Turing Point: Burgoyne’s Blunder and the Battles of Saratoga

The tide turns against the British, the conflict goes global and the seeds of betrayal are sown

Story by Nick Chowske

The plan was remarkably simple. It would be a three-pronged attack, converging near Albany, that would effectively decapitate New England from the rest of the American colonies, ending the civil rebellion against Britain for good. But the plan failed, and instead of quashing the colonial uprising, England found itself in the midst of a world war. Blood was spilled, heroes were made, and the world changed forever.

The strategic military campaign, proposed by British General John Burgoyne, began in the summer of 1777 and ended less than five months later on October 7, when American Generals Horatio Gates and Benedict Arnold made a stand at Bemis Heights just southeast of the city of Saratoga Springs.

“Where the error of her ways was concerned, America could be convinced by persuasion and not by the sword”

Major General “Gentleman Johnny” John Burgoyne was one of Englands more intriguing officers. Having joined the army at 15, he quickly became a junior officer with a taste for women, booze, and gambling. He was an avid fan of the theatre and came to know nearly every actor and actress in London, and even wrote a few of his own plays. In his twenties, he eloped with the youngest daughter of the Earl of Derby, the Lady Charlotte, and the young couple was disowned by the Earl due to rumors about Burgoyne’s illegitimacy. By 28, John Burgoyne was a Captain in the British army with three children and more gambling debts than he could pay. To make ends meet, Burgoyne sold his commission in the army, a common practice for officers with gambling debts, and was exiled to France with his family.

Five years later, in 1756, the Earl and his daughter made amends, and Burgoyne was able to purchase a new commission as a captain in the 11th Dragoons, and from there worked his way to command of the 16th Light Dragoons in 1759, which became known as Burgoyne’s Light Horse. He earned his nickname “Gentleman Johnny” from his theatrical manner and the way he trained his officers to treat their enlisted men humanely, and Burgoyne’s Light Horse fought and won battles for England around the world. Burgoyne was appointed to Colonel, and eventually obtained a seat on Parliament in 1775. As the discontent in the American colonies grew, Burgoyne regularly spoke of moderation and restraint, and once stated on the Parliament floor: “Where the error of her ways was concerned, America could be convinced by persuasion and not by the sword.” Parliament saw differently.

"I was not a volunteer in that war. I was ordered by my Sovereign and I obeyed."

England’s first two choices for commanders against America rejected the offer. General Jeffrey Amherst and Admiral Augustus Keppel were both unwilling to take sides for or against the colonies. So rather than asking, the House simply ordered Burgoyne to go, along with two other reluctant Generals, Sir Henry Clinton, and William Howe. He later wrote, “I was not a volunteer in that war. I was ordered by my Sovereign and I obeyed.”

Burgoyne was given the largest and “most superior fighting force to leave England,” and in his typical theatrical style he planned a sweeping show of force that would stop the colonial uprising in its tracks. His plan was to move his army from their camp on the Bouquet River, in what is now Essex County, New York, south along Lake Champlain and Lake George to Fort Edward. From there, the army would get on the Hudson River and continue on to Albany. At the same time, Clinton’s army would travel north to Albany on the Hudson River from New York City, which was under British control. While these two armies closed on Albany from the north and south, a third army, led by Colonel Barry St. Leger, was to travel east from Oswego along the Mohawk River, creating a diversion for the American soldiers around Albany.

"Ticonderoga was in the middle of nowhere"

The Americans would be preparing to battle St. Leger’s army in the west, when Burgoyne and Clinton would close from the north and south, crushing the American resistance and reuniting New England under British control. At least that was the plan, but Burgoyne and his army never made it past Saratoga.

The American Colonies in the mid 1770s were a turbulent place. Deception and intrigue were as rampant as smallpox, and the din of battle was never more than a heartbeat away. Nearly a year after America declared its independence from the British Empire, in June of 1777, Burgoyne had begun his march south through the Champlain Valley in the sweltering summer heat, and by August he had managed to capture Fort Ticonderoga and Fort Ann, scattering American troops in nearby Hubbardton, Vermont.

"This left General St. Clair wth 1,200 men to defend a fort designed to be defended by 15,000"

“Ticonderoga was in the middle of nowhere,” says Rich Strum, director of education and interpretation at Fort Ticonderoga. When Burgoyne showed up in the summer of 1777, the continental army stationed at the fort was in bad shape. “There were about 15,000 men stationed at the fort between September and October of 1776, when Benedict Arnold’s fleet met General Carlton’s at the battle of Valcour,” says Strum. “When General Washington lost New York City to the British he began pulling troops from Fort Ticonderoga, many of whom were with him when he crossed the Delaware on Christmas night before the Battle of Trenton.”  By the summer of 1777 there were only about 2,500 soldiers left at the fort, and half of them were considered unfit for duty because of a rampant smallpox outbreak. “This left the American commander, General Arthur St. Clair, with about 1,200 men to defend against Burgoyne’s 9,000, in a fort designed to be defended by 15,000,” says Strum. Needless to say, the fort fell to Burgoyne.

“By July 7, of 1777, Burgoyne’s army was spread from Crown Point to Whitehall and from Ticonderoga east to Hubberdton,” says Eric Schnitzer, a Park Ranger at the Saratoga National Historical Park. “As the American army retreated from Fort Ticonderoga, Burgoyne tried to follow, spreading his troops out even more.”

At this point, Burgoyne had two options on how to continue his march south. He could have taken his army south along Lake George by boat, and then continue on to Fort Edward and the Hudson River by land on a decent road, or they could take the land route from Whitehall to Fort Edward.

Burgoyne chose the latter, and it took more than three weeks to reach Fort Edward.  “The land route from Whitehall to Fort Edward took so long to traverse because there were only very poor roads, which were made worse by American forces that had  been cutting down trees, clogging up streams and breaking down bridges,” says Schnitzer.

Many consider Burgoyne’s choice to take the land route a massive blunder, but according to Schnitzer, he had three distinct motives in taking the long way. The first was a matter of keeping up appearances. “Burgoyne had been coming down from Canada like a torrent, moving very quickly and decisively,” says Schnitzer. Taking the water route would have meant back-tracking his army north to Fort Ticonderoga in order to get onto Lake George. “If Burgoyne withdrew back to Ticonderoga,” says Schnitzer, “It would have looked like he was withdrawing his forces, encouraging and motivating the Americans in the area.”

“Burgoyne had been coming down from Canada like a torrent, moving very quickly and decisively”

Although Burgoyne didn’t want to be seen retreating, it was also important that he not be seen advancing. This was his second motive for taking the land route. “If Burgoyne put his army on Lake George it would have proven to the Americans that he was destined for Fort Edward and the Hudson River, and therefore, destined for Albany, which he was,” says Schnitzer. Rather than let the American’s know what he was up to, Burgoyne wanted to keep them guessing. “He wanted the Americans to wonder if he was going down the east side of the mountains, or down the Connecticut River Valley, or if he was trying to meet up with the British Garrison at Rhode Island.”

Burgoyne’s third reason was pure logistics. “On paper it looks very convenient to go from Lake Champlain to Lake George, but in the 18th century it wasn’t,” says Schnitzer. Crossing Lake George would have been smooth sailing, but the trip from the southern end of Lake Champlain to the northern end of Lake George would have involved taking the whole army off the lake to portage along the La Chute River. “There’s an elevation difference between the two lakes of about 220 feet,” says Chris Fox, Curator of Collections at the Fort Ticonderoga Museum. “There are a few sets of falls over there river, so it’s not actually possible to navigate from one lake to the other.”

"On paper it looks very convenient to go from Lake Champlain to Lake George, but in the 18th century it wasn’t"

Burgoyne continued to follow the Americans to Skenesborough, which is now Whitehall, New York. “From Skenesborugh, Burgoyne’s army proceeded 23 miles overland to Fort Edward,” says Fox. “During this period, any army of great size is going to have a lot of baggage with it,” says Schnitzer. “Usually when we think of an army moving, we think of men marching on the ground, but any moving army needed to have a lengthy system of baggage carts and food storage.” An army marching on a good road with all of its baggage could average five to ten miles a day. These 23 miles were across rugged country in summer heat with few good roads, so rather than two and a half days, it took more than two and a half weeks. When Burgoyne finally reached Fort Edward, he was force to stay there for more than a month to wait for troops and supplies. Normally, the army would have found their provisions at nearby farms and settlements, but the Colonial forces had been stripping supplies and letting livestock loose to keep the British from restocking.

By this time, Burgoyne had learned that General Howe, who was supposed to march up the Hudson River to meet him in Albany, had had a change of heart and instead decided to sail his army into the Chesapeake Bay to take control of Philadelphia. General St. Leger, who was to sweep in from the west along the Mohawk River from Oswego, never made it past Fort Stanwix, in present-day Rome, New York. St. Leger attempted to capture the fort, which was under General Benedict Arnold’s command, but when word arrived that Arnold would soon be reinforced, St. Leger’s army of Hessians, Indians, and loyalists deserted him and he was forced to retreat to Canada. Burgoyne would be on his own, and his grand scheme to crush the rebellion was slowly coming apart.

Meanwhile, much was happening for the continentals in the Northern Department, the Continental Congress’s name for New York State. They’d been keeping a close eye on the area since first shots were fired at Lexington and Concord in April of 1775. Like Burgoyne, the Congress saw the strategic value offered by the water route from the St. Lawrence Seaway to the Hudson River.

Control of this savage, yet vital land, was placed in the capable hands of one of the Northern Department’s wealthiest land owners, Philip Schuyler. Schuyler was described by many to be tall and slender with a commanding presence and piercing eyes. He was friendly with the Mohawk tribe, spoke their language fluently, and fought beside them in the French and Indian war. Despite all of this, Schuyler was hated in New England because his Dutch heritage and proper manners got him branded as a snob. Although he was considerably experienced in war and incredibly devoted to the continental army, he was often sickly and unable to fight.

There were a lot of battles and skirmishes in the Northern Department at this time, and forts and land changed hands again and again. The most important of these was Ticonderoga because of its strategic location between Lake Champlain and Lake George on the waterway between New York and Quebec. The word Ticonderoga is actually an Iroquois word that roughly means “the land between the waters.”

When Burgoyne attacked Ticonderoga, Schuyler had again become ill and was unable to aid General St. Clair, so the fort fell to Burgoyne. Schuyler’s army had recently defeated Burgoyne at Fort Bennington, while Arnold defeated St. Leger at Fort Stanwix, which did much to rally the continentals and deflate Burgoyne. But it was too little too late for Congress. John Hancock, President of the Continental Congress, had already ordered Schuyler and St. Clair to return to Philadelphia on charges of dereliction of duty for letting the fort slip.

Schuyler’s assistant and long time rival, General Horatio Gates, was more than happy to take over command of the Northern Department. Gates was a former British officer who, after fighting in the French and Indian war alongside George Washington, and Daniel Boone on the Braddock Expedition, retired on a plantation in Virginia. He’d earned the nickname “Granny Gates” due to his wispy gray hair, double chin, the glasses he wore at the end of his nose, and his incredibly cautious nature in battle.

When he heard of the revolution he quickly offered to fight along side General Washington. Gates is credited with helping to organize and standardize the colonial forces, but despite his clerical strengths he longed for a field command. In 1776, he was promoted to Major General of the Canadian Department, but the invasion of Canada was called off before he arrived. Gates was then ordered to take command of the Northern Department with General Schuyler, and a long and heated argument began over who was in charge, which was never actually settled and led to a lengthy feud between the two.

When Schuyler was asked to relieve his command, congress hadn’t yet told him who his successor would be, nor did they tell him that they were pulling troops from the surrounding colonies to aid him, something that the Congress had never done for Schuyler. Disobeying his orders from Hancock, Schuyler stayed until his replacement showed up two weeks later. Gates finally arrived on August 19 and took command from Schuyler, quickly dismissing him without even asking about the terrain or his plans.

By September, Burgoyne’s supplies had arrived and he’d managed to move as far south as present-day Schuylerville, where the Battenkill river meets the Hudson. Here he rallied his troops and began moving south along the banks of the Hudson. All of Burgoyne’s Indian scouts had deserted him during the battle at Fort Bennington, and he was traveling blind. He knew that Gates’ army was somewhere in the area, but he had no idea how close. On the side of caution, he marched his army in three lines that were constantly on guard, reducing them to a snail’s pace.

General Gates’ men were particularly pleased with his style of command, and as reinforcements were arriving from other colonies, morale improved significantly. On September 7, Gates told his men they would begin marching north, toward Burgoyne’s army the next day. By the time Gates reached Stillwater, Burgoyne’s men were spotted getting ready to cross the river, and could see they were outnumbered. Gates immediately ordered his troops to Bemis Heights, which was a broad and thickly wooded plateau surrounded by bluffs that overlooked the Hudson and the only road to Albany. There were only two ways around Bemis Heights, straight down the road through American canon fire, or over the wooded bluffs and around the plateau.

Gates had a week to prepare his forces before Burgoyne’s arrival at Bemis Heights, and he’d been relying on intelligence from Daniel Morgan’s men. Morgan, who had served with Gates during the Braddock Expedition during the French and Indian war, and took command of Benedict Arnold’s men in Canada after Arnold was wounded, was down to just over 300 men due to illness, and Morgan was actually quite ill himself.

The armies of Generals Burgoyne and Gates were on the verge of battle when turmoil began to foment in Gates’s camp in the form General Arnold. On August 30, General Benedict Arnold, who was considered by many to be a great hero, returned to Albany from Fort Stanwix. A natural leader and fearless on the battlefield, Arnold was short and stocky with black hair and a hunger for fame and rank. He had several valiant victories against the British, and a limp to prove it. In 1775, he and Ethan Allan and his Green Mountain Boys captured Fort Ticonderoga from the British. In 1776, Arnold and Schuyler slowed the British advance from Canada by stopping them in a grand naval battle at Valcour Island in Lake Champlain. Later that year, he led an unsuccessful, though still significant, assault on Quebec City when he was wounded in his left leg and relieved by Daniel Morgan.

Arnold was a close friend to both Gates and Schuyler, but when he showed up at Bemis Heights, he was unaware of Schuyler’s dismissal. Schuyler’s remaining officers resented Gates for taking charge in the moment of glory that Schuyler had worked for. Gates was becoming increasingly jealous of Arnold’s fame and reputation, but to prevent further discontent, he gave Arnold the honor of commanding his left wing at Bemis Heights along with several top units to fight for him. Among the militiamen fighting for Arnold from the surrounding colonies were “Morgan’s Sharpshooters.” They fought under Daniel Morgan, and were considered some of the best snipers in the Continental Army. Arnold also took two men, Henry Livingston and Schuyler’s former secretary, Richard Varick, as his aides. According to most accounts, Gates hated Livingston and Varick because they were aristocrats like Schuyler, and they still kept regular contact with Schuyler. It bothered Gates greatly that Arnold was keeping them as his aides.

Tempers flared even more when a general order sent three New York militias to John Glover’s forces on the right wing of Bemis Heights. Although it was a general order, Arnold felt he was being punished for keeping Livingston and Varick despite Gates’s feelings about them. He thought Gates was disrespecting him after all the battles he’d fought and the wounds he’d received. As they waited for Burgoyne to attack, the tension between Gates and Arnold grew as thick as the fog that covered the battlefield each morning.

On September 19, 1777, in a thick morning fog, General Burgoyne crossed the river and began his push toward Bemis Heights. He moved his men along the river road in three columns. On the right was an elite infantry led by Brigadier General Simon Fraser who would attack the left flank of Americans. On the left was Major General Friedrich Riedesel with his column of Hessian mercenaries, who would attack the right flank, and in the center was General Burgoyne with a column of all British regiments.

Gates had been receiving word of Burgoyne’s movement all morning, but because of his cautious nature, decided to sit and wait for them. Arnold disagreed entirely and was sure that Burgoyne would focus his first assault at the American’s left flank, which was under Arnold’s command. He feared that if they didn’t act soon, Burgoyne would be able to place his cannons across the river to pound the American lines, and Arnold had no desire to let Burgoyne set the terms of the battle.

Finally, Gates gave in to Arnold and allowed him to send Daniel Morgan and his riflemen to watch the British movement. Just after noon, Morgan’s Sharpshooters, along with Henry Dearborn’s infantry, spotted the first of Frasier’s men who were stopped in an open field on Freeman’s Farm. The riflemen took deadly aim at the redcoats and sent the survivors of Frasier’s advance column running.

“The musket balls could only make it about 150 yards before they were bouncing on the ground”

When the British attacked, they expected to be fighting the starving, undisciplined militiamen they’d fought before, but what they found were the strong, well-trained soldiers of the Continental Army. “The infantry were trained to line up in long line formations and shoot at the enemy, which wasn’t all that far away,” says Schnitzer. “The musket balls could only make it about 150 yards before they were bouncing on the ground.”

Frasier’s men quickly regrouped with Burgoyne’s center column and drove forward toward earthwork fortifications at Bemis Heights. The battle raged back and forth across the coarse terrain all day as Arnold charged across the battlefield on horseback, shouting orders and moving troops forward, but neither side was gaining any ground.

Burgoyne could see his men getting hammered by the American line so he ordered Riedesel’s men in the right column, who hadn’t yet engaged the enemy, to reinforce him. Riedesel and his artillery reached the farm that evening and, placing his artillery at extremely close range, fired 12 to 14 shots at the American lines, causing them to retreat to their fortifications at Bemis Heights. Burgoyne had technically won the battle, but he lost significantly more men than the Americans and unlike the Continental soldiers, Burgoyne’s men couldn’t be replaced. Although he had gained more ground and chased the Americans back, he had only made his situation worse.

"Clinton’s army never intended to make it to Albany, their purpose was to create a diverstion"

Burgoyne fell back that night and immediately began to entrench his men, having decided to regroup rather than attack the next day. The day after that Burgoyne received word from Sir Henry Clinton, who was in command of New York City’s forces, that he would send 2,000 men up the Hudson toward Albany. “Clinton’s army never intended to make it to Albany,” says Schnitzer. “Their purpose was to create a diversion in the Hudson highlands to force Gates to see to the threat; thereby releasing pressure off Burgoyne.”

The pressure was off from the British for the moment, but it only grew between Arnold and Gates. Arnold’s heroic command on the battlefield had earned him tremendous respect and admiration from his soldiers, while Gates, who didn’t even want to fight that day, never left his headquarters throughout the battle. To make matters worse, when Gates sent his report of the battle to Congress, he purposely failed to mention the accomplishments of any officers during the battle. This was highly unusual for a battle report and the dig was targeted directly at Arnold.

Thanks to Gates’s aide, the incredibly gossipy James Wilkinson, and his correspondence, there is some insight into what happened between Arnold and Gates. According to Wilkinson, after the battle at Freeman’s Farm, Gates removed Morgan’s Sharpshooters from Arnold’s command and placed them under his own. Then he had Wilkinson spread rumors that Arnold was never at the battle to begin with. A shouting match ensued and Gates told Arnold he was no longer needed, so he decided he would leave the camp and fight with General George Washington. Eventually his men convinced Arnold to stay, but not before Gates stripped him of his command.

During this time, Burgoyne and his men sat entrenched as their supplies dwindled and they were harassed to exhaustion by the Americans. After receiving no word from Clinton, who only made it as far as Kingston, which he burned to the ground, Burgoyne needed a new plan.

On October 7, seventeen days after the first battle of Freeman’s Farm, Burgoyne sent out a force of 1,700 of his men to scavenge for food and supplies and scout the American position. After a week of rationing, sickness, and desertion, he decided that he would exploit a weakness in the American if he could find one; otherwise he would retreat to Canada. By early afternoon, Burgoyne had again formed his men into three columns and again advanced against the American’s left flank.

After scouting Burgoyne’s advance, Arnold told Gates that the forces he sent to flank the British wouldn’t be enough. Arnold’s unwanted advice irritated Gates to the point of confining Arnold to his quarters while the battle raged outside.

The Continental forces attacked Burgoyne’s army on all three sides, stalling them on the battlefield. The British columns were in danger of collapse when Frasier was mortally wounded, rallying the American soldiers. That was when Benedict Arnold famously charged into the heart of the battle. Supposedly, he’d drank a ladle of rum, found a horse, and ridden into battle. He rode to the head of the fighting and took command from Ebenezer Learned. Arnold had no authority to take charge, but he also received no argument from Learned, who’d been pinned down by the Hessian column.

The Hessians held strong until Morgan and Dearborn’s infantries broke the British lines, forcing then to retreat. This left the Hessians exposed and they too had to withdraw to the British trenches and fortifications. Gates, who once again hadn’t left his office, couldn’t be more pleased with the battle, but Arnold wasn’t satisfied with a mere retreat. Waving his sword in the air, Arnold charged the nearest redoubt, or fortified entrenchment.

Rallying the nearby troops, Arnold led an assault directly at the British fortification, but the earthwork walls were too steep and the still retreating British and Hessian soldiers were quickly able to defend and Arnold had to back down, but not for long. He spotted a weakness at the stockade between the two redoubts and charged toward it, again rallying troops as he went.

The American forces burst through the stockade and sent the British running, but before they did, a squad of Hessians fired off one last volley of musket fire. One musket ball hit Arnold’s left leg, and another hit his horse, which threw Arnold and collapsed on him, crushing the bone in his wounded leg. Henry Dearborn, who saw the wounding, quickly rushed to Arnold’s aid, saving his life.

With the fortifications surrounded by American forces, Burgoyne and his remaining men slowly withdrew to Saratoga over the next few days. After 10 days of negotiations, Burgoyne finally surrendered to Gates on October 17, 1777, marking the first time a British army was forced to surrender to the Americans. Burgoyne and his “superior fighting force” were defeated.

"Benedict Arnold wasn’t getting the reimbursements from the Continental Congress, and he was seeing other officers get promoted a head of him"

Burgoyne and his sick, starving, and disillusioned army were allowed to leave Saratoga with all of their arms and supplies intact and march to Boston, where they could sail back to England under the condition that they never fight in America again. Shortly after they left Saratoga, Burgoyne and his men were captured again, taken prisoner, and stripped of their arms and uniforms. They faced a long and harsh prisoner’s march from Saratoga to Boston.

Benedict Arnold had been lying in an Albany hospital bed since his charge at Freeman’s Farm. Having refused to have his leg amputated several times, he endured an agonizing healing process. The most painful part of his healing was being unable to defend his actions at Saratoga when Gates downplayed him in his report to Congress. Arnold was finally able to sit up in January, only to reopen his wounds. He wasn’t able to walk and rejoin the fight until the following May. By then, the Congress had reinstated him as an officer, but only as a matter of paperwork and not because of his battlefield heroics. “Like all of the other officers, Arnold was spending his own money to keep his men fed and clothed,” says Strum. “He wasn’t getting the reimbursements from the Continental Congress, and he was seeing other officers get promoted a head of him.”

With his leg still disabled, Arnold’s attitude toward America and the Continental Congress was becoming increasingly vile, having never been honored for his heroics on the battlefield.  Arnold still wanted a command, but due to his leg his options were limited and he pressed Congress to let him take charge of West Point. Washington offered him other positions, but he refused them. Arnold ultimately betrayed the Continental Congress and America, in 1780, when he entered negotiations with England, gave them West Point, and joined their side. After this, Benedict Arnold was forever branded a traitor to America.

The defeat at Saratoga wasn’t just a problem for Burgoyne; it was a problem for all of England. When the Americans were finally able to overcome the British, it proved to the French that America was finally capable of helping itself. After a bit of diplomatic finagling by Benjamin Franklin, France entered into an alliance with America, declared war on England, and agreed to aid the American’s with troops, provisions, and money. America may have been England’s largest colony, but it definitely wasn’t its only one. With France at war with them, their holdings in Canada, the Caribbean, Asia, and Africa were also now in jeopardy.

In the end, General “Gentleman Johnny” John Burgoyne’s grand plan to crush the American rebellion was as spectacular as a failure as it would have been as a victory. Whether his decision to take a land route was a blunder or not may be perpetually debated, but what cannot be denied is that in October of 1777, America threw off her colonial bonds and changed the world forever.

Do you think Benedict Arnold deserves his reputation as a traitor?