XXXVI. Langdon, the principal merchant at Portsmouth, and CHAPTER a member of the New Hampshire council, having patriotically volunteered the means to put them in motion, 1777. 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 Baum began to intrench Aug. 14 himself, and sent back to Burgoyne for re-enforcements. The next day was rainy, and Stark, also expecting re-enforcements, 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's regiment. Having been joined the next day by some Berk- Aug. 16. shire militia under Colonel Simmons, Stark drew out his forces, and about noon approached the enemy. "There they are!" exclaimed the rustic general-"we beat today, or Sally 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 XXXVI. CHAPTER deal of confusion, when, about four in the afternoon, Breyman was seen coming up. Warner's regiment luckily 1777. arrived at the same time. The battle was renewed and Be kept up till dark, when Breyman abandoned his baggage Just at the moment when a turn in the affairs of the northern department became fully apparent, the two brig. ades from the Highlands having arrived, and the militia fast pouring in, Schuyler, much to his mortification, was Aug. 22. superseded by Gates. 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 M'Rea, murdered by Indians near Fort 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 story, as told in a letter of remonstrance from Gates XXXVI. to Burgoyne. Burgoyne, in his reply, gave, however, CHAPTER a different account. According to his version, the murder was committed by two Indians sent by the young 1777. lady's lover to conduct her for safety to the British camp. They quarreled on the way respecting the division of the promised reward, and settled the dispute by killing the girl. Even this correction hardly lessened the effect of the story, or diminished the detestation so naturally felt at the employment of such barbarous allies. The artful Arnold, while on his march for the relief of Fort Schuyler, had sent into St. Leger's camp a very exaggerated account of his numbers. The Indians, who had suffered severely in the battle with Herkimer, and who had glutted their vengeance by the murder of prisoners, seized with a sudden panic, deserted in large numbers. Two days before Arnold's arrival, St. Leger him- Aug. 22. self precipitately retired, leaving his tents standing, and the greater part of his stores and baggage to fall into Arnold's hands. On returning to Gates's camp, Arnold received the command of the left wing. These checks were not without their effect on the Six Nations. Burgoyne's Indians began to desert him-an example which the Canadians soon followed. The Onondagas and some of the Mohawks joined the Americans. Through the influence of the missionary Kirkland, the Oneidas had all along been favorably disposed. It was only the more western clans, the Cayugas, Tuscaroras, and Senecas, which adhered firmly during the war to the British side. The American army being now about six thousand strong, besides detached parties of militia under General Lincoln, which hung upon the British rear, Gates left his island camp, and presently occupied Behmus's Heights, a spur from the hills on the west side of the Hudson, jut XXXVI. CHAPTER ting close upon the river. By untiring efforts, Burgoyne had brought forward thirty days' provisions, and, having 1777. thrown a bridge of boats over the Hudson, he crossed to Saratoga. With advanced parties in front to repair the roads and bridges, his army slowly descended the Hudson; the Germans on the left, by a road close along the river; the British, covered by light infantry, provincials, and Indians, by the high ground on the right. Gates's camp, on the brow of Behmus's Heights, the segment of a circle, the convex toward the enemy, was connected with the river by a deep intrenchment, covered by strong batteries. The right was also covered by a sharp ravine descending to the river, and thickly wooded. From the head of this ravine, toward the left, which was defended by a breastwork of logs, the ground was level and partially cleared, some trees being felled, and others girdled. The extreme left, at a distance of three quarters of a mile from the river, was a knoll, a little in the rear, crowned by strong batteries. er battery to the left of the center. There was anothBetween the two armies were two more deep ravines, both wooded. An Sept. 19. alarm being given about noon that the enemy was ap proaching the left of the encampment, Morgan was sent forward with his riflemen. Having forced a picket, his men, in the ardor of pursuit, fell unexpectedly upon a strong British column, and were thrown into temporary confusion. Cilley's and Scammell's New Hampshire regiments were ordered out to re-enforce him. Hale's regiment of New Hampshire, Van Courtlandt's and Henry Livingston's of New York, and two regiments of Connecticut militia, were successively led to the field, with orders to extend to the left, and support the points where they perceived the greatest pressure. About three o'clock the action became general; and till nightfall the fire of XXXVI. musketry was incessant. The British had four field- CHAPTER pieces; the ground occupied by the Americans, a thick wood on the borders of an open field, did not admit the 1777. use of artillery. On the opposite side of this field, on a rising ground, in a thin pine wood, the British troops were drawn up. Whenever they advanced into the open field, the fire of the American marksmen drove them back in disorder; but when the Americans followed into the open ground, the British would rally, charge, and force them to fall back. The field was thus lost and won a dozen times in the course of the day. At every charge the British artillery fell into possession of the Americans, but the ground would not allow them to carry off the pieces, nor could they be kept long enough to be turned on the enemy. Late in the afternoon, the British left being re-enforced from the German column, General Learned was ordered out with four regiments of Massachusetts and another of New York. Something decisive might now have occurred, but the approach of night broke off the contest, and the Americans withdrew to their camp, leaving the field in possession of the British. They encamped upon it, and claimed the victory; but if not a drawn battle, it was one of those victories equivalent to a defeat. The British loss was upward of five hundred, the American less than three hundred. To have held their ground in the circumstances in which the armies stood, was justly esteemed by the Americans a decided triumph. In anticipation of an action, Gates had ordered the detached corps to join him. Stark, with the victors of Bennington, had arrived in camp the day before. Their term of service, however, expired that day; and satisfied with laurels already won, in spite of all attempts to detain them, they marched off the very morning of the bat |