Whatever his feelings may have been in regard to the command of the northern department, Washington made no change in his own course after Gates had been appointed.  He knew that Gates was at least harmless, and not likely to block the natural course of events.  He therefore felt free to press his own policy without cessation, and without apprehension.  He took care that Lincoln and Arnold should be there to look after the New England militia, and he wrote to Governor Clinton, in whose energy and courage he had great confidence, to rouse up the men of New York.  He suggested the points of attack, and at every moment advised and counseled and watched, holding all the while a firm grip on Howe.  Slowly and surely the net, thus painfully set, tightened round Burgoyne.  The New Englanders whipped one division at Bennington, and the New Yorkers shattered another at Oriskany and Fort Schuyler.  The country people turned out in defense of their invaded homes and poured into the American camp.  Burgoyne struggled and advanced, fought and retreated.  Gates, stupid, lethargic, and good-natured, did nothing, but there was no need of generalship; and Arnold was there, turbulent and quarrelsome, but full of daring; and Morgan, too, equally ready; and they and others did all the necessary fighting.

Poor Burgoyne, a brave gentleman, if not a great general, had the misfortune to be a clever man in the service of a stupid administration, and he met the fate usually meted out under such circumstances to men of ideas.  Howe went off to the conquest of Philadelphia, Clinton made a brief burning and plundering raid up the river, and the northern invasion, which really had meaning, was left to its fate.  It was a hard fate, but there was no escape.  Outnumbered, beaten, and caught, Burgoyne surrendered.  If there had been a fighting-man at the head of the American army, the British would have surrendered as prisoners of war, and not on conditions.  Schuyler, we may be sure, whatever his failings, would never have let them off so easily.  But it was sufficient as it was.  The wilderness, and the militia of New York and New England swarming to the defense of their homes, had done the work.  It all fell out just as Washington had foreseen and planned, and England, despising her enemy and their commander, saw one of her armies surrender, and might have known, if she had had the wit, that the colonies were now lost forever.  The Revolution had been saved at Trenton; it was established at Saratoga.  In the one case it was the direct, in the other the indirect, work of Washington.