now almost a wreck. Eight hundred were in the hospital. On the 12th
the army had but five days' rations. Burgoyne could neither advance nor
retreat, and on the 17th he surrendered. The army were allowed free
passage to England on condition that they would not re-engage in the
war. The Americans got 35 superb cannon and 4,000 muskets. The Sunday
after the surrender, Timothy Dwight, afterward President of Yale
College, preached to Gates's soldiers from Joel ii. 20, "I will remove
far off from you the northern army."

Gates deserved little credit for the defeat of Burgoyne. Put forward by
New England influence against Schuyler, the favorite of New York, he but
reaped the results of the labors of Herkimer at Oriskany, of Stark at
Bennington, and of Schuyler in obstructing Burgoyne's advance and in
raising a sufficient army. Even in the two battles of Stillwater Gates
did next to nothing, not even appearing on the field. Arnold and Morgan
were the soul of the army on both days. Arnold's gallant conduct was at
once rewarded by a major-generalship. Schuyler, underrated and even
maligned in his day, had to wait for the approval of posterity, which he
has now fully obtained.

The surrender of Burgoyne was the most important event of the war up to
that time. It was of immense service at home, raising the country out of
the despondency which followed upon Brandywine and Germantown. Abroad it
disheartened England, and decided France to acknowledge the independence
of America and to send military aid. From the end of this year, 1777,
victory over England was a practical certainty.

CHAPTER VI.

THE SOUTHERN CAMPAIGNS

[1778]

After the summer of 1778 little of military importance occurred at the
North. July and November of that year were marked by bloody Indian
massacres at Wyoming, Pa., and Cherry Valley, N. Y., the worst in all
that border warfare which was incessant from the beginning to the end of
the Revolution. In August an unsuccessful attempt to regain Newport was
made by General Sullivan, co-operating with a French fleet under
D'Estaing. In the spring and summer of 1779, Clinton, who lay at New
York with a considerable army, closely watched by Washington, sent out
to Connecticut and the coasts of Virginia a number of plundering
expeditions which did much damage. "Mad Anthony Wayne" led a brilliant
attack against Stony Point on the Hudson, captured the British garrison,
and destroyed the fortifications. This year