Moses Hazen and the Canadian Refugees in the American Revolution

Allan S. Everest's "Moses Hazen and the Canadian Refugees in the American Revolution" examines a lesser-known corner of the American Revolutionary War: the story of Canadians who sided with the rebelling colonies and the American officer who led them. Published as part of Syracuse University Press's New York State Study series, the book focuses on Moses Hazen, a New England-born soldier who had settled in Canada before the war and who later raised and commanded a regiment composed largely of Canadian volunteers and refugees loyal to the American cause.

Everest situates Hazen's career within the broader failed American campaign to bring Quebec into the revolutionary fold. The attempted invasion of Canada in 1775 and 1776, led by figures such as Richard Montgomery and Benedict Arnold, sought to add a fourteenth colony to the rebellion. When that campaign collapsed, it left behind a group of Canadians who had supported the American effort and who now faced retribution from British authorities. These refugees, cut off from their homes and property, became a distinct community within the Continental Army, and Hazen emerged as their principal advocate and commander.

The book traces Hazen's regiment, known as "Congress's Own," through its formation and its service across multiple theaters of the war. Unlike most state-based Continental units, this regiment drew its recruits from various colonies and from the displaced Canadians themselves, giving it an unusual composition that Everest uses to illustrate the complicated loyalties and improvised structures of the revolutionary military. The author details the logistical and political challenges Hazen faced in maintaining support for men who had no state government to appeal to for supplies, pay, or resettlement after the war.

Everest's research draws on military records, correspondence, and congressional documents to reconstruct Hazen's dealings with the Continental Congress and with military leadership, including George Washington. The narrative shows Hazen as a persistent, sometimes contentious figure who spent considerable energy petitioning Congress on behalf of his refugee soldiers, seeking land grants and compensation for men who had sacrificed their homes and livelihoods in Canada. This advocacy forms one of the more compelling threads of the book, as it reveals the practical difficulties of rewarding loyalty when the object of that loyalty—a liberated Canada—never materialized.

The book also addresses the postwar fate of the Canadian refugees, many of whom settled in New York State, particularly in the area that would become Clinton County. Everest connects Hazen's regiment to the eventual land grants along the Canadian frontier and to the settlement patterns that shaped the region afterward. This local history dimension gives the book particular value for readers interested in the history of northern New York and its ties to the revolutionary period.

Everest's prose is straightforward and grounded in documentary evidence, avoiding embellishment in favor of a careful, chronological account. The book does not attempt to elevate Hazen into a hero of Revolutionary lore; instead, it presents him as a capable but imperfect officer navigating an unusual and often frustrating command. This measured approach suits the subject matter, which is more about institutional and logistical struggle than about battlefield glory.

Readers primarily interested in major campaigns or well-known figures of the Revolution may find the scope narrower than expected, since the book concentrates on a specific regiment and its unusual circumstances rather than the war's broader sweep. However, for those interested in the Canadian dimension of the American Revolution, the experience of displaced loyalists to the American cause, and the administrative challenges of the Continental Army, the book offers a detailed and well-documented account.

"Moses Hazen and the Canadian Refugees in the American Revolution" fills a specific gap in Revolutionary War historiography by focusing on a group and a commander often overlooked in general histories. Everest's research provides a foundation for understanding how the war's failure in Canada created lasting consequences for individuals whose allegiance placed them outside the traditional boundaries of the thirteen colonies. The book stands as a useful resource for historians and regional researchers seeking to understand this specific thread of the Revolutionary period and its aftermath in New York State.