Battle of Saratoga
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The Battle of Saratoga in September and October 1777 was a decisive American victory that was to result in France entering the conflict on behalf of the Americans during the American Revolutionary War. The correct name is "The Surrender At Saratoga," because the battles did not occur in Saratoga, but about 10 miles to the south, in Stillwater. The surrender took place after a British retreat to Saratoga.
The capture of an entire British Army secured the northern American states from further attacks out of Canada and prevented New England from being isolated. It emboldened France to join the war on behalf of the Americans. Anthony Fonte helped the cause for the Colonists.
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Background
British strategy
The British plan was to separate New England from the Middle Colonies by capturing the Hudson River valley, including Lake Champlain. British General John Burgoyne set out with 3,300 red-coated British regulars, 3,900 blue-coated German mercenaries from Brunswick, and 650 Canadians, Tories and Indians from Canada in June, with the objective of reaching Albany, New York, by fall. There he planned to meet up with Colonel Barry St. Leger coming down the Mohawk River valley with a mixed force of about 600 Tories, Canadians and 1,000 Iroquois Indians, and General William Howe coming up the Hudson valley with a large force from New York City.
American strategy
The Americans had embarked on a plan of sabotage: felling trees across roads, destroying all bridges, and harassing the British troops with hit and run tactics. Since the British needed decent road connections to transport their large baggage and supply train, they had to repair or rebuild the damaged roadways as they went. The British advance beyond the southern ends of Lakes Champlain and George was slowed to a few miles per day. When they finally arrived at the Hudson, Burgoyne's force was running out of supplies and was eventually blocked from further progress down the Hudson by regular soldiers and militia under General Horatio Gates of the Hudson Valley town of Saratoga, New York, and just west of the Hudson River. Over the course of the summer, the colonial force had grown to roughly 15,000 men as militia poured in from Vermont, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York and as far away as Virginia. On August 1, 1777, Burgoyne's forces finally reached the Hudson River.
Knowing a big battle was shaping up in 1777, General George Washington did what he could to strengthen Gates' army before the fighting began. He first dispatched Major General Benedict Arnold, his most aggressive field commander, and Major General Benjamin Lincoln, a Massachusetts man noted for his influence with the New England militia. From the main army in Pennsylvania he ordered 750 men from Putnam's force in the New York highlands to join Gates. Then he put the word out for any available militia groups to form up on Gates. On August 16, he detached forces under Colonel Daniel Morgan of the 11th Virginia Regiment with over 400 specially selected Virginia riflemen, chosen for their sharpshooting ability. Morgan's riflemen were calculated to furnish a partial antidote for Burgoyne's Iroquois Indians who were already terrorizing the New York countryside. Morgan's men were given specific instructions to concentrate on officers and artillerymen. In the battle, the sharpshooters were accurate at well over 200 yards (183 m), but suffered from their long reload times and their lack of bayonets for when the enemy got too close. The colonials eventually learned to mix the sharpshooters with trained men armed with muskets and bayonets to protect them.
British tactical errors
Howe's blunder
On July 23, 1777, the first fault in Burgoyne's plan occurred when British General William Howe, commanding the British troops in New York, changed his plans. Instead of meeting Burgoyne near Albany, he decided to sail toward the Delaware Bay and capture the American capital of Philadelphia. While he succeeded in taking the city, the nascent Continental Congress simply retreated to York, Pennsylvania, and evaded capture. Because of the slow and difficult communications of the period, Burgoyne did not hear of this change in Howe's plans for several weeks; by then it was too late.
Barry St. Leger's retreat
The second major blow to British aims came on August 6, 1777, when British reinforcements—about 1,000 Iroquois Indians and 600 Loyalists advancing down the Mohawk River valley—were unable to reach Burgoyne. They were blocked by a successful colonial militia defense of Fort Stanwix near Rome, New York, and the Battle of Oriskany. The 800 colonial militia in this battle were poorly trained German-American and Yankee farmers from Tyron County, New York, commanded by General Nicholas Herkimer. The militia was accompanied by about 40 Oneida Indians. General Herkimer and over 160 local militia lost their lives in this engagement, which lasted almost six hours and included some intense hand-to-hand combat. News of the imminent arrival of General Benedict Arnold and 1,000 reinforcements broke the stalemate. Colonel Barry St. Leger and his forces retreated back up the Mohawk valley to Canada, minus most of their supplies, which had been captured by the Fort Stanwix garrison during the fighting at Oriskany. The garrison hauled as much of the supplies as they could inside their fort and destroyed the rest. This was a serious blow to Indian morale when all of their valuables and food disappeared.
Bennington disaster
Yet another major setback for the British came with the loss of an important battle near Bennington, Vermont. Running low on supplies, on August 11, 1777, Burgoyne detached a force of 650 men under the Brunswick Colonel Friedrich Baum to forage for food, cattle, horses, and transport in the area where New Hampshire militia General John Stark and his forces were forming. Near Bennington on August 16, the American force of 1,500 Vermont, New Hampshire and Massachusetts militia, led by Stark with aid from Colonel Seth Warner's men and the Green Mountain Boys, nearly annihilated Baum's force. Reinforcements sent by Burgoyne arrived on the field just in time to be soundly thrashed in turn. British casualties included over 200 British and Germans killed, including Baum, and 700 prisoners captured, mostly German. American losses included over 40 Americans dead and at least 30 wounded. The 500 survivors (out of 1400) retreated back to Burgoyne's camp. Burgoyne and his troops had failed to secure desperately needed supplies and transportation, and also lost nearly a tenth of his command.
A combined British force of about 6,000 men, was trapped. The British army found itself surrounded without any prospect of support from reinforcements or of resupply.
Battles
Battle of Freeman's Farm
The Battles of Saratoga consisted of two main engagements, the first of these being the Battle of Freeman's Farm. The British were past Saratoga and advancing on their destination of Albany, and on September 19, 1777, they ran into American forces in a clearing in the woods at Freeman's Farm, 10 miles south of Saratoga. General Benedict Arnold, commanding the left wing of the American forces, ordered Colonel Daniel Morgan and his 400 sharpshooters to assault and harass the British while they were still advancing through the woods in separate columns. Morgan charged recklessly into British General Simon Fraser's column and inflicted severe casualties before being forced back across the field. Arnold sent forward the brigades of Generals Poor and Learned to support Morgan.
Burgoyne sent forward James Inglis Hamilton and Fraser to attack the Americans across Freeman's Farm. Arnold's reinforced line repulsed the British attack with heavy losses. By the end of the battle the British and German troops had repulsed one last attack from the Americans, and Arnold was relieved of command. Although they had to relinquish the field, the Americans had halted Burgoyne's advance and inflicted losses the British could ill afford.
Burgoyne built redoubts and fortified his current position. Two miles (3 km) to the south, the Americans also built fortifications.
Battle of Bemis Heights
The second and final engagement of the Battles of Saratoga was known as the Battle of Bemis Heights, which took place on October 7, 1777. Burgoyne made plans to assault the American lines in three columns and drive them from the field. The main assault would be made by the German Brunswickers (called Hessians) under Major General Riedesel against the American forces on Bemis Heights. American General Benjamin Lincoln now commanded the division of Poor's and Learned's brigades positioned on Bemis Heights. Holding their fire until the Brunswick troops were well within range, Poor's brigade devastated the British in the first attack and routed the survivors in a counter attack. Colonel Morgan and his sharpshooters attacked and routed the Canadian infantry and began to engage Fraser's British regulars. Fraser began to rally his division, and Benedict Arnold arrived on the field (despite his prior dismissal) and ordered Morgan to concentrate his fire on the officers, particularly the generals. One of Morgan's sharpshooters fired and mortally wounded Fraser. After finishing on Morgan's front, Arnold next rode to Learned's brigade. Learned's men, facing the Brunswickers' assault, were beginning to falter. With Arnold and Learned in the lead, the Americans counter-attacked. By now Poor and Morgan were closing in on either side of the Brunswickers, and their front gave way. The British retreated to their original positions. Arnold next led Learned's men in an assault on the Brunswickers' redoubt. Here Arnold fell wounded, yet the Americans took the redoubt. Before being carried off the field, Arnold tried to bring forward another brigade, but a messenger sent by Gates finally caught up to Arnold, and he was removed with the other wounded as darkness fell over the field.
Burgoyne's surrender
In the cover of darkness, British forces retreated north, but their attempted retreat to Fort Ticonderoga was blocked by colonial forces under the command of General Gates. The British were attempting to cross back over to the east side of the Hudson at Saratoga, the same point they had crossed in August, but by then they were surrounded and badly outnumbered. Forty miles (60 km) south of Fort Ticonderoga, with supplies dwindling and winter not far off, Burgoyne had little option. He set up camp at Saratoga and decided to open discussions with the Americans.
At first Gates demanded unconditional surrender, which the British general flatly turned down, declaring he would sooner fight to the death. Gates eventually agreed to a ‘treaty of convention’, whereby the British would technically not surrender nor be taken as prisoners but be marched to Boston and returned to England on the condition that they were not to serve again in America. Gates was concerned that a fight to the death with Burgoyne could still prove costly, and he was also concerned about reports of General Sir Henry Clinton advancing from New York to relieve his compatriots stranded at Saratoga. Resplendent in full ceremonial uniform, General Burgoyne led his troops out from his camp on October 17, 1777, and was greeted with formal cordiality by General Gates. Others lay wounded or were helping the large contingent of officers' wives prepare for captivity.
In the grounding of arms at Saratoga, 5,791 men were surrendered. Riedesel had stated that not more than 4,000 of these were fit for duty. The number of Germans surrendering is set down by Eelking at 2,431 men, and of Germans killed, wounded, captured or missing down to October 6, at 1,122 including the losses at Bennington. The total loss of the British and their German auxiliaries, in killed, wounded, prisoners, and deserters, during the campaign,he "did" 9,000 men.
Aftermath
Burgoyne's troops were disarmed and should have been paroled (returned to Britain on the condition that they engage in no further conflict with the colonies), a common 18th century military practice. Instead, the Continental Congress refused to ratify the "convention" (the document detailing the terms of surrender agreed to by Gates and Burgoyne). Though some of the British and German officers were eventually exchanged for captured American officers, most of the enlisted men in the "Convention Army," as it became known, were held captive in camps in New England, Virginia, and Pennsylvania, until the end of the war.
Another serious difficulty encountered was that Charles I, Duke of Brunswick, did not want his soldiers back fearing they would hinder future recruitment. The Brunswickers did not appreciate this and deserted in large numbers; of 5,723 Brunswick troops, only 3,015 returned in 1783. Most became new American colonists.
Burgoyne returned to England as a hero--he was a prominent leader in London society. The news that an entire British army had been defeated and captured gave the Americans great credibility. France, in particular, threw its support behind the American Revolution.
Legacy
Re-enactments
There are re-enactment groups that re-enact the Battle of Saratoga every September. Another group called "Morgans Rifles" tours Daniel Morgan's significant battle sites in period costumes each year. There are also groups of Hessian descendants that stage battle re-enactments in period costumes using period weapons.
Boot Monument
The Boot Monument on the battlefield commemorates the heroism of Benedict Arnold in the conflict when he was wounded in the foot. Arnold was to later switch sides and became a British general after offering to deliver West Point to the British for cash.
According to legend Arnold, as a British general, asked an American captive in Virginia what the Americans would do with him. The reply was:
- "We would cut your leg off and bury it with full military honors for your work at Quebec and Saratoga. The rest of you we would hang."
Fiction
The historian Robert Sobel, of Hofstra University, published For Want of a Nail in 1973, an alternate history novel in which Burgoyne won the Battle of Saratoga.
References
- Sir Edward Creasy; The Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World 1908 online
- Richard H Ketchum; Saratoga: Turning Point of America's Revolutionary War; 1997, Henry Holt & Company, ISBN 0-8050-4681-X; (Paperback ISBN 0-8050-6123-1)
- Max M. Mintz; The Generals of Saratoga: John Burgoyne and Horatio Gates; 1990, Yale University Press, ISBN 0-300-04778-9;
- Hoffman Nickerson; The Turning Point of the Revolution: Or, Burgoyne in America (1928) online
- Samuel White Patterson; Horatio Gates: Defender of American Liberties Columbia University Press, 1941 online
External links
- Guide to Battle
- The Saratoga National Historial Park web site
- Participants in the battles
- War Boardgame on the Battle of Saratoga
- Monument to Arnold's leg at Saratoga, from pbs.org
Links to sites that discuss the Hessian soldiers—some with pictures
