HOWE NEVER SAILED UP THE HUDSON. ST. LEGER WAS BLOCKED BY THE AMERICANS AT FORT STANWIX AND ORISKANY. BURGOYNE, AFTER A VICTORIOUS ADVANCE THROUGH NORTHERN NEW YORK, DRIVING A DEFEATED AMERICAN ARMY FROM TICONDEROGA TO THE MOUTH OF THE MOHAWK RIVER, CROSSED TO THIS SIDE OF THE HUDSON AT OLD SARATOGA (SCHUYLERVILLE) ON SEPTEMBER 13, 1777, AND APPROACHED THIS POSITION WHERE HE WAS OPPOSED BY AN AMERICAN ARMY OF GROWING STRENGTH. A contemporary of the event said of it, “Rebellion which a twelve-month ago was a contemptible pygmy, is now in appearance a giant.” Saratoga truly must be considered as one of the cornerstones of American liberty and as one of those momentous events which shape the destiny of nations. Even in the light of the nearly two centuries that have elapsed, the significance of this epochal victory is difficult to appraise fully. _The British Plan of 1777_ The Hudson River-Lake Champlain route for centuries has constituted a great strategic highway of the continent. Long the warpath of the powerful Iroquois, this route in pre-Revolutionary years had witnessed the ebb and flow of the tides of invasion as England and France locked in a titanic struggle for possession of the New World. Along this route the British commander, General Abercrombie, advanced in 1758 on his ill-fated attempt to seize Ticonderoga from the French. The graves of the “Black Watch” attest the blunders of his judgment. One year later his successor, Lord Amherst, followed the same route, to succeed where his predecessor had failed. With the outbreak of the Revolutionary War the area again became the scene of active fighting, as colonial arms pushed boldly northward to seize Ticonderoga, Crown Point, and Montreal, and to storm the ramparts of Quebec. In 1776, the British launched a counterattack which, after wiping out most of the American gains, was dramatically checked by the gallant action of the American fleet under Gen. Benedict Arnold on Lake Champlain. [Illustration: _Fort Ticonderoga, the first objective of Burgoyne in 1777._ Courtesy Fort Ticonderoga Museum.]