These successes led the British to think that within a few days they would be in Albany.We have an amusing picture of the effect on George III of the fall of Fort Ticonderoga.The place had been much discussed.It had been the first British fort to fall to the Americans when the Revolution began, and Carleton's failure to take it in the autumn of 1776 had been the cause of acute heartburning in London.Now, when the news of its fall reached England, George III burst into the Queen's room with the glad cry, "I have beat them, I have beat the Americans." Washington's depression was not as great as the King's elation; he had a better sense of values; but he had intended that the fort should hold Burgoyne, and its fall was a disastrous blow.The Americans showed skill and good soldierly quality in the retreat from Ticonderoga, and Burgoyne in following and harassing them was led into hard fighting in the woods.The easier route by way of Lake George was open but Burgoyne hoped to destroy his enemy by direct pursuit through the forest.It took him twenty days to hew his way twenty miles, to the upper waters of the Hudson near Fort Edward.When there on the 30th of July he had communications open from the Hudson to the St.Lawrence.
Fortune seemed to smile on Burgoyne.He had taken many guns and he had proved the fighting quality of his men.But his cheerful elation had, in truth, no sound basis.Never during the two and a half months of bitter struggle which followed was he able to advance more than twenty-five miles from Fort Edward.The moment he needed transport by land he found himself almost helpless.
Sometimes his men were without food and equipment because he had not the horses and carts to bring supplies from the head of water at Fort Anne or Fort George, a score of miles away.Sometimes he had no food to transport.He was dependent on his communications for every form of supplies.Even hay had to be brought from Canada, since, in the forest country, there was little food for his horses.The perennial problem for the British in all operations was this one of food.The inland regions were too sparsely populated to make it possible for more than a few soldiers to live on local supplies.The wheat for the bread of the British soldier, his beef and his pork, even the oats for his horse, came, for the most part, from England, at vast expense for transport, which made fortunes for contractors.It is said that the cost of a pound of salted meat delivered to Burgoyne on the Hudson was thirty shillings.Burgoyne had been told that the inhabitants needed only protection to make them openly loyal and had counted on them for supplies.He found instead the great mass of the people hostile and he doubted the sincerity even of those who professed their loyalty.
After Burgoyne had been a month at Fort Edward he was face to face with starvation.If he advanced he lengthened his line to flank attack.As it was he had difficulty in holding it against New Englanders, the most resolute of all his foes, eager to assert by hard fighting, if need be, their right to hold the invaded territory which was claimed also by New York.Burgoyne's instructions forbade him to turn aside and strike them a heavy blow.He must go on to meet Howe who was not there to be met.Abeing who could see the movements of men as we watch a game of chess, might think that madness had seized the British leaders;Burgoyne on the upper Hudson plunging forward resolutely to meet Howe; Howe at sea sailing away, as it might well seem, to get as far from Burgoyne as he could; Clinton in command at New York without instructions, puzzled what to do and not hearing from his leader, Howe, for six weeks at a time; and across the sea a complacent minister, Germain, who believed that he knew what to do in a scene three thousand miles away, and had drawn up exact instructions as to the way of doing it, and who was now eagerly awaiting news of the final triumph.
Burgoyne did his best.Early in August he had to make a venturesome stroke to get sorely needed food.Some twenty-five miles east of the Hudson at Bennington, in difficult country, New England militia had gathered food and munitions, and horses for transport.The pressure of need clouded Burgoyne's judgment.To make a dash for Bennington meant a long and dangerous march.He was assured, however, that a surprise was possible and that in any case the country was full of friends only awaiting a little encouragement to come out openly on his side.They were Germans who lay on Burgoyne's left and Burgoyne sent Colonel Baum, an efficient officer, with five or six hundred men to attack the New Englanders and bring in the supplies.It was a stupid blunder to send Germans among a people specially incensed against the use of these mercenaries.There was no surprise.Many professing loyalists, seemingly eager to take the oath of allegiance, met and delayed Baum.When near Bennington he found in front of him a force barring the way and had to make a carefully guarded camp for the night.Then five hundred men, some of them the cheerful takers of the oath of allegiance, slipped round to his rear and in the morning he was attacked from front and rear.
A hot fight followed which resulted in the complete defeat of the British.Baum was mortally wounded.Some of his men escaped into the woods; the rest were killed or captured.Nor was this all.
