Visit of Rev. Timothy Dwight to the Battle and Surrender Grounds in September 1779

Timothy Dwight, educator, born in Northhampton, Mass., May 14, 1752; died in New Haven, Conn., 11th of January, 1817. On the death of Dr. Stiles, in 1795, he was called to the presidency of Yale College -- an office which he held until his death ; and in his long and successful administration of the affairs of that college, his claims to distinction largely rest. In politics he was a Federalist of the Hamilton school, and he earnestly deprecated French ideas of education. His published works fill thirteen large octavo volumes; and his unpublished MS. would fill as many more. The late president, Theodore W. Dwight, of Columbia College, once remarked in conversation that he had a personal interest in the Saratoga Battle-Ground, "for," said he, "my grandfather, Timothy Dwight, was there as a chaplain under General Gates, and a few days before the battle he preached from the text, "I will remove far from thee the Northern Army." He subsequently became president of Yale College.

This letter, as will be seen, is filled with classical comparisons and allusions as might naturally be expected from the writer's profession.

Rev. Timothy Dwight -- for many years the distinguished president of Yale College -- was in the habit of spending his college vacations in traveling through the New England States and New York. These travels were published in four volumes in 1821; and the work is regarded as one of permanent value and interest in regard to the natural history and social condition of the country.

On one of these trips he visited the Saratoga Battle-Ground. The narrative of his visit contains nothing new regarding the battle with the exception that in speaking of the battle of the 7th of October, he states that as Arnold entered the works, Breyman, with a few of his men, saw a body of troops dressed like Americans in action. Upon his demanding with a stern voice whether they were of such a corps, a "thundering German voice" answered. "Naw," while at the same time, a fire was poured in upon him by which he was wounded in the leg. I therefore, omit the account of his visit, giving merely the writer's reflections on the battlefield. He says: "I could here almost forget that Arnold became a traitor to his country, and satisfy myself with recollecting that to his invincible gallantry, and that of the brave officers and soldiers whom he led, my country was, under God, indebted in a prime degree, for her independence and all its consequent blessings. Dr. Johnson himself could hardly forbid an American to love his country. I should think that an American, peculiarly an inhabitant of New England or New York, little to be envied whose patriotism did not gain force upon the heights of Stillwater or the plains of Saratoga. These scenes I have examined - the former with solemnity and awe, the latter with ardor and admiration, and both with enthusiasm and rapture. Here I have remembered, and here it was impossible not to remember that on this very spot a controversy was decided upon which hung the liberty and happiness of a nation destined one day to fill a continent, and of its descendants, who will probably hereafter outnumber the inhabitants of Europe.

"General Gates, to cut off the retreat of his enemy, had detached a strong body up the river in rear of the British, another to the heights opposite Saratoga, and a third still further up the river to prevent him from crossing. Our army reached the field which we surveyed with so much exultation, lying immediately north of Saratoga creek [Fish creek] and bordering the Hudson.

It is a large and beautiful interval, and is rendered not a little more beautiful to the eye by the remembrance that it was the scene of the most interesting transaction during the American war. On, this ground the northern army laid down their arms and surrendered themselves prisoners of war. The cloud which had long hung with so lowering an aspect over this part of the horizon dissolved, and the evening became serene and delightful.

Future travelers will resort to this spot with the same emotions which we experienced, and recall with enthusiasm the glorious events of which it is the perpetual memorial. It is impossible that they should not kindle with patriotism. It is to be hoped, also, that many of them will glow with piety.

Even a generous-minded Englishman must, I think, unite in his views and feelings with my own countrymen. How immensely more important to succeeding generations were these transactions than those of the plain of Marathon, that immediately affected the States of Greece only; few in the number of their inhabitants, and comprising but a speck of territory. Here was decided the destiny of a nation, inhabiting a million of square miles, independently of Louisiana, and already amounting to more than seven millions of people.

Besides the vastness of these objects, every man of candor will admit, that the religion, the laws, the government, and the manners of those people, are as superior to those of the Greeks, as their numbers and the extent of their territory who would be willing that such a body of people, so circumstanced, should be conquered, and, what is the regular consequence, enslaved? Who, especially, could be willing that such an event should take place immediately before an era, at which the lights of human liberty and happiness have so suddenly, and in such numbers, been extinguished?

The majority of the British nation earnestly wished, that the Americans might not be conquered, while they wished, also, that their country might not be separated from the national domain. The ablest men in the councils of the Kingdom resisted the war and the measures which led to it, with unmeasurable arguments, and with irresistible eloquence.

The great Chatham solemnly warned the Parliament of the danger which was involved in reducing three millions of their fellow subjects under the dominion of the Crown, and placing them at its absolute disposal. The consequences of such an event cannot be divined, but it demands no great degree of forecast to perceive that they might have been dreadful.