Respecting the action of Oct. 7, the earliest official accounts are in Glover's letter of Oct. 9, and in Gates's to Congress, of Oct. 18,—both of which are reprinted by Dawson (i. 302, 303). James Wilkinson's letter of Oct. 9 is in the New York Archives, with various other letters of the campaign (Sparks MSS., no. xxix.). A letter of Oliver Wolcott from Bemis's Heights is in the Trumbull MSS. (vol. vii.). The lives of Arnold (by I. N. Arnold, ch. 10, etc.) indicate his important influence on the field, where he was wounded.[849]
On the action of Col. Brooks in the field see Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc. (vii. 478). There is an account by Samuel Woodruff, an eye-witness, in the appendix of An account of Burgoyne's Campaign and the memorable battles of Bemis's Heights, Sept. 19th, and October 7th, 1777, from the most authentic resources of information, including many incidents connected with the same, by Charles Neilson (Albany, 1844).[850]
The story of Major Acland and Lady Acland has long been one of the romantic episodes of the campaign. The family account is given by W. L. Stone in the Mag. of Amer. Hist. 1877 (iv. 50), and Jan., 1880, and in Lippincott's Mag., Oct., 1879.[851]
The various stages of the negotiations which resulted in what is known as the "Convention" can be followed in the documents given in Fonblanque (p. 306); Wilkinson's Memoirs (pp. 304, 306, 317); Dawson (i. 303); Stedman's Amer. War; Stone's Campaign of Burgoyne (p. 102); and O'Callaghan's Orderly-Book of Burgoyne. The original definitive articles are in the N. Y. Hist. Soc., and fac-similes of the signatures are in Lossing's Field-Book (i. 79).[852]
Wilkinson carried the news of the surrender to Congress (Wilkinson's Memoirs; Wells's Sam. Adams, ii. 494). Gates describes his own success to his wife (Moore's Diary, 511). Chaplain Smith gives some details of the meeting of Gates and Burgoyne (Chaplain Smith and the Baptists, p. 222). There are reminiscences in Surgeon Meyrick's letter in Trumbull's Autobiography (p. 301), and papers in Pennsylvania Archives (vol. v.). Recollections of Gen. Ebenezer Mattoon, an actor in the scene as written out in 1835, are in the Appendix (no. 13) of Stone's Campaign of Burgoyne. The comment of Wm. Whipple is in N. H. State Papers, viii. 707. Burgoyne's letter from Albany, Oct. 20, to Germain is in his State of the Expedition.[853]
De Lancey (App. p. 674, to Jones's New York during the Rev.) collates the authorities on the strength of the respective armies. Gates's returns of his army (11,098) are in the Gates MSS. Burgoyne, in his State of the Expedition, gives Gates's returns as 18,624,—the difference may be the number of sick and furloughed men. Burgoyne praised Gates's men after he had seen them (Fonblanque, 316). The numbers of Burgoyne's army are given in Appendix D in Fonblanque. The question is also examined in the App. of Stone's Campaign of Burgoyne. Gordon (Amer. Rev., ii. 578) gives the number surrendered at 5,791; but there is a great difference in the estimates. Alexander Scammell makes it 10,611 in Letters and Papers, 1777-80 (Mass. Hist. Soc. Cabinet). In the Stark MSS. is a table of Burgoyne's losses (14,000), covering the whole campaign, and put into verse (Sparks MSS., xxxix.).[854]
Respecting the campaign as a whole, the best contemporary accounts on the American side are found in the official correspondence as embraced in Sparks's Washington (iv. 486, etc.) and Correspondence of the Revolution (vol. ii., App.), and in the letters of the commanding generals.[855]
Various important letters are put in evidence in the Proceedings of the general court martial for the trial of Maj.-Gen. Schuyler, Oct. 1, 1778 (Philad., 1778).[856]
An account of Alexander Bryan, Gates's chief scout, is in the App. of Stone's Campaign of Burgoyne.
There are among the copies of the Lincoln Papers in the Sparks MSS. (xii.) various letters, etc., respecting the campaign against Burgoyne. The earliest is one from Gen. Schuyler to Lincoln, dated at Saratoga, July 31, 1777, and the last is one from Lincoln to Gov. Clinton, Oct. 5, 1777, expressing anxiety lest Putnam should not be able to resist Gen. Clinton, to whom Burgoyne in his straits was looking for relief.[857] At a later day Lincoln wrote a long letter from Boston, Feb. 5, 1781, to John Laurens, recounting his part in this campaign from the time of Gates's taking command to the date of Lincoln's being wounded, Oct. 8th (Sparks's Corresp. of the Rev., ii. 533).