USS Saratoga, a sloop-of-war, was the third ship of the United States Navy to be named for the Battle of Saratoga of the American Revolutionary War. Her keel was laid down in the summer of 1841 by the Portsmouth Navy Yard. She was launched on 26 July 1842 and commissioned on 4 January 1843 with Commander Josiah Tattnall III in command.
USS Saratoga (known in Japan as one of Perry's Black Ships)
Sailors of USS Saratoga in 1842, one of the first photographs of American combat veterans.
Matthew C Perry's second expedition to Japan, USS Saratoga is second from left.
USS Saratoga as a training ship in the 1880s.
The Battles of Saratoga marked the climax of the Saratoga campaign, giving a decisive victory to the Americans over the British in the American Revolutionary War. British General John Burgoyne led an invasion army of 7,200–8,000 men southward from Canada in the Champlain Valley, hoping to meet a similar British force marching northward from New York City and another British force marching eastward from Lake Ontario; the goal was to take Albany, New York. The southern and western forces never arrived, and Burgoyne was surrounded by American forces in upstate New York 15 miles (24 km) short of his goal. He fought two battles which took place 18 days apart on the same ground 9 miles (14 km) south of Saratoga, New York. He gained a victory in the first battle despite being outnumbered, but lost the second battle after the Americans returned with an even larger force.
Surrender of General Burgoyne, an 1822 portrait by John Trumbull depicting John Burgoyne, a British Army general, surrendering to General Horatio Gates, who refused to take his sword. The painting presently hangs in the United States Capitol Rotunda.
General Horatio Gates, portrait by Gilbert Stuart
General John Burgoyne by Sir Joshua Reynolds
The slaying of Jane McCrae by Native Americans under Burgoyne's command was widely published in newspapers throughout the colonies. This led to a massive turnout of colonial militia, outnumbering Burgoyne's army by two to one.