SARATOGA: A Military History of the Decisive Campaign of the American Revolution [Hardcover]

John F. Luzader (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 6, 2008

The months-long 1777 Saratoga campaign was one of the most decisive of the entire Revolutionary War. The crushing British defeat prompted France to recognize the American colonies as an independent nation, declare war on England, and commit money, ships, arms, and men to the rebellion. John Luzader's impressive Saratoga: A Military History of the Decisive Campaign of the American Revolution is the first all-encompassing objective account of these pivotal months in American history.

British General John Burgoyne assembled his command at St. Johns in June 1777. His force consisted of numerous warships, more than 130 pieces of artillery, and 7,800 men including two large divisions of rested veteran British Regulars. Burgoyne intended to capture Albany, New York, wrest control of the vital Hudson River Valley from the colonists, and divide the Northern American colonies in half. Initial colonial opposition included widely separated fixed positions, small garrisons and commands, and feuding American commanders. Burgoyne's primary opponent was General Horatio Gates, a haughty and divisive leader whose 8,000 men included several capable field commanders, including Benedict Arnold and Daniel Morgan. The series of battles large and small these men would engineer stunned the world and spun the colonial rebellion in an entirely different direction.

The British offensive kicked off with a stunning victory at Fort Ticonderoga, followed by a sharp successful engagement at Hubbardton. Other actions erupted at Fort Stanwix, Oriskany, and Bennington. However, serious supply problems dogged Burgoyne's column and, assistance from General William Howe failed to materialize. Faced with hungry troops and a powerful gathering of American troops, Burgoyne decided to take the offensive by crossing the Hudson River and moving against Gates. The complicated maneuvers and command frictions that followed sparked two major battles, one at Freeman's Farm (September 19) and the second at Bemis Heights (October 7). Seared into the public consciousness as "the battle of Saratoga," the engagements resulted in the humiliating defeat and ultimately the surrender of Burgoyne's entire army.

Decades in the making, former National Park Service staff historian John Luzader's Saratoga combines strategic, political, and tactical history into a compelling portrait of this decisive campaign. His sweeping prose relies heavily upon original archival research and the author's personal expertise with the challenging terrain. Complete with stunning original maps and photos, Saratoga will take its place as one of the important and illuminating campaign studies ever written.

About the Author: A veteran of World War II and graduate of West Virginia University and the University of Texas, John Luzader worked for the U.S. Department of Defense as a research historian. Transferred to the U.S. Department of the Interior's National Park Service, he conducted research for the preservation and interpretation of the Saratoga National Historic Park. Luzader planned and researched museum and outdoor exhibits for twelve national historical parks and served as the NPS's central history office staff historian for the colonial and revolutionary periods. He lives with his wife Jean in a West Virginia retirement community.

FINALIST / RUNNER-UP: The Army Historical Foundation Distinguished Writing Award for Operational / Battle History, 2008

REVIEWS

FINALIST FOR OPERATIONAL / BATTLE HISTORY, 2008, ARMY HISTORICAL FOUNDATION DISTINGUISHED BOOK AWARD"...provides a very balanced account of the campaign...includes excellent maps to follow along with the battles...an excellent account and analysis of the Saratoga campaign of 1777."Collected Miscellany, 6/2009

"...outstanding military history and a great read."James Durney, 12/2009

Product Details

• Hardcover: 512 pages
• Publisher: Savas Beatie; First Edition; First Printing edition (October 6, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1932714448
• ISBN-13: 978-1932714449
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.3 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,057,287 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best campaign studies I have ever read!, January 5, 2009

By 

James W. Durney (Tampa Bay area) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: SARATOGA: A Military History of the Decisive Campaign of the American Revolution (Hardcover)

Park historians form a special resource with knowledge gained from long intimate association with the subject. After years of study, discussion, answering questions and walking the ground, they have unique qualifications that very few posses. All of them can talk about their subject, giving intelligent presentations tailored to the level of the audience with no visible effort. Those that can write produce some of the best military history available. These books are like their talks, intelligent, comprehensive and detailed. They are treasures that transport us into the thick of things, allowing us to understand the why and how of the action without boring us. After such a book, the reader knows that the experience has been educational and enjoyable. These books are money well spent for the experienced armature historian or the novice entering the subject. John F. Luzader is one of the select few, a historian with in-depth knowledge, love of the subject and the ability to communicate. This is his first book and if a fitting monument to the time, he "indulged my hobbies" with the National Park Service.
He has written one of the best campaign studies I have read. It has the right amount of detail but not so much that the story is lost. Are you unsure about 18th Century military terms and tactics? No problem, the author anticipates this problem and handles things. At the proper place, we take a slight detour to cover the problems that Morgan's riflemen face because they have rifles not smoothbore muskets. At another point, the author explains the difference between and the use of light and line infantry. Not sure what makes a Dragoon, Grenadiers, Jagers or Chasseurs, check Appendix J or relax and let John tell you when we really need to know. The author displays a sure hand in bring us along and providing the information and level of detail as we need it.
The book is a complete history of the events leading up to the campaign both political and military. How these events control and modify the planning is completely covered. The military campaign, the movement and battles is the heart of the book. Wonderful maps bolster an excellent narration. Whenever you need a map, one appears as if by magic. While 16 maps may seem few, placement and detail make them so useful that there is no "missing map" problem.
In the 1700s, politics controlled everything. Nepotism, favoritism, class and area play into every decision. Rank was a means of personal wealth and favor of the King or Congress was all-important. The author manages this and how it influences the campaign well. The interplay between Schuyler, Gates & Arnold is detailed. The role of the Continental Congress and General George Washington in all of this is not ignored. On the English side, General Burgoyne has his own set of problems in Canada, New York, Philadelphia and London. The author provides us with just enough detail to convey the problems and reasons for this without bogging down in this morass.
The Appendix is a joy! In addition to the expected chronology of events, orders of battle and army organizations are a modern driving tour with photographs. For those wishing more detailed coverage, an appendix covers the debate on Mount Defiance non-fortification, Gates & Arnold at freeman's Farm and Burgoyne's "reconnaissance in force" objections. The appendix covers over 70 pages of detailed text, charts, maps and pictures.
The writing is crisp, direct and intelligent. The story moves along while instructing the reader. The participants speak at appropriate times. The study is complete with an excellent introduction and conclusion. This is one of the best campaign studies I have ever read. My area is not the American Revolution and I hesitated for sometime before getting this book. I am very glad that I did get the book.
One last thing, books are a physical object. As such, their appeal to our senses is part of the enjoyment. This is a beautiful book! Starting with the full cover dust jacket, to the deep black hard cover with gold letters, continuing with quality paper, excellent maps and illustrations, this is a beautiful book! I am a book person and all books look good to me but very few books are as beautiful as this one. Saratoga is the combination of beauty and brains that few books can boast about.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Transcendent military analysis of the turning point in the American Revolution, March 6, 2009

By 

Richard Joffe (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: SARATOGA: A Military History of the Decisive Campaign of the American Revolution (Hardcover)

This book is a superlative work of historical scholarship and a riveting read, in a class with David Hackett Fischer's "Washington's Crossing," which won the Pulitzer Prize.

It focuses first and foremost on the tactical decisions made by the relevant British, German and American officers--primarily generals and colonels--throughout the course of the Saratoga campaign, discussing each of the decisions sequentially and with unprecedented detail, from the preparations made by Burgoyne to invade the rebellious American colonies from Canada with an apparent military juggernaut, to the surprising surrender four months later, at Saratoga, New York, of Burgoyne's entire army.

One by one, the author considers every point during the campaign that required a decision on either side, whether long before or during a battle, and whether from the commanding heights or in the middle of the battlefield, carefully analyzing the options presented to the relevant officer, the psychological factors that impacted his decision making process, the effects of the decison, and whether a different decision would have been better or worse.

The author is by no means oblivious to such other concerns as the adversaries' over-arching strategies, the relations between each army and its government, and the experience of the rank and file soldiers; but these concerns are peripheral to the author's main narrative. Thus, the author's methodology has something in common with that of the institutional military historian, whose primary purpose is to record and evaluate the performance of the members of a particular military organization. Indeed, on a few occasions the imperatives of this methodology momentarily interfere with the forward motion of the narrative. For the most part, however, the author applies his methodology with such superlative timing, insight, objectivity and empathy that the ultimate result transcends any parochial methodological origin, gradually and cumulatively producing the experience of a profound historical process that was shaped by nature, time and chance, collective action and individual personality.

Meanwhile, along the way, the author addresses more convincingly than anyone has ever done before the famous questions and debates to which the story of Saratoga inevitably gives rise, including: Why did General Howe fail, as originally planned, to bring or send a second British army from New York City to join with General Burgoyne at Albany, and instead leave Burgoyne stranded on the edge of the Adirondack wilderness, surrounded by a combined force of Continental soldiers and Patriot militia that gradually had grown to a size four times as large as the army of Burgoyne? What role in the American victory was played by Benedict Arnold, one of America's ablest generals, who subsequent to Saratoga became America's most infamous traitor? Why did the surrender terms permit the British army to return to Britain? And, of course, how did an American army of relatively untrained soldiers and militia, organized by an ad hoc national government, so completely defeat a British and German army of veteran professionals, organized by the world's greatest empire?

Arguably, of all the battles ever fought on American soil, only the battle of Gettysburg was as historically significant as Saratoga. This book is an accomplishment worthy of its momentous subject.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Scholarship - Great Read, June 11, 2009

By 

David M. Dougherty (Arkansas) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: SARATOGA: A Military History of the Decisive Campaign of the American Revolution (Hardcover)

Author Luzader has produced a very fine work on Burgoyne's campaign and resulting defeat by American forces at Saratoga. So why not five stars? First of all this was the decisive campaign only in that it significantly emboldened the French to enter the war on the side of the Americans and their ultimate aid and repulse of the Royal Navy in its attempt to come to Cornwallis's aid at Yorktown proved decisive. But even this is overblown -- Washington's victories at Trenton and Princeton kept the revolution alive -- the case can be made that had he not rebounded as he did that the war would have been over in the spring of 1777. In addition, why is Yorktown not considered decisive, or Cornwallis's campaign against Greene that led to his pyrrhic victory at Guilford Courthouse and his eventual surrender at Yorktown? In short, sweeping statements always raise more questions than they resolve.

In addition there are some jarring statements that lack factual basis -- such as that a majority of Americans supported the rebellion, or to include Charles Lee as a major player, or even that he was "brilliant" (having never won a battle in the revolution), etc. Also the author displays a tendency to favor Gates for his "sagacity" and abilities while roundly condemning Arnold (for his ambition), Schuyler (with abilities and defects approximating Gates's) and Stark (for not doing what the author would have had him do.) Like Lee, Gates never won a battle in the Revolutionary War other than Freeman's Farm and Bemis Heights which were entirely fought by subordinates without direction by Gates. That Gates would stand in the center of his camp listening to the sounds of battle at Freeman's Farm without doing anything is an appalling indictment against the man as a commanding general. Can anyone imagine Napoleon, Washington, or Cornwallis doing that? When Gates was forced to be involved activly in a battle the result was Camden and Gates fled faster from that field than any other general in the Revolutionary War. One wonders at the author's depiction of Gates as "physically brave." He may have been a good trainer (the author says he was), but one does not see any effects of such training. In short, I took to crossing out many of the adjectives the author used to describe individuals and their actions perferring for the actions themselves to create the proper picture.

The appendices were awesome. I particularly enjoyed the scholarly discussions contained therein such as on the missing order from Lord Germain to General Howe. The debate of the "partnership" between Gates and Arnold, however, misses the point -- a commanding general does not form a "partnership" with a subordinate in which the subordinate fights the battles while the commanding general remains comfortably secure in his camp and takes the credit. Valcours was not an exception to this rule due to the distance involved and the natural difficulties of command. The battlefield photos were also helpful.

The author also does not mention the divisions in the population with regards to loyalists, patriots and neutrals. He does point up the fact that New York was generally a loyalist state, but he misses the ethnic and religious aspects present in the American Army. Like Stark, Poor and Morgan, most of the men fighting at Hubbardton, Bennington, and Saratoga were Scotch-Irish Presbyterians and almost all the rest were Congregationalists. Burgoyne even told Daniel Morgan after his surrender, "Your Scotch-Irish Rifles is the finest in the world." It is odd for a scholar of author Luzader's impressive accomplishments to miss these points. His only reference to the Scotch-Irish was his denigration of Stark for not doing what the author thought would have been best to help win the war (in his "personification of Yankee cussedness wed to Scotch-Irish combativeness.") Well, that combativeness arguably won the war for American independence.

All that being said, this book is an excellect study of Burgoyne's campaign, both from the British and the American side. Saint Clair's defense (or not) of Ticonderoga and the resulting battle of Hubbardton were masterfully treated, as was Burgoyne's decision to take the overland route to the Hudson. In fact, there are so many good and thorough treatments of plans, problems and maneuvers in this work that it is a shame to give it less than five stars. But the campaign did not rise to the level that it earned supposedly by resulting in the author's sentence; "American independence became a reality."

I recommend this book to all those interested in the American Revolutionary War.