About: In partnership with the Shenandoah Valley Battlefield Foundation, we present Colonel (Ret) Kevin Weddle, Ph.D., for a talk entitled “America’s Turning Point: Leadership and Strategy in the Saratoga Campaign, 1777.”
Author of The Compleat Victory: Saratoga and the American Revolution, Weddle is a Distinguished Fellow at the US Army War College. He previously served as professor of Military Theory and Strategy and as the Elihu Root Chair of Military Studies.
Recognized as the definitive work on the battle of Saratoga and its impact on the outcome of the American Revolution, The Compleat Victory has won six national and international literary awards, including the Gilder Lehrman Prize in Military History and the Society of the Cincinnati Prize.
About the Saratoga Campaign: In the late summer and fall of 1777, after two years of indecisive fighting on both sides, the outcome of the American War of Independence hung in the balance. Having successfully expelled the Americans from Canada in 1776, the British were determined to end the rebellion and devised what they believed a war-winning strategy: sending General John Burgoyne south to rout the Americans and take Albany.
When British forces captured Fort Ticonderoga on New York’s Lake Champlain with unexpected ease in July of 1777, it looked as if it was a matter of time before they would break the rebellion in the North. Less than three and a half months later, however, a combination of the Continental Army and militia forces commanded by Major General Horatio Gates and inspired by the heroics of Benedict Arnold, forced Burgoyne to surrender his entire army. The American victory at Saratoga—described by one general as "the Compleat Victory"—stunned the world and changed the course of the war. In the end, British plans were undone by a combination of distance, geography, logistics, and an underestimation of American leadership and fighting ability.
With “America’s Turning Point: Leadership and Strategy in the Saratoga Campaign, 1777,” Weddle provides an analysis of the strategic underpinnings of the historic Saratoga campaign, why events unfolded the way they did, and a new interpretation of George Washington’s role in the American success.
Date & Time: Friday, February 20, 2026. Doors open at 6:30 PM, and the presentation starts at 7:00 PM.
Registration Fee: This program is free to attend, but registration is encouraged. Registration will open at 9:00 AM on December 20, 2025.
Registration Information: Register online or by calling the Barns of Rose Hill Box Office at 540-955-2004 (hours). When our Box Office is closed, please leave a message. All sales are final; no exceptions or exchanges.
