The 1777 March of the Saratoga Convention Army

My first impression after reading Massachusetts Militia Private David How's diary , and British Ensign Thomas Anbury's Travels Through the Interior Parts of America  was that in 1777 the Convention Army had marched as a whole from Saratoga, New York, through the southeast corner of Vermont and across Massachusetts to Cambridge.   Early on in my research I encountered evidence that the British and German troops who surrendered at Saratoga followed two routes into central Massachusetts, and a common route on to confinement in Cambridge and on Winter and Prospect Hills.  Brigadier-General John Glover, assigned by Major-General Horatio Gates to supervise the march, clearly states in his letter dated October 22, 1777, that he had split his prisoners into two columns, and  "... sent on one Division of the prisoners, Consisting of 2,442 British troops, by Northampton, the other by way of Springfield, Consisting of 2,198 foreign troops. ... I have endeavoured to collect...

On September 18, 1777, British Ensign Thomas Hughes of the 53rd Regiment of Foot noted in his diary that he and a detachment of two other officers and 50 men stationed about a mile outside Fort Ticonderoga in New York were "Surprised by a party of 600 men, under a Col. Brown." [1]  Hughes was not only surprised, but captured and held for a year as a prisoner of war in Massachusetts, then paroled to New York City until he was released and allowed to sail to England in June of 1781. Hughes was captured in what is known as " Brown's Raid ", the topic of an article in the on-line Journal of the American Revolution by friend and colleague Mike Barbieri.  In mid-August of 1777 the 53rd Regiment was detached from Lieutenant-General John Burgoyne's expedition from Canada to garrison Fort Ticonderoga and the landing on Lake George, of which Hughes says "I was unfortunately station'd here. ...".   At some point prior to September 18th, he and those cap...

On the morning of October 20th, 1777, Lieutenant-General John Burgoyne's defeated British and German troops parted ways.  For the next two weeks they would  march separately , before reuniting to travel on a common route through central Massachusetts to confinement in Charlestown .  Some had served together for over a year.  Major-General Friedrich Adolf Riedesel for example, had arrived in Canada in June of 1776, to lead the German troops who would accompany Burgoyne on his expedition from Canada.   The Germans first full day's march, starting in Schaghticoke, New York , took them south to a stopping point just opposite the mouth of the Mohawk River.  Brunswick Grenadier Johann Bense noted of the day simply:  "marched to New City near Fort Halfmoon."  [1]  Massachusetts Militia Private Joshua Pillsbury, of one those guarding the German column, recorded little more, other than it was a Monday and they marched twelve miles. [2]...

On October 22, 1777, Brigadier-General John Glover notified state officials that the British force surrendered at Saratoga was on its way to Massachusetts.  Over 2,000 British troops would come by way of Northampton, and 2,198 "foreign troops" would come by way of Springfield. [1]  Those foreign troops  were German, and in an age before a unified Germany they were often referred to as "Hessians", though most were from the principality of Brunswick-Wolfenbuttel .  For four months they fought along side their British comrades, and after the surrender on October 17, 1777, they shared their fate as prisoners of the Convention Army. The commander of Burgoyne's German troops was Major-General Friedrich Adolph Riedesel, age 39.  Like Lieutenant-General John Burgoyne he was a cavalry officer, had fought in Europe during the Seven Years War, and had distinguished himself through his bravery in battle.   Riedesel, unlike Burgoyne, was with his troops f...