The army set out on its long march of two hundred miles to
Boston. The late autumn weather was cold, the army was badly
clothed and fed, and the discomfort of the weary route was
increased by the bitter antagonism of the inhabitants. They
respected the regular British soldier but at the Germans they
shouted insults and the Loyalists they despised as traitors. The
camp at the journey's end was on the ground at Cambridge where
two years earlier Washington had trained his first army. Every
day Burgoyne expected to embark. There was delay and, at last, he
knew the reason. Congress repudiated the terms granted by Gates.
A tangled dispute followed. Washington probably had no sympathy
with the quibbling of Congress. But he had no desire to see this
army return to Europe and release there an army to serve in
America. Burgoyne's force was never sent to England. For nearly a
year it lay at Boston. Then it was marched to Virginia. The men
suffered great hardships and the numbers fell by desertion and
escape. When peace came in 1783 there was no army to take back to
England; Burgoyne's soldiers had been merged into the American
people. It may well be, indeed, that descendants of his beaten
men have played an important part in building up the United
States.
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