Saratoga (Bemis Heights)

Two clashes near Saratoga, New York, unfolded on September 19 and October 7, 1777, both contested over identical terrain between the Continental Army and British forces during the Revolutionary War. When the second encounter concluded, it delivered a clear-cut American triumph, culminating in the British army's surrender there. This turn of events shaped the war's broader trajectory, convincing France to join as an ally on the American side. British forces in both engagements answered to General John Burgoyne, whereas Generals Horatio Gates and Benedict Arnold directed American operations. According to historian Edmund Morgan, Saratoga stood as "a great turning point of the war" since it secured the foreign backing from France that Americans needed as the final piece for triumph.

New York served as the stage for a British campaign designed to sever New England from the colonies to its south. Burgoyne pushed an invading force south out of Quebec, Canada, intent on seizing Albany, New York. Early momentum favored this plan, yet supply troubles brought it to a halt. General William Howe failed to bring his troops northward, and Brigadier General Barry St. Leger reversed course with the western contingent that was supposed to join the effort, leaving Burgoyne encircled by American forces in upstate New York, a mere 15 miles (24 km) from his destination. Two engagements followed, separated by eighteen days, both fought on the same patch of ground 9 miles (14 km) below Saratoga, New York.

The opening clash occurred at Freeman's Farm on September 19, where Burgoyne claimed a tactical win over the Continentals, though it cost him dearly in casualties. Burgoyne opened the fighting by attempting to flank the American position dug in atop Bemis Heights using part of his troops. Major General Benedict Arnold, foreseeing this move, positioned substantial forces to block it. Nevertheless, Burgoyne managed to hold the field. Minor clashes persisted over subsequent days as Burgoyne held out hope for reinforcements from New York City.

During this interval, militia units kept streaming in, bolstering American numbers. Internal friction over battlefield strategy prompted Gates to remove Arnold from command. Once it grew clear that no timely relief would reach the British, Burgoyne launched a second assault at the Battle of Bemis Heights on October 7, only to lose the engagement and forfeit the ground he had previously won. The fighting grew fierce, highlighted by Arnold's vigorous efforts to rally American troops. Burgoyne's men were driven back to where they had stood before the September 19 clash, and Americans seized part of the fortified British lines.

This defeat forced Burgoyne into retreat toward Saratoga, known today as Schuylerville. Surrounded by a force far larger than his own, he yielded his entire army to Gates on October 17. General Sir Henry Clinton advanced from New York City in an attempt to distract American forces, capturing Forts Clinton and Montgomery along the Hudson River highlands on October 6 and taking Kingston on October 13, but these moves came too late to rescue Burgoyne. Word of the surrender at Saratoga proved decisive in officially establishing the Franco-American Alliance, even though France had already been secretly supplying munitions, weapons, and arms, including the Vallière cannon, which proved significant at Saratoga.

Background

Nearly two years had passed since fighting began in the American Revolutionary War. British strategists hoped to cut New England off from the middle and southern colonies, regions they assumed held stronger Loyalist sympathies. To accomplish this, British commanders drew up a scheme for 1777 involving three converging columns. Barry St. Leger would lead troops westward from Ontario, tracking the Mohawk River through New York, while a second force pushed north along the Hudson from New York City. A third column would march down from Montreal. All three were meant to converge near Albany, cutting New England loose from the rest of the rebelling colonies.

Lieutenant General John Burgoyne set out from Quebec in June 1777, aiming to seize the upper Hudson region for the British. Though his forces had taken Fort Ticonderoga successfully, the campaign afterward grew increasingly troubled. By late July, portions of his army had reached the upper Hudson, yet problems with supply lines held the bulk of his force at Fort Edward. A push meant to ease these shortages instead ended in disaster on August 16, when close to a thousand men were killed or taken prisoner at Bennington. Worse news followed on August 28: St. Leger's push down the Mohawk had collapsed after his failed siege of Fort Stanwix.

Rather than marching north to join Burgoyne, General Howe had instead loaded his troops onto ships in New York City, setting off to seize Philadelphia. Burgoyne, meanwhile, had lost most of his Indian allies after the Bennington defeat, leaving his position increasingly precarious. Facing the need to find secure winter quarters, he weighed retreating to Ticonderoga against pressing forward to Albany, ultimately choosing to advance. To free himself from the burden of maintaining fortified posts stretching back to Ticonderoga, he cut off his own communication lines northward. Taking advantage of a moment of relative strength, he resolved to cross the Hudson. Baron Riedesel, commanding the rear guard, was instructed to give up the outposts stretching from Skenesboro southward, and between September 13 and 15 the army crossed the river just above Saratoga.

Since Burgoyne had taken Ticonderoga in early July, the Continental force under Major General Philip Schuyler had been retreating steadily, eventually settling south of Stillwater, New York. Schuyler's standing had suffered because of the loss of Ticonderoga and the retreat that followed, and on August 19 Major General Horatio Gates took over command from him. The two men came from starkly different backgrounds and had clashed before, particularly over authority within the Northern Department. Meanwhile, the ranks of the American army swelled as governors called up militia, as word spread of the victory at Bennington, and as anger grew over the killing of Jane McCrea, a Loyalist soldier's fiancée slain by Indians serving under Burgoyne. Militia continued pouring in even as fighting unfolded, a surge Burgoyne had no means of matching since he could expect no reinforcements of his own. This disparity would ultimately doom his campaign. By the fighting's end, Burgoyne commanded 5,791 men, while the American force numbered roughly 12,000.

Washington's own choices further strengthened Gates' position. Though his primary worry remained Howe's whereabouts, Washington understood Burgoyne was also on the move and chose to accept certain risks that July. Northward he dispatched Major General Benedict Arnold, his boldest field commander, along with Major General Benjamin Lincoln, a Massachusetts officer respected among New England's militia. In August, before confirming that Howe had truly sailed south, he ordered 750 troops drawn from Israel Putnam's garrison defending the New York highlands to reinforce Gates. He further committed some of his army's finest soldiers, sending Colonel Daniel Morgan along with the newly organized Provisional Rifle Corps, roughly 500 marksmen handpicked from Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia for their skill with a rifle. This unit would become known to history as Morgan's Riflemen.

Gates set his army marching north on September 7. His troops settled at Bemis Heights, a position chosen for its defensive value, situated just above Stillwater and roughly ten miles south

First Saratoga: Battle of Freeman's Farm (September 19)

With his Native American scouts gone and no dependable intelligence on where the Americans stood, Burgoyne pressed southward with great caution after his crossing of the Hudson. By September 18, his lead elements had come within roughly four miles of the American lines, halting just north of Saratoga, and small clashes broke out between British forward troops and American scouts.

Tension had been simmering inside the American camp since Arnold came back from Fort Stanwix. He and Gates had once managed a workable, if strained, relationship despite their combustible personalities, but Arnold's decision to bring on officers loyal to Schuyler poisoned things further, pulling him into the two men's ongoing rivalry. Matters had not yet exploded by the nineteenth, though that day's happenings added fuel to the fire. Gates put Arnold in charge of the defensive left, keeping personal command of the right for himself, a post technically belonging to General Lincoln, whom Gates had sent off in August with a detachment to harass the rear of Burgoyne's forces.

Both commanders recognized how crucial the American left and its high ground were. Once the morning haze burned away near ten o'clock, Burgoyne sent his troops forward in three separate columns. Baron Riedesel took the left, made up of German soldiers and the 47th Foot, moving along the river road while escorting the main artillery train and protecting supplies and river craft. General James Inglis Hamilton led the center, comprising the 9th, 20th, 21st, and 62nd regiments, tasked with seizing the heights, while General Simon Fraser commanded the right, made up of the 24th Regiment along with light infantry and grenadier units, aiming to swing around the American left through the thick, high timberland north and west of Bemis Heights.

Sensing that such an encircling move was coming, Arnold asked Gates for leave to shift troops off the heights and meet the threat where American skill in forest fighting could count for something. Gates, who favored waiting for a direct assault rather than seeking one out, reluctantly agreed to send a probing force built around Daniel Morgan's riflemen and Henry Dearborn's light infantry. When Morgan's men came upon an open clearing northwest of Bemis Heights, owned by the loyalist John Freeman, they caught sight of British soldiers already in the field. Fraser's column, running a bit behind schedule, had not yet arrived there, while Hamilton's men were still working their way east through dense woods and rough ravines. Riedesel, though moving along the road, found his progress slowed by obstructions the Americans had placed in his path. Hearing gunfire to the west, he dispatched some artillery pieces down a nearby trail toward the sound. What Morgan's men had actually spotted was an advance company belonging to Hamilton's column.

Morgan stationed his sharpshooters carefully, and they proceeded to cut down nearly every officer in that forward company. His men then charged, not realizing they were rushing straight toward Burgoyne's main body. Though they pushed back the advance company, Fraser's troops arrived just in time to strike Morgan's flank, breaking his formation and sending his men scattering into the trees. James Wilkinson, who had ridden up to watch the exchange, hurried back to fetch reinforcements. As the retreating British company fell back on its main column, the front ranks there opened fire and unintentionally shot down several of their own men.

Fighting paused around one o'clock while Hamilton's troops organized themselves on the field's northern edge and American support began arriving from the south. Upon hearing that Morgan needed help, Gates dispatched the 1st and 3rd New Hampshire regiments, with further reinforcements from Enoch Poor's brigade, namely the 2nd and 4th New York, the 1st Canadian, and Connecticut militia, to follow behind. Burgoyne positioned Hamilton's force with the 21st on the right flank, the 20th on the left, the 62nd holding the center, and the 9th kept in reserve.

What followed was a battle marked by surges of violence broken by lulls. Regrouped in the timber, Morgan's men resumed picking off British officers and gun crews, doing such damage to the artillerymen that the Americans briefly seized British cannon more than once, only to lose them again in the next counterattack. At one moment word spread that Burgoyne himself had fallen to a marksman, though the actual victim was an aide riding an elaborately outfitted horse. The British center nearly collapsed entirely, saved

Interlude

When Burgoyne's officers convened to weigh a renewed assault, they opted to hold off for at least a day, pushing any action to September 21. Troops repositioned themselves nearer to the American lines during this pause, and some soldiers used the time to retrieve their fallen comrades. Plans for the 21st fell apart once Burgoyne got word, through a letter written on September 12, from Henry Clinton, who held command over British forces stationed in New York City. In that message, Clinton floated the idea of moving "against Fort Montgomery within roughly ten days" (this fort sat along the Hudson in the New York Highlands, south of West Point). Even if Clinton departed New York on the 22nd, roughly ten days after penning the letter, arrival near Saratoga before month's end remained impossible. Despite dwindling manpower and provisions, Burgoyne chose to hold his ground, banking on rescue from Clinton's forces. On September 23, he sent word to Clinton asking for any form of support or distraction that might pull Gates' troops elsewhere. Clinton finally set sail on October 3, seizing both Fort Montgomery and Fort Clinton three days later. His soldiers pushed only as far north as Clermont, plundering the estate belonging to the well-known Livingston family there on October 16.

Neither camp at Saratoga knew that General Lincoln, alongside Colonel John Brown, had launched an offensive against British-held Fort Ticonderoga. By early September, Lincoln had gathered roughly 2,000 troops near Bennington. Brown, leading 500 men, overran weakly held outposts situated between Ticonderoga and Lake George, then wasted several days lobbing ineffective fire at the fort itself. By September 29th, this force, along with liberated prisoners picked up during the campaign, had rejoined the main American encampment.

Within the American ranks, tension long simmering between Horatio Gates and Benedict Arnold finally boiled over into outright conflict. Gates promptly informed Congress and New York's Governor George Clinton about the September 19th engagement, yet his account left Arnold entirely unmentioned. Meanwhile, both officers and soldiers on the ground unanimously attributed the victory to Arnold's leadership. Nearly every unit engaged belonged to Arnold's command, and it was Arnold who actively directed the fighting while Gates remained in his tent. Furious, Arnold confronted Gates, and their argument grew heated until Gates stripped him of command, handing it instead to Benjamin Lincoln. Though Arnold requested reassignment to serve under Washington, and Gates approved it, Arnold never actually departed and stayed put in his tent. Despite popular legend claiming that a petition from line officers persuaded him to remain, no documentation supports this story.

Throughout this stretch, minor skirmishes broke out nearly every day between opposing scouts and outposts. Morgan's riflemen, well versed in forest combat tactics, relentlessly pestered British patrols along the western edge of the lines.

By the time September gave way to October, Burgoyne recognized that no help was coming from Clinton, prompting him to cut rations starting October 3. A war council followed the next day, generating discussion but no firm resolution. When deliberations continued on the following day, Riedesel argued for retreat, a position Fraser also backed. Burgoyne dismissed the idea outright, viewing withdrawal as a mark of shame. Ultimately, the group settled on striking the American left flank with two thousand troops, over a third of their total force, scheduled for October 7. Yet the opposing army had swelled considerably during this delay. Beyond the return of Lincoln's men, fresh militia and supplies kept flowing into the American camp, notably replenishing ammunition stocks that had run dangerously low after the earlier battle. By October 7, Burgoyne confronted a force exceeding 12,000 men, commanded by someone fully aware of his dire circumstances. Gates had been receiving steady information from British deserters streaming into his lines, and had also intercepted the reply Clinton sent to Burgoyne's request for aid.

Second Saratoga: Battle of Bemis Heights (October 7)

On paper Burgoyne commanded a larger force, but by October 7 he probably had no more than 5,000 men fit for combat, since earlier engagements in the campaign and desertions after the fighting on September 19 had thinned his ranks considerably. Riedesel urged withdrawal, but Burgoyne instead chose to scout the American left to determine whether an offensive remained feasible. For this reconnaissance the generals brought Fraser's Advanced Corps along as protection, positioning light infantry and the 24th Foot on the right, British grenadiers combined together on the left, and a mixed detachment drawn from every German regiment in the army placed centrally. Artillery support included eight British guns commanded by Major Williams and a pair of Hesse-Hanau cannon under Captain Pausch. Departing camp sometime between ten and eleven in the morning, they marched roughly three quarters of a mile, about one kilometer, to Barber's wheat field situated on elevated ground overlooking Mill Brook, halting there to survey the American lines. Although the open field gave artillery some room to maneuver, its flanks sat uncomfortably close to the tree line.

On the American side, Gates had taken personal command of the left after removing Arnold from field command, handing the right to General Lincoln. Once scouts alerted Gates to Burgoyne's advance, he dispatched Morgan's riflemen far to the left, positioned Poor's brigade, comprising the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd New Hampshire, alongside them on the left, placed the 2nd and 4th New York on the right, and stationed Learned's command, made up of the 1st New York, 1st Canadian, and the 2nd, 8th, and 9th Massachusetts regiments together with militia units, in the middle. Behind Learned's line, Brigadier General Abraham Ten Broeck kept 1,200 New York militiamen in reserve. That day the American army fielded over 8,000 men altogether, a figure that included some 1,400 troops from Lincoln's command committed once fighting intensified.

Fighting began sometime between two and half past two in the afternoon, initiated by the British grenadiers. Poor's soldiers withheld their fire, and unfavorable ground rendered the British volleys largely harmless. Once Major Acland ordered his grenadiers into a bayonet charge, the Americans finally opened fire at close quarters. Acland went down with wounds to both legs, and numerous grenadiers fell alongside him. Their formation collapsed entirely, allowing Poor's men to push forward, seize Acland and Williams as prisoners, and capture their guns. Matters on the American left proved equally unfavorable for the British. There, Morgan's riflemen pushed past Canadian and Native American forces to confront Fraser's regulars directly. Despite being somewhat outnumbered, Morgan repeatedly foiled British efforts to shift westward. General Fraser suffered a mortal wound during this stage of the fighting, though historian Luzader suggests the popular tale crediting Timothy Murphy, one of Morgan's marksmen, may actually be a fabrication dating from the nineteenth century. Fraser's death combined with the arrival of Ten Broeck's sizable militia brigade, whose numbers nearly matched the entire British reconnaissance force, shattered British resolve and sent them retreating in disorder back toward their fortifications. Burgoyne himself narrowly escaped death when one of Morgan's sharpshooters put three rounds into his horse, hat, and waistcoat.

This initial stage of combat stretched across roughly an hour and cost Burgoyne close to 400 casualties, along with the capture of most grenadier officers and six of the ten artillery pieces brought into action.

At this juncture an unanticipated figure entered the fray. General Arnold, described as showing considerable agitation and fury back in camp and possibly under the influence of drink, galloped out to join the fighting. Gates promptly sent Major Armstrong to bring him back, but Armstrong could not reach him until the engagement had essentially concluded. Notably, a witness's letter describing events in camp suggests Gates may have actually sanctioned Arnold's involvement.

Two redoubts anchored the defenses on the right flank of the British encampment. The Hessian officer Heinrich von Breymann commanded roughly 300 men holding the more exposed outer position, while Lord Balcarres oversaw the other. Between these two stronghol

Aftermath

The collapse of Burgoyne's northern campaign proved to be one of the war's defining turning points. Burgoyne himself sailed home to England and would never again hold a field command in the British Army. From this defeat, British commanders drew a hard lesson about the fighting spirit of American troops. As one British officer put it, the courage and obstinacy the Americans displayed astonished everyone present, convincing them that their opponents were no longer a contemptible force incapable of a regular engagement or willing to fight only from behind fortifications.

Arnold's role in the fighting at Saratoga earned him back the seniority he had lost earlier in 1777 after being passed over for promotion. His leg wound, however, confined him to bed for five months afterward. Still unfit for duty in the field, he took a post as military governor of Philadelphia, where he began secretly corresponding with the British in an act of treason. Eventually placed in command of the fort at West Point, he schemed to surrender it to enemy forces, but when his contact John André was captured, the plot unraveled and Arnold fled to the British side. He would later serve in Virginia during an expedition in 1781 under William Phillips, who had commanded Burgoyne's right wing.

Gates, though he had largely left tactical decisions to his subordinates, was hailed as the architect behind the war's most significant American triumph to date. There is evidence he took part in scheming to replace Washington as commander-in-chief. Instead of that role, he was given charge of the main American army in the South, a command that ended in catastrophe at Camden in 1780, where he himself led the chaotic flight from the field. He never again held field command afterward.

Congress marked Burgoyne's surrender by proclaiming December 18, 1777, a day of national thanksgiving, the first time such a holiday had been officially recognized by that name.

When word of the surrender reached France, it pushed Louis XVI toward opening formal talks with the Americans, culminating in a Franco-American alliance and France's direct entry into the conflict. The war's scope now widened into a truly global struggle, compelling Britain to spread its resources thin across theaters in the West Indies and Europe, all while depending on a Loyalist support base in North America that would ultimately prove illusory. Still smarting from its loss to Britain in the French and Indian War more than ten years before, France seized the chance both to weaken its rival and to exact a measure of revenge by backing the American cause. Before Saratoga, French assistance to the colonists had been limited and cautious. Once the American victory there became clear, however, France grew convinced that the colonies stood a real chance of winning independence, and it began providing full support, sending troops, financial donations, loans, weapons, and supplies.