Page:The Hessians and the other German auxiliaries of Great Britain in the revolutionary war.djvu/165

 Rh them, had inspired them with his own spirit. “Come on, my lads,” he is reported to have said before the battle, “we shall either beat the British, or Molly Stark will be a widow this night.” At last the fire of the Germans slackened. The Yankees rushed again on the intrenchments. It was gunstock against sabre. Baum fell, mortally wounded, and the Brunswickers were taken. The battle with Baum's soldiers was over when Breymann arrived in the neighborhood of the field. He says that he drove the Americans before him, and only stopped pursuing them for want of powder and shot; but certain it is that he presently fell back, and made off in the night without his cannon, having lost more than one third of his men. General Burgoyne, who received word of these misfortunes early in the morning of the 17th, started at six o'clock, with the whole army, to save Breymann. The main body advanced, however, no farther than the Battenkill, while Burgoyne himself, at the head of an English regiment, pushed on until he met the retreating Germans.

Nearly seven hundred prisoners, of whom about four hundred were Germans, fell into the hands of the Americans. Of Baum's command, three hundred and sixty-five Germans did not return to camp; of Breymann's two hundred and thirty-one were killed, wounded, and missing.

This battle was the beginning of the end for Burgoyne, though he did not know it at the time. It proved the impossibility of living on the country, and sent him back to his English beef and flour, and his