The Germans At The Connecticut River - "So That In The Morning Nothing Will Interfere With The Crossing"

There was no bridge across the Connecticut River at West Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1777.  This meant that the men, women, children, horses and baggage wagons which made up the German element of the Convention Army, and their guards, would all cross by ferry, as the British column was doing at Northampton.  Such a crossing required organization as well as resources.   German accounts provide us some insight on how they accomplished the task, starting on October 29, 1777.     

The Germans began the process by issuing orders prior to crossing directing all unit commanders to ensure that "Necessary watch for each regiment, and necessary helmsmen were [assigned] so that in the morning nothing will interfere with the crossing." [1]  

Some of the guards escorting the Germans were the first to cross, as was the case with the British column.  Private Joshua Pillsbury of the Massachusetts militia would note: “Wednsday [October 29th left Westfield for] West Springfield and crossed Conitcut River at Springfield 08 miles” [2]  Pillsbury, like Lieutenant Israel Bartlett who was escorting the British column, was traveling ahead of the main body on the 29th.  Likely this was to identify stopping points, or secure quarters for the guards at least, as the Brunswick grenadier Johann Bense would note: “[October] 31 across the Connecticut River in the woods.” [3]

The German column began its crossing on October 30th.  That day, one wrote: "We started to have horses and baggage taken across the Connecticut River on ferries during the afternoon and evening so that the regts. would suffer less delay the next day.”  [4]  Exactly how many horses and baggage wagons were traveling with the German column in 1777 wasn't noted.  A tally of the Convention Army's 1778 crossing at Springfield, on its march to Virginia, provides some sense of the scale of the operation.  Then, for "Part of the convention troops Men, Women & Children, &c" there were 150 "teams" (wagons drawn by oxen or horses), 3,000 men and 100 horses which crossed. [5]  Presumably the "2,198 foreign troops ... Prisoners, Drivers of waggons, Bat-horse-men & the Guards," which Brigadier-General John Glover had sent "by way of Springfield” numbered proportionally in 1777. [6] 

The captured German regiments began crossing on October 31st.  “The Dragoons, the Grenadier and Light Infantry Battalions, and the Regt. von Rehtz made the crossing over the river in the morning.  As there were only a few vessels at our disposal, the crossing went very slowly. … The Regts Specht and von Riedesel made the crossing during the afternoon and did not finish before late evening.”  One account offered an observation, understandable to German readers, that: "The Connecticut River is wider and much more easy-flowing here than the Weser near Verden." [7]

Not all of the troops were able to cross in one day.  As a result, "The Hesse-Hanau Regt. remained in West Springfield during the night” and would not cross the river until November 1st. [8]  Behind them that day, traveling separately from his troops since the surrender, was Lieutenant-General John Burgoyne, under escort by American Brigadier-Generals John Glover and William Whipple.  Burgoyne, Glover and Whipple had reached Westfield, Massachusetts, on October 31st, Whipple noting the following day: “Nov. 1st set out from Westfield at 4 o’clock crossed the River & arrived at Springfield at Parson’s between 6 and 7."  Once they were in Springfield, their party learned that "... the German Troops have got no farther than Palmer which determined us to halt here tomorrow” [9]

Among the many who crossed between October 30th and November 1st was wife and mother Baroness Frederika Charlotte Riedesel, with her three children Augusta, Frederika and Caroline, ages six, three and one.  The Baroness had left Saratoga on October 17th in her "calash" (carriage) with a "top of course linen painted with oil paint.. which aroused the people's curiosity, for it really looked like a wagon in which rare animals were being transported...".  It's not clear whether the Baroness crossed with her carriage on the 30th, or the 31st with the main body of the troops.  Apparently the Riedesel family's crossing was uneventful, just another part of their "tedious and difficult journey."  [10] 

[1] Robert M. Webler, "Braunschweig and Hessen-Hanau Captives From Burgoyne's Army Marching Through New England to Prisons August-November 1777", Journal of the Johannes Schwalm Historical Association, Vol. 7, No. 3, 2003, 7 ("Orderly Book of the Hesse-Hanau Regiment Erbprinz").
[2] Pillsbury, 787.

[3] Bense, 76.

[4] Specht Journal, 108.

[5] John U. Rees, "The Uses and Conveniences of Different Kinds of Water Craft: Continental Army Vessels On Inland Waterways, 1775-1782", uploaded to:    https://www.scribd.com/document/208475142/The-uses-and-conveniences-of-different-kinds-of-Water-Craft-Continental-Army-Vessels-on-Inland-Waterways-1775-1782

[6] G.A. Gardner, Glover’s Marblehead Regiment, 12.  It's possible that there were fewer horses with the German column in 1777 than 1778, as at the start of the march in Schaghticoke, New York, one German source noted of the inhabitants:  "It was here that they started stealing our horses ..." (Specht Journal, 103.)

[7] Specht Journal, 108.

[8] Specht Journal, 108.

[9] William Whipple, "Whipple Journal Annotated Transcription", 8.

[10] Baroness von Riedesel's Journal, 66.

Next Week: Across The Connecticut River - “Our Army Is Expected In Springfield” 

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

1777 March Blog Home          Overnight Stopping Points          Towns and Villages Along the Way

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