Breymann Redoubt

Northwest of the Light Infantry (Balcarres) Redoubt and intervisual with it, the men of Lieutenant Colonel Heinrich Christoph Breymann’s grenadier regiment erected a wood fortification with a 250 foot front and about 7 feet high with musket port, armed with two 3-pound cannon. Behind it was the regiment’s camp, protected by a log breastwork. Freiherr von Riedesel described its purpose: “to defend the right flank of the Corps of Brigadier en potence and at the same time cover the road that ran over the hill into the rear of the army.”

Strategically, it was the right anchor of Burgoyne’s fortified camp. Breymann’s men remained at their post when Burgoyne launched his probing column on 7 October. While Arnold threw Poor’s Brigade and their supporters into a series of futile attacks on the Light Infantry Redoubt, Morgan and Lerned, supported by units from Nixon’s Brigade, attacked Breymann and the approximately 200 men defending their post. The Germans put up a strong fight against overwhelming odds; and Arnold left the troops facing the Balcarres Redoubt, rode between the fire of both armies, and joined soldiers entering the rear of the German post. During the action’s final moments, he received a leg wound commemorated by the battlefield’s famous “boot monument.” American possession of the redoubt made the British right and rear untenable; and during the night, Burgoyne’s men withdrew to the protection of the Great Redoubt, leaving the field to the Americans.