A British general surrenders, and the French prepare for war
Britain’s strategy in 1777 aimed at driving a wedge between New England and the other colonies. An army under Gen. John Burgoyne was to march south from Canada and join forces with Howe on the Hudson. But Howe seems to have concluded that Burgoyne was strong enough to operate on his own and left New York in the summer, taking his army by sea to the head of Chesapeake Bay. Once ashore, Howe defeated Washington badly but not decisively at Brandywine Creek on September 11.
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Then, feinting westward, Howe entered Philadelphia, the American capital, on September 25. The Continental Congress fled to York. Washington struck back at Germantown on October 4 but, compelled to withdraw, went into winter quarters at Valley Forge.
In the North the story was different. Burgoyne was to move south to Albany with a force of about 9,000 British, Germans, Indigenous people, and American loyalists; a smaller force under Lieut. Col. Barry St. Leger was to converge on Albany through the Mohawk valley. Burgoyne took Ticonderoga handily on July 5 and then, instead of using Lake George, chose a southward route by land. Slowed by the rugged terrain, strewn with trees cut down by Americans under Gen. Philip Schuyler, and needing horses, Burgoyne sent a force of Germans to collect them at Bennington, Vermont. The Germans were nearly wiped out on August 16 by New Englanders under Gen. John Stark and Col. Seth Warner.
Meanwhile, St. Leger besieged Fort Schuyler (present-day Rome, New York), ambushed a relief column of American militia at Oriskany on August 6, but retreated as his forces gave up the siege and American troops under Arnold approached. Burgoyne himself reached the Hudson, but the Americans, now under Gen. Horatio Gates, checked him at Freeman’s Farm on September 19 and, thanks to Arnold’s battlefield leadership, decisively defeated him at Bemis Heights on October 7. Ten days later, unable to get help from New York, Burgoyne surrendered at Saratoga.
The most significant result of Burgoyne’s capitulation was the entrance of France into the war. The French had secretly furnished financial and material aid to the Americans since 1776. Now they prepared fleets and armies, although they did not formally declare war until June 1778.