[Footnote 77: When the command of the operating army was
given to General Thomas in March 1776, the head quarters of
General Schuyler had been fixed by congress at Albany, and
that resolution remained in force. General Gates was now
directed to repair to Ticonderoga and take command of the
army; and Major General St. Clair was ordered to the same
place to serve under him.]

On his arrival, he found the army of the north not only too weak for
the objects entrusted to it, but badly supplied with arms, clothes,
and provisions. From a spy who had been seized near Onion River, he
obtained information that General Burgoyne was at Quebec, and was to
command the British forces in that department so soon as they should
march out of Canada. That while Ticonderoga should be attacked by the
main army, Sir John Johnson, with a strong body of British, Canadians,
and Indians, was to penetrate to the Mohawk by Oswego, and place
himself between fort Stanwix and fort Edward.

[Sidenote: Burgoyne appears before Ticonderoga.]

General Schuyler was sensible of the danger which threatened him, and
made every exertion to meet it. After completing his arrangements at
Ticonderoga for sustaining a siege, he had proceeded to Albany, for
the purpose of attending to his supplies, and of expediting the march
of reinforcements, when he received intelligence from General St.
Clair, who was entrusted with the defence of Ticonderoga, that
Burgoyne had appeared before that place.

In the course of the preceding winter, a plan for penetrating to the