Arnold fed additional regiments into the fray, about 3,000 Continental troops and militia in total. Captain Ebenezer Wakefield remembered Arnold ‘in front of the line, his eyes flashing, pointing with his sword to the advancing foe, with a voice that rang clear as a trumpet and electrified the line.’ Arnold’s division tangled with Fraser’s column on the left and Burgoyne’s personally led column in the center. Hemmed in by the river and Gates’s right wing on the heights, Riedesel’s German units sat motionless until 5:00 p.m., when Burgoyne sent for him to reinforce his besieged center. If Gates had countered this move, Arnold felt, the Americans would have carried the day. But Gates, citing a shortage of ammunition, was content with a draw.

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Within days of the battle, tension between Gates and Arnold boiled over. Gates made no mention of Arnold or his division in his battle report to Congress, though they had done all of the fighting. Even more galling to the ultra-sensitive Arnold was his commander’s September 22 decree that Daniel Morgan would thereafter report only to him. Arnold stormed into Gates’s headquarters. A loud argument ensued, and the two men exchanged ‘high words and gross language.’ Gates questioned Arnold’s very qualification for command. He also told Arnold that he planned to assume direct command of the left wing as soon as Major General Benjamin Lincoln arrived to take over the right.

The eruption between Gates and Arnold had been coming for some time. The two had once been friends, but army politics and petty jealousy had turned them into rivals. Arnold had angrily resigned his commission in July after Congress promoted five junior officers to major general ahead of him. The promotions were part of a new political system that balanced the number of generals from each state, and Connecticut already had their fair share with two major generals, Israel Putnam and Joseph Spencer. At General George Washington’s request, Arnold had agreed to set the issue aside.

Arnold had infuriated Gates by becoming friendly with Major General Philip Schuyler while serving under Schuyler in the Northern Department. Gates hated Schuyler because Schuyler held a command that Gates desired for himself. Arnold’s friendship with his enemy irked him. Congress replaced Schuyler with Gates in August, but friction between Gates and Arnold remained. Arnold immediately annoyed Gates by adding two Schuyler partisans, Lieutenant Colonel Henry Brockholst Livingston and Lieutenant Colonel Richard Varick, to his staff. Gates, in turn, leaned increasingly on his aide, James Wilkinson, a 20-year-old lieutenant colonel and schemer of questionable principles. Arnold soon became an unwelcome guest at army headquarters.

Following his argument with Gates, Arnold drafted a long letter to his superior. The grievances he detailed included the poor treatment he had received since Gates arrived and the lack of credit extended to his division following the First Battle of Saratoga. ‘I am thought of in no consequence in this department,’ he complained. Arnold asked for a pass to leave camp, and Gates sent it over the next day, but Arnold hesitated, desperately wanting to participate in the coming fight. Gates requested that Arnold dismiss Livingston. He refused, but Arnold’s loyal aide left on his own accord. Gates then issued general orders thanking Arnold’s division for its gallant service in the battle but again did not mention its commander. Meanwhile, Brigadier General Enoch Poor circulated a petition asking Arnold to remain, and every line officer, except the newly arrived Lincoln, signed it.

Arnold agreed to stay, but he had become essentially a man without a job. For the moment he quenched his restlessness by irritating Gates with a series of notes filled with military advice. Gates ignored him, and on October 1 Gates assumed command of the left wing and handed Lincoln the right.

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