Page:The Hessians and the other German auxiliaries of Great Britain in the revolutionary war.djvu/169



nearly a month after his defeat at Bennington Burgoyne remained in the neighborhood of Fort Edward and behind the line of the Battenkill. The time was employed in bringing up stores and in transporting boats from Lake Champlain and Lake George. On the 13th of September, 1777, the army crossed the Hudson at Schuylerville, and abandoned its line of communications to make a bold stroke for Albany and a junction with Sir William Howe. One hundred and eighty boats, which had been hauled across the carries, attended the march of the army, whose left flank rested on the Hudson. These boats carried one month's provisions. “Now we went to work again at our dear salt pork and flour,” writes a German officer. “Dear friends, do not despise these royal dishes, which really cost a royal price then and there, for the transportation from England must have been not a little expensive. Pork at noon, pork at night, pork cold, pork warm. Friends! although with your green peas and crabs' tails you would have looked with loathing at our pork, yet pork was to us a lordly dish, without which we should have starved; and had we afterwards had pork enough, our ill-luck might not have brought