When General Burgoyne and his soldiers arrived here on the afternoon of October 7, they found two farm fields full of wheat. British food supplies were dwindling, and they needed that ripe grain, so orders were given for harvesters to gather it. Some officers climbed the roof of a house in this field and looked for the American defenses, but they could not see anything because of the dense woods and the distance. Crucial time passed as Burgoyne's powerful reconnaissance force, including some of the most elite soldiers of his army and German jäger riflemen scouting ahead in the woods, tried to find the Americans' weakness.