ocal
governments of the New England States, as well as the Congress, acted
with vigor and firmness in their efforts to repel the enemy. General
Gates was sent to take the command of the army at Saratoga; and Arnold,
a favorite leader of the Americans, was despatched by Washington to act
under him, with reenforcements of troops and guns from the main
American army.

Burgoyne's employment of the Indians now produced the worst possible
effects. Though he labored hard to check the atrocities which they were
accustomed to commit, he could not prevent the occurrence of many
barbarous outrages, repugnant both to the feelings of humanity and to
the laws of civilized warfare. The American commanders took care that
the reports of these excesses should be circulated far and wide, well
knowing that they would make the stern New Englanders, not droop, but
rage. Such was their effect; and though, when each man looked upon his
wife, his children, his sisters, or his aged parents, and thought of the
merciless Indian "thirsting for the blood of man, woman, and child," of
"the cannibal savage torturing, murdering, roasting, and eating the
mangled victims of his barbarous battles," might raise terror in the
bravest breasts; this very terror produced a directly contrary effect to
causing submission to the royal army.

It was seen that the few friends of the royal cause, as well as its
enemies, were liable to be the victims of the indiscriminate rage of the
savages; and thus "the inhabitants of the open and frontier countries
had no choice of acting: they had no means of security left but by
abandoning their habitations and taking up arms. Every man saw the
necessity of becoming a temporary soldier, not only for his own
security, but for the protection and defence of those connections which
are dearer than life itself. Thus an army was poured forth by the woods,
mountains, and marches, which in this part were thickly sown with
plantations and villages. The Americans recalled their courage, and,
when their regular army seemed to be entirely wasted, the spirit of the
country produced a much greater and more formidable force."

While resolute recruits, accustomed to the use of fire-arms, and all
partially trained by service in the provincial militias, were thus
flocking to the standard of Gates and Arnold at Saratoga, and while
Burgoyne was engaged at Fort Edward in providing the means of the
further advance of the army through the intricat