The American Headquarters for the Battle of Saratoga

Abstract

Two years of excavation have been conducted at the site of the American Headquarters for the Battle of Saratoga. Performed under the terms of a cooperative agreement between the National Park Service and Rensselar Polytechnic Institute, this survey effort has successfully located the foundation of the Ephraim Woodworth farmhouse, what appears to have been the Woodworth barn, a well that was behind the farmhouse, and a lengthy French drain that curved around the buildings on three sides. These features appear to be the only physical remains that have survived from the headquarters complex of General Horatio Gates, who occupied these farm buildings at the time of the battle. While it was the military significance of this site which originally prompted these excavations, the majority of the evidence recovered is more useful in shedding light on the appearance of upland farms in New York State in the late 18th/early 19th centuries.