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The Saratoga Campaign in 1777 was an attempt by the British high command for North America to gain military control of the strategically important Hudson River valley during the American Revolutionary War. It ended in the surrender of the British army, which historian Edmund Morgan argues, "was a great turning point of the war, because it won for Americans the foreign assistance which was the last element needed for victory.〔Edmund Morgan, ''The Birth of the Republic: 1763-1789'' (1956) pp 82-83〕 The primary thrust of the campaign was planned and initiated by General John Burgoyne. Commanding a main force of some 8,000 men, he moved south in June from Quebec, boated up Lake Champlain to middle New York, then marched over the divide and down the Hudson Valley to Saratoga. He initially skirmished there with the Patriot defenders with mixed results. Then, after losses in the Battles of Saratoga in September and October, his deteriorating position and ever increasing size of the American army forced him to surrender his forces to the American General Horatio Gates on October 17. The elaborate plans drawn up in London all failed. Colonel Barry St. Leger was assigned to move on Albany, New York east through the Mohawk River valley, but was forced to retreat during the siege of Fort Stanwix after losing his Indian allies. The major expedition from the south never materialized due to miscommunication with London when General William Howe sent his army to take Philadelphia rather than sending it up the Hudson River to coordinate with Burgoyne. A last-minute effort to reinforce Burgoyne from New York City was made in early October, but it was too little, too late. The American victory was an enormous morale boost to the fledgling nation. More important, it convinced France to enter the war in alliance with the United States, openly providing money, soldiers, and munitions, as well fighting a naval war worldwide against Britain. ==British strategy== Toward the end of 1776 it was apparent to many in England that pacification of New England was very difficult due to the high concentration of Patriots; and so London decided to isolate New England and concentrate on the central and southern regions where Loyalists supposedly could be rallied. In December 1776 General John Burgoyne met with Lord Germain, the British Secretary of State for the Colonies and the government official responsible for managing the war, to set strategy for 1777. There were two main armies in North America to work with: General Guy Carleton's army in Quebec and General William Howe's army, which had driven George Washington's army from New York City in the New York campaign.〔Ketchum (1997), pp. 42, 51, 65〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Saratoga campaign」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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