Saratoga - October 17, 1777

  Saratoga was the turning point of the war.  This is when the French finally agree to help us.  The British want to crush the rebellion before any foreign forces intervene.  The plan is two British armies would follow rivers into the Patriot/rebel territory, then they would unite and capture Albany, New York.  They believed that controlling the Hudson River would sever the Patriot's rebellion from the rest of the colonies.  With a new commander, General Horatio Gates, the american army took up a defensive position along the Hudson River called Bennis Heights.  They fortified the flood plain and cannon on heights.  This was the perfect spot because the Americans could see and fire at anything in the river valley.  When British General Burgoyne learned the Americans had done this, he moved his army inland to avoid the Americans.  His columns met Gates' army and the British troops suffered many casualties.  General Burgoyne is forced to retreat to a small hamlet called Saratoga.  Gates' army surrounds the British and the British, low on supplies, is forced to surrender.  This victory is what convinced the French to enter the war as allies to the Americans.

This is how the battle of Saratoga played out