"How surprised the people of Cherry Valley will be when they hear all that we can tell them!" Jacob said, as if speaking to himself. "An' is it in your mind, lad, that we're to go back there rather than anywhere else?" "Where else could we go?" I asked, in surprise. "I've been thinkin' that we might do our people at home more good by marchin' the Minute Boys to where they could be of real service, than goin' back to let 'em loaf 'round the settlement." At that moment the old soldier was called away to attend to some duty, and Jacob and I had ample food for thought as we turned over in mind what he had said. Before the day had come to an end we had reinforcements--when we no longer needed them--in plenty. Company after company of soldiers marched in from the direction of Stillwater, and through the earliest arrivals we learned that twelve hundred men, under General Benedict Arnold, had been sent to our relief. To our great joy, they could give valuable information regarding the strange behavior of St. Leger's army, and by putting together this and that bit of news we had a fairly good solution to the puzzle before the arrival of General Arnold, who came with a small force twenty hours behind the main body. And this is the story as we heard it from one source and another until there could be no question but that we had all the facts with no embellishments: Colonel Willett and Lieutenant Stockwell succeeded in getting past the several encampments without being discovered, and made their way to German Flats. There they procured horses, and rode at full speed until arriving at the headquarters of General Schuyler at Stillwater. Now it must be understood that when General Washington heard the news of the fall of Ticonderoga, he sent General Benedict Arnold with as many troops as could be gathered, to strengthen the northern army. General Arnold arrived at Stillwater nearabout three weeks before Colonel Willett rode into that place with the request that assistance be sent as soon as possible to Fort Schuyler. Now it seems, as I have heard it said by those who knew, and, later, have seen it printed, that immediately the messengers from the besieged fort stated the purpose of their coming, General Schuyler, eager to send Colonel Gansevoort all the succor he might, called a council of war to decide upon what should be done, when, greatly to his surprise, he found that the members of his staff were bitterly opposed to weakening the force then at Stillwater by sending any away, even on so important a mission as that of aiding the beleaguered garrison. Here is what I have seen printed regarding the matter, and I will copy it lest any one think I may have imagined some portion of this contention, which, as we look at the situation now, seems so improbable, for one can hardly believe that any officer in the patriot army would have refused at such a time to aid those who were so sorely pressed as were Gansevoort's troops: