The Virginia Gazette

From the PENNSYLVANIA PACKET.

The mind under the oppression of an uneasy dream; public, at this time, is like that of a man slumbering; they feel something wrong, without directly knowing what it is, or where it lies. The affair of Ticonderoga appears to be a combination of errors involving themselves into mysteries.

The accounts received are so various and contradictory, that they can neither be explained or reconciled. The several returns of our numbers, the numbers of the enemy, and the provisions, all disagree.

General Schuyler laments, in most pathetic terms, that he should be opposed to have given the least intimation for evacuating Ticonderoga; yet, if General St. Clair's account, dated the fourteenth of July, from Fort Edward, and now published, be fully admitted, it proves that General Schuyler must either be wrong in his judgment, or very unacquainted with the real condition of the fort and garrison; either of which must render him incapable of commanding that post by proxy. It seems the expectation of the public to have this matter fully investigated, and it is hoped the arrival of General Arnold in the northern department will throw some light upon it.

How the several commanders have acquitted themselves, time and circumstances can only discover; but those who look deeper than the superficies, are of opinion the arrangement of the northern department contained in itself the seeds of its own destruction. General Schuyler was at once Quarter Master General, Commissary of provisions, and commander of the whole northern department, including Ticonderoga, which place he never was within a hundred miles of. How is it possible that a person so circumstanced and situated, can be a judge of matters as he ought, know what orders to give, or be able to write intelligence? The prevailing opinion is, had General Gates remained, Ticonderoga had not been lost to this and the neighbouring States. The consequences may be very distressing to the whole continent. It is therefore the duty of every man to exert himself in time.