This massacre was the cause of a permanent guard of about eight hundred men being stationed at the "Half-Way Brook," which is referred to in the Thompson Diary under date of August 1st, he being one of the eighty out of Col. Nichol's regiment who were ordered on duty at that spot. And from that time until the close of the campaign late in the fall, the road between Lake George and the "Half-Way Brook," and Fort Edward and the same point, was constantly patrolled by detachments from the two forts, practically putting an end to further assaults and surprises. The diaries of those days show that, as yet, the temperance idea half a century or so afterward to arise in this locality, had no place among the hard drinking, hard swearing, and hard fighting men of that period, as these extracts from the Thompson Journal prove: "August 28, Monday: Certified that Cape Breton was taken, and 63 cannon shot at Fort Edward and small arms. In joy we made a great fire, and every soldier had a jill of Rum at the Half Way Brook; and it was a very rainy night. "August 29, Tuesday: 140 of us went and made a breastwork; and we had a jill of rum; and we had a remarkable drink of flip this evening; a very cold night. "Sept. 5, Tuesday: I on guard; and we earned half a jill of rum by making great many bonfires." This diary tells of one more attack, which seems to have escaped the notice of other historians, and is therefore inserted at this point. Under date of Sept. 9th, it says: "Saturday: the picquet guard went to meet the teams; a Sargeant and four men went forward to tell Half Way Brook guard that the picquet was coming; and the Indians shot the Sergeant and scalped him before one man got to him; and then the Indians ran away." [FN] * * * * * [FN] In passing we may say that Lieut. Thompson returned home safely, served at Concord and Lexington, and, his biographer says, finally "became one of the most useful men in the Town of Woburn." To him is attributed the discovery of the "Baldwin Apple," and a monument commemorating this gift to mankind, has been erected to his memory, making applicable in peculiar fashion Milton's lines, "Peace hath her victories no less renowned than war." With the close of the Abercrombie Campaign, and the abandonment of headquarters at Lake George, Fort Edward became once more the northern outpost of Colonial civilization. [FN] * * * * * [FN] General Abercrombie, according to documents in William L. Stone's possession, also spelled his name "Abercromby." Montresor spells it with a "y," but leading American historians use the termination "ie."