felt that this was excessive. Mathews informed him that His Excellency was displeased at ‘the vast expense you have incurred on that service by paying such high wages to persons regularly subsisted and provisioned by Government.’9 When Justus suggested the men accept less, they refused to go out, and he could not blame them. They were risking their lives, and he supplemented what Haldimand allowed from his own slender purse.
The account book he kept was a mixture of public and private expenditures. Some bills he paid with government funds, others from his own wages. Some items were payments to scouts for their expenses while in rebel territory, others for clothing such as overalls, shirts or materials — coating, binding, thread, buttons and lining. As the spring advanced, the Loyal Blockhouse was becoming the focus of a small community, and a few cabins mushroomed around the post. The residents were refugees, eager to earn a few shillings to avoid accepting government handouts, which pleased Haldimand, who wanted all who were able-bodied to support themselves. Some of the items in Justus' account book were payments to women for washing, cooking and sewing.
Meanwhile, many parties of scouts were out on snowshoes. Joseph Bettys, accompanied by Jonathan Miller and John Parker, had left the blockhouse. Bettys was to go to New York City with a dispatch for Sir Henry Clinton, the others to stay around Albany gathering information on what the French were doing. David Crowfoot had left for Arlington to visit Elnathan Merwin to find out what he knew of Washington's plans for Canada, and with dispatches for Ethan Allen. Then Justus heard that John Walden Meyers was at Pointe au Fer on a mission to Albany but temporarily halted because one of his party had fallen ill and he was awaiting a replacement. Justus sent a courier to order Meyers stopped. He had not reported at the Loyal Blockhouse. Next Justus wrote to Mathews, enquiring why Meyers had not obeyed his orders.
Mathews communicated Sherwood's displeasure to Dr. Smyth at Fort St. Johns, who replied that he thought he was responsible for scouts going into New York, while Justus was in charge of those going into Vermont or parts of New England.10 Hudibras was being mischievous, asserting his right to send scouts out on his own initiative, when he knew which man was the deputy. He promised Justus that in future he would have all scouts he dispatched report to the blockhouse. The air cleared, Justus ordered Meyers to proceed. His mission was a worthy one, for Smyth's network of spies around Albany was in ruins. Many of his informers were in prison or had fled to Canada, and Meyers was going in search of new resident agents.
Late in March, Justus received permission from Mathews to allow Joseph Randall, who had been brought to the blockhouse as a prisoner by Roger Stevens, to return home as a resident agent. Mathews suggested that Justus let Randall escape, since a parole might make his neighbours suspicious. Randall had been staying in a hut in the woods, helping to cut wood. The man Justus sent to find Randall reported that he had already complied with Mathews' order:
a-hunting with Joseph White from Coos he had taken the first opportunity to run away. Randel left his fuzee & ammunition at the hut and only took a pr. of Snowshoes, Hatchet, and two days provision of the King's property with him, but the manner of going away fully contradicts his pretended Loyalty. A Whining designing Yankee Scoundrel like too many others.11
Early in April, a scout brought word that Joseph Bettys and John Parker had been captured and were lying in the basement of the Town Hall in Albany, where prisoners were confined because the gaol was full. Jonathan Miller, who had been travelling with them, escaped and was making for the Loyal Blockhouse.12 Justus sent an express courier to Quebec City to report to Mathews. From Fort St. Johns, Dr. Smyth wrote that he was certain Bettys would be hanged because the rebels had found his dispatch. Mathews ordered Justus to have Bettys and Parker exchanged.
Ensign Bettys of the King's Rangers was entitled to be treated as a prisoner of war, and Justus was to promise that Haldimand would retaliate if the rebels executed the two agents. ‘The war,’ Mathews wrote, ‘has not furnished a single instance where a Prisoner has suffered Death in this Province.’13 Justus sent a scout speeding towards Albany, offering to exchange any men the rebels wanted for Bettys and Parker. His efforts were in vain, and his two agents mounted the scaffold before a jeering crowd. A pall of gloom descended over the Loyal Blockhouse. Bettys was a scamp, but a lovable one whose daring the others much admired.
The circumstances of Bettys' capture were typical of the man. He stopped to visit a friend near Ballstown, and while they were seated at dinner, Joe's rifle over his arm, three men broke down the door. Bettys had not bothered to remove the deerskin cover that protected the firelock from damp and the rifle was useless, but he had presence of mind enough to ask for permission to smoke. As Joe leaned over the hearth to light a taper, his captors noticed something drop into the flames. They retrieved a small, thin metal box which contained a paper with a message in cypher and an order for the courier to receive a sum of money when he delivered it.14 Joe begged them to let him burn the paper, and offered his captors one hundred guineas, but they refused. The combination of carelessness and wit was characteristic of Bettys; the tiny box was typical of Justus' efforts to make his packets easy to conceal. The metal box was Joe's undoing, for it preserved the message which otherwise would have been burnt before the rebels could rescue it.
That spring of 1782, Seth Sherwood returned to Fort Edward on parole, despite Dr. Smyth's objections. Justus never mentioned escorting his rebel uncle to Skenesborough, but often he simply recorded the numbers being returned. In Seth's case, his nephew's own embarrassment was sufficient reason for avoiding any reference to him. Another man sent home was Colonel Thomas Johnson, to Newbury in eastern Vermont, as a resident agent.
As the trees were turning green, Justus received more assurances that Vermont would soon declare for reunion. He tried to believe them, but he feared that the Congress might in time be persuaded to admit Vermont as the fourteenth state. In spite of all his patience, was he destined to be a lifelong exile from the pretty land he loved? The spring of 1782 was a very low point in Justus' life, yet bitterness did not surface in his writings.
The British could pack up and sail away when they had had enough, abandoning the loyalists. On March 20 an election in Britain toppled Lord North's Conservative Ministry and brought in a flock of doves under Lord Rockingham, seeking peace at any price. Because Cornwallis had failed at Yorktown, the mother country was ready to quit, and Justus' own people would be the losers. Whatever the future held, he no longer had much cause for optimism.