Tater Hales' Dispatch from the American Revolution Saratoga's Turning Point, October 1777

Humanity has won its battle. LIberty now has a country. You know I've never liked fancy speeches and long-winded orators, but those words said what my countrymen and I feel perfectly.
Who said it, you ask? Even if you didn't ask, I'm gonna tell you anyway. It was Marie Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Montier. But you probably know him better as the Marquis de Lafayette.
Yes, he's a Frenchman. He's also a man who thinks quite highly of himself and has even been called "a statue in search of a pedestal."
But already I can tell this is a man who not only loves liberty, but also seems to have fallen in love with America. I hear him talk about how our young country gives a man a chance "to start the world over," borrowing a phrase made famous by Thomas Paine. Lafayette joined our ranks as a major general at the age of 20 after an American agent in Paris gave him a commission. The young whippersnapper aristocrat joined our war just in time. This was a summer that gave us our own flag, with 13 stars and white and red stripes. But then on July 6, two days after our new Independence Day, we lost Fort Ticonderoga on Lake Champlain, along with our much-needed supplies.
When our help came, Lafayette didn't arrive alone. A long list of European soldiers had also joined us, including Baron von Steuben, from Prussia. It wasn't long before lady luck joined us as well, when we had our first major victory of the war at Saratoga Oct. 7. A British army of nearly 7,000 surrendered to a combined force of American militia and Continental regulars.
The end for Burgoyne and his army came on the heels of a long campaign that began with that cursed British victory at Ticonderoga.
General Burgoyne, who the newspaper people like to call "Gentleman Johnny," tried to join forces with General Howe coming north from New York. On the way, they captured Ticonderoga, but we surprised them when they reached our land. Burgoyne's entourage wasn't built to withstand our New York forests, with his 30 carts of his personal junk, including several cases of champagne. Ole Tater can't help but wonder if he ever even opened a bottle after the whipping he gave him.
Our militia already knew Burgoyne was coming, and we really gave him the musket. By the time the two battles of Saratoga were fought, American forces led by Gates and his field general, Benedict Arnold, outnumbered Burgoyne almost 2 to 1.
One of the British officers who was killed was Burgoyne's second-in-command, General Simon Fraser. I've been told his last words were "Oh fatal ambition."
But on our side, the ambition now appears anything but fatal. That ambition, of course, is the liberty that now has a country, as Lafayette said.