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While defeating an armed populace may be difficult, the British were not beaten by guerrila warfare by a population armed with Kentucky rifles. They were beaten using old-world battlefield tactics by men trained in methods laid down by a Prussian and armed mostly with smoothbore muskets. We also had a little help on the side by the French, who, and not for the last time, kindly donated a few weapons to tide us over.
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Horsefeathers. Had Burgoyne been allowed to advance from Ticonderoga to Albany uncontested and in the strength he left there with in July of 1777, he'd have smashed Schuyler's Army (smaller in July than his by 1,000 regulars) to flinders, long before Bemis Heights could be fortified, and long before the Militia successes at Stanwix/Oriskany in August, and before the Jane Mcrea incident at the end of July. During the whole of the campaign, Burgoyne was hampered by poor communication with Howe in New York (his messengers repeatedly caught and hanged by rebel irregulars), and his strength frittered away by small battles that delayed him and by the desertion of most of his Indian allies ......
...... Meanwhile, Gates' army swelled to twice it's size with nearly every militia member in a month's walking distance, and Morgan's Rifles' and other units of the Northern Department's arrival at the end of August ..... without the efforts of militia units like the Tryon County Militia, Starks' Green mountain Boys, and countless other irregulars, there would have been no Hubbardton, no Bennington, no Oriskany, no Freeman's Farm, no Bemis Heights ...... just two more defeats (Stanwix and Albany) of Continental Regulars by Brittish Regulars and their Loyalist and Indian allies ..... and without those victories, there would have been no French support..... no French Fleet at Yorktown.... no victory, no United States......