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332 would be that the colonies would be cut asunder and the "rebellion" speedily be brought to an end.

Colonel Gansevoort had done his best in Fort Stanwix, which had been strengthened and renamed Fort Schuyler, but his force was insufficient to hold the place, his supplies were inadequate; and he had pitifully begged that men and supplies might be sent him from the army under Gates. General Schuyler had earnestly favored granting the request, and had been taunted in return by some of his fellow officers with a desire to weaken the army opposing John Burgoyne and so permit the British to win an easy victory. The taunt stung and hurt the noble man, but he was too much of a patriot to obtrude his own personal sufferings at such a crisis in his country's history, and so suffered in silence. However, Benedict Arnold and a little body of men as resolute as he at once started to the aid of the hard-pressed young colonel. Already the battle of Oriskany had been fought—one of the bloodiest of the Revolution. That sturdy old Dutchman, General Herkimer, had marched from Fort Dayton with a body of farmers and farmers' boys to aid Fort Stanwix, and had halted near where the city of