CHAPTER XXXIII.. The Hiring of Foreign Soldiers and Employment of Indians

THE HIRING OF FOREIGN SOLDIERS AND EMPLOYMENT OF INDIANS IN THE CIVIL WAR 72-84

The policy of the British Ministry in employing foreign soldiers and Indians in the war with the Colonies deprecated by all classes in England and America and throughout Europe 72

Violent opposition in Parliament to the hiring of foreign troops; exasperation in the Colonies (in a note) 73

Unreliable and bad character of the Hessian mercenaries 74

Remarks upon the bad policy of employing them, and their bad conduct, by the royal historian (in a note) 74

The employment of Indians still more condemned and denounced than the hiring of foreign troops 74

Employment of Indians by both the French and English during the war of 1755-63, between France and England 75

At the close of the war the French authorities recommended the Indians to cultivate the friendship of England 75

Both Congress and the English sought the alliance and co-operation of the Indians; misstatements of the Declaration of Independence on this subject (in a note); the advantages of the latter over the former in conciliating the Indians 75

The employment of the Indians in every respect disadvantageous to England 76

English Generals in America individually opposed to the employment of the Indians in the military campaigns 76

Failure, if not defeat, of General Burgoyne's army by the bad conduct, and desertion, of his Indian allies 76

But Washington and Congress, as well as the English Government, sanctioned the employment of the Indians in the war, and the first idea of thus employing them originated with the first promoters of revolution in Massachusetts 77

Omissions of American writers to state that the aggressions and retaliations of the Congress soldiers and their coadjutors far exceeded in severity and destruction the aggressions and retaliations of the Indians on the white inhabitants 77

Many letters and biographies of actors in the Revolution show that very much of what was written or reported during the Revolution against the English Loyalists and Indians was fictitious or exaggerated 78

Proceedings of the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts (before the affairs of Concord and Lexington) to enlist and employ the Indians against the British 79

General Washington, under date of July 27th, 1776, recommends the employment of Indians in the revolutionary cause 80

The Americans have no ground of boasting over the English in regard to the employment of Indians and their acts during the war 81

Efforts of General Burgoyne to restrain the Indians, who were an incumbrance to his army, and whose conduct alienated great numbers of Loyalists from the British cause 82

The conduct and dread of the Indians roused great numbers to become recruits in General Gates' army, and thus rendered it far more numerous than the army of General Burgoyne (in a note) 83

American invasion and depredations in the Indian country the latter part of 1776, as stated by Dr. Ramsay 84

The invasion unprovoked, but professedly as a "precaution" to "prevent all future co-operation between the Indians and British in that quarter" bordering in Virginia, North and South Carolina, and Georgia 84

Complete destruction of Indian settlements; their country a desolation 84