Parked at Home 2025: Saratoga National Historical Park

On Thursday, March 20 from 7:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., I watched the second Parked at Home webinar of the 2025 season. This is the fourth year of the Parked at Home series of virtual talks hosted by Blackstone River Valley National Historical Park (BLRV) and other sites in the National Park Service, along with the third year of summaries appearing on my blog. The presentations this year are interpreted into American Sign Language (ASL) by Sherrolyn King. The hour-long webinars will be uploaded to the BlackstoneNPS YouTube channel and available to view at any time. The second installment to this year’s series was Saratoga National Historical Park (SARA) in New York and featured Eric Schnitzer, a park ranger who has worked at Saratoga for almost thirty years.

BLRV park ranger Mark Mello began the webinar with the story of Colonel Timothy Bigelow, a blacksmith from the Blackstone River Valley for whom the Worcester chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution is named. With the upcoming events of America 250, starting with the anniversary of the battles at Lexington and Concord this April, much has been learned about Bigelow and other soldiers. His story is particularly tragic, as he likely developed Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) due to his experiences at Valley Forge, the campaign to Quebec, and the Battles of Saratoga during his six years of military service. Bigelow turned to substance abuse to cope and ultimately died in debtors prison at age fifty.

Eric Schnitzer gave a brief overview of the eight-year-long American Revolutionary War, reminding viewers that Saratoga is considered by historians to be “one of the top tier battles… the turning point of the Revolutionary War”. In fact, the U.S. Postal Service is releasing a series of American Revolution stamps in April, and one will feature Saratoga NHP. Battles prior to Saratoga included the American victory at the Battle of Bunker Hill, an area now part of Boston National Historical Park, along with a series of defeats in Canada, Long Island, Manhattan, and Philadelphia. By the end of 1776, British military commanders believed the war would be over in 1777. In June 1777, General John Burgoyne decided to capture the Saratoga area, as he and other British troops had recently captured Fort Ticonderoga (currently a non-profit) and Fort Anne (no formal designation). However, the rear-guard action at the Battle of Hubbardton in Vermont (now a state historic site), the seige of Fort Stanwix in Rome, NY (now a National Monument) and Battle of Bennington, NY (now a state historic site) were British losses.

Schnitzer shared a map of what SARA looks like today. British troops settled in the northern part of the battlefield unit, while American troops settled in the southern part. Their placement next to the Hudson River, main road, and bluffs was aided by Thaddeus Kościuszko, a Polish Engineer. (The smallest NPS is dedicated to him.) The First Battle of Saratoga took place on September 19, 1777 in the northwest part of the unit at Freeman Farm and lasted about eight hours, resulting in British victory but orderly American retreat. Burgoyne settled back and waited two-and-a-half weeks for reinforcements, which never came. For the Second Battle, which began on October 7, Benedict Arnold led the troops in an American victory. A painting of the surrender of General Burgoyne by John Trumbull, which took place on October 17, is now located in the Capitol in Washington, D.C.

The hundreds of people who died in these battles were buried in the field with no headstones, a stark contrast to cemeteries created during later American wars. Casualties in the battles of Saratoga were officially listed as numbers under the names of officers, rather than names of individuals. Schnitzer decided “to turn those numbers into people” and discover the stories behind these statistics. He has created a living document in the form of a color-coded Excel spreadsheet that is updated as more information is discovered. Across the two battles, the total number of soldiers killed and wounded for both sides was about 1,450, with an additional 245 taken as prisoners of war. Those who died in skirmishes, later injuries, and diseases were not counted in battle numbers. Besides casualty records, regiments had “muster rolls” or “pay rolls” with full names. Other sources were hospital records, letters and journals written by contemporaries, pension records, genealogical records found on websites like Family Search and WikiTree, and a few headstones.

This research yield many fascinating and sobering stories. During the Revolutionary War, soldiers of all races served in the same units, unlike the segregated units in later wars. Prince Hall was an African-American soldier in the Continental Army who received a pension through the Act of 1818, having been wounded in battle. (He is a different Prince Hall than his fellow Revolutionary War veteran who founded the first Masonic Lodge for Black Americans and has a memorial in Cambridge.) Among the saddest facts was that seventy-four of the Americans killed or wounded in the battles were twenty years old or younger, the youngest being thirteen. High ranking military official Richard Varick tried to send the youngest children home, but Major-General Arthur St. Clair argued that they needed to stay to help the numbers. One of these children was David Haven from Grafton, MA, who was “not yet 17” at the time of his death. His parents built a memorial in Framingham, MA at Church Hill Cemetery, while his body is still at Saratoga.

During the Q&A, Schnitzer explained that the militia and continental army required soldiers to be at least sixteen years old, but would conveniently accept the age they were told by the potential recruit. Currently, no database has tracked the biographical data of all soldiers who served in the American Revolutionary War, but Schnitzer believes the death records are not skewed by younger soldiers being more likely to die in battle. The armed forces were likely populated by younger people, but the true average age is unknown.

The name Saratoga has a convoluted history. At the time of the battle, the region was known as the Saratoga District of Albany County in New York State. After the war, Saratoga District became Saratoga County, since Albany County was too large and broke into several smaller counties. The location of surrender was a hamlet known as Saratoga, but it is now called Schuylerville after the wealthy Schuyler family, who owned a summer mansion in the area. Eliza Schuyler Hamilton was one of the daughters of this family, and her husband Alexander Hamilton is well-known for his contributions to the founding of the United States thanks to the historical preservation work done by his wife.

Finally, the drivable tour road on the battlefield his open only from April through October, staffing permitting. The Saratoga Unit seven miles north of the battlefield includes the Saratoga Monument, the Schuyler Mansion (now a New York State Historic Site), and Victory Woods. The fee free park is expected to have buildings open on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday throughout the tourist season.

Watch the full webinar here: