Commemorating Gen Burgoyne's defeat, the first major British defeat, in the American Revolutionary war in Oct 1777. Burgoyne launched his invasion of the Colonies from Quebec, planning to connect with Gen Howe who had masterfully routed Gen George Washington from Long Island, Staten Island and Manhattan a year earlier. Gen Howe, perhaps overconfident of victory, moved on to battle in Philadelphia leaving too few troops in Oswego NY. Burgoyne's supply to Canada began to get stretched too thin and casualties were mounting. Despite wins he was losing men at in unsustainable numbers, and Gen Howe's army was not to be found. Burgoyne pushed on along the Hudson and crossed north of Saratoga Springs, because the colonists, aided by a Polish military engineer, Koskiusko built formidable defenses that covered Hudson's River and the roads on either side. THe colonists were wilier than first thought. Burgoyne was forced to cross into unfavorable, woody, hilly, terrain (The great Redoubt). For a month starting in Sept 1777 the Yanks and British exchanged daily volleys of artillery and musketfire, and clashed in savage battles throughout the farms around Saratoga springs. It must have been miserable for all soldiers there. Hard labor digging and preparing for war, poor sanitation and medicine and daily fighting. The British were down to 7000 men (from 10,000) and supplies were stretched. Colonists were gaining their military footing were also recruiting in higher numbers and fresh men were arriving daily. It is estimated around 13,000 Yanks were at the battles. In October 1777, The British Generals, Burgoyne, Fraser and German Riedesel launched an attack. Gen Gates, Morgan Learned and Poor somewhat unwittingly went headlong into the British Attack. A frustrated Major Benedict Arnold (with permission or not...is not clear) took a contingent of Gen Poor's men and rode off and between the British lines circling in behind the British soldiers. In fierce fighting Gen Arnold attacked a redoubt from behind and cause the British to panic and retreat. Eventually the British were surrounded and Burgoyne surrendered all his troops and equipment to the colonists at this spot. The colonists were clearly far more clever and determined, and would fight more bravely than the British expected. This was the first major British defeat and considered the turning point of the revolutionary war. It's amazing to be part of such a experiment in nationbuilding...and I found this fascinating and moving. This is the grit that built America, and it always makes me feel that the deaths of these men....and so many people in so many causes, from wars to civil rights, to equal rights and justice, and all the messiness that is the great experiment "America" needs to be understood and felt more strongly by each person. Everyone should treat their country as the precious gift it is and work as hard for it as you do for yourself. Watching democracy work, and worse being an armchair quarterback to it, or.....THE Worst proclaiming your unalienable birthright to the lands and freedoms and bounty that the country can offer, while not participating except in feckless namecalling, self enriching greed.... Having the chutzpah (or lack of, since chutzpah is a another great addition to the American lexicon through our Yiddish speaking Americans) to claim who is American and who is not....sullies the name of the people who did make the ultimate sacrifice here and throughout American history.
These guys dashed into fire driven by real ideals of equality and freedom. Actually they were likely just hoping to survive the battle tot he next day and not die of infection. They knew they were fighting the right cause, but could not have ever expected the society they helped create. I imagine that after the pain of fighting, death, and time in the ground, these men, from their fish-eye position of the next life would certainly castigate the pettiness, xenophobia, racism, ignorance, etc...that permeates such a rich society. They would remind us that there is only one life, it's short, even more so if you are cut down by war, violence or illness. And regardless of whether there was a heaven or Hades, or who was the universal power...if there was one.... American life should be seized tot he fullest...get educated, learn and understand the world, understand it from other perspectives, don't mind what others have or don't have...mind your own knitting (as mom would say!). Meet others, work with others, care for others, even the ones we dislike or find most foreign. Do hard work, do good work, do it for good's sake and if profit follows be gracious, and generous and don't forget the country in which this was possible.