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Medal Name: Surrender of the British Army at Saratoga
Struck for: Major-General Horatio Gates
Approval: Act of Congress November 4, 1777
OBVERSE
HORATIO GATES DUCI STRENUO COMITIA AMERICANA. (The American Congress to Horatio Gates, a valiant general.)
Bust of General Gates, in uniform, facing the left.
REVERSE
SALUS REGIONUM SEPTENTRIONAL. (Salus regionum septentrionalium: The safety of the northern regions.)
Lieutenant-General Burgoyne is surrendering his sword to General Gates.
In the background, on the left, the vanquished troops of Great Britain are grounding their arms and standards.
On the right is the victorious American army, in order of battle, with colors flying.
Exergue: HOSTE AD SARATOGAMIN DEDITION. (deditionem) ACCEPTO DIE XVII. OCT. (Octobris) MDCCLXXVII. (The enemy surrendered at Saratoga, on the 17th of October, 1777.)
BACKGROUND
The legend of the obverse of this medal, originally proposed by the French Academy of Inscriptions and Belles-Lettres, was HORATIO GATES DUCI PROVIDO COMITIA AMERICANA; and that of the reverse, SALUS PROVINCIARUM SEPTENTRIONALIUM.
Resolution of Congress Voting a Medal to General Gates
In Congress
Resolved, That the thanks of Congress, in their own name, and in behalf of the inhabitants of the thirteen United States, be presented to Major-General Gates, commander-in-chief in the northern department, and to Major-Generals Lincoln and Arnold, and the rest of the officers and troops under his command, for their brave and successful efforts in support of the independence of their country, whereby an army of the enemy, of ten thousand men, has been totally defeated; one large detachment of it, strongly posted and intrenched, having been conquered at Bennington; another repulsed with loss and disgrace from Fort Schuyler; and the main army of six thousand men, under Lieutenant-General Burgoyne, after being beaten in different actions, and driven from a formidable post and strong intrenchments, reduced to the necessity of surrendering themselves upon terms honourable and advantageous to these States, on the 17th day of October last, to Major-General Gates; and that a medal of gold be struck, under the direction of the Board of War, in commemoration of this great event, and in the name of these United States presented by the President to Major-General Gates.
Tuesday, November 4, 1777.
Source: The Medallic History of the United States of America 1776-1876 by J. F. Loubat, LL.D. (1878)