Bemis Heights

Gates had chosen his ground with mathematical precision.

He fortified a geographic bottleneck known as Bemis Heights.

I want to focus on this fortification because the brilliance of it often gets lost in the textbooks.

Bemis Heights is a series of bluffs sitting right above the Hudson River.

It's a commanding position.

Gates and his engineers construct this massive, three-quarter mile long, L-shaped wall of earth and timber right along the crest of the heights.

They lost hundreds of seasoned soldiers that they simply could not replace.

They were bleeding out in the wilderness, sitting on half rations, waiting for reinforcements from New York City that would never arrive.

It's September 19th 1777 in northern New York.

American Major General Horatio Gates and his second in command, General Benedict Arnold, sit atop Bemis Heights.

The 100-foot bluff overlooks the Hudson River and the miles of dense forest and rolling farmland that surround it.

Arnold peers down at the dark trees below.

He argues his case repeatedly, and eventually, he wears his superior down.

Gates reluctantly agrees to launch an assault on the British position, but Arnold can only deploy the men under his direct command, the army's left wing.

Gates' other troops, as well as all his senior officers, including Arnold, must remain safely on Bemis Heights.

Nevertheless, Arnold leaps at the chance and sends his men forward, and soon there's the steady crack of musket fire in the forest below.

Yep.

How they had to move, and where, when you get out to the battlefield sites, and you know this well, but you get to the Bemis Heights area-

Yeah

... and you see how beautiful it is.

Yes

... paid on these bridges and why they're at Saratoga.

So he was asked to, you know, head north by, uh, General Washington, and was only here like a mere w- weeks, and, like, scouting out land, you know, and looking at Bemis Heights, and understanding the geography and the advantage of the high ground, and then started to direct the, um, ur- urgent building of redoubts-

Yeah