Richard M. Ketchum

The diaries and letters of soldiers under General Horatio Gates offer a view of the pivotal victory against the British in the Saratoga campaign.

Turning Point of America's Revolutionary War

Saratoga

Bryan Alexander

This book came highly recommended from a historical reenactor on a Revolutionary War battlefield. This past July my wife and I were visiting Hubbardtown, Vermont, site of a notable American defeat in 1777. A reenactor representing a British soldier enthusiastically praised Richard Ketchum's account of the Saratoga campaign, in which Hubbardtown played a part. 

And the book is a treat. Ketchum does a marvelous job of telling the story of "Gentleman Johnny" Burgoyne's bold attempt to win the Revolutionary War for Britain, from its inception through the British catastrophe and American triumph. The book is fine narrative, relying on nicely realized historical characters, from snarling John Stark to manic Benedict Arnold. Both British (plus loyalists) and American (colonial) sides are well represented through well-chosen primary source excerpts. 

Parts of the Saratoga campaign are difficult to follow, especially the battles, and I commend Ketchum for presenting them clearly. The text does an excellent job of laying out operations in space and time. I don't mean this to suggest the book is cold or clinical - far from it. Saratoga is filled with emotional range. We get to see both sides' increasingly desperate circumstances. Burgoyne's tragic arc is well told.

Ketchum is especially good at offering little vignettes. For example, a sad one:
a third man who carried a message concealed in a silver ball swallowed it when he was captured, was forced to drink an emetic, and when he coughed up the ball and the note was read, was tried and hanged. (384)

The last page offers a moving glimpse of a different American struggle, as Ketchum concludes by noting American scouts capturing, then freeing a black slave and her child.

What keeps me from awarding this brave veteran five stars? A series of weaknesses. First, it's hard to follow British general Howe's decision-making. His refusal to act or communicate effectively doomed the northern expedition, but Ketchum never really explains Howe's silent sojourn. Second, while Ketchum does a good job of representing Loyalist through quotations, he skips too quickly over the bitter struggles between them and their rebellious neighbors. A few glimpses (like two neighbors trying to kill each other on 312, or a mass grave of executed Tories (!) on 325) tantalize.

Third, while the several maps are elegantly drawn, they don't satisfy this reader. We needed a map showing the Champlain and upper Hudson River valleys, since that's where most of the book takes place, and the overall campaign map must squash them into too small a place. Battlefield maps lack details which the text describes as vital, from a river bridge at Bennington to terrain at Saratoga's two battlefields. For example, note how this military map includes a key piece of the American left flank, missing from Saratoga's two maps of the battles. Or this one, zeroing in on one key segment of the battlefield for a specific time of day.

A fine quote for me:

Vermont... now "abounds in the most active and most rebellious race of the continent"
-Burgoyne (330)

Saratoga Turning Point of America's Revolutionary War

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