History of Northampton, Massachusetts, from its settlement in 1654;

1775] REVOLUTION—PRISONERS OF WAR—TORIES, 363
needed military supplies, and immortalized the commander
of the expedition. This enterprise was conducted by men,
none of whom were residents of this valley, yet the name
of one of Northampton's honored sons is connected to some
extent with its inception and organization.
Attention was directed towards Canada in
Inception of the
Enterprise. the liope that it might be either neutralized
in the event of a war with England, or en-
listed as a'n ally, during the December session of the First
Provincial Congress. A committee was appointed to ascer-
tain the state of public opinion there, as well as to report
whatever movements were in progress in that section. Of
this committee. Major Hawley and Col. Pomeroy were
members. One of their number, John Brown of Pittsfield,
was commissioned to proceed to Canada, and ascertain the
facts. It was in one of his letters, written in March, 1775,
to the Massachusetts Committee of Safety and Correspondence,
that the first suggestion of the capture of Ticonderoga
is to be found. ^ The next step in this matter is variously
accounted for. Biographers of Col. Pomeroy assert that he
laid the plans for the capture of the place before several
members of the Provincial Congress, that in accordance
with his recommendation, Benedict Arnold was sent to the
New Hampshire Grants (Vermont), to enlist men and reduce
the place. But having some doubt about the success
of Arnold, he wrote to members of the Connecticut Legis-
lature, then in session, urging them to engage in the enter-
prise. * Though nothing has been found in the correspondence
of Col. Pomeroy, sustaining this statement, it is undoubtedly
in a measure true. As a member of the committee
under whose authority Mr. Brown undertook the
mission to Canada, as well as one of the military command-
ers of the Province, Gen. Pomeroy undoubtedly had early
intelligence of the purport of the letter of Brown, in which
the scheme was proposed. The Committee of Safety, to
whom this letter was addressed, would naturally turn to
the military commanders for advice, and as a result Pomeroy
may have sketched the plan of campaign. It was not,
1 Smith's Historj- of Pittsfield, vol. 1, p. 313.
2 American Whis Review.