Surrender of General Burgoyne at Saratoga, October 16, 1777

American major general Horatio Gates, dressed in his blue and buff uniform, waves aside British lieutenant general John Burgoyne’s attempt to submit his sword in this painting by American artist John Trumbull, entitled the Surrender of General Burgoyne at Saratoga, October 16, 1777.

Burgoyne’s defeat at Saratoga was a devastating loss for the British. Gates, however, made an error in accepting Burgoyne’s terms. Burgoyne only surrendered his forces “upon condition of not serving again in North America during the present contest.” This meant that they were not standard prisoners of war, but a kind of off-duty army. Since Burgoyne only agreed to sign the terms of surrender if it was called a “convention” rather than a “capitulation,” his captured forces became known as the “Convention Army.” The unusual terms of surrender led to political and logistical headaches for the Continental Congress for the rest of the war.

This is a version of one of the four historical paintings Congress commissioned Trumbull to paint in 1817 for the Capitol Rotunda. Trumbull finished the Rotunda’s Surrender of General Burgoyne in 1821. Conservators at Yale University date this smaller version of the painting, which differs in small details, to sometime between 1822 and 1832.