Pittsfield, Massachusetts - "Frequently Called Upon To Fight"

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The  British troops captured at Saratoga and their guards began arriving in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, on October 24, 1777.  Lieutenant Israel Bartlett of the Massachusetts militia wrote in his diary for that day: “Marched 7 miles to Pittsfield [from Lanesborough] and halted at good quarters.” [1]  British Lieutenant Francis (Lord) Napier of the 31st Regiment of Foot noted that he marched six miles and arrived at Pittsfield that day as well, but nothing further, as had been the case with each entry since the surrender. [2]  Massachusetts militia private David How, and those who appear to have been traveling a day behind the first division caught up, as he noted: “[Oct.] 24 This morning we Set out [from New Ashford] march’d Through Lainsborough  Staid at Night at Pitsfield”. [3]

Grave marker of the Rev Thomas Allen in Pittsfield Cemetery
It was a relatively short march, and apparently an uneventful stay.  Once again primary sources for the march of the British column offer limited information on their stopping in town, including what kind of welcome the prisoners received.  That seems like a valid question to ask in a notably patriotic town such as Pittsfield.  If there was any tension between Pittsfield's residents and the Convention Army prisoners, it doesn't appear in the diaries I've referenced.  Instead, on October 25th Bartlett, How and Napier simply note that they left Pittsfield on October 25th, bound for Worthington.  Most likely they left before other prisoners arrived to spent the night. [4]

Pittsfield had become a town in 1761.  With a population of around two-thousand residents, it was considerably larger than the settlement of New Ashford and town of Lanesborough to its north in the Green River Valley.  

Several of Pittsfield's patriots had made a name for themselves by 1777.  One was the Rev. Thomas Allen, who grave in Pittsfield Cemetery is marked by the monument seen here.  Visiting the cemetery, which is located outside the center of town, it was apparent that older graves were mixed in with later burials, and the layout of the cemetery was park-like, a style which became popular in the nineteenth century.  The online history of the cemetery explains that the town's first burial ground dating from 1768 was located at what is now the center of Pittsfield, Park Square, and a second burial ground was established in 1830, but twenty years later burials from both were relocated to this site at the town grew.

Allen had become the town's minister in 1764.  In 1776 and 1777 he served for two short periods as a chaplain with the Continental Army.  Allen is credited with marching with the militia from his town in August of 1777 to join Brigadier-General John Stark's forces who would fight at Bennington.  As the story goes, Allen reported to Stark the day before and told him "We, the people of Berkshire, have been frequently called upon.  to fight, but have never been led against the enemy. We have now resolved , if you will not let us fight, never to turn out again."  Stark was said to have assured Allen there would be "fighting enough" the next day if the weather was good - which it would be, and on the 16th Allen encouraged his comrades "give it to them" and fought beside them.  After the battle, when asked if he had killed anyone, he allegedly replied "he did not know; but that observing a flash often repeated in a bush near by, which seemed to be succeeded each time by a fall of some one of our men, he levelled his musket, and firing in that direction, he put out that flash!" [5]

Another Pittsfield resident of note was Colonel John Brown, who led the raid on Fort Ticonderoga in September of 1777, that resulted in the capture of over 300 British prisoners and the release of 100 American prisoners taken by the British.  While Brown failed to retake Ticonderoga, his attack undoubtably emboldened the New England militia troops who were turning out to support the Northern Army, and forced Lieutenant-General John Burgoyne to direct his men to remain vigilant in anticipation of further attacks.

1778 German engraving of Benedict Arnold in uniform
Brown's active service during the Revolutionary War began with the expedition organized by Ethan Allen and others, to take Fort Ticonderoga and Crown Point from the British after the fighting at Lexington and Concord in April of 1775.  It was at this point that Brown likely first met Benedict Arnold, who arrived in the Berkshires with orders to raise and lead a force of 400 men for the same purpose. [6]

Whatever the nature of the relationship between Brown and Allen at the beginning, by 1776 it had deteriorated considerably.  Brown wrote to his wife on March 15, 1776, that "... he does not agree very well with Mr. General Arnold."  On December 1, 1776, Brown wrote a letter to Major-General Horatio Gates asking him to arrest Arnold for being disrespectful to him, falsely accusing him of plundering British officers at Sorel, not taking proper steps to stop the spread of smallpox among the troops and promoting inoculations, Arnold's conduct during the Battle of Valcour Island, and his plundering of Montreal, among other things.  That disagreement culminated in a hand-bill Brown posted in the winter of 1776-77, which he concluded by saying of Arnold: "Money is this man's God, and to get enough of it he would sacrifice his country."  [7]

When the Convention Army arrived in Pittsfield though, Arnold was still a hero to most people, and recovering from the wounds he received in the Battle of Bemis Heights on October 7, 1777.

[1] Bartlett, 401.
[2] Napier, 329.
[3] How, 49.
[4] Bartlett, 401; How,49; Napier, 329.47th Regiment Journal, 157.
[5] Rev. David D. Field, A History of the Town of Pittsfield (Hartford, CT: Press of Case, Tiffany and Burnham, 1844), 40-43.
[6] Field, A History of the Town of Pittsfield, 56-57.
[7] Archibald M. Howe, Colonel John Brown of Pittsfield, Massachusetts The Brave Accuser of Benedict Arnold (Boston, MA: W.B. Clarke Company, 1908) 6, 11-12.



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


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