The 1777 March of the Saratoga Convention Army

On October 21 and 22, 1777, the now extended British column of the Convention Army left the state of New York.  In doing so, they briefly left the United States as well.  The anonymous journal of an officer of the British 47th Regiment of Foot records overnight stops in Saint Croix, New York, on the 20th and Williamstown, Massachusetts, on the 21st.  Lord Napier's journal lists the same stops on the same days, but not the route he and his colleagues followed to Williamstown.  Massachusetts Militia Private David How noted however, that after stopping five miles from Saint Croix on the night of the 21st:  "[October] 22 This morning Set off march'd Through Whosuck And pownal and at night We Over Took the Body of Regulars at Williams Town And Stopt there" . [1]  How had passed this way before, while traveling in the opposite direction to join the Northern Army.  On that trip he had passed through Williamstown, and then Pownal, Vermont, on October 9th,...

When the British column left Tulls Mills, New York, on October 20, 1777, they did so without their German comrades.  Once again they made little progress.  Massachusetts Militia Private David How noted "This Day march'd 5 miles to Saint Cork."   British Lieutenant (Lord) Francis Napier recorded  "Marched to a place near St. Coicks Mills" .  Both were challenged by the spelling of rural place names.  They stopped that night at Saint Croix, the site of its church now marked  with a signpost  outside North Hoosick, New York, on Route 67. [1] October 20th was not How's first time in Saint Croix.  He had marched through the area ten days earlier, on the way to reinforce Major-General Horatio Gates and the Northern Army.  His militia company's route north from Pownal, in the southwest corner of Vermont, to Bennington, then east into New York took them through towns How called  "old Whosuck And Saint Cook" on October 9th and 10th. [2] Aft...

April 19, 2023, is 248th anniversary of the first battle of the American Revolution, fought at Lexington, Concord and along the British retreat to Boston.   This is a good time to look at those regiments of the British Army which made up a substantial part of the Convention Army, including one that fought on what has become "Patriots Day" in Massachusetts.   An online summary of the fighting at Saratoga in 1777 states that defeat of "the superior British army" was crucial to the United States winning the Revolutionary War.   What would have made the British army superior in the Saratoga campaign?  Although Lieutenant-General John Burgoyne's forces outnumbered the garrison posted at Fort Ticonderoga and Mount Independence in July of 1777, numerical superiority was lost as the campaign progressed.  At the time of the surrender, Burgoyne claimed he faced 16,000 Americans with an effective force of only 3,500 troops. [1]   Burgoyne's troops...

The area east of the Hudson River, across from Stillwater, New York, bustled with activity on October 19, 1777.  Over 4,000 British and German soldiers, some with their wives and children, had crossed the river starting the day before.  Their campaign to end the rebellion of Great Britain's American colonies was over.  What would be years in captivity for most had just begun.  Major-General Horatio Gates summarized the situation, writing: "...  they are now upon their march towards Boston; General Glover, and General Whipple, with a proper Guard of Militia, escort them; and are to provide all such necessary Articles, as may be wanted upon the march….” [1]   Private David How  was one of those militia guards.  His diary shows little progress for the first few days of the march.  The British having crossed on the 18th, he wrote,  "This Day [the 19th] we have been fixing For a march and at noon we Set out with the prisoners for to Guard th...

A handful of markers commemorate the 1777 march of the Convention Army.  One is in Stillwater, New York, on the corner of Route 4 and Ferry Lane, a short distance from the west bank of the Hudson River.  Its location puts it at what might be considered the start of the march.  Some question if the crossing occurred there.  Regardless of the answer, it only notes the crossing of "Brunswick Troops", not British troops who began crossing the river on October 18th.  In an odd contrast, the  Stillwater town history website  notes only the crossing of British troops.   One of the Convention Army who crossed in 1777 noted that Stillwater was aptly named, as:  "In this region, the Hudson is unusually sluggish for 3 Engl.[ish] miles and you hardly notice the motion the very slight motion of the water." [1]  Today, an iron frame bridge spans the river about one-thousand feet below the ferry site, just north of where the Hudson is joined...