Who was the most influential of the founding fathers???

Saratoga was an important battle. I'm going from memory and am sure the other principals will correct me if I make a misstatement, but I recall that aristocratic British General "Gentleman Johnny" Burgoyne entered the great continental forest arrogantly convinced that beating the continental army was a cinch, and came out of it only to surrender - a defeated man. My recollection is that key elements in his defeat were the forest itself and Colonel Dan Morgan's sharpshooters, who picked off the British soldiers, and particularly officers, from places of concealment. Maybe someone else can add to this.

The Saratoga Battlefield is great. They have a nice hiking path that goes through it with monuments set up that explain what happened at certain places. I remember standing on the spot where Benedict Arnold was shot in the leg. You can almost picture the Brits charging up the hill.......

Daniel Morgan and his sharpshooters were certainly effective--however, the English had long since developed the technique of sending out the light infantry (every regiment of foot had a company of Grenadiers, the big guys, and a company of light infantry, often the little guys, but whether or not, not as heavily laden or equipped). Riflemen would not stick around, rightfully, when someone was coming after them with a bayonet--they could not fit a bayonet on their rifles. Arnold detached American light infantry from the Continental line and attached them to the Virginia and Pennsylvania riflemen commanded by Morgan, and this allowed them to stay in the fight even if the English light infantry companies were sent after them.

Burgoyne, who described the Americans as "a rabble in arms," made two very bad mistakes. One was to loose western Indian tribes on the countryside. That made it a grudge match, and thanks to a century of warfare with the French and the Indians, it incensed New Englanders who might not otherwise have cared about upstate New York. Arnold sent out a call for New England volunteers, and thousands responded.

He (Burgoyne) also sent out a column to take stores in New Hampshire and to drive off the militia there--a column composed of grenadiers and German mercenaries. They were lead on by Ethan Allen and other militia commanders, and then surrounded and set up in the typical shoot-and-run-away manner of the militia. Burgoyne sent out a column of 800 effectives, more than a thousand counting non-combatants and Indians, and fewer than 200 survived to return to his army. By then, he was deep in hostile forests, and could not get supplies off the land because the Indians had burned and slaughtered and what wasn't destroyed was carried off by the now enraged settlers. Burgoyne had also counted on supplies from the Hampshire Grants which now were not coming.

There were actually two battles in the Saratoga campaign--Freeman's farm in September and Bemis Heights at the beginning of October. Gates (known to his men as "Old Woman" Gates) enjoyed the advantage of high ground and did not intend to move. Arnold was frustrated with Gates' inactivity, and quarrelled so much he was relieved of command. In the first week of October, Burgoyne sent out about a quarter of his army in a reconaissance in force, trying to feel for Gates' flank on Bemis Heights. This was exactly what Arnold had warned against, and Gates acted to neutralize Arnold's popularity with the army by sending out a small force under Colonel Poor, which included Morgan's riflemen. Burgoyne's local commander, General Fraser, managed to rally his men several time as they panicked in the deep woods under the galling fire of the riflemen, whom the light infantry could not drive off. Then one of the riflemen brought General Fraser down. The English fell back on a redoubt (a large field fortification, usually in the form of a pentagon, of the type the Americans had built on Breed's Hill during the battle of Bunker Hill), but Arnold was everywhere driving the New England militiamen forward, and they responded to him with more courage and reliability than militia commonly showed. Benedict Arnold is one of the finest natural tactical commanders America has ever produced. He was, ironically, wounded in the same leg which had been shattered in the failed assault on Quebec in December, 1775. Burgoyne fell back--he had no choice, and surrendered three days later.

The plan had been for him to move south while Clinton moved north from the town of New York, and to effect a junction at Albany. But Clinton never marched to the north, and in fact, had gone the other direction, down to the Chesapeake and then up to the Head of Elk, to land and march on Philadelphia. St. Leger's column moving from Oswego on Lake Ontario had been driven out of the Mohawk valley when rumors of Arnold's approach with Continentals lead the Indians to desert and the Tories to demand that they return to the safety of Kingston. Burgoyne was all alone, and even a victory at Saratoga and a successful march on Albany wouldn't have saved him.

The commander of his German troops was the Baron von Riedesel, as the Duke of Brunswick had hired out 4000 infantry and about 500 cavalry and artillery to the English--Riedesel was a Brunswicker. He brought his wife and three daughters on the campaign, and his wife kept a journal--it is a very vivid account of what becomes increasingly clear is the surreal atmosphere in the headquarters staff, who became increasingly clueless as they marched deeper into the woods.

By the by, even if the plan had been followed, and Clinton had marched up the Hudson while Burgoyne had descended the St. Francis and the lakes to the head of the Huson, with St. Leger moving east from the lake, the terrain would have precluded coordinated movements. It might have worked, but the odds weren't good, and it was a fight Arnold had made his personal crusade. He conducted the retreat from Quebec in the spring of 1776 after Montgomery was killed. He convinced Schuyler to help him build a gunboat fleet on Lake Champlain to stop the little English fleet. His gunboats were sunk (about 30 years ago his gunboat was found on the bottom of Buttonmold Bay), but he stopped the English advance for the rest of 1776. He warned St. Clair, the American commander at Ticonderoga that the English could put guns on the heights and make the fort untenable, but St. Clair would not listen, and then gave in to panic when the English did just that. Arnold then lead the retreat along with the engineer, Thaddeus Kosciuszko, a Pole, who later built the defenses on the Hudson at West Point. (St. Clair demanded a court martial and was acquitted, alleging that he had saved valuable American forces. This may have been reasonable, had he not held a council of war--the conventional wisdom has always been that councils of war don't fight--and then let his forces completely fall apart in the retreat; it is certain that Arnold and Kusciuszko managed to save a large body of troops along with their rations.) Gates proved himself to be nothing but a political general, getting credit for the results of the efforts of Arnold, Kosciuszko and Schulyer, although he was largely an inactive officer and displayed no leadership--his men despised him. He also decided that he really was a hero, and that he, and not Washington, should be the supreme commander. He was complicit in the Conway cabal which attempted to get rid of Washington, although it could not be proven at the time. Conway screwed up, got above himself, was insubordinate, and Washington came down on him like a ton of bricks. Because Gates still had friends in the Congress, and Washington always faithfully followed his orders from Congress, Gates was given the command in the Southern department. In a situation of great promise, Gates managed to screw up everything he touched. After the battle of Camden, he rode one horse to death, got another, and managed to run away faster than any one else. It was the end of his career, much to the benefit of the Revolution.

Through much of our history both Arnold and Burr have been vilified. Arnold's treason certainly qualified him as one of our national villains, but the general public tend to forget all of the military contributions he made toward winning the Revolution. If his treason had not occurred, he would today be held in the greatest esteem. The question of why exactly such a heroic officer, one of Washington's most trusted subordinates, would betray the cause for which he had so gallantly fought is intriguing.

Probably Arnold's intense desire for wealth, fame and social recognition simply got the better of him. He felt that his contributions were under-valued, over-looked, and stolen by lesser men. There was some truth to that, though he always had the support of his mentor, Washington. After being badly wounded at Beemis Heights, he recuperated in New York, a hive of Loyalist sympathy. There he met and fell in love with a young woman whose socially prominent family was Loyalist, and who had been the center of attraction for many British officers. Though not fully recovered from his wounds, Washington offered a prestigious combat command to Arnold. Arnold, already decided to betray the Revolution, asked instead for the command of West Point, a vital choke point along the Hudson River. Arnold's wife arranged for meetings between British officers and Arnold to give up West Point. The plot came to light when an alert sentry captured documents in Arnold's own hand that betrayed his intent to change sides. Washington at first couldn't believe Arnold capable of such a betrayal, but Arnold had already slipped away on a British ship. His wife simulated surprise and grief over the event, and Washington, always the gentleman, treated her with the greatest delicacy.
Heros can be heels, just as cowards in other circumstance may be heros.

Burr was also favored by Washington and served on his small staff before getting a combat command. His fighting record was distinguished. Personally he was brilliant and the very essence of a late 18th early 19th century gentleman. He was one of the first to really organize political power in New York, and was essential to the defeat of John Adams by the Democratic-Republicans. He tied in the vote with Jefferson, and under the rules then in place the outcome was thrown into the House of Representatives. Jefferson, as head of the Democratic-Republicans and ideologue of the movement, wanted Burr to step aside. Burr refused and left the decision to Congress. Jefferson swung into action and strong-armed everyone in sight to win the Presidency. Federalist Congressmen thought they could deny the Presidency to Jefferson by throwing their support to Burr. Burr declined the Federalist move and, at least on the surface, refused to actively campaign for the Presidency. Jefferson won by a very narrow margin, and thereafter loathed Burr. It is doubtful that Burr would have such a dark historical shadow over his name if Jefferson had not been so vindictive. Oh well.

Fascinating account of Saratoga, Setanta.

I might add that John Jay was often pretty effective too. He served in many ways at different times, and was very effective as president of the Continental Congress, and as Foreign Secretary in the Confederation "government." He was also, of course, the first Supreme Court justice. Although he is usually villified for the Jay Treaty with England, it may have been the best that could realistically have been obtained, and was probably the price of peace with Britain at a time when America was very weak.