Exploring With Saratoga National Park Rangers

The Winter Lecture Series continued with the wonderful presentation provided by Bill Valosin, Park Ranger at the Saratoga National Park. His lecture was very well attended and we're so glad to see so many interested in this history!

Our virtual tour began with talking about the history of the battlefield and the "battle of the millennium" (New York Times Magazine).  The significance of the battle of Saratoga is widely understood to be the turning point in our revolution and has impacted the course of events in other places around the world. And it's practically right in our backyard! There's so many great reasons you should check out this fellow Saratoga County historic site and what it has to offer.

During this presentation, we explored more in depth the pieces of "history" that have persisted and that many of us were taught in school. Was there a biter rivalry between General Gates and Benedict Arnold to the point that Arnold just had to independently take charge and lead an attack without waiting for Gates' confirmation? What about the three maneuvers attacks  I was taught that the British were planning?

The best way to get this info again would probably be to head over the battlefield and let the rangers there lead your tour (National Park Rangers)- or grab one of the many books that delves further into the finer points as this topic, as you can imagine, has generated a wealth of material from you to choose from. But it's always nice to be able to go to the site and imagine for yourself what you've learned.

Some details may stand out more than others - like the image of the farm boys with no training versus the ominously precise marching lines of the British troops. Except....it was more of a reverse situation. Many of the fighters from the American side were hardened veterans from the French and Indian War 1754-1763. Those on the British side were trained, but were the newer recruits that were still learning all that the best military in the world at the time had to offer - and many probably hadn't seen battle yet at that point. It could be that they were sent to gain experience in the belief that the fight wouldn't be all that strenuous for the British forces, or possibly that it wasn't considered to be too large of a concern. 

There was also communication problems for the Crown forces too, with our presenter making sure to stress the "Crown" portion of their title. Why? There were British, German (well, from one of the Germanic states like Hesse where our Headless Horseman hailed from - Germany didn't officially unify into a nation state until 1871), and other hired Europeans as well as British-allied native groups that might not have always worked together so well in the past anyway.

We might  want to think of how the aid of Tadeusz Kosciuszko (whose engineering contributions can be seen locally - he even designed the fortifications that had been on Peebles Island) or of Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben might have gone if they hadn't had a translator with them at all times. 

While not the most accredited form of historical source information, this clip does bring up the language point (and while it is a bit of a stretch, it's Drunk History, you'll enjoy it....)

Wars were coming from other areas of the world at the time too shortly after the beginning of the American Revolutionary War -  war in India (Anglo-Mysore Wars) and then Britain declared war on the Dutch (Fourth Anglo-Dutch War) for selling armaments to their enemies…And of course, France was always just across the channel and waiting for their next fight with their frenemy island neighbors, which just happened to be by joining with the Americans thanks to Saratoga -and Ben Franklin's charm as a diplomat - convincing them that the colonies could accomplish what was considered the impossible.

There is no doubt of the significance of the battle that took place here though - by no means should it seem like these additional details downplay the victory. It was one of the stops that the Marquis de Lafayette made to visit while traveling the newly built canal systems in New York (he passed through Waterford too!) when he visited the United States of America from July 1824 to September 1825. 

But keep in mind that the first battle was on a farmer's land. The area went back to being farming land after the battle. The memory of it lingered, but the sense to preserve the battlefields of the Revolution (and later of the War of 1812) came much later - for many sites, the veterans of the battles were the "tour guides" that might take you out (if given permission by the landowner).

If you were well-connected enough to be able to get in touch with him, General Philip Schuyler was known to take guests out onto Saratoga Battlefield from time to time. By the 1830s, the major sites like Saratoga were often referenced in part by the growing trend of guidebooks now that travel was being popular thanks to canals and railroads.

The path to preservation was in large part due to advocates -
like that of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, seen in the picture
below with a rare glimpse of his legs and his leg braces

But it took a while for the site to become protected in as much as there would be large efforts to keep it from being developed over any more.

It took until 1927 before it was authorized as a New York state historic preserve, and then it was made a part of the National Park System in 1938 when Saratoga National Historic Park was authorized by Congress.

There are reports too that during both battles at Saratoga, the soldiers killed in battle were buried pretty much where they fell with barely enough dirt and leaves to cover them.

And since it was on farming land, the plow had done some damage over time to the field in regards to where the skeletons were (that hadn't over time been dug up and sold as souvenirs...) and there's always the debris from all the tourists and the re-enactments and other ongoing events.

But that doesn't mean that history isn't being uncovered more and more each day!
Archaeological studies of the site are ongoing.

Take it from someone who has spent a few internships in the backroom of an Archaeology lab and collections area - it takes a while for these systematic studies to be analyzed even without the added information from non-invasive excavations like ground-penetrating radar.

That layer of beer bottle tops has to be treated the same way in records-keeping as those that contain the musket balls that we need to double-check aren't very convincing reproductions or that layer with the human remains that deserve an extra amount of caution and care.

And be sure to keep checking in on the most recent find from the rangers - a letter that went up on Ebay from a soldier at Saratoga writing home that could potentially change the way the first question posed at the top of this blog page has been historically answered.

According to the letter, Gates and Arnold worked together just fine. And since Arnold was a social ladder climber to the point of betraying the country he had been fighting so talentedly for during Saratoga, it makes sense that he would try to be besties with someone who might be able to help him with that goal.

So the perceived "laziness" of Gates is also thrown out by this letter too, since it mentions that because Gates and Arnold worked well together, Gates gave Arnold the go-ahead for the task that has since been thought of Arnold taking the initiative because he couldn't work with Gates....



But....and it's a big but....




....They can't get in touch with the seller of this supposed letter  who had since taken the letter off of eBay and so it remains an elusive artifact that the rangers are trying to locate and obtain.

Did you know that Waterford has some Revolutionary War history of its own? You can learn more about it in our upcoming exhibit, Water & War: Waterford's Routes and Canals in Conflict, opening May 4th.