This Day in History: A Retreat Saves the American Revolution
- tara
- 7 hours ago
- 3 min read
On this day in 1777, a series of skirmishes between British and American forces continue. At first, it seemed that British Lt. Gen. John Burgoyne might succeed in squashing the Patriots.
Fortunately, Americans got the last laugh.
Burgoyne was then on a campaign through New York. He’d entered America from Canada, moving toward Albany. He hoped British troops would join him from New York City, thus separating New England colonies from the South.
He thought dividing the colonies would end the war.
Fort Ticonderoga was directly in his path. American Maj. Gen. Arthur St. Clair had about 3,000 men fit for duty there, while Burgoyne had about 8,000 men.
In other words, St. Clair was badly outnumbered.
Matters went further awry for Americans when the British managed to get a battery up a nearby hill on July 5. That hill had been considered too steep to mount with guns, but one British officer disagreed. Reportedly, he told Burgoyne: “Where a goat can go a man can go and where a man can go he can drag a gun.”
The British guns forced St. Clair’s hand. He soon ordered a retreat, but he sent his men in two different directions: One group took a route over Lake Champlain toward Skenesborough. A second went toward Hubbardton.
The Lake Champlain group had a rough time at first. Probably unsurprising? It included women and invalids, along with the fort’s baggage and supplies. They’d had boats for the first leg, but the British still caught them at Skenesborough.
A scuffle ensued. Baggage was abandoned and set afire as the Americans retreated again, this time toward nearby Fort Anne.
The next morning, an American scouting party left the fort and ran into some British regulars. Fire was exchanged in a skirmish that lasted several hours before the two sides retired for the night. But Americans received welcome news from a spy early on the 8th: Now they outnumbered the British!
They finally had a chance to go on the offensive.
The battle that ensued was going well for the Patriots. In fact, Americans might have won but for one factor: A few hours in, a single British officer let out a war whoop. Americans thought Indian warriors had shown up to reinforce the British. They’d been running low on ammunition anyway, so they set fire to Fort Anne and retreated—again.
They made it to Fort Edward about a dozen miles away.
American Captain James Gray later remembered “arriv[ing] at Fort Edward at 10 in the Evening; no Barracks nor Tents to go into; therefore laid down in the rain and slept upon the ground; the fatigue of this day I believe I shall always remember.”
Remember: This was just the first group evacuating Fort Ticonderoga. St. Clair also retreated with a second, larger one—the main army.
Those Americans moved ahead quickly, with a rear guard trailing behind. The rear guard ended up in a pitched battle with the British on July 7. The Battle of Hubbardton is its own story, but the two sides fought for hours. Americans technically lost, but they’d succeed in an important objective: stopping the British pursuit of St. Clair’s men.
Before too long, the main army made it to Fort Edward. By then, American Maj. Gen. Philip Schuyler had instituted a plan to delay the British at every turn. His men destroyed bridges. They pulled fallen trees and branches across roads. They stripped the countryside of resources.
According to legend, Schuyler’s wife even set fire to their own wheat fields.
The efforts worked. Burgoyne’s southward advance was delayed by weeks, contributing to an important Patriot victory at Saratoga.
Naturally, that is a story for another day.
Primary Sources:
Bruce Lancaster, The American Revolution (2001)
History of Merrimack and Belknap Counties, New Hampshire (D. Hamilton Hurd; 1885) (part 2)
John F. Luzader, Saratoga: A Military History of the Decisive Campaign of the American Revolution (2008)
John Warren: Why Fort Anns Battle Hill is Significant (New York History Blog; Apr. 25, 2012)
Max M. Mintz, Generals of Saratoga: John Burgoyne and Horatio Gates (1992)
Richard M. Ketchum, Saratoga: Turning Point of America’s Revolutionary War (1997)
The American Revolution: A Historical Guidebook (Frances H. Kennedy ed. 2014)
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