But both were honourably acquitted.
Nothing could have saved the garrison from being utterly wiped out;
and when men came to judge the matter calmly they admitted that
it was better to lose the fort than to lose the fort and garrison
also. Meanwhile Burgoyne was chasing hot-foot after the fugitives.
As he approached, Schuyler abandoned Fort Edward, for it was a mere
shell and impossible of defence for a single day. But as he fell
back, he broke up the roads behind him. Trees were felled and laid
across them every two or three yards, bridges were burned, fords
destroyed. So thoroughly was the work done that Burgoyne, in
pursuit, could only march about a mile a day, and had to build no
fewer than forty bridges in a distance of little more than twenty-four
miles.
Besides destroying the roads Schuyler also made the country a desert.
He carried away and destroyed the crops, drove off the sheep and
cattle, sweeping the country so bare that the hostile army could
find no food, and were forced to depend altogether on their own
supplies. Before long these gave out, and the British began to
suffer from hunger.
Burgoyne now learned that at the village of Bennington the patriots
had a depot containing large stores of food and ammunition. These
he determined to have for his own army, and he sent a force of six
hundred men, mostly Germans and Indians, to make the capture.
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