Battle of Saratoga, The

The Battle of Saratoga was the turning point of the American Revolution, but until very recently no one has known just why.

If Lieutenant-General Sir John Burgoyne has been able to make his plan of isolating New England from the rest of the Colonies work, the War would have been over and the Colonials subdued.

Three men have been blamed for the failure: Germain, the Secretary of State for the Colonies, an ambitious politician who had risen to high office despite the stigma of military disgrace; Sir William Howe, the British Commander-in-chief in America, an easy-going, self-indulgent, and taciturn man; and Burgoyne himself, a handsome, talented, vain, and dangerously ambitious soldier.

Which man committed the blunder that stranded Burgoyne's army in the American wilderness? Only recently has a fair assessment been made possibly by the publication of the correspondence that passed among these men in 1776 and 1777. From this and other new data, Rupert Furneaux has been able to reconstruct this important battle - a drama filled with petty rivalries, blunders, and over-confidence as well as heroism.