the Battle of Saratoga

The Battle of Saratoga toook place in the months of September and October of 1777. The Battle occurred because the British forces leaded by Burgoyne wanted to capture Albany but the American alredy knew these so they were waiting for them at Bemis Heights . Bemis Heights was an ideal spot  because in one of its  sides it had the Hudson River and in the other one there was a very dense forest perfect for hiding and awaiting in secert.. Burgoyne sent first an attack with 2,000 of his men leaded by the General Fraser. After that he sent a frontal attack on the western part of the Americans but they still were resisting. Burgoyne made two attempts to cross the defensive lines, but both failed the Americans were strong willed and wouldn´t loose that easy.
After a series of attempts he decided to retreat toward Saratoga to refuge his men but he left all his wounded and most of the supplies at Bemis Heights. After he retreated he when to Saratoga and  when he arrived at Saratoga he notice that General Gates was in pursuit after them and he saw that there was no way he could endure the attack by the Americans that surrounded him. In his last move he called for a Council of War with his officers, and they decided to surrender. At that moment one fourth of British forces were captured, and the victory convinced the European powers that an American victory was possible.

Friedrich Wilhem Von Steuben

Friedrich Wilhelm August Heinrich Ferdinand von Steuben was also known as the Baron Von Steuben, he was born in Prussia. He was inspector general of the Continental Army during the American Revolution. In september 22 1777 the continental congress was together in York in Pennsylvania after being kicked out of Philadelphia by the British advance. By February 5, 1778, Baron Von Steuben had offered to volunteer without pay to help the continental Army. By the february 27 Steuben went to report for duty to Washington at  Valley Forge. Steuben spoke little or no English and he often yelled to his translator because he felt frustated because he could´nt comunicate openly with the soldiers. The Baron helped by creating a training program for the Continental Army, this consisted of tough exercises and camp sanitation. These might seem useless but it did work , it taught soldiers discipline and it helped to rencourage them and give them a more powerful reason to fight.

                                                                                                         

The Hessians

   We all know that the English were terribly humiliated when they suffered a defeat by an army, if you can give that name to a bunch of untrained farmers.
 The army of England was one of the largest and yet so powerful and sought help from the Hessians. The Hessians were mercenaries who worked for the one that offered better pay. In the AmericanRevolution, Landgrave Frederick II, Hired about thirty Thousand soldiers conscripted to fight for England. The name of the Hessians comes from their dwelling they were of  HesseKassel. The great diference between modern mercenaries and Hessians is that the second were debtors or prisoners that were going to win their liberty from jail or other comitments.This German soldiers were loyal to King George III who fought for Britain in the Revolutionary War. Hessians helped England because King George was from Hanover, a place in Germany, and he called back home, asking for soldiers willing to fight in the new world. They are known because they were surprised at Trenton by Washington´s forcesd and defeated at Trenton by General George Washington whose army had just crossed the Delaware River in the night of  the 25 of December of 1776.

Overconfidence

 The British had the most powerful armada in Europe and even though they were defeated by the Colonists. But why did this hapen? The answer to this quiestion can be simplified to a single word, overconfidence. By 1775 the British had been defeated by the Colonists in Concord because they had inferior war tactics, like going into the battle dressed up in red. At plain sunlight they were an easy target even for the worst gunman. The Colonists in the other hand adopted the indian war tactics, they hid behind rocks and bushes and tried the most they could to be camouflaged. To retake the hills that the Colonists took in the outsides of Boston the British Commander Lord William Howe took control of the troops and he ordered a frontal attack. He attacked twicw and two times the colonists won, but in the third attack the colonists ran out of bullets and Howe took the hills. The colonists lost but they won two out of three times and that kept their encouragement rising. while the colonists encourage themeselves more and more every day the British were been humiliated in the fields.