<Li> Forts Clinton and Montgomery </Li> <Li> 2nd Saratoga (Bemis Heights) </Li> <P> The Battles of Saratoga (September 19 and October 7, 1777) marked the climax of the Saratoga campaign, giving a decisive victory to the Americans over the British in the American Revolutionary War . British General John Burgoyne led a large invasion army southward from Canada in the Champlain Valley, hoping to meet a similar British force marching northward from New York City and another British force marching eastward from Lake Ontario; the southern and western forces never arrived, and Burgoyne was surrounded by American forces in upstate New York . He fought two small battles to break out which took place 18 days apart on the same ground, 9 miles (14 km) south of Saratoga, New York . They both failed . </P> <P> Burgoyne found himself trapped by superior American forces with no relief in sight, so he retreated to Saratoga (now Schuylerville) and surrendered his entire army there on October 17 . His surrender, says historian Edmund Morgan, "was a great turning point of the war because it won for Americans the foreign assistance which was the last element needed for victory ." </P>

What happened in the first battle of saratoga
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