The FReeper Foxhole Revisits The Saratoga Campaign - 1777 - July 16th, 2004

see educational sources

[snippy_about_it]

Lord,

Keep our Troops forever in Your care

Give them victory over the enemy...

Grant them a safe and swift return...

Bless those who mourn the lost.
.

FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer
for all those serving their country at this time.


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The FReeper Foxhole Revisits

The Saratoga Campaign - 1777

The Bennington Raid: August 1777

On July 30, 1777, New Hampshire militia Brig. General John Stark reached Manchester to find Colonel Seth Warner and Continental Maj. General Benjamin Lincoln already there. General George Washington had sent Lincoln to help Northern Department commander Maj. General Philip Schuyler, because of his being from New England. Schuyler had then ordered Lincoln to take command of Stark's New Hampshire regiment and lead it to the main army. Stark refused to hand over command and Lincoln tactfully did not press.

Bennington was a last minute objective after intelligence was received that only 300 to 400 militia guarded a supply depot there. On August 9, 1777, Lt. Colonel Friedrich Baum set out east. On August 11, Baum moved from Fort Miller to Batten Kill. After waiting a day, Baum moved another fifteen miles southeast to Cambridge on August 13th. Along the way, the Indians engaged in destruction of the neighboring countryside. Learning of the Indians, General Stark ordered 400 men to advance to Cambridge from Bennington. On that evening, Stark learned of Baum's man force and began to move his own force toward Bennington. He also ordered Colonel Seth Warner to bring his militia from Manchester to Bennington. Baum also learned of Stark's movements and sent word to Burgoyne that 1,800 rather than 400 rebels were at Bennington.



On August 14 at about 9:00 A.M., the two forces made contact at Sancoick's Mill. General Stark's advance forces fired one volley and then retreated. After advancing another two miles, Baum was slowed at Little White Creek due to a burned bridge. Baum then advanced another mile to a ford on the Walloomsac River, which was about four miles from Bennington. Meanwhile, Stark withdrew further toward Bennington and made camp. Later in the day, Baum finally formally requested reinforcements. Baum secured the ford by placing forces on both sides of the river to make the enemy could not easily approach the ford.

Before dawn on August 15, 1777, Maj. General John Burgoyne received Lt. Colonel Baum's request for reinforcements. Lt. Colonel Heinrich Breymann was dispatched at 9:00 A.M. with approximately 640 men. Colonel Warner had received General Stark's order on the 14th, but many of his men were out on patrol, so he did not get underway until the morning of August 15th with his 350 men. Slowed by rain, he reached Stark's camp that evening, while his men made camp six miles from Bennington.

General Stark had been unable to attack on August 15, because of rain, but he had scouted out Lt. Colonel Baum's disposition. At about noon on August 16th, Stark's troops began moving out from camp. Baum saw the movements, but assumed that they were retreating. Stark had actually decided to attack using a double envelopment and his troops disappeared into the woods. When Baum saw the groups of men moving toward his camp, he assumed that they were Tories seeking shelter in his camp. Once his men were in position at about 3:00 P.M., Stark began attacking.

Reassessing the Situation: August-September 1777

With the sounds of battle on both sides of them, the Tories, Canadians and Indians retreated, while Baum managed to hold the main position for two hours. The Germans were actually cutting their way out using their swords until Lt. Colonel Baum fell from a wound and they surrendered at about 5:00 P.M. At about that same time, Lt. Colonel Breymann's men and Colonel Warner's men joined the fight. Breymann ran out of ammunition and personally commanded the rear guard that allowed his men to retreat. The enemy had lost nearly 900 men, most of them becoming prisoners.


Benedict Arnold

When General George Washington learned that Maj. General John Burgoyne was in a tenuous situation, he called to "let all New England rise and crush Burgoyne." He had sent Maj. General Benjamin Lincoln with a brigade to support the Commander of the Northern Department, Maj. General Philip Schuyler, who had then sent Lincoln to gather the New Hampshire militia. Washington also detached Colonel Daniel Morgan and his rifle regiment to the Northern Department.

Meanwhile, political games had been playing out for months in the Continental Congress concerning command of the Northern Department. On August 19, 1777, Maj. General Horatio Gates arrived to take command of the Northern Department from General Schuyler. New England's support for Gates, coupled with Schuyler's arrogant manner toward the common soldier led to the change. When Gates arrived, most of the 4,000 Continental troops in the department were concentrated at the junction of the Hudson and Mohawk Rivers, while Brig. General Benedict Arnold was leading his detachment west to the relief of Fort Stanwix and the New Hampshire militia were recovering from their victory at Bennington.



During this time of transition in mid-August, General Burgoyne might have had a chance to retreat north back to Canada. Instead, his objective of Albany and the remaining possibility of support from Maj. General William Howe kept him marching south. On September 12, 1777, General Gates moved his forces from what had been General Schuyler's headquarters at Stillwater, New York to the strategic terrain at Bemis Heights, near Saratoga, New York. He began entrenching and waiting with his 7,000 troops . On September 13, Burgoyne gathered enough supplies to cross the Hudson River to Saratoga, New York with 6,000 men.

General Burgoyne had only about fifty Indians remaining, because the rest had deserted. As a result, he had few scouts to appraise him of the enemy's position, so he slowly marched south. On September 16, Burgoyne made camp after hearing the American reveille drums and attempted to ascertain the American position. On September 17, Burgoyne advanced another three miles and deployed his troops in a line beginning west of the Sword House. On September 18, he made a reconnaissance in force to adequately evaluate the sitution.

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FReeper Foxhole Armed Services Links

[HiJinx]

Morning Ms. Feather and PE!

Thanks for everything.

[alfa6]

Skyblazers bump for the Foxhole

Here again Wings/Airpower had an article on the Skyblazers maybe a year or so ago pretty cool. I will have to look and see if I still have the article.

Regards

alfa6 ;>}

[WaterDragon]

Hah! Very satisfying read this morning, snippy! I particularly like reading about it when the Americans did this sort of thing.....Colonel Morgan's men picked off every officer in General Burgoyne's advance guard.! Good morning to everyone in the FReeper Foxhole!

[snippy_about_it]

Thank you for your kind words this morning xJones. We've been here so long and by putting up daily threads we've covered once and sometimes twice all well known battles, but we can always find another interpretation or a view from another writer to share with our readers.

It's also forced us to look deeper for individual small battles or individual personal stories to bring to the Foxhole. So many men along the way have made a difference no matter how small the role they played or how obscure the historic record may be of their part in our military history.

[snippy_about_it]

Morning EGC. I finally loaded my windows updates.

[snippy_about_it]

LOL. Love your tagline today tax-chick.

[snippy_about_it]

Jinxy, do you live in a fort? ;-)

Thanks for the personalized Foxholer flag-o-gram PE.

[Darksheare]

I'm in.
Interesting.

[snippy_about_it]

It's Friday. Make it through today and you get another certificate. ;-)

[snippy_about_it]

Nice pic of that Sabre!

I don't see Aeronaut this morning but I think I heard him flyover my place this morning. Someone buzzed by before 6 a.m.

[snippy_about_it]

Good morning Mayor.

[snippy_about_it]

Good morning feather.

[snippy_about_it]

This might interest you. Skyblazers covered here.

The FReeper Foxhole Studies US Military Aerial Demonstration Teams - Part One - Dec. 1st, 2003

[snippy_about_it]

Hi WaterDragon. I'm still plugging away at the book you lent me. We've been so busy I don't have as much time as I like. I'm just finished the defeat and confusion at Long Island.

Your hand-written side note in the book; The defeated Americans, un-defeated. Good observation.

100 pages down, about 400 to go. :-)

[snippy_about_it]

Good morning to our wandering soul. ;-)

[Professional Engineer]

1969 Apollo 11, carrying 1st men to land on the Moon, launched

S69-39962 (16 JULY 1969) --- The huge, 363-foot tall Apollo 11 Spacecraft 107/Lunar Module 5/Saturn 506) space vehicle is launched from Pad A, Launch Complex 39, Kennedy Space Center (KSC), at 9:32 a.m. (EDT), July 16, 1969. Aboard the Apollo 11 spacecraft were astronauts Neil A. Armstrong, commander; Michael Collins, command module pilot; and Edwin E. Aldrin, Jr., lunar module pilot. Apollo 11 is the United States' first lunar landing mission. This view of the liftoff was taken by a camera mounted on the mobile launch tower. While astronauts Armstrong and Aldrin descend in the Lunar Module (LM) "Eagle" to explore the Sea of Tranquility region of the Moon, astronaut Collins will remain with the Command and Service Modules (CSM) "Columbia" in lunar-orbit.

[SAMWolf]

Morning Mayor. I tend to be an offensive driver - get them before they get me. :-)

[SAMWolf]

Morning Feather.

[SAMWolf]

The fun part is running power and a photo-electric switch so you can keep the light on it all night

That's the part I dread, No easy way for me to do that.

[SAMWolf]

Morning alfa6.

The old days when jets still had guns and not AA missiles.