[FN-1] Sparks. "It was on this occasion that one of the members made a motion in Congress, that they should compliment Colonel Wilkinson with the gift of a pair of spurs."
[FN-2] Idem. All that Gates said upon the subject in the letter referred to, was comprised in these few words:—"Congress having been requested immediately to transmit copies of all my despatches to them, I am confident your Excellency has long ago received all the good news from this quarter." Two days before this, in a letter directed to Gates, Washington had administered one of those mild and dignified rebukes so very like himself. In this letter, written in reference to a special mission of Colonel Hamilton to the North, the Commander-in-chief said:—"By this opportunity I do myself the pleasure to congratulate you on the signal success of the army under your command, in compelling General Burgoyne and his whole force to surrender themselves prisoners of war." . . . "At the same time I cannot but regret that a matter of such magnitude, and so interesting to our general operations, should have reached me by report only, or through the channel of letters not bearing that authenticity which the importance of it required, and which it would have received by a line under your signature, stating the simple facts."—Lettrs of Washington, vol. v. pages 104, 112, 113, 124, 125.
General Schuyler was in the camp with Gates at the time of the surrender, though without any personal command; and when Burgoyne, with his general officers, arrived in Albany, they were the guests of Schuyler, by whom they wore treated with great hospitality. The Baroness de Riedesel speaks with great feeling of the kindness she received from General Schuyler on her first arrival in the camp of General Gates, and afterward at the hands of Mrs. Schuyler and her daughters in Albany. The urbanity of his manners, and the chivalric magnanimity of his character, smarting as he was under the extent and severity of his pecuniary losses, are attested by General Burgoyne himself, in his speech in 1778, in the British House of Commons. He there declared that, by his orders, "a very good dwelling-house, exceeding large store-houses, great saw mills, and other out-buildings, to the value altogether perhaps of £10,000 sterling," belonging to General Schuyler, at Saratoga, were destroyed by fire a few days before the surrender. He said farther, that one of the first persons he saw, after the convention was signed, was General Schuyler; and when expressing to him his regret at the event which had happened to his property, General Schuyler desired him "to think no more of it, and that the occasion justified it, according to the principles and rules of war. He did more," said Burgoyne; "he sent an aid-de-camp [FN-1] to conduct me to Albany, in order, as he expressed it, to procure better quarters than a stranger might be able to find. That gentleman conducted me to a very elegant house, and, to my great surprise, presented me to Mrs. Schuyler and her family. In that house I remained during my whole stay in Albany, with a table of more than twenty covers for me and my friends, and every other possible demonstration of hospitality." [FN-2]
[FN-1] The late Colonel Richard Varick, then the military secretary of Gen. Schuyler.
[FN-2] Parliamentary History, vol. xix. p. 1182—as quoted by Chancellor Kent in his address before the New-York Historical Society.
[CHAPTER XIII.]
Sir Henry Clinton's attempt to co-operate with Burgoyne—Storming of Forts Clinton and Montgomery—Burning of Æsopus—Review of military operations elsewhere—Expedition to Peekskill—Of Gov. Tryon to Danbury—Progress of Sir William Howe in Pennsylvania—Battle of Brandywine—Massacre of the Paoli—Battle of Germantown—Death of Count Donop—Murder of Captain Deitz and family at Berne—John Taylor—Lady Johnson ordered to leave Albany—Exasperation of Sir John—Attempts to abduct Mr. Taylor—An Indian and white man bribed to assassinate General Schuyler—Fresh alarms in Tryon County—Address of Congress to the Six Nations—The appeal produces no effect—Articles of confederation—Close of the year.
Simultaneously with the events rapidly sketched in the preceding chapter, an expedition from New-York to the North was undertaken by Sir Henry Clinton, to which an incidental reference has already been made. The obvious intention of Sir Henry was to relieve General Burgoyne; [FN] but it was undertaken at too late a period to render him any assistance; a fact admitted by Sir Henry himself, who excused the delay by stating that he could not attempt it sooner without leaving the defences of New-York too feebly guarded. This expedition consisted of about three thousand men, convoyed by a fleet under Commodore Hotham, who proceeded up the Hudson river early in October, and was destined, in the first instance, against Forts Montgomery and Clinton, near the Southern boundary of the highlands. These fortresses had been constructed chiefly for the purpose of preventing the ships of the enemy from ascending the river, and were not defensible in the rear. They were commanded by Governor Clinton, with the assistance of General James Clinton, his brother.