The 1777 March of the Saratoga Convention Army

Thursday, October 17, 2024, is the 247th anniversary of British Lieutenant-General John Burgoyne's surrender at Saratoga, New York.  The final days of his failed campaign are being remembered during "Siege Weekend" on October 12th and 13th at Saratoga National Historical Park , and a variety of other locations listed on the Saratoga 250 Events Page .  A month-long program of events, beginning with the Battle of Freeman's Farm, culminates on the 17th in a community remembrance of the surrender  at 10:00 AM at Fort Hardy Park in Schuylerville, New York, Saratoga National Historical Park rangers at the site where Burgoyne surrendered  about a mile south of Fort Hardy on Route 4, and at 6:00 PM, a "Surrender Day Benefit" in Saratoga Springs .  For those who like to plan ahead, 2025's commemoration of "Victory Season at Saratoga" is already on the Saratoga 250 website. Looking back, one of the earliest images of Burgoyne's surrender appears to

American Major-General Horatio Gates and British Lieutenant-General John Burgoyne were both criticized for agreeing to the Articles of Convention that led to the surrender at Saratoga on October 17, 1777.  Susan Livingston of Pennsylvania wrote to her sister in Connecticut on November 1, 1777, saying: "The Articles of Capitulation [sic] ... are not relished this way, neither by Whigs, nor Tories, the latter say if Mr. Burgoyne was in a Situation to obtain such Terms he ought to have fought, the Former say if Burgoyne was obliged to surrender at all, Gates might have brought him to what Terms he pleased, so that it looks as if the two Generals wished to avoid fighting." [1] Should they have continued to fight, rather than agreeing to terms both generals would be criticized for accepting?  A significant factor in making that decision was what was happening to their south.  British Lieutenant William Digby would note in his account of the Saratoga campaign that even in its fi