Early in the afternoon of the 7th, General Burgoyne drew out fifteen hundred men for the purpose of making his proposed reconnaissance, which he headed himself, attended by Generals Phillips, Riedesel, and Frazer. They advanced in three columns toward the left wing of the American positions, entered a wheat-field, displayed into line, and then began cutting up the wheat for forage. The movement having been seasonably discovered, the centre advanced guard of the Americans beat to arms; the alarm was repeated throughout the line, and the troops repaired to the alarm posts. Colonel Wilkinson being at head-quarters at the moment, was despatched to ascertain the cause of the alarm. He proceeded to within sixty or seventy rods of the enemy, ascertained their position, and returned; informing General Gates that they were foraging; attempting also to reconnoiter the American left, and likewise, in his opinion, offering battle. After a brief consultation. Gates said he would indulge them; and Colonel Morgan, whose rifle corps was formed in front of the centre, was directed "to begin the game." [FN-1] At his own suggestion, however, Morgan was allowed to gain the enemy's right by a circuitous course, while Poor's brigade should attack his left. [FN-2] The movement was admirably executed; the New-York and New Hampshire troops attacked the enemy's front and left wing with great impetuosity; while, true to his purpose, Morgan, just at the critical moment, poured down like a torrent from the hill, and attacked the enemy's right in front and flank. The attack was soon extended along the whole front of the enemy with great determination. Major Ackland, at the head of the grenadiers, sustained the attack of Poor with great firmness. [FN-3] But on his right the light infantry, in attempting to change front, being pressed with ardor by Colonel Dearborn, were forced to retire under a close fire, and in great disorder. They were re-formed by the Earl of Balcarras behind a fence in the rear of their first position; but, being again attacked with great audacity in front and flanks by superior numbers, resistance became vain, and the whole line, commanded by Burgoyne in person, gave way, and made a precipitate and disorderly retreat to his camp, [FN-4] The right of Burgoyne had given way first, the retreat of which was covered by the light infantry and a part of the 24th regiment. The left wing in its retreat would inevitably have been cut to pieces, but for the intervention of the same troops, performing in its behalf the same service that, a few moments before, they had done for the right. This retreat took place in exactly fifty-two minutes after the first shot was fired—the enemy leaving two twelve and six six pounders on the field, with the loss of more than four hundred officers and men, killed, wounded, and captured, and among them the flower of his officers, viz: General Frazer, Major Ackland,[FN-5] Sir Francis Cook, and many others.
[FN-1] General Burgoyne afterward stated to Wilkinson, in conversation, that his purpose on that day was only to reconnoiter and obtain forage, and that in half an hour, had his motives not been penetrated by Wilkinson and he not been attacked, he should have finished his observations and returned to his camp.
[FN-2] Wilkinson's Memoirs.
[FN-3] Holmes.
[FN-4] Memoirs of General Wilkinson.
[FN-5] Idem. General Wilkinson gives an interesting incident respecting Major Ackland. While pursuing the flying enemy, passing over killed and wounded, he heard a voice exclaim—"Protect me, sir, against this boy!" Turning his head, he saw a lad, thirteen or fourteen years of age, deliberately aiming at a wounded officer, lying in the angle of a worm-fence. The purpose of the boy was arrested—the officer proved to be the brave Ackland who had commanded the grenadiers, and was wounded in both legs. He was immediately sent to head-quarters. The story of Major Ackland has been rendered familiar to all, even before escaping the nursery, by the interesting narrative of Lady Harriet, his wife, who was with the army, and who, two days after the battle, came to the American camp, under a flag, to join her husband. The incident, from the embellishments it received, was touching and romantic. When divested of its poetry, however, and reduced to the plain matter of fact, according to the statement of the late General Dearborn, which he authorized Wilkinson to publish in his memoirs, the affair was not so very extraordinary that it might not have been enacted by any other pretty woman under the same circumstances, who loved her husband. Major Ackland had already been sent down to Albany, when Lady Harriet arrived at the camp of General Gates. She was treated with all possible courtesy, and permitted to follow and join him. Major Ackland was a gallant officer and a generous foe. While in New-York, on his parole, he did all in his power to favor the treatment of distinguished American prisoners. After his return to England, he sacrificed his life in defence of American honor. Having procured a regiment, at a dinner of military men, the courage of the Americans was questioned. He repelled the imputation with decision. High words ensued, in the course of which Ackland gave the lie direct to a subordinate officer named Lloyd. A meeting was the consequence, in which he was shot through the head. Lady Harriet lost her senses, and continued deranged two years; after which she married a gentleman named Brudenell, who had accompanied her from the camp of Burgoyne, at Saratoga, to that of Gates, in search of her wounded husband.
The British troops had scarcely entered their lines, when the Americans, led by General Arnold, pressed forward, and, under a tremendous fire of grape-shot and musketry, assaulted their works throughout their whole extent from right to left. Toward the close of the day, the enemy's intrenchments were forced by the left of the Americans, led by Arnold in person, who, with a few of his men, actually entered the works; but his horse being killed, and the General himself badly wounded in the leg, they were forced to retire, and the approach of darkness induced them to desist from the attack. [FN-1] Meantime, on the left of Arnold's detachment, the Massachusetts troops, under Colonel Brooks, had been still more successful—having turned the enemy's right, and carried by storm the works occupied by the German reserve. Colonel Breyman, their commander, was killed; and his corps, reduced to two hundred men, and hotly pressed on all sides, was obliged to give way. This advantage was retained by the Americans; and darkness put an end to an action equally brilliant and important to the Continental arms. Great numbers of the enemy were killed, and two hundred prisoners taken. The loss of the Americans was inconsiderable. [FN-2]
[FN-1] Subsequent to the battle of the 19th September, and previous to that now under review, Arnold had had some difficulty with Gates. A sharp correspondence en sued, in the course of which the former demanded permission to join the Commander-in-chief in Pennsylvania. The consequence was, that Arnold found himself without any command on the 7th. He was exceedingly chafed at his position; but, orders or no orders, he could not be kept from the field. His conduct was very strange, and he has been charged by Wilkinson and others with intoxication that day. Be it so or not, before the action was over, he was in the hottest of it, and exercising command. He expressed himself foolishly and presumptuously in front of the German division; and it was without orders that he collected a few desperate followers, with whom he entered the enemy's intrenchment, where he received his wound.