Honor of Command: General Burgoyne's Saratoga Campaign June-October 1777

by Stuart Murray

This is the dramatic story of the Saratoga Campaign from the perspective of the northern British army's commanding officer, Major General John Burgoyne. Leaving Saint Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec in June, Burgoyne was confident in his ability to strike a decisive blow against the rebellion in the colonies. Instead, the stubborn rebels fought back, slowed his advance and inflicted irreplaceable losses, leading to his defeat and surrender at Saratoga on October 17, 1777, an important turning point in the American Revolution.

128 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1997

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Reviews

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an interesting book from a little free library. One of my neighbors is a nerd. A detailed but not overly dense and with many pictures account of General Burgoyne's failed attempt to travel from Quebec down to the Hudson and take Albany and there on to New York and victory over the rebels. That didn't work. Despite finding the first fort abandoned and taking Ticonderoga without a need for force because the Americans fled in the night, the grueling trek down Lake George with an overstretched supply line, hacking through the the trees that the Americans had felled and interwoven to make getting a European, big artillery, on foot, set-piece battle army down to Saratoga where Burgoyne arranged his soldiers on a big field so that the Americans could fire at them from the tree line. It didn't work. The troops started in good morale but the murder of a fleeing young white woman by a Native under Burgoyne's purported command made everyone go sad and upset, plus the Natives, who were in it for the plunder and not the King, bailed on the mission, thus upsetting Burgoyne's ace in the hole of having Native Americans on his side to instill fear in the hearts of the rebels. Burgoyne seems like a good egg. Overconfident and with no understanding of how pro-rebellion the Americans were, but he made a point of visiting with his troops and not being haughtily above the common soldier, which is visionary for a man of his day. I strongly approve of this small book, which will be going back in the little free library on 12th and 32nd if anyone needs it.