Kinderhook Part II - "October 23d Cost Us Some Good Men"

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On October 22, 1777, "... after plodding fifteen miles..." from Greenbush, the German column of the Convention Army reached the town of Kinderhook, New York. [1]  The name, meaning "children's corner" in Dutch, may have been given to the area in the early 1600's by Dutch explorers who saw Native children on a river bluff watch them sail past - or maybe by Dutch traders, as a Swedish settler with numerous children lived there.  What makes up the town today is set on the Kinderhook Creek, seven miles northwest of the Hudson River, and twenty miles southeast of Albany, though the town's boundaries initially extended all the way to the river.  

The Luykas Van Alen House is a brick house with chimneys at both ends, built in Kinderhook in 1737
Kinderhook's first European residents were Dutch and Swedish settlers who arrived around 1650. [2]  The Dutch exploration and settlement of the Hudson River valley was more apparent to the Convention Army, in towns as far north as Stillwater, New York, and as east as Pownal, Vermont, than it is to many of us today.  

Germans with the Convention Army describe residents whose language, houses and customs reflected their Dutch heritage.  Several of those houses remain today in Kinderhook, including the Luykas Van Alen House, built in 1737, now owned by the Columbia County Historical Society, and open on occasion to the public; and the privately owned house of David Van Schaack, where British Lieutenant-General John Burgoyne likely stayed (and which apparently wasn't purchased by Taylor Swift).  The Historical Society's Dutch Farming Heritage Trail is always open to the public from dawn to dusk, and free.

The German column of the Convention Army spent two nights in Kinderhook, after only three full days of marching.  German accounts of the townspeople were not entirely flattering, despite one resident being described as "one of our friends".  Most were "... kind people, Dutch by birth...", but "avaricious... keen after money... whatever they sold us was unbelievably expensive." [3] 

The Dutch residents of the area were not entirely welcoming either apparently, at least to the common soldier.  Brunswick Grenadier Johann Bense noted of his stay "at Kinderhook in the Woods" before resuming his march on the 24th. [4] 

Several events marked their stay.  It was here in Kinderhook that Major-General Friedrich Adolph Riedesel rejoined his men, after spending several days in Albany with Burgoyne following the surrender. [5]  Riedesel, along with his wife and three children, would travel with his troops on the remainder of their march, unlike Burgoyne.

The two day stop in Kinderhook allowed the prisoners and their guards to draw provisions.  Joshua Pillsbury of the Massachusetts Militia noted in his record with his customary brevity: "Wednsday Canterhook 15 [miles marched] Thursday Drawed provisions". [6]

The two day stop in Kinderhook, it was also noted, "cost us some good men".  The losses on the 23rd were not from battle or disease, but soldiers "who would not have deserted their comrades but for the voices of some pretty sirens...".  Perhaps they were envisioning themselves someday as American born artist John Singleton Copley painted himself and his family in 1777, in a painting on exhibit in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC.  Kinderhook residents it was said lived "in houses that were well built and the interior fitted with very good furniture... their breakfast consists of tea with milk, which roast meat, baked apples and all sorts of rich pastry must accompany. ... Those with some mean had mirrors with gilded frames" [7] 

As to the women whose siren voices lured away German soldiers, all along the march they were "slender and straight, fleshy without being stout... a healthy complexion... their teeth are very white, their lips pretty, and their eyes very animated and laughing."  In a nod to public health and disease prevention it was noted "I have hardly seen one with pockmarks, but smallpox inoculation has long been in general use here."  The passing of the troops was observed by countless female residents who "who stood in the road everywhere, and let us pass in review, laughed at us mockingly, or now and the roguishly extended an apple with a curtsy. ... One sees here nymphs of perfect beauty..."  Still, those who decided to leave army life may not have gained complete freedom, as "petticoat rule is spread throughout America...". [8]

[1] Letters From America, p. 115.
[2] Ellis, Captain Franklin, "The History of Kinderhook, Columbia County, NY", accessed at: http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ny/county/columbia/kind/history_kinder.htm.
[3] Specht Journal, p. 104; Letters From America, p. 116.
[4] Bense, p. 75.
[5] Specht Journal, p. 104.
[6] Pillsbury, p. 787.
[7] Letters From America, p. 116.
[8] Letters From America, pp. 116-118.

Next Week: Preparing For The Surrender - "As Any Of The Most Polished Nations"

For more on the Convention Army's 1777 march from Saratoga to Boston, see:

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