[86] The reader, who is interested in obtaining a more minute detail of the incidents of this momentous battle, will find them quite fully presented, in Mr. Irving’s excellent Life of Washington.
[87] General Schuyler was a native-born American, descended from one of the most illustrious families. He had a large estate, near Saratoga, and was highly educated, particularly in all branches relating to military science. He was a tried patriot. In Congress and elsewhere he had proved himself the able and eloquent advocate of American rights. See Irving’s Life of Washington, vol. i. (Mount Vernon Edition) p. 158.
[88] The house stood on the Watertown road, about half a mile from the college. It subsequently was long known as the Cragie House. “The Cragie House is associated with American literature, through some of its subsequent occupants. Mr. Edward Everett resided in it the first year or two after his marriage. Later, Mr. Jared Sparks, during part of the time that he was preparing his collection of Washington’s writings, editing a volume or two in the very room from which they were written. Next came Mr. Worcester, author of the pugnacious dictionary, and of many excellent books. And lastly, Longfellow, the poet, who purchased the house of the heirs of Mr. Cragie, and refitted it.”—Irving’s Life of Washington, Mount Vernon Edition, vol. i. p. 167.
[89] Sparks’ Life of Washington, p. 136.
[90] “General Green was a son of Rhode Island, of Quaker parentage. He was a man of fine personal appearance, of excellent character, and of superior natural abilities. His thirst for knowledge led him to avail himself of every opportunity for mental improvement. He thus became an intelligent gentleman. His troops were pronounced to be the best disciplined and the best appointed in the army. He stepped at once into confidence of the Commander-in-Chief, which he never forfeited, but became one of his most attached, faithful, and efficient coadjutors.”—Soldiers and Patriots, p. 96.
[91] Irving’s Life of Washington, Mount Vernon Edition, vol. i. p. 166.
[92] “Horatio Gates was an Englishman who adopted the cause of America. He had distinguished himself in the West Indies. But England did not recognize his claims, as much as he thought she ought to have done. He therefore went out to America and bought land in Virginia. When the war began, he seemed to see in it a more secure means to self-advancement than he had found before, and therefore he joined in it.”—Soldier and Patriot, p. 95.
[93] “Lee, we are told, scoffed with his usual profaneness. Heaven, he said, was ever found favorable to strong battalions. Lee was an Englishman by birth. The Indians called him, from his impetuosity, Boiling Water.”—Graydon’s Memoirs, p. 138.
[94] Thatcher’s “Military Journal,” p. 37.
[95] “These principles set at naught all the rules of honorable warfare; and indicated that the highest officers in the American army, if captured, would be treated as culprits.”—Sparks’ Life of Washington, p. 142.