The sources of the Hudson must be sought in those wilds of the state
of New York which lie in the interior between Lake Ontario and Lake
Champlain. The tide of immigration setting westward through the valley
of the Mohawk, or eddying about the shores of those lakes, has
insulated that region of country, and it remains to this day almost a
wilderness. Within a morning's ride from the springs of Saratoga,
where luxury and fashion keep holiday from June to September, one can
find oneself in a solitude that would become the Rocky Mountains. The
amateur Daniel Boone may there roam through the primeval forest, and
even yet snap his trigger at the wild buck, or engage the panther and
bear.
Starting from such a cradle, the Hudson, like a young Hercules playing
with serpents, catches up a hundred little tributary brooks, and goes
leaping and brawling through the woods till it finds itself a river.
Then, gathering size and strength through every curve of its way, it
turns eastward to seek its fortunes in the big world. As if on purpose
to try its strength and power, it comes roaring to the rocks at
Glenn's falls, and there flings itself down in a froth, with the air
of a stripling who signalises his majority by a terrible outbreak from
parental restraint. Then, with a graceful sweep that seems the result
of society upon the young forester's impetuosity, it turns its full
tide into a picturesque valley, and, bending southward, begins its
bright and prosperous career. Awhile it loiters along, now winding
through meadows, now murmuring through glens; and then, catching to
its strong embrace the lovely Mohawk that comes down with her roar of
waters to meet it, the espoused Hudson, with a new dignity, that soon
swells into majesty, takes its straight and glorious course through
sloping uplands and mountain passes, to lose itself in the sea.
From the point where it receives the Mohawk, full a hundred and fifty
miles above New York, the Hudson becomes navigable for vessels with
keels. Higher up, it floats only the flat-boat and canoe. Ascending
its banks till they turn abruptly westward, you have but twenty miles
of land-travel to the head of Lake Champlain; from which a delightful
trip through a hundred miles of mountain scenery brings you fairly
into Canada. Or, if you follow up the river to Glenn's falls, 'tis
only a rambbler's walk to the head of Lake George, whose quiet and
unburdened waters are out of the thoroughfare, but, lying parallel
with Lake Champlain, return you to the direct line of travel through
the ravines of its romantic outlet at Ticonderoga. Thus, from the
Mohawk to the St Lawrence, through this charming section of America,
you have every where a profusion of interest in the natural scenery;
and whether you would see lake, mountain, river, or cataract, you may
find them all to your taste, in a wilderness that retains somewhat of
that fresh beauty which fancy attributes to the world before the
Flood.
So long ago as the summer of 18--, I was a traveller in these regions,
making my way into Canada. In those days there were no railways in
America. By the steamer, _Chancellor Livingston_, I had ascended the
Hudson to Albany in something less than twenty-four hours. From Albany
to Lake Champlain I was one of a party chartering a post-coach, and
permitted by the terms of our contract to make as easy stages as might
suit our pleasure or convenience. At Whitehall we took a small
sailing-craft down the lake a hundred miles and more, to Plattsburgh;
and thence, resuming the land route, made our way into Canada.
Compared with the more modern rate of travel, we went at a snail's
pace; but with all its inconveniences, our way of making the journey
had its peculiar benefits and charms. We were less superficial
observers of men and things than railway passengers can possibly be.
We were intelligent persons; we conversed with the men of the soil; we
asked questions of plain farmers and sailors, and heard with pleasure
their long stories of ancient battles in those parts, from the days of
the Iroquois to the days of General Brock. We stopped by the roadside
and examined places of interest, and took views of beautiful
landscapes from commanding heights. And now I can say of my route into
Canada what Wordsworth says of the Wye:--
"Those beauteous scenes,
Through a long absence, have not been to me
As is a landscape to a blind man's eye;
But oft in lonely rooms, and mid the din
Of towers and cities, I have owed to them,
In hours of weariness, sensations sweet,
Felt in the blood, and felt along the heart."
In many such hours I have refreshed my memory by recurring also to
such books of tourists as I have at hand, but especially in the later
authors of this kind I have found little satisfaction. They all seem
to have hurried over their journey without stopping to take breath;
and I am inclined to believe that I was lucky in beginning my travels,
while as yet the spirit of the nineteenth century was only just
putting on its seven-leagued boots, and still permitted the good habit
of hastening slowly. Let me, then, go over my former stages, at least
in fancy; and while I interweave my histories with the personal
adventures of an old-fashioned traveller, let me be met also by some
of the indulgence humanely accorded to narrative old age.
Our travelling party had been thrown together less by choice than
accident; and for our commander-in-chief we had unfortunately selected
as wild a young Irish officer as was ever turned loose from Cork to
fight his fortunes in the world. Fitz-Freke, as he called himself, had
no single qualification for being our "guide, philosopher, and
friend," except a boasted familiarity with the way. He had travelled
it very often, and indeed seemed to hang somewhat loosely to his
regiment, which was stationed at Montreal. Before we had half finished
our first day's drive, we had begun to wish furloughs and half-pay had
never been invented; and I am sorry to add, that his affectionate
recollections of his family in Cork led him quite too frequently to
the bottle. Poor Freke! we profited by his good-humour, yet abused his
forbearance under rebuke; and I must own in justice, that when we at
last parted company, and were to see no more of him, we were all ready
to protest that he was, after all, as downright a worthy as ever
buttoned an Irishman's heart beneath a buff waistcoat.
Leaving Albany before the day began to be hot, we went rapidly through
the green levels upon its right bank, and crossed the river at Troy.
Here we were conducted to Mount Ida, and by a geographical miracle
made an easy transition to Mount Olympus, from which the view is
extensive, but by no means celestial. Freke seemed to think there was
some reason to suspect a hoax; but as his classical information was
not of the most accurate description, I am not sure but he still
labours under the impression that he has stood where the three
goddesses displayed their charms to Paris; and smoked a cigar where
that botheration siege was as interminably contested, as were ever
those consequent hexameters of Virgil and Homer, which he adorned with
dog's-ears and thumb-prints, under the diurnal ferule of his tutor. In
passing through the streets, we were gratified to observe that, in
spite of Diomede and Ulysses, Troy still retains its "Palladium of
liberty, and independent free press;" and though we could discover no
relics of the famous wooden-horse, I notice in the accounts of later
tourists that an "iron horse" may now be found there in harness, which
daily brings strangers into the heart of the city without any
incendiary effect. Such is the change of manners and times since the
days of the pious Æneas!
We rattled over a bridge, and had a fine view of the mouths of the
Mohawk. Here are numerous islands, with steep sides and piny summits,
to which the American General Schuyler retreated before Burgoyne, and
prepared to sustain an investment. While arranging his defences, he
was unjustly deprived of his command, at the very moment when, by the
arrival of additional force, he would have been enabled to turn upon
his pursuers; and thus the laurels of the subsequent victory were put
into the hand of General Gates, while the worst effects of the
expedition fell upon the estates of Schuyler, which were ravaged by
the advancing foe. Gates appears to have been in all respects
inferior to the gallant officer whom he superseded; and as he had the
full advantage of Schuyler's preparatory measures, there is a deep
jealousy of his fame, which must account for the fact noticed by the
author of "Hochelaga," that he is by no means credited by his
countrymen with the vastly important consequences of the capture of
Burgoyne. "Gates has been called the hero of Saratoga,"--says an
American biographer,--"but it has a sound of mockery."
The county of Saratoga through which we were now passing, if not in
these parts remarkable for scenery, is nevertheless full of
interesting places, as having been the field of some of the warmest
contests of the American Revolution. Traditions also still linger
among its inhabitants of the earlier battles with the Indians and
French; and authentic anecdotes are frequently reviving upon the road,
which those who are familiar with the romances of Cooper will
recognise, at once, as the ground-work of some of his fictions. So far
as is possible, therefore, in America, we were now on historical
ground. In the beginning of the seventeenth century, the valley of the
Mohawk was filled with those fierce nations of savages called the
Iroquois. The shores of the St Lawrence harboured their deadly
enemies, the Adirondachs, who belonged to the powerful race of
Algonquins. At the same time, the advance-guard of English adventure
was pressing up through the Hudson; and from Quebec, the pioneers of
New France were pushing their way towards the Mohawk. The inveterate
foes of two continents thus encountered one another in the passes of
Lake George and Lake Champlain; and these natural channels of
reciprocal invasion became, of course, the scenes of frequent
collision and deadly strife. When these preliminary feuds were ended,
and the power of England reposed on both banks of the St Lawrence, the
earliest and fiercest affrays of the war of Independence found here
their inevitable fields. The first years of the present century were
again disgraced by war between England and America, and instinctively
the tide of battle returned to its old channels; and if ever--which
God forefend--the mother and the daughter should fall out again, it
cannot be doubted that the same passes must echo once more to the
tread of martial men, and the same waters be crimsoned with the blood
of brethren. They are the very breeding-places of border-feud; and
Nature has furnished them with that wild luxuriance of beauty with
which she loves to prepare for history, and by which she seems to
challenge her to do as much again, in adorning it with romantic
associations.
For several miles between the towns on the left bank of the river, we
had nothing else in view more interesting than a dull canal connecting
Lake Champlain with the Hudson, at Albany. But the river itself is
always beautiful. Even here it is a fine wide stream, and seems to
scorn the beggarly ditch that drudges like a pack-horse by its side.
But at certain seasons it is too low for boating, and at all seasons
is rendered unfit for navigation by numerous rocks. It was a relief to
shut my ears to the perpetual humour of Freke, and watch the course of
the stream through the broad meadows; sometimes refreshing us with
cool sounds where it foamed over shelving shoals, and then dazzling
our eyes with the reflected sunbeam, glancing from its deep smooth
breast, on which the blue heavens looked down without a cloud.
We came to Stillwater, which deserves its name, if it has any
reference to the Hudson. A ridge of hills stretching inland, in this
neighbourhood, is the memorable scene of the two engagements which
sealed the fate of Burgoyne's expedition, and which are thought to
have been the decisive blow in the revolutionary struggle of America.
Here also is shown the miserable wooden shed of a house in which the
gallant and accomplished General Frazer died of his wound. It stands
near the river, and at the foot of a hill, on the top of which the
General was buried. Though the remains have long since been
disinterred, and returned to England, the spot is marked by several
pines, and is constantly visited by tourists. The house is a mere
tap-room, and must, at any time, have been a miserable hovel to die
or live in. Yet it once was dignified as the temporary abode of
high-born and elegant women. During the battles, it was the receptacle
of the dying and wounded British officers, and the scene of many of
those tender acts of self-denying mercy, by which woman, in the hour
of suffering and extremity, becomes transfigured into a ministering
angel.
Several miles above, we crossed the Fishill, a little river by which
the Lake of Saratoga discharges its waters into the Hudson; and
shortly after we passed the domain of General Schuyler, and the site
of his mansion, which was burned by a foraging-party during the
advance of Burgoyne. Of the adventures of a single night spent at
Saratoga, it is not necessary to say any thing here, as in less than
twenty-four hours we were again on our immediate route. At Fort Miller
the road crosses the river, and from thence we went along the eastern
shore of the Hudson, eight miles, to Fort Edward. It was here that
Burgoyne began to encounter those difficulties of his situation, which
rapidly increased upon him, till they became insurmountable. He had
forced his way from Whitehall to this place, through an obstinate
fight, and over bad roads, encumbered by all the mischief that a
retreating foe could leave behind them. Here, falling short of stores
and ammunition, his only resource was to transport them from the head
of Lake George, where one of his officers had captured a fort. This
occasioned that fatal delay of more than a month, during which the
American army changed commanders, was recruited with fresh troops, and
returned from the Mohawk to show fight. As he was roundly censured for
his sluggishness in the British parliament, and pleaded in excuse the
extraordinary face of the country, over which he was forced almost to
construct a road; it is but justice to his memory to quote, on this
point, the corroborative evidence of an eminent American geologist. "I
was much struck," says Professor Silliman, "with the formidable
difficulties which General Burgoyne had to encounter in transporting
his stores, his boats, and part of his artillery over this rugged
country: at that time, without doubt, vastly more impracticable than
at present."
But Fort Edward is chiefly memorable for the horrible murder of Miss
M'Crea, by a party of Indians, in circumstances peculiarly tragic and
affecting. It was an event which not only spread horror and alarm
throughout America, but was related with thrills of indignation in
England, and particularly in the debates of parliament. The vehement
remonstrance of Burke against Indian alliances seems to have been in a
measure inspired by the sensation which it produced; and it was
doubtless fuel to the fire of old Lord Chatham, when, a few months
after the butchery of Fort Edward, he blazed out in that fierce
philippic against Lord Suffolk, who had spoken of savages as
instruments "which God and nature had put in our hands." Detestable as
was a confederacy with Indians, however, and instinctively as the
English conscience recoiled from the alliance, it must be remembered
that in America it was at least no novelty. It is remarked by Silliman
that the French, the English, and the Americans themselves had all
partaken in this sin, in the various early wars of the continent.
About half a mile from Fort Edward, and hard by the road-side, still
stands a venerable pine-tree, from a mound at whose roots gushes a
clear crystal spring. This is pointed out as the spot where the
mangled corpse of Miss M'Crea was found. The tree is scored with the
scars of bullets, and marked with the lady's name, and the date 1777.
To this tree her body is said to have been bound, and pierced with
nearly a score of wounds, which crimsoned the spring with her blood.
On the same day were massacred a young officer, and a party of
soldiers under his command, whose bodies were left in the same place,
covered only with some brushwood and ferns.
At Sandyhill, where we paused for an hour, we encountered traditions
of Indian barbarities, in the history of the old French war of 1758,
which, without any romance, were singularly revolting. Fort Anne, at
the end of our next stage, was the scene of a hot action, in the
advance of Burgoyne, in which the Indians were thought to have
contributed something to his success, but even this is doubtful. We
had now an easy stage of ten miles to Whitehall, during which we
debated with Freke on the merits of the unfortunate general, whose
history we had retraced on the road.
The moon was rising over the ravine in which Whitehall appears to be
built, when we reached it, and were set down at our inn. This place is
the Skenesborough of Burgoyne's despatches, and must have changed its
name soon after the close of the war. It so happened that we were
detained at this place somewhat longer than we desired to be, and when
we got under weigh down the lake, we seemed to have begun a new
journey. If I may be allowed to make a similar pause in my story, I
will venture, before going further, to recur to the history of
Burgoyne's expedition, which, with the knowledge of places that I have
endeavoured to impart, may possibly be as interesting to others, as it
has proved to myself.
These places, and the incidents at which I have rapidly glanced, were,
at the close of the last century, as familiarly known in England as
those of the Peninsular war are at present. While the issue of the
revolt was yet undecided, the eloquence of Parliament, and the
conversation of fashionable circles, kept them continually before the
world: and long after the termination of the contest, mutual
recriminations and impassioned self-defence would not suffer their
memory immediately to die. Succeeding events enabled men to forget
America for a long while; and when they again recurred to her affairs,
it was with no disposition to contend with the award of Providence
which had made her a nation. The history of America was English
history no more. Yet there is a period in her history up to which an
Englishman should be familiar with it; for he who reads the speeches
of Burke and Chatham, or reverts to the Johnsonian age of literature,
will otherwise be often at a loss how to regard events and facts to
which the men of those days always referred with the warmth of
political party, but which we can now examine with candour, and judge
without prejudice or passion.
No man of that day is more entitled to the candid retrospect of
posterity than General Burgoyne, for no one suffered more than he from
the heat of contemporaries. I have no other interest in his memory
than what has been inspired by my visit to the scenes of his
misfortunes, and by the observation that he is respectfully remembered
in America, while no one ever hears of him in England. I have,
therefore, nothing to present in his defence, but the narrative of his
expedition, as illustrating the journey I have described.
The war of the American Revolution opened with some dashing exploits
in the north, among which those of Allen and his mountaineers of
Vermont are memorable, as well for their eccentricity as for their
consequences. Accompanied by the crack-brained adventurer Benedict
Arnold, he made a descent upon Lake Champlain, took Ticonderoga by
surprise, and reduced the fort at Crown Point. Elated by success, and
conceiving it probable that the invasion of Canada would be attended
with a rising of the French in favour of the colonies, Arnold obtained
a commission from the Congress to attempt it, and actually succeeded
in leading a small force to Quebec, through incredible difficulties.
Emulous of Wolfe, he would stop at nothing short of scaling the
heights of Abraham; and by indomitable perseverance he accomplished
thus much of his enterprise, and found himself on the scene of Wolfe's
death and renown, before Quebec, with less than four hundred men. But
there the achievement ceases to bear any resemblance to the event of
sixteen years before. Arnold was not wanting in courage, nevertheless;
and after an ineffectual attempt to provoke a sortie, finding himself
in a condition which would make a siege ridiculous, he was obliged to
make a mortifying descent. He returned again, in the depth of winter,
with a larger force, under the brave General Montgomery, and was
wounded in a daring attempt to storm the city, while Montgomery
himself fell in forcing a barrier at Cape Diamond. Arnold now made a
desperate retreat, closely followed by Sir Guy Carleton, the governor
of Canada, who had repulsed the attempt on Quebec. As soon as the
spring opened, Carleton, who had been joined by Burgoyne, pursued him
to Lake Champlain, and, with extraordinary energy, built and fitted a
fleet to chase him up the lakes, and regain the forts which had been
taken, intending afterwards to press on towards the Hudson. Arnold,
with equal activity, prepared a flotilla to meet him, and seems to
have commissioned himself as its admiral. It was but small, yet, such
as it was, he brought it up to the neighbourhood of Cumberland Bay,
where is now situated the town of Plattsburgh. The fleet of Sir Guy
must have presented a beautiful appearance as it appeared around
Cumberland Head, the cape which creates the bay, for it was of no less
formidable a force than forty-four transports, twenty gunboats, a
radeau, two schooners, and one three-masted ship. Of these, however,
only a part could be rendered of service, for the wind was in favour
of Arnold, who had also taken an advantageous position with his little
squadron, consisting of but one sloop, three schooners, and several
gondolas or galleys. For six hours he stood fire like a salamander,
and then, favoured by a dark night and a wind which sprang up from the
north, he escaped with his shattered fleet, and made his way up the
lake unperceived. Pursued by Carleton the next day, he maintained a
running fire until his leaky and disabled vessels could do no more; on
which, driving them aground, and landing his marines, he set them on
fire, escaped to the shore, and so made his way through the woods to
Crown Point, and thence to Ticonderoga. Carleton lost no time in
reducing the former fortress; but his delay in building the squadron
had made it now too late to carry out his projected advance to the
Hudson, and he did no more, but returned to Canada, apparently
satisfied with having destroyed all hopes of exciting a revolt among
the French, or of shutting out the royal troops from the St Lawrence.
In the spring of the following year, Burgoyne, who had been to England
in the mean time, superseded Carleton as governor of Canada, who,
though an efficient officer and an accomplished gentleman, seems to
have given some momentary dissatisfaction to the ministry. It was the
ambition of the new governor to force a passage to the Hudson, and, by
the aid of Sir Henry Clinton, to open a direct communication with New
York, seizing the intermediate posts, and so cutting off all connexion
between New England and the army in the south. This plan, had it been
successful, would probably have put an end to the war; and as nothing
less than so splendid a result was the object of Burgoyne's
expedition, it may be imagined with what anxiety it was watched by the
Congress, and prepared for by the vigilance of Washington.
In June 1777, the new governor ascended Lake Champlain. He was
attended by a powerful armament, consisting, besides the regular
troops, of Canadian rangers, German mercenaries, and a ferocious
retinue of savages. He immediately invested the fort at Ticonderoga,
by land and water, bringing his gun-boats and frigates to a point just
beyond the range of the guns of the fort, and sending part of his
troops to the eastern shore of the lake. Over against the fortress, a
little to the south, and hardly a thousand yards distant, rises the
inaccessible sugar-loaf summit of Mount Defiance, and with great
energy the British general immediately commenced the construction of a
road up the rough sides of this mountain. St Clair, who was in command
of the fort, and prepared to defend it vigorously, having received
special instructions from Congress, and knowing himself to be watched
with the deepest anxiety by the whole country, looked up one morning,
and found the summit occupied by a strong battery, under command of
Burgoyne himself, who had dragged his cannon up the precipitous
ascent, with an activity and enterprise worthy of Wolfe. It was now
planted where it could, at any moment, pour death and destruction into
the fort, from which not a ball could be returned with any effect. The
heights of Mount Defiance, as the name imports, had been supposed to
defy escalade; and the dismay of St Clair may be imagined when he thus
beheld his garrison not only exposed to the fire, but also to the
jeers of the enemy, who could observe his every manœuvre, and count
every man within his walls. The astounded general did all that
remained for him to do. He contrived to start a flotilla up the lake,
with some stores and baggage, towards Skenesborough, and, crossing to
the eastern shore, commenced his retreat through Vermont, pursued by a
detachment under Generals Frazer and Reidesel, who brought him to
action next day at Castleton, from whence he further retreated to Fort
Edward. General Phillips, on the other shore, ascended Lake George,
and captured the fort at its head, forcing Schuyler to Fort Edward,
where St Clair joined him, and both together continued the retreat
down the Hudson. Burgoyne himself pursued the flotilla to
Skenesborough, destroyed it, and followed the American troops, who had
evacuated the place, retreating to the Hudson. Before he could reach
Fort Edward, he was obliged to clear the roads of innumerable trees
which had been felled and thrown in his way; and, besides contending
with other obstacles, to fight one obstinate battle at Fort Anne. It
was August before he arrived, and then came the unavoidable and fatal
delay which I have noticed, in transporting supplies from Lake George.
It was while he was advancing towards Fort Edward, that the
ungovernable ferocity of his Indian mercenaries became so painfully
apparent, by the butchery of Miss M'Crea, and the massacre, of which
the tragically dramatic particulars are these:--As he approached the
Hudson, he was met by an American loyalist of the name of Jones, whose
adhesion to the royal standard he rewarded by an appointment to a
command. The gentleman was betrothed to a young lady of great beauty,
residing a few miles below Fort Edward; and, becoming alarmed for her
safety, he begged permission to have her brought into the British
camp, which was already graced by the presence of two elegant women,
the Baroness Reidesel and the Lady Harriet Ackland. He contrived to
send her word to repair to the house of a relative near Fort Edward,
and there to await a convoy which he would send to conduct her
farther. What the unhappy gentleman deemed a convoy, or what prevented
his going in person for his affianced bride, does not now appear: but
at the set time he despatched a party of savages on the gallant
errand, promising them a barrel of rum as an incentive to their
fidelity. With some misgivings, perhaps, as to the wisdom of their
commission, he seems almost immediately afterwards to have sent off a
second party of Indians, with promise of a like reward. The lady was
at the appointed place when the first party arrived, and, with her
entertainer, was not a little alarmed at their appearance. Their
conduct, however, was friendly, and they delivered a letter from her
lover, assuring her that she might safely confide in their respectful
behaviour and diligent care. With the heroism of her sex, in
circumstances so trying, she obeyed without hesitation, suffered
herself to be placed upon horseback, and set off with her savage
attendants. Just at this time a picket, under one Lieut. Van Vechten,
had been surprised near the spring which I have described in my
journey, by the second party of Indians, who massacred and scalped the
officer and several of his men. The convoy approached the spring with
Miss M'Crea just as the horrid tragedy had concluded, and immediately
began to dispute with the other party, with furious outcries and
ferocious gestures. The horrors of the unfortunate young lady, as she
saw the rising passions of her conductors, must be imagined; but she
could not have understood the nature of their quarrel, which was as to
which party should have the custody of her person, and so secure the
promised reward. The defenceless creature remained a passive spectator
of the combatants, who began to belabour each other with their
muskets. The alarm which had been given by the picket, had caused the
officer in command of Fort Edward to send a company of soldiers to the
aid of Van Vechten, and as these were now seen approaching, one of the
chiefs, to terminate the strife, discharged his musket at Miss M'Crea,
who instantly fell. Then, seizing her by her hair, which was long and
flowing, he cut the scalp, and dashed it into the face of his
antagonist with a fiendish yell. After inflicting several additional
wounds, both parties retreated towards Fort Anne, and tradition
reports that on their way they so far compromised their quarrel as to
divide their trophy; so that, on arriving at the fort, and meeting
their impatient employer, each of the chiefs exhibited half of the
scalp, and claimed a proportionate payment. That Jones's own scalp was
so far affected as to turn white in a single night we may readily
believe, and that he soon died of a broken heart is a still more
credible part of the story. Who can wonder that such an event rendered
the name of Burgoyne a bugbear to scare babies in all the neighbouring
country; or that the massacre of Fort Edward, after inspiring the
indignation of Burke, and rekindling the expiring ardour of Chatham,
was cast into the teeth of Burgoyne himself, when he took his seat as
a senator in the British parliament! That such an attack was unjust
and unmerciful, the facts of the case, which were long misrepresented,
sufficiently prove; yet, as Cardinal de Retz said of the Parisians,
that he who convoked them made an _emeute_,--so it is true
historically that whoever armed the American Indians made them
"hell-hounds of war."
It was at Fort Edward that the disasters of the expedition began to
present themselves to the British general as formidable. A detachment
of Germans who had made a circuit into Vermont, after the reduction of
Ticonderoga, had been defeated in a battle at Bennington, and now with
great difficulty rejoined the army, diminished in numbers, deprived of
their commander, who had been killed, and stripped of their baggage
and artillery. Another excursion under St Leger had been but partially
successful; and as the result of both these unfortunate episodes,
Burgoyne found himself shorn of one-sixth part of his troops. While he
was sending his baggage-waggons to Lake George, moreover, the American
army, now recruited to a force of ten thousand men, began to come back
from the Mohawk, desirous of bringing him to an engagement. It would
have been prudent, perhaps, had he fallen back upon Skenesborough, and
awaited further supplies from Canada; but _vestigia nulla retrorsum_
is a pardonable motto for the pride of an English general. As soon as
he was able, therefore, he set forward; crossed the Hudson on a bridge
of boats; foraged on the estates of General Schuyler, and burned his
seat at Schuylerville, and so advanced to Stillwater, where he drew up
his line before the American intrenchments on the 18th of September.
The next day a manœuvre of some of the troops seeking a better
position, was mistaken by General Gates for an intended assault. A
counter movement was made by the Americans, which produced a
collision, and the engagement soon became general. It was desperately
maintained, and continued through the day, the battle ending where it
had begun, when it was too dark to see. Burgoyne claimed a victory,
and the American general, Wilkinson, confesses a drawn game: but it
was such a victory as rendered another battle almost sure defeat. "It
was one of the largest, warmest, and most obstinate battles," says
Wilkinson, "ever fought in America."
Burgoyne found himself weakened by this conflict, but Gates was daily
receiving new accessions to his strength. The decisive action was
postponed, on both accounts no doubt, till the 7th of October. In the
afternoon of that day a strong detachment of the British troops,
advancing towards the American left wing with ten pieces of artillery,
for the purpose of protecting a forage party, was furiously attacked,
and the action almost immediately involved the whole force of both
armies. The right wing of the English was commanded by General Frazer,
the idol of the army, and admired by none more heartily than by his
foes. The first shock of the battle was sustained by him, and by the
grenadiers under Colonel Ackland, who were terribly slaughtered, while
the Colonel fell dangerously wounded. Frazer, exposing himself in the
hottest of the fight, and conspicuously mounted on an iron-gray,
seemed the very soul of the battle, and showed himself every where,
bringing his men into the action. His extraordinary efficiency, and
the enthusiasm with which he inspired the ranks, was noticed by the
Americans; and Colonel Morgan, of the Virginia riflemen, to whom he
was immediately opposed, smitten with the incomparable generalship of
his antagonist, is said to have resolved upon his fall. Drawing two of
his best marksmen aside, he pointed to his adversary and said, "Do you
see yonder gallant officer? It is General Frazer. I admire and esteem
him, _but it is necessary that he should die_: take your places, and
do your duty." In a few minutes he fell from his horse mortally
wounded.
Burgoyne commanded the whole line in person, directing every movement,
and did all that valour and heroism could do to supply the places of
the brave officers whose destruction he observed with anguish. Twice
he received a bullet, either of which might have been fatal--one
passing through his beaver, and the other grazing his breast. The Earl
of Balcarres distinguished himself in rallying the disheartened
infantry; and Breyman, commanding the German flank, fell dead on the
field. The Brunswickers scattered like sheep, before a man of them had
been killed or wounded, and some German grenadiers, who served with
more spirit behind a breast-work, were driven from their stockade at
the point of the bayonet. The American general remained in camp,
overlooking the field; but his officers fought bravely, and none more
so than Benedict Arnold, who hated him, and was smarting under
disgrace. This hot-brained fellow, however, had no business to be
there. He was not only disobeying orders, but actually at this time
had no command in the army; and yet, being in rank the first officer
on the field, he flew about issuing orders, which were generally
obeyed. Gates, indignant at his presumption, despatched a messenger
after him; but Arnold, understanding the design, evaded the message by
dashing into a part of the fight where no one would follow him. He
seemed to court death, acting more like a madman than a soldier, and
driving up to the very muzzles of the artillery. It is singular that
to this execrable traitor, as he afterwards showed himself, was owing
the whole merit of the manœuvre which closed the day, and decided
in favour of America a battle upon which her destinies hung suspended.
Flourishing his sword, and animating the troops by his voice and
reckless contempt of danger, he brought them up to the Hessian
intrenchment, carried it by assault, and, while spurring into the
sally-port, received a shot in his leg, which killed his horse upon
the spot. It was this crowning exploit that forced Burgoyne back to
his camp, from which, during the night, he made a creditable movement
of his troops to higher grounds without further loss. In the morning,
the abandoned camp was occupied by the Americans, who played upon his
new position with an incessant cannonade.
The anecdotes of this battle are full of interest, and some of them
worthy of perpetual remembrance. Soon after the decisive turn of the
action, Wilkinson, the American officer whom I have already quoted,
was galloping over the field to execute some order, when he heard a
wounded person cry out--_Protect me, sir, against that boy_. He turned
and saw a British officer wounded in both legs, who had been carried
to a remote part of the field, and left in the angle of a fence, and
at whom a lad of about fourteen was coolly aiming a musket. Wilkinson
was so fortunate as to arrest the atrocious purpose of the youngster,
and inquiring the officer's rank, was answered--"I had the honour to
command the grenadiers." He of course knew it to be Colonel Ackland,
and humanely dismounted, helped him to a horse, and, with a servant to
take care of him, sent him to the American camp.
In his own narrative, Burgoyne did ample justice to the rest of this
story; but it will bear to be told again to another generation. The
Lady Harriet Ackland, as I have already said, was in the British camp.
She had accompanied her husband to Quebec, and in the campaign of 1776
had followed him to a poor hut at Chambly, where he had fallen sick,
and there, exposing herself to every fatigue and danger, had
assiduously ministered to his comfort. She was left at Ticonderoga,
under positive injunctions to remain there; but her husband receiving
a wound in the affair at Castleton, while pursuing St Clair, she again
followed him, and became his nurse. After this, refusing to return,
she was transported in such a cart as could be constructed in the
camp, to the different halting-places of the army, always
accompanying her husband with the grenadiers, and sharing the peculiar
exposures of the vanguard. At Stillwater she occupied a tent,
adjoining the house in which Frazer expired, and which was the lodge
of the Baroness Reidesel, who with a similar fidelity had followed the
fortunes of her husband, accompanied by her three little children.
Lady Ackland is described by Burgoyne as one of the most delicate, as
well as the most lovely of her sex. She was bred to all the luxuries
and refinements incident to birth and fortune, and while thus enduring
the fatigues of military life, was far advanced in the state in which
the hardiest matron requires the tenderest and most particular
defence.
If, notwithstanding the inconveniences of such a presence, the
residence of these ladies in the British camp had thrown additional
radiance on the sunniest days of hope and success, it may well be
imagined that they seemed as angels in the eyes of wounded and dying
men, to whom they ministered like sisters or mothers. The Baroness
herself has left a touching account of the scenes through which she
passed, in that rude shed on the Hudson. "On the 7th of October," she
says, "our misfortunes began." She had invited Burgoyne, with Generals
Phillips and Frazer, to dine with her husband; but, as the hour
arrived, she observed a movement among the troops, and some Indians,
in their war finery, passing the house, gave her notice of the
approaching battle by their yells of exultation. Immediately after,
she heard the report of artillery, which grew louder and louder, till
the skies seemed coming down. At four o'clock, her little table
standing ready, instead of the cheerful guests for whom she had
prepared, General Frazer was brought in helpless and faint with his
wound. Away went the untasted banquet, and a bed was set in its place,
on which the pale sufferer was laid. A surgeon examined the wound, and
pronounced it mortal. The ball had passed through the stomach, which
was unfortunately distended by a bountiful breakfast. The general
desired to know the worst, and, on learning his extremity, simply
requested that he might be buried on the hill, beside the house, where
a redoubt had been erected, at the hour of six in the evening; but the
Baroness afterward heard him sigh frequently,--"Oh, fatal
ambition--poor General Burgoyne,--oh, my poor wife!" The wounded
officers were continually brought in, till the little hut became an
hospital. General Reidesel came to the house for a moment, towards
nightfall, but it was only to whisper to his wife to pack up her
movables, and be ready at any moment to retreat. His dejected
countenance told the rest. Soon after, Lady Ackland was informed of
her husband's misfortune, and that he was a prisoner in the American
camp.
Consoling her distressed companion, and ministering to the wounded
gentlemen--hushing her little ones lest they should disturb General
Frazer, and collecting her camp-furniture for the anticipated
remove--thus did the fair Reidesel spend the long dark night that
followed. Towards three in the morning, they told her that the General
showed signs of speedy dissolution; and, lest they should interfere
with the composure of the dying man, she wrapped up the little ones
and carried them into the cellar. He lingered till eight o'clock,
frequently apologising to the lady for the trouble he caused her. All
day long, the body in its winding-sheet lay in the little room among
the sufferers, the ladies moving about in their charitable ministries,
with these lamentable sights before them, and the dreadful cannonade
incessantly in their ears. General Gates, now in possession of the
British trenches, was assailing the new position of the troops, which,
with the house occupied by the Baroness, was becoming every hour more
untenable. Burgoyne had decided upon a further retreat; but,
magnanimously resolved to fulfil General Frazer's request to the
letter, would not stir till six o'clock. This was the more noble, as
the enemy was now advancing, and had set fire to a house not far off,
which was building for the better accommodation of the Reidesel. At
the hour, the corpse was brought out, amid these impressive scenes of
fire and slaughter, and under the constant roar of artillery. It was
attended by all the generals to the redoubt. The procession not being
understood, and attracting the notice of the American general, was
made the mark of the cannon, and the balls began to fall thick and
heavy around the grave. Several passed near the Baroness, as she stood
trembling for her husband at the door of the lodge. Burgoyne himself
has described this remarkable funeral, to which, owing to the
intrepidity of the priest, the rites of the Church were not wanting.
The balls bounded upon the redoubt, and scattered the earth alike upon
the corpse and the train of mourners; but, "with steady attitude, and
unaltered voice," says Burgoyne, the clergyman, Mr Brudenel, read the
burial service, rendered doubly solemn by the danger, the booming of
the artillery, and the constant fall of shot. The shades of a clouded
evening were closing upon that group of heroes, and they seemed to be
standing together in the shadow of death; but some good angel waved
his wing around the holy rite, and not one of them was harmed.
That night the army commenced its retreat, leaving the hospital with
three hundred sick and wounded to the mercy of General Gates, who took
charge of them with the greatest humanity. Lady Ackland demanded to be
sent to her husband; but Burgoyne could only offer her an open boat in
which to descend the Hudson, and the night was rainy. Nothing daunted,
she accepted the offer, to the astonishment of Burgoyne, who on a
piece of dirty wet paper scrawled a few words, commending her to
General Gates, and suffered her to embark. What a voyage, in the storm
and darkness, on those lone waters of the Hudson! The American
sentinel heard the approach of oars, and hailed the advancing
stranger. Her only watchword was--a woman! The sentinel may be
forgiven for scarce trusting his senses, and refusing to let such an
apparition go on shore, till a superior officer could be heard from;
but it was a cheerless delay for the faithful wife. As soon, however,
as it was known that Lady Ackland was the stranger, she was welcomed
to the American camp, where, "it is due to justice," says Burgoyne,
"to say that she was received with all the humanity and respect that
her rank, her merits, and her fortunes deserved."
The Hudson girdled the forlorn intrenchments to which the British
general now retired, and its fords were all in possession of the
American forces. By means of these fords they had regained the forts
on Lake George, and the road to Skenesborough, and all retreat was cut
off--even the desperate retreat which Burgoyne had proposed, of
abandoning artillery and baggage and carrying nothing away but bodies
and souls. Yet for six days his proud soul stood firm, unable to
endure or even face the thought of surrender. The American batteries
were constantly at play upon his camp. Blood was the price of the
water which they were forced to bring from the river. The house which
contained the Baroness and her children, hiding in the cellar, was
riddled with shot. A soldier, whose leg was under the knife of the
surgeon, had the other carried off by a ball as he lay upon the table.
After six such days, even Burgoyne saw that there was no hope. He
signed "the articles of Convention," and the next day surrendered in
the field of Saratoga. "From that day," says a British writer,
"America was a nation."
After the surrender, the Baroness Reidesel went to join her husband in
the American camp. Seated in a calash with her children, she drove
through the American lines, presenting such a touching picture of
female virtue, as awed even the common soldiers, and moved them to
tears as she passed along. She was met by a gentleman who had once
enjoyed the command of the army in which she thus became a guest; one
whose patriotism no injury from his country could disaffect, and whose
gallantry and politeness no severity from his foes could disarm.
Taking the children from the calash, he affectionately kissed them,
and presenting his hand to their mother, said pleasantly,--"You
tremble, madam! I beg you not to be afraid." She replied,--"Sir, your
manner emboldens me; I am sure _you must be a husband and a father_!"
She soon found that it was General Schuyler: and he afterwards had the
happiness of entertaining both her and General Reidesel, with Lady
Ackland, her husband, and Burgoyne himself, at his hospitable mansion
in Albany, "not as enemies," says the Baroness, "but as friends."
While thus entertained, Burgoyne said one day to his host,--"You show
me much kindness, though I have done you much harm." "It was the
fortune of war," answered Schuyler; "let us say no more on the
subject." The author of "Hochelaga" adds the following painful story,
with reference to Colonel Ackland. On a public occasion in England, he
heard a person speaking of the Americans as cowards. "He indignantly
rebuked the libeller of his gallant captors; a duel ensued the next
morning, and the noble and grateful soldier was carried home a
corpse."
Of poor General Burgoyne, we have partially anticipated the subsequent
history. His military career closed with this defeat; and though, on
his return to England, he took a seat in parliament, his chief
business, as a senator, appears to have been his own defence against
repeated assaults from his enemies. Though he is said to have carried
to his grave the appearance of a discouraged and broken man, he amused
himself with literary pursuits, and in 1786 was the popular author of
a successful play, entitled "The Heiress." About six years later, he
was privately committed to his grave, in Westminster Abbey.
At this distance of time, I see no reason why the field of Saratoga
may not be regarded by Englishmen, as well as by Americans, with
emotions as near akin to pleasure as the horrors of carnage will
allow. It is a field from which something of honour flows to all
parties concerned, and in the singular history of which even our holy
religion, and the virtues of domestic life, were nobly illustrated. On
the one side was patriotism, on the other loyalty; on both sides
courtesy. If the figures of the picture are at first fierce and
repulsive--the figures of brethren armed against brethren, of
mercenary Germans and frantic savages, Canadian rangers and American
ploughmen, all bristling together with the horrid front of war--what a
charm of contrast is presented, when among these stern and forbidding
groups is beheld the form of a Christian woman, moving to and fro,
disarming every heart of every emotion but reverence, softening the
misfortunes of defeat, and checking the elation of victory! The
American may justly tread that battle-ground with veneration for the
achievement which secured to his country a place among the nations of
the world, but not without a holy regard for the disasters, which were
as the travail-throes of England, in giving her daughter birth. And
the Briton, acknowledging the necessity of the separation, as arising
from the nature of things, may always feel that it was happily
effected at Saratoga, where, if British fortune met with a momentary
reverse, British valour was untarnished; and where History, if she
declines to add the name of a new field to the ancient catalogue of
England's victories, turns to a fairer page, and gives a richer glory
than that of conquest to her old renown, as she records the simple
story of female virtue, heroism, fidelity, and piety, and inscribes
the name of Lady HARRIET ACKLAND.