Fort Montgomery - "Give The Substance Of This Account To Genl. Gates"

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American Major-General Horatio Gates and British Lieutenant-General John Burgoyne were both criticized for agreeing to the Articles of Convention that led to the surrender at Saratoga on October 17, 1777.  Susan Livingston of Pennsylvania wrote to her sister in Connecticut on November 1, 1777, saying: "The Articles of Capitulation [sic] ... are not relished this way, neither by Whigs, nor Tories, the latter say if Mr. Burgoyne was in a Situation to obtain such Terms he ought to have fought, the Former say if Burgoyne was obliged to surrender at all, Gates might have brought him to what Terms he pleased, so that it looks as if the two Generals wished to avoid fighting." [1]

Image shows the muzzle of a cannon in the Grand Battery at Fort Montgomery pointing south down the Hudson River
Should they have continued to fight, rather than agreeing to terms both generals would be criticized for accepting?  A significant factor in making that decision was what was happening to their south.  British Lieutenant William Digby would note in his account of the Saratoga campaign that even in its final days, on October 14th, Burgoyne: "...wished, if possible, to avoid any terms; still persisting [in] a faint glimmering of hope, from either the arrival of Gen Clinton or some other unforseen and providential manner, of our being extricated from the many difficulties that then surrounded us."  On October 15th Digby would note: "... a report circulated that General Clinton was coming up the river, tho at a great distance, which Burgoyne eagerly catched at, ... on which he expressed his desire to withdraw the treaty if possible, but luckily for the army, he was overruled in opinion, as the report of Clinton was entirely groundless..." [2]

Burgoyne's hopes were not a mere fantasy.  A British force was advancing north from New York City, up the Hudson River towards Albany.  A day before the Battle of Bemis Heights, on October 6, 1777, Sir Henry Clinton (not to be confused with New York Governor and Brigadier-General George Clinton, or his brother Brigadier-General James Clinton, who commanded Fort Clinton on the south side of Popolopen Creek opposite Fort Montgomery) attacked and captured both Fort Clinton and Fort Montgomery on the west bank of the Hudson River, ninety miles south of Albany.  The ruins of one are preserved by the state of New York as the Fort Montgomery State Historic Site, open to the public seasonally from Wednesday through Sunday.

Any reports Gates received regarding the fighting to his south would not have been comforting to him as he negotiated with Burgoyne.  George Clinton described the attack on the two forts in a letter to New York Legislature dated October 7th, writing: "Gentlemen - The extreme fatigue I have undergone the three days past, and the want of rest for an equal number of nights, renders me unfit to write you on matters of so serious consequences to this State, as I have to communicate. ... yesterday about 10 o'clock A.M. our advanced party was attacked by the enemy..."  He continued on to share that when the enemy forces that were estimated to number 5,000 attacked, "... our post as Fort Clinton was invested on all sides, and a most incessant fire kept up till night, and soon after dusk, when the enemy for our lines and redoubts at both posts, and the garrisons were obliged to fight their way out, as many as could as we were determined not to surrender, and many have escaped."

Image shows the ruins of the stone foundation of barracks built in the summer of 1776, and the Hudson River in the background.
George Clinton also shared that when he was summoned by the British to surrender, he sent one of his officers to refuse, defiantly replying that: "... if they [the British] meant to surrender themselves as prisoners of war, ... he was empowered to assure them good usage."  Unmoved, the British resumed their attack, and overpowered the American defenders with their numbers, capturing both forts.  George Clinton asked in closing: "I beg you will give the substance of this account to Genl. Gates, in answer to his letter to me." [3]

The loss of Forts Clinton and Montgomery increased the risk that Gates would be attacked from the south.  Major-General Israel Putnam, in command of Continental Army troops in the Hudson Highlands, wrote to George Clinton on October 8, 1777, regarding the British: "Its my firm Opinion that they will by every Possible Means Indeavour to make Forced Marches towards Albany... Joining Burgoyne is Certainly there first & Chieff Object. ,,, we aught to Proceed towards Albany & act in Conjunction with Genl. Gates.  I have wrote Him & shall hope to have his Opinion very soon..." [4]

George Clinton wrote to the New York Legislature on October 8, 1777, that after escaping from Fort Montgomery he crossed the Hudson River and met with Putnam.  There, he stated: "The Genl. Officers there agreed in Oppinion with me that the Intention of the Enemy under Sir Henry Clinton was to Relief Burgoine's Army by effecting a Junction with him... A Deserter ... informs me ... Genl. Sir Henry Clinton commanded in Person had three other Genl. Officers with him their Force was 5000 three thousand British Troops & Hessian Yaagers the Remainder New Levies," [5]

Sir Henry Clinton would continue his advance northward from Fort Montgomery, and forty miles to the north, on October 16, 1777, burn the town of Kingston, New York.  Even there he was still fifty miles south of Albany, and eighty miles south of Burgoyne, too far away to change the outcome of Burgoyne's ill-fated invasion from Canada.

Next Week: Burgoyne Surrenders - "The Generals In America Doing Nothing, Or Worse Than Nothing" 


For more on the Convention Army's 1777 march from Saratoga to Boston, see:
   General Whipple's Journal         Burgoyne in Albany                    Annotated Bibliography 
 
[1] Richard B. Morris, ed., John Jay: The Making of a Revolutionary (New York, NY: Harper and Row, 1975), 445-447.
[2] Digby, The British Invasion From The North... With The Journal of Lieut. William Digby of the 53rd, or Shropshire Regiment of Foot, 309-312.
[3] Public Papers of George Clinton, First Governor of New York (New York and Albany, NY: Wynkoop Hallenbeck Crawford Co. 1900), 2:380-383.
[4] Public Papers of George Clinton, 2:385.
[5] Public Papers of George Clinton, 2:388-389.

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