Fort Anne, Battle of

The Battle of Fort Anne, fought on July 8, 1777, is an engagement between Continental Army forces in retreat from Fort Ticonderoga and forward elements of John Burgoyne's much larger British army that had driven them from Ticonderoga, early in the Saratoga campaign of the American Revolutionary War.

Burgoyne, surprised by the American withdrawal from Fort Ticonderoga, hurries as many of his troops as possible forward in pursuit of the retreating Americans.

The main body of the American forces has departed Fort Independence down the road to Hubbardton, and a smaller body of troops, accompanying the sick, wounded, and camp followers that have also evacuated the fort, have sailed up Lake Champlain to Skenesboro, moving from there overland to Fort Edward.

This group, which includes about six hundred men under arms, pauses at Fort Anne, where a smaller advance company from Burgoyne's army catches up to them.

The British, clearly outnumbered, send for reinforcements.

The Americans decide to attack while they have the numerical advantage, and succeed in nearly surrounding the British position about three quarters of a mile (one kilometer) north of the fort.

The Americans retreat  back to the fort when war whoops indicate the arrival of British reinforcements.

While this is a ruse (the reinforcements are a single officer), it saves the British force from probable capture.

More of Burgoyne's army soon comes down the road, forcing the Americans to retreat from Fort Anne to Fort Edward.

It will be  claimed that a flag was flown at Fort Anne that may have been the first instance of a flag consisting of stars and stripes; this claim is supposedly false.

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