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The GeneralChapter 3: The Siege Of Fort Schuyler free porn video
In a strange quirk of history, the Battle for Fort Schuyler was confusing to observers of the day because the Fort was actually the old Fort Stanwyck which had been left to go to ruin after the French and Indian wars. The fort was built by the British and yet it was the British army attacking and laying a siege against it in 1777. It seemed odd that such an important battle be fought in the wilderness along the Mohawk River and not on the mighty Hudson where the new country plied their new-found economic enterprise. It was no doubt named after the quite famous Major General Schuyler of French and Indian War fame who was well known in the Hudson River Valley.
The fort was defended by militia units from both New York and from Massachusetts and they were in high spirits despite being outnumbered by the British, Loyalist and Indian allies of the besieging forces situated on both sides of the Mohawk river. A relief column under General Herkimer was ambushed by the Indian tribes under British command and he was forced to retreat in the face of overwhelming odds.
The British high command considered the occupation of the Mohawk River Valley and control of the Hudson River essential to their strategy of splitting the 13 original colonies in two. A large British force reinforced by Indian allies swept in from Canada anxious to engage the American forces as quickly as possible. They were incensed at the delaying actions of Brigadier General Benedict Arnold who had already cost them a full year of waiting. They wanted to fall on the upstart General of the Army George Washington and tear his forces apart like wolves in the forest.
General Arnold realized the importance of the small fort in the wilderness and immediately gathered a fast-moving force to counter the British move. He moved up the Mohawk River from Albany and managed to enlist the aid of several Indian tribes to counter the British Indian contingent. Eventually, most of the Indian supporters of the British forces melted away into the forest because of the distaste for inter-tribal warfare in a fight they did not consider theirs but the business of the white-eyes.
The defenders of the fort took advantage of the lack of coordination with the British and the Loyalist forces and staged a raid on the besieging encampments when they were siphoned off to put more pressure on the retreating General Herkimer. They laid waste to the camps and captured both supplies and documents that confirmed Herkimer was no longer coming to the aid of the fort.
The rumors of the main relief column under the command of General Benedict Arnold greatly vexed the British commander. He began to see that further attacks on the fort would result in far too much exposure for his troops with a long logistical tail that stretched all the way up to Canada. The thought of sailing all the way down the Hudson to threaten General George Washington disappeared like morning mist on a chilly fall day.
Arnold spread discontent in the Loyalist camp by sending in numerous spies to warn the monarchists that their homes and families were at risk while they played at war with European allies who held them in contempt. A large number of the Loyalists deserted adding to the loss of most of the Indian forces under British control.
One of the captured Loyalists was oddly named Schuyler and he gave a convincing story that greatly exaggerated the size and support of the Arnold relief column making the besieging force desperate to get away from an impending trap from which there was no escape. The odd coincidence of Arnold's spy having the same name as the famous general was probably not evident at the time because the majority of Americans and almost all the British forces still referred to the battleground and fort as Fort Stanwyck. This particular agent was already exposed as a spy for the British and he turned in the opposite direction to become Arnold's creature because he was under sentence of hanging for being a spy. The man was a shameless storyteller and was married to a woman of the Mohawk tribe according him great sway in the councils of the warring tribes. It was one of the examples of how General Arnold valued human intelligence as a tool to set a battlefield. Some of his devious schemes were so successful that eventually even George Washington began to employ the use of Loyalist turncoats and he devised skillful employment of diversions and mis-direction to shield his true military objectives.
The battle for Fort Schuyler was quickly forgotten by the Continental Congress more concerned with raising funds to continue General George Washington's campaign in New York and New Jersey. The European military planners on the other hand saw it as the opening salvo in the struggle for supremacy in the Mohawk River Valley and they considered General Arnold as their biggest threat rather than the conservative thinking Washington. The British War Office realized that time was of the essence because they had pressure on their own legislators to bring the unpopular war to a quick conclusion with the least possible bloodshed. While the military were more concerned with matters of logistics and re-supply, the remainder of government was focused on lost revenue from taxes and a ready market for British goods.
In retrospect, the British forces were well founded in their decision to withdraw back to Canada after the humbling defeat at Fort Schuyler and the name most on their lips was Arnold and not Washington.
General Arnold was certain the next big confrontation would be as the British forces moved south from Fort Ticonderoga because the only option for the enemy was to try yet again to maneuver their forces down through Lake Champlain and confront the militias of the newly-emerging nation.
The loss of Fort Ticonderoga was viewed by the new American government as tantamount to cowardice and sabotage but in retrospect, the decision by the Officer in Charge to pull his forces back in the face of superior forces was probably quite wise. It allowed the American forces time to re-group and bring up more reinforcements for the coming Battle of Saratoga and forced the British Commander Burgoyne to stretch his lines of communication and logistical support much further than he desired. In fact, he had expressed his preference to either stay put in a fortified position or even withdraw to safer ground not knowing the capability of the American militia. The British upper ranks considered the American general Gates to be an old fool but General Arnold was a force to be respected because he was totally unpredictable and that concerned General Burgoyne most of all.
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