WEBVTT NOTE 39. The Burgoyne Disaster 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.000 Volume 4, Chapter 39, The Burgoyne Disaster 2 00:00:06.000 --> 00:00:11.000 General Burgoyne arrived back in Quebec from England on May 6. 3 00:00:11.000 --> 00:00:18.000 By mid-June he had assembled a force of 9,500, including 7,200 British and German regulars, 4 00:00:18.000 --> 00:00:26.000 and Tory and Indian auxiliaries, and a mighty fleet to sail down the Richelieu River and Lake Champlain. 5 00:00:26.000 --> 00:00:31.000 On June 14, he set sail from Fort St. John's in Canada. 6 00:00:31.000 --> 00:00:48.000 At the same time, Colonel Barry St. Leisure set off for Fort Oswego in the Mohawk Valley to Albany with a force of 1,700, including 1,000 Indians under the brilliant Mohawk Warchief Joseph Brandt. 7 00:00:48.000 --> 00:01:04.000 Burgoyne accompanied his launching with a flamboyant and preposterous proclamation to the Americans and his Indian allies, denouncing the Americans and proclaiming that Britain was fighting for the general privileges of mankind. 8 00:01:04.000 --> 00:01:13.000 Even in an age accustomed to high-flown rhetoric, this bombast was a ready subject for satire and ridicule. 9 00:01:13.000 --> 00:01:19.000 Numerous parodies appeared, and in England, Lord North laughed heartily at Burgoyne's 10 00:01:19.000 --> 00:01:26.160 Rotamontade. Burke ridiculed it, and the Whig rider Horace Walpole denounced the vaporing 11 00:01:26.160 --> 00:01:34.560 Burgoyne, that pomposo and hurloth rumbo. Burgoyne overran Crown Point on June 27, and 12 00:01:34.560 --> 00:01:40.640 then advanced upon Fort Ticonderoga, that American Gibraltar, where the American army 13 00:01:40.640 --> 00:01:47.240 was supposed to make its decisive stand. The condition of the American Army at Ticonderoga 14 00:01:47.240 --> 00:01:53.600 had deteriorated considerably from the previous autumn. Not only had the Northern Army dwindled 15 00:01:53.600 --> 00:02:00.500 away during the winter to only 5,000 men, of whom half were militia, but the problem 16 00:02:00.500 --> 00:02:08.280 of command was acute. Gates and Shuler had both lobbied in Congress for the post of Commander 17 00:02:08.280 --> 00:02:15.900 of the Army, and Congress had taken the worst course by vacillating between the two of them. 18 00:02:15.900 --> 00:02:22.660 In March 1777, overall command was given by Congress to Gates, but was handed back to 19 00:02:22.660 --> 00:02:28.880 Shuler in May. The quarrel between the two exacerbated the friction between New England 20 00:02:28.880 --> 00:02:34.680 and New York soldiers in the Northern Army, the radical Yankees admiring Gates and hating 21 00:02:34.680 --> 00:02:37.680 and the Yorkers loyal to their leader. 22 00:02:37.680 --> 00:02:46.680 When Burgoyne appeared before Ticonderoga on June 30, 1777, the Northern American Army was split in two. 23 00:02:46.680 --> 00:02:52.680 In command of the fort was Brigadier General Arthur St. Clair with 3,200 men, 24 00:02:52.680 --> 00:02:56.680 while Schuler maintained a force of 2,000 to the south. 25 00:02:56.680 --> 00:03:00.680 Ticonderoga was surrounded by three steep hills, 26 00:03:00.680 --> 00:03:05.680 and St. Clair's troops were not sufficiently numerous to garrison them. 27 00:03:05.680 --> 00:03:12.680 The major American error was to leave Mount Defiance, southwest of the fort, unfortified. 28 00:03:12.680 --> 00:03:23.680 Gates, seeing the danger of the peaks falling to the British, had repeatedly urged its fortification during 1776, but Shuler paid no heed. 29 00:03:23.680 --> 00:03:41.680 paid no heed. During his two months tenure in command in 1777, Gates and the brilliant Polish engineer, Colonel Thaddeus Kosciuszko, who had come to America to fight for the revolutionary cause, prepared to fortify Mount Defiance. 30 00:03:41.680 --> 00:03:46.680 But Gates was replaced in May before he could get the project underway. 31 00:03:46.680 --> 00:03:53.680 Even after May, he continued to pepper Shuler with warnings, but Shuler again paid no attention. 32 00:03:53.680 --> 00:04:06.680 Seeing the possibilities, the British seized two of the three hills at once, and by July 5, British General William Phillips had transported several cannon to the top of Mount Defiance. 33 00:04:06.680 --> 00:04:13.680 Defiance. Now directly under the big guns, St. Clair decided on immediate withdrawal. 34 00:04:14.420 --> 00:04:20.220 And in dead of night, the Americans sped out of the fort, fleeing down the opposite shore. 35 00:04:20.220 --> 00:04:27.220 In pursuit, the British seized in rapid succession, Ticonderoga in its hills, Hoverton and Castleton 36 00:04:27.300 --> 00:04:34.300 across the lake in Vermont, Skeensboro near Whitehall, New York, and Fort Ann. Colonel 37 00:04:34.300 --> 00:04:40.080 Colonel Seth Warner and a rear guard carelessly dwindled, and the British caught up to them 38 00:04:40.080 --> 00:04:46.900 on July 7, resulting in a slashing defeat and about 400 casualties for the American 39 00:04:46.900 --> 00:04:54.740 forces. The British also suffered heavy casualties, totaling 200. Warner, leader of the American 40 00:04:54.740 --> 00:05:00.420 rear guard, fled with the rest of his men to the Vermont mountains. The rest of the 41 00:05:00.420 --> 00:05:07.380 American Army met and regrouped at Fort Edward on the east bank of the Hudson River. Meanwhile, 42 00:05:07.380 --> 00:05:14.460 Burgoyne's navy had destroyed and captured over 200 boats on Lake Champlain, and he had 43 00:05:14.460 --> 00:05:21.780 seized an enormous supply of arms and ammunition, including powder and more than 100 cannon, 44 00:05:21.780 --> 00:05:27.780 which the fleeing Americans had left behind at Ticonderoga. To Americans and the British 45 00:05:27.780 --> 00:05:33.780 and others alike, it seemed that a complete victory for Burgoyne was inevitable. 46 00:05:33.780 --> 00:05:36.780 Albany was only 70 miles away. 47 00:05:36.780 --> 00:05:40.780 King George exclaimed, I have beat the Americans. 48 00:05:40.780 --> 00:05:47.780 And John Adams talked angrily of making an example of a general leaving his post by having him shot. 49 00:05:47.780 --> 00:05:53.780 Actually, this was unfair to St. Clair, who did well considering the position he was in. 50 00:05:53.780 --> 00:05:58.420 His retreat was skillfully executed and saved his army. 51 00:05:58.420 --> 00:06:03.360 The common soldiers were better at pinning the blame where it truly belonged and desertions 52 00:06:03.360 --> 00:06:09.920 multiplied as many men refused any longer to serve under General Schuler. 53 00:06:09.920 --> 00:06:17.220 On the brink of victory, once again, the British stopped to rest at Skeensboro instead of pressing 54 00:06:17.220 --> 00:06:20.060 their advantage to a swift conclusion. 55 00:06:20.060 --> 00:06:25.660 In drawing up his plans for the campaign, Burgoyne had specifically rejected the route 56 00:06:25.660 --> 00:06:32.620 from Skeensboro to Fort Edward because it led through dense forest and marshlands. Instead, 57 00:06:32.620 --> 00:06:38.940 he planned to return to Ticonderoga and sail to Fort Edward down Lake George, even though 58 00:06:38.940 --> 00:06:46.620 that route, including the captured Fort George, was now used only for transportation of supplies. 59 00:06:46.620 --> 00:06:52.220 His enormous blunder in finally choosing the land route was made at the advice of Tory 60 00:06:52.220 --> 00:06:54.780 Major Philip Skeen. 61 00:06:54.780 --> 00:07:01.280 Skeen had obtained an arbitrary grant of over 30,000 acres in this region and was the owner 62 00:07:01.280 --> 00:07:04.940 of the Skeensboro colony on that land. 63 00:07:04.940 --> 00:07:11.780 Now he was eager to have purgoyne cut a road from Skeensboro to the Hudson, as this would 64 00:07:11.780 --> 00:07:15.740 greatly raise the value of his property after the war. 65 00:07:15.740 --> 00:07:22.420 By going to Fort Edward by land through the Skeensboro-Fort Ann area, instead of sailing 66 00:07:22.420 --> 00:07:28.900 down Lake George, and by dragging over fifty guns with him on the march, Burgoyne greatly 67 00:07:28.900 --> 00:07:35.220 slowed his own advance. Schuller astutely delayed him further by diverting creek water 68 00:07:35.220 --> 00:07:42.220 with boulders and by sending axmen to fell thousands of trees across the line of march. 69 00:07:42.220 --> 00:07:50.220 Vergoine took twenty days to traverse twenty miles to Fort Edward, which he captured on 70 00:07:50.220 --> 00:07:55.020 July 29, the Americans retreating before him. 71 00:07:55.020 --> 00:07:59.620 He proceeded another seven miles down the east bank of the Hudson, stopping at Fort 72 00:07:59.620 --> 00:08:03.020 Miller at the Battenkill. 73 00:08:03.020 --> 00:08:07.980 Schuyler established American positions at Stillwater, twenty-five miles to the south 74 00:08:07.980 --> 00:08:09.740 on the Hudson River. 75 00:08:09.740 --> 00:08:13.940 As Shulow retreated, the American army began to gain strength. 76 00:08:13.940 --> 00:08:20.060 Six hundred Continentals joined the army from Peekskill, and masses of New England militia 77 00:08:20.060 --> 00:08:25.460 slowly marched west to guard America from the British threat. 78 00:08:25.460 --> 00:08:31.880 General Arnold and General Benjamin Lincoln joined the force, and Daniel Morgan, released 79 00:08:31.880 --> 00:08:37.940 in an exchange of prisoners the previous summer, had been given a hand-picked corps of five 80 00:08:37.940 --> 00:08:44.960 500 Riflemen by Washington and sent north. Morgan's men came from the frontier areas 81 00:08:44.960 --> 00:08:50.880 of Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia and included such noted frontier fighters as the 82 00:08:50.880 --> 00:08:57.780 celebrated Timothy Murphy. One army that was not sent north but which should have been 83 00:08:57.780 --> 00:09:05.020 was Washington's. As General Howe's mighty fleet sailed out of New York Bay on July 23rd, 84 00:09:05.020 --> 00:09:10.980 Washington, understandably, could not bring himself to believe that he would really desert 85 00:09:10.980 --> 00:09:17.460 Burgoyne and sail south. He naturally expected the British fleet to sail up the Hudson to 86 00:09:17.460 --> 00:09:24.380 join Burgoyne. Howe's interminable delays and dithering on the voyage sent Washington 87 00:09:24.380 --> 00:09:30.540 into an agony of indecision, and he marched up and down New Jersey, and from New York 88 00:09:30.540 --> 00:09:45.540 Washington's tactics were understandable. The strategy was abysmal. Instead of trying to counter Howe wherever he went, Washington should have abandoned Philadelphia to Howe, which Howe was to conquer in any case, to swing north to join the Northern Army and crush Burgoyne. 89 00:09:45.540 --> 00:09:51.300 For Howe, wherever he went, Washington should have abandoned Philadelphia to Howe, which 90 00:09:51.300 --> 00:09:57.940 Howe was to conquer in any case, to swing north to join the Northern Army and crush Burgoyne. 91 00:09:57.940 --> 00:10:04.900 The combined victorious forces could then have swung down to meet Howe. In any case, 92 00:10:04.900 --> 00:10:09.220 Washington's considerable force would not have been wasted hanging around Howe's much 93 00:10:09.220 --> 00:10:39.220 for a much larger and more powerful army. Stopping at Fort Miller and suffering from over-extended supply lines, Burgoyne decided, upon the urging of the Hessian commander, Major General Baron von Riedesel, to detach a mixed force of only 700 under Lieutenant Colonel Friedrich Baum, another Hessian, on a raid to the southeast on Bennington, Vermont, which he knew to be richly stocked with food, ammunition, oxen, 94 00:10:39.220 --> 00:11:09.220 and Horses, and therefore the answer to his supply problems. Reaching Bennington on August 14 and picking up eager bands of Tories on the way, Boehm accidentally encountered a body of 2,000 American militia under General John Stark. Stark had served brilliantly in the Continental Army from Bunker Hill to Canada to Princeton, but he, like Arnold, had been passing 95 00:11:09.220 --> 00:11:32.220 The New Hampshire legislature, the previous month, had voted to raise a brigade of militia to defend against the advancing enemy, and he was able to raise an enormous force of 1,500 New Hampshire men, no less than 10% of the enrolled voters of that state. 96 00:11:32.220 --> 00:11:38.220 This force was joined at Bennington by 500 Massachusetts and Vermont militia. 97 00:11:38.220 --> 00:11:56.220 General Schuler and Lincoln had ordered him to join Schuler's main army, but Stark flatly disobeyed, declaring that he was responsible only to the New Hampshire General Court. Instead, he decided to harry Burgoyne's lines of communication. 98 00:11:56.220 --> 00:12:17.220 Baum saw that, being heavily outnumbered, he should not attack. But he did not have the wit to retreat quickly. Instead, he asked for reinforcements, and Burgoyne imprudently sent German Lieutenant Colonel Henrik von Brehmann with nearly 650 men. 99 00:12:17.220 --> 00:12:29.220 On the morning of August 16, Stark struck at the British, aided by a ruse in which the Americans encircled the Germans in shirt sleeves pretending to be Tories. 100 00:12:29.220 --> 00:12:37.220 The ensuing battle was extremely bitter, the Germans fighting desperately despite the flight of the Indians and Tories. 101 00:12:37.220 --> 00:12:42.220 Finally, Baum was killed, and over 350 Germans captured. 102 00:12:42.220 --> 00:12:49.340 Too late, Brehman's force appeared, having absurdly plotted along at one mile an hour 103 00:12:49.340 --> 00:12:51.500 in parade ground formation. 104 00:12:51.500 --> 00:12:57.260 At the same time, Seth Warner arrived with nearly four hundred men, and the combined 105 00:12:57.260 --> 00:13:04.420 American force sent Brehman fleeing back to Burgoyne with well over two hundred casualties. 106 00:13:04.420 --> 00:13:10.540 Not only did Burgoyne not get his supplies, but he had lost the huge chunk of nearly one 107 00:13:10.540 --> 00:13:17.540 The Great Lesson to be Absorbed by All Counter-Revolutionary 108 00:13:40.540 --> 00:13:47.700 Revolutionaries, The Formal Army of the Rebels is not the full extent of their might. 109 00:13:47.700 --> 00:13:54.260 Behind them lay the people, and now the people were rising up in arms all around Burgoyne 110 00:13:54.260 --> 00:13:56.060 to crush him. 111 00:13:56.060 --> 00:14:02.100 Neither could Burgoyne expect any help from St. Leisure, slicing east across the Mohawk. 112 00:14:02.100 --> 00:14:08.820 St. Leisure, with about 700 British Tories and over 800 Indians, sailed down the St. 113 00:14:08.820 --> 00:14:15.420 Lawrence, and reached Fort Oswego on Lake Ontario in mid-July, where he was joined by 114 00:14:15.420 --> 00:14:21.760 battalions of Tories in Iroquois. This particular fight was also part of a struggle for the 115 00:14:21.760 --> 00:14:30.760 soul of Tryon County, the vast, thinly populated frontier county of New York, west of Schenectady. 116 00:14:30.760 --> 00:14:36.580 Tories were powerful in this frontier domain. Sir William Johnson, the wealthiest landowner 117 00:14:36.580 --> 00:14:42.060 in the county had been the British agent to the Indians and he was regarded as a hero 118 00:14:42.060 --> 00:14:49.860 by the Iroquois nations. In the spring of 1776 his son Sir John Johnson had been forced 119 00:14:49.860 --> 00:14:55.860 to flee to Canada with his faithful Highlanders and other active Tories of the region. The 120 00:14:55.860 --> 00:15:02.620 remaining Tories had their property confiscated and were imprisoned, flogged, tarred and feathered 121 00:15:02.620 --> 00:15:07.620 and even shot and hanged, often at drumhead courts-martial. 122 00:15:07.620 --> 00:15:14.120 Families and relatives of suspected Tories were seized by the Americans and taken as hostages. 123 00:15:14.120 --> 00:15:22.620 Zeal for battle was intense on both sides, and now Sir John led the Tory contingent under St. Leisure. 124 00:15:22.620 --> 00:15:27.620 The leading Indian ally of the British was the brilliant young Joseph Brandt, 125 00:15:27.620 --> 00:15:30.120 War Chief of the Mohawk Nation. 126 00:15:30.120 --> 00:15:36.620 Brandt had been raised as a member of the Johnson family and his sister was Sir William's wife. 127 00:15:36.620 --> 00:15:45.120 Brandt had been restless to attack the settlers since 1775, but Carlton discouraged Indian raids on the Americans. 128 00:15:45.120 --> 00:15:51.620 On the one hand, this lost him a golden opportunity to terrorize the American frontier. 129 00:15:51.620 --> 00:15:57.120 On the other, the American invasion of Canada had cut off the St. Lawrence 130 00:15:57.120 --> 00:16:01.120 and hence possible supplies from the Indians. 131 00:16:01.120 --> 00:16:04.620 The arrival of Burgoyne changed all this. 132 00:16:04.620 --> 00:16:10.120 Now the Indians were to be encouraged to aid the British in fighting the Americans. 133 00:16:10.120 --> 00:16:14.620 Brandt and the Iroquois rushed to join St. Leisure for the fray. 134 00:16:14.620 --> 00:16:20.620 Marching east from Oswego, St. Leisure reached Fort Stanwix on the Mohawk River, 135 00:16:20.620 --> 00:16:24.620 the gateway to the Mohawk Valley on August 3. 136 00:16:24.620 --> 00:16:38.620 Stationed at Stanwix was the main American force in the West, about 700 men ably commanded by two young Dutch-American colonels, Peter Gansevoort and Marinus Willet, a radical. 137 00:16:38.620 --> 00:16:41.620 St. Ledger laid siege to the fort. 138 00:16:41.620 --> 00:16:46.820 General Nicholas Herkimer, a German-American who commanded the Tryon Militia, 139 00:16:46.820 --> 00:16:55.320 marched west along the Mohawk with nearly 800 militia men eager to defend their homes against the Indian menace. 140 00:16:55.320 --> 00:17:00.320 Reaching Oriskany Creek, eight miles short of Stanwycks, 141 00:17:00.320 --> 00:17:06.320 he realized that he could not attack St. Ledger's overwhelmingly larger force on his own. 142 00:17:06.320 --> 00:17:11.320 When he failed to make contact with the besieged fort, he refused to go on. 143 00:17:11.320 --> 00:17:25.320 But his restive officers denounced him not only for cowardice but also for treason, a charge to which Herkimer, with several Tory relatives in St. Leisure's army, was understandably sensitive. 144 00:17:25.320 --> 00:17:37.320 On August 6, he was finally goaded into pressing on a few miles west, where Brandt, commanding 400 Indians and over 100 Tories, had set a cunning ambush. 145 00:17:37.320 --> 00:17:43.600 It seemed at first that Herkimer's surrounded troops would be decimated and the Indians 146 00:17:43.600 --> 00:17:49.840 eagerly pressed their advantage in one of the bloodiest engagements in the war. 147 00:17:49.840 --> 00:17:56.720 Despite the mortal wounding of Herkimer, the untrained farmers almost miraculously banded 148 00:17:56.720 --> 00:18:02.840 together to survive in bitter close fighting with Indians and Tories. 149 00:18:02.840 --> 00:18:08.240 They retreated hastily in deep and fearful conviction that they had lost the battle and 150 00:18:08.240 --> 00:18:10.720 that the worst was at hand. 151 00:18:10.720 --> 00:18:17.440 It is true the Americans suffered a staggering total of 400 casualties out of their 800-man 152 00:18:17.440 --> 00:18:23.520 force, but the Indian and Tory force had suffered almost as greatly. 153 00:18:23.520 --> 00:18:29.160 The Battle of Oriskany had also succeeded in breaking the morale of the Indians. 154 00:18:29.160 --> 00:18:35.720 They were not used to heavy losses, and these they had suffered. Furthermore, Colonel Ouellette 155 00:18:35.720 --> 00:18:42.440 had seized the opportunity of the battle to lead 250 men on a successful raid on the Indian 156 00:18:42.440 --> 00:18:48.440 camp. These setbacks were coupled with Indian rancor at bearing the brunt of the battle 157 00:18:48.440 --> 00:18:54.840 and the losses. Despite Brandt's urging, they began to desert and drift away by the 158 00:18:54.840 --> 00:19:02.260 St. Leisure was losing a major portion of his force. No longer the happy warrior, confident 159 00:19:02.260 --> 00:19:09.140 of an imminent march into Albany, he redoubled his siege of Stanwix, but now Schuler detached 160 00:19:09.140 --> 00:19:15.540 1,000 Continentals under Benedict Arnold to go to the relief of Fort Stanwix. Reaching 161 00:19:15.540 --> 00:19:22.460 Fort Dayton, east of Oriskany, on August 21, Arnold was able to deceive St. Leisure and 162 00:19:22.460 --> 00:19:28.380 and particularly his Indians about the size of his force. The approach of the renowned 163 00:19:28.380 --> 00:19:34.600 Arnold was the last straw for the Indians who now fled en masse. Deprived of a large 164 00:19:34.600 --> 00:19:40.540 part of his troops, St. Leisure was forced to abandon the fort on August 23, and he staggered 165 00:19:40.540 --> 00:19:48.180 back to Oswego and thence to Canada. Arnold's force, victorious without firing a shot, sped 166 00:19:48.180 --> 00:20:18.180 The St. Leisure Threat was over, and Burgoyne was now completely alone. Burgoyne's misfortunes, moreover, were now aggravated by the desertions of over 400 of his original 500 Indians, disgruntled at British restrictions on their terror tactics, and adept at gauging the changing tides of the fortunes of war. Increasingly isolated and in worsening strength, 167 00:20:18.180 --> 00:20:24.400 rates, Burgoyne should now have hightailed it back to Ticonderoga and abandoned the Albany 168 00:20:24.400 --> 00:20:30.960 campaign. But rather than retreat and abandon his exuberant plans for military renown, he 169 00:20:30.960 --> 00:20:38.260 crossed the Hudson to the West Bank at Saratoga, now Shulersville, in mid-September to launch 170 00:20:38.260 --> 00:20:45.140 a march to Albany. By this bold step, Burgoyne cut off any chance of retreat and came into 171 00:20:45.140 --> 00:20:50.960 to position to attack the American force, now stationed southward on the same bank at 172 00:20:50.960 --> 00:20:56.760 the mouth of the Mohawk. It was to be all or nothing for Burgoyne in a final confrontation 173 00:20:56.760 --> 00:21:02.840 with the enemy. In the meanwhile, the loss of Ticonderoga had disgusted Congress with 174 00:21:02.840 --> 00:21:10.000 General Schuler, and in early August it replaced Schuler with his old competitor Gates. Gates 175 00:21:10.000 --> 00:21:16.100 Gates reached the American camp on August 19. The American's most able general was 176 00:21:16.100 --> 00:21:23.920 now on hand to wage their most decisive battle. His arrival had an electrifying effect on the 177 00:21:23.920 --> 00:21:30.720 morale of the American troops. A week before he came, one officer despaired of the miserable 178 00:21:30.720 --> 00:21:38.800 state of despondency and terror among the men. Would to God Gates would arrive, he exclaimed. 179 00:21:38.800 --> 00:21:45.320 And then after, he exalted that from that woeful state, Gates' arrival raised us as 180 00:21:45.320 --> 00:21:47.040 if by magic. 181 00:21:47.040 --> 00:21:50.300 We began to hope and then to act. 182 00:21:50.300 --> 00:21:55.840 He uplifted the American forces not only by his superior ability in battle, but also by 183 00:21:55.840 --> 00:22:00.520 his administration in respect for the New England soldiers who formed the bulk of his 184 00:22:00.520 --> 00:22:04.760 army, an outlook Shuler did not share. 185 00:22:04.760 --> 00:22:10.320 Close to his men and sharing the rigors and dangers of his troops, Gates had great confidence 186 00:22:10.320 --> 00:22:16.920 in the ordinary non-professional soldier, and he understood his needs and problems. 187 00:22:16.920 --> 00:22:23.080 His announced policy, for example, was never to call up the militia until virtually the 188 00:22:23.080 --> 00:22:27.560 very moment that they were needed, and as soon as they finished their short terms of 189 00:22:27.560 --> 00:22:34.680 of Duty, he did not berate them, as did Washington and others, for traitorously not reenlisting. 190 00:22:34.680 --> 00:22:41.800 Instead, he thanked them courteously and sent them quickly and punctiliously home. 191 00:22:41.800 --> 00:22:47.420 In short, he understood that this was essentially a people's war, a popular revolution which 192 00:22:47.420 --> 00:22:54.440 depended for its success on mass uprising and mass support, not on European training 193 00:22:54.440 --> 00:23:00.440 in the European Military System, hence the flocking by the militia of all New England 194 00:23:00.440 --> 00:23:04.040 to Gates' side for the forthcoming battle. 195 00:23:04.040 --> 00:23:09.840 A British officer reported, The farmers left their plows, the smith his anvil, Cobbler 196 00:23:09.840 --> 00:23:11.320 and Taylor followed. 197 00:23:11.320 --> 00:23:15.760 The militia came marching from all the provinces of New England. 198 00:23:15.760 --> 00:23:21.840 By the final battle indeed, the American militia outnumbered the regular troops. 199 00:23:21.840 --> 00:23:27.460 On assuming command, Gates moved the American Army north from the mouth of the Mohawk where 200 00:23:27.460 --> 00:23:33.880 Schuler had stationed it, where the American force would be subject to defeat in European-style 201 00:23:33.880 --> 00:23:41.760 warfare on an open plain. Gates marched the Army north and stationed it on Bemis Heights, 202 00:23:41.760 --> 00:23:48.380 a strategic bottleneck to Albany just south of Burgoyne at Saratoga, which Gates proceeded 203 00:23:48.380 --> 00:23:53.300 to have well fortified by Colonel Kosciuszko. 204 00:23:53.300 --> 00:23:59.820 As Burgoyne advanced south upon the Americans, Daniel Morgan's picked regiment of riflemen 205 00:23:59.820 --> 00:24:05.800 did a brilliant guerrilla job of preventing the British from sending out any advanced 206 00:24:05.800 --> 00:24:09.660 scouts to discover enemy positions. 207 00:24:09.660 --> 00:24:15.540 Even though deprived of knowledge of the terrain and of American positions, Burgoyne nevertheless 208 00:24:15.540 --> 00:24:18.060 decided to attack. 209 00:24:18.060 --> 00:24:22.900 As Burgoyne's column advanced down through the woods on Gates's left on the morning of 210 00:24:22.900 --> 00:24:28.420 September 19, Gates sent Morgan's riflemen to meet them. 211 00:24:28.420 --> 00:24:34.220 They were joined by a crack group of 300 musket men, also under Morgan's command. 212 00:24:34.220 --> 00:24:39.500 The two forces collided with Burgoyne near Freeman's farm. 213 00:24:39.500 --> 00:24:46.420 Morgan's men, long skilled at forest fighting, used mobile guerrilla tactics in thin, shifting 214 00:24:46.420 --> 00:24:56.420 The British had three green skirmish lines from which they could cut down the orthodox, bulky and plodding, linear formations of the British. 215 00:24:56.420 --> 00:25:07.420 At the clearing on Freeman's Farm, reinforcements came up on both sides, and Arnold, commander of the left wing, sent several continental regiments to join Morgan. 216 00:25:07.420 --> 00:25:12.980 Heavy fire drove the British out of the clearing, but Arnold's Continentals were themselves 217 00:25:12.980 --> 00:25:17.380 driven out of the clearing by a British bayonet charge. 218 00:25:17.380 --> 00:25:23.780 Morgan's riflemen, unable to wield bayonets, continued to stay hidden in the woods, subjecting 219 00:25:23.780 --> 00:25:26.340 the British to devastating fire. 220 00:25:26.340 --> 00:25:32.220 Furthermore, Morgan instructed his sharpshooters to concentrate their fires on the weakest 221 00:25:32.220 --> 00:25:34.540 links in the British chain. 222 00:25:34.540 --> 00:25:40.060 The Officers, The Skilled Artillerymen and The Tory Auxiliaries 223 00:25:40.060 --> 00:25:44.620 Tory morale was far lower than that among British regulars. 224 00:25:44.620 --> 00:25:50.540 The officers and artillerymen were, of course, key figures in the army's structure. 225 00:25:50.540 --> 00:25:56.260 Morgan was criticized for his ungentlemanly tactics of centering fire on the military 226 00:25:56.260 --> 00:26:02.280 elite, for in traditional European warfare it was the custom to send out the common soldiery 227 00:26:02.280 --> 00:26:09.800 to Slaughter in Bulky Linear Formation on the Open Field. A tacit gentleman's agreement 228 00:26:09.800 --> 00:26:16.480 usually spared the officers on both sides. Open field fighting, however, would not have 229 00:26:16.480 --> 00:26:21.760 been so attractive to the military elite if their own lives had been placed in jeopardy, 230 00:26:21.760 --> 00:26:26.040 and Morgan's sharpshooters began driving this lesson home. 231 00:26:26.040 --> 00:26:31.160 At the end of the day, Gates pulled back the American force from the furious battle and 232 00:26:31.160 --> 00:26:37.880 and thus ended the Battle of Freeman's Farm or the First Battle of Saratoga. 233 00:26:37.880 --> 00:26:42.520 Burgoyne contended himself with a claim of technical victory since the British force held 234 00:26:42.520 --> 00:26:48.320 the field, but the de facto victory belonged to the Americans. 235 00:26:48.320 --> 00:26:53.720 Burgoyne's losses were extremely severe, especially those suffered at the hands of Morgan. 236 00:26:53.720 --> 00:26:59.040 Six hundred casualties as compared to three hundred for the American force. 237 00:26:59.040 --> 00:27:04.920 The American losses were caused primarily by Arnold's reckless insistence on open frontal 238 00:27:04.920 --> 00:27:11.980 attack upon the enemy lines. Arnold had urged Gates to abandon his protected positions and 239 00:27:11.980 --> 00:27:18.480 sally forth to attack the enemy, a move that would have been ruinous to the American cause. 240 00:27:18.480 --> 00:27:24.000 While Gates allowed Morgan's force to fire upon the enemy in guerrilla style, he compromised 241 00:27:24.000 --> 00:27:29.880 as by allowing Arnold his futile attack on the clearing at Freeman's Farm. 242 00:27:29.880 --> 00:27:33.680 Even so, Arnold was furious because he had not been given more men. 243 00:27:33.680 --> 00:27:39.000 Burgoyne was now bogged down and surrounded by an American force that grew rapidly larger 244 00:27:39.000 --> 00:27:44.780 as more and more New York and New England militiamen poured into the camp. 245 00:27:44.780 --> 00:27:51.960 For more than two weeks, Daniel Morgan's riflemen harassed the British unmercifully as night-raiding 246 00:27:51.960 --> 00:27:57.680 Bergoin parties attacked and attacked on the flanks, and snipers picked off any British 247 00:27:57.680 --> 00:28:04.680 emerging into sight. Again, scouts could not be sent out to provide vitally needed information. 248 00:28:04.960 --> 00:28:10.920 Furthermore, Bergoin learned of a successful raid on Mount's independence and defiance 249 00:28:10.920 --> 00:28:17.920 by Colonels John Brown and Seth Warner, which captured 300 men and a score of boats. But 250 00:28:17.920 --> 00:28:38.920 But even as supplies began to run out, as the morale of his men rapidly deteriorated and desertions multiplied, and as chilly weather heralded the onset of winter and the importance of reaching winter quarters at Albany, Burgoyne decided to attack in a desperate gamble for victory. 251 00:28:38.920 --> 00:29:02.920 Meanwhile, Washington, engaged in unproductive battles with Howe around Philadelphia, asked Gates to send him Morgan's regiment, the crucial American unit at Saratoga. Gates declined the request and thus thwarted a possible disastrous loss that might well have been inflicted on the American cause. 252 00:29:02.920 --> 00:29:29.920 On October 4, Burgoyne held a Council of War. General Clinton had proposed to come up from New York in an attempt to relieve Burgoyne, but nothing had been heard from him. Burgoyne's generals urged him to retreat, but he regarded this as dishonorable and instead determined on a probing attack on the American left wing to be followed, if successful, by a general assault the next day. 253 00:29:29.920 --> 00:29:36.320 On October 7, Burgoyne, still ignorant of the terrain and of American dispositions, 254 00:29:36.320 --> 00:29:42.960 led his probing attack with 2,100 troops on the American left at Bemis Heights, 255 00:29:43.840 --> 00:29:52.000 leaving fewer than 3,500 behind in his entrenched position. Gates again sent out Morgan 256 00:29:52.000 --> 00:29:58.560 and pursued his shrewd guerrilla-type strategy of keeping his main force deep behind 257 00:29:58.560 --> 00:30:05.680 Fortifications. Denying the British the opportunity of a pitched battle, he continued to wear 258 00:30:05.680 --> 00:30:11.840 down Burgoyne's forces. The tactics of the battle were devised by Morgan, who suggested 259 00:30:11.840 --> 00:30:17.080 simultaneous flanking attacks on Burgoyne. Arnold had meanwhile been relieved of his 260 00:30:17.080 --> 00:30:24.080 command by Gates for insubordination after a violent quarrel. He did not think Gates 261 00:30:24.080 --> 00:30:28.640 Mises had given him sufficient credit for the engagement at Freeman's Farm. 262 00:30:28.640 --> 00:30:34.240 Sulking in his tent, Arnold saw that the battle of Bemis Heights was still indecisive and 263 00:30:34.240 --> 00:30:37.600 inconclusive toward the end of the day. 264 00:30:37.600 --> 00:30:43.600 Restless at the stalemate, he rushed forth without authorization to help Morgan and assumed 265 00:30:43.600 --> 00:30:48.480 the lead of his exhilarated and cheering Connecticut Brigade, shouting, 266 00:30:48.480 --> 00:30:53.920 Now, come on boys, if the day is long enough, we'll have them in hell before night. 267 00:30:53.920 --> 00:31:01.880 Arnold led frontal assault after frontal assault on the British lines with the Connecticut and other brigades, without success. 268 00:31:01.880 --> 00:31:16.040 Finally, he led the Connecticut Brigade, Morgan's men and two other regiments that had been supporting Morgan in a furious attack against Bremen's Hessian Redoubt guarding Burgoyne's right flank. 269 00:31:16.040 --> 00:31:23.440 This attack succeeded, Arnold falling wounded and permanently crippled at the moment of victory. 270 00:31:23.440 --> 00:31:31.140 One of the important ingredients of this victory was the deliberate mortal shooting of General Simon Fraser, 271 00:31:31.140 --> 00:31:37.940 single-handedly rallying the British lines by Morgan's brilliant rifleman Timothy Murphy. 272 00:31:37.940 --> 00:31:44.140 Burgoyne was forced to withdraw from the field and his main position now indefensible, 273 00:31:44.140 --> 00:31:52.140 He retreated his army northward. The decisive battle of Bemis Heights, the second battle of Saratoga, was over. 274 00:31:53.140 --> 00:31:59.140 The Americans suffered only 150 casualties, the British nearly 700. 275 00:32:00.140 --> 00:32:11.140 Arnold has generally received the credit for Burgoyne's defeat, but his charge, while dramatic and romantic, was reckless and could well have lost the battle. 276 00:32:11.140 --> 00:32:26.140 The Victory really belonged to Gates, whose patient strategy would inevitably have worn Burgoyne down without the needless chances taken and extra blood shed in Arnold's charge. 277 00:32:26.140 --> 00:32:36.140 Compared to the roles of Gates and Morgan, Arnold's contribution to Burgoyne's defeat, while real, was flashy and superficial. 278 00:32:36.140 --> 00:32:47.140 Burgoyne's retreat was slow. When he took up strong, entrenched positions at Saratoga on October 9, he hoped that Gates would be rash enough to launch a frontal attack. 279 00:32:47.140 --> 00:32:56.140 Instead, Gates wisely sent out militiamen to encircle and entrap the British army, and also to seize their boats. 280 00:32:56.140 --> 00:33:03.140 Burgoyne knew that Clinton had begun to move north, but he was still too far away to influence results. 281 00:33:03.140 --> 00:33:11.380 By October 12th, he finally agreed to Baron von Rydessel's urging to flee northward, 282 00:33:11.380 --> 00:33:17.540 but he delayed another day, and by then it was too late. His once splendid army was a 283 00:33:17.540 --> 00:33:24.380 ragged force of 5,000 men and surrounded by a force that had swollen to three times that 284 00:33:24.380 --> 00:33:31.780 number. Gates demanded unconditional surrender. Burgoyne refused and held out for an agreement 285 00:33:31.780 --> 00:33:36.540 Whereby, the British force would be permitted to sail for England, provided that they would 286 00:33:36.540 --> 00:33:38.980 not fight again in America. 287 00:33:38.980 --> 00:33:44.340 Learning that Clinton's force of 3,000 men had broken through Putnam's defenses in the 288 00:33:44.340 --> 00:33:52.900 Highlands and had reached Essipus, now Kingston, on October 15, Gates agreed to accept Burgoyne's 289 00:33:52.900 --> 00:33:55.460 offer or convention. 290 00:33:55.460 --> 00:33:58.780 On October 17, Burgoyne surrendered. 291 00:33:58.780 --> 00:34:04.420 The repercussions of the Saratoga surrender would prove to be momentous. 292 00:34:04.420 --> 00:34:09.640 The move to split New York had failed, and one-fifth of the British forces in America 293 00:34:09.640 --> 00:34:13.260 had surrendered in one fell swoop. 294 00:34:13.260 --> 00:34:19.560 The entire British strategy was shattered, and, as will be seen, France was to be led 295 00:34:19.560 --> 00:34:26.380 by the heartening victory to recognize American independence and to enter the war openly on 296 00:34:26.380 --> 00:34:45.380 The Surrender Terms were violated immediately. The Americans, realizing that the British troops sent home would simply release other troops to serve in the war, refused to allow the prisoners to embark. Instead, they sent them to Virginia, where they deserted in droves. 297 00:34:45.380 --> 00:34:55.380 There being little they could do in their isolated state, the British forces in New York withdrew to Canada from Ticonderoga, now useless to them. 298 00:34:55.380 --> 00:35:10.380 As for Clinton, excessive caution had prevented him from racing up the Hudson to Albany after his breakthrough in the Highlands and also from taking with him the 2,000 soldiers uselessly stationed in Rhode Island. 299 00:35:10.380 --> 00:35:20.380 Apart from the losing Charleston expedition the year before, this was his first campaign as head of his own army and it was certainly unsatisfactory. 300 00:35:20.380 --> 00:35:33.380 The British might still have salvaged their fortunes, however, if Clinton had been allowed to keep control of the Highland Forts, cutting American communications and supply lines across the Lower Hudson. 301 00:35:33.380 --> 00:35:42.380 But General Howell, apparently over his objections, ordered him to evacuate Fort Clinton and to send reinforcements to Philadelphia. 302 00:35:42.380 --> 00:35:51.380 in Philadelphia. Clinton was thereby forced to abandon the Hudson Valley and withdraw quickly to New York City. 303 00:35:51.380 --> 00:36:07.380 Removed from his command and unfairly in disgrace, General Shuler apparently toyed with treason and secretly told the British that he was ready to rejoin the British Empire if Britain would abandon its taxation of America. 304 00:36:07.380 --> 00:36:13.380 There is also some evidence that he was partially motivated by his hatred of the rebellious Vermonters 305 00:36:13.380 --> 00:36:19.380 and that he may have had St. Clair abandon Ticonderoga to smoke out the Vermont forces. 306 00:36:19.380 --> 00:36:25.380 Their ardent fighting for the Americans may have led him to consider siding with Great Britain. 307 00:36:25.380 --> 00:36:33.380 Thus, the general American suspicion of Schuler's loyalty after Ticonderoga was not entirely without foundation.