Table of Contents

Introduction
Chapter 1: The Opening
Chapter 2: The Battle of Freeman's Farm
Chapter 3: The Middle Game
Chapter 4: The Battle of Bemis Heights
Chapter 5: The End Game
Epilogue
Bibliography
Index

About the Author

Dean Snow is Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at Penn State University and past president of the Society for American Archaeology. His previous books include Archaeology of Native North America and The Iroquois.

Reviews

"Altogether 1777: Tipping Point at Saratoga is an excellent account of the battle that arguably insured American independence by encouraging French intervention, and worth a read by anyone with an interest in the Revolutionary War." -- A. A. Nofi, Strategy Page
"An exceptionally detailed narrative, following events day by day and, as the action intensifies, hour by hour. This chronological structure has the merit of making sense of a campaign for which the evidence is often complex and contradictory. The result is a vivid, almost novelistic, account."--Wall Street Journal
"[Dean Snow's] profiles of protagonists...bring the battle to life."--The New York Times
"As the action builds and the characters come into focus, readers will get caught up in their hopes and frustrations. Military history lovers will appreciate Snow's explanations of how battles are fought."--Kirkus Reviews
"In his latest book, Snow takes a magnifying glass to the Saratoga campaign....[He] presents Horatio Gates and John Burgoyne not as competing chess players but as complex individuals immersed in a larger group of individuals who struggle with social politics, ambiguous authority structures, and subordinates with mixed motives and loyalties....Snow's narrative keeps readers engaged, start to finish."--Library Journal
"An easy-reading and well-structured look at the battles that produced the British defeat."--Washington Free Beacon
"Dean Snow breathes new life into a story usually told simply in terms of troop movements, military strategy, and political aftermaths. Snow's account of the military aspects of this campaign is flawless, but it is his sensitivity to the emotional aspects that makes this book a must-read for all readers of the era. He takes us beyond the familiar statistics of the battlefield, beyond the strategic mistakes and successes, and beyond the political consequences of
Burgoyne's surrender; he helps us see the meaning of this moment in the lives of the men and women who were there."--Carol Berkin, author of The Bill of Rights: The Fight to Secure America's Liberties
"Dean Snow has written a wonderful book, a veritable primer on how to write a history of a military campaign or battle. Snow's lucid and engrossing writing transports readers to the site of the pivotal collision between the British and American armies at Saratoga. Readers will understand the day-by-day dilemmas and decisions of the commanders and the daily lives of the men they commanded. So good is Snow's writing that readers may think they smell the scent of
battle, feel shuddering bombardments, experience the heart-pounding sensations of men under fire, and agonize with the luckless wounded. 1777 is a very good book."--John Ferling, author of Whirlwind:
The American Revolution and the War That Won It
"Dean Snow's book 1777 offers a splendid account of the Saratoga campaign. Its reconstruction of the battles focuses on more than strategy, tactics, and military forces-indeed, it gives an extraordinary account of the actions of the armies, not just day by day, but hour by hour. Just as impressive in the book's coverage are the stories it offers of participants-common soldiers of both armies, their officers, and many of the families that took part,
sometimes in the action itself. Both armies receive careful and detailed attention, thereby making this account balanced and fair-minded in every respect."--Robert Middlekauff, author of Washington's Revolution:
The Making of America's First Leader
"As the action builds and the characters come into focus, readers will get caught up in their hopes and frustrations... [and] military history lovers will appreciate Snow's explanations of how battles are fought."--Kirkus Reviews
"In his latest book, Snow takes a magnifying glass to the Saratoga campaign... [He] presents Horatio Gates and John Burgoyne not as competing chess players but as complex individuals immersed in a larger group of individuals who struggle with social politics, ambiguous authority structures, and subordinates with mixed motives and loyalties... Snow's narrative keeps readers engaged, start to finish."--Library Journal
"Borrowing from a rich storehouse of letters and diaries preserved by families and historian/aficionados, Snow creates an indelible image of what it was like to be in a campaign that forever changed the soldiers and the land they lived on."--Electric Review
"An exceptionally detailed narrative, following events day by day and, as the action intensifies, hour by hour. This chronological structure has the merit of making sense of a campaign for which the evidence is often complex and contradictory. The result is a vivid, almost novelistic, account."--Wall Street Journal
"An easy-reading and well-structured look at the battles that produced the British defeat."--Washington Free Beacon
[Dean Snow's] accounts of the battles are downright exciting....[his] descriptions of such actions are as fine as I have ever encountered."--Journal of the American Revolution
"An excellent and detailed account."--H-Net
"Dean Snow has opened a unique perspective on the 'momentous culmination' of the decisive Saratoga Campaign by highlighting the human dimension of combat. 1777: Tipping Point at Saratoga warrants the serious reflection of all students and scholars of the American Revolutionary War."--Michigan War Studies Review
"The American victory at Saratoga has been the subject of literally dozens of books. Dean Snow's 1777 is among the best."--CHOICE Reviews
"Dean Snow's narrative is a faithful and meticulous chronicle, ably interweaving a rich tapestry of first-hand accounts with detailed descriptions of the battle's geography, planning and execution. What follows is a panoramic of the issues, personalities and events that culminated in the great American victory of the early Revolution."--Jack Tracey, History