- During the Battles of Saratoga (1777) the Continental Army had no cannon, while the British Regulars, led by General John Burgoyne, had 18. After the American victory the cannons were seized and used by Washington’s Army for the remainder of the War. Today there are only three of these
six-pounders
remaining. Read how one of them (The New York Times, 10-Nov-2013) has been on a strange odyssey since 1961, but now is back at the Saratoga National Historical Park where it belongs.
Missing Cannon from Battle of Saratoga Returns
[Lord Frederick] North defended his role in the war for America to his death. He insisted that it did not originate in a despotic wish to tyrannise America, but from the desire of maintaining constitutional authority of Parliament over the colonies.
He admitted that the war with American had been unfortunate but not unjust,
adding that if he had been forced to mount the scaffold in consequence of the part that I have performed in its prosecution, I shall continue to maintain that it was founded in right and dictated by necessity.
The Men Who Lost America: British Leadership, the American Revolution, and the Fate of the Empire (2013)