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Annamaria Dalton (AD): This is Annamaria Dalton with the Saratoga County Chamber of Commerce and today we’re going to be talking about Saratoga National Historical Park which is located nearby Saratoga Springs in the Town of Stillwater, and is a historical attraction not to be missed when you are visiting the area. You’ll find history, recreation, scenery and so much more and today we’re joined by Eric Schnitzer, a long-time Park Ranger at the Saratoga National Historical Park to tell us more. Welcome Eric.

Eric Schnitzer (ES): Well thank you Annamaria, thank you very much.

AD: We’re glad you could join us. My first question for you is – the Battle of Saratoga has been named one of the most important in world history, can you tell us why?

ES: Certainly, yes, the Battles of Saratoga were really the penultimate event in what is the British invasion of New York State during The Revolutionary War. The Battles of Saratoga forced this British army to surrender at Saratoga, which is a village now known as Schuylerville, eight miles north of the battlefield. The New York Times Magazine in their 1999 issue called The Best Ideas, Stories and Inventions Of The Last 1,000 Years said that the Saratoga Battlefield was the site where the most important battles in the last thousand years happened throughout the entire world. That’s pretty incredible, and of course the question is how is that possible?

AD: That is really incredible, go ahead.

ES: It is; there are basically three reasons why that is so. One is that we are fighting this Revolutionary War and its entire British Army surrendered, which means of course you have about 6,000 enemy troops which have been removed from combat, we won’t have to fight them again during the war. Second, it showed us that we can actually beat this British Army. If we look at military campaigns and battles before the Battles of Saratoga, the British were usually defeating us and so we were losing continually. We declared independence from Great Britain in 1776, but we lost so many troops. We lost most of the battles we fight against the British in. And so things weren’t looking good. We really needed a morale booster and Saratoga did it. It showed people in this country that we could beat the British. And thirdly, and connected with the second, it showed a foreign country that we could beat the British. We just needed some help to win the war. It is because of the victory at Saratoga that the French were convinced to recognize our independence as a legitimate nation amongst the countries of the world. And they joined our side in a formal military and commercial alliance. It is because of Saratoga that they joined our side. And as such, the British declared war on the French. Our Revolutionary War being fought throughout the thirteen states was now being made into a world war. The British could no longer focus and concentrate their military efforts in America alone. They had to defend other colonies and provinces throughout the entire world from the French and later Spanish, and later Dutch attack because the Spanish and the Dutch also joined the war against the British. The French also would send to America clothing, weapons such as muskets, bayonets and cannons. They would send gun powder. They would send hard coin money. They would also send parts of their own Army and Navy to the United States and with the help of this material assistance as well as the assistance of personnel, we were able to finally defeat the British at the great victory at Yorktown, Virginia in 1781, which in effect secured our independence from Britain after that. The British said okay, we think we’re going to lose this in the end so we’re just going to start to sue for peace. If it wasn’t for the French we could not have pulled it off and the French would not have joined us without the great victory at Saratoga.                       

AD: That is really interesting. Thank you for sharing that. Can you tell us about the park today and what visitors might expect to see when they come to the park?

ES: Yes, Saratoga National Historical Park has about 3400 acres. As such, most of our grounds are natural landscape. We have fields and forts, deep ravines, cleared landscapes throughout which we have hiking trails. We have a tour road here which can be biked on, or walked on and certainly driven on. And while walking on these hiking trails or driving, walking or biking on our tour road you’ll be able to access those places where the Battles of Saratoga were fought, where both armies camped out, where they built their forts. We’re very, very lucky here at Saratoga National Historical Park to have all the spots where the battles were fought within our park boundaries as well as most of the fortification and camping sites. Sadly most battlefields don’t have that kind of feature. Most of them only incorporate a small portion of where their battles were fought. We have it all. So if you were to come here, you could see and walk the ground where men and women fought and died. Many of them are still buried out there. Also, here at the park we have a Visitor’s Center which consists of a film, a twenty minute film, which gives an overview of the Battles of Saratoga. How they came to be, how they were fought and what resulted from them. We have a fiber optic light map which gives a pretty in-depth tactical history of the Battles of Saratoga. We have a museum filled with artifacts, exhibits and displays as well as a general timeline of the entire Revolutionary War so you can see how Saratoga fits in with the grander event of the Revolution fought from 1775-1783. We have a bookstore here as well, in which we sell books with Revolutionary War themes and topics as well as topics related to the general Colonial Era. We also here at the park, have two spots which are physically removed from the battlefield but nonetheless part of our park. We have the Schuyler House. The Schuyler House was built in 1777 and was the home of Phillip Schuyler and his family. Phillip Schuyler was a General in the Revolutionary War and we have his country home that is open for tours during the summer. We also have Saratoga Monument. Saratoga Monument is located in the Village of Victory. It’s A 155 foot tall obelisk which, if you walk all the way up to the top, you get a grand view of the surrounding countryside. You can see quite far on a clear day. And it is located very near where the British forces surrendered after the Battles of Saratoga were fought here. Very near the Saratoga Monument is what is called Victory Woods, which is one of the last encampments and fortification sites the British had before they surrendered. Very shortly we’re going to be developing a hiking trail within Victory Woods consisting of waysides and features so you can kind of see what those British troops were going through before they surrendered and what deplorable conditions they had to suffer through.

AD: Well, I would think whether you are a history buff or not, you’ll have a wonderful time visiting Saratoga National Historical Park and Eric thanks so much for talking with us. You can learn more about the Battle of Saratoga and Saratoga National Historical Park by visiting www.nps.gov/sara. This podcast is a production of the Saratoga County Chamber of Commerce.