The First American Army - Bruce Chadwick [98]
The success of the operation encouraged a commanding officer to send out another scouting party, again including Wild, on a three-day journey around the British encampment to ascertain its strength and its access to forage in the area. On October 1, after a lengthy trip through forests around Saratoga Lake, the men came upon a mill that had fallen into the hands of the British. It was previously owned by General Philip Schuyler.
“We marched upon a rising ground above the mill and ground our arms and a party of us, with axes, went cutting away Schuyler’s bridge. After we had destroyed it with axes as much as time would admit of, we set fire to it. We stopped till it got well a-fire and then marched off in a different road.”
The next day, again, Wild feared for his life. Under orders to burn buildings that contained grain or other supplies that could help the British, his superior officer ordered an attack on a second mill that was surrounded by several buildings. British soldiers guarded it. To Wild’s relief, they surrendered without firing a shot. The buildings, full of grain, were torched and Wild and his comrades marched back to Gates’s camp with ten prisoners, three of them officers, twelve horses, and eighteen cattle.
On October 6, Gates was certain Burgoyne would attack. The First Massachusetts, five hundred men including Wild, was sent out as an advance guard. Nothing happened.
The Second Battle of Saratoga
The much-feared attack finally came on October 7, two weeks after the first battle. Burgoyne decided that he might be able to flank the American left wing and move south. The British struck, but despite all of their preparation the First Massachusetts did not engage in the furious fighting.
Benedict Arnold did. The general, still seething from being relieved of his command earlier, had decided to remain in camp. He was with Gates and others at 3 p.m. on the afternoon of October 7 when they heard the sudden sound of cannon. A messenger burst into the tent to announce that the British were attacking.
Arnold leaped up from his chair. “Shall I go out and see what is the matter?” he asked Gates, who told him to go. Benedict Arnold leaped on to a nearby horse and galloped toward the fighting. A man who saw him ride through the woods said that he looked like a “madman.” Gates had a change of heart just a few moments after Arnold left his tent. Arnold had been relieved of command and should not be given any now. Gates shouted at an officer to mount a horse, chase down Arnold, and bring him back before he reached the fighting. The aide did so, but never caught up to the galloping Arnold, hell-bent to defeat the British.
Arnold reached the battle between the American left flank and Burgoyne’s army a few moments later and started to rally the troops, shouting as loudly as he could over the din of the battle. He told Morgan to ask a sharpshooter to fire at General Fraser, leading his men in the battle while astride a large, gray horse. The man braced himself, aimed carefully, and killed Fraser. Fraser’s fall from his horse sent his men into confusion.
The animated Arnold then led a charge on horseback toward a wellfortified redoubt that had just been constructed behind the left flank of the British lines, exhorting his men to follow him as fast as they could. As he approached, he could hear the pounding of his horse’s hooves. He shouted for it to gallop faster. Men ran behind him, firing at the enemy. Arnold encountered a thunderstorm of musket fire from the Hessians in and around the redoubt. They sensed they were about to be overrun and rallied for one last defense. General Arnold continued to yell commands and look over his shoulder at the men following him. Suddenly, he was shot in the leg, the same leg that had been hit in the attack on Quebec. His horse had also been shot and fell on top of Arnold’s wounded