We reached the little settlement of Coveville at half past four, the

rain still falling gently. This was formerly Do-ve-gat, or Van Vechten's

Cove, as it was sometimes called, the place where the British tarried

from the 15th till the 17th of September, while a working party repaired

the roads and bridges in advance to Wilbur's Basin. Here was the

residence of Colonel Van Vechten, of the Saratoga militia, one of

General Gates's staff. He was a zealous Whig, and the active Tories,

whose plans his vigilance often frustrated, were greatly imbittered

against him politically, while they honored him as a brave man and good

neighbor. * Burgoyne, on his retreat to Saratoga after the battle of the

7th of October, ordered the dwellings of several Whigs to be destroyed;

and at Do-ve-gat the buildings of Colonel Van Vechten were the first to

which the torch of the invader was laid. His family fled to Albany on

the approach of Burgoyne from Fort Edward; and when they returned, late

in October, their fine estate was a perfect wreck, and they had no

shelter for their heads.

Colonel Van Vechten was at Albany, on public business, at the time of

the first battle on Bemis's Heights. He had received an order from the

Committee of Safety at that city, when Burgoyne marched from Fort

Edward, to remove every Tory or disaffected person from his vicinage

into Connecticut. This order touched his excellent heart with grief, for

many of those included in the proscription were his neighbors, and some

were his personal friends, who honestly differed from him in relation to

the momentous political questions at issue. Within six hours after

receiving the order he was in Albany, and procured its recall. The

humanity, policy, and sound wisdom of that step were soon illustrated by

the firm support which some of these disaffected ones gave to the

American cause.

We landed at Schuylerville in the midst of "sun and shower," for the sky

was clear in the west, yet the rain-drops came glittering down

profusely. The Fish Creek, which here has a succession of falls and

rapids for nearly a mile, affording fine water-power for several mills,

was brimful with the showers of the day, and poured its flood, roaring

and foaming, under the canal viaduct with such force as to shake the

solid masonry. It empties its waters into the Hudson about one hundred

rods east of the canal, at the southeast angle of Old Fort Hardy, now

among the buried things of the past. Upon the plain north of the creek,

near the old fort, the forces of Burgoyne laid down their arms; and on

every side of that pleasant village scenes of historic interest lie

scattered. The earth was too wet to invite a sunset ramble, and we

contented ourselves with viewing the beauty of the scene that spread out

before us eastward while loitering upon the upper piazza of the

Schuylerville House.

* I have already had occasion to use the terms Whig and Tory, and shall

do so often in the course of this work. They were copied by us from the

political vocabulary of Great Britain, and were first used here, to

distinguish the opposing parties in the Revolution, about 1770. The term

originated during the reign of Charles II., or about that time. Bishop

Burnet, in his History of his own Times, gives the following

explanation: "The southwest counties of Scotland have seldom corn enough

to serve them round the year: and the northern parts producing more than

they need, those in the west come in the summer to buy at Leith the

stores that come from the north; and, from a word, whiggmi, used in

driving their horses, all that drove were called whiggamores, and

shorter, whiggs. Now in that year, after the news came down of Duke

Hamilton's defeat, the ministers animated their people to rise and march

to Edinburgh, and then came up marching at the head of their parishes,

with unheard-of fury, praying and preaching all the way as they came.

The Marquis of Argyle and his party came and headed them, they being

about six thousand. This was called the Whiggamore's inroad, and ever

after that all that opposed the courts came, in contempt, to be called

Whigg; and from Scotland the word was brought into England, where it is

now one of our unhappy terms of distinction." Subsequently all whose

party bias was democratic were called Whigs. The origin of the word Tory

is not so well attested. The Irish malcontents, half robbers and half

insurgents, who harassed the English in Ireland at the time of the

massacre in 1640, were the first to whom this epithet was applied. It

was also applied to the court party as a term of reproach.-See, also,

Macaulay's History of England, i., 240.

Beautiful Evening Scene.--Commencement of Burgoyne's Retreat toward

Saratoga.--His Retreat anticipated by Gates.

072

It was, indeed, a charming scene, enhanced by the associations of the

vicinity. The face of nature was washed clean by the drenching showers;

the trees and shrubs were brilliant green; and from the clustering

knolls or loftier hills beyond the Hudson, once bristling with bayonets

or wreathed by the smoke of cannon, the evening sunlight was reflected

back by the myriad rain-drops lying upon trees, and grass, and blooming

corn. Nor was this all. Upon the dark background of the hills was Iris,

"That beautiful one,

Whose arch is refraction, whose keystone the sun;

In the hues of its grandeur sublimely it stood

O'er the river, the village, the field, and the wood."

Charles Swain.

Springing from the plain, its double arch spanned the whole ground where

British pride was humbled and American valor acknowledged. I never gazed

upon the "bow of promise" with so much interest, for thought

unconsciously bridged over the chasm of seventy buried years, and it

seemed for a moment as if the dark hours of our rebellious conflict had

returned, and that in the covenant seal before me the eye of hope read

prophetically the history of the happy present. As the sun went down and

the bow faded, the Spirit of Beauty left traces of its pencil on my

thoughts, and I felt, with "Amelia," that

"There are moments, bright moments, when the spirit receives

Whole volumes of thought on its unwritten leaves,

When the folds of the heart in a moment unclose,

Like the innermost leaves from the heart of the rose;

And thus, when the rainbow had passed from the sky,

The thoughts it awoke were too deep to pass by;

It left my full soul like the wings of a dove,

All flutt'ring with pleasure, and flutt'ring with love."

In the evening I visited the son of Colonel Van Vechten just named, a

man of three score and ten years. His memory is unclouded, and extends

back to the closing scenes of the Revolution. His father stored that

memory with the verbal history of his times, and every noteworthy

locality of Saratoga is as familiar to him as the flower-beds of his

beautiful garden. He kindly offered to be my guide in the morning to all

the places here made memorable by the events connected with the

surrender of Burgoyne.

While awaiting the dawn, let us turn to the past, and view occurrences

from the burial of Fraser to the closing scenes of the drama.

October, 1777 As soon as the funeral ceremonies at Fraser's burial were

ended on the evening of the 8th, Burgoyne, fearing that the Americans

(whose forces constantly increased, and whose activity denoted

preparations for some bold movement) might succeed in turning his right

and surrounding him, commenced a night march toward Saratoga. A retreat

was anticipated by General Gates, and, previous to the action on the

7th, he sent General Fellows with a detachment of fourteen hundred men

to occupy the high grounds east of the Hudson, opposite the Saratoga

ford, intending, in case the enemy retreated, to follow so closely in

pursuit as to be able to re-enforce that officer from the ranks of the

main army. He also sent another detachment, after the action, to occupy

ground higher up near Fort Miller, and ordered a selected corps of two

thousand men to push forward and occupy the heights beyond Saratoga, in

the direction of Lake George. But the retreat of Burgoyne was at a time

when Gates least expected it. The troops of the former had been in

motion all the night before, and under arms all day on the 8th, and he

supposed that they would tarry for rest until the morning of the 9th.

At sunset on the 8th a lurid haziness in the west indicated an

approaching storm, and before midnight the rain began to fall. The enemy

felt that his situation was too perilous to be maintained, and the whole

British army commenced its march at nine o'clock in the evening. The

loss of Fraser was now severely felt, for he had always showed as

consummate skill in managing a retreat as bravery in leading to an

attack. General Riedesel

Melancholy Condition of the British Army.--Gates's Kindness to the

Invalids.--Destruction of Schuyler's Mills and Mansion.

073

commanded the van-guard and General Phillips the rear-guard. The night

was so dark, the rain so incessant in the morning, and the roads were so

bad, that the royal army did not reach Saratoga until the evening of the

9th. They made a halt about six o'clock in the morning, and General

Riedesel, exhausted by fatigue, went into the caleche in which his wife

and children were, and slept soundly for about three hours. Wet and

weary, and harassed by the Americans all the way, the poor soldiers were

too much exhausted even to cut wood for fires, and they lay down upon

the cold, wet ground and slept. The generals reposed in the open air,

upon mattresses, with no other covering than oil-cloth. The Baroness

Reidesel and other women of the British camp were obliged to submit to

these privations. "My dress," the former says, "was wet through and

through with rain, and in this state I had to remain the whole night,

having no place to change it; I, however, got close to a large fire, and

at last lay down on some straw. At this moment General Phillips came up

to me, and I asked him why he had not continued our retreat, as my

husband had promised to cover it and bring the army through. 'Poor dear

woman,' he said, 'I wonder how, drenched as you are, you have the

courage still to persevere, and venture further in this kind of weather.

I wish,' he continued, 'you were our commanding general; General

Burgoyne is tired, and means to halt here to-night and give us our

supper.'" * No doubt there was more sincerity than compliment in General

Phillips's wish, for the frequent halts and great delays of Burgoyne had

dissatisfied his officers, and were, doubtless, chief causes of his

misfortunes. His ambition and his love of ease were often wrestling, and

the latter too frequently gained the mastery.

The retreat of Burgoyne was so sudden, that he left all his sick and

wounded in the hospital behind him, together with a great number of

wheel carriages and other things collected at Wilbur's Basin. The

invalids, amounting to about three hundred, were treated by General

Gates with the utmost humanity, which Burgoyne afterward gratefully

acknowledged. On retiring, the English burned the houses they had

occupied, and many other things which they could not carry away with

them. They also wantonly set fire to several buildings on the way, by

order of Burgoyne himself; and among others, when they crossed the Fish

Creek, the mansion of General Schuyler, his mills and other property,

amounting in value to twenty thousand dollars, were destroyed by them.

The house of General Schuyler was elegant for the times, and was very

pleasantly situated upon the south bank of the Fish Kill or Fish Creek.

It was rebuilt after the war, but in a style much inferior in beauty and

expense. It is still standing, and in the present possession of George

Strover, Esq. The broad lawn in front is beautifully shaded with

venerable trees; and the falls of the Fish Creek close by contribute, by

their music and wild beauty, much to the interest of the scene. The mill

was also rebuilt in the same style. In the engraving is given a correct

representation of it. Many of the logs in the dam are the same that

curbed the stream in the time of the Revolution; and I was told that

little was wanted to make the whole appear as at that r period, but that

the surrounding hills should be covered with dense woods.

The rain was so heavy on the 9th, that General Gates did not commence

his pursuit until nearly noon on the tenth. The

* Letters of the Baroness Riedesel

Situation of Fellows's Detachment.--Conduct of the American Militia.--

Burgoyne's Attempt to Retreat

074

detachment under Fellows was unconsciously in a perilous situation for

want of re-enforcements. Resting in supposed security on the night of

the 9th, his camp was left so entirely unguarded that an officer, who

had been sent forward by Burgoyne to reconnoiter, marched all around it

without meeting a sentinel! This neglect would have been fatal if

Burgoyne had known the exact position of his enemies around him. The

officer urged him to allow him to surprise Fellows, but misfortune had

made the British general wary and suspicious, and, fortunately for the

Americans, the request was denied.

The main army of Gates reached the high ridge between Saratoga Church

and the Fish Creek at about four in the afternoon of the 10th. The

British had crossed over the creek, and were encamped upon the high

grounds on the slope of which Schuylerville is now built. The two armies

were within the sound of each other's music. The boats of Burgoyne, with

his baggage and provisions, were at the mouth of the creek. A fatigue

party began to carry the stores from the boats to the heights, but

Fellows constantly played upon them with two field pieces stationed on

the flats beyond the river, and they were obliged to retreat to the

camp. Several of the bateaux of the enemy, with their provisions, were

captured, and immediately became objects of plunder for the raw militia

and motley followers of the army. Even the Continental troops were

implicated in taking "pay and rations" for services, directly from the

enemy, instead of receiving them through the paymaster. These

irregularities became so extensive that General Gates issued an order on

the 12th, in which he declared that he "saw so many scandalous and mean

transactions committed by persons who sought more after plunder than the

honor of doing their duty, that it was his unalterable resolution to

have the first person who should thereafter be detected in pillaging the

baggage and stores taken from the enemy, tried and punished with the

utmost severity of the military law." **

Finding the ford across the Hudson strongly guarded by the Americans,

Burgoyne resolved to continue his retreat up the right bank of the river

to the front of Fort Edward, force his way across, and take possession

of that fortress. He sent forward a working party, consisting chiefly of

loyalists, guarded by Fraser's marksmen, to repair the bridges and open

the roads, and also a detachment of troops to take possession of the

fort. The Americans, who were spreading out in small detachments upon

every height, on all sides, soon drove the workmen back into the camp;

and the British troops found the fort in the possession of two hundred

Americans, under Colonel Cochrane. The militia were flocking to the fort

to strengthen the garrison, and the enemy, believing the Americans to be

as numerous in front as in rear, hastily retreated back to their lines.

* The village of Schuylerville is on the north bank of the Fish Creek.

Old Saratoga, with its church, was on the south side. The church was

about eight hundred yards south of the creek, on the road to Albany.

** It is said that when Burgoyne proposed in council, on the 13th, to

retreat precipitately, he mildly reproached Major Skene, a stanch

loyalist, with having brought him into this difficulty by injudicious

advice, particularly with regard to the expedition to Bennington. "You

have brought me into this difficulty," he said; "now advise me how to

get out of it."

"Scatter your baggage, stores, and every thing else that can be spared,

at proper distances," replied the major, "and the militia will be so

engaged in collecting and securing the same, that the troops will have

an opportunity of getting clear off."

*** The two victories on Bemis's Heights greatly inspirited the

Americans, and when, after the last battle, General Gates, in order to

make victory secure, applied to the Legislature of New Hampshire for

more troops, the militia turned out with alacrity. The speaker of the

Assembly, John Langdon, Esq., upon receiving the application,

immediately proposed an adjournment, and that as many members as could

should set off directly as volunteers for the cause, taking with them

all the men they could collect. It was agreed to, and done by himself

and others.-Gordon, ii., 262.

Unsuccessful Stratagem of Burgoyne.--Perilous Situation of two American

Brigades.--Deserters from the British Army.

075

Thus the cloud of perils thickened around Burgoyne. He now abandoned all

idea of saving his artillery and baggage, and saw no other mode of

escape than a precipitate retreat. The provisions and other stores in

his bateaux were captured or destroyed by the republicans, and from

every direction he was galled by a desultory fire from cannon and small

arms. So overwhelming was the number of the Americans, that to fight

would be madness, and Burgoyne lost all hope of saving his doomed army.

But in the midst of all these perils and despondencies, a stratagem of

the British commander, suggested by an erring apprehension on the part

of General Gates, aided by the occurrence of a natural phenomenon, came

very near being successful, and for a time greatly cheered the drooping

spirits of the enemy. Rumor reached General Gates that the whole British

army had moved toward Fort Edward, leaving only a small detachment, as a

rearguard, in defense of the camp. This rumor originated from the march

of the detachment already mentioned, which was sent forward to Fort

Edward. General Gates, therefore, determined to cross the Fish Creek on

the morning of the 11th, fall in full force upon and crush the British

rear-guard, and make a vigorous pursuit after the main body.

By some means this determination of Gates's became known to Burgoyne,

and he resolved to profit by the false rumor. He left a strong guard at

the battery on the creek, and concealed his troops in the thicket, a few

rods in the rear. In the morning the sky was cloudless, but a thick fog

rested upon the whole country and obscured every object. This was hailed

as a favorable event by both generals, Gates supposing that it would

veil his movements from the British rear-guard, and Burgoyne confidently

believing that it would conceal his ambush, and that victory was now

certain.

The brigades of Generals Nixon and Glover, and Morgan's corps, were

ordered to cross the creek and fall upon the enemy's camp. Morgan

advanced at about daylight, the fog being so thick that he could see but

a few rods around him. He at once fell in with the British pickets, who

poured in a volley upon him and killed a lieutenant and several

privates. Morgan instantly conceived that the rumor was false, and that

the enemy was in force near. At that moment Deputy Adjutant-general

Wilkinson, who had been sent by Gates to reconnoiter, rode up, and,

coinciding in opinion with Morgan, hastened to report to his commander

the supposed peril of his corps. The brigades of Patterson and Learned

were immediately dispatched to its support. Nixon and Glover were at the

same time pressing forward to attack the camp, while the whole army

advanced to the heights immediately south of the creek. Nixon crossed

the creek to the plain, and surprised a picket guard at Fort Hardy; and

Glover was about to follow him, when a British soldier was seen hastily

fording the stream. He was captured, and professed to be a deserter.

Glover questioned him, and was informed that the entire British army

were in their camp, drawn up in order of battle. The general suspected

him of untruth, and threatened him with instant death if he should

deceive him. The soldier declared that he was an honest deserter, and

solemnly affirmed the truth of his tale, which was soon confirmed by a

German deserter, and by the capture of a reconnoitering party,

consisting of a subaltern and thirty-five men, by the advance guard,

under Captain Goodale, of Putnam's regiment. The deserter was

immediately sent with one of Glover's aids to General Gates, and

information was forwarded to General Nixon, with urgent advice to halt.

Satisfied of the deserter's truth, Gates revoked all the orders of the

evening previous, and directed the troops to return to their respective

positions. His headquarters were nearly a mile in the rear of his army,

and his order came almost too late to save the troops, who had General

Gates's Headquarters at Saratoga. *

* This house is still standing. The view is taken from the road, a few

rods southwest of the building. It is of wood, and has been somewhat

enlarged since the Revolution. It was used by General Gates for his

quarters from the 10th of October until after the surrender of Burgoyne

on the 17th. It belonged to a Widow Kershaw, and General Gates amply

compensated her for all he had, on leaving it. It is now well preserved.

It stands on the east side of the Albany and Whitehall turnpike, about a

mile and a half south of the Fish Creek. The Champlain Canal passes

immediately in the rear of it; and nearly half a mile eastward is the

Hudson River.

Retreat of the Americans to their Camp.--Perplexity of Burgoyne.--A

scattered Retreat proposed

076

The fog soon passed away and discovered them to the enemy, then in full

view, and under arms upon the heights. Nixon, however, had retreated,

and the cannonade opened upon him by the British took effect only upon

the rear of his brigade. *

General Learned, in the mean while, with his own and Patterson's

brigades, had reached Morgan's corps, and was pressing on rapidly to the

attack when Wilkinson came up, not with a counter order from Gates, but

with the intelligence that the right wing of the Americans had given

way. The brave veteran disliked the idea of retreating, preferring to

carry out the standing order of the previous day to the very letter;**

but, on counseling with Colonels Brooks and Tupper, and some other

officers, a retreat was deemed advisable. As they turned, the British,

who were awaiting an attack, opened a fire upon them; but the Americans

were soon masked by the woods, and Morgan took post upon the flank and

rear of the enemy.

Thus, by the providential circumstance of a deserter flying to our camp,

our army was saved from a terrible, perhaps fatal, loss; for, had the

several brigades of Nixon, Glover, Learned, and Patterson been cut off,

Burgoyne might have so much weakened the American army, and strengthened

his own by the adherence of the now wavering loyalists and Indians, as

to scatter the remainder of the Continental forces and reach Albany, the

darling object of all his efforts. But the breath of the deserter

blasted all his hopes, and the incident was, to use his own words, "one

of the most adverse strokes of fortune during the campaign." ***

Burgoyne now saw no way of escape. He sent out scouts toward the north,

who reported the roads impassable and the woods swarming with

republicans. The few Indians who had remained now left him, utterly

disheartened; and the loyalists, feeling that their personal security

would be jeoparded in case of a surrender, left the army every hour. It

was proposed to make a scattered retreat, each soldier carrying in his

knapsack provisions enough for two or three days, Fort George being the

place of rendezvous; but such a step would be perilous in the extreme,

for the Americans, apparently as numerous as the leaves upon the trees,

and ever on the alert, would cut them off in detail. In battle, a

fortunate circumstance might occur in their favor; but General Gates,

assured that he had his enemy in his power, could not be induced to

jeopard the lives of his troops by an engagement. Burgoyne's only hope

rested upon aid from Clinton below. Not a word, however, could he get

from that general; yet, clinging with desperation to every hope, however

feeble, he resolved to await that succor quietly in his strong camp as

long as his exhausted stores and a powerful enemy would allow.

Burgoyne's camp, upon the heights near the Fish Creek, was fortified,

and, extending more than half a mile in the rear, was strengthened by

artillery. On an elevated plain, northwest of the village of

Schuylerville, his heavy guns were chiefly posted. Directly in his rear

Morgan and his corps were stationed. In front, on the east side of the

Hudson,

* John Nixon was born at Framingham, Massachusetts, March 4th, 1726. He

was at the siege of Louisburg in 1745, was captain in the provincial

troops under Abercrombie at Ticonderoga, and was esteemed a valiant

soldier during the whole of the French and Indian war. He took the

patriot side when our Revolution broke out. He was one of the minute men

at the Lexington battle, was at the head of a regiment in the battle of

Bunker Hill, and was made a brigadier in the Continental army in August,

1776. He was then placed in command at Governor's Island, near New York.

In the battle of Bemis's Heights a cannon-ball passed so near his head

it impaired the sight of one eye and the hearing of one ear. On account

of ill health, he resigned his commission in 1780. He died March 24th,

1815, aged 90 years.

** The standing order was, "In case of an attack against any point,

whether front, flank, or rear, the troops are to fall on the enemy at

all quarters."

*** Letter to Lord George Germain, dated Albany 20th, 1777.

Relative Position of the two Camps.--Exposed Condition of the British

Camp.--Burgoyne determines to Surrender

077

Fellows, with three thousand troops, was strongly intrenched. The main

body of the American army, under Gates, was on the south side of the

Fish Creek; and in every direction small detachments of Continentals or

republican militia were vigorously watching the enemy at bay. * Fort

Edward was in possession of the Americans, and upon high ground in the

vicinity of Glenn's Falls they had a fortified camp.

Burgoyne was completely environed, and every part of the royal camp was

exposed to the fire of cannon and musketry. The soldiers slept under

arms continually. There was not a place of safety for the sick, wounded,

and dying, or for the women and children of the officers and soldiers.

There was no secure place for a council. None dared go to the river for

water, and thirst began to distress the camp.2 The desertions of the

Indians and Canadians, the cowardice and disaffection of the loyalists,

and the losses in killed and wounded, had so thinned Burgoyne's ranks,

that his army was reduced one half, and a large proportion of those who

remained were not Englishmen. There was not bread for three days in

store, and of course none could be obtained. Not a word came from

General Clinton, and Burgoyne was totally ignorant of his having made

any movement up the Hudson. The last ray of hope faded away, and toward

the evening of the 12th the British commander held a council with

Generals Reidesel, Phillips, and Hamilton. It was decided to retreat

before morning, if possible; but returning scouts brought only hopeless

intelligence respecting the roads and the strength of the enemy.

On the morning of the 13th Burgoyne called a general council of all

officers, including captains of companies. Their deliberations were held

in a large tent, which was several times perforated by musket-balls from

the Americans. Several grape-shot struck near the tent, and an eighteen

pound cannon-ball swept across the table at which sat Burgoyne and the

other generals. Their deliberations were short, as might be expected,

and it was unanimously resolved to open a treaty with General Gates for

an honorable surrender. It was a bitter pill for the proud lieutenant

general, but there was no alternative.

* By reference to the above map, the position of the two armies at this

juncture will be more clearly understood. They held the same relative

position until the surrender on the 17th.

** The consideration of Americans for women was conspicuously displayed

at this time. While every man who went to the river for water became a

target for the sure marksmen of the Americans, a soldier's wife went

back and forth as often as she pleased, and not a gun was pointed at

her.

Proposition of Burgoyne to surrender his Troops.--Terms proposed by

Gates.--Terms finally agreed upon.

078

Toward evening a flag was sent to General Gates, with a note, intimating

that General Burgoyne was desirous of sending a field officer to him

upon a matter of great moment to both armies, and wishing to know at

what hour the next morning it would suit General Gates to receive him.

The reply was, "At ten o'clock, at the advanced post of the army of the

United States." Accordingly, Lieutenant Kingston, Burgoyne's adjutant

general, appeared at the appointed hour and delivered the following note

from his commander: "After having fought you twice, Lieutenant-general

Burgoyne has waited some days in his present position, determined to try

a third conflict against any force you could bring against him. He is

apprized of your superiority of numbers, and the disposition of your

troops to impede his supplies, and render his retreat a scene of carnage

on both sides. In this situation, he is impelled by humanity, and thinks

himself justified by established principles and precedents of state and

war, to spare the lives of brave men upon honorable terms. Should Major

general Gates be inclined to treat upon that idea, General Burgoyne

would propose a cessation of arms during the time necessary to

communicate the preliminary terms by which, in any extremity, he and his

army mean to abide."

General Gates had already prepared a schedule of terms upon which he was

willing to treat. It enumerated the distresses of the British army, and

declared that they could only be allowed to surrender as prisoners of

war, and that they must lay down their arms in their camp. Burgoyne

replied, with spirit, that he would not admit that the retreat of his

army was cut off while they had arms in their hands, and that the

degrading act of laying down their arms within their own camp would not

be submitted to. The latter condition was waived, and in the afternoon

General Gates ordered a cessation of hostilities till sunset.

Negotiations continued until the 16th, when every thing was agreed upon

and adjusted, ready for the signatures of the contracting parties. This

last act was to be performed on the morning of the 17th.

The substance of the "_Convention between Lieutenant-general Burgoyne

and Major-general Gates_," as the British commander superscribed it,

was, 1st. That Burgoyne's troops were to march out of their camp with

all the honors of war, the artillery to be moved to the verge of the

Hudson, and there left, together with the soldiers' arms-the said arms

to be piled by word of command from their own officers; 2d. That a free

passage should be granted the troops to Great Britain, on condition of

their not serving again during the war; 3d. That if any cartel should

take place by which Burgoyne's army, or any part of it, should be

exchanged, the foregoing article should be void as far as such exchange

should extend; 4th. That the army should march to the neighborhood of

Boston by the most expeditious and convenient route, and not be delayed

when transports should arrive to receive them, 5th. That every care

should be taken for the proper subsistence of the troops till they

should be embarked; 6th. That all officers should retain their

carriages, horses, bat-horses, &c., and their baggage, and be exempt

from molestation or search; 7th. That on the march, and while the army

should remain at Boston (the port selected for their embarkation), the

officers should not be separated from their men; 8th. That all corps

whatsoever, whether composed of sailors, bateaux-men, artificers,

drivers, independent companies, or followers of the army, of whatever

country they might be, should be included in the fullest sense and to

the utmost extent of the articles, and comprehended in every respect as

British subjects, whose general had capitulated for them; 9th. That all

Canadians and persons belonging to the Canadian establishment should be

permitted a free return to Canada, should be conducted by the shortest

route to the British posts on Lake George, should be treated in all

respects like the rest of the army, and should be bound by the same

conditions not to serve during the war, unless exchanged; 10th. That

passports should be immediately granted for three officers, to carry

Burgoyne's dispatches to General Howe at Philadelphia, to Sir Guy

Carleton in Canada, and to the government of Great Britain by way of New

York; 11th. That all officers, during their stay in Boston, should be

admitted to parole, and from

* This was to afford protection to the loyalists or Tories.

Message to Burgoyne from General Clinton.--Disposition of Burgoyne to

withhold his Signature.--Laying down of Arms.

079

first to last be permitted to wear their side-arms; 12th. That if the

army found it necessary to send for their clothing and other baggage

from Canada, they should be permitted to do so, and have the necessary

passports granted them; 13th. That these articles should be signed and

exchanged on the following morning at nine o'clock, the troops to march

out of their intrenchments at three o'clock in the afternoon.

Appended October 17. to these articles was an addendum or postscript,

signed by General Gates, declaring that General Burgoyne, whose name was

not mentioned in the above treaty, was fully comprehended in it. *

During the night of the 16th Captain Campbell succeeded in eluding the

American sentinels, and reached the British camp with dispatches from

Sir Henry Clinton announcing his capture of the forts among the Hudson

Highlands, and the expedition of Vaughan and Wallace as far up the river

as Esopus. Here was a ray of hope, and Burgoyne felt disposed to

withhold his signature from the "convention." General Gates was apprized

of this, and of the cause which had excited new hopes in the British

commander. He was better acquainted, too, with the threatening aspect

below than Burgoyne, and he knew that "delays are dangerous." He drew up

his army on the morning of the 17th in order of battle, and then sent a

peremptory message to Burgoyne, that if the articles were not signed by

him immediately, he should open a fire upon him. Under the

circumstances, the terms were exceedingly humane and honorable; far more

so than might be expected if the negotiation should be here broken off

and again commenced. With reluctance Burgoyne subscribed his name, and

preparations were immediately made for the ceremonies of surrender.

The British army left their camp upon the hills, and marched sorrowfully

down upon the "green" or level plain in front of old Fort Hardy, **

where the different companies were drawn up in parallel lines, and, by

order of their several commanders, grounded their arms and emptied their

cartridge-boxes. They were not subject to the mortification of thus

submitting under the gaze of an exulting foe, for General Gates, with a

delicacy and magna-

* A copy of these articles, said to be in the handwriting of General

Gates, and signed by the two commanders, is in the possession of the New

York Historical Society, from which the above fac-similes were copied.

** Fort Hardy was situated at the junction of the Fish Creek with the

Hudson River, on the north side of the former. It was built of earth and

logs, and was thrown up by the French, under Baron Dieskau, in 1755,

when Sir William Johnson was making preparations at Albany to march

against the French on Lakes Champlain and George. It was abandoned by

the French, and named by the English Fort Hardy, in honor of Sir Charles

Hardy, who was that year appointed Governor of New York. The lines of

the intrenchments of the fort inclosed about fifteen acres, bounded

south by the Fish Creek and east by the Hudson River. This fort was a

ruin at the time of the Revolution; yet, when I visited it (July, 1848),

many traces of its outworks were still visible. Its form may be seen by

reference to the map, page 77. Many military relics have been found near

the fort, and I was told that, in excavating for the Champlain Canal, a

great number of human skeletons were found. The workmen had, doubtless,

struck upon the burial-place of the garrison.

Courtesy of General Gates. The Place of Surrender. First personal

Meeting of Gates and Burgoyne

080

nimity of feeling which drew forth the expressed admiration of Burgoyne

and his officers, had ordered all his army within his camp, out of sight

of the vanquished Britons. * Colonel Wilkinson, who had been sent to the

British camp, and, in company with Burgoyne, selected the place where

the troops were to lay down their arms, was the only American officer

present at the scene. **

The sketch here presented, of the place where the British army

surrendered, was made from one of the canal bridges at Schuylerville,

looking east-northeast. The stream of water in the fore-ground is Fish

Creek, and the level ground seen between it and the distant hills on the

left is the place where the humiliation of the Britons occurred. The

tree by the fence, in the center of the picture, designates the north-st

angle of Fort Hardy, and the other three trees on the right stand nearly

on the line of the northern breast-works. The row of small trees,

apparently at the foot of the distant hills, marks the course of the

Hudson, and the hills that bound the view are those on which the

Americans were posted. This plain is directly in front of Schuylerville,

between that village and the Hudson. General Fellows was stationed upon

the high ground seen over the barn on the right, and the eminence on the

extreme left is the place whence the American cannon played upon the

house wherein the Baroness Reidesel and other ladies sought refuge.

As soon as the troops had laid down their arms, General Burgoyne

proposed to be introduced to General Gates. They crossed Fish Creek, and

proceeded toward headquarters, Burgoyne in front with his adjutant

general, Kingston, and his aids-de-camp, Captain Lord Petersham and

Lieutenant Wilford, behind him. Then followed Generals Phillips,

Riedesel, and Hamilton, and other officers and suites, according to

rank. General Gates was informed of the approach of Burgoyne, and with

his staff met him at the head of his camp, about a mile south of the

Fish Creek, Burgoyne in a rich uniform of scarlet and gold, and Gates in

a plain blue frock-coat. "When within about a sword's length, they

reined up and halted. Colonel Wilkinson then named the gentlemen, and

General Burgoyne, raising his hat gracefully, said, "The fortune of war,

General Gates, has made me your prisoner." The victor promptly replied,

"I shall always be ready to bear testimony that it has not

* Letter of Burgoyne to the Earl of Derby. Stedman, i., 352. Botta, ii.,

21.

** See Wilkinson.

Humiliating Review of the British Prisoners.--Burgoyne's Surrender of

his Sword.--The Spoils of Victory.--Yankee Doodle.

081

been through any fault of your excellency."

The other officers were introduced in turn, and the whole party repaired

to Gates's headquarters, where a sumptuous dinner was served. *

After dinner the American army was drawn up in parallel lines on each

side of the road, extending nearly a mile. Between these victorious

troops the British army, with light infantry in front, and escorted by a

company of light dragoons, preceded by two mounted officers bearing the

American flag, marched to the lively tune of Yankee Doodle. *** Just as

they passed, the two commanding generals, who were in Gates's marquee,

came out together, and, fronting the procession, gazed upon it in

silence a few moments. What a contrast, in every particular, did the two

present! Burgoyne, though possessed of coarse features, had a large and

commanding person; Gates was smaller and far less dignified in

appearance. Burgoyne was arrayed in the splendid military trappings of

his rank; Gates was clad in a plain and unassuming dress. Burgoyne was

the victim of disappointed hopes and foiled ambition, and looked upon

the scene with exceeding sorrow; Gates was buoyant with the first flush

of a great victory. Without exchanging a word, Burgoyne, according to

previous understanding, stepped back, drew his sword, and, in the

presence of the two armies, presented it to General Gates. He received

it with a courteous inclination of the head, and instantly returned it

to the vanquished general. They then retired to the marquee together,

the British army filed off and took up their line of march for Boston,

and thus ended the drama upon the heights of Saratoga.

The whole number of prisoners surrendered was five thousand seven

hundred and ninety-one, of whom two thousand four hundred and twelve

were Germans and Hessians. The force of the Americans, at the time of

the surrender, was, according to a statement which General Gates

furnished to Burgoyne, thirteen thousand two hundred and twenty-two, of

which number nine thousand and ninety-three were Continentals, or

regular soldiers, and four thousand one hundred and twenty-nine were

militia. The arms and ammunition which came into the possession of the

Americans were, a fine train of brass artillery, consisting of 2 twenty-

four pounders, 4 twelve pounders, 20 sixes, 6 threes, 2 eight inch

howitzers, 5 five and a half inch royal howitzers, and 3 five and a half

inch royal mortars; **** in all forty-two

* See Wilkinson.

** This view is taken from the turnpike, looking south. The old road was

where the canal now is, and the place of meeting was about at the point

where the bridge is seen.

*** Thatcher, in his Military Journal (p. 19), gives the following

account of the origin of the word Yankee and of Yankee Doodle; "A farmer

of Cambridge, Massachusetts, named Jonathan Hastings, who lived about

the year 1713, used it as a favorite cant word to express excellence, as

a yankee good horse or yankee good cider. The students of the college,

hearing him use it a great deal, adopted it, and called him Yankee

Jonathan; and as he was a rather weak man, the students, when they

wished to denote a character of that kind, would call him Yankee

Jonathan. Like other cant words, it spread, and came finally to be

applied to the New Englanders as a term of reproach. Some suppose the

term to be the Indian corruption of the word English-Yenglecs, Yangles,

Yankles, and finally Yankee. "A song, called Yankee Doodle, was written

by a British sergeant at Boston, in 1775, to ridicule the people there,

when the American army, under Washington, was encamped at Cambridge and

Roxbury." See "Origin of Yankee Doodle," page 480, of this volume.

**** Two of these, drawings of which will be found on page 700, are now

in the court of the laboratory of the West Point Military Academy, on

the Hudson.

The Germans and Hessians.--Their Arrival at Cambridge and wretched

Appearance.--Kindness of the People.

082

pieces of ordnance. There were four thousand six hundred and forty-seven

muskets, and six thousand dozens of cartridges, besides shot, carcasses,

cases, shells, &c. Among the English prisoners were six members of

Parliament. *

Cotemporary writers represent the appearance of the poor German and

Hessian troops as extremely miserable and ludicrous. They deserved

commiseration, but they received none. They came not here voluntarily to

fight our people; they were sent as slaves by their masters, who

received the price of their hire. They were caught, it is said, while

congregated in their churches and elsewhere, and forced into the

service. Most of them were torn reluctantly from their families and

friends; hundreds of them deserted here before the close of the war; and

many of their descendants are now living among us. Many had their wives

with them, and these helped to make up the pitiable procession through

the country. Their advent into Cambridge, near Boston, is thus noticed

by the lady of Dr. Winthrop of that town, in a letter to Mrs. Mercy

Warren, an early historian of our Revolution: "On Friday we heard the

Hessians were to make a procession on the same route. We thought we

should have nothing to do but view them as they passed. To be sure, the

sight was truly astonishing. I never had the least idea that the

creation produced such a sordid set of creatures in human figure-poor,

dirty, emaciated men. Great numbers of women, who seemed to be the

beasts of burden, having bushel baskets on their backs, by which they

were bent double. The contents seemed to be pots and kettles, various

sorts of furniture, children peeping through gridirons and other

utensils. Some very young infants, who were born on the road; the women

barefooted, clothed in dirty rags. Such effluvia filled the air while

they were passing, that, had they not been smoking all the time, I

should have been apprehensive of being contaminated." **

The whole view of the vanquished army, as it marched through the country

from Saratoga to Boston, a distance of three hundred miles, escorted by

two or three American officers and a handful of soldiers, was a

spectacle of extraordinary interest. Generals of the first order of

talent; young gentlemen of noble and wealthy families, aspiring to

military renown; legislators of the British realm, and a vast concourse

of other men, lately confident of victory and of freedom to plunder and

destroy, were led captive through the pleasant land they had coveted, to

be gazed at with mingled joy and scorn by those whose homes they came to

make desolate. "Their march was solemn, sullen, and silent; but they

were every where treated with such humanity, and even delicacy, that

they were overwhelmed with astonishment and gratitude. Not one insult

was offered, not an opprobrious reflection cast; and in all their long

captivity **** they experienced the generous kindness of a people

warring only to be free.

* Gordon, ii., 267.

** Women of the Revolution, i., 97

*** Mercy Warren, ii., 40.

**** Although Congress ratified the generous terms entered into by Gates

with Burgoyne in the convention at Saratoga, circumstances made them

suspicious that the terms would not be strictly complied with. They

feared that the Britons would break their parole, and Burgoyne was

required to furnish a complete roll of his army, the name and rank of

every officer, and the name, former place of abode, occupation, age, and

size of every non-commissioned officer and private soldier. Burgoyne

murmured and hesitated. General Howe, at the same time, was very

illiberal in the exchange of prisoners, and exhibited considerable

duplicity. Congress became alarmed, and resolved not to allow the army

of Burgoyne to leave our shores until a formal ratification of the

convention should be made by the British government. Burgoyne alone was

allowed to go home on parole, and the other officers, with the army,

were marched into the interior of Virginia, to await the future action

of the two governments. The British ministry charged Congress with

positive perfidy, and Congress justified their acts by charging the

ministers with meditated perfidy. That this suspicion was well founded

is proved by subsequent events. In the autumn of 1778, Isaac Ogden, a

prominent loyalist of New Jersey, and then a refugee in New York, thus

wrote to Joseph Galloway, an American Tory in London, respecting an

expedition of four thousand British troops which Sir Henry Clinton sent

up the Hudson a week previous: "Another object of this expedition was to

open the country for many of Burgoyne's troops that had escaped the

vigilance of their guard, to come in. About forty of these have got safe

in. If this expedition had been a week sooner, greater part of

Burgoyne's troops probably would have arrived here, as a disposition of

rising on their guard strongly prevailed, and all they wanted to effect

it was some support near at hand."

Relative Condition and Prospect of the Americans before the Capture of

Burgoyne.--Effect of that Event

083

The surrender of Burgoyne was an event of infinite importance to the

struggling republicans. Hitherto the preponderance of success had been

on the side of the English, and only a few partial victories had been

won by the Americans. The defeat on Long Island had eclipsed the glory

of the siege of Boston; the capture of Fort Washington and its garrison

had overmatched the brilliant defense of Charleston; the defeat at

Brandywine had balanced the victory at Trenton; White Plains and

Princeton were in fair juxtaposition in the account current; and at the

very time when the hostile armies at the north were fighting for the

mastery, Washington was suffering defeats in Pennsylvania, and Forts

Clinton, Montgomery, and Constitution were passing into the hands of the

royal forces. Congress had fled from Philadelphia to York, and its

sittings were in the midst of loyalists, ready to attack or betray. Its

treasury was nearly exhausted; its credit utterly so. Its bills to the

amount of forty millions of dollars were scattered over the country. Its

frequent issues were inadequate to the demands of the commissariat, and

distrust was rapidly depreciating their value in the public mind.

Loyalists rejoiced; the middlemen were in a dilemma; the patriots

trembled. Thick clouds of doubt and dismay were gathering in every part

of the political horizon, and the acclamations which had followed the

Declaration of Independence, the year before, died away like mere

whispers upon the wind.

All eyes were turned anxiously to the army of the north, and upon that

strong arm of Congress, wielded, for the time, by Gates, the hopes of

the patriots leaned. How eagerly they listened to every breath of rumor

from Saratoga! How enraptured were they when the cry of victory fell

upon their ears! All over the land a shout of triumph went up, and from

the furrows, and workshops, and marts of commerce; from the pulpit, from

provincial halls of legislation, from partisan camps, and from the

shattered ranks of the chief at White Marsh, it was echoed and re-

echoed. Toryism, which had begun to lift high its head, retreated behind

the defense of inaction; the bills of Congress rose twenty per cent, in

value; capital came forth from its hiding-places; the militia readily

obeyed the summons to the camp, and the great patriot heart of America

beat strongly with pulsations of hope. Amid the joy of the moment, Gates

was apotheosized in the hearts of his countrymen, and they

* The engraving exhibits a view of both sides of the medal, drawn the

size of the original. On one side is a bust of General Gates, with the

Latin inscription, "Horatio Gates Duci Strenuo Comitia Americana;" The

American Congress, to Horatio Gates, the valiant leader. On the other

side, of reverse, Burgoyne is represented in the attitude of delivering

up his sword; and in the background, on either side of them, are seen

the two armies of England and America, the former laying down their

arms. At the top is the Latin inscription, "Safety of the northern

region or department. Below is the inscription, "Enemy at Saratoga

surrendered October 11th, 1777.

Wilkinson before Congress.--Gold Medal awarded to Gates. --Proceedings

of the British Parliament.--Speech of Chatham.

084

generously overlooked the indignity offered by him to the commander-in-

chief when he refused, in the haughty pride of his heart in that hour of

victory, to report, as in duty hound, his success to the national

council through him. Congress, too, overjoyed at the result, forgot its

own dignity, and allowed Colonel Wilkinson, * the messenger of the glad

tidings, to stand upon their floor and proclaim, "The whole British army

have laid down their arms at Saratoga; our own, full of vigor and

courage, expect your orders; it is for your wisdom to decide where the

country may still have need of their services." Congress voted thanks to

General Gates and his army, and decreed that he should be presented with

a medal of gold, to be struck expressly in commemoration of so glorious

a victory.

This victory was also of infinite importance to the republicans on

account of its effects beyond the Atlantic. The highest hopes of the

British nation, and the most sanguine expectations of the king and his

ministers, rested on the success of this campaign. It had been a

favorite object with the administration, and the people were confidently

assured that, with the undoubted success of Burgoyne, the turbulent

spirit of rebellion would be quelled, and the insurgents would be forced

to return to their allegiance.

Parliament was in session when the intelligence of Burgoyne's defeat

reached England; December 3, 1777, and when the mournful tidings were

communicated to that body, it instantly aroused all the fire of opposing

parties. ** The opposition opened anew their eloquent batteries upon the

ministers. For several days misfortune had been suspected. The last

arrival from America brought tidings of gloom. The Earl of Chatham, with

far-reaching comprehension, and thorough knowledge of American affairs,

had denounced the mode of warfare and the material used against the

Americans. He refused to vote for the laudatory address to the king.

Leaning upon his crutch, he poured forth his vigorous denunciations

against the course of the ministers like a mountain torrent. "This, my

lords," he said, "is a perilous and tremendous moment! It is no time for

adulation. The smoothness of flattery can not now avail-can not save us

in this rugged and awful crisis. It is now necessary to instruct the

throne in the language of truth..... You can not. I venture to say it,

you can not conquer America. What is your present situation there? We do

not know the worst, but we know that in three campaigns we have suffered

much and gained nothing, and perhaps at this moment the northern army

(Burgoyne's) may be a total loss..... You may swell every expense, and

every effort, still more extravagantly; pile and accumulate every

assistance you can buy or borrow; traffic and barter with every little

pitiful German prince that sells and sends his subjects to the shambles

of a foreign power; your efforts are forever vain and impotent; doubly

so from this mercenary aid on which you rely, for it irritates to an

incurable resentment the minds of your enemies. To overrun with the

mercenary sons of rapine and plunder, devoting them and their

possessions to the rapacity of hireling cruelty! If I were an American,

as I am an Englishman, while a foreign troop was landed in my country, I

never would lay down my arms--never, never, never!" ***

The Earl of Coventry, Earl Temple Chatham's brother-in-law, and the Duke

of Richmond, all spoke in coincidence with Chatham. Lord Suffolk, one of

the Secretaries of State, undertook the defense of ministers for the

employment of Indians, and concluded by saying, "It is perfectly

justifiable to use all the means that God and nature have put into our

hands." This sentiment brought Chatham upon the floor. "That God and

nature put

* James Wilkinson was born in Maryland about 1757, and, by education,

was prepared for the practice of medicine. He repaired to Cambridge as a

volunteer in 1775. He was captain of a company in a regiment that went

to Canada in 1776. He was appointed deputy adjutant general by Gates,

and, after the surrender of Burgoyne, Congress made him a brigadier

general by brevet. At the conclusion of the war he settled in Kentucky,

but entered the army in 1806, and had the command on the Mississippi. He

commanded on the northern frontier during our last war with Great

Britain. At the age of 56 he married a young lady of 26. He died of

diarrhea, in Mexico, December 28th, 1825, aged 68 years.

** Pitkin, i., 399.

*** Parliamentary Debates.

The Opposition in the House of Commons.--Policy of Lord North.-- Exalted

Position of the American Commissioners at Paris.

085

into our hands!" he reiterated, with bitter scorn. "I know not what idea

that lord may entertain of God and nature, but I know that such

abominable principles are equally abhorrent to religion and humanity.

What! attribute the sacred sanction of God and nature to the massacres

of the Indian scalping-knife, to the cannibal and savage, torturing,

murdering, roasting, and eating-literally, my lords, _eating_-the

mangled victims of his barbarous battles.....These abominable

principles, and this most abominable avowal of them, demand most

decisive indignation. I call upon that right reverend bench (pointing to

the bishops), those holy ministers of the Gospel and pious pastors of

the Church-I conjure them to join in the holy work, and to vindicate the

religion of their God."

In the Lower House, Burke, Fox, and Barré were equally severe upon the

ministers; and on the 3d of December, when the news of Burgoyne's defeat

reached London, the latter arose in his place in the Commons, and, with

a severe and solemn countenance, asked Lord George Germain, the

Secretary of War, what news he had received by his last expresses from

Quebec, and to say, upon his word of honor, what had become of Burgoyne

and his brave army. The haughty secretary was irritated by the cool

irony of the question, but he was obliged to unbend and to confess that

the unhappy intelligence had reached him, but added it was not yet

authenticated. *

Lord North, the premier, with his usual adroitness, admitted that

misfortune had befallen the British arms, but denied that any blame

could be imputed to ministers themselves, and proposed an adjournment of

December, 1778 Parliament on the 11th (which was carried) until the 20th

of January. ** It was a clever trick of the premier to escape the

castigations which he knew the opposition would inflict while the nation

was smarting under the goadings of mortified pride.

The victory over Burgoyne, unassisted as our troops were by foreign aid,

placed the prowess of the United States in the most favorable light upon

the Continent. Our urgent solicitations for aid, hitherto but little

noticed except by France, were now listened to with respect, and the

American commissioners at Paris. Dr. Franklin, Silas Deane,3 and Arthur

Lee,4 * * occupied a commanding position among the diplomatists of

Europe. France, Spain, the States General of Holland, the Prince of

Orange, and even Catharine of Russia and Pope Clement XIV. (Ganganelli),

all

* History of the Reign of George III., i., 326.

** Pitkin, i., 397. Annual Register, 1778, p| 74.

*** Silas Deane was a native of Groton, Connecticut. He graduated at

Yale College, 1758, and was a member of the first Congress, 1774. He was

sent to France Early in 1776, as political and commercial agent for the

United Colonies, and in the autumn of that year was associated with

Franklin and Lee as commissioner. He seems to have been unfit, in a

great degree, for the station he held, and his defective judgment and

extravagant promises greatly embarrassed Congress. He was recalled at

the close of 1777, and John Adams appointed in his place. He published a

defense of his character in 1778, and charged Thomas Paine and others

connected with public affairs with using their official influence for

purposes of private gain. This was the charge made against himself, and

he never fully wiped out all suspicion. He went to England toward the

close of 1784, and died in extreme poverty at Deal, 1789.

**** Dr. Lee was born in Virginia in 1740-a brother to the celebrated

Richard Henry Lee. He was educated at Edinburgh, and, on returning to

America, practiced medicine at Williamsburgh about five years. He went

to London in 1766, and studied law in the Temple. He kept his brother

and other patriots of the Revolution fully informed of all political

matters of importance abroad, and particularly the movements of the

British ministry. He wrote a great deal, and stood high as an essayist

and political pamphleteer. He was colonial agent for Virginia in 1775.

In 1776 he was associated with Franklin and Deane, as minister at the

court of Versailles. He and John Adams were recalled in 1779. On

returning to the United States, he was appointed to offices of trust. He

died of pleurisy, December 14th, 1782, aged nearly 42.

Our relative Position to the Governments of Europe.--Policy of

Vergennes.--Beaumarchais's Commercial Operations

086

of whom feared and hated England because of her increasing potency in

arms, commerce, diplomacy, and the Protestant faith, thought kindly of

us and spoke kindly to us. We were loved because England was hated; we

were respected because we could injure England by dividing her realm and

impairing her growing strength beyond the seas. There was a perfect

reciprocity of service; and when peace was ordained by treaty, and our

independence was established, the balance-sheet showed nothing against

us, so far as the governments of continental Europe were concerned.

In the autumn of 1776, Franklin and Lee were appointed, jointly with

Deane, November resident commissioners at the court of Versailles, to

negotiate a treaty of amity and commerce with the French king. They

opened negotiations early in December with the Count De Vergennes, the

premier of Louis XVI. He was distinguished for sound wisdom, extensive

political knowledge, remarkable sagacity, and true greatness of mind. He

foresaw that generous dealings with the insurgent colonists at the

outset would be the surest means of perpetuating the rebellion until a

total separation from the parent state would be accomplished-an event

eagerly coveted by the French government. France hated England

cordially, and feared her power. She had no special love for the Anglo-

American colonies, but she was ready to aid them in reducing, by

disunion, the puissance of the British empire. To widen the breach was

the chief aim of Vergennes. A haughty reserve, he knew, would discourage

the Americans, while an open reception, or even countenance, of their

deputies might alarm the rulers of Great Britain, and dispose them to a

compromise with the colonies, or bring on an immediate rupture between

France and England. A middle line was, therefore, pursued by him. *

While the French government was thus vacillating during the first three

quarters of 1777, secret aid was given to the republicans, and great

quantities of arms and ammunition were sent to this country, by an agent

of the French government, toward the close of the year, ostensibly

through the channel of commercial operations. **

* Ramsay, ii., 62, 63.

** In the summer of 1776, Arthur Lee, agent of the Secret Committee of

Congress, made an arrangement by which the French king provided money

and arms secretly for the Americans. An agent named Beaumarehais was

sent to London to confer with Lee, and it was arranged that two hundred

thousand Louis d'ors, in arms, ammunition, and specie, should be sent to

the Americans, but in a manner to make it appear as a commercial

transaction. Mr. Lee assumed the name of Mary Johnson, and Beaumarchais

that of Roderique, Hortales, & Co. Lee, fearing discovery if he should

send a written notice to Congress of the arrangement, communicated the

fact verbally through Captain Thomas Story, who had been upon the

continent in the serviee of the Secret Committee. Yet, after all the

arrangements were made, there was hesitation, and it was not until the

autumn of 1777 that the articles were sent to the Americans. They were

shipped on board Le Henreux, in the fictitious name of Hortales, by the

way of Cape François, and arrived at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on the

1st of November of that year. The brave and efficient Baron Steuben was

a passenger in that ship.

Unmasking of thE French King.--Independence of the United States

acknowledged by France.--Letter of Louis XVI.

087

This arrangement, under the disguise of a mercantile operation,

subsequently produced a great deal of trouble, a more minute account of

which is given in the Supplement to this work.

Beaumarehais was one of the most active business men of his time, and

became quite distinguished in the literary and political world by his

"Marriage of Figaro," and his connection with the French Revolution in

1793. Borne, in one of his charming Letters from Paris, after describing

his visit to the house where Beaumarchais had lived, where "they now

sell kitchen salt," thus speaks of him: "By his bold and fortunate

commercial undertakings, he had become one of the richest men in France.

In the war of American liberty, he furnished, through an understanding

with the Freneh government, supplies of arms to the insurgents. As in

all such undertakings, there were captures, shipwrecks, payments

deferred or refused, yet Beaumarchais, by his dexterity, succeeded in

extricating himself with personal advantage from all these difficulties.

"Yet this same Beaumarchais showed himself, in the (French) revolution,

as inexperienced as a child and as timid as a German closet-scholar. He

contracted to furnish weapons to the revolutionary government, and not

only lost his money, but was near losing his head into the bargain.

Formerly he had to deal with the ministers of an absolute monarchy. The

doors of great men's cabinets open and close softly and easily to him

who knows how to oil the locks and hinges. Afterward Beaumarchais had to

do with honest, in other words with dangerous people; he had not learned

to make the distinction, and accordingly he was ruined." He died in

1799, in his 70th year, and his death, his friends suppose, was

voluntary.

Burgoyne and his army (intelligence of which arrived at Paris by express

on the 4th of December) reached Versailles, and the ultimate success of

the Americans was hardly problematical, Louis cast off all disguise, and

informed the American commissioners, through M. Gerard, one of his

Secretaries of State, that the treaty of alliance and commerce, already

negotiated, would be ratified, and "that it was decided to acknowledge

the independence of the United States." He wrote to his uncle, Charles

IV. of Spain, urging his co-operation; for, according to the family

compact of the Bourbons, made in 1761, the King of Spain was to be

consulted before such a treaty could be ratified. * Charles refused to

cooperate, but Louis persevered, and in February, 1778, he acknowledged

the independence of the United States, and entered into treaties of

alliance and February 6 commerce with them on a footing of perfect

equality and reciprocity. "War against England was to be made a common

cause, and it was agreed that neither contracting party should conclude

truce or peace with Great Britain without the formal consent of the

other first obtained; and it was mutually covenanted not to lay down

their arms until the independence of the United States should be

formally or tacitly assured by the treaty or treaties that should

terminate the war. *** Thus allied, by treaty, with the ancient and

powerful French nation, the Americans felt certain of success.

* This letter of Louis was brought to light during the Revolution of

1793. It is a curious document, and illustrates the consummate duplicity

practiced by that monarch and his ministers. Disclosing, as it does, the

policy which governed the action of the French court, and the reasons

which induced the king to accede to the wishes of the Americans, its

insertion hero will doubtless be acceptable to the reader. It was dated

January 8th, 1778. "The sincere desire," said Louis, "which I feel of

maintaining the true harmony and unity of our system of alliance, which

must always have an imposing character for our enemies, induces me to

state to your majesty my way of thinking on the present condition of

affairs. England, our common and inveterate enemy, has been engaged for

three years in a war with her American colonies. We had agreed not to

intermeddle with it, and, viewing both sides as English, we made our

trade free to the one that found most advantage in commercial

intercourse. In this manner America provided herself with arms and

ammunition, of which she was destitute; I do not speak of the succors of

money and other kinds which we have given her, the whole ostensibly on

the score of trade. England has taken umbrage at these succors, and has

not concealed from us that she will be revenged sooner or later. She has

already, indeed, seized several of our merchant vessels, and refused

restitution. We have lost no time on our part. We have fortified our

most exposed colonies, and placed our fleets upon a respectable footing,

which has continued to aggravate the ill humor of England. "Such was the

posture of affairs in November last. The destruction of the army of

Burgoyne and the straitened condition of Howe have lately changed the

face of things. America is triumphant and England cast down; but the

latter has still a great, unbroken maritime force, and the hope of

forming a beneficial alliance with the colonies, the impossibility of

their being subdued by arms being now demonstrated. All the English

parties agree on this point. Lord North has himself announced in full

Parliament a plan of pacification for the first session, and all sides

are assiduously employed upon it. Thus it is the same to us whether this

minister or any other be in power. From different motives they join

against us, and do not forget our bad offices. They will fall upon us in

as great strength as if the war had not existed. This being understood,

and our grievances against England notorious, I have thought, after

taking the advice of my council, and particularly that of M. D'Ossune,

and having consulted upon the propositions which the insurgents make, to

treat with them, to prevent their reunion with the mother country. I lay

before your majesty my views of the subject. I have ordered a memorial

to be submitted to you, in which they are presented in more detail. I

desire eagerly that they should meet your approbation. Knowing the

weight of your probity, your majesty will not doubt the lively and

sincere friendship with which I am yours," &c.--Quoted by Pitkin (i.,

399) from Histoire, &c., de la Diplomatique Française, vol. vii.

** Sparks's Life of Franklin, 430, 433.

A Lady of the Revolution.--Sufferings of herself and Family.--.Her

Husband's Pension allowed her

088

CHAPTER IV.

"The sun has drunk

The dew that lay upon the morning grass;

There is no rustling in the lofty elm

That canopies my dwelling, and its shade

Scarce cools me. All is silent save the faint

And interrupted murmur of the bee,

Sitting on the sick flowers, and then again

Instantly on the wing. The plants around

Feel the too potent fervors; the tall maize

Rolls up its long green leaves; the clover droops

Its tender foliage, and declines its blooms.

But far in the fierce sunshine tower the hills,

With all their growth of woods, silent and stern,

As if the scorching heat and dazzling light

Were but an element they loved."

Bryant.

It was early in the morning of such a day as the poet refers to that we

commenced a ride and a ramble over the historic grounds of Saratoga near

Schuylerville, accompanied by the friendly guide whose proffered

services I have already mentioned. We first rode to the residence of

Mrs. J-n, one of the almost centenarian representatives of the

generation cotemporary with our Revolution, now so few and hoary. She

was in her ninety-second year of life, yet her mental faculties were

quite vigorous, and she related her sad experience of the trials of that

war with a memory remarkably tenacious and correct. Her sight and

hearing were defective, and her skin wrinkled; but in her soft blue eye,

regular features, and delicate form were lingering many traces of the

beauty of her early womanhood. She was a young lady of twenty years when

Independence was declared, and was living with her parents at Do-ve-gat

(Coveville) when Burgoyne came down the valley. She was then betrothed,

but her lover had shouldered his musket, and was in Schuyler's camp.

While Burgoyne was pressing onward toward Fort Edward from

Skenesborough, the people of the valley below, who were attached to the

patriot cause, fled hastily to Albany. Mrs. J-n and her parents were

among the fugitives. So fearful were they of the Indian scouts sent

forward, and of the resident Tories, not a whit less savage, who were

emboldened by the proximity of the invader, that for several nights

previous to their flight they slept in a swamp, apprehending that their

dwelling would be burned over their heads or that murder would break in

upon their repose. And when they returned home, after the surrender of

Burgoyne, all was desolation. Tears filled her eyes when she spoke of

that sad return. "We had but little to come home to," she said. "Our

crops and our cattle, our sheep, hogs, and horses, were all gone, yet we

knelt down in our desolate room and thanked God sincerely that our house

and barns were not destroyed." She wedded her soldier soon afterward,

and during the long widowhood of her evening of life his pension has

been secured to her, and a few years ago it was increased in amount. She

referred to it, and with quiver ing lip-quivering with the emotions of

her full heart-said, "The government has been very kind to me in my

poverty and old age." She was personally acquainted with General

Schuyler, and spoke feelingly of the noble-heartedness of himself and

lady in all the relations of life. While pressing her hand in bidding

her farewell, the thought occurred that we

Remains of the Fortifications of Burgoyne's Camp.--The Riedesel House.--

Narrative of the Baroness Riedesel.

089

represented the linking of the living, vigorous, active present, and the

half-buried, decaying past; and that between her early womanhood and now

all the grandeur and glory of our Republic had dawned and brightened

into perfect day.

From Mrs. Jn's we rode to the residence of her brother, the house

wherein the Baroness Riedesel, with her children and female companions,

was sheltered just before the surrender of Burgoyne. It is about a mile

above Schuylerville, and nearly opposite the mouth of the Batten Kill.

On our way we paused to view the remains of the fortifications of

Burgoyne's camp, upon the heights a little west of the village.

Prominent traces of the mounds and ditches are there visible in the

woods. A little northwest of the village the lines of the defenses

thrown up by the Germans, and Hessians of Hanau may be distinctly seen.

(See map, page 77.)

The house made memorable by the presence and the pen of the wife of the

Brunswick general is well preserved. At the time of the Revolution it

was owned by Peter Lansing, a relative of the chancellor of that name,

and now belongs to Mr. Samuel March 1848who has the good taste to keep

up its original character. It is upon the high bank west of the road

from Schuylerville to Fort Miller, pleasantly shaded in front by

locusts, and fairly embowered in shrubbery and fruit trees.

We will listen to the story of the sufferings of some of the women of

Burgoyne's camp in that house, as told by the baroness herself: "About

two o'clock in the afternoon we again heard a firing of cannon and small

arms; instantly all was alarm, and every thing in motion. My husband

told me to go to a house not far off. I immediately seated myself in my

caleche, with my children, and drove off; but scarcely had we reached it

before I discovered five or six armed men on the other side of the

Hudson. Instinctively I threw my children down in the caleche, and then

concealed myself with them. At this moment the fellows fired, and

wounded an already wounded English soldier, who was behind me. Poor

fellow! I pitied him exceedingly, but at this moment had no power to

relieve him.

"A terrible cannonade was commenced by the enemy against the house in

which I sought to obtain shelter for myself and children, under the

mistaken idea that all the generals were in it. Alas! it contained none

but wounded and women. We were at last obliged to resort to the cellar

for refuge, and in one corner of this I remained the whole day, my

children sleeping on the earth with their heads in my lap; and in the

same situation I passed a sleepless night. * Eleven cannon-balls passed

through the house, and we could distinctly hear them roll away. One poor

soldier, who was lying on a table for the purpose of having his leg

amputated, was struck by a shot, which carried away his other; his

comrades had left him, and when we went to his assistance we found him

in a corner of the room, into which he had crept, more dead than alive,

scarcely breathing. ** My reflections on the danger to which my husband

was exposed now agonized me exceedingly, and the thoughts of my

children, and the necessity of struggling for their preservation, alone

sustained me.

* The cellar is about fifteen by thirty feet in size, and lighted and

ventilated by two small windows only.

** The place where this ball entered is seen under the window near the

corner, and designated in the picture by a small black spot.

Companions in Misery of the Baroness Riedesel.--Wounded Soldiers.--

Kindness of General Schuyler.

090

"The ladies of the army who were with me were Mrs. Harnage, a Mrs.

Kennels the widow of a lieutenant who was killed, and the lady of the

commissary. Major Harnage, his wife, and Mrs. Kennels made a little room

in a corner with curtains to it, and wished to do the same for me, but I

preferred being near the door, in case of fire. Not far off my women

slept, and opposite to us three English officers, who, though wounded,

were determined not to be left behind; one of them was Captain Green, an

aid-de-camp to Major-general Phillips, a very valuable officer and most

agreeable man. They each made me a most sacred promise not to leave me

behind, and, in case of sudden retreat, that they would each of them

take one of my children on his horse; and for myself one of my husband's

was in constant readiness..... The want of water distressed us much; at

length we found a soldier's wife who had courage enough to fetch us some

from the river, an office nobody else would undertake, as the Americans

shot at every person who approached it; but, out of respect for her sex,

they never molested her.

"I now occupied myself through the day in attending the wounded; I made

them tea and coffee, and often shared my dinner with them, for which

they offered me a thousand expressions of gratitude. One day a Canadian

officer came to our cellar, who had scarcely the power of holding

himself upright, and we concluded he was dying for want of nourishment;

I was happy in offering him my dinner, which strengthened him, and

procured me his friendship. I now undertook the care of Major

Bloomfield, another aid-de-camp of General Phillips; he had received a

musket-ball through both cheeks, which in its course had knocked out

several of his teeth and cut his tongue; he could hold nothing in his

mouth, the matter which ran from his wound almost choked him, and he was

not able to take any nourishment except a little soup or something

liquid. We had some Rhenish wine, and, in the hope that the acidity of

it would cleanse his wound, I gave him a bottle of it. He took a little

now and then, and with such effect that his cure soon followed; thus I

added another to my stock of friends, and derived a satisfaction which,

in the midst of sufferings, served to tranquilize me and diminish their

acuteness.

"One day General Phillips accompanied my husband, at the risk of their

lives, on a visit to us. The general, after having beheld our situation,

said to him, 'I would not for ten thousand guineas come again to this

place; my heart is almost broken.'

"In this horrid situation we remained six days; a cessation of

hostilities was now spoken of, and eventually took place."

The baroness, in the simple language of her narrative, thus bears

testimony to the generous courtesy of the American officers, and to the

true nobility of character of General Schuyler in particular: "My

husband sent a message to me to come over to him with my children. I

seated myself once more in my dear caleche, and then rode through the

American camp. As I passed on I observed, and this was a great

consolation to me, that no one eyed me with looks of resentment, but

they all greeted us, and even showed compassion in their countenances at

the sight of a woman with small children I was, I confess, afraid to go

over to the enemy, as it was quite a new situation to me. When I drew

near the tents a handsome man approached and met me, _took my children

from the caleche, and hugged and kissed them, which affected me almost

to tears_. 'You tremble,' said he, addressing himself to me; 'be not

afraid.' 'No,' I answered, 'you seem so kind and tender to my children,

it inspires me with courage.' He now led me to the tent of General

Gates, where I found Generals Burgoyne and Phillips, who were on a

friendly footing with the former. Burgoyne said to me, 'Never mind; your

sorrows have now an end.' I answered him that I should be reprehensible

to have any cares, as he had none; and I was pleased to see him on such

friendly footing with General Gates. All the generals remained to dine

with General Gates.

"The same gentleman who received me so kindly now came and said to me,

'You will be very much embarrassed to eat with all these gentlemen;

_come with your children to my tent, where I will prepare for you a

frugal dinner, and give it with a free will_' I said, '_You are

certainly a husband and a father, you have shown me so much kindness._'

* General Burgoyne boasted at Fort Edward that he should eat a

Christinas dinner in Albany, surrounded by his victorious army.

Arrival of the British Officers and Women at Albany.--Courtesy of

General Schuyler and Family.

091

I now found that he was General Schuyler. He treated me with excellent

smoked tongue, beef-steaks, potatoes, and good bread and butter! Never

could I have wished to eat a better dinner; I was content; I saw all

around me were so likewise; and, what was better than all, my husband

was out of danger.

"When we had dined he told me his residence was at Albany, and that

General Burgoyne intended to honor him as his guest, and invited myself

and children to do so likewise. I asked my husband how I should act; he

told me to accept the invitation. As it was two days' journey there, he

advised me to go to a place which was about three hours' ride distant.

"Some days after this we arrived at Albany, where we so often wished

ourselves; but we did not enter it as we expected we should-victors! *

We were received by the good General Schuyler, his wife, and daughters,

not as enemies, but kind friends; and they treated us with the most

marked attention and politeness, as they did General Burgoyne, who had

caused General Schuyler's beautifully-finished house to be burned. In

fact, they behaved like persons of exalted minds, who determined to bury

all recollections of their own injuries in the contemplation of our

misfortunes. General Burgoyne was struck with General Schuyler's

generosity, and said to him, 'You show me great kindness, though I have

done you much injury.' 'That was the fate of war,' replied the brave

man; 'let us say no more about it.'"

General Schuyler was detained at Saratoga when Burgoyne and suite

started for Albany.

British Officers at Schuyler's House.--Execution-place of Lovelace.--

Active and Passive Tories.--Rendezvous of Lovelace.

092

He wrote to his wife to give the English general the very best reception

in her power. "The British commander was well received," says the

Marquis de Chastellux, * in his Travels in America, "by Mrs. Schuyler,

and lodged in the best apartment in the house. An excellent supper was

served him in the evening, the honors of whieh were done with so much

grace that he was affected even to tears, and said, with a deep sigh, '

Indeed, this is doing too much for the man who has ravaged their lands

and burned their dwellings.' The next morning he was reminded of his

misfortunes by an incident that would have amused any one else. His bed

was prepared in a large room; but as he had a numerous suite, or family,

several mattresses were spread on the floor for some officers to sleep

near him. Schuyler's second son, a little fellow about seven years old,

very arch and forward, but very amiable, was running all the morning

about the house. Opening the door of the saloon, he burst out a laughing

on seeing all the English collected, and shut it after him, exclaiming,

'You are all my prisoners!' This innocent cruelty rendered them more

melancholy than before."

We next visited the headquarters of General Gates, south of the Fish

Creek, delineated on page 75. On our way we passed the spot, a few rods

south of the creek, where Lovelaee, a prominent Tory, was hung. It is

upon the high bluff seen on the right of the road in the annexed sketch,

which was taken from the lawn in front of the rebuilt mansion of General

Schuyler.

Lovelaee was a fair type of his class, the bitterest and most implacable

foes of the republicans. There were many Tories who were so from

principle, and refused to take sides against the parent country from

honest convictions of the wrongfulness of such a course. They looked

upon the Whigs as rebels against their sovereign; condemned the war as

unnatural, and regarded the final result as surely disastrous to those

who had lifted up the arm of opposition. Their opinions were courteously

but firmly expressed; they took every opportunity to dissuade their

friends and neighbors from participation in the rebellion; and by all

their words and acts discouraged the insurgent movement. But they

shouldered no musket, girded on no sword, piloted no secret expedition

against the republicans. They were passive, noble-minded men, and

deserve our respect for their consistency and our commiseration for

their sufferings at the hands of those who made no distinction between

the man of honest opinions and the marauder with no opinions at all.

There was another elass of Tories, governed by the footpad's axiom, that

"might makes right." They were Whigs when royal power was weak, and

Tories when royal power was strong. Their god was mammon, and they

offered up human sacrifices in abundance upon its altars. Cupidity and

its concomitant vices governed all their acts, and the bonds of

consanguinity and affection were too weak to restrain their fostered

barbarism. Those born in the same neighborhood; educated (if at all) in

the same school; admonished, it may be, by the same pastor, seemed to

have their hearts suddenly closed to every feeling of friendship or of

love, and became as relentless robbers and murderers of neighbors and

friends as the savages of the wilderness. Of this elass was Thomas

Lovelaee, who, for a time, became a terror to his old neighbors and

friends in Saratoga, his native district.

At the commencement of the war Lovelace went to Canada, and there

confederated with five other persons from his own county to come down

into Saratoga and abduct, plunder, or betray their former neighbors. He

was brave, expert, and cautious. His quarters were in a large swamp

about five miles from the residence of Colonel Van Vechten at Do-ve-gat,

but his place of rendezvous was cunningly concealed. Robberies were

frequent, and several inhabitants were carried off. General Schuyler's

house was robbed, and an attempt was

* A French officer, who served in the array in this country during a

part of the Revolution.

Capture and Death of Lovelace.--Daring Adventure of an American

Soldier.--Departure from Schuylerville

093

made by Lovelace and his companions to carry off Colonel Van Vechten;

but the active vigilance of General Stark, then in command of the

barracks north of the Fish Creek, * in furnishing the colonel with a

guard, frustrated the marauder's plans. Intimations of his intentions

and of his place of concealment were given to Captain Dunham, who

commanded a company of militia in the neighborhood, and he at once

summoned his lieutenant, ensign, orderly, and one private to his house.

* At dark they proceeded to the "Big Swamp," three miles distant, where

two Tory families resided. They separated to reconnoiter, but two of

them, Green and Guiles, were lost. The other three kept together, and at

dawn discovered Lovelace and his party in a hut covered over with

boughs, just drawing on their stockings. The three Americans crawled

cautiously forward till near the hut, when they sprang upon a log with a

shout, leveled their muskets, and Dunham exclaimed, "Surrender, or you

are all dead men!" There was no time for parley, and, believing that the

Americans were upon them in force, they came out one by one without

arms, and were marched by their captors to General Stark at the

barracks. They were tried by a court-martial as spies, traitors, and

robbers, and Lovelace, who was considered too dangerous to be allowed to

escape, was sentenced to be hung. He complained of injustice, and

claimed the leniency due to a prisoner of war; but his plea was

disallowed, and three days afterward he was hung upon the brow of the

hill at the place delineated, during a tremendous storm of rain and

wind, accompanied by vivid lightning and clashing thunder-peals. These

facts were communicated to me by the son of Colonel Van Vechten, who

accompanied me to the spot, and who was well acquainted with all the

captors of Lovelace and his accomplices.

The place where Gates and Burgoyne had their first interview (delineated

on page 81) is about half way between the Fish Creek and Gates's

headquarters. After visiting these localities, we returned to the

village, and spent an hour upon the ground where the British army laid

down their arms. This locality I have already noted, and will not detain

the reader longer than to mention the fact that the plain whereon this

event took place formed a part of the extensive meadows of General

Schuyler, and to relate a characteristic adventure which occurred there.

While the British camp was on the north side of the Fish Creek, a number

of the officers' horses were let loose in the meadows to feed. An expert

swimmer among the Americans who swarmed upon the hills east of the

Hudson, obtained permission to go across and capture one of the horses.

He swam the river, seized and mounted a fine bay gelding, and in a few

moments was recrossing the stream unharmed, amid a volley of bullets

from a party of British soldiers. Shouts greeted him as he returned;

and, when rested, he asked permission to go for another, telling the

captain that _he_ ought to have a horse to ride as well as a private.

Again the adventurous soldier was among the herd, and, unscathed,

returned with an exceedingly good match for the first, and presented it

to his commander. ***

Bidding our kind friend and guide adieu, we left Schuylerville toward

evening, in a private carriage, for Fort Miller, six miles further up

the Hudson. The same beautiful and diversified scenery, the same

prevailing quiet that charmed us all the way from Waterford, still

surrounded us; and the river and the narrow alluvial plain through which

it flows, bounded on either side by high undulations or abrupt pyramidal

hills, which cast lengthened shadows in the evening sun across the

meadows, presented a beautiful picture of luxurious repose. We crossed

the Hudson upon a long bridge built on strong abutments, two miles and a

half above Schuylerville, at the place where Burgoyne and his army

crossed on the 12th of September, 1777. The river is here quite broad

and shallow, and broken by frequent rifts and rapids.

We arrived at Fort Miller village, on the east bank of the river,

between five and six o'clock; and while awaiting supper, preparatory to

an evening canal voyage to Fort Edward, nine miles above, I engaged a

water-man to row me across to the western bank, to

* The place-where these barracks were located is just within the

northern suburbs of Schuylerville.

** Davis, Green, Guiles, and Burden.

*** Neilson, 223

Visit to the Site of old Fort Edward.--Tragedy of "Bloody Run."-- Daring

Feat by Putnam.--Fort Miller Fording-place.

094

view the site of the old fort. He was a very obliging man, and well

acquainted with the localities in the neighborhood, but was rather

deficient in historical knowledge. His attempts to relate 'the events

connected with the old fort and its vicinity were amusing; for Putnam's

ambush on Lake Champlain, and the defeat of Pyles by Lee, in North

Carolina, with a slight tincture of correct narrative, were blended

together as pans of an event which occurred at Fort Miller.

We crossed the Hudson just above the rapids. A dam for milling purposes

spans the stream, causing a sluggish current and deeper water for more

than two miles above. Here was the scene of one of Putnam's daring

exploits. While a major in the English provincial army, nearly twenty

years before the Revolution, he was lying in-a bateau on the east side

of the river, and was suddenly surprised by a party of Indians. He could

not cross the river swiftly enough to escape the balls of their rifles,

and there was no alternative but to go down the foaming rapids. In an

instant his purpose was fixed, and, to the astonishment of the savages,

he steered directly down the current, amid whirling eddies and over

shelving rocks. In a few moments his vessel cleared the rush of waters,

and was gliding upon the smooth current below, far out of reach of the

weapons of the Indians. It was a feat they never dared attempt, and

superstition convinced them that he was so favored by the Great Spirit

that it would be an affront to Manitou to attempt to kill him with

powder and ball.

Other Indians of the tribe, however, soon afterward gave practical

evidence of their unbelief in such interposition.

There is not a vestige of Fort Miller left, and maize, and potatoes, and

pumpkin vines were flourishing where the rival forces of Sir William

Johnson and the Baron Dieskau alternately paraded. At the foot of the

hill, a few rods below where the fort stood, is a part of the trench and

bank of a redoubt, and this is all that remains even of the outworks of

the fortification.

An eighth of a mile westward is Bloody Run, a stream which comes leaping

in sparkling cascades from the hills, and affords fine trout fishing. It

derives its name from the fact that, while the English had possession of

the fort in 1759, a party of soldiers from the garrison went out to fish

at the place represented in the picture. The hills, now cultivated, were

then covered with dense forests, and afforded the Indians excellent

ambush. A troop of savages, lying near, sprang silently from their

covert upon the fishers, and bore off nine reeking scalps before those

who escaped could reach the fort and give the alarm.

This clear mountain stream enters the Hudson a little above Fort Miller,

where the river makes a sudden curve, and where, before the erection of

the dam at the rapids, it was quite shallow, and usually fordable. This

was the crossing-place for the armies; and there are still to be seen

some of the logs and stones upon the shore which formed a part of the

old "King's Road" leading to the fording-place. They are now sub-

* This view is taken from the site of the fort, looking northward. The

fort was in the town of Northumberland. It was built of logs and earth,

and was never a post of great importance

Canal Voyage to Fort Edward.--Scene on Board.--Fort Edward.--National

Debt of England.

095

merged, the river having been made deeper by the dam; but when the water

is limpid they can be plainly seen. It was twilight before we reached

the village on the eastern shore.

We supped and repaired to the packet office, where we waited until nine

o'clock in the evening before the shrill notes of a tin horn brayed out

the annunciation of a packet near. Its deck was covered with passengers,

for the interesting ceremony of converting the dining-room into a

dormitory, or swinging the hammocks or berths and selecting their

occupants, had commenced, and all were driven out, much to their own

comfort, but, strange to say, to the dissatisfaction of many who lazily

preferred a sweltering lounge in the cabin to the delights of fresh air

and the bright starlight. Having no interest in the scramble for beds,

we enjoyed the evening breeze and the excitement of the tiny tumult. My

companion, fearing the exhalations upon the night air, did indeed

finally seek shelter in one end of the cabin, but was driven, with two

other young ladies, into the captain's state-room, to allow the "hands"

to have full play in making the beds. Imprisoned against their will, the

ladies made prompt restitution to themselves by drawing the cork of a

bottle of sarsaparilla and sipping its contents, greatly to the

consternation of a meek old dame, the mother of one of the girls, who

was sure it was "bed-bug pizen, or something a pesky sight worse." We

landed at Fort Edward at midnight, and took lodgings at a small but

tidily-kept tavern close by the canal.

Fort Edward was a military post of considerable importance during the

French and Indian wars and the Revolution. * The locality, previous to

the erection of the fortress, was called the _first carrying-place_,

being the first and nearest point on the Hudson where the troops,

stores, &c., were landed while passing to or from the south end of Lake

Champlain, a distance of about twenty-five miles. The fort was built in

1755, when six thousand troops were collected there, under General

Lyman, waiting the arrival of General Johnson, the commander-in-chief of

an expedition against Ticonderoga and Crown Point. It was at first

called Fort Lyman, in Fort Edward.* honor of the general who

superintended its erection. It

* I refer particularly to the war between England and France, commonly

called, in Europe, the Seven Years' War. It was declared on the 9th of

June, 1756, and ended with the treaty at Paris, concluded and signed

February 10th, 1763. It extended to the colonies of the two nations in

America, and was carried on with much vigor here until the victory of

Wolfe at Quebec, in 1759, and the entire subjugation of Canada by the

English. The French managed to enlist a large proportion of the Indian

tribes in their favor, who were allied with them against the Britons. It

is for that reason that the section of the Seven Years' War in America

was called by the colonists the "French and Indian War." I would here

mention incidentally that that war cost Great Britain five hundred and

sixty millions of dollars, and laid one of the largest foundation stones

of that national debt under which she now groans. It was twenty millions

in the reign of William and Mary, in 1697, and was then thought to be

enormous; in 1840 it was about four thousand millions of dollars!

** Explanation: a a a a a a, six cannons; A, the barracks; B, the store-

house; C, the hospital; D, the magazine; E, a flanker; F, a bridge

across Fort Edward Creek; and G, a balm of Gilead tree which then

overshadowed the massive water-gate. That tree is still standing, a

majestic relic of the past, amid the surrounding changes in nature and

art. It is directly upon the high bank of the Hudson, and its branches,

heavily foliated when I was there, spread very high and wide. At the

union below its three trunks it measures more than twenty feet in

circumference.

Daring Feat of Putnam at Fort Edward.--Jane M'Crea Tree.--Sir William

Johnson and his Title.--Fortifications.

096

was built of logs and earth, sixteen feet high and twenty-two feet

thick, and stood at the junction of Fort Edward Creek and the Hudson

River. From the creek, around the fort to the river, was a deep fosse or

ditch, designated in the engraving by the dark dotted part outside of

the black lines.

There are still very prominent traces of the banks and fosse of the

fort, but the growing village will soon spread over and obliterate them

forever. Already a garden was within the lines; and the old parade-

ground, wherein Sir William Johnson strutted in the haughty pride of a

victor by accident, * was desecrated by beds of beets, parsley,

radishes, and onions.

Fort Edward was the theater of another daring achievement by Putnam. In

the winter of 1756 the barracks, then near the northwestern bastion,

took fire. The magazine was only twelve feet distant, and contained

three hundred barrels of gunpowder. Attempts were made to batter the

barracks to the ground with heavy cannons, but without success. Putnam,

who was stationed upon Rogers's Island, in the Hudson, opposite the

fort, hurried hither, and, taking his station on the roof of the

barracks, ordered a line of soldiers to hand him water. But, despite his

efforts, the flames raged and approached nearer and nearer to the

magazine. The commandant, Colonel Haviland, seeing his danger, ordered

him down; but the brave major did not leave his perilous post until the

fabric began to totter. He then leaped to the ground, placed himself

between the falling building and the magazine, and poured on water with

all his might. The external planks of the magazine were consumed, and

there was only a thin partition between the flames and the powder. But

Putnam succeeded in subduing the flames and saving the ammunition. His

hands and face were dreadfully burned, his whole body was more or less

blistered, and it was several weeks before he recovered from the effects

of his daring conflict with the fire.

The first place of historic interest that we visited at Fort Edward was

the venerable and blasted pine tree near which, tradition asserts, the

unfortunate Jane M'Crea lost her life while General Burgoyne had his

encampment near Sandy Hill. It stands upon the west side of the road

leading from Fort Edward to Sandy Hill, and about half a mile from the

canal-lock in the former village. The tree had exhibited unaccountable

signs of decadence for several years, and when we visited it, it was

sapless and bare. Its top was torn off by a November gale, and almost

every breeze diminishes its size by scattering its decayed twigs. The

trunk is about five feet in diameter, and upon the bark is engraved, in

bold letters, Jane M'Crea, 1777. The names of many ambitious visitors

are intaglioed upon it, and reminded me of the line "Run, run, Orlando,

carve on every tree." I carefully sketched all its branches, and the

engraving is a faithful portraiture of the interesting relic, as viewed

from the opposite side of the road. In a few years this tree, around

which history and romance have clustered so many associations, will

crumble and pass away forever. **

The sad story of the unfortunate girl is so interwoven in our history

that it has become a component part; but it is told with so many

variations, in essential and non-essential par-

* Sir William Johnson had command of the English forces in 1755,

destined to act against Crown Point. He was not remarkable for courage

or activity. He was attacked at the south end of Lake George by the

Freneh general, Deiskau, and was wounded at the outset. The command then

devolved on Major-general Lyman, of the Connecticut troops, who, by his

skill and bravery, secured a victory over the French and Indians.

General Johnson, however, had the honor and reward thereof. In his mean

jealousy he gave General Lyman no praise; and the British king (George

II.) made him a baronet, and a present of twenty thousand dollars to

give the title becoming dignity.Note.--As I shall have frequent occasion

to employ technical terms used in fortifications, I here give a diagram,

which, with the explanation, will make those terms clear to the reader.

The figure is a vertical section of a fortification. The mass of earth,

ab c d ef g h, forms the rampart with its parapet; ab is the interior

slope of the rampart; b c is the terre-plein of the rampart, on which

the troops and cannon are placed; d e is the banquette, or step, on

which the soldiers mount to fire over the parapet; ef g is the parapet;

g h is the exterior slope of the parapet-, hi is the revetment, or wall

of masonry, supporting the rampart; h 1c, the exterior front covered

with the revetment, is called the escarp; i hi the ditch; l m is the

counterscarp; m n is the covered way, having a banquette nop; s r is the

glacis. When there are two ditches, the works between the inner and the

outer ditch are called ravelins, and all outside of the ditches,

outworks.-See Brande's Cyc., art. Fortification.

** It was cut down in 1853, and converted into canes, boxes, &c.

The Fort Edward Romance.--Mrs. M'Neil and her Grand-daughter.--Narrative

of the latter

097

ticulars, that much of the narratives we have is evidently pure fiction;

a simple tale of Indian abduction, resulting in death, having its

counterpart in a hundred like occurrences, has been garnished with all

the high coloring of a romantic love story. It seems a pity to spoil the

_romance_ of the matter, but truth always makes sad havoc with the

frost-work of the imagination, and sternly demands the homage of the

historian's pen.

All accounts agree that Miss M'Crea was staying at the house of a Mrs.

M'Neil, near the fort, at the time of the tragedy. A granddaughter of

Mrs. M'Neil (Mrs.F--n) is now living at Fort 1848. Edward, and from her

I received a minute account of the whole transaction, as she had heard

it a "thousand times" from her grandmother. She is a woman of remarkable

intelligence, about sixty years old. When I was at Fort Edward she was

on a visit with her sister at Glenn's Falls. It had been my intention to

go direct to Whitehall, on Lake Champlain, by way of Fort Ann, but the

traditionary accounts in the neighborhood of the event in question were

so contradictory of the books, and I received such assurances that

perfect reliance might be placed upon the statements of Mrs. F-n, that,

anxious to ascertain the truth of the matter, if possible, we went to

Lake Champlain by way of Glenn's Falls and Lake George. After

considerable search at the falls, I found Mrs. F-n, and the following is

her relation of the tragedy at Fort Edward.

Jane M'Crea was the daughter of a Scotch Presbyterian clergyman of

Jersey City, opposite New York; and while Mrs. M'Neil (then the wife of

a former husband named Campbell) was a resident of New York City, an

acquaintance and intimacy had grown up between Jenny and her daughter.

After the death of Campbell (which occurred at sea) Mrs. Campbell

married M'Neil. He, too, was lost at sea, and she removed with her

family to an estate

Residence of Jane M'Crea at Fort Edward.--Her Betrothal.--Abduction of

Mrs. M'Neil and Jane.

098

owned by him at Fort Edward. Mr. M'Crea, who was a widower, died, and

Jane went to live with her brother near Fort Edward, where the intimacy

of former years with Mrs. M'Neil and her daughter was renewed, and Jane

spent much of her time at Mrs. M'Neil's house. Near her brother's lived

a family named Jones, consisting of a widow and six sons, and between

Jenny and David Jones, a gay young man, a feeling of friendship budded

and ripened into reciprocal love. When the war broke out the Joneses

took the royal side of the question, and David and his brother Jonathan

went to Canada in the autumn of 1776. They raised a company of about

sixty men, under pretext of re-enforcing the American garrison at

Ticonderoga, but they went further down the lake and joined the British

garrison at June l, 1777 Crown Point. When Burgoyne collected his forces

at St. John's, at the foot of Lake Champlain, David and Jonathan Jones

were among them. Jonathan was made captain and David a lieutenant in the

division under General Fraser, and at the time in question they were

with the British army near Sandy Hill. Thus far all accounts nearly

agree.

The brother of Jenny was a Whig, and prepared to move to Albany; but

Mrs. M'Neil, who was a cousin of General Fraser (killed at Stillwater),

was a stanch loyalist, and intended to remain at Fort Edward. When the

British were near, Jenny was at Mrs. M'Neil's, and lingered there even

after repeated solicitations from her brother to return to his house,

five miles further down the river, to be ready to flee when necessity

should compel. A faint hope that she might meet her lover doubtless was

the secret of her tarrying. At last her brother sent a peremptory order

for her to join him, and she promised to go down in a large bateau *

which was expected to leave with several families on the following day.

Early the next morning a black July 27, 1777 servant boy belonging to

Mrs. M'Neil espied some Indians stealthily approaching the house, and,

giving the alarm to the inmates, he fled to the fort, about eighty rods

distant. Mrs. M'Neil's daughter, the young friend of Jenny, and mother

of my informant, was with some friends in Argyle, and the family

consisted of only the widow and Jenny, two small children, and a black

female servant. As usual at that time, the kitchen stood a few feet from

the house; and when the alarm was given the black woman snatched up the

children, fled to the kitchen, and retreated through a trap-door to the

cellar. ** Mrs. M'Neil and Jenny followed, but the former being aged and

very corpulent, and the latter young and agile, Jenny reached the trap-

door first. Before Mrs. M'Neil could fully descend, the Indians were in

the house, and a powerful savage seized her by the hair and dragged her

up. Another went into the cellar and brought out Jenny, but the black

face of the negro woman was not seen in the dark, and she and the

children remained unharmed.

With the two women the savages started off, on the road toward Sandy

Hill, for Bur-goyne's camp; and when they came to the foot of the ascent

on which the pine tree stands, where the road forked, they caught two

horses that were grazing, and attempted to place their prisoners upon

them. Mrs. M'Neil was too heavy to be lifted on the horse easily, and as

she signified by signs that she could not ride, two stout Indians took

her by the arms and hurried her up the road over the hill, while the

others, with Jenny on the horse, went along the road running west of the

tree.

The negro boy who ran to the fort gave the alarm, and a small detachment

was imme-

* Bateaux were rudely constructed of logs and planks, broad and without

a keel. They had small draught, and would carry large loads in quite

shallow water. In still water and against currents they were propelled

by long driving-poles. The ferry-scows or flats on the southern and

western rivers are very much like the old bateaux. They were sometimes

furnished with a mast for lakes and other deep water, and had cabins

erected on them.

** Traces of this cellar and of th: foundation of the house are still

visible in the garden of Dr. Norton, in Fort Edward village, who is a

relative of the family by marriage.

Flight of the Indians toward Sandy Hill.--Treatment of Mrs. M'Neil.--

Indian Account of the Death of Jane.--The Spring.

099

diately sent out to effect a rescue. They fired several volleys at the

Indians, but the savages escaped unharmed. Mrs. M'Neil said that the

Indians, who were hurrying her up the hill, seemed to watch the flash of

the guns, and several times they threw her upon her face, at the same

time falling down themselves, and she distinctly heard the balls whistle

above them. When they got above the second hill from the village the

firing ceased; they-then stopped, stripped her of all her garments

except her chemise, and in that plight led her into the British camp.

There she met her kinsman, General Fraser, and reproached him bitterly

for sending his "scoundrel Indians" after her. He denied all knowledge

of her being away from the city of New York, and took every pains to

make her comfortable. She was so large that not a woman in camp had a

gown big enough for her, so Fraser lent her his camp-coat for a garment,

and a pocket-handkerchief as a substitute for her stolen cap.

Very soon after Mrs. M'Neil was taken into the British camp, two parties

of Indians arrived with scalps. She at once recognised the long glossy

hair of Jenny, * and, though shuddering with horror, boldly charged the

savages with her murder, which they stoutly denied.

They averred that, while hurrying her along the road on horseback, near

the spring west of the _pine tree_, a bullet from one of the American

guns, intended for them, mortally wounded the poor girl, and she fell

from the horse. Sure of losing a prisoner by death, they took her scalp

as the next best thing for them to do, and that they bore in triumph to

the camp, to obtain the promised reward for such trophies. Mrs. M'Neil

always believed the story of the Indians to be true, for she knew that

they were fired upon by the detachment from the fort, and it was far

more to their interest to carry a prisoner than a scalp to the British

commander, the price for the former being much greater. In fact, the

Indians were so restricted by Burgoyne's humane instructions respecting

the taking of scalps, that their chief solicitude was to bring a

prisoner alive and unharmed into the camp. ** And the probability that

Miss M'Crea was killed as they alleged is strengthened by the fact that

they took the corpulent Mrs. M'Neil, with much fatigue and difficulty,

uninjured to the British lines, while Miss M'Crea, quite light and

already on horseback, might have been carried off with far greater ease.

It was known in camp that Lieutenant Jones was betrothed to Jenny, and

the story got abroad that he had sent the Indians for her, that they

quarreled on the way respecting the reward he had offered, and murdered

her to settle the dispute. Receiving high touches of coloring as it went

from one narrator to another, the sad story became a tale of darkest

horror, and produced a deep and wide-spread indignation. This was

heightened by September 2, 1777 a published letter from Gates to

Burgoyne, charging him with allowing the In-

* It was of extraordinary length and beauty, measuring a yard and a

quarter. She was then about twenty years old, and a very lovely girl;

not lovely in beauty of face, according to the common standard of

beauty, but so lovely in disposition, so graceful in manners, and so

intelligent in features, that she was a favorite of all who knew her.

** "I positively forbid bloodshed when you are not opposed in arms. Aged

men, women, children, and prisoners must be held sacred from the knife

and hatchet, even in the time of actual conflict. You shall receive

compensation for the prisoners you take, but you shall be called to

account for scalps. In conformity and indulgence of your customs, which

have affixed an idea of honor to such badges of victory, you shall be

allowed to take the scalps of the dead when killed by your fire and in

fair opposition; but on no account, or pretense, or subtilty, or

prevarication are they to be taken from the wounded, or even the dying;

and still less pardonable, if possible, will it be held to kill men in

that condition on purpose, and upon in supposition that this protection

to the wounded would be thereby evaded."-Extract from the Speech of

Burgoyne to the Indians assembled upon the Bouquet River, June 21, 1777.

*** This is a view of a living spring, a few feet below the noted pine

tree, the lower portion of which is seen near the top of the engraving.

The spring is beside the old road, traces of which may be seen.

Massacre of the Allen Family.--Gates's Letter.--Inquiry respecting the

Death of Miss M'Crea.--Desertion of Lieutenant Jones

100

dians to butcher with impunity defenseless women and children. "Upward

of one hundred men, women, and children," said Gates, "have perished by

the hands of the ruffians, to whom, it is asserted, you have paid the

price of blood." Burgoyne flatly denied this assertion, and declared

that the case of Jane M'Crea was the only act of Indian cruelty of which

he was informed. His information must have been exceedingly limited, for

on the same day when Jenny lost her life a party of savages murdered the

whole family, of John Allen, of Argyle, consisting of himself, his wife,

three children, a sister-in-law, and three negroes. The daughter of Mrs.

M'Neil, already mentioned, was then at the house of Mr. Allen's father-

in-law, Mr. Gilmer, who, as well as Mr. Allen, was a Tory. Both were

afraid of the savages, nevertheless, and were preparing to flee to

Albany. On the morning of the massacre a younger daughter of Mr. Gilmer

went to assist Mrs. Allen in preparing to move. Not returning when

expected, her father sent a negro boy down for her. He soon returned,

screaming, "They are all dead-father, mother, young missus, and all!" It

was too true. That morning, while the family were at breakfast, the

Indians burst in upon them and slaughtered every one. Mr. Gilmer and his

family left in great haste for Fort Edward, but proceeded very

cautiously for fear of the savages. When near the fort, and creeping

warily along a ravine, they discovered a portion of the very party who

had plundered Mrs. M'Neil's house in the morning. They had emptied the

straw from the beds and filled the ticks with stolen articles. Mrs.

M'Neil's daughter, who accompanied the fugitive family, saw her mother's

looking-glass tied upon the back of one of the savages. They succeeded

in reaching the fort in safety.

Burgoyne must soon have forgotten this event and the alarm among the

loyalists because of the murder of a Tory and his family; forgotten how

they flocked to his camp for protection, and Fraser's remark to the

frightened loyalists, "It is a conquered country, and we must wink at

these things;" and how his own positive orders to the Indians, not to

molest those having protection, caused many of them to leave him and

return to their hunting-grounds on the St. Lawrence. It was all dark and

dreadful, and Burgoyne was willing to retreat behind a false assertion,

to escape the perils which were sure to grow out of an admission of half

the truth of Gates's letter. That letter, as Sparks justly remarks, was

more ornate than forcible, and abounded more in bad taste than

simplicity and pathos; yet it was suited to the feelings of the moment,

and produced a lively impression in every part of America. Burke, in the

exercise of all his glowing eloquence, used the story with powerful

effect in the British House of Commons, and made the dreadful tale

familiar throughout Europe.