The Battle of Saratoga ...as seen by an eyewitness
Simeon DeWitt, a graduate of Queens College was present at the battle of Saratoga. In his letter to John Bogart, he eloquently reveals what it was like:
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Burgoine from the North
Sir Harry Clinton from the South
St. Leger at fort Scuyler to the Westward
And Baum at Bennington to the Eastward
Intended to crush us at the Center...
I resolved rather gloriously to perish in the tempest...
But Mark the changing face of affairs
St. Leger rais'd the Seige
Baum was defeated.
Burgoine was taken
and Sir Harry retreated...
I wish my friend you had been at Saratoga when they surrendered. The most glorious grandest sight America ever beheld...
Letter 13-The Bogart Letters
Other letters from Simeon DeWitt portray his life while enrolled in the military: surveying the mountains while camped at New Windsor, New York; the "flogging of the enemy at Stony Point"; writing of a letter with the cacophony of drums in the background.