the shore of the Hudson is high ground, rising to a nearly
uniform level next the river, but gradually ascending, as the river is
left, to the summit of the streams falling into it. Long slopes or
terraces are thus formed, furrowed here and there by the ravines, which
serve to drain off the water from above into the river below. Puny
rivulets where they begin, these watercourses cut deeper as they run on,
until, at the river, they become impassable gulches. The old military
road skirts the foot of the heights, which sometimes abut closely upon
the river, and sometimes draw back far enough to leave a strip of meadow
between it and them.

[Sidenote: Sept. 12.]

[Sidenote: Bemis' Heights.]

Kosciusko,[43] Gates's engineer, chose the ground on which to receive
Burgoyne's attack, at one of these places where the heights crowd upon
the river, thus forming a narrow defile, which a handful of men could
easily defend against an army. At this place the house of a settler
named Bemis stood by the roadside. Our army filed off the road here, to
the left, scaled the heights, and encamped along a ridge of land,
running west as far as some high, rough, and woody ground, which formed
the summit.

[Sidenote: Freeman's Farm.]

[Sidenote: Sept. 13.]

Except two or three clearings, all the ground in Gates's front was
thickly wooded. One settler, called Freeman, had cleared and planted
quite a large field in front of the American centre and left, though at
some distance beyond, and hid from view by intervening woods. This field
of Freeman's was one of the few spots of ground lying between the two
armies, on which troops could be manoeuvred or artillery used with
advantage. The farm-house stood at the upper edge of it, at a distance
of a mile back from the river. Our pickets immediately took post there,
as no one could enter the clearing without being seen from the house.
Accident has thus made this spot of ground, Freeman's Farm,[44] famous.
The Americans were at work like beavers, strengthening their line with
redoubts, felled trees, and batteries, when the enemy was discovered
marching against them.

FOOTNOTES:

[41] GENERAL GATES had resigned his command at Ticonderoga, rather than
serve under Schuyler. There was no good feeling between them.

[42] MORGAN'S RIFLEMEN was the most celebrated corps of the Continental
Army. The men were unerring marksmen, and on that account greatly feared
by the British. All were expert woodsmen