171 | To Jeffery Amherst

    Castle William Nov 6. 1762.

    Sr.

    As the recruiting for the regulars is proposed to be continued thro’ the Winter by such officers as will be willing to engage in it without pay, it will be necessary to establish a place of head quarters at the barracks here, to which the recruits may be returned; and to have an officer with a small party of about 12 men to keep guard. For this purpose, If you should approve of this, I would submit to you an easy method of doing it. By the returns from Crown point I learn that the recruits reenlisted for the Winter service there fall short of the Number by 27 men. I am desirous of making this deficiency good, but should be glad to avoid sending them across the Country, now the Winter is begun. I would therefore out of the 27 men to be raised here retain a Serjeant & 12 men ^as a guard^ for the recruits; and as Lt Miller is engaged for the Winter Service at Halifax, I would with your leave retain him here as Commanding Officer of the recruiting party. Without some such appointment as this, I know not how the Recruits can be taken care of: for the Garrison of the Fort is so small, that I cannot detach a Guard for the Barracks from thence. The rest of the 27 I would send to Halifax, if you approve of it upon account of the greater Ease of transporting them. I have had no returns as yet from Halifax; so can only hope that the Winter party there is fully recruited. I shall wait your directions concerning this; & before I receive them depend upon having a return from Halifax. There are now 22 recruits lying here, for which Mr Hancock cannot at present get a passage: And I have no other guard for them but insolvent deserters ^of former years^, who will not stay here much longer without being guarded themselves; as they have ^allready^ worked out what they owed to the Province by their Service ^here^ & on board the Province Sloop.

    I am, with great regard, Sr Your most obedient & most humble Servant

    Fra Bernard.

    His Excellency Sr Jeffry Amherst.

    ALS, RC WO 34/26, f 228.

    After writing this letter, FB learned that Miller had “engaged for an Ensigncy” in the 45th Regiment pending Amherst’s “approbation.” FB to Amherst, Boston, 23 Nov. 1762, WO 34/26, f 230. Miller arrived at New York on 14 Dec. with twenty-five recruits, two of whom Amherst deemed unsuitable (one being “Quite Crazy, and the Other a Frenchman.”) Amherst granted FB’s request that Miller be allowed to remain at Boston, insisting that he fully intended to sign a commission as soon as there was a position. Amherst to FB, New York, 20 Dec. 1762, WO 34/27, p. 286. The provincials at Castle William under Miller’s command were discharged by FB on 1 May 1763, No. 209.