This victory and the success in the Mohawk valley were as inspiriting to the American as depressing to the Anglo-German army. Burgoyne was now beset with danger on every side. Formidable obstacles accumulated in his path, famine stared him in the face; all his English flour and beef had been consumed, and the whole surrounding country was sending enthusiastic volunteers to bar his progress. Nearly a month before, Washington had predicted that Burgoyne's successes "would precipitate his ruin", and that his "acting in detachments was the course of all others most favorable to the American cause", as cutting off any of them "would inspirit the people and do away with much of their present anxiety." The beginning of the end had already come. The first stage in this eventful campaign was for Burgoyne a great success; the second was an equally great failure; and now the last was coming, in which the most decisive results and the highest plaudits were to be won or lost. Schuyler unquestionably would have been the hero of this final development had he not most inopportunely been replaced by Gates, a mediocre soldier. Fortunately, the latter's deficiencies were compensated by officers inferior in rank but superior in ability,—the dashing Arnold, the daring Morgan, not to name others. [Illustration: HORATIO GATES. From _An Impartial Hist. of the War in Amer._, London, 1780, p. 494. The engraving in the Boston edition, 1781, vol. ii., is by J. Norman. Smith (_Brit. Mez. Portraits_) records an engraving published in London, Jan. 2, 1778, which represents him holding a similar scroll, but "with right hand on hip."—ED.] Congress, in the exercise of its prerogative, made and displaced generals at its will, and too often was influenced by sectional interests and rivalries. The command of the Northern Department was especially the prize of party favorites. Wooster, Thomas, Sullivan, Schuyler, and Gates had in rapid succession followed each other, and now Schuyler, after all he had done to baffle the enemy and organize victory, was to be the victim of prejudice—of New England against New York—which dated back to colonial days. Schuyler placed little reliance upon New England troops, and their representatives in Congress had as little confidence in Schuyler's generalship. [Illustration: Horatio Gates From Murray's _Impartial Hist. of the Present War_, vol. ii. There is a portrait by Stuart, published in 1798 as engraved by Tiebout, given in steel (bust only) by H. B. Hall in Jones's _Campaign for the Conquest of Canada_ (p. 140), and in photogravure (whole picture) in Mason's Stuart (p. 183). The expression in this last is wholly different from the steel engraving. There is also a picture in the _Heads of Illustrious Americans_, London, 1783. There are other likenesses,—cf. Gay's _Pop. Hist. U. S._, iii. 586; Lossing's _Field-Book_, ii. 669.