READY FOR BATTLE
Weekend events mark 240th anniversary of victory at Saratoga
STILLWATER, N.Y. » Glenn Ross’ pulse quickened and his heart beat a little faster as he traced his Revolutionary War ancestor’s footsteps on Saturday.
Exactly 240 years ago — Oct. 7, 1777 — Ross’ fifth-generation grandfather, Josiah Durgin, helped patriots defeat the British army in the Second Battle of Saratoga. The American victory proved to be the war’s turning point and changed the course of world history.
“It’s unbelievable to be on the same ground,” said Ross, a Maryland resident who made a special trip to mark the occasion. “You learn about an ancestor that helped form this country; it’s really cool.”
Activities at Saratoga National Historical Park throughout the weekend offered people nearly 2 ½ centuries later get a look inside that key moment in American history. A British soldier’s wife explained why women and children were part of the British camp; a sutler (salesperson) told how civilians made money off the army; and a campfire demonstration explained the kinds of food soldiers ate and how it was prepared.
Ross said Durgin, his ancestor, belonged to the New Hampshire militia led by Col. Stephen Evans. His company commander was Capt. George Tuttle.
“They walked over 300 miles to get here and were sent into battle the day they arrived,” Ross said. “These guys were brutes.”
Park Ranger Eric Schnitzer explained how the late-afternoon battle began, unfolded and ended, all in little more than an hour as the British “folded like a deck of cards.”
Only 2 ½ weeks earlier, British General John Burgoyne’s army won a small victory Sept. 19. During the ensuing 18 days, American forces were strengthened considerably as patriots from throughout the region showed up to fight. By the time the Second Battle began, the British were greatly outnumbered.
At Barber’s Wheat Field, Schnitzer told how British sol-
diers turned their attention to harvesting grain, as food supplies had run low for soldiers and their horses.
Just like the First Battle, the Americans struck first. General Benedict Arnold, who later turned traitor, played a key role in the victory. He and General Horatio Gates, the American army’s top commander at Saratoga, disliked each other, but put personal differences aside to win the day, Schnitzer said.
Contrary to popular belief, Arnold did not disobey Gates by going out into the field in the heat of battle. In fact, Gates approved when Arnold said: “Give me some men and we shall have some fun with them before sunset.”
“The Battles of Saratoga would not have gone the way they did without Benedict Arnold,” Schnitzer said.
However, Arnold was shot and wounded in the lower leg and spent a long time afterward recuperating in Albany.
Schnitzer described how the British and their multinational allies — Germans, French-Canadians and Native Americans — turned and fled for their lives into the woods. After realizing their defeat, the British tried to head north to Fort Ticonderoga, which they had captured earlier that summer.
“But the Americans had already closed the back door,” park Ranger William Valosin said. “They were boxed in.”
Following a 10-day siege, Burgoyne’s army surrendered Oct. 17 in what is now Fort Hardy Park in presentday Schuylerville.
Terri DiGiacamo, of Saratoga Springs, brought relatives visiting from Mas-saschusetts to the battlefield on Saturday.
“They’re totally overwhelmed,” she said. “This place has the same effect on me as Normandy [the landing site for the D-Day invasion of France by Allied forces that turned the tide in World War II]. We were there for the 65th and 70th anniversaries, and we’re going back for the 75th in 2019. I get filled up there, like I do here now.”