Revolutionary War: Saratoga

views updated

Revolutionary War: Saratoga

British Strategy. In the beginning of 1777 Gen. John Burgoyne decided to do what the colonists’ early attacks on Canada had prevented: split the New England colonies from the rest of the colonies by establishing control of the Lake Champlain and Hudson River valleys in upstate New York. He would march down Lake Champlain from Montreal while Col. Barry St. Leger would move down the Mohawk River valley from Lake Ontario. Meanwhile, Gen. William Howe would be striking north from New York City up the Hudson River. These three expeditions would come together in Albany. Though the idea was Burgoyne’s,

the planning was done in London and was fatally flawed. General Howe was encouraged rather than ordered to march to Albany. This error doomed the entire plan.

Burgoyne Alone. On 1 July, Burgoyne with more than seven thousand regulars and one thousand Indians arrived at Fort Ticonderoga, garrisoned by twenty-five hundred colonials who lacked artillery. They evacuated the fort on 5 July. Through July and August, Burgoyne toiled down bad forest roads in pursuit of the Americans. While he was doing so, American reinforcements were arriving in the area, though they could not prevent his seizing Fort Edward. On 3 August, Burgoyne realized that the plan had gone awry, that Howe was not moving up from New York. He had the choice of returning to Canada, staying and holding forts Edward and Ticonderoga, or proceeding forward. Deciding that he would have a clearer view of the situation when his force and Leger’s linked up, he continued toward Albany. But all was not well with St. Leger. By the end of July he had passed Oswego and was besieging Fort Stanwix on the Mohawk River. That was as far as he got. He defeated one American relief column at Oriskany, but with another one under Benedict Arnold approaching, St. Leger’s Indian allies deserted him, and he retreated to Oswego. Burgoyne was alone.

Victory. By now it was equally dangerous for Burgoyne to advance or retreat, because so many colonial troops had been drawn to the area. Hoping to profit more from advancing, he crossed the Hudson River on 13 September and confronted Gen. Horatio Gates, who had fortified Bemis Heights, about eight miles from Saratoga. Gates’s right flank was anchored on the Hudson, so on the nineteenth

Burgoyne attacked his left at Freeman’s Farm. The hero of the day was Benedict Arnold, who was still smarting from not having been offered Gates’s job. He plunged into the attack, driving his troops forward with a great deal of tactical skill. He could have beaten Burgoyne even more badly, but Gates refused him reinforcements. After the battle the jealous Gates removed Arnold from his command. Burgoyne dug fortifications, hoping for help from New York. There was, in fact, an expedition sent a few miles up the Hudson River, but it was intended as no more than a diversion. Burgoyne had no choice but to return to the attack on 7 October. A rifle regiment under Col. Daniel Morgan stalled the British attack by picking off the bravest and best of the British officers. Arnold disobeyed Gates and hurried into action at the head of the New England regiments and routed the confused British. When Burgoyne surrendered his army on 17 October, not only was the splitting of the colonies a dead letter, but New York and New England were largely cleared of British troops for the remainder of the conflict (although there were still some local attacks by Tories and their Indian allies). More important, the skill and valor of the Americans had so impressed the French that by the following February they had signed

an alliance with the Americans, and they joined the war against the British in June 1778.