General John Burgoyne
Before and after his surrender at Saratoga, writes Aram Bakshian Jr., Burgoyne had a lively career as a commander in Europe, a politician and dramatist in London, and a figure on the social scene.
To Horatio Gates, who defeated him at Saratoga, General John Burgoyne was ‘an old gamester’.
To Horace Walpole he was a man whose battles and speeches would be forgotten, but whose comedy The Heiress would endure as ‘the delight of the stage and one of the most pleasing domestic compositions’.
Junius, that most splenetic of correspondents, considered Burgoyne a political hack who was not above bilking sodden young noblemen at cards. Richard Brinsley Sheridan found in him a warm personal friend and a sometime literary collaborator.
To the officers and men who served under him in the field he was simply ‘Gentleman Johnny’, the soldiers’ friend, a commander who earned their loyalty by his personal courage and a compassion for the common soldier that was generations ahead of his time.
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