Recurrence to the invasion of Burgoyne--General Schuyler again superseded
by Gates--Causes of this injustice--Battle of Stillwater--Both armies
entrench--Battle and victory of Behmus's Heights--Funeral of General
Frazer--Retreat of Burgoyne--Difficulties increasing upon him--His
capitulation--Meeting of Burgoyne and Gates--Deportment of Gates toward
Gen. Washington--Noble conduct of General Schuyler.
The temporary pacification of the Western part of the State, resulting
from the events of which we have just closed the narrative, affords an
opportunity for recurring to the invasion of Burgoyne, who was left in
the mid career of victory, checked, it is true, by unexpected and
increasing difficulties, until brought to a stand by the serious affair
of Bennington, heretofore incidentally disposed of. On shifting the scene,
however, from the head waters of the Mohawk to the upper districts of the
Hudson, General Gates is again found in command of the Northern
Department--General Schuyler, to whose wise measures and indefatigable
exertions the country was mainly indebted for arresting the progress of
Burgoyne, and during whose command the victory of Bennington had been won
by General Stark--having been most unjustly superseded by express
resolution of Congress. There had, during the present year, been a very
unwise, unworthy, and capricious interference, on the part of Congress,
with the command of this department. On the 25th of March, without a
reason assigned, General Gates had superseded General Schuyler, his
superior officer, by order of Congress; and on the 22d of May, without
any expressed motive, General Schuyler was restored to the command of
that department. [FN-1] Again, on the 1st of August, it was resolved by
Congress that General Schuyler should repair to head-quarters, while the
Commander-in-chief was, by the same resolution, directed to order such
general officer as he should think proper, to assume the command in
Schuyler's place. The day after the passage of that resolution, General
Washington received a letter from the New England delegation in Congress,
suggesting the name of General Gates, as the officer who would be most
likely to restore harmony, order, and discipline, and to relieve our
affairs in that quarter. [FN-2] We have, in a former chapter, referred to
the prejudices existing against General Schuyler, and the causes of them.
These had now become so strong, and the Eastern States, in particular,
were so hostile to his longer continuance in the command, that even his
friends acquiesced in the expediency, though not in the justice, of his
removal. [FN-3] General Schuyler himself, however, felt acutely the
discredit of being recalled at the most critical and interesting period
of the campaign; when the labor and activity of making preparations to
repair the disasters of it had been expended by him; and when an
opportunity was offered, as he observed, for that resistance and
retaliation which might bring glory upon our arms. [FN-4]
* * * * *
[FN-1] Memoirs of General Wilkinson, vol. i. p. 163.
[FN-2] Sparks's Life and Cor. of Washington, vol. v. p. 14. The original
of this letter to Washington is in the hand-writing of Samuel Adams, and
is signed by the following names, in the order in which they here stand,
viz: John Adams, Nathaniel Folsom, Samuel Adams, Henry Marchant,
Elbridge Gerry, Eliphalet Dyer, William Williams.
[FN-3] Marshall.
[FN-4] Address of Chancellor Kent before the New-York Historical Society,
Dec. 1828. The calumnies directed against St. Clair and Schuyler, in
regard to the fall of Ticonderoga, were so gross as to exceed belief in
their propagation. These officers were denounced as traitors to the
country, acting in concert with the enemy, and the ignorant and credulous
were led to believe that they had received an immense treasure in silver
balls, fired by Burgoyne into St. Clair's camp, and by his order picked
up, and transmitted to Schuyler at Fort George. Wilkinson, who was
Gates's Adjutant General, avers that respectable people questioned him
with much gravity as to the fact! These slanders were, for factious
purposes, countenanced by respectable men, and the consequence was,
general defection and desertion, in the early part of the Summer, so
that, at one time, the Northern army was reduced to less than three
thousand, and the militia to less than thirteen hundred--and these
subject to no effectual restraint.
The Commander-in-chief paid no heed to the advisory epistle from the New
England delegates, but in a respectful letter to the President of
Congress, declined the honor of making the selection. [FN] Had he not thus
excused himself, it is not presumption to intimate, that, influenced by
the peculiar attitude which Gates had even then begun to assume, and
acting, as Washington ever did, under the stern behests of conscience, he
would have made a different selection from that proposed to him by the
Eastern representatives, and which ultimately prevailed.
* * * * *
[FN] "At the same time that I express my thanks for the high mark of
confidence which Congress has been pleased to repose in me by their
resolve, authorising me to send an officer to command the Northern army,
I should wish to be excused from making the appointment. For this, many
reasons might be mentioned, which, I am persuaded, will occur to Congress
on reflection. The Northern department in a great measure has been
considered as separate, and more peculiarly under their direction; and
the officers commanding there always under their nomination. I have never
interfered farther than merely to advise, and to give such aids as were
within my power, on the requisitions of those officers. The present
situation of that department is delicate and critical, and the choice of
an officer to the command may involve very interesting and important
consequences."--_Letter of Washington to the President of Congress,
Aug._ 3, 1777.
General Gates, however, did not join the Northern army until the 19th of
August; and as the time was not specified within which he was required to
report himself at head-quarters, General Schuyler was allowed to remain
at the North, with the approbation both of Congress and the
Commander-in-chief, until after the campaign had been closed by the
surrender of the British commander and his army. Nor were his exertions
the less active, or his counsels the less freely proffered, in the cause
of his country, because of the injustice by which his pride had been
wounded. [FN]
* * * * *
[FN] "The zeal, patriotism, perseverance, and salutary arrangements of
General Schuyler, had roused the spirit of the country, and vanquished
the prejudices excited against him by artifice, intrigue, and
detraction."--_Wilkinson's Memoirs._
After the evacuation of Fort Edward, [FN-1] as mentioned in a former
chapter, General Schuyler fell down the river to Stillwater, on the 3d of
August, and began to entrench his camp there on the 4th. Burgoyne's
ill-conceived expedition to Bennington, under Colonel Baum, deprived him
of one-sixth of his effective force on the 16th. It was not until near a
month afterward, during which period the American army had been greatly
strengthened at Stillwater, that Burgoyne was again prepared to advance.
Having at length, by dint of almost incredible labor, brought up from Fort
George a supply of provisions for thirty days, and thrown a bridge of
boats over the Hudson, the British commander with his army crossed on the
13th and 14th of September, and encamped on the heights and plains of
Saratoga. On the night of the 17th, Burgoyne encamped within four miles
of the American army; and about noon on the 19th, advanced in full force
against it--the latter having, in the mean time, advanced toward the enemy
three miles above Stillwater. Burgoyne commanded his right wing in person,
covered by General Frazer and Colonel Breyman, with the grenadiers and
light-infantry, who were posted along some high grounds on the right. The
front and flanks were covered by Indians, Provincials, and Canadians. The
enemy's left wing and artillery were commanded by Generals Phillips and
Riedesel, who proceeded along the great road. Colonel Morgan, who was
detached to observe their motions, and to harass them as they advanced,
soon fell in with their pickets in advance of their right wing, attacked
them sharply and drove them in. A strong corps was immediately detached
by the enemy against Morgan, who, after a brisk engagement, was in turn
compelled to give way. A regiment being ordered to the assistance of
Morgan, whose riflemen had been sadly scattered by the vigor of the
attack, the battle was renewed at about one o'clock, and was maintained
with spirit, though with occasional pauses, for three hours--the
commanders on both sides supporting and reinforcing their respective
parties. By four o'clock the battle became general, Arnold, with nine
Continental regiments and Morgan's corps, having completely engaged the
whole right wing of the enemy. [FN-2] The contest, accidentally commenced,
in the first instance, now assumed the most obstinate and determined
character. It was maintained four hours longer--the soldiers being often
engaged hand to hand. The approach of night terminated the battle--the
Americans retreating to their encampment, but not from other necessity
than the darkness. The enemy were provided with artillery, but the ground
occupied by the Americans would not allow the use of field-pieces. The
fluctuations of the battle were frequent during the day, and although the
British artillery fell into the hands of the Americans at every alternate
charge, the latter could neither turn them upon the enemy nor bring them
off. "The wood prevented the last, and the want of a match the first, as
the lint-stock was invariably carried away, and the rapidity of the
transitions did not allow the Americans time to provide one." [FN-3]
* * * * *
[FN-1] It was during a skirmish before Fort Edward, when the Americans
were flying from a party of thirty or forty Indians, that the late
General Matthew Clarkson, of New-York--then Major Clarkson and aid to
General Arnold--was wounded by a ball which passed through the muscular
integuments of the throat. The wound was supposed to be fatal at the
time, but he soon recovered.
[FN-2] Holmes, who follows Stedman. General Wilkinson denies that Arnold
shared much in this battle. He says:--"Not a single general officer was
on the field of battle on the 19th, until evening, when General Lamed
was ordered out. About the same time Generals Gates and Arnold were in
front of the centre of the camp, listening to the peal of small arms,
when Colonel Morgan Lewis, deputy quartermaster General, returned from
the field, and being questioned by the General, he reported the
undecisive progress of the action--at which Arnold exclaimed, '_by G--
I will put an end to it,_' and clapping spurs to his horse, galloped off
at full speed. Colonel Lewis immediately observed to General Gates, 'You
had better order him back, the action is going well, and he may by some
rash act do mischief.' I was instantly despatched, overtook, and remanded
Arnold to camp."--_Memoirs, vol. i, Chap. vi._
[FN-3] Memoirs of General Wilkinson, vol. i. chapter vi.
General Wilkinson, at that time Adjutant General, who was himself in the
battle, and whose account of it is the best that has been written,
sustains the remark made above, that the engagement was perfectly
accidental; neither of the opposing Generals meditating an attack at that
time, and yet, by a mutual misconception of each other's purposes, they
were kept the whole day acting upon the defensive; confining themselves
to the ground occupied at first by accident, "and neither attempting a
single manoeuvre during one of the longest, warmest, and most obstinate
battles fought in America. General Gates believed that his antagonist
intended to attack him, and circumstances seemed to justify the like
conclusion on the part of Burgoyne; and, as the thickness and depth of an
intervening wood concealed the position and movements of either army from
its adversary, sound caution obliged the respective commanders to guard
every assailable point. Had either of the Generals been properly apprised
of the dispositions of his antagonist, a serious blow might have been
struck either on the left of the American army, or on the enemy's right;"
but although the combatants changed ground a dozen times in the course of
the day, the contest was terminated by the darkness, on the spot where it
began. [FN-1] Few actions have been more remarkable than this, both for
vigor of attack and obstinacy of resistance. [FN-2]
* * * * *
[FN-1] Idem.
[FN-2] Stedman. The loss on the part of the Americans, in killed and
wounded, was between three and four hundred. Among the former were
Colonels Colburn and Adams, and several other valuable officers. The
loss of the British was from six hundred to a thousand, killed, wounded,
and taken.
Both armies remained in the same positions until the beginning of
October--each entrenching itself within lines and redoubts, which, in the
most eligible positions, were strengthened with batteries. The engineer
having the direction of the American works at Behmus's Heights, was the
celebrated Polish patriot, Thaddeus Kosciusko, who had also served in the
same capacity at Ticonderoga.
The action of the 19th of September had again essentially diminished the
strength of Burgoyne, added to which were the great and increasing
difficulties of obtaining supplies, and the perpetual annoyances to which
he was subjected by the American scouts, and still larger detachments,
who were attacking his pickets, hanging upon his flanks, and cutting off
his foraging parties. By the 4th of October his supplies were so far
reduced that the soldiers were placed upon short allowance, and his
position was in other respects becoming so critical, that, hearing nothing
from Sir Henry Clinton, for whose cooperation from New-York he had been
waiting since the battle of the 19th, the idea of advancing was
relinquished, and instead thereof, discussions were held respecting the
practicability of a retreat. This could only be done by first dislodging
the Americans, whose forces, disciplined and undisciplined, now far
out-numbered his own, from their posts on the heights. On the 4th of
October, Burgoyne sent for Generals Phillips, Riedesel, and Frazer, to
consult with them on the best measures to be taken. His project was to
attack and attempt to turn the left wing of the Americans at once; but
the other Generals judged that it would be dangerous to leave their stores
under so feeble a protection as eight hundred men, according to the
proposition of their commander. A second consultation was held on the 5th,
at which General Riedesel positively declared that the situation of the
army had become so critical, that they must either attack and force the
entrenchments of Gates, and thus bring about a favorable change of
affairs, or recross the Hudson, and retreat upon Fort George. Fraser
approved of the latter suggestion, and Phillips declined giving an
opinion. General Burgoyne, to whom the idea of retreating was most
unwelcome, declared that he would make, on the 7th, a reconnaissance as
near as possible to the left wing of the Americans, with a view of
ascertaining whether it could be attacked with any prospect of success.
He would afterward either attack the army of Gates, or retreat by the
route in the rear of Battenkill. This was his final determination, and
dispositions were made accordingly. [FN]
* * * * *
[FN] Memoirs of Madame the Baroness de Riedesel.
Early in the afternoon of the 7th, General Burgoyne drew out fifteen
hundred men for the purpose of making his proposed reconnaissance, which
he headed himself, attended by Generals Phillips, Riedesel, and Frazer.
They advanced in three columns toward the left wing of the American
positions, entered a wheat-field, displayed into line, and then began
cutting up the wheat for forage. The movement having been seasonably
discovered, the centre advanced guard of the Americans beat to arms; the
alarm was repeated throughout the line, and the troops repaired to the
alarm posts. Colonel Wilkinson being at head-quarters at the moment, was
despatched to ascertain the cause of the alarm. He proceeded to within
sixty or seventy rods of the enemy, ascertained their position, and
returned; informing General Gates that they were foraging; attempting also
to reconnoiter the American left, and likewise, in his opinion, offering
battle. After a brief consultation. Gates said he would indulge them; and
Colonel Morgan, whose rifle corps was formed in front of the centre, was
directed "to begin the game." [FN-1] At his own suggestion, however, Morgan
was allowed to gain the enemy's right by a circuitous course, while Poor's
brigade should attack his left. [FN-2] The movement was admirably
executed; the New-York and New Hampshire troops attacked the enemy's front
and left wing with great impetuosity; while, true to his purpose, Morgan,
just at the critical moment, poured down like a torrent from the hill, and
attacked the enemy's right in front and flank. The attack was soon
extended along the whole front of the enemy with great determination.
Major Ackland, at the head of the grenadiers, sustained the attack of
Poor with great firmness. [FN-3] But on his right the light infantry, in
attempting to change front, being pressed with ardor by Colonel Dearborn,
were forced to retire under a close fire, and in great disorder. They were
re-formed by the Earl of Balcarras behind a fence in the rear of their
first position; but, being again attacked with great audacity in front
and flanks by superior numbers, resistance became vain, and the whole
line, commanded by Burgoyne in person, gave way, and made a precipitate
and disorderly retreat to his camp, [FN-4] The right of Burgoyne had given
way first, the retreat of which was covered by the light infantry and a
part of the 24th regiment. The left wing in its retreat would inevitably
have been cut to pieces, but for the intervention of the same troops,
performing in its behalf the same service that, a few moments before,
they had done for the right. This retreat took place in exactly fifty-two
minutes after the first shot was fired--the enemy leaving two twelve and
six six pounders on the field, with the loss of more than four hundred
officers and men, killed, wounded, and captured, and among them the flower
of his officers, viz: General Frazer, Major Ackland,[FN-5] Sir Francis
Cook, and many others.
* * * * *
[FN-1] General Burgoyne afterward stated to Wilkinson, in conversation,
that his purpose on that day was only to reconnoiter and obtain forage,
and that in half an hour, had his motives not been penetrated by
Wilkinson and he not been attacked, he should have finished his
observations and returned to his camp.
[FN-2] Wilkinson's Memoirs.
[FN-3] Holmes.
[FN-4] Memoirs of General Wilkinson.
[FN-5] Idem. General Wilkinson gives an interesting incident respecting
Major Ackland. While pursuing the flying enemy, passing over killed and
wounded, he heard a voice exclaim--"Protect me, sir, against this boy!"
Turning his head, he saw a lad, thirteen or fourteen years of age,
deliberately aiming at a wounded officer, lying in the angle of a
worm-fence. The purpose of the boy was arrested--the officer proved to
be the brave Ackland who had commanded the grenadiers, and was wounded
in both legs. He was immediately sent to head-quarters. The story of
Major Ackland has been rendered familiar to all, even before escaping
the nursery, by the interesting narrative of Lady Harriet, his wife, who
was with the army, and who, two days after the battle, came to the
American camp, under a flag, to join her husband. The incident, from the
embellishments it received, was touching and romantic. When divested of
its poetry, however, and reduced to the plain matter of fact, according
to the statement of the late General Dearborn, which he authorized
Wilkinson to publish in his memoirs, the affair was not so very
extraordinary that it might not have been enacted by any other pretty
woman under the same circumstances, who loved her husband. Major Ackland
had already been sent down to Albany, when Lady Harriet arrived at the
camp of General Gates. She was treated with all possible courtesy, and
permitted to follow and join him. Major Ackland was a gallant officer
and a generous foe. While in New-York, on his parole, he did all in his
power to favor the treatment of distinguished American prisoners. After
his return to England, he sacrificed his life in defence of American
honor. Having procured a regiment, at a dinner of military men, the
courage of the Americans was questioned. He repelled the imputation with
decision. High words ensued, in the course of which Ackland gave the lie
direct to a subordinate officer named Lloyd. A meeting was the
consequence, in which he was shot through the head. Lady Harriet lost
her senses, and continued deranged two years; after which she married a
gentleman named Brudenell, who had accompanied her from the camp of
Burgoyne, at Saratoga, to that of Gates, in search of her wounded
husband.
The British troops had scarcely entered their lines, when the Americans,
led by General Arnold, pressed forward, and, under a tremendous fire of
grape-shot and musketry, assaulted their works throughout their whole
extent from right to left. Toward the close of the day, the enemy's
intrenchments were forced by the left of the Americans, led by Arnold in
person, who, with a few of his men, actually entered the works; but his
horse being killed, and the General himself badly wounded in the leg,
they were forced to retire, and the approach of darkness induced them to
desist from the attack. [FN-1] Meantime, on the left of Arnold's
detachment, the Massachusetts troops, under Colonel Brooks, had been still
more successful--having turned the enemy's right, and carried by storm
the works occupied by the German reserve. Colonel Breyman, their
commander, was killed; and his corps, reduced to two hundred men, and
hotly pressed on all sides, was obliged to give way. This advantage was
retained by the Americans; and darkness put an end to an action equally
brilliant and important to the Continental arms. Great numbers of the
enemy were killed, and two hundred prisoners taken. The loss of the
Americans was inconsiderable. [FN-2]
* * * * *
[FN-1] Subsequent to the battle of the 19th September, and previous to
that now under review, Arnold had had some difficulty with Gates. A sharp
correspondence en sued, in the course of which the former demanded
permission to join the Commander-in-chief in Pennsylvania. The
consequence was, that Arnold found himself without any command on the
7th. He was exceedingly chafed at his position; but, orders or no orders,
he could not be kept from the field. His conduct was very strange, and
he has been charged by Wilkinson and others with intoxication that day.
Be it so or not, before the action was over, he was in the hottest of it,
and exercising command. He expressed himself foolishly and presumptuously
in front of the German division; and it was without orders that he
collected a few desperate followers, with whom he entered the enemy's
intrenchment, where he received his wound.
[FN-2] Holmes.
On the morning of the 8th, before daybreak, the enemy left his position
and defiled into the plain where his provisions were; but was obliged to
halt until the evening, because his hospital could not be sooner
removed. [FN-1] The Americans immediately moved forward, and took
possession of the abandoned camp. Burgoyne having condensed his force upon
some heights which were strong by nature, and covered in front by a ravine
running parallel with the entrenchment of his late camp, a random fire of
artillery and small arms was kept up through the day--particularly on the
part of the enemy's sharpshooters and Provincials, who were stationed in
coverts of the ravine, which rendered their fire annoying to every person
crossing their line of vision. [FN-2] It was by a shot from one of these
lurking parties, that General Lincoln, late in the day, received a severe
wound in the leg while riding near the line.
* * * * *
[FN-1] Memoirs of the Baroness de Riedesel. Of this lady. General
Wilkinson says--"I have more than once seen her charming blue eyes
bedewed with tears at the recital of her sufferings. With two infant
children she accompanied her husband, Major General the Baron de
Riedesel from Germany to England, from England to Canada, and from the
last place to the termination of General Burgoync's campaign, in which
she suffered more than the horrors of the grave in their most frightful
aspect." Her Memoirs were published in Berlin in 1800. They are full of
interest. Some of the distressing scenes which attended the close of
Burgoyne's campaign are so graphically told by the Baroness, and afford
such striking illustrations of the horrors of war, that the author has
ventured to transfer a few pages to the Appendix of the present volume.
See Appendix, No. IX.
[FN-2] Memoirs of General Wilkinson.
The gallant Frazer, who had been mortally wounded the day before, died at
8 o'clock on the morning of the 8th. On the evening of his fall, when it
was rendered certain that he could not recover, he sent for General
Burgoyne, and requested that he might be buried at 6 o'clock the following
evening, on the crest of a hill upon which a breastwork had been
constructed. It was a subject of complaint against Burgoyne, that in order
to comply with this request, he delayed his retreat, and thus contributed
to the misfortunes of his army. Be that as it may, the dying soldier's
request was observed to the letter. At the hour appointed the body was
borne to the hill that had been indicated, attended by the Generals and
their retinues; the funeral service was read by the Chaplain; and the
corpse interred, while the balls of the American cannon were flying around
and above the assembled mourners. [FN]
* * * * *
[FN] The Baroness Riedesel, from whose spirited Memoirs the circumstances
of this funeral are drawn, states that General Gates protested afterward
that had he known what was going on, he would have stopped the fire
immediately. It must have been a solemn spectacle, and General Burgoyne
himself described it with his usual eloquence and felicity of
expression:--"The incessant cannonade during the solemnity; the steady
attitude and unaltered voice with which the chaplain officiated, though
frequently covered with dust, which the shot threw up on all sides of
him; the mute but expressive mixture of sensibility and indignation upon
every countenance; these objects will remain to the last of life upon the
mind of every man who was present. The growing duskiness added to the
scenery, and the whole marked a character of that juncture, that would
make one of the finest subjects for the pencil of a master that the
field ever exhibited. To the canvass, and to the faithful page of a more
important historian, gallant friend! I consign thy memory. There may thy
talents, thy manly virtues, their progress and their period, find due
distinction; and long may they survive, long after the frail record of
my pen shall be forgotten!"--_State of the Expedition from Canada, &c.
&c._ p. 169.
It was evident from the movements in the enemy's camp, that he was
preparing to retreat; but the American troops, having in the delirium of
joy consequent upon their victory, neglected to draw and eat their
rations--being withal not a little fatigued with the two days' exertions,
fell back to their camp, which had been left standing in the morning.
Retreat was, indeed, the only alternative remaining to the British
commander, since it was now quite certain that he could not cut his way
through the American army, and his supplies were reduced to a short
allowance for five days. He accordingly commenced his retreat that night,
but lingered by the way; so that on the 10th he was yet near Saratoga,
where he took up a position. During this retreat he ordered the
farm-houses to be burnt by the way, among which was the elegant mansion
of General Schuyler, with its mills and out-buildings. This conduct on
the part of the British commander was viewed as alike disreputable and
unnecessary. [FN]
* * * * *
[FN] "The cruelties which mark the retreat of your army, in burning the
gentlemen's and farmers' houses as it passed along, are almost, among
civilized nations, without precedent; they should not endeavor to ruin
those they could not conquer; their conduct betrays more of the
vindictive malice of the monk than the generosity of a soldier."--_Letter
of Gates to Burgoyne, Oct._ 12, 1777.
Well knowing that a farther retreat, with a view, if possible, of reaching
his _depot_ at Fort George, and escaping through the lakes, was now the
only movement to which Burgoyne could have recourse to save the shattered
remains of his army, Gates lost no time in throwing several strong
detachments of troops into his rear. A division of fourteen hundred was
stationed on the heights opposite the ford at Saratoga; two thousand in
his rear, to prevent his retreat upon Fort Edward; and fifteen hundred at
a ford yet higher up. Apprehensive that he should be entirely penned up,
Burgoyne sent forward a corps of artificers to repair the bridges; but
these, though strongly guarded, were driven precipitately back. His
thoughts were next directed to the opening of a passage by the way of
Fort Edward; but the Americans had already re-possessed themselves of
that work, and were well provided with artillery. Thus environed with
difficulties, which were increasing; every hour, his effective force
reduced to less than three thousand five hundred men,--the American army
increasing every moment, and now forming an almost entire circle around
him,--harassed at all points, especially by the sharp-shooters who hovered
about him,--Burgoyne was driven to the necessity of entering into a
convention with General Gates, which was done by the unanimous consent of
a general council of his officers. The preliminaries were soon adjusted;
and on the 17th of October, the royal army surrendered prisoners of war.
At the opening of the campaign, the army of Burgoyne numbered nine
thousand two hundred and thirteen men. The number that laid down their
arms, was five thousand seven hundred and fifty-two. His Indian allies
had all, or nearly all, abandoned him several days before.
On the same day that the articles of capitulation were carried into
effect, Burgoyne, with his general officers, was received in the quarters
of General Gates, and entertained by him at dinner. They were received
with the utmost courtesy, and with the consideration due to brave but
unfortunate men. The conversation was unrestrained, affable, and
free. [FN-1] Indeed, the conduct of Gates throughout, after the terms of
the surrender had been adjusted, was marked with equal delicacy and
magnanimity, as Burgoyne himself admitted in a letter to the Earl of
Derby. In that letter, the captive General particularly mentioned one
circumstance which, he said, exceeded all he had ever seen or read of on
a like occasion. It was the fact, that when the British soldiers had
marched out of their camp to the place where they were to pile their arms,
_not a man of the American troops was to be seen_--General Gates having
ordered his whole army out of sight, that not one of them should be a
spectator of the humiliation of the British troops, nor offer the smallest
insult to the vanquished. This was a refinement of delicacy, and of
military generosity and politeness, reflecting the highest credit upon
the conqueror; and was spoken of by the officers of Burgoyne in the
strongest terms of approbation. [FN-2]
* * * * *
[FN-1] Memoirs of the Baroness de Riedesel. The first meeting of
Burgoyne with Gates is thus described by Wilkinson:--"General Gates,
advised of Burgoyne's approach, met him at the head of his camp--Burgoyne
in a rich royal uniform, and Gates in a plain blue frock; when they had
approached nearly within sword's length, they reined up and halted. I
then named the gentlemen, and General Burgoyne, raising his hat most
gracefully, said--'The fortune of war. General Gates, has made me your
prisoner;' to which the conqueror, returning a courtly salute, promptly
replied--'I shall always be ready to bear testimony that it has not been
through any fault of your Excellency.'"
[FN-2] Remembrancer of 1777, pages 482, 83. A letter published in that
repository of the events of the American Revolution, at the same time,
stated that "some few of the New England men desired to have Burgoyne in
their hands for half an hour. Being asked for what purpose, they said
they would do him no manner of harm; they would only tar and feather him,
and make him stand on the head of one of his own empty beef-barrels, and
read his own proclamation."--481, 82. If made at all, the suggestion
must have been merely the sportive sally of a wag.
It was, perhaps, no fault of General Gates, that he had been placed in
command at the North just at the auspicious moment when the discomfiture
of Burgoyne was no longer problematical. He was ordered by Congress to
the station, and performed his duty well. But it is no less true that the
laurels won by him ought to have been harvested by Schuyler. General
(then Colonel) Wilkinson, who was not only an active officer in that
campaign, but a member of Gates's own military family, has placed this
question in its true aspect. He maintains that not only had the army of
Burgoyne been essentially disabled by the loss of a heavy detachment,
artillery and baggage, and by the defeat of the Hessians at Bennington,
before the arrival of Gates, but that the repulse of St. Leger at Fort
Schuyler had deranged his plans, while safety had been restored to the
western frontier, and the panic thereby caused to subside. He likewise
maintains that after the reverses at the North, no wise in justice
attributable to him, and before the arrival of Gates, the zeal,
patriotism, and salutary arrangements of General Schuyler had vanquished
the prejudices excited against him; that by the defeat of Baum and St.
Leger, Schuyler had been enabled to concentrate and oppose his whole
Continental force against the main body of the enemy; and that by him,
also before the arrival of Gates, the friends of the Revolution had been
re-animated and excited to manly resistance, while the adherents of the
royal cause were intimidated, and had shrunk into silence and inactivity.
From these premises, which are indisputable, it is no more than a fair
deduction to say, "that the same force which enabled Gates to subdue the
British army, would have produced a similar effect under the orders of
General Schuyler; since the operations of the campaign did not involve a
single instance of professional skill, and the triumph of the American
arms was accomplished by the physical force and valor of the troops,
under the protection and direction of the god of battles." [FN]
* * * * *
[FN] Wilkinson's Memoirs, vol. i. chap. v.
Flushed with his fortuitous success, or rather with the success attending
his fortuitous position, Gates did not wear his honors with any remarkable
meekness. On the contrary, his bearing even toward the Commander-in-chief
was far from respectful. He did not even write to Washington on the
occasion, until after a considerable time had elapsed. In the first
instance Wilkinson was sent as the bearer of despatches to Congress, but
did not reach the seat of that body until fifteen days after the articles
of capitulation had been signed; and three days more were occupied in
arranging his papers before they were presented. [FN-1] The first mention
which Washington makes of the defeat of Burgoyne, is contained in a
letter written to his brother on the 18th of October--the news having
been communicated to him by Governor Clinton. He spoke of the event again
on the 19th, in a letter addressed to General Putnam. On the 25th, in a
letter addressed to that officer, he acknowledges the receipt of a copy
of the articles of capitulation _from him_--adding, that that was the first
authentic intelligence he had received of the affair, and that he had
begun to grow uneasy, and almost to suspect that the previous accounts
were premature. And it was not until the 2d of November that Gates deigned
to communicate to the Commander-in-chief a word upon the subject, and
then only incidentally, as though it were a matter of secondary
importance. [FN-2]
* * * * *
[FN-1] Sparks. "It was on this occasion that one of the members made a
motion in Congress, that they should compliment Colonel Wilkinson with
the gift of a pair of spurs."
[FN-2] Idem. All that Gates said upon the subject in the letter referred
to, was comprised in these few words:--"Congress having been requested
immediately to transmit copies of all my despatches to them, I am
confident your Excellency has long ago received all the good news from
this quarter." Two days before this, in a letter directed to Gates,
Washington had administered one of those mild and dignified rebukes so
very like himself. In this letter, written in reference to a special
mission of Colonel Hamilton to the North, the Commander-in-chief
said:--"By this opportunity I do myself the pleasure to congratulate you
on the signal success of the army under your command, in compelling
General Burgoyne and his whole force to surrender themselves prisoners
of war." . . . "At the same time I cannot but regret that a matter of
such magnitude, and so interesting to our general operations, should
have reached me by report only, or through the channel of letters not
bearing that authenticity which the importance of it required, and which
it would have received by a line under your signature, stating the
simple facts."--_Lettrs of Washington, vol. v. pages_ 104, 112, 113,
124, 125.
General Schuyler was in the camp with Gates at the time of the surrender,
though without any personal command; and when Burgoyne, with his general
officers, arrived in Albany, they were the guests of Schuyler, by whom
they wore treated with great hospitality. The Baroness de Riedesel speaks
with great feeling of the kindness she received from General Schuyler on
her first arrival in the camp of General Gates, and afterward at the hands
of Mrs. Schuyler and her daughters in Albany. The urbanity of his manners,
and the chivalric magnanimity of his character, smarting as he was under
the extent and severity of his pecuniary losses, are attested by General
Burgoyne himself, in his speech in 1778, in the British House of Commons.
He there declared that, by his orders, "a very good dwelling-house,
exceeding large store-houses, great saw mills, and other out-buildings,
to the value altogether perhaps of 10,000 pounds sterling," belonging to
General Schuyler, at Saratoga, were destroyed by fire a few days before
the surrender. He said farther, that one of the first persons he saw,
after the convention was signed, was General Schuyler; and when expressing
to him his regret at the event which had happened to his property, General
Schuyler desired him "to think no more of it, and that the occasion
justified it, according to the principles and rules of war. He did more,"
said Burgoyne; "he sent an aid-de-camp [FN-1] to conduct me to Albany, in
order, as he expressed it, to procure better quarters than a stranger
might be able to find. That gentleman conducted me to a very elegant
house, and, to my great surprise, presented me to Mrs. Schuyler and her
family. In that house I remained during my whole stay in Albany, with a
table of more than twenty covers for me and my friends, and every other
possible demonstration of hospitality." [FN-2]
* * * * *
[FN-1] The late Colonel Richard Varick, then the military secretary of
Gen. Schuyler.
[FN-2] Parliamentary History, vol. xix. p. 1182--as quoted by Chancellor
Kent in his address before the New-York Historical Society.