And indeed the county promptly showed itself quite equal to the
independent role which the Governor's course conceded to it. An
effective plan for the suppression of the rebellion in the county had
been concerted between Sedgwick and the leading men of the other
towns. It had been agreed upon to raise five hundred men, and
concentrate them at Stockbridge, using that town as a base of
operations against the rebel bands in Southern Berkshire. Captain
Stoddard's company had scarcely taken military possession of
Stockbridge, when it was reenforced by companies from Pittsfield,
Great Barrington, Sheffield, Lanesboro, Lee and Lenox. It was under
escort of the Pittsfield company, that Jahleel Woodbridge returned to
Stockbridge, after an absence of nearly four months. General
Patterson, one of the major-generals of militia in the county, and an
officer of revolutionary service, assumed command of the battalion,
and promptly gave it something to do.
Far from appearing daunted by the presence of so large a body of
militia in Stockbridge, Hubbard's force at the ironworks had increased
to two hundred men who boldly threatened to come down and clean out
Patterson's "Tories," a feat to which, if joined by some of the
smaller insurgent bands in the neighborhood, they might ere long be
equal.
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