USA > New York > New York : the planting and the growth of the Empire state, Vol. II > Part 4
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vice of Great Britain, and came back to bear slaughter and ruin.
A committee of safety in the recess of con- gress wielded the power of government, and committees in the counties supplemented its authority. Together they went forward with- out written laws, and exercised military con- trol. In the Mohawk Valley such organization was formed in the summer of 1774. Nicholas Herkimer, soon to be brigadier general by ap- pointment of congress, a descendant of a Pala- tine immigrant, was chairman of the Tryon county committee, and became the commander of the local forces raised for the war. These organizations stirred up the patriotism of the people and circumvented tory intrigues.
Two efforts were made to get together a quorum of the second provincial congress. The first, for a session in October, failed ; and when the body met, December 6, Queens and Rich- mond refused to send delegates, because they were under tory control. Governor Tryon was held responsible for the course of these coun- ties, and, hearing that his person was to be seized, he asked pledges that he should not be arrested. The chairman of the city committee assured him of "all protection from the citi- zens consistent with their own safety and pres- ervation." Knowing his own plans, he took
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refuge on the sloop of war Halifax in the bay, October 19, 1775, and there and on another vessel, the Duchess of Gordon, exercised his ex- ecutive functions. His eyes pierced the future ; for he told Lord Dartmouth, in an official letter, July 4, 1775 (prophetic day ! ) : "Oceans of blood may be spilled, but in my opinion Amer- ica will never receive parliamentary taxation."
The test was at hand. Before he fled to the war-vessel, he declared that "the Americans, from politicians, are now becoming soldiers." The tories and patriots were arming in the Mo- hawk Valley, but the latter held the ground. In Schoharie, a patriot band put to flight a tory body with red cockades, and slew Neckus, an Indian chief, and thus exasperated the Iroquois. General Schuyler did not favor using the red men in the war, although Johnson was mar- shaling them on the side of the tories. James Dean secured from the Iroquois chiefs, March 28, 1776, the renewal of a pledge of neutrality ; but his efforts and those of Samuel Kirkland held only a part of the Oneidas to their faith.
In New York city, colonial forces had been concentrated, although some patriots were un- willing to draw to that point the force of Brit- ish attack. While it was not possible perma- nently to hold the city for the colonies, it was wise to check the British movements at every
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point. General Washington was therefore right in ordering General Lee to occupy the city, as he did on the very day when Sir Henry Clin- ton's squadron sailed into the harbor. Perhaps it was Lee's presence which induced Clinton simply to pay " a visit to his friend Tryon," and to sail to the south. The danger was only postponed ; and Washington, with such an army as he could gather, came himself, April 14, 1776, to direct affairs. While congress was preparing the Declaration of Independence, re- ported by a committee of which Robert R. Livingston was a member, New York city was the centre of stirring war movements. Fortifi- cations were built. Great activity was exhib- ited in making implements of war. Brass field pieces, fourteen pounders, and iron twenty-four pounders were cast, as also their shot. Powder was made, and small arms were manufactured, although some trouble was met with about the locks. A fleet was gathered of such boats as were at hand, to prevent communication be- tween the British war vessels and the shore, and to watch the tory movements.
A committee, of which John Jay was chair- man, arrested Oliver DeLancey and other tory leaders for conspiring with Tryon, and seeking to enlist men for the king's army ; but when the populace rode other offensive persons on
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rails, a formal censure was voted by the pro- vincial congress. That body was intent on ob- serving all the forms of law, and May 31, on account of the "dissolution of the former gov- ernment," it called for a new election to organ- ize institutions "to secure the rights, liberties, and happiness of the good people of the col- ony." The election was held June 19, and was strongly in favor of union and independence. The records of the colony were removed to Kingston, to preserve them from the British forces, and the new provincial congress met at White Plains, where, July 9, on motion of John Jay, who had been summoned from Philadel- phia for counsel, it approved of the Declaration of Independence, which was publicly read in New York and Albany, with every manifesta- tion of popular joy. Meanwhile the colony had organized its militia, and added it to the army, numbering all told 10,514, finally raised to 17,000, which Washington had rallied, and with it, undisciplined, and with such arms as could be found, he was to confront a force of 24,000 British veterans with hosts of tory al- lies. General Howe landed on Staten Island early in July, and his brother, Admiral Howe, was already in the bay with his fleet. On Long Island, General Israel Putnam was in command of the patriots. Over that island
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General Howe chose his route to the city. In bis preliminary movements, a patriot detach- ment under General Sullivan was captured. Lord Stirling, when attacked, made a gallant stand, but was beaten and captured; Oliver DeLancey, who had been appointed a general, led a party which captured his former associate, General Nathaniel Woodhull, and the latter was so stabbed with a cutlass that he died of his wounds.
General Washington gave his direct atten- tion to the general movements, but in the bat- tle of Long Island, fought August 27, the im- mediate commander was, on the patriot side, General Putnam, while General Howe con- trolled the British movements. The disparity between the forces in numbers and all accesso- ries was too great to render the result doubtful. Washington estimated the American loss in prisoners at 1,000, and 200 were killed and wounded. The British reported a loss of 367 killed, wounded, and prisoners. By this battle the British secured the chief seaport, and the political and military centre of the royal power in the colonies. Their victory was inevitable, but it produced at first almost a panic. espe- cially in New York. Distrust of the fighting ability of the colonists was fostered, and the ranks of tory regiments in this colony received large additions.
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Washington met the emergency in the only way open for saving the remaining force, so poorly disciplined and worse equipped and armed. By deceiving- the enemy, he withdrew it safely from before the victorious thousands of General Howe. Tarrying in the city until September 12, he then, on the advice of a coun- cil of war, abandoned that position and en- camped his army on Harlem Heights. Howe took easy possession of New York, and. by send- ing frigates up the Hudson to cut off supplies, soon compelled Washington to fall back to White Plains. There, October 28. a battle oc- curred, where the American loss was nearly 400. Fort Washington was captured by the British, November 16, and Fort Lee two days later. Washington was compelled to leave New York to its fate, and started on his retreat through New Jersey. The British boasted nearly 3.000 prisoners, and were able to make the city the base of their operations until the treaty of peace was signed.
They were not so fortunate in the interior of New York. General Gates had been placed in command of the patriot forces that were re- tiring from the ill-fated Canadian expedition. General Arnold attempted a movement on Lake Champlain, but lost his boats, although winning credit for daring and skill. Crown
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Point was given up to the British, October, 1770, under pressure of movements directed by General Carleton from Quebec; and June 16, 1777, General Burgoyne occupied that po- sition. The plan of the campaign was compre- . hensive. Howe was to ascend the Hudson, breaking down all opposition before him. From the west, St. Leger was to descend by way of the Mohawk Valley. They were both to join Burgoyne, and the united armies in the vicin- ity of Albany would divide the colonies, and be ready to strike in any direction. With New York thus won, independence and nationality, the British ministry believed, would not be possible for the Americans.
Lord Germaine, at Whitehall, neglected to give the necessary orders to Howe, and that factor in the strategy failed. The movement by St. Leger was regarded as an essential fea- ture in the operations. He was not only spe- cially selected, but his troops and equipments were carefully designated by the war office. The headquarters of the northern department of the American forces were at Albany, and General Schuyler, who was in command, well understood that Burgoyne must be fought in his right wing on the upper Mohawk, as well as in front along the route by Lake Cham- plain. For the first purpose, Fort Stanwix was
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strengthened, and the garrison, under Colonel Peter Gansevoort, was warned of the advance of St. Leger. That commander, skilled in bor- der warfare, brought with him a force of 1,700 fighting men, including, as he reports, " artil- lery, the thirty-fourth and the king's regiment, with the Hessian riflemen, and the whole corps of Indians," with Sir John Johnson's regiment of Royal Greens, and John Butler's Rangers, both recruited from the tories of Tryon and Schoharie counties. Joseph Brant, led the Iro- quois, who sent four tribes, the Oneidas and Tuscaroras alone standing aloof. The advance from Montreal was by way of Buck Island and the eastern mouth of Lake Ontario. The in- vaders pressed forward without meeting an ob- stacle, and August 3 invested Fort Stanwix, which the leaders had promised the Indians would "fall without a single shot." They ex- pected, when the fort was won, to sweep down the valley with rapine and destruction, and unite with the forces of Burgoyne.
Colonel Gansevoort held the fort with the third New York regiment ; and the very day before the enemy appeared, Lieutenant Colonel Mellon, of the Massachusetts line, arrived with two hundred men and a convoy of boats loaded with supplies. This force withstood the siege, and arranged to cooperate with the army that was hastening forward to check the invaders.
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For the invasion had roused the patriots, and General Nicholas Herkimer rallied the farmers of the valley for the defense of their homes and the relief of the garrison. He summoned all the male inhabitants between sixteen and sixty years of age, and eight hundred responded to the call. They were nearly all by blood Germans and Low Dutch, although the roster shows the presence of a few persons of English, Scotch, Irish, Welsh, and French origin. The little army reached Oriskany, six miles from the fort, August 6. Taunted for slowness in his movements, Herkimer hastened his advance, without taking necessary precautions against an ambuscade, of which he had received notice. This had been set on the western, banks of a ravine, a mile from the Mohawk. From the woods the British forces greeted the advancing patriots with a deadly fire. Lines of battle were not maintained. The British regulars and the German chasseurs were not equal here to the sturdy farmers of the Mohawk Valley, and to the red warriors. On the patriot side, a few Oneidas only confronted the four tribes of their confederacy, and tradition represents an Oneida maiden beside a chief, her father, using her rifle in the thickest of the fight. Checked at the first fire, the patriots rallied, took shelter behind trees, or, standing back to
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back, aimed at the foes who seemed to surround them. Often the combat became close and personal. The Indians rushed on with their tomahawks, and the patriots met them with knives and the butts of their guns. In lack of arms, some of the patriots fought with spears. Old neighbors, tories on the one side and patri- ots on the other, fought hand to hand. Eye- witnesses have related how by spear-thrust and bayonet, by rifle-butt as well as by bullets, in- vaders were killed. The slaughter became so terrible that the red men suspected that they were betrayed, and for a while turned their weapons against their allies, and then with- drew. The fighting began at ten o'clock in the morning, and lasted for five hours. While the battle was raging and the patriots were holding their own. Colonel Marinus Willett, according to the plan agreed upon, made a sortie from Fort Stanwix against the British camp, and thus forced the recall of the columns that had marched to Oriskany. The fort and the garrison were saved, and the invaders checked and compelled to turn back.
The battle of Oriskany was, for the numbers engaged, the bloodiest, as it was perhaps the most picturesque battle of the Revolution. The patriots lost, besides wounded and prisoners, two hundred killed, one-fourth of their whole
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army ; while the British suffered a loss of one hundred and fifty killed and wounded, and the Iroquois were discouraged by the sacrifice of sixty or seventy of their chiefs and warriors. General Benedict Arnold was ordered by Gen- eral Schuyler to organize and lead an expedition to relieve the beleaguered fort ; and rumors of this movement went long before it, for he did . not reach Fort Stanwix until August 24. Two days before, St. Leger fled. ' He left his tents with most of his artillery and stores, and his men threw away their packs as spoils for the patriots. The flight became a disgraceful rout. The Indians butchered alike prisoners and British, who could not keep up with their swift retreat. St. Leger quarreled with Johnson, and the collapse of his expedition was utter, and the victory of the yeomen of the Mohawk Valley was for the time complete.
The battle broke up the plan of the grand campaign. and it proved that the colonists would fight, and fight well, against the veterans of the British armies and their allies. It turned the tide of defeat and of despondency which the events of the preceding year had raised. It not only prevented cooperation by St. Leger with Burgoyne, but enabled the militia of Tryon and Schoharie counties to join the army at Saratoga. Every available element of strength was impera- tively needed there.
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General Burgoyne was slow in gathering his army of invasion, but he massed it at Crown Point June 27. As it appeared on Lake Cham- plain, it is described as " forming the most com- plete and splendid regatta ever beheld." Its commander was full of confidence. In his order he announced, " The services required of this particular expedition are critical and conspicu- ous," and declared, " This army must not re- treat." The forces comprised 3,724 British rank and file; 3,016 German auxiliaries ; In- dians, 400 ; artillerymen, 473 ; Canadians, 250 ; showing a total of 7,863. From Canada a column of 2,000 militia was expected, but that province took no zealous part in fighting the battles of the crown.
General Schuyler arranged for the defense of Ticonderoga, although many officers regarded it as untenable. His decision was wise, even if no other result could be attained than to delay the invaders. General St. Clair, however, per- mitted the British to secure command of neigh- boring eminences, to one of which cannon were hoisted from tree to tree, and found himself compelled to evacuate the post, July 5. A part of the retreating flotilla was captured by the British ; some batteaux were fired to keep them out of the hands of the enemy ; and the Ameri- cans on their retreat destroyed the fort and
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mills at Skenesborough (the present White- hall), where Burgoyne soon established his headquarters. At Hubbardton the invaders fell upon twelve hundred Americans, and over- powered and scattered them. On reports of these disasters, General Schuyler hastened from Albany to Fort Edward, where, when St. Clair's forces came in, and with all efforts at recruit- ing, he was able to rally only 4,467 men, poor in equipments, ammunition, and supplies. But Burgoyne had already blundered. An inves- tigation before the house of commons after- wards held that he should have proceeded by way of Lake George southward, and should have made haste to reach Albany. General Schuyler, from Fort Edward, blocked Wood Creek and the road for fifteen miles to the north, and removed the bridges. So formidable were the obstructions that the British army spent twenty-four days in advancing twenty-six miles.
The American commander was thus active and was full of courage. He wrote that the enemy would not see Albany in this campaign. As Fort Edward was in ruins, and was not re- garded by military engineers as defensible, it was abandoned by Schuyler July 27, and three days later, General Burgoyne took up his posi- tion there. After a council of war, the Amer-
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ican army was withdrawn gradually with all its artillery to Stillwater, and soon to Van Schaick's Island. nine miles north of Albany, while renewed efforts were put forth to collect reinforcements. Burgoyne showed no haste. He spent the time until the middle of August in bringing his provisions and ammunition to Fort Edward.
The position was not unfavorable for the Americans. St. Leger's defeat and retreat were the ruin of the British right wing. No imme- diate danger was apparent from the lower Hul- A son. Schuyler had checked the movements of the vastly superior force of Burgoyne, which was growing weaker as it advanced to diffi- culties constantly increasing. On the other hand, the patriots of the Mohawk Valley and the column which Arnold had led to Fort Stan- wix were coming into the American camp ; but the militia of New England. earnestly looked for, did not respond to the summons, and their ab- sence threw shadows over Schuyler's hopes. Not only now, but at that time. an impartial judge - should concede that this general had consum- mated the plans and prepared the means for the overthrow of the British army of invasion. But congress yielded to criticism of the loss of Ticonderoga and of the tactics of the American commander, and, August 4, although General
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Washington declined to comply with a request to name an officer to relieve General Schuyler, that body appointed General Horatio Gates to the head of the northern army. The battle of Bennington, August 15, taught Burgoyne that he could not get sufficient supplies from the country, and that the regular soldiers of the Old World met with dangerous enemies in the farmers of the frontiers. When General Gates assumed command of the northern army, Au- RIS: 19, he was received with courtesy by Schuyler, and made no change in the plans of the campaign. The troops that were coming in were subjected to strict discipline, and the preparations for meeting Burgoyne were care- fully perfected. -
The British general could not secure from Canada before September 12, a supply of pro- visions for thirty days, which he deemed neces- sary for his advance. The next day his army crossed the Hudson, and, September 14, en- camped at Saratoga, where the harvests on the homestead of General Schuyler were reaped to feed the troops. In the mean time, September 8, the American army moved north- ward to Stillwater, and, on a review of the ground, to Bemus Heights, overlooking the river, where General Kosciusko, the engineer- in-chief, erected fortifications. Here Gates took
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up his position on the day that Burgoyne de- cided to advance.
A movement in the rear of Burgoyne's forces was begun September 13 by Colonel Brown, who swept over all the outposts from Fort Ed- ward to Fort George and Ticonderoga, destroy- ing for the time all the communications, and exposing the weakness of the British situation.
General Stark arrived in the American camp with the New Hampshire militia, September 18, and they were welcomed for their recent victory at Bennington ; but, as their term of enlistment expired that day, the men refused to unpack their baggage, and, although a battle was known to be imminent, they marched away home.
Burgoyne was actually in motion for an at- tack which his necessities forbade him to delay longer. Starting September 17, his columns were not ready for action until the 19th. His plan of battle was elaborate, and his forces well arranged, and were admirably directed. He led the centre in person, and the battle was severe and bloody, and was pronounced one of the longest and most obstinate of the war. On the British side. 3,500 men were brought into the field, and they were met by 3,000 Americans. Attack and counter-attack were repeated ; the American rifle was opposed to
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British discipline and the British bayonet. The advantage changed from side to side, as the superior generalship of the British struggled with the soldierly qualities of the Americans. In Burgoyne's army the loss in killed, wounded, and missing was six hundred ; in that of Gates, three hundred and twenty-one. Victory was claimed by both armies. An invading expedi- tion could not afford many such victories, count- ing numbers only, and still les's could it hope to conquer so sturdy and determined a foe. Bur- goyne, at all events, was not able at once to renew the assault.
The American army was all the while receiv- ing reinforcements. The influence of Schuyler brought in a band of the Oneidas and Tusca- roras. The British commander grew uneasy be- cause he heard of no supporting movement up the Hudson, while he was compelled, October 3, to reduce the rations of his soldiers. failing to levy supplies from the country, and suffer- ing from the severing of his communications.
Burgoyne himself led out a force of fifteen hundred men and ten pieces of artillery. Oeto- ber 7, to test the American position, and to cover a foraging party. Suddenly attacked on his left and then on his right, he was compelled to retreat with the loss of six hundred killed, wounded, and prisoners, leaving eight guns.
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Among those mortally wounded were General Fraser, one of the most competent field officers, and Sir Francis Clark, principal aide, while others of high rank were killed or prisoners. The American loss did not exceed one hundred and fifty killed and wounded. The battle closed with a successful attack by General Learned on the intrenched camp of the Germans and Canadians, but darkness put an end to opera- tions.
The same night General Gates sent a col- umn to hold the crossing of the Hudson at Sar- atoga. This movement in his rear alarmed Burgoyne, and he retreated, reaching Saratoga on the night of the 9th, and on the 10th he encamped on the height above the Fishkill. Thither Gates followed, and took position on Saratoga Heights. In the midst of a heavy fog, October 11, an attack was ordered by Gates, in the belief that the British were still retreating, but they were found in line of battle. The American artillery was turned upon the passages of the river, and on the boats as well as on the camp and the army. Burgoyne stated afterwards that the guns commanded every part of his position. No way of retreat was left open. The invasion was a confessed failure, and capitulation only remained for the army that started with the order that it " must
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not retreat." The two battles which shattered the strength of the invaders were for a while named after Saratoga, as the more prominent place ; but the centennial celebration has taught us to call them the first and second battles of Bemus Heights, the spot where they were fought.
Saratoga retains the distinction of the final sets in the invasion. There negotiations were bugun, October 14, between Gates and Bur- goyne, which resulted in a convention, three days later, for the surrender of the British army. That army laid down its arms, October 17, on the north bank of the Fishkill, and Bur- goyne, with his generals of division, Riedesel and Phillips, was received at the American headquarters by Gates and Schuyler, the latter coming from Albany to witness the British commander give up his sword. The troops in- cluded in the surrender numbered 5,791, of whom 3,379 were English regulars and pro- vincial militia, and 2,412 Germans, and the artillery consisted of twenty-seven cannon. The Americans had rallied at this time a force of 11,008, counting 7,716 men of the continen- tal army and 3,332 militia. Burgoyne had no possible alternative but surrender. Beaten in fight, with his lines of communication cut off, he was overpowered and practically surrounded.
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