Off to deliver a load of IKEA furniture kits to my son in Albany, NY this weekend. On Saturday we decided to take a break from assembling an apartment full of furniture and drive up to Saratoga National Historical Park. We spent a good four hours driving/walking the field...here's a few pic's:
Freeman's Farm, site of most of the opening fighting:
Monument to the Unknown Dead at the Nielson Farm (center) and Col. Tadeusz Kosciuszko, Polish military engineer who directed the construction of the American field fortifications blocking the British advance down the Hudson (right):
Nielson Farm House, the only original building remaining on the battlefield, served as Gates' HQ:
Artillery winch used for remounting cannons on their carriages:
The Chatfield Farm, scene of skirmishing between Americans and British pickets covering Burgoyne's attempt to turn the American flank:
British artillery piece at the Belcarres Redoubt which anchored the left flank of the British line after their repulse by the Americans at Barber's Wheatfield:
American artillery piece and limber at the Wheatfield:
The British line at the Belcarres Redoubt. The Americans were repulsed here in their counterattack but fared better against the Germans in the British Center:
The Boot Monument to Benedict Arnold, who rallied the attacking American regiment up and over the breastworks at the Breymann Redoubt, routing the German mercenaries and crushing the British center. Arnold was wounded in the ankle during the attack, effectively ending his combat career. Arnold's name appears nowhere on the monument erected in his honor:
British gun at the Great Redoubt, the position Burgoyne's army fell back to after being routed by the Americans. Leaving his campfires burning that night, Burgoyne withdrew his army and marched his men through the mud and rain eight miles back up the Hudson to Schuylerville where he would surrender on October 17, 1777:
The Hudson, looking north from the Great Redoubt:
Our steed for the day, the kid's 2013 Honda Fit:
My high school recollection of the Battle of Saratoga was that it had been a minor tactical victory for the Americans but an immense strategic victory, having for the first time defeated the professional army of Britain, a world power (if not the world power) and their nemesis. However, it would seem that, having destroyed Burgoyne's army at Schuylerville, not simply repulsed it and allowed it to return to Canada, this was quite a bit more than just a tactical victory in the field.
A few more pic's to follow.
Healey
