Battle of Freeman's Farm
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The Battle of Freeman's Farm (September 19, 1777) was the first engagement in the Battle of Saratoga of the American Revolutionary War. American Forces under Major General Horatio Gates gave up the field to the British expedition commanded by Lieutenant General John Burgoyne but inflicted heavy casualties. The battle is sometimes known as First Saratoga, and it stopped Burgoyne's advance in the Saratoga campaign. It also set the stage for the remaining standoff and actions for the rest of the Saratoga Battle.
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[edit] Background
General Burgoyne led the main expedition of the Saratoga Campaign south from Canada towards Albany, New York. They had taken all the positions and forces in their path. American resistance got firmer as the British crossed to the west bank of the Hudson River at Saratoga, New York and marched about nine miles farther south. The Americans had fortified the elevation known as Bemis Heights, 10 miles south of Saratoga.
The British advanced in three columns toward the heights 2 miles (3 km) to their south. Major General Riedesel led the left column of Brunswickers on the river road, bringing the main artillery and guarding supplies and the boats on the river. General James Inglis Hamilton commanded the center which would attack the heights. General Simon Fraser led the right wing with both the light infantry and grenadier battalions, to turn the American left flank. The American right was anchored by the Hudson River.
The American forces were not particularly well organized or prepared for this engagement. General Gates had just taken command of the Northern Department, after Burgoyne captured Ticonderoga. General George Washington had sent a number of experienced units north so that Saratoga's battles had regulars on both sides. Before this Burgoyne had mostly faced militia. But the American command structure was troubled. Benedict Arnold nominally had command of the left wing. However, he had no orders for battle and Gates would only authorize a reconnaissance.
[edit] Battle
The British did not get an early start. They had very little knowledge of the American forces or their arrangement, and a morning fog limited their vision. By noon it had burned off, and they got underway.
Arnold, meanwhile, had ridden out to the far left flank and asked Colonel Daniel Morgan's men to stop Fraser's advance. Both Morgan and Arnold preferred to strike while the British were in columns moving through the woods. Arnold took advantage of his earlier orders—which would permit an in-force reconnaissance—to order Morgan's and Henry Dearborn's light infantry battalion forward. As Morgan's Virginia riflemen came up to the clearing at Freeman's Farm, they found the advance party of Fraser's column in the field. The first shots dropped every officer in the advance and threw the others into retreat.
When they saw this, Morgan's men charged recklessly forward. Supported by Dearborn's fire, they managed to drive Fraser's light infantry back into the center column of General Hamilton. But this enthusiasm broke when they ran into the grenadier battalion's bayonets, and the American advance became a quick retreat. This set the pattern for the remainder of the battle.
Morgan was working hard to reform his regiment south of the field. Knowing that Morgan was in trouble, Arnold ordered Enoch Poor's brigade of New York and New Hampshire regulars (1st New Hampshire, 2nd New Hampshire, 3rd New Hampshire, 2nd New York and 4th New York) with Connecticut militia to extend the American left. He also ordered General Ebenezer Learned with four regiments of the Continental Army (1st New York, 2nd, 8th and 9th Massachusetts Regiments) to support Morgan toward the center. Burgoyne was not idle and ordered both Fraser and Hamilton to form up using the farm's fields as their rallying point.
As the British gathered in the field, massed fire from Poor's regiments drove them back, with serious losses. Again, the British repulsed an American charge. Arnold himself led a charge toward the center with five regiments but could not succeed in separating Fraser's wing from Burgoyne's other forces. Three times Arnold rode back to headquarters, begging Gates to attack or give him enough men to break the British. His only response was an order to release Alexander Scammel's 3rd New Hampshire Regiment to guard headquarters, and finally an order removing Arnold from the battle.
The final stroke of the battle belonged to the British. Burgoyne ordered Riedesel to leave a light guard with the column and advance on Freeman's farm. Riedesel led his Brunswickers, with artillery support through a ravine that the Americans had thought impassable. This additional force allowed the British to succeed in claiming the fields and the farm.
[edit] Aftermath
Burgoyne had taken the farm but suffered nearly 600 casualties, most of them to Hamilton's center column. Not only could he ill afford the men and equipment lost, he had lost the initiative. American losses were nearly 300 killed and seriously wounded. The British and Brunswick forces constructed redoubts on the farm and fortified their original crossing point of the Hudson.
At the end of the battle, both sides were dug in about 2 miles (3 km) apart. Burgoyne's force was down to about 6,000 effective fighters and was short on supplies and rations. Gates still had about 7,000, with more militia arriving daily.
Gates quickly reported the action to the Congress and New York's governor. While the field commanders and men universally credited Arnold for their success, Gates' best efforts were to ensure that no one other than himself received credit. Arnold's protests were loudest in what he viewed as a slight to Learned, Poor, and Morgan and their men. The rift separating Arnold and Gates grew deeper, and Gates ensured that Arnold had no command going in the Battle of Bemis Heights.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- Ketchum, Richard M.; Saratoga: Turning Point of America's Revolutionary War; 1997, Henry Holt & Company, ISBN 0-8050-4681-X; (Paperback ISBN 0-8050-6123-1)
