Visit by Professor Silliman to the Battle Grounds in 1819

The following account of the visit of Professor Silliman to the battle ground--although he was not a participant in the battle--has value, from the fact that his relation is derived mainly from his guide, Major Buel, who was in the conflict. In the course of his narrative -- to avoid repetition -- wherever he has quoted from Wilkinson or Mrs. Riedesel, passages which are familiar to the readers of my previous works, I have placed stars.

This extract is taken from the edition of 1824.

HOUSE IN WHICH GENERAL FRASER DIED.

Ten o'clock at night.

We are now on memorable ground. Here much precious blood was shed, and now, in the silence and solitude of a very dark and rainy night -- the family asleep, and nothing heard but the rain and the Hudson gently murmuring along, I am writing in the very house, and my table stands on the very spot in the room where General Fraser breathed his last, on the 8th of October, 1777.

He was mortally wounded in the last of the two desperate battles fought on the neighboring heights, and in the midst of the conflict was brought to this house by the soldiers. Before me lies one of the bullets shot on that occasion ; they are often found in plowing the battle field.

Blood is asserted, by the people of the house, to have been visible here on the floor till a very recent period.

General Fraser was high in command in the British army, and was almost idolized by them ; they had the utmost confidence in his skill and valor, and that the Americans entertained a similar opinion of him is sufficiently evidenced by the following anecdote, related to me at Ballston Springs, in 1797, by the Hon. Richard Brent.*

(* Brent, Richard, U. S. Senator; b. in Virginia; d. in Washington, D. C., Dec- 30, 1814. He was Representative in Congress from Dec. 7, 1795, till March 3, 1799, and again from Dec. 7, 18oi, till March, 1803. He was elected Senator from Virginia and served from 22d May, 18og, till his death.)

Brent was then a member of Congress from Virginia, who derived the fact from General Morgan's own mouth:

In the battle of October, the seventh, the last pitched battle that was fought between the two armies, General Fraser, mounted on an iron gray horse, was very conspicuous. He was all activity, courage and vigilance, riding from one part of his division to another, and animating the troops by his example. Wherever he was present everything prospered, and when confusion appeared in any part of the line, order and energy were restored by his arrival.

Colonel Morgan, with his Virginia riflemen, was immediately opposed to Fraser's division of the army.

It had been concerted, before the commencement of the battle, that while the New Hampshire and the New York troops attacked the British left, Colonel Morgan, with his regiment of. Virginia riflemen, should make a circuit so as to come upon the British right, and attack them there. In this attempt, he was favored by a woody hill, to the foot of which the British right extended. When the attack commenced on the British left, "true to his purpose, Morgan at this critical moment, poured down like a torrent from the hill, and attacked the right of the enemy in front and flank." The right wing soon made a movement to support the left, which was assailed with increased violence, and while executing this movement, General Fraser received his mortal wound.

In the midst of this sanguinary battle, Colonel Morgan took a few of his best riflemen aside; men in whose fidelity, and fatal precision of aim, he could repose the most perfect confidence, and said to them: "That gallant officer is General Fraser; I admire and respect him, but it is necessary that he should die -- take your stations in that wood and do your duty." Within a few moments General Fraser fell, mortally wounded.

How far, such personal designation is justifiable, has often been questioned, but those who vindicate war at all, contend, that to shoot a distinguished officer, and thus to accelerate the conclusion of a bloody battle, operates to save lives, and that it is, morally, no worse, to kill an illustrious, than an obscure individual; a Fraser, than a common soldier; a Nelson, than a common sailor. But, there is something very revolting to humane feelings, in a mode of warfare, which converts its ordinary chances into a specie of military execution. Such instances, were, however, frequent, during the campaign of General Burgoyne; and his Aide-de-Camp, Sir Francis Clark, and many other British officers, were victims of American marksmanship.

Retiring at a late hour to my bed, it will be easily perceived, that the tender and heroic ideas, associated with this memorable house, would strongly possess my mind. The night was mantled in black clouds, and impenetrable darkness; the rain, increasing, descended in torrents upon the roof of this humble mansion; the water, urged from the heights, poured with loud and incessant rumbling, through a neighboring aqueduct; and the Hudson, as if conscious that blood had once stained its waters and its banks, rolled along with sullen murmurs; the distinguished persons, who forty-two years since, occupied this tenement -- the agonized females -- the terrified, imploring children -- and the gallant chiefs, in all the grandeur of heroic suffering and death, were vividly present to my mind -all the realities of the night, and the sublime and tender images of the past, conspired to give my faculties too much activity for sleep, and I will not deny that the dawning light was grateful to my eyes!

The rain having ceased, I was on horseback at early dawn with a veteran guide to conduct me to the battleground. Although he was seventy-five years old, he did not detain me a moment: in consequence of an appointment the evening before, he was waiting my arrival at his house, a mile below our inn, and, declining any aid, he mounted a tall horse from the ground. His name was Ezra Buel,* a native of Lebanon, in Connecticut, which place he left in his youth, and was settled here at the time of General Burgoyne's invasion.

(* Called colloquially, in the neighborhood, Major Buel, a rank which he never had in the army, but which was facetiously assigned him while in the service, by his brother guides. He is much respected as a worthy man.- Edition of 1820.

Major Buel, I believe, still lives. I saw him at Ballston Springs, in July, 1823, still active and useful, although almost fourscore ; he was then acting as crier of a state court at that time in session at Ballston.- March, 1824. Edition of 1824.

The reader, for a further glimpse of Buel, is referred to Wirt's visit.-S.)

Buel acted through the whole time as a guide to the American army, and was one of three who were constantly employed in that service. His duty led him to be always foremost, and in the post of danger, and he was, therefore, admirably qualified for my purpose.

The two great battles which decided the fate of Burgoyne's army were fought, the first on the 19th of September, and the last, on the 7th of October, on Bemis' heights, and very nearly on the same ground, which is about two miles west of the river.

The river is in this region bordered for many miles by a continued meadow of no great breadth : upon this meadow there was then, as there is now, a good road close to the river, and parallel to it. Upon this road marched the heavy artillery and baggage, constituting the left wing of the British army, while the 61it~, forming the right wing, and composed of light troops, was kept constantly in advance on the heights which bound the meadows.

The American army was south and west of the British, its right wing on the river and its left resting on the heights, We passed over a part of their camp a little below Stillwater.*

(In May, 1821, I again visited these battlegrounds, and availed myself of that opportunity, in company with my faithful old guide, Major Buel, to explore the camp of General Gates. It is situated about three miles below Smith's tavern (the house where General Fraser died), and is easily approached by a cross road, which turns up the heights from the great river road. It is not more than half a mile from the river to the camp.

I found it an interesting place, and would recommend it to travelers to visit this spot, as they will thus obtain a perfectly clear idea of the relative position of the hostile armies, and of the route pursued by the Americans when they marched out to battle. The outlines of the camp are still distinctly visible, being marked by the lines of defence which were thrown up on the occasion, and which, although depressed by time, will long be conspicuous, if they are not leveled by the plow. My guide pointed out the ground occupied by the different corps of the army.

Colonel Morgan, with the Virginia riflemen, was in advance, on the right, that is, nearest the river; the advance was the post always coveted by this incomparable corps, and surely none could claim it with more propriety. There was much danger that the enemy would attempt to storm the camp of the Americans, and had they been successful in either of the great battles (Sept. 19 and Oct. 7). they would, without doubt, have attacked the camp,

The most interesting object that I saw in this camp was the house which was General Gates's headquarters. I am afraid that the traveler may not long find this memorable house, for it was much dilapidated--a part of the roof had fallen in, and the winds whistled through the naked timbers. One room was, however, tenantable, and was occupied by a cooper and his family. From the style of the panel-work and finishing of this room, the house appears to have been in its day one of the better sort -the panels were large and handsome and the door was still ornamented with brass handles.

Here Sir Francis Clark, aide-de-camp to General Burgoyne, being mortally wounded and taken prisoner, languished and died. General Wilkinson has recorded some interesting passages of his last moments, particularly his animated discussions with General Gates on the merits of the contest. The recollection of the fate of this brave but unfortunate officer will always be associated with this building while a single timber of it remains.-Edition of 1824.

The house here referred to is the present (1895) it old Neilson Farm House." It has been repaired, and is in an excellent state of preservation, chiefly through the efforts of the H on. D. S. Potter, of Glens Falls, N. Y. Mr. Potter, a trustee of the Saratoga Monument Association, and a very patriotic man, deserves great credit for his exertions to keep intact the different sites of the Battle Grounds.-S.)

My veteran guide, warmed by my curiosity, and recalling the feelings of his prime, led me, with amazing rapidity, and promptitude, over fences and ditches -- through water and mire -- through ravines and defiles-through thick forests, and open fieldsand up and down very steep hills ; in short, through many places, where, alone, I would not have ventured; but, it would have been shameful for me not to follow where a man of seventy-five would lead, and to hesitate to explore inftace, the ground, which the defenders of their country, and their foes, once trod in steps of blood.*

(* My guide conducted me from the American camp along the summit of the heights, by the same route, which was pursued by our gallant countrymen, when they advanced to meet their formidable foe, and I had the satisfaction of treading the same ground which they trod, in the silence and solemnity of impending conflict.

In pursuing this route, the traveler, if accompanied by an intelligent guide, will have a very interesting opportunity of marking the exact places where the advanced guards and front lines of the contending armies met. In this manner we advanced quite to Freeman's farm, the great scene of slaughter, and thence descended again to the center of the British encampment on the plains.)

On our way to Freeman's farm *,

(There is a barn now standing near Freeman's farm, one of the beams of which contains a six-pound ball. It was imbedded in the tree out of which the timber was cut ; and the builder considerately left the ball in as a memento.- S.)

We traced the line of the British encampment, still marked by a breast work of logs, now rotten, but retaining their forms ; they were at the time covered with earth and the barrier between contending armies, is now a fence, to mark the peaceful divisions of agriculture. This breast work, I suppose to be a part of the line of encampment, occupied by General Burgoyne, after the battle of the 19th of September, and which was stormed on the evening of the 7th of October.

The old man showed me the exact spot, where an accidental skirmish, between advanced parties of the two armies, soon brought on the general and bloody battle of September 19.

This was on Freeman's farm, a field which was then cleared, although surrounded by forest. The British picket here occupied a small house. *

(* Major Forbes, of the British army, states, that the American picket occupied the house; both facts might have been true at different periods of the affair.)

A part of Colonel Morgan's corps fell in with, and immediately drove them from it, leaving the house almost "encircled with their dead." *

(* The role which Morgan played in the defeat of Burgoyne, and also the ungrateful treatment he experienced at the hands of the quasi conquerer, Gates, is shown by the following extract from Lee's Memoirs:

"When it is considered that the glory of this was largely shared in by a number of gallant leaders and their commands, most of whom found frequent opportunities during the struggle to distinguish themselves, honorable testimony from General Burgoyne, in reference to Colonel Morgan and his corps, is significant of the superiority which he assigned them. On his introduction to Morgan, after the capitulation, he took him warmly by the hand, with the observation, 'Sir, you command the finest regiment in the world.'

"But, notwithstanding the important serviceswhich Morgan rendered in the campaign -services which won him the praises of the army and made his name familiar with friends and foes throughout the country -they were not deemed worthy of more than a cursory notice in General Gates's dispatches. His name was not even mentioned in the official account of the surrender, to the accomplishment of which he had contributed so largely.

This was the more extraordinary from the fact that General Gates had not only asked Washington for him, but had, from his first arrival at the camp to the surrender, evinced a high degree of confidence in his military character and a friendly regard for him personally. Before a week had elapsed after the closing scenes of the campaign, however, this conduct had undergone a total change. Gates not only denied Morgan justice in his communications to Congress, but in their official and personal intercourse treated him with marked reserve.

"The clue to this otherwise inexplicable circumstance is probably furnished in the following anecdote, related by Morgan himself: Immediately after the surrender, Morgan visited Gates on business, when he was taken aside by the general and confidentially told that the main army was extremely dissatisfied with the conduct of the war by the commander-in- chief, and that several of the best officers threatened to resign unless a change took place. Morgan perfectly understood the views of Gates in this conference, although he was then a stranger to the correspondence which he had held with Conway and others, and sternly replied, 'I have one favor to ask of you, sir, which is, never to mention that detestible subject to me again; for under no other man than Washington, as commander- in-chief, would I ever serve.'

"From this time until the spring of 1781 all intimacy between Gates and Morgan ceased. A day or two after the foregoing interchange of views, General Gates gave a dinner to the principal officers of the British army. A large number of American officers were invited, but Morgan was not among the number. So signal a mark of Gates's unfriendliness to Morgan could not pass unobserved, either by himself or by his brother officers.

The cause was buried in the bosom of the parties themselves, and conjecture, though widespread, was at a loss to account for it. Before the entertainment was over, however, the petty indignity recoiled with severity upon its author. Morgan had occasion, during the evening, to seek an interview with General Gates on business connected with his command. He was ushered into the dining-room, and having arranged the matters in hand, was permitted by Gates to withdraw without even the empty ceremony of an introduction to the British officers present. A number of the latter, struck by the commanding figure and noble mien of the colonel, and noticing that he was a field officer, inquired his name as soon as he had retired. On learning that it was Colonel Morgan, they instantly rose to a man from the table, overtook him in the road, and severally taking him by the hand, made themselves known to him, frankly declaring, at the same time, that they had felt him severely on the field.

"British officers had good reason to know him. He frequently told his men, whom he familiarly called his boys, to shoot at those who wore epaulettes, rather than the poor fellows who fought for sixpence a day, and the sequel proved that he was obeyed to the letter. At the first glance many would condemn a practice of this kind, as adding unnecessarily to the sanguinary features of war. But this constitutes one of the principal arguments in its defence. Every additional horror which war acquires lessens in a corresponding degree the likelihood of a resort to it, and thus tends to perpetuate the blessings of peace.

The primary object of battles being the defeat of an opponent, few means the necessary to its accomplishment are considered illegitimate. Among these is certainly not included that whereby an adversary is struck in the most vital part, else why employ marksmen, whose business it is to exercise their skill against particular objects ? Even veteran soldiers have thus been thrown into confusion, and become little more efficient than an undisciplined mob.

The following from the Saraloga Journal, August 3, 1885, entitled "An Interesting Historical Relic," is here in point: "Mr. Jesse B. Neville, of Columbus, Ohio, who has been enjoying the summer at Dr. Strong's, is the owner of a highly interesting memorial of the Revolution, which he has kindly consented to let our visitors and citizens see. It is the gold medal, containing $500 worth of that precious metal, presented by Congress to General Daniel Morgan, the heroic commander of Morgan's famous Riflemen, who did such splendid work in the battles which compelled Burgoyne's surrender. The occasion of this splendid gift was the great victory won by Morgan over Colonel Tarleton, the scourge of the Carolinas, in the important battle of Cowpens, January 17, 1781. There were no artificers competent to do such work in America at that time, so the order was sent to France, and the scenes depicted were designed by Dupre, a noted artist of that friendly nation.

On the front of the medal is a scene showing General Morgan, who was the most noted Indian fighter of his day, in the act of being. crowned with a laurel wreath by one of the original sons of the forest. The inscription reads: " Danieli Morgan, Duci Exercitus. Comitia Americana." On the reverse is a very finely executed relief, showing Morgan leading a charge against the fleeing British, with flags flying, and wreaths of battle smoke sailing away in the distance. The work is exquisitely done and its artistic value is very great. On this side the inscription reads: " Victoria Libertatis Vindex." Fugatis captis aut coesis ad Cowpens Hosbitus. XVII Jan. MDCCLXXXI. The medal will be left on exhibition at E. R. Waterbury's jewelry store, near the Arcade entrance, for several days.")

The pursuing party immediately, and very unexpectedly, fell in with the British line, and were in part captured, and the rest dispersed.

This incident occurred at half-past twelve o'clock, there was an intermission till one, when the action was sharply renewed; but it did not become general; till three, from which time it raged with unabated fury, till night.

General Burgoyne states that there was scarcely ever an interval of a minute in the smoke, when some British officer was not shot by the American riflemen, posted in the trees, in the rear and on the flank of their own line. A shot which was meant for General Burgoyne, severely wounded Captain Green, an aid-de-camp of General Phillips: the mistake was owing to the captain's having a richly laced furniture to his saddle, which caused the marksman to mistake him for the general.

Such was the ardor of the Americans, that, as General Wilkeson states, the wounded men, after having their wounds dressed, in many instances, returned again into the battle.

The battle of the seventh of October was fought on the same ground, but was not so stationary ; it commenced farther to the right, and extended, in its various periods, over more surface, eventually occupying not only Freeman's farm, but it was urged by the Americans, to the very camp of the enemy, which, towards night, was most impetuously stormed, and in part carried.*

(*It was the intention of the Americans to renew the battle on the following day, viz., the 8th, and why it was not renewed has ever been a mystery some writers attributing it to the lack of ammunition. This explanation I give in my " Burgoyne's Campaign." Since that work was published, however, I have come into possession of a MS. map of the acttion of the 7th, made by Col. Rufus Putnam (a cousin of Gen. Israel), which explains the seeming mystery. On this map there are put down some deep ravines between Burgoyne's Hospital and Wilbur's Basin, and the American forces, with this remark on the map in Putnam's hand-writing: "British redoubts having in front a deep hollow ground full of trees and logs which prevented an attack on the British army that (the 8th) day.")

The interval between the 19th of September and the 7th of October, was one of great anxiety to both armies; "not a night passed," says General Burgoyne, "without firing, and sometimes concerted attacks upon our pickets; no foraging party could be made without great detachments to cover it; it was the plan of the enemy to harass the army by constant alarms, and their superiority of numbers enabled them to attempt it, without fatigue to themselves. By being habituated to fire, our soldiers became indifferent to it, and were capable of eating or sleeping when it was very near them; but I do not believe either officer or soldier ever slept during that interval, without his clothes, or that any general officer, or commander of a regiment, passed a single night without being upon his legs occasionally, at different hours, and constantly, an hour before daylight."

The battle of the 7th was brought on by a movement of General Burgoyne, who caused 1,500 men, with ten pieces of artillery, to march toward the left of the American army for the purpose of discovering whether it was possible to force a passage ; or in case a retreat of the royal army should become indispensable, to dislodge the Americans from their intrenchments, and also to cover a foraging excursion, which had now become pressingly necessary.*

(* Also an error. " The foraging party," says Gen. Riedesel, " was made the day previous to the battle of the 7th." The gathering of forage while the army were forming for battle was merely an incident. Hence the confusion which has arisen on this subject.)

It was about the middle of the afternoon that the British were observed advancing, and the Americans, with small arms, lost no time in attacking the British grenadiers and artillery, although under a tremendous fire from the latter; the battle soon extended along the whole line: Colonel Morgan, at the same moment, attacked with his riflemen, on the right wing; Colonel Acland, the commander of the grenadiers, fell wounded; the grenadiers were defeated and most of the artillery taken, after great slaughter. *

(* In this connection it is not inappropriate to quote the following from the N. Y. Tribune, Dec. 15, 1885: "The Earl of Carnarvon, late colonial secretary of Great Britain, recently sent to William L. Stone a tiny gold slipper that was worn by his great-grandmother, Lady Harriet Acland, while she was with Burgoyne's army during the American Revolution. The note accompanying the gift, referring to Mr. Stone's memoir of Lady Acland, said: It is a matter of no uncommon pleasure to me to see my family history thus preserved on the other side of the Atlantic. It renews a feeling that very often comes across me, that the identity and sympathies of race remain wholly untouched by a hundred years of separation -perhaps, are all the stronger for the nominal differences. Last year, when I was in America, I only felt that I was in another and distant part of England." Since this was written Lord Carnarvon has died. Still, it is a pleasure to record his feelings toward us in America.

Col. Acland, when wounded, was taken to Joseph Bird's tent, where his wife nursed him. MS. letter to the editor from B. R. L. Westover, of Castleton, Vt., Feb. io, 1886. Mr. Westover is a descendant of Bird. For a long sketch of Col, and Lady Acland -- see my "Burgoyne Ballads." S.)

At the end of a most sanguinary contest, of less than one hour, the discomfiture and retreat of the British became general, and they had scarcely regained their camp before the lines were stormed with the greatest fury, and part of Lord Balcarras's camp was for a short time in our possession.

I was on the ground where the grenadiers, and where the artillery were stationed "Here, upon this hill" (said my hoary guide), "on the very spot where we now stand, the dead men lay, thicker than you ever saw sheaves on a fruitful harvest field."

"Were they British or Americans?"

"Both," he replied, " but principally British." I suppose that it is of this ground that General Wilkinson remarks, "it presented a scene of complicated horror and exultation. In the square space of twelve or fifteen yards lay eighteen grenadiers in the agony of death ; and three officers, propped up against stumps of trees, two of them mortally wounded, bleeding, and almost speechless."

My guide, proceeding with his narrative, said "There stood a British field-piece, which had been twice taken and retaken, and finally remained in our possession: I was on the ground, and said to an American colonel, who came up at the moment, 'Colonel, we have taken this piece, and now we want you to swear it true to America;' so the colonel swore it true, and we turned around and fired upon the British with their own cannon and with their own ammunition, still remaining unconsumed in their own boxes."

I was solicitous to see the exact spot where General Fraser received his mortal wound. My old guide knew it perfectly well, and pointed it out to me. It is in a meadow, just on the right of the road, after passing a blacksmith's shop and going south a few rods. The blacksmith's shop is on a road which runs parallel to the Hudson -- it stands elevated, and overlooks Freeman's farm.*

(* The great-grandfather of Mr. T. L. Stone, of Varysburgh, N. Y., viz.: Mr. Russell Stone, was near the spot at the time that Fraser fell. He was a private under Col. Thaddeus Cook. He was wounded in the hand, but his wound was not so serious as to disqualify him from service.)

I saw various places where the dead were interred; a rivulet or creek passes through the battleground and still washes out from its banks the bones of the slain. This rivulet is often mentioned in the accounts of these battles, and the deep ravine through which it passes; on our return we followed this ravine and rivulet through the greater part of their course, till they united with the Hudson.

Farm-houses are dispersed here and there, over the field of battle, and the people often find, even now, gun-barrels and bayonets, cannon-balls, grape shot, bullets and human bones. Of the three last I took from one of these people some painful specimens; some of the bullets were battered and misshaped, evincing that they had come into collision with opposing obstacles.

Entire skeletons are occasionally found; a man told me that in ploughing during the late summer, he turned one up, and it was not covered more than three inches with earth; it lay on its side, and the arms in the form of a bow; it was, probably, some solitary victim that never was buried. Such are the memorials still existing of these great military events; great, not so much on account of the numbers of the actors, as from the momentous interests at stake, and from the magnanimous efforts to which they gave origin.

I would not envy that man his state of feeling who could visit such fields of battle without emotion, or who (being an American) could fail to indulge admiration and affection for the soldiers and martyrs of liberty, and respect for the valor of their enemies.

Having taken my guide home to breakfast, we made use of his knowledge of the country to identify with certainty the place of General Fraser's interment.*

(* A full account of Gen. Fraser will be found in any of my previous works. One anecdote, however, of him, which I had not come across at the time, is here given to illustrate his true nobility of character. It is taken from Jonathan Eastman's Life of Stark (Concord, 1831), now a very rare work:

"Two of the American officers taken at Hubbardstown, relate the following anecdote of him. He saw that they were in distress, as their Continental paper would not pass with the English, and offered to loan them as much as they wished for their present circumstances. They took three guineas each. He remarked to them: 'Gentlemen, take what you wish -give me your due bills, and when we reach Albany I trust to your honor to take them up, for we shall doubtless over-run the country, and I shall probably have an opportunity of seeing you again. Gen. Fraser fell in the battle of the 7th of October ; the notes were consequently never redeemed, but the signers of them could not refrain from shedding tears at the fate of this gallant and generous enemy."

Now, these tears thus shed were all well enough in their way, but Gen. Fraser's family, in England, were well known, and no difficulty would have been experienced in discovering his heirs and forwarding the sum lent by him to them. Perha s they did so, of which, however, I have my doubts; but it would have been much more satisfactory had Eastman been able to state that the money thus so generously loaned had been returned! Tears are certainly a cheap method of paying one's debts!)

General Burgoyne mentions two redoubts that were thrown up on the hills behind his hospital; they are both still very distinct, and in one of these which is called the great redoubt by the officers of General Burgoyne's army, General Fraser was buried. It is true it has been disputed, which is the redoubt in question, but our guide stated to us, that within his knowledge a British sergeant, three or four years after the surrender of Burgoyne's army, came and pointed out the grave. We went to the spot; it is within the redoubt, on the top of the hill nearest to the house where the general died, and corresponds with the plate in Anbury's Travels, taken from an original drawing made by Sir Francis Clarke, aid-decamp to General Burgoyne, and with the statement of the general in his defense, as well as with the account of Madam Reidesel.

The place of the interment was formerly designated by a little fence surrounding the grave. I was here in 1797, twenty- two years ago; the grave was then distinctly visible.*

(* Now (1895), two tall pines stand like giant sentinels on top of this hill, watching over the dead.)

On the present occasion I did not visit the British fortified camp. *

(* In May, 1821, I again visited this fortified camp, and found it as perfect as it was when I saw it nearly twenty-three years before, and almost every particular stated in the text was strictly applicable to it. It is about a mile from the river, and was certainly chosen with great good judgment, and had the American army attempted to take it by storm, it would evidently have cost them very dear. [Why the Americans did not attempt it, see note ante.] While at Ballston Springs during the late summer, some gentlemen of our party made an excursion to this place, and I learned from them, with extreme regret that the plow was passing over the fortified camp of General Burgoyne and that its fine parapet would soon be levelled so that scarcely a trace of it would remain. See note in advance about Fraser's remains.)

When I was here in 1797, I examined it particularly. It was then in perfect preservation (I speak of the encampment of the British troops upon the hill near the Fish kil), the parapet was high and covered with grass and shrubs, and the platforms of earth to support the fieldpieces were still in good condition.

No devastation of any consequence had been committed, except by the credulous, who had made numerous excavations in the breastworks and' various parts of the encampment for the purpose of discovering the money which the officers were supposed to have buried and abandoned. It is scarcely necessary to add that they never found any money, for private property was made sacred by the convention, and even the public military chest was not disturbed; the British retained every shilling that it contained. Under such circumstances to have buried their money would have been almost as great a folly as the subsequent search for it. This infatuation has not, however, gone by, even to this hour, and still, every year new pits are excavated by the insatiable money diggers.*

(* "This appears to be a very common popular delusion; in many places on the Hudson, and about the lakes where the armies had lain or moved, we found money pits dug, and in one place they told us that a man bought of a poor widow the right of digging in his ground for the hidden treasure."

Notwithstanding Professor Silliman's remark -- true in the main -- a laborer some thirty years since, in digging in Leggett's barn-yard, the site of the great redoubt on which was Freeman's farm, found enough gold with which to buy a farm on the shore of Saratoga Lake. This incident reminds one of the father of Mr. William Alexander English (Buck English, as he was called), whose father, a day laborer, being at work on the lands of Shoonhill, County of Tipperary, Ireland, found a large earthen vase filled with gold, supposed to have been hidden there upon the arrival of Cromwell at the siege of Clonmell. With this money old Mr. English purchased lands and houses. See previous note about Congdon's gold.)

We arrived at this interesting spot (the field of the surrender), in a very fine morning; the sun shone with great splendor upon the flowing Hudson and upon the beautiful heights and the luxuriant meadows, now smiling in rich verdure and exhibiting images of tranquility and loveliness very opposite to the horrors of war which were once witnessed here.

The Fish kil, swollen by abundant rains (as it was on the morning of October 10, 1777, when General Burgoyne passed it with his artillery), now poured a turbid torrent along its narrow channel, and roaring down the declivity of the hills, hastened to mingle its waters with those of the Hudson.

We passed the ruins of General Schuyler's house, which are still conspicuous, and hastened to the field where the British troops grounded their arms. Although, in 1797, I paced it over in juvenile enthusiasm,*

(* In company with the Hon. John Elliott, now a senator from Georgia, and John Wynn, Esq., from the same State. Note to 1st edition.)

I felt scarcely less interested on the present occasion, and again walked over the whole tract. It is a beautiful meadow, situated at the intersection of the Fish kil, with the Hudson, and north of the former.

There is nothing now to distinguish the spot, except the ruins of old Fort Hardy, built during the French wars, and the deeply interesting historical associations which will cause this place to be memorable to the latest generation. Thousands and thousands yet unborn will visit Saratoga with feelings of the deepest interest, and it will not be forgotten till Thermopylae and Marathon and Bannockburn and Waterloo shall cease to be remembered. There it will be said were the last entrenchments of a proud invading army; on that spot stood their formidable park of artillery-and here, on this now peaceful meadow they piled their arms! their arms no longer terrible, but now converted into a glorious trophy of victory!

I have adverted but little to the sufferings of the American army, because but little, comparatively, is known of what they individually endured. Excepting the inevitable casualties of battle, they must have suffered much less than their enemies, for they soon ceased to be the flying and became the attacking and triumphant party. Colonels Colburn, Adams, Francis and many other brave officers and men gave up their lives as the price of their country's liberty, and very many carried away with them the scars produced by honorable wounds. The bravery of the American army was fully acknowledged by their adversaries.

"At all times," said Lord Balcarras, "when I was opposed to the rebels they fought with great courage and obstinacy. We were taught by experience that neither their attacks nor resistance was to be despised."

Speaking of the retreat of the Americans from Ticonderoga, and of their behaviour at the battle of Hubberton, Lord Balcarras adds : "Circumstanced as the enemy were, as an army very hard pressed in their retreat, they certainly behaved with great gallantry;" of the attack on the lines on the evening of the 7th of October, he says : "The lines were attacked, and with as much fury as the fire of small arms can admit."

Lord Balcarras had said that he never knew the Americans to defend their entrenchments, but added:

"The reason why they did not defend their entrenchments was that they always marched out of them and attacked us."

Captain Money, in answer to the question whether on the 19th of September the Americans disputed the field with obstinacy, answered : "They did, and the fire was much hotter than I ever knew it anywhere, except at the affair at Fort Anne; " and speaking of the battle of October 7th, and of the moment when the Americans, with nothing but small arms, were marching up to the British artillery, he adds : "I was very much astonished to* hear the shot from the enemy fly so thick after our cannonade had lasted a quarter of an hour."

General Burgoyne gives it as his opinion that as rangers, "perhaps there are few better in the world than the corps of Virginia riflemen which acted under Colonel Morgan." He says, speaking of the battle of September 19th, that "few actions have been characterized by more obstinacy in attack or defense. The British bayonet was repeatedly tried ineffectually."

Remarking upon the battle of the 7th of October, he observes: "If there be any persons who continue to doubt that the Americans possess the quality and faculty of fighting, call it by whatever term they please, they are of a prejudice that it would be very absurd longer to contend with ; "he says that in this action the British troops "retreated hard pressed, but in good order," and that "the troops had scarcely entered the camp when it was stormed with great fury, the enemy rushing to the lines under a severe fire of grape shot and small arms."

In a private letter addressed to Lord George Germain, after the surrender, he says: "I should now hold myself unjustifiable, if I did not confide to your lordship my opinion upon a near inspection of the rebel troops. The standing corps that I have seen are disciplined. I do not hazard the term, but apply it to the great fundamental points of military institution, sobriety, subordination, regularity and courage.

It is very gratifying to every real American to find that for so great a prize his countrymen (their enemies themselves being judges) contended so nobly, and that their conduct for bravery, skill and humanity will stand the scrutiny of all future ages.

From the enemy it becomes us not to withhold the commendation that is justly due ; all that skill and valor could effect they accomplished, and they were overwhelmed at last by complicated distress, and by very superior numbers, amounting at the time of the surrender, probably, to three for one, although the disparity was much less in the two great battles.

The vaunting proclamation of General Burgoyne at the commencement of the campaign, some of his boasting letters, written during the progress of it, and his devastation of private property reflect no honor on his memory. But, in general, he appears to have been a humane and honorable man, a scholar and a gentleman, a brave soldier and an able commander. Some of his sentiments have a higher moral tone than is common with men of his profession and have probably procured for him more respect than all his battles.*

(* This estimate of Burgoyne seems to be - after the mist of prejudice has been lifted -a just one. Indeed, seen from after standpoints, Burgoyne does not deserve the opprobrium cast at the time upon him. Time rectifies all things - even the reputations of the confederate generals of the late civil war.)

Speaking of the battle of the 7th, he says: " In the course of the action a shot had passed through my hat and another had torn my waistcoat. I should be sorry to be thought at any time insensible to the protecting hand of Providence ; but I ever more particularly considered (and I hope not superstitiously), a soldier's hairbreadth escapes as incentives to duty, a marked renewal of the trust of being, for the purposes of a public station ; and under that reflection to lose our fortitude by giving way to our affections; to be divested by any possible self-emotion from meeting a present exigency with our best faculties, were at once dishonor and impiety."

Thus have I adverted, I hope not with too much particularity, to some of the leading circumstances of the greatest military event which has ever occurred in America, but compared with the whole extent and diversity of that campaign the above notices, however extended, are few and brief. I confess I have reviewed them with a very deep interest, and have been willing to hear some of the distinguished actors speak in their own language. Should the notice of these great events tend, in any instance, to quench the odious fires of party, and to rekindle those of genuine patriotism -- should it revive in any one a veneration for the virtues of those men who faced death in every form, regardless of their own lives, and bent only on securing to posterity the precious blessings which we now enjoy, and above all, should we thus be led to cherish a higher sense of gratitude to heaven for our unexampled privileges, and to use them more temperately and wisely, the time occupied in this sketch will not have been spent in vain.

History presents no struggle for liberty which has in it more of the moral sublime than that of the American Revolution. It has been of late years too much forgotten in the sharp contentions of party, and he who endeavors to withdraw the public mind from those debasing conflicts and to fix it on the grandeur of that great epoch - which, magnificent in itself, begins now to wear the solemn livery of antiquity as it is viewed through the deepening twilight of half a century certainly performs a meritorious service and can scarcely need a justification.

The generation that sustained the conflict is now almost passed away; a few hoary heads remain, seamed with honorable scars -- a few experienced guides can still attend us to the fields of carnage and point out the places where they and their companions fought and bled and where sleep the bones of the slain. But these men will soon be gone; tradition and history will, however, continue to recite their deeds, and the latest generations will be taught to venerate the defenders of our liberties -- to visit the battle-grounds which were moistened with their blood, and to thank the mighty God of battles that the arduous conflict terminated in the entire establishment of the liberties of this country.