While the British were living in plenty and having a very good time in the Quaker city, the poor Americans spent a wretched and terrible winter at a place called Valley Forge. The winter was a dismally cold one, and the men had not half enough food to eat or clothes to wear, and very poor huts to live in. They suffered dreadfully, and before the spring came many of them died from disease and hardship.
Poor fellows! they were paying dearly for their struggle for liberty. But there was no such despair this winter as there had been the winter before, for news came from the north that warmed the soldiers up like a fire. Though Washington had lost a battle, a great victory had been gained by the Americans at Saratoga, in the upper part of New York state.
While General Howe was marching on Philadelphia, another British army, under General Burgoyne, had been marching south from Canada, along the line of Lake Champlain and Lake George. But Burgoyne and his men soon found themselves in a tight place. Food began to run short and a regiment of a thousand men was sent into Vermont to seize some stores. They were met by the Green Mountain boys, led by Colonel Stark, a brave old soldier.
"There are the red-coats," said the bold colonel. "We must beat them to-day, or Molly Stark is a widow."[1]
Beat them they did. Only seventy men got back to Burgoyne. All the rest were killed or captured.
Another force, under Colonel St. Leger, marched south from Oswego, on Lake Ontario. A large body of Indians was with him. This army stopped to besiege a fort in the wilderness, and General Arnold marched to help the fort.
The way Arnold defeated St. Leger was a very curious one. He sent a half-witted fellow into the Indian camp with the tale that a great American force was coming. The messenger came running in among the savages, with bullet-holes in his clothes. He seemed half scared to death, and told the Indians that a vast host was coming after him as thick as the leaves on the trees.
This story frightened the Indians and they ran off in great haste through the woods. When the British soldiers saw this they fell into such a terror that they took to their heels, leaving all their tents and cannon behind them. The people in the fort did not know what it meant, till Arnold came up and told them how he had won a victory without firing a shot, by a sort of fairy story.
All this was very bad for Burgoyne. The Indians he brought with him began to leave. At length he found himself in a terrible plight. His provisions were nearly gone, he was surrounded by the Americans, and after fighting two battles he retreated to Saratoga. Here he had to surrender. He and all his army became prisoners to the Americans.