DEFEAT OF BURGOYNE AT SARATOGA
a.d. 1777
SIR EDWARD SHEPHERD CREASY
Viewed by itself, the victory over Burgoyne might have little appearance of being one of the decisive battles of the world, among which Creasy reckons it. That it acquired such importance was due, as Creasy himself shows, to its direct consequences, especially its influence upon the French. It led them to espouse the American cause, and by their aid the Revolution was brought to a successful ending.
Since the Declaration of Independence the American forces had met with varying fortunes. They had been defeated in the Battle of Long Island, August 27, 1776, and at White Plains, October 28th. Forts Washington and Lee, defences of the Hudson, were both lost, and the Americans retreated through New Jersey. By a masterly return movement Washington retrieved the situation, winning the Battle of Trenton, December 26, 1776, and that of Princeton, January 3, 1777. On August 16, 1777, Stark gained the Battle of Bennington, but within a month (September 11th) Washington was beaten by Howe on the Brandywine, and the Americans suffered defeat at Germantown October 4th. In this state of affairs the movements of Burgoyne, who had invaded New York from Canada, were watched with deep concern on both sides.
The final operations between the Americans and Burgoyne's forces included two engagements, which are often spoken of as the Battles of Saratoga, also as the Battles of Stillwater or of Bemis' Heights, from the local names.
The first of these actions, that of September 19, 1777, in which Gates, with Morgan and Arnold under him, commanded the Americans, was indecisive. Under the same commanders the Americans (October 7th) won the decisive victory which Creasy describes. His opening statement shows the modern English sentiment concerning the American Revolution, and this feeling finds its correlative in the gradual change of tone on the part of American writers.
The war which rent away the North American colonies from England is, of all subjects in history, the most painful for an Englishman to dwell on. It was commenced and carried on by the British ministry in iniquity and folly, and it was concluded in disaster and shame. But the contemplation of it cannot be evaded by the historian, however much it may be abhorred. Nor can any military event be said to have exercised more important influence on the future fortunes of mankind than the complete defeat of Burgoyne's expedition in 1777; a defeat which rescued the revolted colonists from certain subjection, and which, by inducing the courts of France and Spain to attack England in their behalf, insured the independence of the United States, and the formation of that transatlantic power which not only America, but both Europe and Asia, now see and feel.