[130] The details of the fighting at Oriskany, and Willett’s sortie from the fort, are more confusing and contradictory even than those of most battles and sieges. The American accounts make Oriskany an American victory, and Willett’s sortie a taking possession of the whole British camp, the contents of which, after the defenders had been put to flight, were carried off to the fort in seven wagons which made three trips between the fort and the camp. St. Leger, no doubt minimizing what happened, reported that the sortie resulted in no ‘further advantage than frightening some squaws and pilfering the packs of the warriors which they left behind them’. From the contemporary plan of the operations at Fort Stanwix it seems clear that Willett surprised only the post at the lower landing-place and not the whole British camp. [131] See above pp. 96-7 and note. [132] Junius to the Duke of Grafton, December 12, 1769. [133] Walpole to the Honourable Henry Synan Conway, November 12, 1774. [134] Letter to the Countess of Upper Ossory, June 14, 1787. See also letter to the same, January 16, 1786. ‘General Burgoyne’s _Heiress_, I hear, succeeded extremely well, and was besides excellently acted.’ [135] Letter to the Rev. William Mason, October 5, 1777. In this letter Horace Walpole, apparently without real ground, says that Burgoyne was the natural son of Lord Bingley. [136] Letters of August 8, August 11, and August 24, 1777. [137] Not to be confounded with the Wood Creek mentioned above, p. 147, &c., which was a feeder of Lake Oneida. [138] Letter to Sir H. Mann, September 1, 1777. [139] See _State Papers_, p. 97, in Mr. Brymner’s _Report on Canadian Archives_ for 1890. [140] _State of the Expedition from Canada Narrative_, p. 12. [141] Kingsford makes the number to have been 746: _History of Canada_, vol. vi, p. 216, note. [142] From Burgoyne’s dispatch it appears that Baum was beginning a further advance when the attack was made. His words are, ‘Colonel Baum was induced to proceed without sufficient knowledge of the ground.’ [143] The American accounts put the British casualties at nearly 1,000. [144] It may probably have been to the disaster at Bennington that Horace Walpole referred when he wrote to the Countess of Upper Ossory on September 29, 1777: ‘General Burgoyne has had but bad sport in the woods.’ [145] Benjamin Lincoln was the American commander charged with the duty of attacking Burgoyne’s communications. He was afterwards in command at Charleston when it was taken by the English in May, 1780.