It had need of the skill of all its officers, of the efficiency of all its men. While I have been talking about officers, important events have been hastening toward a conclusion, on the northern border. They now claim attention. Up to this time (1778) no murders had been committed by the Indians. They now became frequent. Scouting parties of the regiment were continually going out and coming in. They heralded the approach of an invading army. Premonitory signs of its coming had not been wanting. It consisted of about 1,100 British soldiers, Indians and Tories, under the command of Major John Butler.[35] This force had been gathered at Kanadaseago and other points in Western New York. The time was the month of June, when nature puts on her best apparel. It approached Wyoming in boats. I can imagine the wild and weird flotilla, tricked out in barbaric splendor, as it rounded Tioga Point, and swept out into the broad waters of the Susquehanna, receiving welcome reinforcements to its numbers as it passed Queen Esther's flats and the meadows of Sheshequin. It landed above Wyoming in Keeler's Eddy. It marched about twenty miles by land and was ready to do its work. What was the situation at Wyoming? What the preparation to receive it? We have detailed the building of the forts; the establishment of the regiment and its depletion from time to time to recruit the Continental service. The forts were there--and the regiment--what there was of it. We left the enemy at the head of the valley. It signified its approach by killing six men in Exeter on the 30th of June, 1778. On the first day of July it seized Fort Wintermoot. This fort was occupied by Elisha Scovil, lieutenant of the Exeter (7th) company and a few patriotic men. The Wintermoots and other non-combatants in the fort were Tories[36] and after making the best show of resistance he could, Scovil capitulated. At Fort Jenkins, one mile above Fort Wintermoot, were eight men, including Stephen Harding, Captain of the 7th (Exeter) company. Resistance against such odds was useless and it surrendered on the second of July, although the articles of capitulation were dated on the first.[37] This disposes of one of the companies of the Twenty-fourth regiment. To the valley below a vague knowledge of what was happening was communicated by scouts and by persons who had escaped when the Hardings and Hadsells were killed on the 30th of June. Some information was obtained by a reconnoisance in force on the first of July. In consequence the population gathered into the several forts on the first and second days of July. [Illustration: FORTY FORT IN 1778.]