British arms
commenced. Being joined by St. Clair, and by Colonel Long, who was
compelled to evacuate Fort Anne, General Schuyler commenced a series of
active operations to baffle the advancing enemy. He broke up the roads
and the bridges; blocked up creeks and rivers; swept the country bare
of live-stock and all kinds of provisions; called up the militia and
backwoodsmen of New England and New York; and having succeeded in
collecting a numerous though motley force, he issued a proclamation in
the name of the congress of the United States, threatening death and
destruction to all who should send any deputation or afford any aid
to the enemy. It would have been prudent in Burgoyne had he taken a
different course to that which was laid down in his instructions, but he
resolved to persevere in that course. Having sent General Philips with
a strong detachment to proceed by Lake George with the artillery,
provisions, and baggage, he struck across the country, with the mass
of his force, towards Fort Edward. His progress was but slow, for his
troops had to remove the impediments which Schuyler had caused to
be thrown in his way; and, added to this, their inarch was rendered
fatiguing by the sultry heat of the weather. Nevertheless, by the 30th
of July, they reached the river Hudson, near Fort Edward, and Schuyler
retired across the river at their approach. Burgoyne waited in the
neighbourhood of Fort Edward for the arrival of General Philips with the
artillery, provisions, and stores, and for the junction of Colonel St.
Leger, who had from the first proceeded on a different line of march,
and who was now descending from Oswego, the Onedia Lake, and Wood Creek,
by the Mohawk River, which falls into the Hudson. St. Leger stopped at
the upper end of Mohawk to lay siege to Stanwix Fort, and upon receiving
this information General Burgoyne thought it his duty to support him. As
a preparatory measure he detached Colonel Baum to surprise Bennington,
a place between the forks of the Ilosick River, about twenty-four miles
eastward of the Hudson, and where the American stores were deposited.
The troops employed by Burgoyne for this enterprise were Germans, always
slow in their motions, and before they reached Bennington their design
had become known, and the Americans were ready to receive them. Baum
had only six hundred men with him, and he applied to Burgoyne for
reinforcements; and another detachment of German soldiers, consisting
of