Johnstown

There are well-authenticated cases of atrocities committed by Alexander MacDonald.

In 1781 he ordered his men to shoot down a prisoner taken near Johnstown, and when the men bungled their task, MacDonald cut the prisoner down with his broadsword.

When Colonel Butler returned from Cherry Valley, Sir Frederick Haldimand refused to see him and wrote to him that such indiscriminate vengeance taken even upon the treacherous and cruel enemy they are engaged against is useless and disreputable to themselves, as it is contrary to the disposition and maxims of their king whose cause they are fighting.

But rumor exaggerated whatever atrocities there were.

Also two spacious lodging chambers in the second story, a capacious dry cellar with arches, etc., etc., etc.

In Upper Canada, owing to the difficulty of obtaining building materials, the houses of the half-pay officers were even less pretentious.

A traveler passing through the country about Johnstown in 1792 described Sir John Johnson's house as a small country lodge, neat, but as the grounds are only beginning to be cleared, there was nothing of interest.

The home of the average loyalist was a log cabin.