"Isaac Rice."

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.

Upon arriving at Stockbridge, in the province of Massachusetts, he
learned that another expedition had set out--that is to say the same one
Corporal 'Lige and Isaac accompanied--and after engaging officers and
men to the number of fourteen he hastened onward, overtaking the militia
as Isaac has said.

In this camp where military discipline was conspicuous by its absence,
the recruits, who had learned within the hour what had been decided upon
the night previous by the council of war, soon ascertained the position
which the officer from New Haven claimed, and knew exactly what he
proposed to do by virtue of his commission.

Even though the men had not learned such facts from their officers,
those recruits who accompanied Colonel Arnold would have at once made
the matter public.

At about the time Isaac finished the letter to his mother the encampment
was in a state bordering on insubordination.

Colonel Arnold's recruits raised in Stockbridge insisted that their
leader should command the forces, not only because he was authorized to
do so, but owing to the fact that he had the money and ammunition
necessary to carry out the plan, while the members of Colonel Allen's
regiment, known as the Green Mountain Boys were equall