This Day in History: Americans win a critical victory at the Battle of Saratoga | Tara Ross

On this day in 1777, the second Battle of Saratoga is fought. The American victory was the beginning of the end for British General John Burgoyne. Perhaps more importantly, we demonstrated to the world that we could hold our own, even against the powerful British army! We’d earn support from other nations as a result. Burgoyne surely never saw it coming. He had a specific mission in America: He was to travel from Canada down to Albany in an attempt to separate the New England colonies from the southern ones. Many British hoped that such a move would break the back of the American Revolution. Burgoyne started off well, with an easy capture of Ft. Ticonderoga. But things went downhill from there. He was delayed by Americans who intentionally destroyed bridges or blocked roads. He lost many men when a detachment of his army was defeated at the Battle of Bennington—and the first Battle of Saratoga at Freeman’s Farm hurt him still more. Technically, that was […]

Source: This Day in History: Americans win a critical victory at the Battle of Saratoga | Tara Ross