Wait/Weight Hopkins was a Capt. under Ethan Allen in the Green Mountain Boys - organized to protect their farms & homes from being illegally confiscated by the NY British Governor. This unit later became the Continental Army and Capt. Wait Hopkins served under Col. Seth Warner. Capt. Weight Hopkins signed many of the muster/payrolls for the regiment with Col. Warner being ill. So, Capt. Hopkins was often the commanding officer of the regiment and at Fort George. On July 15, 1779 Capt. Hopkins agreed to take the women & children of the fort out to Fourteen Mile Island to pick berries to make pies. He and the soldiers accompanying the group planned to shoot some of the wild pigs there for meat for the fort. Unbeknownst to them a force of over 100 Indians led by 3 British officers had landed on the opposite side of the island. When they attacked Capt. Hopkins and his men stood between the women & children and the attacking force to protect them. All but one of the soldiers were killed as well as some of the women & children. A British officer stopped the massacre and suggested those left be taken captive for ransom. The Indians bound up the captives and carted them away. It was not known at the fort what exactly had happened. Later the bones of those killed were gathered and buried in a common grave on the island. The one young soldier and the women & children who survived their captivity were ransomed two years later when the incident was finally reported. I have not been able to determine if Capt. Hopkins received the rank of Major just prior to his death or if it was given posthumously.
A resort was operated on Fourteen Mile Island in the 1930s-1940s. It is reported there was a Memorial erected at the site of the massacre back then. The island is currently privately owned.