The 1777 March of the Saratoga Convention Army

This week's celebration of the anniversary of the United States declaring it's independence seems as good a time as any to share a story about the writing of the song "Yankee Doodle", and its connections to the  surrender at Saratoga  on October 17, 1777, and the 1777 march of the Convention Army.   There are a number of claims that the song was played by victorious American musicians when the army of Lieutenant-General John Burgoyne surrendered at Saratoga.  One comes from a footnote in a collection of accounts of visits to the battlefield by William L. Stone which reads: "The piling of the arms was, it is true, done amid profound silence and without any attempt to humiliate the British.  The instant, however that the march southward began, the American bands struck up "Yankee Doodle".  ... This song had been set to music by a facetious English surgeon at Lake George during the French war..." [1]  Stone’s earlier work,  Ballads and Poems Re...

The Convention Army arrived in Western, Massachusetts, from two different directions.  American Brigadier-General John Glover had ordered the captives to march in two separate columns after the surrender at Saratoga ,  "... one Division of the prisoners, Consisting of 2,442 British troops, by Northampton, the other by way of Springfield, Consisting of 2,198 foreign troops..."  . [1 ]   Two weeks later, after the British column reached Brookfield , and the German column left Palmer , a German officer would note: "November 2  We marched through Weston, a rather nice village, 15 Engl. miles to Brookfield.  The Engl. corps crossed us today on our march and from now on had to march on the same road to Boston with us.  As this corps had arrived in Brookfield before us and consequently taken possession of the houses, it was evident that our corps had to bivouac." [2] Massachusetts militia private David How, who crossed the Connecticut River on October 29th ...

The British troops who surrendered at Saratoga were apparently well rested when they left Hadley, Massachusetts , on October 30, 1777.  Many would march through Amherst ,  Belchertown  and Ware before they stopped to spend the night in Western.  "[Oct.] 30 Thursday..."  wrote Massachusetts Militia Lieutenant Israel Bartlett,  "We marched thro’ Belcher[town, from Amherst] and Ware and put up at Weston [Western then, now Warren], about 20 miles from Amherst.”   Private David How didn't specify how far he marched, but noted: “[Oct.] 30  This morning we Set off [from Hadley] march Through Belcher[town] And Ware River. at Night We Staid at Westurn [Western, now Warren].”   British Lieutenant Francis (Lord) Napier of the 31st Regiment of Foot stopped a bit sooner, noting:  "October … 30th. [Marched from Hadley to ] Weir - 17 M[iles]"   [1] British accounts of the march from Saratoga to Cambridge tell us nothing about the town of War...

In September of 1774, as towns across Massachusetts reacted to laws passed by Parliament to punish the colony for its resistance to British rule, the residents of Belchertown, Massachusetts, approved a statement which read:  "We declare that we will take no unreasonable liberties or advantage from the suspension of the course of law,  but we agree to conduct ourselves agreeably to the laws of God, of reason, of humanity; and we hereby engage to use all prudent and justifiable and necessary measures to secure and defend each others persons and families, their lives, rights and properties, against all who shall attempt to hurt, injure, or invade them, and to secure and defend ourselves and our posterity our just and constitutional rights and privileges."  [1]    Seven months later, when fighting began at Lexington and Concord on  April 19, 1775 , the "necessary measures" they pledged to take would for the most part involve sending men and materials out of tow...

There isn't a lot of information that ties the town of Amherst, Massachusetts, to the surrender at Saratoga  on October 17, 1777, or the march of the Convention Army.  Militiamen from Amherst were called up to serve during the Saratoga campaign, as was the case in towns across Massachusetts.  A history of the town written in 1896 states in its introduction "Along its highways marched the captive troops of Burgoyne on their weary journey from Saratoga to Boston."  Unfortunately their passing receives no further mention, but the authors do quote from a letter allegedly written by a descendant of the owner of a tavern in town to claim that:  "During the war of the Revolution, a detachment of Burgoyne's army officers, who had gone out to attend a dance near Saratoga, were captured and brought under a guard to the Clapp tavern, on their way to Boston."   The tale continues on to relate that as straw had been spread on the floor for them to sleep on, the lan...