Neilson House at the second stop on the Saratoga Battlefield Tour, Saratoga National Historical Park

SARATOGA BATTLEFIELD TOUR

STOP 2: NEILSON FARM

Allow up to 30 minutes for a visit

The second stop on the tour of Saratoga Battlefield is the Neilson Farm. The area marks the location of the American left flank of the battle line designed to stop the British from marching south to Albany (the right flank was at Bemus Heights on the Hudson River). A quarter-mile paved path lined with informative wayside exhibits leads visitors to various points of interest.

Paved path circles the Neilson Farm stop on the Saratoga Battlefield Tour, Saratoga National Historical Park

The main attraction at the tour stop is the house built by John Nielson after he married Lydia Quitterfield in 1775. When the Northern Department of the Continental Army came to Saratoga on September 12, 1777, the house is thought to have been used by General Benedict Arnold as his headquarters, and perhaps by generals Enoch Poor and John Patterson as well. It is even possible that General Horatio Gates, who at the time was the commander of the Northern Army, stayed here, for there are accounts by witnesses in later years that connect him to the house. However, the general consensus today is that Gates’s headquarters was in the nearby house of Ephraim and Anna Woodworth.

Neilson House, Saratoga National Historical Park

After the war, Neilson moved his house and built onto it, using the original as the kitchen. The State of New York acquired the property in 1929. Under its ownership, the house was moved to a new location and was ultimately remolded—inaccurately—according to the time period, which included installing electric heat. The National Park Service took over the property in 1941, three years after Congress authorized the creation of Saratoga National Historical Park. The house was moved to its current location, which is supposedly where it was originally, on October 15, 1969. Because so much of the original has been changed over the years, what stands today is largely considered a reconstruction based on historical drawings and typical houses of the mid-1700s. Only the ceiling beams, some of the flooring, and the framing around the windows and doors is from the 1775 house.

Rear of the Neilson House, Saratoga National Historical Park

The Neilson House is typically open during the spring, summer, and early fall every day from 10 AM to 4 PM. Rangers or knowledgeable park volunteers are on hand to answer any questions. The house is decorated as it might have been when Arnold (and perhaps Poor and/or Patterson) occupied it. The current opening hours are given on the National Park Service’s Operating Hours and Seasons web page for Saratoga National Historical Park.

Interior of the Neilson House at Saratoga National Historical Park

Interior of the Neilson House at Saratoga National Historical Park

At the Neilson Farm tour stop, visitors can also see where the American fortifications once stood. These were trenches reinforced with log barriers and covered with dirt on the outside to take the impact of incoming cannonballs. These fortifications ran two miles from the Nielson Farm to Bemus Heights on the Hudson River. Today white posts with blue tops mark the location of the fortifications.

Blue-topped posts marked the location of American fortifications on the Saratoga battlefield, Saratoga National Historical Park

There are also three monuments at the Neilson Farm stop. One honors Thaddeus Kosciuszko, a Polish soldier and military engineer with a disdain for the ruling class and sympathy for the oppressed. Kosciuszko had come from Poland to fight for the Patriot cause after being unable to obtain an officer’s commission in the highly diminished Polish army after the First Partition of Poland in 1772. He enlisted in the Continental Army and served under the command of General Horatio Gates. He had a talent for engineering, and he designed many defensive fortifications used during the war, including those built at Bemus Heights. He also designed the fortifications at West Point—it was his design plan that was stolen by Benedict Arnold and sold to the British. Later in the war he participated in many southern battles with General Nathanael Greene, including the Battle of Guilford Courthouse in North Carolina (Guilford Courthouse National Military Park), the second battle at Camden, and the battle at Ninety-Six in South Carolina (Ninety-Six National Historic Site).

Thaddeus Kosciuszko monument at Saratoga National Historical Park

The Daughters of the American Revolution, an organization founded in 1890 by female descendants of those Americans who fought in the Revolution, raised funds for the Monument to the Unknown American Dead that was dedicated in 1931. At the time there was a large Memorial Pavilion nearby and a Memorial Grove of 27 American elm trees, giving the area a park-like atmosphere. The pavilion has long since been removed, and the trees died of Dutch Elm disease in the mid-1900s. The National Park Service replanted the area with Princeton Elm trees in the fall of 2025 (this work had not been done when the photos on this page were taken).

Monument to the Unknown American Dead at Saratoga National Historical Park

There is also a monument dedicated to the officers and men from New Hampshire who fought at Saratoga.

New Hampshire Soldiers monument at Saratoga National Historical Park

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