Battles of Saratoga

19 September to 7 October 1777

Continental Victory

In the summer of 1777, British Lt. Gen. John Burgoyne led 8,000 troops along Lake Champlain through the New York wilderness in an attempt to reach Albany. This would allow him a secure position to advance toward New York City or into New England. Hampered by the logistics of sustaining an army so far from its base, Burgoyne’s advance was slow and tortuous. On 19 September, British Regulars and Continental troops ran into each other at Freeman’s Farm, just in advance of the Northern Army’s lines. Although it was a British victory, Burgoyne was still outnumbered by the forces of Maj. Gen. Horatio Gates. On 7 October, Burgoyne sent part of his army on a foraging expedition. The Continentals soon overran the British defensive positions. Burgoyne retreated toward Saratoga and surrendered a month later. This marked the first surrender of a British field army. When news of the victory reached Paris, the French decided to recognize American independence and joined the war with Great Britain.

Shortly before the Battles of Saratoga, in early September, Burgoyne knew he could not expect help from General Sir William Howe or Col. Barry St. Leger. Disillusioned, he wrote to Lord George Germain, Secretary of State for the Colonies: "The great bulk of the country is undoubtedly with Congress in principle and zeal; and their measures are executed with a secrecy and dispatch that are not to be equaled. Wherever the King’s forces point, militia in the amount of three or four thousand assemble in twenty-four hours; they bring with them their subsistence, etc., and the alarm over, they return to their farms."

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