ceived word from St. Clair, and army were arrived at 1 sent off detachments, one off the communication by another on the west side of rt George. It was evident Ticonderoga was intended. ame hurrying on from other ce (St. Leger's) was said to and Sir John Johnson with vay to attack Fort Schuyich was weak and poorly

Inself with his usual zeal larms. He writes urgent e of Safety of New York, Peekskill, to the governor president of Massachusetts, kshire, and lastly to Washending dangers and implorHe exhorts General Herilitia of Tryon County in

disposition prevented my returning with you, as it has given me an opportunity of being present at a battle, in which I promise myself the pleasure of seeing our army flushed with victory.” 1

The enemy came advancing up the lake on the 30th, their main body under Burgoyne on the west side, the German reserve under Baron Riedesel on the east; communication being maintained by frigates and gunboats, which, in a manner, kept pace between them. It was a magnificent array of warlike means; and the sound of drum and trumpet along the shores, and now and then the thundering of a cannon from the ships, were singularly in contrast with the usual silence of a region little better than a wilderness.

On the 1st of July, Burgoyne encamped four miles north of Ticonderoga, and began to intrench, and to throw a boom across the lake. His advanced guard under General Fraser took post at Three Mile Point, and the ships anchored just out of gunshot of the fort.

Here he issued a proclamation still more magniloquent than his speech to the Indians, denouncing woe to all who should persist in rebellion, and laying particular stress upon his means, with the aid of the Indians, to overtake the hardiest enemies of Great Britain and America, wherever they might lurk.

General St. Clair was a gallant Scotchman, who had seen service in the old French war as well as in this, and beheld the force arrayed against him without dismay. It is true his garri

1 Letter of Major Livingston to General Schuyler, MS.

HOPEFUL LETTERS OF SCHUYLER. 107

son was not so numerous as it had been repre sented to Washington, not exceeding three thou sand five hundred men, of whom nine hundred were militia. They were badly equipped also, and few had bayonets; yet as Major Livingston reported, they were in good heart. St. Clair confided, however, in the strength of his position and the works which had been constructed in connection with it, and trusted he should be able to resist any attempt to take it by storm.

Schuyler at this time was at Albany, sending up reinforcements of continental troops and militia, and awaiting the arrival of further reinforcements, for which sloops had been sent down to Peekskill.

He was endeavoring also to provide for the security of the department in other quarters. The savages had been scalping in the neighborhood of Fort Schuyler; a set of renegade Indians. were harassing the settlements on the Susquehanna; and the threatenings of Brant, the famous Indian chief, and the prospect of a British inroad by the way of Oswego, had spread terror through Tryon County, the inhabitants of which called upon him for support.

"The enemy are harassing us in every quarter of this department," writes he. "I am however, happily, thank God, in full health and spirits to enable me to extend my attention to those vari ous quarters, and hope we shall all do well." 1

The enemy's maneuver of intrenching them selves and throwing a boom across the lake, of 1 Letter to the Hon. George Clymer.

must only put forth new exertions, and proportion our efforts to the exigency of the times.”

His spirit of candor and moderation is evinced in another letter. "I will not condemn or even pass censure upon any officer unheard, but I think it a duty which General St. Clair owes to his own character, to insist upon an opportunity of giving his reasons for his sudden evacuation of a post, which, but a few days before, he, by his own letters, thought tenable, at least for a while. People at a distance are apt to form wrong conjectures, and if General St. Clair has good reasons for the step he has taken, I think the sooner he justifies himself the better. I have mentioned these matters, because he may not know that his conduct is looked upon as very unaccountable by all ranks of people in this part of the country. If he is reprehensible, the publie have an undoubted right to call for that justice which is due from an officer, who betrays or gives up his post in an unwarrantable man

ner.

Having stated the various measures adopted by Washington for the aid of the Northern army at this critical juncture, we will leave him at his encampment in the Clove, anxiously watching the movements of the fleet and the lower army, while we turn to the north, to explain the mysterious retreat of General St. Clair.

1 Letter to Schuyler, 18th July, 1777.

CHAPTER X.

Particulars of the Evacuation. - Indian Scouts in the Vicinity of the Fort. Outposts abandoned by St. Clair. - Burgoyne secures Mount Hope. - Invests the Fortress.- Seizes and occupies Sugar Hill. The Forts overlooked and in Imminent Peril. - Determination to Evacuate.- Plan of Retreat. Part of the Garrison depart for Skenesborough in the Flotilla. - St. Clair crosses with the Rest to Fort Independence. A Conflagration reveals his Retreat. - The British Camp aroused. - - Fraser pursues St. Clair. - Burgoyne with his Squadron makes after the Flotilla. - Part of the Fugitives overtaken. -Flight of the Remainder to Fort Anne. Skirmish of Colonel Long. Retreat to Fort Attack of his Rear

Edward. guard. Fall of Colonel Francis. - Desertion of Colonel Hale. - St. Clair reaches Fort Edward. - Consternation of the Country.-Exultation of the British.

N the accounts given in the preceding chapter of the approach of Burgoyne to Ticonderoga, it was stated that he had encamped four miles north of the fortress, and intrenched himself. On the 2d of July, Indian scouts made their appearance in the vicinity of a blockhouse and some outworks about the strait or channel leading to Lake George. As General St. Clair did not think the garrison sufficient to defend all the outposts, these works with some adjacent saw-mills were set on fire and abandoned. The extreme left of