XXIV. CHAP. foragers into a wheat-field, Canadians, provincials, and Indians were to get upon the American rear. 1777. Oct. From his camp, which contained ten or eleven thousand well-armed soldiers eager for battle, Gates resolved to send out a force sufficient to overwhelm his adversaries. By the advice of Morgan, a simultaneous attack was ordered to be made on both flanks. Just before three o'clock the column of the American right, composed of Poor's brigade, followed by the New York militia under Ten Broeck, unmoved by the well-directed and well-served grapeshot from two twelve - pounders and four sixes, marched on to engage Ackland's grenadiers; while the men of Morgan were seen making a circuit, to reach the flank and rear of the British right, upon which the American light infantry under Dearborn descended impetuously from superior ground. In danger of being surrounded, Burgoyne ordered Fraser with the light infantry and part of the twentyfourth regiment to form a second line in the rear, so as to secure the retreat of the army. While executing this order, Fraser received a ball from a sharp-shooter, and, fatally wounded, was led back to the camp. Just then, within twenty minutes from the beginning of the action, the British grenadiers, suffering from the sharp fire of musketry in front and flank, wavered and fled, leaving Major Ackland, their commander, severely wounded. These movements exposed the Brunswickers on both flanks, and one regiment broke, turned, and fled. It rallied, but only to retreat in less disorder, driven by the Americans. Sir Francis Clarke, Burgoyne's first aid, sent to the rescue of the artillery, was mortally XXIV. wounded before he could deliver his message; and CHAP. the Americans took all the eight pieces. In the 1777. face of the hot pursuit, no second line could be Oct. formed. Burgoyne exposed himself fearlessly; a shot passed through his hat, and another tore his waistcoat; but he was compelled to give the word of command for all to retreat to the camp of Fraser, which lay to the right of head-quarters. Burgoyne as he entered showed alarm by crying out: "You must defend the post till the very last man!" The Americans pursued with fury, and, unwisely directed by Arnold, who had ridden upon the field as an unattended volunteer, without orders, without any command, without a staff, and beside himself, yet carrying some authority as the highest officer present in the action, they made an onset on the strongest part of the British line, and despite an abatis and other obstructions, despite musketryfire and grape-shot, continued it for more than an hour, though in vain. Meantime the brigade of Learned made a .circuit and assaulted the quarters of the regiment of Breymann, which flanked the extreme right of the British camp, and was connected with Fraser's quarters by two stockade redoubts, defended by Canadian companies. These intermediate redoubts were stormed by a Massachusetts regiment headed by John Brooks, afterwards governor of that state, and were carried with little. loss. Arnold, who had joined a group in this last assault, lost his horse and was himself badly wounded within the works. The regiment of Breymann was now exposed in front and rear. colonel, fighting gallantly, was mortally wounded; Its 1777. Oct. CHAP. Some of his troops fled; and the rest, about two XXIV. hundred in number, surrendered. Colonel Speth, who led up a small body of Germans to his support, was taken prisoner. The position of Breymann was the key to Burgoyne's camp; but the directions for its recovery could not be executed. Night set in, and darkness ended the battle. During all the fight, neither Gates nor Lincoln appeared on the field. In his report of the action, Gates named Arnold with Morgan and Dearborn; and congress paid a tribute to Arnold's courage by giving him the rank which he had claimed. The action was the battle of the husbandmen; and on this decisive day, men of the valley of Virginia, of New York, and of New England, fought together with one spirit for a common cause. At ten o'clock in the night, Burgoyne gave orders to retreat; but as he took with him his wounded, artillery, and baggage, at daybreak he had only transferred his camp to the heights above the hospital. Light dawned, to show to his army the hopelessness of their position. They were greatly outnumbered, their cattle starving, their hospitals cumbered with sick, wounded, and dying; and their general, whose courage in battle could not be exceeded, wanted strength of judgment. All persons sorrowed over Fraser, so much love had he inspired. He questioned the surgeon eagerly as to his wound, and when he found that he must go from wife and children, that fame and promotion and life were gliding from before his eyes, he cried out in his agony: "Damned ambition!" At sunset of the eighth, as his body, attended by the officers XXIV. Oct. of his family, was borne by soldiers of his corps to CHAP. the great redoubt above the Hudson, where he had asked to be buried, the three major-generals, Bur- 1777. goyne, Phillips, and Riedesel, and none beside, joined the train; and amidst the ceaseless booming of the American artillery, the order for the burial of the dead was strictly observed in the twilight over his grave. Never more shall he chase the red deer through the heather of Strath Errick, or guide the skiff across the fathomless lake of central Scotland, or muse over the ruin of the Stuarts on the moor of Drum-mossie, or dream of glory beside the crystal waters of the Ness. Death in itself is not terrible; but he came to America for selfish advancement, and though bravely true as a soldier, he died unconsoled. In the following night, Burgoyne, abandoning the wounded and sick in his hospital, continued his retreat; but as he was still clogged with his artillery and baggage, the night being dark, the narrow road worsened by rain, they made halt two miles short of Saratoga. In the night before the tenth, the British army, finding the passage of the Hudson too strongly guarded by the Americans, forded the Fishkill, and in a very bad position at Saratoga made their last encampment. On the tenth, Burgoyne sent out a party to reconnoitre the road on the west of the Hudson; but Stark, who after the battle of Bennington had been received at home as a conqueror, had returned with more than two thousand men of New Hampshire, and held the river at Fort Edward. At daybreak of the eleventh, an American brig CHAP. ade, favored by a thick fog, broke up the British XXIV. posts at the mouth of the Fishkill, and captured all 1777. their boats and all their provisions, except a short Oct. allowance for five days. On the twelfth the British army was completely invested, nor was there a spot in their camp which was not exposed to cannon or rifle shot. On the thirteenth, Burgoyne, for the first time, called the commanders of corps to council; and they were unanimous for treating on honorable terms. Had Gates been firm, they would have surrendered as prisoners of war. Burgoyne's counter proposals stipulated for a passage for the army from the port of Boston to Great Britain, upon condition of not serving again in North America during the war. Frightened by the expedition of Vaughan, Gates consented to the modification, and on the seventeenth the convention was signed. A body of Americans marched to the tune of Yankee Doodle into the lines of the British, while they marched out and laid down their arms with none of the American soldiery to witness the spectacle. Bread was then served to them, for they had none left, nor flour. Their number, including officers, was five thousand seven hundred and ninety-one; there were besides eighteen hundred and fifty-six prisoners of war, including the sick and wounded, abandoned to the Americans. Of deserters there were three hundred; so that, including the killed, prisoners, and disabled at Hubbardton, Fort Ann, Bennington, Orisca, the outposts of Ticonderoga, and round Saratoga, the total loss of the British in this northern campaign was not far from ten thousand, count |