It has often been said that there is now nothing left on the ground where the Battles of Saratoga were fought, to distinguish the places where our ; patriot fathers gained memorable victories ; that intrenches have been filled in, the breastworks obliterated, and the whole battle ground turned into cultivated fields and luxuriant pastures, where flocks and herds are quietly grazing.

These statements, however, are most erroneous. On the contrary, the face of the country has undergone scarcely any change; the same trees, the same brooks, and even the same stones and bridges remaining in the precise localities where they wer sketched by Burgoyne's engineers. In fact, it may truthfully be said that both the Saratoga Battle and Surrender Grounds are, perhaps, the only Revolutionary spots which yet retain numerous traces to recall the memories of the stirring scenes enacted on their sites. Among these may be mentioned the: following, which still (1895) exist:

First

The breastworks which surrounded Riedesel's Brunwickers, and at the south-eastern extremity of which the Hanau artillery, under Captain Pausch, was placed (enclosing an area of, perhaps, twenty acres), are yet easily traced, being still two, and in some places five feet high. In the center of this space, and in the midst of a dense wood, is seen the old camp well used by this portion of Burgoyne's army.

Second

The traces of Breyman's intrenchments are yet to be seen very plainly. The place is con. siderably elevated by nature, and is known among the farmers in the vicinity as Burgoyne's Hill. Properly, it should be Breyman's Hill. It was at the northeast corner of this eminence that Arnold was wounded.

Third

The stump of the basswood tree, with another large tree grown out of its top, under which General Fraser was seated on his horse when mortally wounded by Morgan's sharpshooter, Pat Murphy, yet stands by the side of the road.

Fourth

The house which was the headquarters of Generals Arnold, Learned and Poor, before, during and after the two actions, is still standing in excellent preservation.

Fifth

The barn which served as a hospital for the wounded Americans, remains to mark the spot where so many gallant men suffered and died, the timbers of which are as solid as when first put in.

Sixth

The foundations and cellar of the house in which General Fraser died while being ministered to by Madam Riedesel, are yet clearly seen by the river bank.

Seventh

The "Ensign House," which received a portion of Burgoyne's wounded, together with the tall Dutch clock which ticked off the numbered minutes of the dying, still remain.

Eighth

The sleepers of the bridge which Burgoyne threw across the " great ravine," just before he crossed it to fall in with the scouting party of Morgan on the afternoon of the 19th, are perfectly sound.

Ninth

Numerous trees, which were standing at the time of the battles, still keep in their trunks the bullets firea from the guns of Cilley's New Hampshire troops.*

(*While at Saratoga, this last summer, a farmer brought in a load of wood cut from the battle-field. One of the sticks had embedded in it twelve grape shot. This stick is now in the possession of Mr. H. B. Hanson of Saratoga Springs, an exceedingly worthy citizen and patriotic gentleman.)

Tenth

Not a season passes that cannon balls, grape shot, skeletons, stone and iron tomahawks, short carbines, used by the German yagers, and similar relics, are not plowed up by the husbandman.

Leaving now the battle grounds proper and following the river road along the line of the retreat and pursuit from Wilbur's Basin to Saratoga (now Schuylerville), the traveler is confronted by many souvenirs of a similar character. Chief among these may be mentioned, first; the foundations of the "Dovegat House" at Coveville, in which Burgoyne and his staff rested for one night, both on the advance and on the retreat, and which is rendered additionally interesting from its having been the starting point of Lady Acland, when, accompanied by Parson Brudenell, she set out in a frail boat, and in the midst of darkness and a cold autumnal storm, to rejoin her husband then lying wounded in the American camp; and, secondly; "Sword's House," the cellar bricks of which still are visible, and around which the British army encamped on the evening previous to the action of September 19.

Arrived at Schuylerville, the tourist of to-day may see the high breastworks of Gates'intrenched army, whence was thrown the cannon ball which took off the leg of mutton from the table around which Burgoyne and his officers were seated. A little way from this, on the north side of Fish creek, Morgan's intrenchments, several feet in height, are easily traced. The breastworks, also, of General Fellows, on the north side of the Battenkill and the east bank of the Hudson, are nearly as high at the present time as when they contained the cannon from which was thrown the ball that took off the leg of the British surgeon, Jones (see Madam Riedeel's Memoirs).

Again, on the north, the plow has not yet leveled the intrenchments hastily thrown up by Stark, who thus made the investiture of the British army complete -- catching it, as it were, like a mouse in a trap; while the cellar in which Mrs. Riedesel took refuge, with her children, during the cannonade from Fellows' batteries, is kept in excellent condition by Mrs. Marshall, who lives in the house and takes patriotic pride in its possession; and finally the exact place where the British crossed the Hudson, just below the Saratoga Falls about two miles above Schuylerville, is marked by the intrenchments which were at that time thrown up to cover the passage up the river, and which can still be seen very plainly. They are three hundred feet in length and from four to five feet high, but are overgrown with scrub pines.

Mr. Rogers, whose grandfather lived on the farm at the time, informed me that within thirty years the wooden platforms for the cannon were in existence behind the intrenchment. The survey of the railroad from Greenwich to Saratoga Springs was through these intrenchments. Surely these various objects of interest all lying within a comparative stone's throw of the actual surrender ground, furnish -- even more than those on the immediate battle-field -- lasting memorials of a conquered army.