The First American Army - Bruce Chadwick [97]
Gates was relentless in his condemnation of his second in command. He brusquely told him that he had been discussing Arnold’s demotion with members of Congress and that he had warned delegates that Arnold should never have been promoted to a major general. He had failed in his invasion of Canada, lost the battle of Quebec, led a chaotic retreat southward into New York in which hundreds of men died, and had a naval fleet under his command destroyed on the waters of Lake Champlain. Looking straight at him, Gates then told Arnold that not only would he continue at Saratoga without a command, but he would be replaced by General Lincoln as soon as he arrived. He did not want Arnold in the army at all, he finished, and suggested he resign and simply go home to Connecticut. Gates said that he would write him a pass on the spot. Enraged by the scathing denunciation, Arnold told Gates he would leave all right, but he would ride to Pennsylvania and report the entire matter to George Washington. Gates sneered and told him to go right ahead and offered to write him a pass to Pennsylvania to see the commander in chief, too.
Benedict Arnold turned and hurried from Gates’s tent. Later, he sent Gates a blistering note that Gates ignored. Arnold sent another note that Gates returned with the type of common traveling pass he would issue to any private going home on furlough so that Arnold could leave the army. The hatred between them was so great, one officer wrote, that he was certain that while Burgoyne sat in his camp pondering defeat the two leading American generals at Saratoga would kill each other in a duel.19
The British officers and men knew nothing about the dispute between Arnold and Gates. They had their own troubles. There was nothing but anxiety behind the British lines as the American forces grew each day. The Redcoats were running out of supplies. One messenger informed Burgoyne of Barry St. Leger’s retreat back to Canada and another explained that none of the couriers he sent riding off to Henry Clinton, each carrying a plea more desperate than the last for more troops, reached the one man who could save them; all were arrested.
Those days were filled with worry for Wild and the troops waiting for something to happen. “Very dark and foggy this morning,” wrote Wild in his diary the day after the September 19 engagement, fearful that the British would attack, aided by the poor visibility. They did not.
The next few days were nerve-racking as Wild and the men in his regiment awaited a British assault. They were constantly moved from one position to another. “Marched off to the earthworks on our right wing,” he wrote on the morning of September 20. That night he scribbled, sarcastically, “At sundown the regiment returned and pitched our tents on the same ground they were on before.”
Wild’s regiment was moved about camp constantly, occupying a hill to their right one day and a wooded area to the left the next. Alarms were sounded after pickets with spyglasses spotted any minor British movement. On September 22, Wild wrote, attack alarms were sounded at 8 a.m. and at 11 a.m. On September 28 there were alarms at 10 a.m., 2 p.m., and 8 p.m.
Wild almost lost his life on September 25. He was ordered to join a scouting party shortly before dawn to check on the latest British troop positions. “We marched within a quarter of a mile of [enemy]. The fog and darkness of the morning prevented our going any further ’til after daylight, when we rushed on the guard and a very hot fire ensued for the space of two or three minutes. The guard ran into