One of the most significant battles in American History occurred on Sept. 19, 1777 and it was a loss. In 1777, British General John Burgoyne marched an army south from Canada to meet an army coming north from New York City. The strategy was to cut off the New England colonies from the rest of the colonies. It was a good plan, but it fell apart. Burgoyne underestimated the difficulty of marching through wooded areas. The patriots would fell trees across the roads to slow things more. In Sept. 1777, Burgoyne reached the main American army under Gen. Horatio Gates. Gates was entrenched on Bemis Heights, blocking the British path. The fortifications had been designed by a Polish engineer named Tadeusz Kosciuszko. There was command dysfunction in the American army as the cautious Gates was the opposite of his second in command – Benedict Arnold. On Sept. 19, 1777, Burgoyne launched an attack that would hopefully turn Gates’ left flank. Arnold begged Gates to let him lead a counterattack. Gates agreed to send a reconnaissance in force by Col. Danial Morgan’s riflemen. The sharpshooters moved through the woods and then started picking off British officers. They even launched an attack although their rifles did not have bayonets. Morgan’s men were swatted away. With the British attack temporarily blunted, Arnold convinced Gates to put more units into the fight. Arnold led them and his leadership inspired the Americans to go toe to toe with the Redcoats. Morgan’s men had returned and resumed picking off officers and also artillerymen. The fighting surged back and forth, with most of the action taking place in a clearing called Freeman’s Farm which belonged to a loyalist. At one point Arnold was putting pressure on a gap in the enemy line, but a British unit marched to the rescue and saved the situation. As darkness set in, the two sides called it a day. The British retained the field, so technically it was a victory. But it was a pyrrhic one. The British lost 600 casualties, many of them being officers. The Americans lost about 300. The British were now weaker and they still faced a very strong position. The relationship between Arnold and Gates reached a boiling point as Arnold claimed he could have won the battle if Gates had not been so stingy with reinforcements. Gates was probably right about letting the British come to him on the heights. Americans had proved they were very tough when fighting in entrenchments. However, once Gates had committed his forces to a counterattack, he should have gone all in. Despite these mistakes the battle was undoubtedly a success for the northern army and it helped doom Burgoyne’s army. The Battle of Bemis Heights would take place on Oct. 7, and after that defeat, Burgoyne was forced to surrender on Oct. 17, 1777. This was the turning point in the Revolution.
https://www.britishbattles.com/war-of-the-revolution-1775-to-1783/battle-of-freemans-farm/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battles_of_Saratoga
https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/battle-freemans-farm-september-19-1777
0 Comments