The 1777 March of the Saratoga Convention Army

After the fighting at Lexington, Concord and the retreat back to Boston ended on April 19, 1775, Massachusetts authorities found themselves responsible for approximately thirty prisoners , some of whom were wounded.  These would be the first prisoners of many taken during the American Revolution.  Although provincial leaders had been preparing for the possibility of war for months, there doesn't seem to have been a plan for how to manage prisoners.   Among those taken was Samuel Lee from the Grenadier Company of the 18th Regiment of Foot.  Grenadiers were elite soldiers, easily distinguished by their large bearskin helmets, as seen here at the 2024 Battle Road commemoration of April 19th at Minute Man National Park in Lexington (note that the lead two are from the Grenadier Company of the 47th Regiment of Foot , the only regiment which fought at Lexington and Concord that would go on to participate in the Saratoga campaign). A history of the town ...

The five thousand British and German soldiers who surrendered at Saratog a on October 17, 1777, were not the first prisoners of the Revolutionary War.  That distinction goes to a much smaller number who were captured or surrendered (or perhaps even deserted) on the first day of fighting at Concord and Lexington, and during the British retreat back to Boston.  Isaiah Thomas, the publisher of the  Massachusetts Spy , noted in his paper that he had  "escaped myself from Boston on the memorable 19th of April, 1775, which will be remembered in future as the Anniversary of the BATTLE of LEXINGTON!" , and once relocated in Worcester, Massachusetts, published an account of the fighting which noted:  "Lieut. Gould of the 4th regiment, who is wounded, and Lieut. Potter of the Marines, and about thirty soldiers, are prisoners."  [1] The exact number of British soldiers taken as prisoners appears to be unknown, but "about thirty" is likely close to the truth.  P...

Only one of the seven British regiments which left Canada with Lieutenant-General John Burgoyne in 1777 could make the claim that its soldiers had fought on April 19, 1775.  This was the 47th Regiment of Foot - "a Very Fine Regiment" .  If this designation sounds familiar, it's how the regiment was described when inspected in 1772, and is the title of Paul Knight's "very fine" book by the same name. It seems appropriate to  write about the 47th again , as we approach the 249th anniversary of the fighting at Lexington and Concord, after having now read Knight's book, and as a group of dedicated reenactors now portray  the grenadier compan y of the regiment. Knight's book includes chapters on the history of the regiment, its officers, men and women, the training it received, and its service in North America.  Other reviewers have described the book as requiring a slow, deliberate read, which makes sense given the amount of information it contains.  Hav...

After leaving Pittsfield , much of the British column of the Convention Army marched through what was then  Partridgefield  to Worthington, Massachusetts, where they would stay on the night of October 25, 1777.  The following day some proceeded on to Chesterfield and stopped again to spend the night.  Their march to  Northampton  on October 27th would be the halfway point in their journey from the surrender at Saratoga , New York, to their confinement in the barracks at Winter Hill in Charlestown, Massachusetts, both in days and in distance.   Worthington, incorporated in 1764 , was one of what were three Berkshire hill towns then, but five towns now, that the British column would march through from Pittsfield to Northampton.  Chesterfield , to its east, had been incorporated in 1760.  Neither Worthington nor Chesterfield was marked on Captain John Montressor's 1775 map of New England, shown here in part as published in London in 1...