ORDER OF BATTLE // October 17, 1777
Saratoga campaign
Estimated force strength by side, with confidence labels per surviving record.
Forces engaged
2 sides catalogued · combined 33,500 estimated
United States
25,000
Medium-confidence figure
Great Britain
8,500
Medium-confidence figure
Battle context
The Saratoga campaign of 1777 was a British attempt to seize military control of the Hudson River valley, a strategically vital corridor during the American Revolutionary War. The campaign ended in the surrender of a British army, an outcome historian Edmund Morgan identifies as a great turning point of the war. According to Morgan, the defeat secured for the Americans the foreign assistance that constituted the last element needed for victory. With a British force of roughly 8,500 facing a combined American strength of approximately 25,000 under commanders including Horatio Gates and Benedict Arnold, the scale of the British loss lent the outcome sufficient weight to alter the international dimension of the conflict.
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