19 September 1777, afternoon
Saratoga: Freeman’s Farm
After a lull around 1 pm, Hamilton forms his brigade on the north side of the clearing, the 21st on the right, the 62nd in the centre, the 20th on the left and the 9th in reserve. Gates sends the 1st and 3rd New Hampshire to support Morgan, followed by the rest of Enoch Poor’s brigade.
The fields of Freeman’s Farm today, with the park’s marker for the battle of 19 SeptemberWikimedia Commons, unknown author, CC BY-SA 2.5 (Saratoga-freeman.jpg)
The fight sways back and forth across the field. Morgan’s riflemen shoot down officers and gunners, and the Americans several times take British guns and lose them again in the next charge. The British centre nearly breaks, and only General William Phillips, leading in the 20th, lets the 62nd re-form.
Late in the afternoon Riedesel leaves 500 men to guard the baggage and brings the rest of his column up from the river against the American right, while Fraser threatens the left and Ebenezer Learned’s brigade is sent out against him. Burgoyne holds the field, at a cost of nearly 600 men, most of them in Hamilton’s column. The 62nd is reduced to the size of a company and three quarters of the gunners are killed or wounded. American losses are nearly 300 killed and seriously wounded.
Sources
- Richard M. Ketchum, Saratoga (1997).
- Rupert Furneaux, The Battle of Saratoga (1971).
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