urse of military events. But there was one man,
fortunately, who in an instant perceived the full significance of this
movement. Washington saw that the English had at last found an idea,
or, at least, a general possessed of one. So long as the British
confined themselves to fighting one or two battles, and then, taking
possession of a single town, were content to sit down and pass their
winter in good quarters, leaving the colonists in undisturbed control
of all the rest of the country, there was nothing to be feared. The
result of such campaigning as this could not be doubtful for a moment
to any clear-sighted man. But when a plan was on foot, which, if
successful, meant the control of the lakes and the Hudson, and of a
line of communication from the north to the great colonial seaport,
the case was very different. Such a campaign as this would cause
the complete severance of New England, the chief source for men and
supplies, from the rest of the colonies. It promised the mastery, not
of a town, but of half a dozen States, and this to the American cause
probably would be ruin.

So strongly and clearly did Washington feel all this that his
counter-plan was at once ready, and before people had fairly grasped
the idea that there was to be a northern invasion, he was sending,
early in March, urgent letters to New England to rouse up the militia
and have them in readiness to march at a moment's notice. To Schuyler,
in command of the northern department, he began now to write
constantly, and to unfold the methods which must be pursued in order
to compass the defeat of the invaders. His object was to delay the
army of Burgoyne by every possible device, while steadily avoiding a
pitched battle. Then the militia and hardy farmers of New England and
New York were to be rallied, and were to fall upon the flank and
rear of the British, harass them constantly, cut off their outlying
parties, and finally hem them in and destroy them. If the army and
people of the North could only be left undisturbed, it is evident from
his letters that Washington felt no doubt as to the result in that
quarter.

But the North included only half the conditions essential to success.
The grave danger feared by Washington was that Howe would understand
the situation, and seeing his opportunity, would throw everything else
aside, and marching northward with twenty thousand men, would make
himself master of the Hudson, effect a junction with Burgoyne a