Battle of Freeman's Farm
The Battle of Freeman's Farm on September 19, 1777 was the first engagement in the Battle of Saratoga in the American Revolutionary War .
American forces under Major General Horatio Gates had to cede the field to the British expedition under Lieutenant General John Burgoyne , but caused heavy losses. The battle, sometimes called the First Battle of Saratoga , halted Burgoyne's advance in the Saratoga campaign . She also prepared the stage with the remaining tie for the actions of the remainder of the Battle of Saratoga.
background
General Burgoyne led the main expedition of the Saratoga campaign south from Canada towards Albany, New York . On his way he had defeated all locations and forces. The American resistance grew stronger when it crossed nine miles south of Saratoga, New York, to the west bank of the Hudson River . The Americans had paved a hill called Bemis Heights. Burgoyne's two attempts to sweep them aside came to be known as the Battle of Saratoga . The Battle of Freemans Farm was the first attempt and the Battle of Bemis Heights three weeks later was the second.
The British advanced in three columns to the heights more than 3 km south of them. Friedrich Adolf Riedesel led the left column on the river route together with the main part of the artillery and protective supplies. General James Inglis Hamilton commanded the center which was to attack the heights. General Simon Fraser led the right wing of light infantry - and Grenadier - battalions to fall to the Americans in the left flank. The American right was protected by the Hudson River.
The American armed forces were neither particularly well organized nor particularly well prepared for combat. General Gates had just taken command of the Northern Department of the Continental Army after Burgoyne took Fort Ticonderoga almost without a fight. George Washington had sent some experienced units north so that the battles of Saratoga were fought by trained soldiers on both sides. Before that, Burgoyne had mostly only faced militias .
But the American command structure was disrupted. Benedict Arnold was actually in command of the left wing. Even so, not only did he not have any orders for the battle, Gates wanted him to go on a scouting mission.
Description of the battle
The British had little information about the strength and formation of the American armed forces and morning fog limited visibility. At noon it dissolved and the British marched off.
Benedict Arnold had now ridden to the far left flank and asked Colonel Daniel Morgan's men to stop Simon Fraser's advance. Morgan and Arnold preferred to attack while the British were marching through the forest in columns. Arnold used his earlier orders that allowed him to scout with the force to order Morgan and Henry Dearborn's light infantry battalions to advance. When Morgan's Virginia riflemen arrived to storm Freeman's farm, they found Fraser's advancing column. The first shots killed all British officers and drove the remaining troops to flight.
When they saw this, Morgan's men rushed forward recklessly. Under Dearborn's fire protection, they chased Fraser's light infantry back to General Hamilton's main column. Their enthusiasm was only broken when they ran into the bayonets of the grenadier battalions. The American advance turned into a swift retreat. This was the pattern for the rest of the battle.
Morgan worked hard to regiment his regiment south of the field. Knowing Morgan was in trouble, Arnold Enoch ordered Poor's brigade of New York and New Hampshire soldiers and Connecticut militias to reinforce the American left. He also ordered General Ebenezer Learned to support Morgan in the center with four regiments of the Continental Army . Burgoyne looked on, and ordered Fraser and Hamilton to regroup in the fields of the farm.
When the British had rallied in the field, they drove massive fire back from Poor's regiment with significant losses. Again, however, the British repulsed an American attack. Arnold himself led a five regiment attack on the center, but failed to cut Fraser's wing off from Burgoyne's other forces. Arnold rode back to headquarters three times to ask Gates to attack or give him enough men to beat the British. His only replies were an order to leave Alexander Scammel's 3rd New Hampshire Regiment to guard headquarters and ultimately an order for Arnold to withdraw from the battle.
The British fought the final blow of the battle. Burgoyne ordered Riedesel to leave a light guard with the marching column and advance to Freeman's farm. Riedesel led his Hessians with artillery support through a ravine that the Americans had considered impassable. His extra powers allowed the British to successfully take the fields and the farm.
Aftermath
Burgoyne had taken the farm but lost over 600 men in the process, most of them in Hamilton's main column. He could not make up for the losses in men and equipment, and moreover, he had lost the initiative. The American casualties were 300 dead and seriously wounded. The British and Hessian armed forces built fortifications on the farm and fortified their original Hudson crossing point.
By the end of the battle, both sides had dug themselves in more than 3 km apart. Burgoyne's forces had melted to 6,000 men and had little equipment or provisions. Gates still had 7,000 men and new militiamen arrived every day.
Gates reported as quickly as possible to the Continental Congress and the New York Governor. While field commanders and fighters unanimously attributed the victory to Benedict Arnold, Gates' greatest effort was to ensure that no one but himself earned the glory. Arnold's protests were mostly about what he saw as a disparagement of Learned, Poor, Morgan and their men. The rift between Arnold and Gates deepened, and Gates made sure Arnold had no power of command when the Battle of Bemis Heights broke out.