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$Unique_ID{USH00152}
$Pretitle{12}
$Title{Our Country:  Volume 4
Chapter LXXII}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Lossing, Benson J., LL.D.}
$Affiliation{}
$Subject{army
fort
schuyler
burgoyne
st
camp
indians
general
upon
americans}
$Volume{Vol. 4}
$Date{1905}
$Log{}
Book:        Our Country:  Volume 4
Author:      Lossing, Benson J., LL.D.
Volume:      Vol. 4
Date:        1905

Chapter LXXII

     A British Invasion from Canada with Savage Allies - Ticonderoga Evacuated
by the Americans - Battle at Hubbardton - Schuyler Blamed - Weakness of His
Army - He Impedes Burgoyne's March - The Story of Jane McCrea - Disastrous
Expedition toward Bennington - Siege of Fort Schuyler - Battle at Oriskany -
St. Leger's Flight from Before Fort Schuyler - Gates Supercedes Schuyler - The
American Army - Burgoyne Prepares to Advance.

     EARLY in May (1777), Burgoyne, who went to England the previous autumn,
returned to Quebec, bearing the commission of lieutenant-general and
commander-in-chief of the British forces in Canada.  In June, he had gathered
about seven thousand men at St. Johns, on the Sorel, for an invasion of the
province of New York, with ample supplies, and boats for transportation.  His
force was composed of British and German regulars, Canadians and Indians.  The
Germans were commanded by Major-General Baron de Riedesel, and Burgoyne's
chief lieutenants were Major-General Phillips and Brigadier-General Fraser.

     At dawn, on the morning of the 20th of June, the drums in the camp at St.
Johns beat the generale instead of the reveille, and very soon afterward the
army were on the vessels, Burgoyne making an ostentatious display as he
entered the schooner Lady Mary.  The wives of many of the officers accompanied
their husbands, for they expected a pleasant journey to New York, Burgoyne
having sent word to Howe that he should speedily meet him on the navigable
waters of the Hudson.  The departure of the fleet was signalized by the
Indians, who, having spilled the first blood in the campaign, brought in ten
scalps as trophies of their savage warfare.  So was begun the execution of the
ministerial measure for spreading terror over the land by means of savage
atrocities.

     Before a fair wind the great armament moved up the lake, with music and
banners.  At near the mouth of the Raquet River, Burgoyne went on shore and
there feasted about four hundred savages, to whom he made a speech, praising
them for their fidelity to the king; exhorting them to "strike at the common
enemy of their sovereign and America," whom he called "parricides of the
State," and forbidding them to kill excepting in battle, or to take scalps
excepting from the dead.  This speech he caused to be published. His own
commentary on it may be found in a threatening proclamation issued at Crown
Point a few days afterward, in which he said: "Let not people consider their
distance from my camp.  I have but to give stretch to the Indian forces under
my direction - and they amount to thousands - to overtake the hardened enemies
of Great Britain.  If the frenzy of hostility should remain, I trust I shall
stand acquitted in the eyes of God and man in executing the vengeance of the
State against the willful outcasts."

     The whole invading army (a part of it on land) reached Crown Point on the
26th of June, and menaced Ticonderoga, where General St. Clair was in command.
The invading force then numbered something less than nine thousand men, with a
powerful train of artillery manned by veterans.  The garrisons at Ticonderoga
and Mount Independence opposite, had an aggregate force of not more than
thirty-five hundred men, only one in ten of them possessing a bayonet.
Schuyler had too few troops (mostly militia) below to spare a reinforcement
for St. Clair, without uncovering points which, left unprotected, might allow
the invaders to gain the rear of the lake fortresses.  Besides, he was
compelled to make provision for meeting St. Leger's invasion of the Mohawk
Valley.  There were strong outposts around Ticonderoga, but there were not
troops enough to man them; and there were eminences that commanded the fort
that were left unguarded for the same reason.  Between Ticonderoga and Mount
Independence was a floating-bridge and boom which the Americans thought might
effectually obstruct the passage of the British vessels, but these utterly
failed in the hour of need.  St. Clair perceived the web of peril that was
weaving around him, but he kept up courage, declaring that he would totally
defeat the enemy.

     At Crown Point, Burgoyne issued a pompous proclamation to the inhabitants
of the Upper Hudson Valley, which contained the threat above alluded to. He
acted promptly as well as boasted.  At the beginning of July he moved from
Crown Point upon the upper lake fortresses with his whole army and navy.
Riedesel led the Germans on the eastern side to attack the works on Mount
Independence, while Phillips and Fraser pressed on to the outworks of
Ticonderoga.  They seized an eminence that commanded the road to Lake George;
also mills in the rear of the fort.  This was speedily followed by taking
possession of and planting a battery of heavy cannon upon Mount Defiance,
where plunging shot might be hurled into Fort Ticonderoga from a point several
hundred feet above it.  St. Clair, perceiving that the fort was no longer
tenable, called a council of war, when it was resolved to evacuate it.  On the
evening of the 5th of July, the invalids and convalescents under Colonel Long,
with stores and baggage, were sent off in bateaux for Skenesborough (now
Whitehall); and at two o'clock on the morning of the 6th, the garrison, having
spiked the guns which they could not take with them, silently crossed the
floating-bridge to Mount Independence under cover of a brisk cannonade from
that eminence.  With the garrison there, they began, just before the dawn, a
flight through the forests southward to the rugged hills of Vermont.  The
light of the waning moon was too feeble to reveal their movements, and the
Americans hoped to leave their enemies far in their rear before their flight
should be discovered.  Unfortunately a building on Mount Independence was set
on fire, and the light thereof betrayed the flying troops.  Pursuit was
immediately ordered.  Fraser pressed forward with grenadiers and took
possession of Ticonderoga, while Riedesel seized and occupied Mount
Independence.  The former crossed the floating bridge before sunrise, and with
the Germans began a hot pursuit of the fugitive army.

     Meanwhile Burgoyne, on board the schooner Royal George, ordered his
gunboats to pursue the bateaux.  The bridge barrier was soon removed, and the
British vessels gave chase.  They overtook the bateaux at near the
landing-place at Skenesborough, and destroyed them and their contents.
Colonel Long and his men escaped; and after setting on fire everything
combustible at Skenesborough, they fled to Fort Ann, a few miles in the
interior, pursued by a British regiment.  Near Fort Ann, he turned upon and
routed his pursuers, when the latter was reinforced and Long was driven back.
He burned Fort Ann, and fled to Fort Edward on the Hudson.

     When the army of St. Clair reached Hubbardton, in Vermont, the main body
marched through the woods toward Castleton, leaving the rear-guard, under
Colonel Seth Warner, one of the brave "Green Mountain Boys," to gather up the
stragglers.  While awaiting their arrival, Warner was overtaken by the van of
the pursuers, on the morning of the 7th, when a sharp engagement took place.
Colonel Francis of New Hampshire, who commanded the rear-guard in the flight,
was killed.  The Americans were dispersed and fled, but about two hundred of
them were made prisoners.  The pursuers lost almost as many killed and
wounded, and gave up the chase.  St. Clair, with about two thousand troops,
made his way in safety to Fort Edward.

     A very large amount of provisions and military stores, and almost two
hundred pieces of artillery, were lost by the Americans when they evacuated
Ticonderoga.  The news of the disaster went over the country, with wildest
exaggerations.  Generals Schuyler and St. Clair were condemned without stint
and without reason.  They had done all that it was possible for men to do
under the circumstances.  The States as individual communities and by their
representatives in Congress had utterly failed to supply the Northern
Department with sufficient men to defend it.  The Congress had been
practically deaf to the repeated calls of Schuyler for reinforcements.  He had
pointed out the dangers of an impending invasion while his force was too small
to stay, or even impede it much.  Washington, more wise than the Congress, saw
the importance to his own army and the safety of the Country in checking the
progress of the invaders; and though he was sorely in want of reinforcements
coming from New England, he directed that a part of them, when they should
reach the Hudson River, should be sent up that stream to assist Schuyler
against a powerful foe.  The enemies of the commander of the Northern
Department, in and out of Congress, took an ungenerous advantage of the public
ignorance of the truth, and condemned him as an incompetent.  Some went so far
as to call him a traitor.  After tedious endeavors he procured a trial by a
court-martial, who, by their verdict, heartily approved by the Congress, fully
vindicated his character in every respect.

     Schuyler was at Saratoga when he heard of the disaster.  He hastened to
Fort Edward to gather there the scattered troops and oppose the further
advance of Burgoyne, who, victorious, was boastful and arrogant.  In a
proclamation he peremptorily demanded the instant submission of the people.
Schuyler immediately issued a counter-proclamation, with excellent effect; but
with the remnant of St. Clair's army added to his own force at the middle of
July, he had not more than four thousand effective men - a number totally
inadequate to combat with the enemy.  He employed it simply but effectually,
in destroying bridges and felling trees in the pathway of the invader.  So
impeded, Burgoyne did not reach Fort Edward until the close of July.  He was
compelled to move cautiously, for Carleton had refused to garrison the
lake-forts, and the lieutenant-general was compelled to "drain the life-blood"
of his army to defend them.  His Indians, too, were beginning to be restless,
and some were leaving him.

     At Fort Edward occurred the death of Jane McCrea, the story of which, as
set afloat at the time, is familiar to all, and was exploded years ago. Truth
tells the story as follows: Miss McCrea was a handsome young girl, visiting
friends at Fort Edward at the time of Burgoyne's invasion.  She was betrothed
to a young man living near there, who was then in Burgoyne's army.  When that
army approached Fort Edward, some prowling Indians seized Miss McCrea, and
attempted to carry her to the British camp at Sandy Hill, on horseback.  A
detachment of Americans were sent to rescue her.  One of a volley of bullets
fired at her captors, pierced the maiden and she fell dead from the horse,
when the Indians scalped her and carried her glossy locks as a trophy into the
camp.  Her lover, shocked by the event, left the army, went to Canada at the
close of the war, and there lived a moody bachelor until he was an old man.
He had purchased the scalp of his beloved, of the Indians, and cherished it as
a precious treasure, upon which, at times, he would gaze with tearful eyes as
he held the ever-shining locks in his hand.  The body of Miss McCrea was
recovered by her friends, and was buried at Fort Edward.  A tale of romance
and horror, concerning the manner of her death, went abroad.  In September, a
letter from Gates to Burgoyne, holding him responsible for her death, gave
great currency to the story; and hundreds, perhaps thousands of young men,
burning with indignation and a spirit of vengeance because of the outrage,
flocked to the American camp.

     Schuyler, with his little army, continued to impede the progress of
Burgoyne, at the same time falling back, until, in August, he resolved to make
a stand at Stillwater, and establish there a fortified camp, for recruits for
his force were then coming in freely.  The panic caused by the evacuation of
Ticonderoga and the invasion was beginning to subside, and a patriotic spirit
took its place.  Burgoyne was evidently growing weaker by his compulsory
delay.  His base of supplies was so distant, and precarious, that he was soon
placed in a half-starving condition, surrounded on three sides by foes who
were preparing to make raids on the fourth.  He was absolutely unable to
retreat or move forward with vigor.  In this dilemma, and feeling the
necessity of making a bold stroke for relief, he sent a detachment of his
army, composed of Germans, Canadians, Tories and Indians, toward Bennington,
in the now State of Vermont, which had been organized and declared independent
by a convention at Windsor in the previous January.  The object was to
strengthen and organize the Tories procure horses to mount the German
dragoons, and to seize cattle, wagons, and stores which it was said had been
gathered in large numbers and quantities at Bennington.  The detachment was
commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Baum of the German dragoons.  They reached the
neighborhood of Bennington on the evening of the 13th of August [1777].
Perceiving some reconnoitering Americans the next morning, Baum sent back for
reinforcements, when Burgoyne dispatched two German battalions with two cannon
under Lieutenant-Colonel Breyman, who marched through steady rain almost
continually for thirty hours.  Baum, in the meantime, had taken position on a
hill four or five miles westward of Bennington, that sloped down to the
Walloomscoick Creek, and there cast up some entrenchments.

     The New Hampshire militia had just been organized, and placed under the
command of Colonel William Whipple (a signer of the Declaration of
Independence) and John Stark, a veteran of the French and Indian War.  They
were embodied to assist in defending the western frontiers of Vermont from the
invading British army.  When Baum arrived on the Walloomscoick, Stark was at
Bennington with part of a brigade.  He immediately sent for the shattered
remains of Colonel Seth Warner's regiment at Manchester.  They marched all
night in rain, and joined Stark on the 14th at near dawn, thoroughly drenched.
All that day and the next, the drenching rain continued.  Parties of Americans
continually annoyed the intruders by attacks here and there upon their flanks
or rear, but no battle occurred. On the evening of the 15th, some
reinforcements came from Berkshire, Massachusetts, bringing with them the Rev.
Mr. Allen, a belligerent chaplain.  He told Stark that the people of his
district had been frequently called out to fight, without being allowed to,
and if they were not gratified this time, they would not turn out again.  "Do
you wish to march now, in the darkness and rain inquired Stark.  No, not just
this moment," answered the fighting parson.  Then," Stark said, if the Lord
shall once more give us sunshine, and I do not give you fighting enough, I'll
never ask you to come out again."  Sunshine came with the morrow, and the
parson and his men had "fighting enough" before the evening twilight.

     On the bright, hot morning of the 16th (August, 1777), Stark formed a
plan of attack on the foe lying upon the Walloomscoick Heights.  He divided
his force, and at three o'clock in the afternoon, the detachments, led by
Colonels Nicholls and Herrick, Hubbard and Stickney, and a considerable force
by Stark in person, attacked the enemy on every side.  The frightened Indians
dashed through a gap in the encircling American lines and fled to the shelter
of the woods, leaving their chief dead on the field.  After a severe contest
for two hours, the ammunition of the Germans failed, when they attempted to
break through the line of besiegers with bayonets and sabres.  In the attempt
Baum was killed and his veterans were made prisoners.  At that moment Breyman
appeared with his wearied battalion, and Warner joined Stark with some fresh
troops.  The battle was instantly resumed.  The cannon which had been taken
from the Germans was turned upon their friends.  A desperate fight ensued and
continued until sunset, when Breyman retreated, leaving his artillery and
nearly all of his wounded behind.  The Germans had lost about one hundred and
fifty killed and wounded, and seven hundred made prisoners.

     The victory was complete and brilliant.  The loss of the Americans It
inspirited the Americans, and carried dismay to the hearts of the Tories and
the British commander, To the latter the expedition was very disastrous.  It
disheartened his Tory friends.  Many of the Canadians and Indians deserted,
and the spirits of his whole army were depressed.  It crippled his movements
at a moment when it was all-important that he should go forward with celerity.
St. Leger, whom he had sent by way of Oswego to invade the Mohawk Valley, was
there, besieging Fort Schuyler on the site of Rome, and they were to meet as
victors at Albany.  His plans were frustrated his hopes were destroyed.  His
troops had to be fed with provisions brought from England by way of Canada,
over Lakes Champlain and George and a perilous land carriage, for gathering
patriots were hovering about his rear.  It was perilous for him to remain
where he was, and more perilous for him to advance or retreat.

     While these important events were occurring eastward of Schuyler's camp
at Stillwater, equally important ones were happening westward of him.  Brant
had come from Canada in the spring of 1777, and in June was at the head of a
band of Indian marauders on the head-waters of the Susquehanna.
Brigadier-General Nicholas Herkimer was at the head of the Tryon county
militia, and was instructed by Schuyler to watch and check any hostile
movements of the Mohawk Chief whose presence had put an end to the neutrality
of his nation and of others of the Iroquois Confederacy.  To assist the Whigs
of Tryon county, a garrison commanded by Colonel Peter Gansevoort was placed
in Fort Schuyler, which was reinforced by the regiment of Colonel Marinus
Willett.  Bateaux had just brought provisions up the Mohawk for the garrison,
when, at the beginning of August, St. Leger, with a motley host of Tories and
Canadians, under Colonels Johnson, Claus and Butler, and Indians led by Brant,
arrived from Oswego and began a close siege of the fort.  Hearing of this,
Herkimer, with the Tryon county militia, proceeded to help the garrison.  He
sent them word that he was coming.  On the receipt of the news a part of two
regiments (Gansevoort's and Wesson's), led by Colonel Willett, made a sortie
from the fort, and fell upon the camp of Johnson's"Royal Greens" (see page
852) so suddenly and effectively, that they were dispersed in great confusion,
Sir John not having time to put on his coat before he was compelled to fly.
His papers and baggage and those of other officers, and the clothing,
blankets, stores and camp equipage, sufficient to fill twenty wagons, were the
spoils of victory, with five British standards as trophies.  A part of Sir
John's Greens," and some Indians, had gone to meet approaching Herkimer.

     At Oriskany, a few miles west of Utica, Herkimer and his little army were
marching in fancied security on the morning of the 6th of August, when Tories
and Indians from St. Leger's army, suddenly rose from an ambush and fell upon
the patriots at all points with pikes, hatchets, and rifle-balls.  Herkimer's
rear-guard broke and fled the remainder sustained a fierce conflict for more
than an hour with great bravery.  General Herkimer had a horse shot dead under
him, and by the bullet that killed the animal, his own leg was shattered just
below the knee.  Sitting on his saddle and leaning against a beech tree, the
brave old general (then sixty-five years of age) directed the battle with
great coolness, while the bullets flew thickly around him.  A heavy
thunder-shower caused a lull in the fight. When it had passed, the battle was
renewed with great violence, Major Watts, a brother-in-law of Sir John Johnson
leading a portion of the"Greens." At length the Indians, hearing the firing in
the direction of the fort, where Willett made his sortie, became
panic-stricken and fled to the deep woods.  They were soon followed by the
equally alarmed Tories and Canadians.  The Patriots were left masters of the
field, but they did not relieve Fort Schuyler.  Their commander was carried to
his home, below the Little Falls, where he died from the effects of excessive
bleeding from his wound.

     St. Leger continued the siege.  The garrison bravely held out; and
Colonel Willett went from the fort stealthily down the Mohawk Valley with a
message from Gansevoort to Schuyler, asking for relief.  The sagacious general
perceived the importance of beating back St. Leger, as a part of the means for
securing the expected victory over Burgoyne.  He called a council of officers,
and proposed to send a detachment up the valley.  They opposed the measure
because the army was then too weak to check the march of Burgoyne.  The
general persisted in his opinion of the necessity and humanity of sending a
force to the relief of Fort Schuyler.  He was walking the floor with great
anxiety of mind, when he heard one of the officers say in a low tone of voice,
He means to weaken the army."  That was an epitome of all the slanders which
had been uttered since the evacuation of Ticonderoga.  He heard the charge of
implied treason with the hottest indignation.  Turning quickly toward the
slanderer, and unconsciously biting into several pieces a clay pipe which he
was smoking, he exclaimed in a voice that awed the whole company into silence:
"Gentlemen, I shall take the responsibility upon myself; where is the
brigadier who will take command of the relief?  I shall beat up for volunteers
to-morrow."  General Arnold, ever ready for deeds of daring, at once stepped
forward and offered his services.  Before noon the next day (August 13), eight
hundred stalwart men were enrolled for the expedition.  They were chiefly from
the Massachusetts brigade of General Larned.  They followed their brave leader
with perfect confidence, and won success.  By prowess, audacity and stratagem,
Arnold compelled the invader to raise the siege of Fort Schuyler within ten
days after he left the camp at Stillwater.  At Fort Dayton (German Flats) he
found a half-idiotic Tory, a prisoner, who had been tried for crimes and
condemned to death.  His mother begged for his pardon.  It was promised by
Arnold under the condition that he should go, with a friendly Oneida Indian,
among the savages in St. Leger's camp, and by representing the Americans on
the march against them as extremely numerous, frighten them away.  The
prisoner agreed.  He had several shots fired through his coat, and with these
evidences of "a terrible engagement with the enemy," he ran, almost out of
breath, among the Indians, declaring that he had just escaped from the
approaching Americans.  Pointing toward the trees and the sky, he said, "They
are as many as the leaves and the stars at night."  Very soon his companion,
the Oneida, came running from another direction, with the same story.  The
Indians, thoroughly alarmed, held a pow-wow - a consultation with the Great
Spirit - and resolved to fly.  No persuasion could hold them.  Away they went
as fast as their feet could carry them, toward Oswego and the more western
wilds, followed by their pale-faced confreres, pell-mell, in a race for the
safe bosom of Lake Ontario.  So the siege of Fort Schuyler was raised; and so
ended the formidable invasion from the west.

     The expulsion of St. Leger and his followers was a severe blow to the
hopes of Burgoyne.  This disaster, following so closely upon that near
Bennington, staggered him.  His visions of conquest, and orders, and perhaps a
peerage for himself, vanished.  His doom was pronounced.  His army was already
conquered in fact - it needed very little to make it so, in form.  The wise
policy and untiring exertions of General Schuyler had accomplished the ruin of
the invading army.

     The harvests were now nearly over; the spirits of the patriots were
greatly revived by recent events; public confidence in General Schuyler, so
rudely shaken by misfortune and slander, was rapidly returning, and as a
consequence recruits for the Northern Army were flocking into camp, with
daily-increasing volume.  Schuyler was preparing to march to an easy victory
over his hopelessly crippled foe, and so win the laurels which he fairly
deserved, when, on the 19th of August, General Gates arrived in camp, and took
command of the army, in accordance with the following resolution passed by
Congress:

     "Resolved, That Major-General Schuyler be directed to repair to
headquarters.

     "That General Washington be directed to order such general officer as he
shall think proper to repair immediately to the Northern Department, to
relieve Major-General Schuyler in his command there."

     This was evidently the work of intrigue, faction, and conspiracy.
Washington, who was then in his camp at Germantown, near Philadelphia, was
fully aware of the schemes of Gates and his friends, and would not consent to
be a scapegoat for them so he declined to nominate a successor to Schuyler,
and the Congress proceeded to appoint Gates to that office.  They clothed him
with powers which they had never conferred on his predecessor, and voted him
all the aid Schuyler had ever asked, and which had been withheld.  The
patriotic general felt the indignity keenly, yet he did not allow his personal
grievances to interfere with his duty to his country. He received Gates
cordially, furnished him with every kind of useful information respecting the
army, and offered him all the aid in his power to give.  This generosity was
requited by jealousy and coldness.  Yet this despicable treatment did not
abate Schuyler's efforts to secure the defeat of Burgoyne, although he knew
the laurels that would thereby be won would be placed on the brow of his
undeserving successor.

     Had Gates acted promptly, he might have ended the campaign in the
Northern Department, within a fortnight after his arrival.  But he lingered
twenty days in needless inactivity near the mouth of the Mohawk River, nine
miles above Albany, to which place Schuyler, pursuant to a decision of a
council of officers, had removed the army from Stillwater.  At the end of the
twenty days, Gates moved up the valley of the Hudson with an effective force
of nine thousand men; and upon Bemis's Heights, an elevated rolling plain a
short distance above Stillwater, he established a fortified camp, having
Kosciuszko, the brave Polish patriot, as chief engineer.  In the meantime, one
hundred and eighty boats had been brought over the country by teams and
soldiers, from Lakes Champlain and George, with a month's provisions for the
use of Burgoyne's army, then reduced to less than six thousand men.

     Seeing the advance of Gates, Burgoyne called in his outposts, and with
his shattered forces and his splendid train of artillery, he crossed the
Hudson River over a bridge of boats on the 13th of September, and encamped on
the heights at Saratoga, where Schuylerville now stands.  There he made
immediate preparations to attempt to force his way to Albany.  He then knew
that Howe had sailed southward and would not cooperate with him; and he
perceived the necessity of acting promptly, for General Lincoln was gathering
a force of New Englanders on his flank, and detachments of Republican troops
were menacing his communications with his base of supplies.  The American
army, every day increasing in strength, were well posted on Bemis Heights.
Their right rested upon the Hudson River below the Heights; their left was
upon gentle hills that could not be commanded by hostile cannon from any
point; and a well-constructed line of entrenchment stretched along their
front.  Here an army more numerous than that of Burgoyne lay directly across
his path to Albany, and must be dislodged before he could go forward.