Book Review - Saratoga by Richard M. Ketchum

During the summer and early autumn of the third year of the American Revolution - 1777 - American and British armies engaged in a series of pitched battles near the town of Saratoga in upstate New York. The Battle of Saratoga, as these clashes collectively came to be known, was one of the most decisive and significant military engagements ever fought on North American soil. In fact, most historians agree: the American victory over General "Gentleman Johnny" Burgoyne's British army at Saratoga was the turning point of the Revolution. It paved the way for France to enter the war as an ally of the fledgling United States, and gave new courage to countless numbers of American soldiers and militiamen who had tasted nothing but defeat during the first two years of the war.

Saratoga: Turning Point of America's Revolutionary War (which I'll hereafter refer to simply as Saratoga) is the third in a series of books written by historian Richard M. Ketchum on major battles of the American Revolution. (The first is Decisive Day, an account of the battle of Bunker Hill, and the second is The Winter Soldiers, a chronicle of the battles of Trenton and Princeton, New Jersey). It is a well written and highly detailed account of the Battle of Saratoga in 1777, a battle regarded by historians as the key to American victory in its War of Independence.

According to Ketchum, by early 1777, the British had developed a strategy to divide the colonies into three sections, a plan that almost certainly would have stopped the American Revolution dead in its tracks had it succeeded. The strategy, which was developed by the loquacious and arrogant General John "Gentleman Johnny" Burgoyne, called for three separate expeditions - one from the north, one from the west, and a third from the south - to march simultaneously on Albany, New York, arriving there by the summer of 1777. If Burgoyne's plan was successful, New England would be cut off from the rest of the colonies; the cities of New York and Philadelphia would be captured by the British; and the western flank of the colonies would be pacified and secured.

There is an old military axiom that states: "No plan survives first contact with the enemy." Such was the case with Burgoyne's strategy to end the war. Burgoyne took command of the northern arm of the expedition and began marching south from Canada along Lake Champlain. At first, his troops met little resistance, but they were slowed to a snail-like crawl by bad roads, thick forests, and the rough terrain through which they were traversing. They were also hampered by their own overburdened supply train and by the large numbers of civilians - mostly wives and girlfriends of senior officers, including Burgoyne - that accompanied Burgoyne's army as it marched. As the summer of 1777 progressed and Burgoyne's troops hacked their way southward toward Albany, a combined force of 12,000 American regular army troops, local militiamen, and Indians, began gathering for a showdown somewhere in upstate New York...

Meanwhile, the western and southern wings of Burgoyne's expedition were faring no better in their efforts to converge on Albany. Out west, a force of British troops, loyalists, and Indian allies, under the command of Colonel Barry St. Leger, marched from Oswego New York, but got only as far as Fort Stanwix, an American army outpost on the Mohawk River. St. Leger besieged the fort, which caused significant delays. His forces were eventually forced to withdraw from the expedition after suffering heavy casualties in a series of bloody battles, and after Indian allies deserted en masse when they heard rumors that a large American force, led by Benedict Arnold, was on its way relieve the siege.

And the southern wing of the expedition? It never materialized. General William Howe, who was supposed to march north from New York City up the Hudson River to Albany, and link up with Burgoyne's and St. Leger's forces, decided instead to move toward Philadelphia and capture that city.

The focus of Saratoga is, of course, the fate of Burgoyne's army in the forests of upstate New York in the autumn of 1777. Using letters and other first-hand accounts from both American and British sources, Ketchum skillfully, impartially, and with great detail narrates the events which occurred in the area around Saratoga, New York during that fateful summer and autumn of 1777. These included the early British victories at Hubbardton and Fort Ticonderoga; the later American victories at Bennington and Freeman's Farm; Burgoyne's retreat to Saratoga in an effort to find "safety" from an American army whose ranks had, by summer's end, swelled to over 12,000 soldiers and militiamen; the American siege of Saratoga, and the ultimate surrender of all British forces by Burgoyne on October 17, 1777.

This was a fairly well written account of the battle commonly described as "the turning point of the American Revolution." Ketchum's descriptions of the various personalities and battles are vivid and eloquent. I found myself on occasion almost transported to the various battlefields. However, Saratoga is not as good as his earlier works. The narrative's pace is much slower, especially in the opening chapters. Here Ketchum spends an inordinate number of pages setting stage for the battles to come. For example, I kept wondering why so many pages were devoted to the author's description of the American mission to persuade Canada to join the rebellion, a mission undertaken by Benjamin Franklin, John Carroll, Charles Carroll, and Samuel Chase. Ketchum's account of the Franklin/Carroll mission makes for excellent anecdotal history, but the author doesn't establish a clear link between the mission and the critical events of the summer of 1777. Saratoga could also have benefited from more maps and illustrations of better quality.

Minor quibbles all, however. Despite its sundry minor flaws, Saratoga remains an overall excellent book. It's an essential volume for readers desiring to understand better one of the key events that led to America's successful quest for independence. Read and enjoy!