Page:The Hessians and the other German auxiliaries of Great Britain in the revolutionary war.djvu/174

 156 death penalty did not prevent them. Skirmishes were of frequent occurrence. The weather was frightfully hot, and the army was wasting away in inaction.

On the day on which the men were put on short rations, General Burgoyne called a council of war. Generals Phillips, Riedesel, and Fraser were present. Burgoyne proposed to them to leave the neighborhood of the river and try to turn the American left flank. Eight hundred men were to be left to guard the boats and stores; the rest of the army was to take part in the expedition. It was objected that the roads and the position of the Americans were both unknown, that three or four days would be necessary to turn the American flank, and that during all this time the stores must be left under a feeble guard. No conclusion was reached on the 4th, and a second council was called for the evening of the 5th. At this council Riedesel declared his opinion, that the army was in such a condition that unless the enemy could be reached and forced to fight a decisive action in one day, it would be better to fall back across the Hudson and wait behind the Battenkill for General Clinton's approach. Here the army could not be cut off from Fort George. Fraser agreed with Riedesel. Phillips would give no decided opinion, and Burgoyne, loath to retreat, declared he would make a reconnoissance on the 7th, and that if this should show that the enemy was not to be successfully attacked, he would fall back.

On the 6th of October, 1777, four days' rations were served out, and on the 7th, about ten in the morning,