Saratoga Campaign

The Saratoga Campaign in 1777 was an attempt by the British high command for North America to gain military control of the strategically important Hudson River valley during the American Revolutionary War. The primary thrust of the campaign was planned and initiated by General John Burgoyne. Commanding a main force of some 8,000 men, he moved south in June from Quebec, boated up Lake Champlain to middle New York, then marched over the divide and down the Hudson Valley to Saratoga. There, he engaged the American defenders with mixed initial results; then, after the climactic Battles of Saratoga in September and October he was obliged to surrender his forces to the American General Horatio Gates.

Burgoyne's effort was unsuccessfully supported by Colonel Barry St. Leger's attempt to move on Albany, New York through the Mohawk River valley. His expedition was forced to retreat after losing Indian support in the siege of Fort Stanwix. A third supporting expedition expected by General Burgoyne never materialized (apparently due to miscommunication on that year's campaign goals) when General William Howe sent his army to take Philadelphia rather than sending a portion of it up the Hudson River from New York City. A late effort to support Burgoyne from New York was made by Sir Henry Clinton in early October, but it did not significantly affect the outcome.

The American victory was an enormous morale boost to the fledgling nation, and it convinced France to enter the conflict in support of the United States, openly providing money, soldiers, and naval support, as well as a wider theater of war.