One division of fifteen hundred men, including Indians, advanced by Oswego, Wood Creek, and the Mohawk; but Fort Stanwix, with a garrison of only six hundred men, arrested their progress and forced them to return.

Another, leaving New York, ascended the Hudson as far as Esopus; but its progress was so much retarded by the small forts and water-batteries along that river, that it would have been too late to assist Burgoyne, even if it could possibly have reached Albany.

The principal division of the enemy's army, numbering about nine thousand men, advanced by the Champlain route.

Little or no preparations were made to arrest its progress.

The works of Ticonderoga were so out of repair as to be indefensible on the flanks.