Early campaigns In the army, he had been promoted to major-general and made
Governor of Fort William (commander of the major British Army garrison in Scotland). At the outbreak of the
American Revolutionary War, he was appointed to command British reinforcements, and arrived in Boston in May 1775, a few weeks after the first shots of the war had been fired. He participated as part of the garrison during the
Siege of Boston, although he did not see action at the
Battle of Bunker Hill, in which the
British forces, led by
William Howe and
Henry Clinton, won a pyrrhic victory against the Americans, with many British casualties. Frustrated by the lack of opportunities, he returned to England long before the rest of the garrison, which evacuated the city in March 1776. In 1776, he was at the head of the British reinforcements that sailed up the
Saint Lawrence River and relieved
Quebec City, which was
under siege by the American forces of
Continental Army, seeking to bring Canada into the revolutionary cause. Under British General
Guy Carleton Burgoyne led forces that expelled the Continental Army from the
province of Quebec. Carleton then led the British forces onto
Lake Champlain, but was, in Burgoyne's opinion, insufficiently bold when he failed to attempt the capture of
Fort Ticonderoga after winning the naval
Battle of Valcour Island in October.
Saratoga campaign The following year, having convinced King
George III and his government of Carleton's faults, Burgoyne was given command of the British forces charged with gaining control of Lake Champlain and the
Hudson River valley. The plan, largely of his own creation, was for Burgoyne and his force to cross Lake Champlain from Quebec and capture Ticonderoga before advancing on
Albany, New York, where they would rendezvous with another British army under General Howe coming north from New York City, and a smaller force that would come down the
Mohawk River valley under
Barry St. Leger. This would divide
New England from the southern colonies, and, it was believed, make it easier to end the rebellion. From the beginning, Burgoyne was vastly overconfident. Leading what he believed was an overwhelming force, he saw the campaign largely as a stroll that would make him a national hero who had saved the rebel colonies for the crown. Before leaving London, he had wagered
Charles James Fox 10 pounds that he would return victorious within a year. He refused to heed more cautious voices, both British and American, that suggested a successful campaign using the route he proposed was impossible, as the failed attempt the previous year had shown. Underlining the plan was the belief that Burgoyne's aggressive thrust from Quebec would be aided by the movements of two other large British forces under Generals Howe and Clinton, who would support the advance. However,
Lord Germain's orders dispatched from London were not clear on this point, with the effect that Howe took no action to support Burgoyne, and Clinton moved from New York too late and in too little strength to be any great help to Burgoyne. As a result of this miscommunication, Burgoyne ended up conducting the campaign single-handedly. He was not yet aware that he would not be gaining additional support, and was still reasonably confident of success. Having amassed an army of over 7,000 troops in Quebec, Burgoyne was also led to believe by reports that he could rely on the support of large numbers of Native Americans and
American Loyalists who would rally to the flag once the British came south. Even if the countryside was not as pro-British as expected, much of the area between Lake Champlain and Albany was underpopulated anyway, and Burgoyne was skeptical any major enemy force could gather there. The campaign was initially successful. Burgoyne
gained possession of the vital outposts of Fort Ticonderoga and
Fort Edward, but, pushing on, decided to break his communications with Quebec. The news of the capture of Fort Ticonderoga was hailed in Britain as a great victory, which even King George III is said to have celebrated and Burgoyne was subsequently promoted to lieutenant-general. Burgoyne's force however was eventually hemmed in by a superior force led by American Major General
Horatio Gates. Several attempts to break through the enemy lines were repulsed at
Saratoga in September and October 1777. Benedict Arnold played a significant role in those battles. Burgoyne's
aide-de-camp Sir Francis Clerke was killed on 15 October. On 17 October 1777, Burgoyne surrendered his entire army, numbering 5,800. This was the greatest victory the American forces had up to that point in the Revolutionary War, and it proved to be the turning point in the war, as France entered into an alliance with the American Patriots. Burgoyne's journey through the wilderness of New York was hampered by his insistence of bringing 30 carriages of fine clothes and champagne.
Convention Army '' by
John Trumbull(1822) Rather than an outright
unconditional surrender, Burgoyne had agreed to a convention that involved his men surrendering their weapons, and returning to Europe with a pledge not to return to North America. Burgoyne had been most insistent on this point, even suggesting he would try to fight his way back to Quebec if it was not agreed. Soon afterwards the
Continental Congress repudiated the treaty and imprisoned the remnants of the army in
Massachusetts and
Virginia, where they were sometimes maltreated. This was widely seen as revenge for the poor treatment that prisoners-of-war of the Continental Army had received while imprisoned. Following Saratoga, the indignation in Britain against Burgoyne was great. He returned at once, with the leave of the American general, to defend his conduct and demanded but never obtained an inquiry. He was deprived of his regiment and the
governorship of Fort William in Scotland, which he had held since 1769. The government demanded that Burgoyne at once return to America to re-join the
Convention Army and continue negotiations for its return. When Burgoyne refused he was
gazetted out of the army with loss of rank; a rare public rebuke of a high-ranking officer for which Burgoyne received widespread ridicule in Britain. He was not formally re-instated to the army until 1782 when the Whigs returned to power. Following the defeat, France recognised the United States and formally entered the war on 6 February 1778, transforming it into a global conflict. Although Burgoyne at the time was widely held to blame for the defeat, historians have over the years shifted responsibility for the disaster at Saratoga to
Lord Germain, the
Secretary of State for the Colonies. Germain had overseen the overall strategy for the campaign and had significantly neglected to order General Howe to support Burgoyne's invasion, instead leaving him to believe that he was free to launch his own attack on
Philadelphia. ==Later life==