The two battles of Saratoga (Freemanâs Farm and Bemis Heights) marked the climax of the Saratoga Campaign 1777. They gave a decisive victory to the Americans over the British. Lieutenant General John Burgoyne led an invasion army southward from Canada in the Champlain Valley, hoping to meet a similar British force marching northward from New York City, and another British force marching eastward from Lake Ontario.
Unfortunately for the British, the southern and western forces never arrived and Burgoyne was surrounded by American forces in upstate New York. He fought two small battles to break out which took place 18 days apart on the same ground. They both failed.
Burgoyne found himself trapped by superior American forces with no relief in sight, so he retreated to Saratoga (now Schuylerville) and surrendered his entire army there on October 17. His surrender, says historian Edmund Morgan, âwas a great turning point of the war because it won for Americans the foreign assistance which was the last element needed for victory.â
MILITARY HISTPRY SOCIETY OF ROCHESTER
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