Some history and insight into the American Revolution

     After the Brunswicker Colonel Baum’s expedition to Bennington in search of supplies and horses had been a disaster. The Americans were greatly encouraged by the success of Brigadier Stark’s New Hampshire Militia in that battle.

     By August 1777 Major General John Burgoyne’s army had forced its way
down the Lake Champlain route from Canada to Fort Edward on the Hudson River. General Schuyler lay with the American Army to the south, covering the New York State capital, Albany. Burgoyne’s campaign to invade the American Colonies, which had seemed so promising when the army set out, was rapidly souring.

    

     General Schuyler, the American commander until his removal in August 1777, had established his army in a fortified position on Bemis Heights, overlooking the west bank of the Hudson.

     Blamed for the loss of Fort Ticonderoga, Schuyler was removed from his post and ordered to Philadelphia to answer for his conduct. He was replaced by Major General Horatio Gates and Major General Benedict Arnold, two mutually antipathetical personalities. Gates was a cautious ex-British officer. Arnold, one of the two leaders of the American attack on Quebec in 1776, was a mercurial man of action, able to inspire his troops to great feats in battle, constantly aggressive and on the lookout for the tactical advantage.

On 19th August 1777 Burgoyne began a movement to encircle the American fortifications on Bemis Heights. Burgoyne’s intention was to take possession of the heights to the West of the American fortifications and use the advantage of greater elevation to bombard the Americans from their flank.

     Brigadier Fraser with the British Right Wing pushed into the woods along the northern side of a deep ravine. Hamilton followed him with the British Centre, accompanied by Burgoyne. Riedesel and his German troops remained on the riverside with the bateaux and supplies. Once in a line the three contingents would advance on the Americans.
      Gates had no aggressive plan with which to counter the British move. He intended to await attack in his fortified position on Bemis Heights. His subordinate, Arnold, had no such intention. He was determined to take the fight to the advancing British and use the advantage his men had in forest fighting.
Arnold pressed Gates to attack with the whole army. Gates finally agreed that Arnold could take his own division forward against the British line.
     By the early afternoon Burgoyne’s army had cleared the ravine and was in position to begin the advance, signaled by the discharge of a gun.
     Morgan’s riflemen were the first American troops to attack, launching an assault on a small force of Canadians and Indians of Fraser’s Right Wing. Morgan’s men were followed by Arnold’s division of New Hampshire Continentals. Morgan’s riflemen rushed on in pursuit and were dispersed by a counterattack. The Continentals were repelled by Fraser’s Grenadiers and Light Companies.
Burgoyne’s and Hamilton’s Centre approached Freeman’s Farm, leaving a substantial gap between themselves and Fraser’s more distant force. Arnold rallied his men and resumed the attack into the gap between the British Centre and Right Wing.
     More American regiments from Arnold’s Division came up and joined the assault. Burgoyne’s flank regiment, the 21st Foot, was forced to fall back to avoid being overwhelmed. This left the 62nd Regiment at the angle of the line and under heavy fire.
     A desperate battle developed between the attacking Americans and the regiments of the British Centre. During the course of the fighting, which was described by veteran British soldiers as very heavy, General Phillips (the artillery officer who had distinguished himself at Minden) led a bayonet charge of the 20th Regiment to enable the 62nd to withdraw and reform.
     Gates, still in the American camp, refused to commit further formations of the American army to the battle. If he had done so it is generally accepted that the British Centre would have been overwhelmed.
In contrast to Gates’ refusal of requests for assistance from Arnold, Riedesel on the British Left responded with alacrity to the crisis. Leaving the British 47th to guard the baggage, Riedesel marched his regiments up the hill. He arrived to find the British Foot in great difficulty and without delay launched a flank attack on the American troops. The fire of his artillery and foot was sufficient to relieve the pressure on the British regiments and force the Americans to withdraw. By this time night was falling.
     The Americans fell back in some confusion to their fortified camp on Bemis Heights.

My Visit to the New York State Museum

The Cohoes Mastodon was discovered in 1866 during construction of Harmony Mill No. 3 near Cohoes Falls on the Mohawk River. The mastodon's remains were found deeply buried in two potholes, which had been worn into the bedrock by the swirling action of water and stones at the end of the last Ice Age.
How and why this yo...ung male mastodon died is unknown. It is known from skeletal evidence that it had been in poor health and may have died a natural death, although some research on the skeleton hints that it may have been killed by native American hunters.
In life, the Cohoes Mastodon stood about eight and one-half feet high at the shoulder, was about fifteen feet long, and weighed between 8,000 and 10,000 pounds.
http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/exhibits/longterm/mastodon/index.html

Citizen Soldier: New York's National Guard in the American Century

Irish Infantry...nice recruitment campaign me thinks! Join up and kill people alongside me friends, where do I sign?
You can read all about the Fighting Irish of the 69th Infantry at their official website http://www.sixtyninth.net/origin.html

You can learn all about John Francis O'Ryan and his Roughnecks at http://www.oryansroughnecks.org/jfobio.html

From me time at Irish2000Fest, 2010

                                             Tis always a fine time for Stewart's Coffee...

Then a short trip up the Adirondack Northway to Exit 12 and a short trip to the Saratoga County Fairgrounds to the 2010 Irish Fest!

This is from me trip to Salem Massaachusetts

One of the oldest existing churches in Salem, Massachusetts
The land on which the church is built was donated by Phillip English, a wealthy merchant who had been jailed in the past both for not paying taxes to support the Congregational church and also as an accused witch. Phillip English and his wife, Mary. Both were c...onvicted of witchcraft. Both cheated the hangman by escaping from jail and fleeing to New York. Phillip English returned to Salem and lived another 35 years (his wife was not so fortunate, she died in exile). He was buried in St. Peter’s church yard, one of only three known witch gravesites in America. Read more of the history at www.stpeterssalem.org/history.html

The Salem Witch statue...originally the cable television network TV Land wanted to erect a bronze statue of Elizabeth Montgomery, who played the comic witch "Samantha" in the 1960s series Bewitched. A few special episodes of the series were actually filmed in Salem, and TV Land said that the statue commemorated the 35th anniversary of those episodes.

Old Burying Point or the Charter Street Cemetery is the oldest cemetery in Salem, and the second oldest known cemetery in the country, started in 1637. It is located on Charter St. next to the Witch Trials Memorial and contains many famous individuals such as Jonathan Corwin and John Hawthorne, who were Judges in the S...alem Witch Trials, Samuel Bradstreet who was a Governor of Massachusetts and many more interesting historical figures. There are currently 347 entries for this cemetery.

~Padraig