This will help us to understand the plan which the British made in 1777, by which they felt sure of crushing the rebellion. The year before they had to leave Boston and had come around to New York. New York was not so large as Philadelphia then, but it was an important place, for it was the key to the Hudson valley. The British generals decided to send one army up the Hudson to destroy the forts and beat back the colonists. This army was under General Howe. Another army, commanded by General Burgoyne, was to come from the St. Lawrence up lake Champlain and through the woods by Fort Edward to Albany. Burgoyne was a brave officer, but he was conceited, and he felt too sure that he could do his part easily. He was confident that when he marched through the country many colonists would run to place themselves under the English flag. In a few weeks he learned that these backwoods Americans were quite ready to meet and give battle to the combined forces of the British regulars, the hired German soldiers, and the Indians with whom they were in league. [Illustration: FIG. 11. GENERAL NICHOLAS HERKIMER DIRECTING THE BATTLE OF ORISKANY] There was yet a third division in this campaign. A British force under General St. Leger had come up the St. Lawrence and lake Ontario to Oswego. St. Leger also had with him many Indians, and these were commanded by Joseph Brant, a famous chief, who had had much to do with white men and who was well educated. This third army was to go east, over the Oneida Carrying Place and down the Mohawk to Albany. By this pretty plan three armies, one from the south under Howe, one from the north under Burgoyne, and one from the west under St. Leger, were to meet in Albany. They would put British soldiers in every fort on the way, capture and disarm the rebels, and have all New York under their feet. More than this, they would thus shut off New England from Pennsylvania and Virginia, cutting the unruly colonies into two parts so that they could not help each other. But the scheme, brilliant as it was, would not work. None of the British armies reached Albany. Howe did not, perhaps because he did not try. Burgoyne and St. Leger did not, because they could not: there was altogether too much in the way. We shall now see how this happened.