March to Surrender Trail
This morning was a great morning along the Surrender March Trail. The tail has two access points. The major access point is along US 4 by the Sword Surrender Site just south of Schuylerville. The secondary access point is unmarked a long US 4 by Garnsey Lane.
This is part of the Empire State Trail, which when completed in 2020 will be a 750-mile trail bicycle and walking pathway running from New York City through the Hudson and Champlain Valleys to Canada, and from Albany to Buffalo on the Erie Canalway Trail. The Empire State Trail will be the longest state multi-use trail in the nation.
The is part of the Schuylerville Section to extend the trail about a 1 mile section. south of Schuylerville When completed, the existing and new sections will total 3 miles of continuous off-road trial from near Garnsey Lane to the Dix Bridge at Hudson Crossing.
It has long been recognized that Old Saratoga is a great place to visit.
“Still, as it is, we feel that we can assert without fear of successful contradiction that outside the cities of New York and Albany, Old Saratoga is the most interesting historic locality in New York State, and New York was the battle ground of America in Revolutionary and Colonial days. But notwithstanding the fact that this is the scene of so many events, tragic, thrilling, and heroic, in their character; events far reaching and superlatively beneficent in their effects on our civilization, Saratoga is a name that has been made little of by American writers, and is seldom used to conjure with in speech or story.”
Rev. John Henry Brandow, A.M.,
The Story of Old Saratoga (1919)
Rev. John Henry Brandow, A.M., (20 September 1853 – 14 October 1921) was a New York minister and historical writer. Mr. Brandow was a descendant of an emigrant from the Palatinate in 1710. His father was William Henry Brandow, a farmer and fruit grower from Windham, N. Y. His mother was Moycah Houghtaling Brandow. Mr. Brandow attended school at Hudson Institute in Claverack, N. Y., and Coxsackie Academy. He decided to study for the ministry . He graduated from Rutgers College in 1883 as the valedictorian. His younger classmates found him a congenial associate, He was the main-stay of the college choir, president of the Bible Society, and holder of several class offices. Brandow graduated from New Brunswick Seminary in 1886. His pastorates were: Reformed Church, Mohawk, N. Y., 1886-1888; Presbyterian Church, Oneonta, N. Y., 1888-1895; Reformed Church, Schuylerville, N. Y., 1895-1905; Reformed Church, Schoharie, N. Y., 1905-1908.
While in Schuylerville (old Saratoga) he made a thorough study of the decisive campaign that resulted in the surrender near that place of General Burgoyne on October 16, 1777. The result was published in 1901 in a volume entitled “The Story of Old Saratoga.” A second illustrated and enlarged edition was published in 1919, in which appears also timely chapters on “New York’s Share in the Revolution.”
The New York Evening Post said of this book: “The Story of Old Saratoga is a marvel of painstaking research, careful scholarship and patient labor. In compiling his facts the author has read thousands of letters, reports, records and unpublished documents. This finished work will be a joy to the historian and antiquary“
The study of history was his recreation and historic research a veritable passion for Brandow. He lived in Albany for years and availed himself of the State Library for study and research. He wrote monographs on General Horatio Gates, on Washington’s retreat through Westchester County, and on General Daniel Morgan, which appear in the Proceedings of the New York State Historical Association.
These were the views of our community history in the past. As a community, we will be eternally grateful for the early historians including William Ostrander, John Brandow, William Stone, Ellen Hardin Walworth and others. However, history is a continuing dialogue between the present and the past. Interpretations of the past is subject to change in response to new evidence, new questions asked of the evidence, new perspectives gained by the passage of time. There is no single, eternal, and immutable “truth” about past events and their meaning. We are fortunate to live in a community where there is active history being researched which provides new evidence. This research may be new access to primary source material, new archeology studies, or new perspectives because new historians and researchers are working in our community. This is an unending quest of historians and our community for understanding the past — that is, revisionism and that is what makes history vital and meaningful. That is why the study of Saratoga is a never ending task.
Historian at Saratoga - Town of Saratoga 