"Morgan At Saratoga" Topic

How did Morgan's riflemen fight at Saratoga? Were they hiding
in the trees or lined up in linear fashion?

And where did Dearborn's picked Lights come from? What units provided them?

I've checked my usual sources and can find no answer to either question.

I doubt they ever fought in a linear fashion per se, but they may have formed an extended line across the front of the Northern Army at the start of the battle with the "lights" in support.

For the second battle – Bemis Heights – we have them split into groups of anything up to a dozen (possibly more?) at a time, and given specific tasks. There is some evidence that they did so at the first battle as well. However, it isn't clear whether this was an established tactic, or whether it was developed as a result of them being handled somewhat roughly by the companies of the 24th attached to Fraser's Advance Guard early on in the Freeman's Farm engagement, and being forced to be more circumspect about how they operated on the battlefield (they had started the battle by ambushing Forbes' pickets, which gave away their location).

I have Dearborn's memoirs somewhere, and I know the men were taken from each brigade of the Northern Army, but I cannot recall how many, or in what proportions (it's possible his memoirs don't reveal this, but it seems the most likely place to look). They did not "go north" from the Main Army with Morgan's men, that's for sure. Your usual source should list which brigades were with the Northern Army when the unit was formed; other brigades arrived after that, but unless they fed more men in as they did so, I don't think they contributed (I also don't recall Dearborn's men taking big losses that would have necessitated such an augmentation).

Rather like Stark at Bunker Hill, I am tending towards the view that the availability of Morgan and Dearborn gave the Northern Army an "edge" that it would not have had otherwise (even with lesser men leading those units) – key men in key places.

Further to the above, I've just looked through Luzader's book (in my view the best narrative of the battle yet published) which only refers to Dearborn's light infantry as being formed on September 11, by order of Gates himself. Thus the unit was only 8 days old when the first action occurred. Given that Luzader has clearly read both Dearborn versions of his adventures at the battle (the original narrative and his memoirs when Secretary of War), it seems unlikely that either version has anything more to say on the matter.

Initially, it seems Morgan's and Dearborn's corps together came to 694 men, but was listed as 578 by the time of Freeman's Farm.

The Continental brigades with the Northern Army at that time were Patterson's, Learned's, Glover's, and Nixon's (all Massachusetts), and the mixed brigade of Poor (3 NH, 2 NY, + 2 units of CT militia). Looking at the regimental strengths for September 1777, it is just possible that Poor's brigade might have provided the bulk or even the whole of Dearborn's corps (the latter was an NH officer, of course), as it has the lowest average strength of any of the five brigades. However, that may just be coincidence.

At the earlier battle of Hubbardton Col. Francis commanded a 450 strong battalion * made up from selected units from the rest of the northern army of St. Clair. Francis was killed at the battle.

I don't know what became of this unit during the long retreat afterwards. It shows that there may already have been a unit of picked men from the northern army.

* Novak's OOB says this is Francis' 11th Mass, while the Battle of Hubbardton from the battlefield visitor center says it is a combined unit drawn from 5 regiments.

2nd SuperMax on Luzader. Not as felicitous a prose writer as Fischer,maybe,but his equal as far as digging through primary sources, as well as tracking down the origins of "mythical" accretions. For anyone interested in the campaign, a must have.

There is a new book out on Saratoga woth getting.

link

That does look interesting. Wish I could have been there on the 4th. Anyone here go?
I didn't see much about the book on their site,but I see Amazon has it.

Francis's unit was formed of the original 150 pickets from Fort Ticonderoga, reinforced with another 310 men drawn from the best soldiers in the Fort's garrison – so it quite possibly was a unit of picked men. When the evacuation began, this unit was told off as the rearguard of the main force which was retreating across country. It was normal to draw such a formation from more than one unit, as it meant that any loss would be spread rather than fall on one corps.

Hafen,

What book are you referreing to when you mentioned "Fischer"…

I'm not familiar with it?

Thanks!

Sorry for the deletes. Having trouble with the link.

I mean this guy:

link

He hasn't written specifically about Saratoga;I cited him because he does similarly outstanding primary research and historiography. Received the Pulitzer for Washington's Crossing. If you haven't read it,I recommend it highly. Also Paul Revere's Ride. Very clear and detailed examination of Lexington and Concord.
Sorry if my rather elliptical reference caused confusion.