17771776 Club
Burgoyne attacks again at Bemis Heights, and his line breaks
Stripped of command days earlier, Benedict Arnold rides into the fighting anyway and helps throw the British back.
Eighteen days after a costly tactical win at Freeman's Farm, John Burgoyne's army was stuck nine miles south of Saratoga, running low on food, with reinforcements still not arrived. On October 7, 1777, he attacked the American lines at Bemis Heights, New York, hoping to break through before his position collapsed. Benedict Arnold, who had just been stripped of his command, is widely said to have ridden onto the field and rallied the Continentals, though some historians dispute the extent of his direct involvement. Meanwhile Daniel Morgan's riflemen picked off British officers from the tree line. Burgoyne's forces were driven back past their own September 19 positions, and the Americans overran part of the entrenched British camp…
