John Burgoyne

General John Burgoyne surrendered an entire British army at Saratoga in 1777, the defeat that brought France into the American war. He was a cavalry officer who made his name in the Seven Years' War in Portugal, sat in the Commons for thirty years, and wrote plays that were performed at Drury Lane; his troops called him Gentleman Johnny for the comfort in which he campaigned. He proposed the 1777 scheme himself: an army moving south from Canada down the Hudson to meet Howe coming north, cutting New England off from the other colonies. Lord George Germain approved it in London and never made sure Howe knew he was expected to march. Howe went to Philadelphia instead. Burgoyne came south with a slow, heavily encumbered column, lost a detachment at Bennington, and found the American force ahead of him growing rather than dispersing as militia turned out. Two battles at Freeman's Farm and Bemis Heights left him surrounded at Saratoga, and he surrendered nearly six thousand men on 17 October 1777. The news persuaded France that the rebels could win and produced the alliance of 1778, which turned a colonial revolt into a world war Britain could not sustain. He was blamed in London and blamed Germain in return, was never given another command, and later served as commander-in-chief in Ireland. He wrote a successful comedy, The Heiress, after the war. He also sat on the committee that impeached Warren Hastings. His surrender terms at Saratoga promised his men repatriation to Britain; Congress repudiated the agreement and held them as the Convention Army for years, marching them around the interior.

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