Saratoga
BATTLES OF, in the Revolutionary War, two battles fought 12 miles E. of Saratoga Springs, N. Y.
Burgoyne led the British in the first, while the Americans were under command of Gates, who had Morgan and Arnold as subordinates. The fight on Sept. 19, 1777, was indecisive. On Oct. 7, 1777, the Americans achieved a splendid victory over the British, the commanders of both armies being the same as in the first engagement. The result was the surrender of Burgoyne and his army, numbering 5,752 men, to the Americans, Oct. 17, 1777. These contests are sometimes called in history the battles of Stillwater and Bemis' Heights. The American victory came at a critical period of the Revolution. It frustrated the British plan for cutting off New England from the other states, enlisted the help of France, altered the policy of Parliament and the King and saved the cause of the patriots. Creasy enumerates it in his "Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World."