Burgoyne's army, which took the field in July, 1777, had a total, rank and file, of 7,902, of which 4,135 were British, 3,116 Germans, 148 Canadian militia, and 503 Indians. The artillery corps and train were of the most serviceable character, "probably the finest and most excellently supplied as to officers and private men that had ever been allotted to second the operations of any army."
The commander-in-chief was a polished gentleman, a popular dramatist, an effective speaker, a useful member of Parliament, and a gallant officer who had won laurels in Portugal; Major-General Phillips, the second in command, was a distinguished artillerist who had earned a high reputation in Germany; Major-General Riedesel had been selected because of his long experience, especially in the Seven Years' War; Brigadier-General Fraser, who commanded the light brigade, was a knightly soldier, ambitious of glory, who had seen much service in America; Hamilton and Powel, who commanded brigades, had been twenty years on active duty; Lord Balcarras and Major Acland, commanding respectively the light infantry and grenadiers, were soldiers of high professional attainments; La Corne St. Luc, the commander of the Indians, had been an active partisan of the French in Canada wars, and "was notorious for brutal inhumanity;" and the many staff and regimental officers were already men of mark, or subsequently rose to high positions.
With such a thoroughly disciplined and well-appointed army, Burgoyne fondly anticipated making a triumphal march of two hundred miles to Albany, there to meet St. Leger descending the Mohawk, and Howe ascending the Hudson, and thus by combined movements to dismember the thirteen United States. This march of the Northern army seemed not arduous, as most of Burgoyne's way was by water through the Sorel, Lake Champlain, and the upper Hudson; but he had taken little account of the extraordinary physical difficulties he was doomed to encounter, and the hostility of the inhabitants along much of his route.
LORD GEORGE GERMAIN.
From Murray's Impartial Hist. of the present War, i. 190.—Ed.
Another embarrassment greatly marred the British plans. Lord George Germain, the Secretary of State for the colonies, had given Burgoyne positive orders for his march to Albany, from which he was not to deviate; while Howe was left, through a piece of criminal negligence,[725] without any imperative instructions to coöperate with the army in Canada; besides which, it was almost impossible to arrange any concerted action between forces separated by four hundred miles of hostile country.
Burgoyne, however, like a true soldier, determined to obey orders, though it might break empires. Consequently, on June 13th, at St. Johns, the standard of England was hoisted on board the "Radeau", and saluted by all the rest of the shipping and forts, thus announcing the beginning of this eventful and important campaign.
On the 20th, Burgoyne issued, with seeming royal prerogative, a bombastic proclamation, commending the justice and clemency of the king, who had directed "that Indians be employed;" denouncing the obstinacy of Americans as "wilful outcasts;" threatening the terrors of savage warfare of the "thousands of Indians" under his command, "to overtake the hardened enemies of Great Britain;" and, "in consciousness of Christianity and the honor of soldiership", warned all of his opposers that "the messengers of justice and wrath await them on the field, and devastation, famine, and every concomitant horror that a reluctant but indispensable prosecution of military duty must occasion."[726]