The Compleat Victory: Saratoga and the American Revolution with Dr. Kevin J. Weddle

In the late summer and fall of 1777, after two years of indecisive fighting on both sides, the outcome of the American War of Independence hung in the balance. Having successfully expelled the Americans from Canada in 1776, the British were determined to end the rebellion the following year and devised what they believed a war-winning strategy, sending General John Burgoyne south to rout the Americans and take Albany. When British forces captured Fort Ticonderoga with unexpected ease in July of 1777, it looked as if it was a matter of time before they would break the rebellion in the North. Less than three and a half months later, however, a combination of the Continental Army and Militia forces, commanded by Major General Horatio Gates and inspired by the heroics of Benedict Arnold, forced Burgoyne to surrender his entire army. The American victory stunned the world and changed the course of the war. ‪@TheUSAHEC‬

[@jamesrailling9638]

It's sad to see so few young people in the crowd. They are no longer taught American History except as something to be ashamed of.

[@grinch45]

I was home on a PCS leave and 3 or 4 miles from the Oriskany Battlefield. I think it was the 200th Anniversary so I put on my Army PT uniform and ran all the way down there to see if anything going on there but seen nothing and came back. I grew up in Oneida County near Fort Stanwix. This history had been taught to me at school to know the importance of 1777 to me but not at the great detail of this presentation.

[@CheerfulFerryBoat-ug8gr]

Spain supplied weapons to Saratoga in 1777!

[@josephwalukonis9934]

In the French and Indian War Sir William Howe commanded the British Light Infantry Battalion during the Battle of Quebec. I don't think he had any wartime expetience past that. Correct me if I am wrong. He then become a joint commander with Clinton and Burgoyne in the American Revolution and is the British Commander on the field at Breed's/Bunker Hill. He never had any intermediate level of command such as a brigade commander or wing commander, but jumped to army command. The same can be said of George Washington. He commanded the Virginia Regiment during the F&I War. The only other position he had was as an aide to General Braddock during that expedition.

[@labombarde1]

You don't get French troops at Yorktown without Saratoga. Why does everyone end Saratoga with a dismissive comment. yawn

[@brucevilla]

Thanks for Uploading.

[@BaronVonHobgoblin]

Why did GEN Howe act more like a field commander and less like a CINC? There are more recent examples such higher echelon mix ups in the British Army. I am thinking of the Falklands War and of MG (Then BG) Julian Howard Atherden Thompson and his reports of how he did his best to deal with the madness his civilian political directors foisted upon him. Surely GEN Howe suffered from some other "High Lord" arrangement. Ironic given that such arrangements were, in part, the reason we were fighting the Revolutionary War in the first place.

[@marksimmons7972]

Great narrative!

[@wes2262]

22:55

[@Shawnroberts1980]

How in the world, in 2022, are you recording/uploading a video in 360p? What a joke.