The 1777 March of the Saratoga Convention Army

In my first post on this blog , I reserved the right to stray now and then from the 1777 line of march of the Convention Army.  I didn't expect that it would take me to pop music star Taylor Swift .  It has though, by way of a report that she was purchasing a house in Kinderhook, New York, that hosted British Lieutenant-General John Burgoyne after his surrender at Saratoga, while on his way to confinement in Cambridge, Massachusetts. First off, the story is said to be false.  An August 15, 2023,  article in the Albany Times Union clarified that it was only a rumor that Swift was buying a house in Kinderhook, where a historical marker out front indicates  Burgoyne stayed on October 22, 1777 . According to the Times Union article, a local middle-school principle posted on his Facebook page that:  “It appears that Taylor Swift may become our neighbor. If the rumor is true, she has recently purchased the historic Burgoyne House across from the old Martin ...

Bennington Battle Day, August 16th, is a state holiday in Vermont.  It commemorates the victory of American militia forces over a mostly German detachment from British Lieutenant-General John Burgoyne's army sent to Bennington, Vermont, to seize badly needed supplies.  The Vermont Division of Historic Preservation maintains the 306 foot tall Bennington Battle Monument , erected in 1891, to commemorate the victory.   Despite these strong Vermont connections, the battle was fought in New York .   American forces fought under the command of New Hampshire Brigadier-General John Stark, memorialized today in prints, paintings,  and sculpture, including in the Crypt of United States Capitol under the Rotunda, as pictured on the website of the Architect of the Capitol .  Much of the battlefield is a New York state park, near the Walloomsac River just outside the town of Hoosick .  The site is not far from the route the British element of the Convent...

On November 4, 1777, the Convention Army was only days away from Boston.  A listing of their  overnight stops  makes it clear that British and German troops traveled on separate routes from New York through western Massachusetts and on past the Connecticut River, until they reached Worcester County; and that within each column the troops were spread out over many miles, with elements passing through or stopping in several towns on the same day.   Most of the British column would leave Worcester County on the 4th, after having spent the night in Shrewsbury or Northborough.   "We marched to Northborough..."  wrote Massachusetts Militia Lieutenant Israel Bartlett on the 3rd.  [1]   "[A]t Night We Staid at Northberry [Northborough]"  noted Private David How. [2]  The remainder of the British troops were a day behind, and perhaps to avoid having to share the road and its resources with the German column, some appear to have lef...

The lead elements of the British column of the Convention Army left Worcester, Massachusetts, on November 3rd, 1777.  "We marched to Northborough..." noted Massachusetts Militia Lieutenant Israel Bartlett, without so much as a mention of the town of Shrewsbury, which lay between the two stops.    "This morning we all Draw'd Provisions [in Worcester] to Last to Boston And Set off.  marched Through Susbarry.  At Night We Staid at Northberry" wrote Private David How, noting, but erring on the spelling of both Shrewsbury, and its neighbor Northborough to the east .  Others halted in Shrewsbury overnight, and continued on the following day, Lord Napier noting the town as "Shrewsberry" . [1] German troops passed through a day later.  "Wednesday [November 5th] Shrewsbury and Northboro to Marlborough 23 [miles]" wrote Joshua Pillsbury.  Perhaps the fatigue of two weeks on the road had set in for the diarists of the march.  Even the usually lo...