FORT STANWIX OR SCHUYLER
Key: A, Fort Schuyler. B, Flagstaff, 3 guns. C, Northwest, 4 guns. D, Northeast, 3 guns. E, Southeast, 4 guns. F, Powder magazine. G, Laboratory. H, Barracks. I, Hornwork begun. J, Drawbridge. K, Covered way. L, Glacis. M, Sally-port. N, Commandant's quarters. O, Willett's attack. The following are British batteries, etc. 1, three guns. 2, four mortars. 3, three guns. 4, redoubts to cover the batteries. 5, lines of approaches. 6, British encampment. 7, Loyalists. 8, Indians. 9, ruins of Fort Newport. There is a copy of the map made for Mr. Sparks among the Sparks Maps at Cornell University.
The local aspects of the fight are touched upon in Hall's and other histories of Vermont,[840] and the general authorities necessarily enlarge more or less upon it, as an episode.[841] At the first anniversary of the Bennington fight, in 1778, a speech was made by Noah Smith, which was printed at Hartford in 1779, and is reprinted in the Vermont Hist. Coll. (i. p. 251). On Oct. 20, 1848, James D. Butler gave an address before the Legislature of Vermont, which "contained original testimonies of witnesses now long dead, and notes from papers since burned in the Vermont State House." When printed at Burlington, in 1849, it was accompanied by an address by George Frederick Houghton on the life and services of Col. Seth Warner.[842] The centennial observances of 1877 produced several memorials.[843]
Gen. Carrington (Battles, p. 334) gives one of the best plans of the Bennington fight. There is among the Sparks MSS. (no. xxviii.) a sketch map, with this indorsement by Mr. Sparks: "Drawn by Mr. Hiland Hall, Bennington, Oct. 13, 1826. Very accurate. Ground examined by myself at the time." It shows the Walloomsack River (a branch of the Hoosick River) with the skirting road to Bennington, three times crossing the river. On this road, going up stream, are marked (in order) the beginning of the second action, the hill where the stand was attempted, the places where Breyman was met by Warner, where the cannon were posted in the first battle, and the line of Stark's advance.
In Burgoyne's State of the Expedition is a plan called "Position of the Detachment under Lieut.-Col. Baum, at Walmscook, near Bennington, shewing the attacks of the enemy on the 16th of August, 1777, drawn by Lieut. Durnford, engineer; engraved by Wm. Faden", and published at London, Feb. 1, 1780.[844]
Meanwhile Schuyler was gathering an army as best he could. In July he wrote to Heath that its spirits were recovering (Heath Papers, i. 300). The militia were called out early in August to assist him (Journals of Congress, ii. 214). W. L. Stone tells the story of Moses Harris, his faithful spy, in the Mag. of Amer. Hist. (ii. 414). The discontent with Schuyler on the part of the politicians was beginning to be shaped to party measures, and led to his being superseded in August by Gates, while a battle was imminent, as Schuyler thought.[845]
Bancroft (vol. ix.) does not hold Schuyler free from the responsibility of the ill success of the campaign up to this time; but he is controverted by G. W. Schuyler in his Correspondence and Remarks upon Bancroft's History of the Northern Campaign; by Lossing in his Schuyler; and by J. W. De Peyster in the Mag. of Amer. Hist. (February, 1877, vol. i. 134).[846]
Burgoyne meanwhile (August 26) was writing to Germain that the campaign was looking badly, and the loyalists not as helpful as he hoped. The conflict which Schuyler thought impending took place September 19, and is variously known as the battle of Freeman's Farm, or Stillwater, or the first battle of Bemis's Heights. Gates had already appealed to the Green Mountain boys for assistance, as the records of the Vermont Council of Safety show (Stevens, Bibl. Geog., 1870, no. 693). Gen. Glover's letters to James Warren during Aug. and Sept. are in the Sparks MSS. (no. xlvii.) and in Upham's Glover, and his account of the battle of the 19th is in Essex Institute Hist. Coll. (v. no. 3). Col. Varick's letter to Schuyler is in the Sparks MSS., lxvi. Wilkinson gives the best account of any participant (i. ch. 6), and his letter of Sept. 20 is in Dawson (i. 301). Gates's letter to Congress, Sept. 22, is also in Dawson (i. 301). Gordon gives the American loss.[847]
The question of Arnold's participancy in the battle of the 19th, while the left wing—his own command—was engaged, has been the subject of controversy.[848]
The attempt of an American force to cut Burgoyne's line of communications by the lakes is described in the "Fight at Diamond Island", Sept. 24, by De Costa, who gives the official report of Col. Brown (N. E. Hist. and Geneal. Reg., 1872, p. 147). These evidences come mainly from the Gates Papers, and are recapitulated in Stone's Campaign of Burgoyne (App. 10).