The Grand Strategy, the imaginative plan to divide the rebellious
American colonies, ended in disaster. On October 17, 1777, General
Sir John Burgoyne, alone, unaided and stranded in the American
wilderness, capitulated with his army at Saratoga in upper New York
State. It was the ‘turning point’ of the Revolution, which
culminated four years later in the British surrender at Yorktown.
Creasy wrote of Saratoga: ‘Nor can any military event be said to
have exercised more important influence upon the future fortunes of
mankind…’ Who blundered? For nearly two centuries, Lord George
Germain, the ‘maladroit’ minister, has been blamed, together
with the Commander-in-Chief, Sir William Howe; but Burgoyne,
‘Gentleman Johnny’ as his affectionate troops called him, has
largely escaped criticism. Only in the late 1960s had a full
assessment become possible, by the publication of all the
correspondence that passed between these men. Originally published
in 1971, from his study of these letters, and by his visit to the
campaign area, author Rupert Furneaux questions this long accepted
view. The British disaster resulted, he says, not because anyone
particularly blundered, or from any ‘pigeon-holed’ despatch,
but rather because no one bargained that thousands of ordinary
American citizens would rally to bar Burgoyne’s path. Experienced
frontier-fighters and skilled marksmen, they mowed down the
closely-ranked Redcoats and the German mercenaries, who had all
been trained for European battles. Saratoga heralded a new age of
warfare, which Europeans took another hundred years to learn. It
was also far more than a British defeat; it was an American
victory, the decisive battle whereby they won the right to run
their own lives without interference from Europe – and with
incalculable consequences.
General
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