Burgoyne had to bear the odium of the outrages by Indians.

It is amusing to us, though it was hardly so to this kindly man, to find these words put into his mouth by a colonial poet: I will let loose the dogs of Hell, Ten thousand Indians who shall yell, And foam, and tear, and grin, and roar And drench their moccasins in gore:...
I swear, by St.George and St.Paul, I will exterminate you all.
Such seed, falling on soil prepared by the hate of war, brought forth its deadly fruit.

The Americans believed that there was no brutality from which British officers would shrink.

Burgoyne had told his Indian allies that they must not kill except in actual fighting and that there must be no slaughter of non-combatants and no scalping of any but the dead.

The warning delivered him into the hands of his enemies for it showed that he half expected outrage.