KEYNOTE ? FINALIST / RUNNER-UP: The Army Historical Foundation Distinguished Writing Award for Operational / Battle History, 2008 The months-long Saratoga campaign was one of the most important military undertakings of the American Revolution, and John Luzader's impressive Saratoga: A Military History of the Decisive Campaign of the American Revolution, the first all-encompassing objective account of these pivotal months in American history, is now available in paperback. British General John Burgoyne's army of 7,800 men intended to capture Albany, New York, wrest control of the vital Hudson River Valley from the colonists, carry a brutal war into the American interior, secure the Champlain-Hudson country, and make troops available for Sir William Howe's 1778 campaign. Initial colonial opposition was paltry by comparison: widely separated fixed positions, small garrisons and commands, and feuding American commanders. Burgoyne's primary opponent was General Horatio Gates, an ambitious and stubborn leader who eventually cobbled together some 8,000 men, including Benedict Arnold and Daniel Morgan. The series of battles large and small that Gates and his lieutenants would engineer stunned the world and spun the colonial rebellion in an entirely different direction. AUTHOR John Luzader is veteran of World War II and has worked for the U.S. Department of Defense as a research historian and for the National Park Service. REVIEW ?. . . provides a very balanced account of the campaign . . . includes excellent maps to follow along with the battles . . . an excellent account and analysis of the Saratoga campaign of 1777.? Collected Miscellany, ILLUSTRATIONS 30 b/w photographs *
