7 October 1777, afternoon
Saratoga: Bemis Heights
Clinton does not come up the Hudson, and Burgoyne, on short rations since 3 October, refuses Riedesel’s advice to retreat. He has perhaps 5,000 effective troops. On 7 October he leads a reconnaissance in force against the American left, Fraser’s light troops and the 24th Foot on the right, German detachments in the centre and the British grenadiers on the left, with ten guns. They halt in Barber’s wheat field on a rise above Mill Brook.
The John Neilson house inside the American lines on Bemis Heights, drawing by Benson John Lossing, 1851Wikimedia Commons, Benson John Lossing, Public domain (John Neilson House, Bemis Heights, Stillwater, Saratoga County, NY.jpg)
Gates sends Morgan’s riflemen out to the far left, with Poor’s and Learned’s brigades and two New York regiments, and 1,200 New York militia in reserve. At about 2 pm the British grenadiers open fire. Poor’s men hold their fire until Major John Acland leads a bayonet charge, then shoot at close range. Acland falls, shot in both legs, and the grenadiers are routed. Morgan sweeps aside the Canadians and native warriors on the British right and engages Fraser’s regulars, and Fraser is mortally wounded.
In about an hour Burgoyne loses nearly 400 men, most of the grenadiers’ command and six of his ten guns, and his troops fall back on their fortified camp.
Sources
- Richard M. Ketchum, Saratoga (1997).
- Rupert Furneaux, The Battle of Saratoga (1971).
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