The Germans In Wilbraham and Palmer - "Our Troops Will Spend The Night"
Most of the German column of the Convention Army crossed over the Connecticut River to Springfield, Massachusetts, on October 31, 1777. They were impressed by the town, but didn't stay in any of its fine homes. The commentary which accompanies a transcription of Major-General Friedrich Adolph Riedesel's letters and journal indicates: “General Riedesel, however, did not find the people of East Springfield as obliging as those at West Springfield. Notwithstanding all his entreaties, he failed to induce them to quarter his troops. They were, accordingly, obliged to continue their march as far as Palmer, a distance of thirteen miles [from West Springfield].” [1]
Their march to Palmer, marked in blue on the map above which was published in 1798, most likely followed the post road. This took them along the northern edge of Wilbraham, which had been a part of Springfield until 1763, when it was incorporated with a population of about four hundred residents; and perhaps through a corner of Monson, which separated from Brimfield in 1760. [6] Wilbraham received little mention in the 1777 accounts of the march, but it was the site of a near riot in 1778, when both German and British troops would march through on their way to Virginia. Teamsters hired to move one element of the German column believed they were not being paid sufficiently, and rather than continuing on, "They all formed a circle and, lifting up their hands, swore that they would not stay." A German officer would wryly note: "They fully proved themselves to be inhabitants of the State of Massachusetts, not to be governed so easily." [7]
Palmer was originally a part of Brimfield, until it became incorporated as a town in 1775. After the first European settlers had arrived in the early 1700's, the area was variously known as "The Elbow Tract", "New Marlborough" and "Kingsfield" (or "Kingston"', as it appears on a 1785 map of this section of Massachusetts) before being named after Thomas Palmer, who was a relative of the the governor and had recently died in Scotland, in 1752 - or Thomas Palmer, Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas of Suffolk County, Massachusetts. It's not clear to me which Palmer the town was named for, as the biographical note for Thomas Palmer in a history of Suffolk County indicates he was first appointed as a judge of the Inferior Court of Common Pleas in Suffolk County in 1711, and served as Chief Justice beginning in 1727 until his death in 1740, over a decade before the town was named; while a Joseph Palmer was appointed as a special justice in 1775. J.H. Temple notes in his history of the town: "The name is not unpleasant to speak or write, but it has no associations connected with our early annals or topography." [8] That early fondness for a multitude of names survives, with villages within the town being referred to now as Depot Village, Thorndike, Three Rivers, and Bondsville.
Regardless of who the town was named for, it appears that the Germans were not that impressed. One noted of their of their arrival in Palmer that it was: “... a wretched village. Of necessity we bivouacked.” [9] Another remarked that on their twelve mile journey to Palmer on November 1st: "During this march, we saw only a few habitations on this road." - though the roads were beautiful and marked every mile with a stone indicating the distance to Boston. [10]
On the morning of November 2nd they left. Now that they were across the Connecticut River, the German captives and their guards would march on, stopping only for the night, until they reached their barracks at Winter Hill. “Lordsday" noted Pillsbury, "Western and Brookfield 14 [miles]” [11] From here they would follow the same route as the British column, which had crossed the Connecticut River to their north into Hadley, stopped in Western on October 30th, and would march a day or so ahead of them to Cambridge.
Palmer didn't see the the last of the Convention Army on November 2nd. Brigadier-General William Whipple, who together with Brigadier-General John Glover and others was escorting British Lieutenant-General John Burgoyne into captivity at Cambridge, stopped there on November 3rd. Burgoyne likely passed through earlier in the day but continued on. Enos Hitchcock, a minister and chaplain with the Northern Army, noted in his diary that having been granted leave and while on his way home, on November 3rd: "Passed the [Connecticut] River 9 'clock dined at Bliss's Wilbraham, overtook Genl Burgoyne in Palmer; reached Brook field at Sunset". Whipple noted in his journal: "3d Nov. The company set out about 8 o’clock I waited for Genl Glovers Waggon till 1...and set out for Bliss’s in Palmer where I arrived about sun set" and the following day: "[November] 4th set out from Bliss’s early in the morning breakfasted at Brookfield..." [12]
In addition to the Convention Army passing through in 1778 on their way to Virginia, Temple's town history indicates that on March 21, 1780: "It was put to vote whether the Britons now residing in Palmer should be exempted from the rates that are now assessed upon them; and it passed in the negative; also it was put to vote whether they should be rated for the future; and it passed in the affirmative." Temple goes on to say that there was nothing to explain this vote, but it was believed to be a reference to soldiers from Burgoyne's army who either "strayed from the ranks when they were marching through this town on the way to Cambridge" (which if correct suggests that the British column did march through Palmer on their way to Cambridge, though accounts of the march don't mention it) or found their way there later. Regardless of when they may have arrived, a century later it would be said: "What were known as "Burgoyne's men" were found in most of our towns about this time, and many of them became permanent settlers and useful citizens." [13]
[2] Pillsbury, 788. Pillsbury likely stopped at "Scott's" not "Scotti" tavern, as its name appears in the 1777 New England Almanac, and J. H. Temple, History of the Town of Palmer, Massachusetts (Palmer, MA: published by the town, 1889), 224.
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