The Saber and Scroll Journal Volume 1, Issue 1, April 2015 | Page 11

dilapidated ruin of old Fort Stanwix, and drive along the Mohawk River valley to
the Hudson River. Instead, St. Leger and his force suffered a loss in a fierce battle
at Oriskany which discouraged his fickle Mohawk allies who had expected an easy
fight. 5 St. Leger’s force would fail to achieve any of its goals and never recovered
from the almost complete defection of the Mohawks once they were fed
disinformation by a trick of the American General Benedict Arnold. Arnold sent a
condemned crazy man into the British camp with a wild story about numerous
Americans preparing to attack the British.
This trick played upon the Mohawk’s respect for insane people who they
thought were touched by the gods. They never doubted the babbling man, Han
Yost, or his story of 3,000 Americans led by Arnold that were about to attack
them. 6 The Mohawks panicked and fled, ransacking the camp as they left. The
British and Tories followed them as well. Arnold was able to capture St. Leger’s
supplies and cannon ending the threat from the west.
Burgoyne and Howe were unaware of this development. As it was,
Burgoyne won a major victory at Fort Ticonderoga without a fight. The French had
constructed this fort prior to the Seven Years’ War. Its original purpose was to
guard against an invasion force going into Canada. The British had allowed the fort
to fall into disrepair, and Benedict Arnold and Ethan Allen’s Green Mountain Boys
seized the fort early in the war. It was supposed that with the repairs to the fort, it
would guard against an invasion force coming from Canada. Instead, the fort’s
commander realized that the fort was wide open to a bombardment from a nearby
hill. Unable to defend the fort and the hill with the troops he had, the American
commander abandoned the fort when Burgoyne’s army arrived. 7
Fortunately for the Americans, the terrain between Fort Ticonderoga and
the Hudson River was a wilderness with few roads. What roads and bridges there
were, General Gates had woodsmen destroy. General Horatio Gates was a former
British officer who had two advantages over Burgoyne that he used to great effect.
One was that he knew Burgoyne’s character as a gambler and anticipated that
Burgoyne would continually gamble on victory despite any setbacks. 8 The second
advantage lay in the elongated supply lines of the British. Burgoyne would not be
able to reestablish them if they were cut. In this case, the battle suited Gates who
assumed a defensive nature and waited for Burgoyne’s army to arrive.
One of the biggest blunders of the British during the war helped the
American effort. Instead of sending his army, or at least a significant force up the
11