The Rutland daily globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1877-04-03
The 8atland 9aily GlOhr.
TUESDAY, APRIL 3, 1877.
[From tho Saratoglan.l
WHY SARATOGA WAS LOST AND WON
BY E, Il. Mann.

Ties Of Freeman's farm and Bemis Heights
and their consequent event, tho surrender
Of Burgoyne at Saratoga, bring to mind
more vividly the stirring events that in the
past two centuries made northeastern New
York the avenue Of cmpirea By being the
theatre of three wars which determined the
fate of Anglican civilization in America
and the predomnance of British power in
Europe. And that it was the battlefield of
one of those decisive contests which Prof.
Crecy and Sir Henry Hallam, the eminent
historians, reckon with Marathon and Wa
terloo as one of the twelve decisive engage
ments which have changed the subsequent
channels of the history of the world. That
Saratoga, not Yorktown, was the decisive
battle of the American revolution 10 with
out question of doubt. The fall of Bur-
goyne convinced Count Vergennes, prime
minister of Louis XVI, that the insurrec-
tlon Of the colonsts was formidable one;
and the willy French diplomat now advised
that France should recognize the United
States as an independent nation. The
armed alliance followed. England, struck
| in the rear by her old rival, henceforth
| fought the rebel colonies with one paraly-
| zed arm, aud Yorktowns sun saw its beams
| fall alike on the stars and stripes of Amer
| lea and the feur de lis of France borne in
triumph over the furled banner of st.
| George.
| To those who are acquainted with the
topography of Saratoga, Warren and Wash
ington counties it has ever been subject
of wonderment that tho British general
commanding the "Army of Occupation" :"
as the vain glorious Burgoyne styled his
forces, followed the wake of Gen. st.
Clair's retresting army from Ticonderoga
to Hubbardton, Fort Ann, Fort Edward
and Saratoga, instead of proceeding up
Lake George to Fort William Henry, and
thence by the old Loudon military road to
Albany, which point he could have reached
by forced march before St. Clair and
Schuyler could have rctreated down the
river.
1t will be remembered that Burgoyne
left Montreal in the latter part of June,
l777, and reached Crown Point, July l.
On the 4th, he opened fire on St. Clair in
Fort Ticonderoga, and forced the latter to
retreat into Vermont on the night of the
9th. St. Clair had supposed that he would
be attacked from the lake and had thrown
up earthworks along the bluff north of the
fort, which may be seen at the present day.
Instead Of this, Burgoyne, after the occu-
patton of Crown Point, allowel Gen. Phil
lips, who commanded his engineer corps,
to reduce Ticonderoga in accordance with
his own plans. Phillips, who was vete-
ran of the old French war, had been to Ii
conderoga in 1853 with Abercrombie's ILL
fated expedition, and again the next year
with Sir Jeffrey Amherst, and knew that
Mount Defiance was easily accessible from
Lake George. So taking battery of ar
tjllery and a company of engineers he pro-
ceeded up Bulwsgga bay and thence steal
thily marched over the old lroquois trail to
the lake. He reached and drew his artil-
lery to the summit of the commanding en-
inence without having been discovered by
the American scouts. This advantage gain
ed, the fall Of the fort was as assured as
when little over two years before the as
tonished De La Place woke from his slum-
ber to yield to the demand OF the turbulent
Allen, to surrender 'iE the name Of the
Great Jehovah and the Continental Con-
gress."
Ticonderoga having fallen, Burgoyne
called council of war to determine his
future course. To 1t came the brilliant
Frazer, painting to gain renown on some
bloody field to remove from his escutcheon
the bar sinister that had been placed there
by the attalnder Of Lord Lovatt, to whose
estreated Scottish earldom he was the di-
rect heir Baron de Reidesel and Gen.
Specht, who led the legions of Hesse and
Waldeck; and the cautious Phillips, the
only one of Burgoyne's generals who knew
the topography Of the country and the tenn
perament of the people about to be invaded.
They gave their counsels Frazer, impetu-
Gus and fearless as on the day he fell at
Bemis Heights, at once proposed to follow
the enemy and crush HIM utterly before he
could be reinforced. He had seen that
policy adopted in Scotland, and succeed in
winning the affections of the populace from
the lost fortunes of the house of Stuart,
and doubted not but that 1t would appesse
the sturdy Green Mountain Boys, the high
spirited SONS of Berkshire and the sturdy
Dutch yeomanry of New York. This, too,
was the advice of Reldesel and Specht, who
were versed in the tactics Of the great Fred
erick, and had learned the art of war in the
"thirty years contest" But the wary Phil
lips knew that this course was fraught with
danger and defeat. He knew that it led
over a country full of deep defles and en-
tangling morasses, heavily wooded and
easily defended. AS a young subaltern, he
had traversed 1t in the campaign designed
against Ticonderoga in 1855 by Gov. Shir-
ley. He urged that the route taken in part
by Abercrombie's expedition, and wholly
by that led by Gen. Amherst, should be
adopted in reverse order from Fort William
Henry district south to Albany. In this
advice he was Joined by Sir Guy Carleton,
governor general of Canada. Providen-
| fiollu for tho A rnarioon nd bok 90
civilization, the counsels OF Gems. Phillips
and Carleton were disregarded, and the
route up Lake Champlan and Wood Creek
to the "great carrying place" was adopted
by Burgoyne.
This "Loudon military road" as 1t is
known in the colonial military records and
maps, filed in the state library, was con-
structed for the passage Of Abercrombie's
expedition in 1853 by the forces command
ed by Lord Howe, and took its name from
tho Earl of Loudon, the English command
in-cbief, who ordered its construction on
the suggestion of Sir William johnson. 1t
began at Albany, near the Patroon's man
sion, and led direct north to Jessups Land
ing on the Hudson, and thence following
the old Indian trail through gorge in the
Luzerne mountain to Fort William Henry.
AS early as December, 1854, Sir William
johnson protested In letter to Gov. Shir-
ley approaching Ticonderoga from Fort
Edward, as being under the eye of the en-
emy, and called his attention to tho route
followed by the Iroquois from the Mohawk
to Lake Champain in their wars with the
Algonquins, as being the most feasible road
aud least liable to be discovered by the en-
emy. His advice was disregarded, and the
massacre of "Bloody Pond" darkens the
page of history. Three years later, Lord
Loudon adopted Johnson's ideas, and, in
1859, Amherst marched over this line from
Albany to Lake George in five days, and
passed down the lake to find Tlconderoga
deserted at his approach.
The remains of this military road can yet
be seen at many points. From Albany to