T6+-+6.3C+Eric+Caponi+(Battle+of+Saratoga)

T6 - 6.3C Eric Caponi (Battle of Saratoga) British solders surrender to the unruly colonists.  The bloody revolution ends, with a victory to the colonist Colonists get their way.

Saratoga New York October 17, 1777- British major General Burgoyne had issued surrender to George Washington and his militia. The British almost got George Washington to surrender but George had a secret weapon. His friend had a tiny militia of sharpshooters or AKA snipers. But these snipers had the best weapon of its day, the Long Rifle. The Long rifle is easy to carry, load, and aim. It’s a light weight long barrel makes the rifle so accurate that it could hit a pumpkin of its vine, easily. The secret of the accuracy is inside the barrel. The inside has a spiral lining in the barrel, spinning the projectile, causing the projectile to shoot in a dead straight line. Causing it the projectile to fly farther, and harder. George told his friend to order the sharpshooters to shoot from the trees (originally the sharpshooters hid in bushes, but the British got smart enough to shoot in all bushes when a shot was fired). The American shooters were sitting ducks in the trees but the tree branches covered the smoke their guns made and made it almost impossible to hit or even find the shooter (but that was after the British got smart, what Burgoyne did before is coming up). Before the sharpshooters in bushes, but Burgoyne got hit so many times that he ordered his men to make a line of soldiers aim towards the bushes and fire when a shot goes off. What started the revolution was the French and Indian war that occurred in 1745. Colonists needed more land and parliament agreed (because the more colonists they had, the more money parliament gets) to get them more land. The only thing that was standing in their way was Indians. So parliament declared war, then the French saw the land and envied it so the French joined the Indian’s side. War went on, and in the end the British won. Then parliament said, “You know we were thinking about it and we decided to let the Indians have the land so you can’t move there.” Then parliament taxed the colonists for the war and the colonists got upset with that. The colonists thought they fought for nothing (which they did) and now parliament was taxing them for it. When the intolerable acts came in to play (this act came after the Boston tea party) the colonists got so angry that they retaliated by starting the revolution. The revolution went on for years. The British had a plan of starting in New York then marching down to the coasts taking over each city along the way. Then once down to the coasts they would have more soldiers to spread across the 13 colonies. Then the victory shall be Britten’s. Luckily the colonists had spies to know Britten’s every move. When George Washington heard what the British were doing they had prepared themselves for 6,000 heavily armed troops, which had more experience than Washington’s troops could ever have. When the British arrived in New York they whipped George’s militia, and took New York City. After the fall of New York City, the British moved on. When the British got towards the Saratoga River Washington had met up with an old friend. His friend had a little group of sharpshooters who were armed with the long rifle (explained in paragraph one). Once Washington had allied himself with his friend, they started to target British officers. Washington thought if there is no leadership, there is no progress. Burgoyne had so many officers hit that he got smart and had his troops aim for every bush there was (because each shot came from the bushes). When Burgoyne had ordered his troops to do so, Washington told his friend, to tell his sharpshooters to hide in trees (that’s when sniping was born) to shoot the officers from the trees. It was challenging because of so many obstacles in the way and the rifles did not have scopes. When all officers were down, Britten called for the French’s help (and the French didn’t get there until the British surrendered. Then it was a fight to persuade the French to join sides. The Battle of Saratoga took place near the Saratoga River, in the state of New York. The River is surrounded by forest, wildlife, and dirt. It’s a place for one to be surrounded by nature, but it is soon to be a graveyard. When Burgoyne’s soldiers marched past the river, they got hit by American sharpshooters. Burgoyne didn’t expect the colonists to beat them with sharpshooters; in fact it was the last thing he expected. Burgoyne lost almost all of his officers during the battle of Saratoga due to the forest, the lack of supplies, and the sharpshooters.  The colonists were tired of Parliament taxing them with acts. The sugar, stamp, and quarting acts were some of the acts that were placed on the colonists. But the most dreaded and one that was claimed “created by satin” was the intolerable act. The act even had the colonists send the olive branch petition. The olive branch petition was a petition telling the king that the colonists would grant loyalty to the king. The king was furious that he kept the act on and sent more soldiers for treason. The colonists got mad that the King didn’t pull off the act and they spread a rumor that they stocking up on guns and ammunition. The word got to the British soldiers and then the British were planning to go though Lexington and then the famous story of Paul Revere came in to play. The British killed a lot of colonists while looking for the guns. When the British found none so they started a return trip the colonists attacked the British. After that the Battle of Lexington and Concord, the Revolution began. In the Revolution was made up lots of tiny battles. One of the battles became the Battle of Saratoga, which the Colonists won.