Battle of Fort Ann

The Battle of Fort Anne was an engagement in the Saratoga campaign of the American Revolutionary War.

Battle

The battle took place on July 8, 1777, at Fort Anne, in the area later known as Westfield and still later Fort Ann, New York. The battle was fought as a delaying action by the rear guard (Long's Regiment and New York militia) of General Arthur St. Clair's Northern Army and General John Burgoyne's advance units (9th Regiment of Foot). Most of St. Clair's force had marched overland from Fort Ticonderoga through the New Hampshire Grants, but St. Clair had sent a small portion of his army south by boat to Skenesborough, at the southern tip of Lake Champlain. This force, commanded by Colonel Pierse Long, escorted many of the women and children along with the sick from Fort Ticonderoga south to Fort Edward.

When Lieutenant Colonel Hill arrived before the American defences at Fort Ann and saw that he was outnumbered, he stopped and waited for reinforcements from the main army. Long, seeing how few British soldiers were following him, attacked. The battle lasted for more than 2 hours, until both sides were nearly out of ammunition, and then British reinforcements arrived. Long's men burned the stockade of Fort Anne as they withdrew. The British Army noted that they captured a new design of American flag with thirteen red and white stripes and a constellation of stars. It is likely that this was the first time that the stars and stripes was flown in battle.