Lieutenant-General John Burgoyne - "Mutual and Peculiar Sufferers"
"The famous Gen. Burgoyne and his army..." proclaimed the Massachusetts Spy on October 30, 1777, "... are expected in town tomorrow." The citizens of Worcester, home to the pro-patriot newspaper since April of 1775, would wait two additional days for the first elements of the Convention Army to arrive in their town, and the famous General Burgoyne seems to have come and gone without much notice. I found tracking his journey to be a challenge as well.
It's best I leave the role of Burgoyne's biographer to others. The controversy starts with his birth in 1722, and the question of who his actual father was. Burgoyne entered the British army in 1740 as a junior cavalry officer, a coronet with the 13th Dragoons. He was proud of his military record prior to Saratoga. He had defeated a larger Spanish force in Portugal in 1762 with a bold attack in the Battle of Valencia de Alcantara that was noted in both his own "Expedition From Canada" and a collection of his plays and poems published posthumously in 1807 as The Dramatic and Poetical Works of the Late Lieut. Gen. J. Burgoyne. For decades his conduct during the Saratoga campaign has been called into question. Allegedly he had an affair with a subordinate's wife, drank and gambled, and traveled with excessive and unnecessary baggage, earning him the nickname (but not until the 20th century) "Gentleman Johnny Burgoyne" - charges disputed by Douglas Cubbison, author of Burgoyne and the Saratoga Campaign, His Papers.
His departure from Saratoga and stay in Albany was fairly well documented, but controversial. Following the surrender, Lieutenant Samuel Armstrong of the 8th Massachusetts Regiment of the Continental Line recorded in his journal that on October 18th: "This day Genl. Burgoine passed down towards Albany as a prisoner under the care of our Light Horse, upon the western side of the [Hudson] River..." [1] Burgoyne stayed at the Albany home of former Northern Army commander Major-General Philip Schuyler, whose country estate in Saratoga he had ordered burned just over a week earlier. Schuyler, once commander of the army that stopped Burgoyne, had been replaced with Major-General Horatio Gates after Burgoyne took Fort Ticonderoga and Mount Independence in July. Burgoyne and his entourage remained as guests of the Schuyler family until October 27th, when he set out across the Hudson River for Boston - well behind his officers and men.
Several 19th century histories of western Massachusetts tell of Burgoyne's stops along the way. Reportedly he spent several days sick in Great Barrington. Though no specific dates are mentioned, he was said to have arrived with Major-General Friedrich Riedesel and his German troops. In Hadley (where again no specific date is mentioned, but is on the northern route taken by the British column) he was said to have rewarded his host with a sword. Both stories lack primary source documentation. However, as Burgoyne did not leave Albany until the 27th, it is unlikely that he was in Great Barrington at the same time as Riedesel, who arrived on the 25th and left on the 26th.
His travels through Worcester and Middlesex counties are somewhat better documented. Burgoyne may have been expected in Worcester on October 31st, but he didn't arrive until November 4th, when he met up with Riedesel who had been traveling with the German column. [2] On the 5th, he was sighted riding through Marlborough in the morning by resident Alpheus Woods who wrote: "... General Burgoine went by my house this morning." [3]
On November 7th Burgoyne arrived in Cambridge and was invited by the commander of the Eastern Department, Major-General William Heath to dine with him in Boston the following day. Crowds gathered to see Burgoyne, who along with Generals Phillips and Riedesel, traveled to Boston by way of Roxbury. Burgoyne's time in Cambridge was short. He would remain in North America for five months, rather than five years like many of his soldiers.
Burgoyne left Cambridge and the Convention Army on April 5, 1778, bound for Newport, Rhode Island and the first available ship that would take him to England. At that time Newport was occupied by the British. Greeted on arrival at the house he would occupy by a guard of 50 soldiers under a captain and two subalterns, he would tour British defenses on the island, be honored with a reception on the 10th, and be accompanied to the dock by General Pigot and other officers to board the British storeship "Grampus" on the 13th - but receive no salute as he sailed from the harbor.
Present-day Newport, like much of what Burgoyne saw after Saratoga, has changed significantly since the 18th century. A number of structures present in 1778 do remain, including Trinity Church, a building already 50 years old when he was there. For years I've enjoyed the view of the church set at the top of an open square. I'd wondered a bit why Newport appears to have two town commons, the other being present-day Washington Square, in front of the Colony House. Just weeks ago, on a trip to Newport, I learned why. The view didn't exist when Burgoyne was in Newport. Rather, the space in front of the church towards the harbor was crowded with various homes and shops over the years, until a fire destroyed one in 1973. It was then when the Newport Restoration Foundation created by Doris Duke cleared the space to create the current vista, now known as Queen Anne Square.
Next Week: General Burgoyne Continued - "Attended Mr. Burgoyne To Boston"
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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