Fort Stanwix has bravely survived a compound
attack of soldiers and savages, and the besiegers have fled. The
Battle of Bennington has put a thousand prisoners into our hands, with
all their arms, stores, artillery and baggage. General Burgoyne, in
two engagements, has been defeated; himself, his army, and all that
were his and theirs are now ours. Ticonderoga and Independence [forts]
are retaken, and not the shadow of an enemy remains in all the
northern districts. At this instant we have upwards of eleven thousand
prisoners, between sixty and seventy [captured] pieces of brass
ordnance, besides small arms, tents, stores, etc.
In order to know the real value of those advantages, we must reverse
the scene, and suppose General Gates and the force he commanded to
be at your mercy as prisoners, and General Burgoyne, with his army
of soldiers and savages, to be already joined to you in
Pennsylvania. So dismal a picture can scarcely be looked at. It has
all the tracings and colorings of horror and despair; and excites
the most swelling emotions of gratitude by exhibiting the miseries
we are so graciously preserved from.
I admire the distribution of laurels around the continent. It is the
earnest of future union. South Carolina has had her day of
sufferings and of fame; and the other southern States have exerted
themselves in proportion to the force that invaded or insulted them.
Towards the close of the campaign, in 1776, these middle States were
called upon and did their duty nobly.
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