Battle of Saratoga

This paper addresses the battle of Saratoga. It spells out the main parties to the battle of Saratoga. It also spells out how the battle advanced and what the main motivating factor behind the battle was (Augustus, 1839). More than this, it gives the identity of the men who led the Americans and the British armies in the war. The paper further states the hardships that the American soldiers faced in the battle. Other aspects that are spelt out include the factors that led to the defeat of the British army. It also explains how the French gave their support to America after they won in this battle.

The battle of Saratoga was comprised of two battles, which took place in September 1777 and October 1777. The battles are up-to-date considered as the turning point of American Revolutionary war. The Saratoga battle began when the British planned to control New York especially the upstate part. The British also made a plan to isolate New England from other southern colonies. This was geared towards putting an end to the prevailing revolution. The British troops went to battle led by General John Burgoyne. They planned to drive from Montreal to Albany along Lake Champlain, Lake George, and Hudson River. They were to join forces at Albany with two other British Commands. One was coming from New York while the other was coming from Mohawk River.

The team by General John Burgoyne faced obstacles in the forest as they headed south. One obstacle was near Lake George where there were colonists who were felling trees. These troops blocked the path by General John Burgoyne Team. This caused a slowdown of the team. It took the team a considerably longer time to reach their destination. They faced a challenge of the fact that their supplies were running out of supplies by the time they arrived at FortEdward. The team sent a portion of their group to procure cattle and supplies from Vermont. Some colonist forces attacked this team and the numbers by Burgoyne were further dwindled.

The American Scouts noticed the invasion by General John Burgoyne, and immediately Gates was notified. He ordered Daniel Morgan who was a colonel to track down the march by the British men. They were finally tracked down on the Freeman Farm. They engaged each other in a battle that lasted for more than 3 hours. From the onset, the Americans were numerically superior to the British army. During this encounter, General John Burgoyne forced the American soldiers to withdraw (Augustus, 1839). They mainly won because the ammunition the Americans was nearly exhausted.

General John Burgoyne was shaken, and he ordered his army to wait for Clinton. He wanted to ensure that his team is larger than it had been during the first encounter (Kethum, 1999). Clinton was at this time expected to be preparing to move north from New York. They waited for Clinton for three weeks, but he did not turn up. General John Burgoyne had to decide whether to retreat or to advance in the war. He decided to take the risk and engage in his earlier plans. This was because he noticed that the more he waited the more the American army was advancing in size. His armies’ supplies were also diminishing by the day as he waited and thus he understood he had no more time. The Americans were well set, for they knew that the British team was about to advance.

In a separate account, the other group of British Army led by General Howe was travelling north of New York City. They undecided to veer from their previous plan and take on the city of Philadelphia (Rees, 1996). They went ahead with this plan. The continental army of Washington prevented the team from leaving and joining hands with General John Burgoyne. In addition, Washington realized that a massive war was about to emerge. In their defense, they sent large troops to the North. There was an announcement that any military group that could join those troops was at Liberty to do so. This ended up to be extremely sturdy contingent troop and Militia gathering in the Saratoga area (Furneaux, 1971).

Now, General John Burgoyne and his troop began to advance south again. They were, however, stopped ten miles below Saratoga. This was the beginning of the battle of Saratoga (Vierow, 2003). This was known the battle of Freeman’s Farm, and it took place on September, 19 1977. It began when militiamen from Virginia harassed the British. At the same time, other colonists aggressively fought the British. The British felt the loss more as they lost twice as many men as the American side. Gates and Benedict Arnold who was a field general led the American side (Augustus, 1839).

The second battle, which is counted as part of battle of Saratoga, took place in October 7 the same year. This battle was named the second battle of Saratoga. It happened when General John Burgoyne decided to break free from the colonial forces that surrounded him (Cuneo, 1967). The army by General John Burgoyne was by this time cut down to about 5000 men. They were facing the American side led by Gates that had 20 000 men. General John Burgoyne was also disadvantaged at this point because they were falling short of supplies in a foreign land (Furneaux, 1971).

In this endeavor, he wanted to send them out of the field. In this battle, the British armies and the German allies who were helping them were devastated in battle. The defeat at the Bemis Heights forced General John Burgoyne to withdraw into the northern region. He went to the village, which is now called Schuylerville Village. As he began his retreat, Gates and his men followed him and surrounded him at Saratoga. While here, he consented defeat and surrendered on October 17 1777. The Saratoga monument was set up in this place to commemorate the momentous day of victory.

General John Burgoyne was disgraced after the defeat, and he started his way back to England. It is noted that he was not given another command. The French people were now persuaded to support the Americans with some military aid. This defeat of the England forces by the Americans is thus the turning point of the American Revolution.

Despite the wining by the American Army, they faced many challenges. In times of need the army, had to recruit slaves and other pardoned criminals? The leaders of the army knew that the wining tactic was ensuring that their numbers were larger than those of General John Burgoyne were. To this end, the American army at times enrolled the British side deserters and the people who would be termed as prisoners of war. Enrolling American men was sometimes hard, as the portion of people who were farmers did not want to leave their fields unattended. People also failed to join the army, as the compensation thereby was extremely low. In times of inflation, the militiamen received remarkably little amount of money as upkeep.

There also lacked pension systems that would compensate the soldiers in cases where the soldiers died. There were also easy spreads of diseases in the police camps; they lacked the necessary facilities as they slept without tents and in other cases without blankets. They were also scarcity of food in their tents. The soldiers contended with so many problems as they even lacked cooking utensils and sometimes resulted to eating raw meat. They, however, garnered all their energy and won the British Army (Cuneo, 1967).