What A Difference A Day Makes!

For quite a while, the American Revolution, or as the American colonists called it "The Glorious Cause", hung by a thread. Wracked by poorly equipped soldiers, bad weather, limited resources and  lack of troops, the Cause was indeed in jeopardy.

On this day, October 6th, 1777, the British captured Forts Mongomery and Clinton in the Hudson River Valley. General Henry Clinton came up the Hudson to the aid of General Cornwallis and the beseiged British army at Ft. Saratoga. Clinton devided his troops, sending Lt. Colonel Campbell to Ft. Mongomery and General John Vaughn to Ft. Clinton. 

Though the American revolutionaries were 700 strong in all, the British outnumbered them 3 to 1. The British also had the benefit of their ships on the river, firing from there. After an intense battle, at both forts, the Americans lost with 300 killed, or captured. The British lost 300 of their 3,000 troops. Though the American patriots were defeated, they delayed General Cornwallis long enough to recieve the necessary aid he hoped for at Ft. Saratoga.  Eventually, the Americans' decisive win at Saratoga persuaded King Louis XVI to send aid to the colonists;  the French helping then to turn the tide of the war effort!

British General Charles Cornwallis

British surrender at Saratoga