command
from their own officers. They were to be allowed a free passage to
Europe upon condition of not serving again in America, during the
present war. The officers were to be on parole, and to wear their
side-arms. All private property to be sacred; no baggage to be
searched or molested. The capitulation was signed on the 17th of
October.

The British army, at the time of the surrender, was reduced by
capture, death and desertion, from nine thousand to five thousand
seven hundred and fifty-two men. That of Gates, regulars and militia,
amounted to ten thousand five hundred and fifty-four men on duty;
between two and three thousand being on the sick list or absent on
furlough. By this capitulation, the Americans gained a fine train of
artillery, seven thousand stand of arms, and a great quantity of
clothing, tents, and military stores of all kinds.

When the British troops marched forth to deposit their arms at the
appointed place, Colonel Wilkinson, the adjutant-general, was the only
American soldier to be seen. Gates had ordered his troops to keep
rigidly within their lines, that they might not add by their presence
to the humiliation of a brave enemy. In fact, throughout all his
conduct during the campaign, British writers and Burgoyne himself give
him credit for acting with great humanity and forbearance.

The surrender of Burgoyne was soon followed by the evacuation of
Ticonderoga and Fort Independence, the garrisons retiring to the Isle
aux Noix and St. Johns. As to the armament on the Hudson, the
commanders whom Sir Henry Clinton had left in charge of it, received,
in the midst of their desolating career the astounding intelligence of
the capture of the army with which they had come to co-operate.
Nothing remained for them, therefore, but to drop down the river and
return to New York. The fortresses in the Highlands could not be
maintained, and were evacuated and destroyed.

CHAPTER XLVII.
BATTLE OF GERMANTOWN.--HOSTILITIES ON THE DELAWARE.

Having given the catastrophe of the British invasion from the North,
we will revert to that part of the year's campaign which was passing
under the immediate eye of Washington. We left him encamped at Pott's
Grove towards the end of September, giving his troops a few days'
repose after their severe fatigues. Being rejoined by Wayne and
Smallwood with their brigades, and other troops being arrived from the
Jerseys, his force amounted to about eight thousand Con