1 array of farmer soldiers, he would not have talked lightly in the London clubs of "parading through America with ten thousand men." Even the encircling mountains seem to conspire to resist and to hem in an invader. The numerous wooded ravines, gullies and intervales that line the upper Hudson offer admirable opportunities for successful defence, and retreat if necessary; while the high grounds back of the river afford great advantages for artillery and for flanking an enemy pursuing, as Burgoyne did, the low road along the river. These natural advantages, with the fact that the enemy's movements could be plainly watched from across the river, contributed greatly to the success of the Americans at the battles of Bemis Heights and Stillwater. Military students would find a suggestive subject in comparing the expedition of Burgoyne with Sherman's march to the sea. Both were undertaken to divide and subdue a rebellious country, while the main force of the enemy was watched by the chief commander. Certainly that region should be interesting to soldiers, which was not only the scene of momentous battles, but gave to the two great wars on this continent thousands of gallant soldiers and two such typi THE SARATOGA MONUMENT. cally able, honest and high-minded officers as General Philip Schuyler and General George H. Thomas. To add to such an interest is the fact that the monument VOL. VIII. was a source of much pleasure to General Grant while he lingered on Mount McGregor, and one of his last excursions in his rolling chair was to the eastern outlook, where he could get a good view of the shaft. For so important a battle-field, Saratoga was strangely neglected up to its centennial in 1877. While the lichens grew and the stone colored with age on the monuments at Bunker Hill and other Revolutionary battle-fields, Saratoga had scarce a rude tablet or inscription. The old battleground," as it was called, was indeed a theme for old men to talk of occasionally, and its traditions were treasured with pride by the country folk around. Yet few made a special visit to the field, though born within sight of it, unless a long absence from the scene gave them new appreciation of its importance. Sir Edward Creacy, in his historical work, ranks Saratoga in the fifteen most decisive battles of the world's history. George William Curtis, speaking on this spot, October 17, 1877, the centennial anniversary of the surrender, aptly defined its importance when he said: "The scattering volley on Lexington green swelled to the triumphant thunder of Saratoga, and the reverberation of Burgoyne's falling arms in New York shook those of Cornwallis in Virginia from his hands." Several incidents of the surrender and battle mark the spot as peculiarly memorable. "Yankee Doodle," though written some years before, by an Englishman, was first played on this ground as an American martial air; it being suggested as a cheerful tune for the paroled British army to march to, as they crossed the river en route for their point of embarkation at Boston. It was also on this ground that the first regularly made silken American flag was unfurled in the army; the Stars and Stripes taking the honored place of the Cross of St. George in leading the van GENERAL S. FRASER. of civilization. Here English conquest, unbroken for hundreds of years, received the decree: "Thus far and no farther!" No wonder that "a fast-sailing vessel (and it made a wondrously swift passage even for these days) was fitted out for France; that the messenger rushed breathless into the presence of Franklin and the other Commissioners at Passay; that France gave her alliance; that Washington's great heart was cheered, and Yorktown made the result a foregone conclusion! Standing by the monument, the scene of the surrender, celebrated by FitzGreene Halleck as the "Field of the Grounded Arms," lies spread beneath us. As we look up the valley we may discern where the British army crossed the Hudson, September 13, a short distance below the Fort Miller Bridge Falls. The river widens just below the falls, forming Willis's Eddy, a popular fishing resort. Again contracting, it flows on, and is soon joined by the waters of the Batten Kill, or Ondawa Creek. The exact place of crossing is fixed at a point some eighty rods northwest of the present residence of Mr. Yates Rogers. The latter, whose grandfather lived on the farm at the time and was a member of the militia, delights in showing visitors the entrenchments thrown up to cover the passage of the river. They are three hundred feet long and from four to six feet high, and are now covered with scrub pines. Within thirty years the wooden platforms, built for the British cannon, were visible behind the entrenchments. The Americans paid the British their compliments in the shape of a number of six-pound balls thrown across the river at this point. Persons now living have heard from the elder Mrs. Rogers's lips the story of her tactics during this bombardment. Alone in the house with her child, and having been warned by General Fraser, she improvised barricades of mattresses and feather beds and retired, it is presumed in good order, to the cellar as her safest stronghold. The British camp at this point-now Clark's Mills-was on a flat or intervale north fo the sawmill. It is said that the fine crops still grown there are partly due to the location of the camp and the slaughter-pens of Burgoyne. The survey of a railroad from Schuylerville to Greenwich, by way of the Dionondehowa Falls, passes through the entrenchments. Directly opposite the monument the eye rests on the heights on the eastern bank of the Hudson, extending from what is known as the "Big Hill" to the "Hog's Back," near the Batten Kill, which were fortified and defended by General Fellows at the time of the surrender. Nearer, one gazes down on the village and the plain, the site of Fort Hardy, where the British stacked their arms, and on the Schuyler house and other old Dutch farm-houses. The Marshall house, in the cellar of which the Baroness Riedesel found shelter during the American cannonade, still stands near the north end of the village. Eleven cannon-balls passed through it. One of them relieved the British surgeons of a task by carrying away the only remaining leg of a Sergeant Jones as he lay on the amputating table. These are but a few of the reminders of the campaign that still exist. Many another, broad, Dutch-roofed manor-house that witnessed the advance of Burgoyne, is still standing in the valley of the upper Hudson. Sheltered by stately trees, time has dealt gently with them, flowing unheeded like the silent, glassy stream in front of their doors. How naturally the Dutch took to these low, rich alluvial flat-lands; so suggestive of the old Netherlands, even in their occasional overflow! There could be no more charming drive than the "river road" to-day. And as one passes under the long lines of poplars or willows an occasional glimpse may be caught of some damsel, leaning over a half-door, whose face Burgoyne might swear was the same that looked askance at him as he clattered past with his red-coat grenadiers! The Bemis Heights battle-ground is about seven miles south of Schuylerville and nine miles south-east of Saratoga Springs; and will be found a most interesting and picturesque objectivepoint for a drive. In starting from Saratoga Springs, the tourist passes down Union Avenue to the lake, crosses the bridge and skirts the shore until are reached the ruins of the Cedar Bluff Hotel, where the road starts off easterly up the hill. After a winding and hilly drive, affording many fine views, he arrives at the Quaker Meeting-House. From here to the river the ground is all historic. Not far beyond it on the left one catches a glimpse of Breyman's Hill. Turning to the left, the first house on the right stands on the original clearing of Freeman's Farm. In the woods across the road still remains an old road made for Burgoyne's artillery. The sleepers of a bridge over the great ravine were also recently visible. Traces of breast works even now mark Breyman's Hill and two tall pines wave over the "great redoubt," where Fraser was buried. The Neilson house, which was the headquarters of General Poor and Colonel Morgan, is still standing. In it Lady Acland found her wounded husband. Cannonballs, buckles, short German carbines, swords and other relics may still be found on the battle-ground or in the houses of neighboring farmers. One farmer re cently brought a load of wood to Schuylerville, in one stick of which were twelve grapeshot. Indeed, a farm-house within ten miles of the battle-ground may be considered poorly equipped if it has not an old Revolutionary cannon-ball on which to crack butternuts. There are many advantageous points for overlooking the battle-field which extends on both sides of a ravine, brook and intervale or low flat, near the river, and stretches back in a large semi-circle that includes many low hills, bluffs, clearings and intersecting ravines and gullies. Nothing could be quieter and lack more in suggestion of combat as one stands to-day and looks over the field with the peaceful river as the key to the picture. Gazing over the extent of the battlefield, recently, a prominent officer of the Civil War said he was surprised that such comparatively small armies could have occupied such extended lines It is interesting to note that the roads in the region of the battle-ground, as well as those leading towards Quaker Springs and Schuylerville, are largely the identical ones made by Burgoyne; and so one drives to-day in the tracks of his artillery It is to the credit of his engineers that no one since has seen fit to change the direction of the roads they laid out. II. The natural features of the line of march and battle-field, as well as the sculptures in the monument, may be better appreciated and identified after reviewing the outlines of Burgoyne's expedition, the battles and surrender. Burgoyne, himself, was an interesting figure. Handsome, brave and courteous, he had won honors from his king for his services in Portugal and a brilliant charge at Valencia d' Alcantara. Having witnessed the battle of Bunker Hill he had returned to England and was then the lion of London. When George III., in December, 1776, planned the three-fold campaign for the coming summer it is no wonder that the young hero of the hour was one of the leaders selected. Dropping his partly-written dramas, for he was an amateur in literature, he sailed for America with his gayly appareled and finely equipped soldiery. Even the London ladies looked on it as a holiday expedition, several of them accompanying it; and their judgment respecting the hardship and danger to be encountered was somewhat like the expectations of some foreign tourists of to-day who confidently hope to shoot grizzly bear in the suburbs of New York city. Arriving in Canada May 6, 1777, Burgoyne displaced Sir Guy Carleton, one of the ablest of British commanders. The plausible programme for the British operations for the year was for Burgoyne to fight his way up Lake Champlain and down the upper Hudson piled a guide-book and maps to the battle-ground. As Chairman of the Committee on Tablets of the Monument Association, she has also had much to do with locating the stones erected on the battle-field. Among the places already marked are Breyman's Hill, the stone being given by General J. W. De Peyster; Morgan's Hill, by a stone erected by Mrs. Taylor, granddaughter of Colonel Morgan; Great Ravine, where Major Acland was wounded, the stone being erected by Mrs. Willoughby; on the river road, a stone for Colonel Hardin, erected by his great-grandson, General Martin D. Hardin, U. S. A. Other points to be seen are General Gates's headquarters, the old barn used to Albany; Sir Henry Clinton was to break through the river forts and so sweep the river from New York to Albany; while St. Leger, beginning at some point on Lake Ontario, was to devastate the Mohawk Valley and join the other two leaders. Ultimate success and a merry Christmas dinner at Albany, the Knickerbocker stronghold, were looked forward to as matters of course. Lake Champlain will probably never see so brilliant a spectacle as this holiday expedition that lined her shores with a border of scarlet and gold. A fleet of bateaux, gunboats, and pinnaces propelled by expert Canadian boatmen, broke the peaceful lake into a million ripples, while martial music echoed from the green hills of Vermont and the rocky bluffs of the New York shore. At Willsborough, Vt., four hundred Indians in birch bark canoes, under St. Luc and de Langlade, added dusky wings to the martial regatta and spread terror among the settlers in their advance. Crown Point, the old mason-work fortress, which Burgoyne occupied June 30, is still standing, though it is suffering from neglect. What exultation there was in Burgoyne's army and in Great Britain when Fort Ticonderoga, the scene of the gallant exploit of Ethan Allen-the patron saint of the region to this day-was captured without losing a man! "I have beaten the Americans," shouted George III., as he rushed into his queen's boudoir. As the steamboat of to-day stops at the wharf to transfer passengers at the "D. & H." R. R. junction, one can get a good view of Ticonderoga's venerable old stronghold with its cylindrical stone fortress. An old boatman is also ready to row people to the fort and to explain how 66 the Britishers got their cannon on that air sugar-loaf, Mount Defiance, and made it too hot for the Yankees to stay." The night of July 6th saw St. Clair as a hospital; the foundations of the house where Madame Riedesel stayed and where Fraser died; the bass-wood tree, near which Fraser was shot, and the Ensign House, still standing, with a tall Dutch clock in it that ticked off the minutes to the British wounded as they paused there on the retreat, one mile above Wilbur's Basin. It is proposed to mark a number of other sites. Lord Carnarvon has signified his intention to commemorate the exploit of his relative. Lady Acland, at the Dovogat House, and there has even been a suggestion that the British Government might some day erect a shaft over the grave of the gallant General Fraser. and his garrison in full retreat from better on the banks of the Little White Ticonderoga and Mount Independence; Creek, and fled back through the lovelessly-fired building illumined their de- heavy shot had rebounded from the New while, as ill-luck would have it, a care- ly Cambridge Valley. Burgoyne's first parture and brought the Brit ish in hot pursuit. The extremely sharp engagement at ColHubbardston resulted. onel Warner, with the rearguard, stoutly resisted the best efforts of General Fraser and Major Acland, the latter being wounded. The poetic effect of this battle was greatly heightened by the battlehymns that were sung, the Americans keeping step to the familiar hymns of their churches, while the Germans rolled forth their own naHencetional battle-song. forward Burgoyne's path was to be reddened by blood as well as scarlet coats. Leaving Lake George on Fort Anne, on July 8, kept *Ex-Congressman Henry G. Burleigh, of Whitehall, in a letter to the writer, says: "In breaking ground in this place for the water works, last summer, we came across some of the old corduroy road built by Burgoyne to transport his artillery from this place to Fort Edward. Burgoyne, while here, was the guest of Major Philip Skene, a British officer of note, and it was he who influenced the former to march direct to Fort Edward instead of returning to Ticonderoga and going through Lake George ard by the military road GENERAL PHILIP SCHUYLER. England hills against him. The sunrise of American Independence was already breaking above the Green Mountains. Burgoyne, like the traditional Irishman, was fortunate in "having his laugh first." to Fort Edward. Skene was loyal, but wished to establish direct communication from Skenesborough to Fort Edward. It is a historical fact not generally known that the last injunction given Burgoyne by George III, was to take the Lake George route, even if he had to retrace his steps from Skenesborough. His failure to do this lost him his army, as otherwise he would have reached Clinton at Albany long before the Americans gathered forces enough to defeat him." |