The Surrender Celebrated - "Freedom To The Whole World"

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News of British Lieutenant-General John Burgoyne's surrender to Major-General Horatio Gates at Saratoga, New York, on October 17, 1777, spread quickly.  Patriotic citizens of the young United States of America were jubilant, and celebrated in a number of ways.  

Those present at the surrender noted their feelings in their journals and diaries, and the letters they sent home.  For Doctor Samuel Merrick of Massachusetts, who had seen firsthand the suffering of the troops who retreated south from Canada in 1776, it was "A day never to be forgotten by the American States. ... The Lord be praised for this wonderful token of divine favor for which we cannot be sufficiently thankfull." [1]  Colonel Ralph Cross of the Massachusetts Militia described what he saw as"... a Grand Sight as ever was Beheld by Eye of man in America." [2] 

In the habit of the times, men gathered in local taverns to toast the victory, and local newspapers reported those celebrations.  In Worcester, the Massachusetts Spy reported on October 30, 1777: "The following toasts were drank at Cambridge, on receiving the important news, of the surrender of Lieut. Gen. Burgoyne, and the army under his command, to Major-General GATES.
1. The brave Major-General Gates who with effect, said to the vaunting Burgoyne, hither shalt thou come and no further.2. General Washington and his army.
3. Major General Heath.
4. General Starks and the New-England Militia.
5. The immortal Memory of those who gloriously fell in defending the cause of Mankind.
6. May every Minden General intruding upon American right and innocence, meet with the fate of Burgoyne.
7. May Tyrant princes submit to superior American Souls.
8. May the wisdom of Congress ever be superior to the policy of Britain.
9. The memorable 17th of October, 1777.
10. Complete establishment to American independence.
11. May American bravery and honor rise superior to Brittannic artifice and fraud.
12. May generous harmony for ever-firmly unite the States of America. -
13. Freedom to the whole World." [3]

Women who supported the patriot cause cheered the victory, even if they were not celebrating it in taverns with toasts.  Abigail Adams in Massachusetts wrote to her husband John on October 22, 1777: "I believe I may venture to congratulate my Love upon the completion of his wishes with regard to Burgoin. ... If true, as I most sincerely hope, let us with gratitude acknowledg the interposition of Heaven in our favour.”   

In Boston, cannons were fired, "... joy was seated on every brow" and the windows in the home of Major-General William Heath were lit by candles. [4]  The Reverend Ezra Stiles, who had fled Newport, Rhode Island, when it was occupied by the British in December of 1776, noted that there was "Rejoycing Universal".   Traveling at the time from Newbury to Cambridge, Massachusetts, he heard cannons firing in the distance on October 23rd, and noted that in Cambridge there was a bonfire and "Illumin[ation - candles in the windows] of the whole Town of Camb. for the Victory." [5]

Congress voted on November 4, 1777, "... that a Medal of Gold be struck ... & in the Name of these United States presented by the President to Major Gen. Gates." [6]  The medal pictured above is likely a copy struck from the dies used to produce Gates' gold medal, which were engraved in France, and then transferred to the United States, where additional copies were later struck. 

On October 17, 2023, Schuylerville, New York, marked the 246th anniversary of the surrender with a ceremony “where the old fort stood”, the site of Fort Hardy - now a town park.  School children, rather than British and German soldiers, lay down wooden muskets, and while the ceremony recreated the moment Burgoyne offered his sword to Gates, in 1777 that happened further south, at what is now part of the Saratoga National Historical Park, the “Saratoga Surrender Site”.

The Schuylerville ceremony concluded with the thirteen toasts above (and a cannon salute).  Visiting the town again, I was impressed with the Visitor Center on Ferry Street, right next to the park.  In addition, on the weekend prior I was able to tour Schuyler's Country Estate and climb the Saratoga Monument, which are only open seasonally.

Next week, in keeping with the spirit of the Halloween season, I'll share a ghost story linked to a building along the route of the Convention Army that was there in 1777.  It's true the building witnessed the passing of some of the prisoners and their guards, but is it still haunted by the ghost of one of them?

[1] From the Journal of Samuel Merrick, as printed in Peck, Chauncy, The History of Wilbraham Massachusetts, 1913, pp. 137-138.
[2] Williamson, Joseph, The Journal of Ralph Cross, of Newburyport, Who Commanded the Essex Regiment, At The Surrender of Burgoyne in 1777,  Historical Magazine, Morrisannia, NY, January 1870 pp. 10-11.
[3] Massachusetts Spy, October 30, 1777, Worcester, MA, Vol. VII, No. 340.
[4] Heath, Memoirs, p. 144.
[5] Stiles, Rev. Ezra, (Dexter, Franklin Bowditch, ed.), The Literary Diary of Ezra Stiles D.D., LL.D, Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, NY, 1901, Vol. 2, pp. 220-221.
[6] Stiles, Vol. 2, p. 235.


Next Week: Sorry Northampton (And Smith College) - "[Not] The Site Of Clandestine Visits"

For more on the Convention Army's 1777 march from Saratoga to Boston, see:

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