General Burgoyne Continued - "Attended Mr. Burgoyne To Boston"
Last week I shared that tracking the 1777 journey of Lieutenant-General John Burgoyne from Saratoga to Cambridge was a challenge. Several primary sources document he stayed in Albany at Major-General Philip Schuyler's home until October 27th, and arrived in Cambridge on November 7th. Less clear was where he stopped in between, though multiple locations lay claim to the statement "Burgoyne slept here" - some relatively easy to challenge, others not so much so.
Travelers during the Revolutionary War going from Albany to Boston (or Boston to Albany) generally followed one of two major routes that correspond to the routes taken by the British and German columns. A traveler leaving Albany could head south towards Kinderhook, then east through Great Barrington to Springfield, and on to Boston (or Cambridge for our purposes) along the Western Post Road. Alternatively, a traveler could head east from Albany to Pittsfield or Williamstown, then through the Berkshires to cross the Connecticut River at Northampton into Hadley as the British column did, then on to Brookfield and the common route taken by the Convention Army into Cambridge. [1]
- Burgoyne stayed in Kinderhook, NY on October 22nd;
- Burgoyne stayed in Great Barrington for two nights as he felt ill, at the same time as Riedesel;
I began my search for answers in western Massachusetts. Several town histories include an account of where Burgoyne stayed and what he did. Bernard Drew's Henry Knox and the Revolutionary War Trail in Western Massachusetts is particularly helpful in that regard, as a compilation of claims made for the Great Barrington to Springfield route, and questioning any link between Burgoyne and the so-called "Burgoyne Trail" that runs southeast from Stockbridge to Tyringham. Competing claims have been made on behalf of Northampton and Hadley, and accepted by some, for a more northerly route across Massachusetts.
My answer came not from the Berkshires, but first a chaplain with Gates' army, then the Maine coast and Portsmouth, New Hampshire. I sought out answers from Burgoyne and those who rode with him, notably American Brigadier-Generals John Glover and William Whipple, after noting that town histories generally fail to reference primary sources as far as Burgoyne was concerned. Burgoyne didn't make it easy for them, as it seems he either didn't keep or didn't share a record of his trip. Glover's letters spoke of the march route in general, but didn't mention his or Burgoyne's stops along the way. Whipple's claim for reimbursement for the Saratoga campaign is included in New Hampshire's Rolls Of The Soldiers In The Revolutionary War, under the heading of "General Whipple's Staff", who served "... at Saratoga and from thence proceeded with the guard to Cambridge." but is primarily a bill for the number of days served and the miles he traveled. [2]
Whipple, as it turned out, not only submitted a claim for his travel but kept a journal. That journal is now in the collection of the Portsmouth Athenaeum in New Hampshire, and was the subject of a 2020 article by D. Allan Kerr in Seacoast Online. Kerr's article captures Burgoyne's time in Albany and trip to Cambridge through Kinderhook, Great Barrington and Springfield (he also includes reference to Whipple being in "Carlisle" Massachusetts, November 5th, but I think this is a transcription error - and I too found those words difficult to decipher).
Staff at the Portsmouth Athenaeum were kind enough to provide me access to a scanned copy of Whipple's journal. [3] In it he noted that after leaving Albany, "the company", as he called his travel companions, rode 20 miles on the 27th to Kinderhook, New York; 18 miles to "Nobletown" which is now Hillsdale, New York on the 28th; and stayed in Great Barrington on October 29th. The following morning, when the weather cleared, they rode 10 miles to "Chadwicks" a tavern at that time in Tyringham, but today's Monterey; then passed through that section of the Berkshires known then as Green Wood and arrived at Fowler's Tavern in Westfield on the 30th. The following day they crossed the Connecticut River to stay at Parson's Tavern in Springfield on November 1st and 2nd. Here Whipple noted, they "Hear the German Troops have got no further than Palmer which determined us to halt here tomorrow." Glover or Burgoyne it appears had no desire to travel with the columns of the Convention Army.
It's always helpful to have a collaborating source, and fortunately I found one in the diary of Enos Hitchcock, a minister and chaplain with the Northern Army. Hitchcock was present at the surrender and later was in Albany visiting men in the hospital, noting there on October 27th "This Day Genl Glover set off for Boston with Genl Burgoyne & the other captive Genls". He makes a good witness, credible as a clergyman, clear in regard to meeting Burgoyne, and one who includes details that can be collaborated through other sources. Granted leave the same day Burgoyne left Albany, Hitchcick set out for home by way of Pittsfield, Beckett and Blandford, and on November 3rd noted "Passed the [Connecticut] River 9 'clock dined at Bliss's Wilbraham, overtook Genl Burgoyne in Palmer; reached Brook field at Sunset". The following day, after staying overnight at his mother's home in Brookfield he noted "... rode in Company with Burgoyne & his Retinue to Worcester - dined there - the Division of Germans in Town..." [4]
Hitchcock's comment regarding both Burgoyne and German troops being in Worcester on November 4th is in turn collaborated by multiple accounts. The Specht Journal notes "General Burgoyne and Maj. Gen. Philips arrived here today accompanied by the American Brigadier Gen. Glover; but they continued their journey to Boston after lunch." Major-General Riedesel, traveling with his troops and not Burgoyne, would also note the arrival of Burgoyne and his deputy, Major-General William Phillips in the company of Brigadier-General Glover. [5]
Burgoyne stayed somewhere between Worcester and Marlborough on the night of the 4th, but where? Burgoyne had continued on with his journey after lunch in Worcester on the 4th, and rode through Marlborough the morning of the 5th. Whipple doesn't say, as he was catching up at the time. On the 3rd he had stayed behind in Springfield to wait for their baggage, and then left five hours after Glover and Burgoyne. That night he stayed at at Bliss's Tavern in Palmer he says, where Hitchcock had dined - though Hitchcock believed it to be in Wilbraham, while Stearn's Almanack places it in Springfield.
On the 4th Whipple left Bliss's, ate breakfast in Brookfield, and lodged at what looks like "Capt." and perhaps "Curtis", four miles behind "the company". This is where I, like Kerr, have had trouble determining who was where. Burgoyne spent his night beyond Worcester but no further east than Marlborough, and four miles east of Whipple, who was the better part of a day's ride east of Brookfield - all well southeast of Carlisle, some 20 miles to the northeast of Marlborough. It was not until the 5th, slowed that morning by the need to replace his servant's horse, that Whipple caught up with his travel companions in Weston around dinnertime, and they traveled together to Watertown.
Burgoyne's last two night on the road appear to have been spent in Watertown. The weather on the 6th was noted as nasty by many, including Whipple who recorded a "hard rain" and that he left the company in Watertown to ride ahead to Cambridge. Confusion likely abounded in that town due to arrival of some 2,000 troops with the British column, its officers all in need of housing "according to their rank". Whipple was not able to find lodging for the others, so he "tarrried at Cambridge" where Burgoyne, Glover and the remainder of the company would arrive at about 1:00 P.M. on the 7th.
The following day, their journey complete, Burgoyne, Glover and Whipple would join others in Boston for dinner with Major-General William Heath. [6] Whipple's note of the event was simple "attended Mr. Burgoyne to Boston dine with Genl. Heath."
Fortunately there are not that many possibilities for the missing location of November 4th. Only two towns, Shrewsbury and Northborough, lie between Worcester and Marlborough. Likely I've driven by the site of where he stayed, and maybe even the building if it still stands - but finding out where that was remains as a challenge.
For more on the Convention Army's 1777 march from Saratoga to Boston, see:
1777 March Blog Home Overnight Stopping Points Towns and Villages Along the Way
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