In 1777 the British ministry had planned, in addition to the operations of the main army against Philadelphia, an invasion from Canada, apprehensions of which had led the Americans into their late unsuccessful attempt to conquer that province. Such supplies of men or money as they asked for were readily voted; but in England, as well as in America, enlistments were a matter of difficulty. Lord George Germaine was possessed with an idea, of which Sir William Howe found it very difficult to disabuse him, that recruits might be largely obtained among the American loyalists. In spite, however, of all the efforts of Tryon, Delancey, and Skinner, the troops of that description hardly amounted as yet to twelve hundred men; and Howe complained, not without reason, of the tardiness of the ministers in filling up his army.
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The American Northern Department, again placed under the sole command of Schuyler, had been so bare of troops during the winter that serious apprehensions had been felt lest Ticonderoga might be taken by a sudden movement from Canada over the ice. The Northern army was still very feeble; and the regiments designed to reinforce it filled up so slowly, notwithstanding the offer of large additional bounties, that Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Hampshire were obliged to resort to a kind of conscription, a draft of militia men to serve for twelve months as substitutes till the regiments could be filled. In forming121 the first New England army, the enlistment of negro slaves had been specially prohibited; but recruits of any color were now gladly accepted, and many negroes obtained their freedom by enlistment.
The Middle and Southern colonies, whence Washington’s recruits were principally to come, were still more behind-hand. Of the men enlisted in those states, many were foreign-born, redemptioners, or indented servants, whose attachment to the cause could not fully be relied upon. Congress had offered bounties in land to such Germans as might desert from the British, and Howe now retorted by promising rewards in money to foreigners deserting the American service. Congress, as a countervailing measure, at Washington’s earnest request relinquished a plan they had adopted of stopping a portion of the pay of the indented servants in the army as a compensation to their masters for loss of service. That compensation was left to be provided for at the public expense, and the enlisted servants were all declared freemen.
Washington was still at Morristown, waiting with no little anxiety the movements of the British. The expected reinforcements and supplies, especially tents, the want of which had kept Howe from moving, had at last arrived. Burgoyne had assumed the command in Canada; but what his intentions were Washington did not know—whether he would advance by way of Lake Champlain, or, what seemed more probable, would take shipping in the St. Lawrence and join Howe in New York. Nor could he tell whether Howe would move up the Hudson to co-operate with Burgoyne, or whether he would attempt Philadelphia; and if so, whether by land or water.
Philadelphia, however, seemed the most probable object of attack; and the more effectually to cover that city, leaving Putnam in the Highlands with a division of Eastern troops, Washington, on May 28th, moved to a piece of strong ground at Middlebrook, about twelve miles from Princeton. He had with him forty-three battalions, arranged122 in ten brigades and five divisions; but these battalions were so far from being full that the whole amounted to only eight thousand men.
On June 13th Howe marched out of New Brunswick with a powerful army, designing apparently to force his way to Philadelphia. Washington called to his aid a large part of the troops in the Highlands; the New Jersey militia turned out in force; Arnold, to whom had been assigned the command at Philadelphia, was busy with Mifflin in preparing defences for the Delaware. It was Howe’s real object, not so much to penetrate to Philadelphia as to draw Washington out of his intrenchments and to bring on a general engagement, in which, upon anything like equal ground, the British general felt certain of victory. With that intent he made a sudden and rapid retreat, evacuated New Brunswick even, and fell back to Amboy. The bait seemed to take; the American van, under Stirling, descended to the low grounds, and Washington moved with the main body to Quibbletown. But when Howe turned suddenly about and attempted to gain the passes and heights on the American left, Washington, ever on the alert, fell rapidly back to the strong ground at Middlebrook. In this retrograde movement Stirling’s division lost a few men and three pieces of artillery; but the American army was soon in a position in which Howe did not choose to attack it.
Defeated in this attempt to bring on a general action, and having made up his mind to approach Philadelphia by water, the British commander, on June 30th, withdrew into Staten Island, where he embarked the main body of his army, not less than sixteen thousand strong, leaving Clinton, who had been lately honored with the Order of the Bath, to hold New York with five thousand men, and, by expeditions up the Hudson and into New Jersey, to co-operate as well with Burgoyne as with the attack upon Philadelphia.
Washington knew from spies, of whom he always had123 a number in New York, that a fleet of transports was fitting out there, but its destination was kept secret. Perhaps Howe meant to proceed up the Hudson to co-operate with Burgoyne; and the probability of such a movement seemed to be increased by the arrival of news that Burgoyne was advancing up Lake Champlain. Perhaps, with the same object of aiding Burgoyne, Howe might make an attempt upon Boston, thus finding employment at home for the New England militia and preventing any reinforcements to Schuyler’s army. Under these impressions, Washington moved slowly toward the Hudson; but when the British fleet went to sea, he retraced his steps toward the Delaware; and news arriving that the ships had been seen off Cape May, he advanced to Germantown. Instead of entering the Delaware, the British fleet was presently seen steering to the eastward, and all calculations were thus again baffled. It was thought that Howe was returning to New York or had sailed for New England, and the army was kept ready to march at a moment’s notice. Washington, in the interval, proceeded to Philadelphia and there had an interview with Congress.
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The force in Canada at Burgoyne’s disposal had been a good deal underrated by Washington and by Congress; nor could they be induced to believe that anything was intended in that quarter beyond a feigned attack upon Ticonderoga, in order to distract attention from Philadelphia. Hence the less pains had been taken to fill up the ranks of the Northern army, which, indeed, was much weaker than Congress had supposed. At least ten thousand men were necessary for the defence of Ticonderoga alone; but St. Clair, who commanded there, had only three thousand, very insufficiently armed and equipped. The posts in the rear were equally weak.
It was a part of Burgoyne’s plan not merely to take Ticonderoga, but to advance thence upon Albany, and, with the co-operation of the troops at New York, to get124 possession also of the posts in the Highlands. The British would then command the Hudson through its whole extent, and New England, the head of the rebellion, would be completely cut off from the Middle and Southern colonies.
Burgoyne started on this expedition with a brilliant army of eight thousand men, partly British and partly Germans, besides a large number of Canadian boatmen, laborers, and skirmishers. On the western shore of Lake Champlain, near Crown Point, he met the Six Nations in council, and, after a feast and a speech, some four hundred of their warriors joined his army. His next step, on June 29th, was to issue a proclamation, in a very grandiloquent style, setting forth his own and the British power, painting in vivid colors the rage and fury of the Indians, so difficult to be restrained, and threatening with all the extremities of war all who should presume to resist his arms.
Two days after the issue of this proclamation, Burgoyne appeared before Ticonderoga. He occupied a steep hill which overlooked the fort, and which the Americans had neglected because they thought it inaccessible to artillery. Preparations for attack were rapidly making, and St. Clair saw there was no chance for his troops except in instant retreat. The baggage and stores, placed in bateaux, under convoy of five armed galleys, the last remains of the American flotilla, were despatched, on July 6th, up the narrow southern extremity of the lake to Skenesborough, now Whitehall, toward which point the troops retired by land, in a southeasterly direction, through the New Hampshire Grants.
While General Fraser pursued the retreating troops, followed by General Riedesel with a corps of Germans, Burgoyne forced the obstructions opposite Ticonderoga, and, embarking several regiments, he speedily overtook the American stores and baggage, all of which fell into his hands.
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BURGOYNE’S ROUTE
126 The garrison of Skenesborough, informed of Burgoyne’s approach, set fire to the works and retreated up Wood Creek to Fort Anne, a post about half-way to the Hudson. They had a sharp skirmish with a British regiment which followed them; but, other troops coming up, they set fire to the buildings at Fort Anne and retired to Fort Edward.
The van of St. Clair’s troops, at the end of their first day’s march, had reached Castleton, a distance of thirty miles from Ticonderoga; but the rear, which included many stragglers, and amounted to twelve hundred men, contrary to St. Clair’s express orders, stopped short at Hubberton, six miles behind, where they were overtaken on the morning of July 7th and attacked by Fraser. One of the regiments fled disgracefully, leaving most of their officers to be taken prisoners. The two other regiments, under Francis and Warner, made a stout resistance, but when Riedesel came up with his Germans they too gave way. Francis was killed, and many with him; some two hundred were taken prisoners. Those who escaped, though dispersed for the moment, reached St. Clair in detached parties. Warner, with some ninety men, came up two days after the battle. This was at Rutland, to which place St. Clair, having heard of the fall of Skenesborough had continued his retreat. For some time his whereabouts was unknown, but, after a seven days’ march, he joined Schuyler at Fort Edward, on the Hudson. Here was assembled the whole force of the Northern army, amounting to about five thousand men; but a considerable part were militia hastily called in, many were without arms, there was a great deficiency of ammunition and provisions, and the whole force was quite disorganized.
The region between Skenesborough and the Hudson was an almost unbroken wilderness. Wood Creek was navigable as far as Fort Anne; from Fort Anne to the Hudson, over an exceedingly rough country, covered with thick woods and intersected by numerous streams and morasses, extended a single military road. While Burgoyne halted127 a few days at Skenesborough to put his forces in order and to bring up the necessary supplies, Schuyler hastened to destroy the navigation of Wood Creek by sinking impediments in its channel, and to break up the bridges and causeways, of which there were fifty or more on the road from Fort Anne to Fort Edward. At all those points where the construction of a side passage would be difficult he ordered trees to be felled across the road with their branches interlocking. All the stock in the neighborhood was driven off, and the militia of New England was summoned to the rescue.
The loss of Ticonderoga, with its numerous artillery, and the subsequent rapid disasters came like a thunderbolt on Congress and the Northern States. “We shall never be able to defend a post,” wrote John Adams, President of the Board of War, in a private letter, “till we shoot a general.” Disasters, the unavoidable result of weakness, were ascribed to the incapacity or cowardice of the officers. Suggestions of treachery even were whispered, and the prejudices of the New-Englanders against Schuyler broke out with new violence. In the anger and vexation of the moment, all the Northern generals were recalled, and an inquiry was ordered into their conduct; but the execution of this order was suspended on the representation of Washington that the Northern army could not be left without officers. Washington shared the general surprise and vexation, but he had confidence in Schuyler, and he did all in his power to reinforce the Northern army. Two brigades from the Highlands, Morgan with his rifle corps, the impetuous Arnold, and Lincoln, a great favorite with the Massachusetts militia, were ordered to the Northern Department. Washington declined the selection of a new commander tendered to him by Congress, and that selection, guided by the New England members, fell upon Gates.
Burgoyne meanwhile issued a new proclamation for a convention of ten deputies from each township, to assemble at Castleton, to confer with Governor Skene, and to128 take measures for the re-establishment of the royal authority. Schuyler, in a counter-proclamation, threatened the utmost rigor of the law of treason against all who complied with Burgoyne’s propositions. Subsequently to the Declaration of Independence, the inhabitants of Vermont had organized themselves into an independent state, had applied to Congress for admission into the union, and had adopted a constitution. A Continental regiment had been raised and officered in Vermont, of which Warner had been commissioned as colonel. But Congress, through the influence of New York, disclaimed any intention to countenance the pretensions of Vermont to independence; and the Vermont petition for admission into the union had been lately dismissed with some asperity. If Burgoyne, however, founded any hopes of defection upon this circumstance, he found himself quite mistaken.
The advance from Skenesborough cost the British infinite labor and fatigue; but, beyond breaking up the roads and placing obstacles in their way, Schuyler was not strong enough to annoy them. These impediments were at length overcome; and Burgoyne, with his troops, artillery, and baggage, presently appeared on the banks of the Hudson. The British army hailed with enthusiasm the sight of that river, object of their toil, which they had reached on July 29th with great efforts indeed, but with an uninterrupted career of success and a loss of not above two hundred men.
It now only remained for the British to force their way to Albany; nor did it seem likely that Schuyler could offer any serious resistance. His army, not yet materially increased, was principally composed of militia without discipline, the troops from the eastward being very little inclined to serve under his orders and constantly deserting. Fort Edward was untenable. As the British approached, the Americans crossed the river, and retired, first to Saratoga, and then to Stillwater, a short distance above the mouth of the Mohawk.
129 Hardly had Schuyler taken up this position when news arrived of another disaster and a new danger. While moving up Lake Champlain, Burgoyne had detached Colonel St. Leger, with two hundred regulars, Sir John Johnson’s Royal Greens, some Canadian Rangers, and a body of Indians under Brant, to harass the New York frontier from the west. On August 3d St. Leger laid siege to Fort Schuyler, late Fort Stanwix, near the head of the Mohawk, then the extreme western post of the State of New York. General Herkimer raised the militia of Tryon County, and advanced to the relief of this important post, which was held by Gansevoort and Willett, with two New York regiments. About six miles from the fort, owing to want of proper precaution, Herkimer, on August 6th, fell into an ambush. Mortally wounded, he supported himself against a stump and encouraged his men to the fight. By the aid of a successful sally by Willett, they succeeded at last in repulsing the assailants, but not without a loss of four hundred, including many of the leading patriots of that region, who met with no mercy at the hands of the Indians and refugees.
Tryon County, which included the whole district west of Albany, abounded with Tories. It was absolutely necessary to relieve Fort Schuyler, lest its surrender should be the signal for a general insurrection. Arnold volunteered for that service, and was despatched by Schuyler with three regiments; with the rest of his army he withdrew into the islands at the confluence of the Mohawk and the Hudson, a more defensible station than the camp at Stillwater.
The command of Lake George, as well as of Lake Champlain, had passed into the hands of the British. That lake furnished a convenient means of transportation; a large quantity of provisions and stores for the British army had arrived at Fort George, and Burgoyne was exerting every effort for their transportation to his camp on the Hudson. The land carriage was only eighteen miles, but the roads130 were so bad and the supply of draught cattle so small that, after a fortnight’s hard labor, the British army had only four days’ provisions in advance.
“To try the affections of the country, to mount Riedesel’s Dragoons, to complete Peter’s Corps of Loyalists, and to obtain a large supply of cattle, horses, and carriages,” so Burgoyne expressed himself in his instructions, it was resolved to send a strong detachment into the settlements on the left. Colonel Baum was sent on this errand, with two pieces of artillery and eight hundred men, dismounted German dragoons and British marksmen, with a body of Canadians and Indians, and Skene and a party of Loyalists for guides.
Langdon, the principal merchant at Portsmouth, and a member of the New Hampshire council, having patriotically volunteered the means to put them in motion, a corps of New Hampshire militia, called out upon news of the loss of Ticonderoga, had lately arrived at Bennington under the command of Stark. Disgusted at not having been made a brigadier, Stark had resigned his Continental commission as colonel, and, in agreeing to take the leadership of the militia, had expressly stipulated for an independent command. On that ground he had just declined to obey an order from Lincoln to join the main army—a piece of insubordination which might have proved fatal, but which, in the present case, turned out otherwise. Informed of Baum’s approach, Stark sent off expresses for militia and for Warner’s regiment, encamped at Manchester, and joined by many fugitives since the battle of Hubberton. Six miles from Bennington, on the appearance of Stark’s forces (August 14th), Baum began to intrench himself, and sent back to Burgoyne for reinforcements. The next day was rainy, and Stark, also expecting reinforcements, delayed the attack. Baum improved the interval in throwing up intrenchments. Breyman marched to his assistance, but was delayed by the rain and the badness of the roads, which also kept back Warner’s131 regiment. Having been joined on August 16th by some Berkshire militia under Colonel Simmons, Stark drew out his forces, and about noon approached the enemy. “There they are!” exclaimed the rustic general—“we beat to-day, or Molly Stark’s a widow!” The assault was made in four columns, in front and rear at the same time, and after a hot action of two hours the intrenchments were carried. The Indians and provincials escaped to the woods; the Germans were mostly taken or slain. The battle was hardly over, and Stark’s men were in a good deal of confusion, when, about four in the afternoon, Breyman was seen coming up. Warner’s regiment luckily arrived at the same time. The battle was renewed and kept up till dark, when Breyman abandoned his baggage and artillery, and made the best retreat he could. Besides the killed, about two hundred in number, the Americans took near six hundred prisoners, a thousand stand of arms, as many swords, and four pieces of artillery—a seasonable supply for the militia now flocking in from all quarters. The American loss was only fourteen killed and forty-two wounded.
Just at the moment when a turn in the affairs of the Northern Department became fully apparent, the two brigades from the Highlands having arrived, and the militia fast pouring in, Schuyler, much to his mortification, was superseded by Gates on August 22d. He still remained, however, at Albany, and gave his assistance toward carrying on the campaign. The day after Gates assumed the command, Morgan arrived with his rifle corps, five hundred strong, to which were presently added two hundred and fifty picked men under Major Dearborn, of Scammell’s New Hampshire regiment.
The victory of Stark had a magical effect in reviving the spirits of the people and the courage of the soldiers. Indignation was also aroused by the cruelties reported of Burgoyne’s Indian allies. A most pathetic story was told of one Jenny McRea, murdered by Indians near Fort132 Edward. Her family were Loyalists; she herself was engaged to be married to a Loyalist officer. She was dressed to receive her lover, when a party of Indians burst into the house, carried off the whole family to the woods, and there murdered, scalped, and mangled them in the most horrible manner. Such, at least, was the ............