Soon after the declaration of war, recruiting offices were opened in the State, a cantonment for troops was established at Burlington, and small bodies of volunteers were stationed at several points on the northern frontier. On either side of the scattered settlers of this region lay the forest,--on this, the scarcely broken wilderness of northern Vermont; on that, the Canadian wilds, that still slept in almost primeval solitude. The old terror of Indian warfare laid hold of these people, and their imagination filled the gloomy stretch of northward forest with hordes of red warriors awaiting the first note of conflict to repeat here the horrors of the old border warfare. In some of these towns stockades were built, and from all came urgent appeals to the state and general government for arms to repel the expected invasion. One frontier town was obliged to borrow twenty muskets, and the selectmen were authorized to purchase twenty-five pounds of powder and one hundred pounds of lead on six months' credit, a circumstance which shows how poorly prepared Vermont was for war. Two months before the declaration of war, Congress authorized the President to detach 100,000 militia to march at a minute's notice, to serve for six months after arriving at the place of rendezvous. Vermont's apportionment was 3,000, and was promptly raised. In November an act was passed by the legislature for the raising of sixty-four companies of infantry, two of cavalry, and two of artillery, to hold themselves ready at a minute's notice to take the field. It appears that this corps was formed almost exclusively from exempts from military service. In one company, says an old paper,[95] was a venerable patriarch who could still shoot and walk well, and who "was all animation at the sound of the drum." As shown by the disbursements by the State for premiums to recruits, it appears that only the old and populous States of Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia furnished more men to the regular army than this young commonwealth, which was half a wilderness. The 30th and 31st regiments of infantry were composed entirely of Vermonters, as were largely the 11th and 26th. The 3,000 detached Vermont militia were assembled at Plattsburgh in the fall of 1812. In November General Dearborn marched from Plattsburgh to the lines with an army of 5,000 men, 2,000 of whom were militia. At the La Colle he made an ill-planned and feebly conducted attack upon a very inferior British force, and then retired to Plattsburgh. A large number of Vermonters shared the barren honors of this expedition under an incompetent leader. The militia were presently disbanded, and four regiments of regulars crossed the lake and took post at Burlington.