XXXVI. directly for the United States, arrived in safety, present- CHAPTER ed himself to Congress, and offered to serve as a volunteer without pay. Admiring his disinterestedness not 1777. less than his zeal, and not uninfluenced by his rank and connections, Congress gave him the commission of major general which Deane had promised; but, for the present, content with the rank without any command, he entered the military family of Washington, for whom he soon contracted a warm and lasting friendship, which Washington as warmly returned. La Fayette brought with him eleven other officers; among them the Baron De Kalb, a German veteran, presently commissioned as major general. While Howe's uncertain movements kept Washington in doubt, Sullivan, who had been left in New Jersey with his division, availed himself of the absence of the main British army to undertake an expedition against Staten Island, then held by about three thousand British troops, one third of whom were Loyalists, stationed nearest the Jersey shore, and a great scourge to the people of New Jersey, whom they plundered without mercy. Sullivan effected a landing with a thousand men, in three divi- Aug. 23 sions, surprised two Loyalist regiments, and took a number of prisoners, who were sent off in a captured vessel. Seeing British uniforms on board this vessel, some of Sullivan's boats took the alarm and fled. His return was thus delayed by want of sufficient transportation, and his rear guard was cut off by a body of British regulars which came up from another part of the island. The papers and records of some of the quarterly meetings of the New Jersey Quakers having been taken by this expedition, Congress, from an examination of them, advised the council of Pennsylvania to arrest eleven leading and wealthy members of that sect, residents of CHAPTER Philadelphia, among others, Thomas Wharton, father of the president of Pennsylvania. XXXVI. 1777. In view of the danger of invasion, John Penn, joint proprietary and late governor of Pennsylvania, and Benjamin Chew, late chief justice, had been compelled, a jew weeks before, to give their parole. They were now, by the advice of Congress, sent prisoners to Fredericks burg in Virginia, as were also such of the other arrested persons as refused to affirm allegiance to the State of Pennsylvania. Measures had already been taken to suppress the Tories, said to be very numerous in Sussex, the southern county of Delaware; and Congress now recommended to all the states to arrest all persons, Quak. ers or others, "who have, in their general conduct and conversation, evinced a disposition inimical to the cause of America;" also, to seize the papers of the Quaker yearly meetings, and to transmit the political part of their contents to Congress. What added to the present feelings of alarm, disas trous news had arrived from the north, where events of the utmost importance were transpiring. 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 any thing 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 defense 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 XXXVI. Ticonderoga, but to advance thence upon Albany, and, CHAPTER with the co-operation of the troops at New-York, to get possession also of the posts in the Highlands. The Brit- 1777. ish would then cornmand 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 was to issue a proclamation, in a very gran- June 29 diloquent 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, Bur- July 1. goyne 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 dispatched up the July 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, XXXVI. CHAPTER followed by General Reidesel with a corps of Germans, Burgoyne forced the obstructions opposite Ticonderoga, 1777. and, embarking several regiments, he speedily overtook the American stores and baggage, all of which fell inte his hands. 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 uly 7. the next morning, and attacked by Fraser. One of the regiments fled disgracefully, leaving most of their officers to be taken prisoners. The other two regiments, under Francis and Warner, made a stout resistance; but when Reidesel 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 July 9. 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 whereabout was unknown, but, after a seven days' July 13 march, he joined Schuyler at Fort Edward, on the Hudson. Here was assembled the whole force of the north ern army, amounting to about five thousand men; but XXXVI. a considerable part were militia hastily called in; many CHAPTER were without arms; there was a great deficiency of ammunition and provisions; and the whole force was quite 1777. 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 halted 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 Aug. ! conduct; but the execution of this order was suspended |