Beyond Hadley - "Place Called Amherst"

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 landlord spent an anxious night worrying that they might burn the place down. [1]  

A more reliable reference to the town's connection to the Convention Army comes from one of the guards with the British column.  Massachusetts militia Lieutenant Israel Bartlett noted in his diary: “[October] 29 Wednsday. We are ordered to advance in front.  We marched [from Northampton] and crossed the river at 10 o’clock, and advanced four miles from Hadley: place called Amherst.” [2]  It's not clear as to whether any of the prisoners arrived in Amherst with Bartlett, or simply passed through the following day.  Several accounts mention that elements of the column stayed in Hadley on October 29th, and that others, traveling slower, stayed there October 31st.  As the Bay Road runs from Hadley through the south side of Amherst to Belchertown, it's likely that all of the British column and their guards passed through at some point.

On October 30th Lieutenant Abraham Fitts of the New Hampshire militia noted in his diary: "Thursday ye 30th of October marcht from Smiths In Hadley into Amherst by the meeting house & took Breakfast at Joseph Easmans ... ."  [3]  The regiment Fitts served in, commanded by a Colonel Welch, is listed in a compilation of New Hampshire Revolutionary War records as having marched to join the Northern Army on September 30, 1777, "And after the surrender of General Burgoyne marched with the Guard as far as North Hampton in the State of Massachusetts Bay and were there discharged." [4]  

On October 18th, the day after the surrender at Saratoga, Fitts noted that his unit: "... march't from Saratoge to Still water & went Down below for a Front Guard & put up in a Barn [in Schaghticoke] 16 mil".  In the days that followed, he would pass through a number of the towns that the British column passed through as well: Schaghticoke on October 19th; St. Croix on the 20th; "Duch [Dutch] Husack thro pownall into Williamstown" on the 21st; "thro Lanesborough into pitsfield" on the 24th; Partridgefield on the 26th; and Worthington on the 27th, where he drew provisions, "some Salt meat", as Massachusetts militia Private David How noted he did the day before. [5]

It's not entirely clear as to whether Fitts was still guarding the column of prisoners when it left Worthington.  He may have been traveling on his own, as there he noted: "Monday ye 27 march't from pearses to agars in worthenton ... & then was Dismis'd by Coll Weltch in a rage & went to Niles:s the Blacksmith & staid & left Capt Baker Behind 2 miles." [6]  

Fitts doesn't say what it was that enraged his colonel and led to his dismissal.  On October 28th he noted: "... march't from Niless by herricks the tavern in Chesterfield to Kings and staid & eat pork & cabbage * & itt Snow'd & hail'd & Raind a very Severe Storm indeed 4 miles"; and then: "Wednesday ye 29th march't from Eleazer kings by fairfields town in Williamsburg & thro N:hampton over the Ferry to old Hadley to one Smiths & Staid all Night & left Capt Baker & Silas Cammet Behind 15 miles." [7]

Fitts arrived in Amherst on October 30th, a day after Bartlett, but didn't stay.  By the end of the day he was well off the route of march of the British column.  After eating breakfast he continued on, noting: "... got the meeting house in Shutesbury about one clock by a Stone pound went on thro New Salem to petersham by the meeting house 3/4 of a mile to Clemmonses - 30 miles". [8]  Town pounds were common in New England in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, generally rock walled enclosures built to confine stray livestock.  The "Stone pound" that Fitts noted he passed may still exist today as well, just east of the center of Shutesbury, on the south side Cooleyville Road, or may have been replaced, as a sign placed in front of the pound, pictured above, indicates that it was built in 1816.  

Oddly enough one of the towns Fitts passed through on October 30th is also one of only a few places with a monument that commemorates the 1777 march of the Convention Army (inaccurately however).  In a prior post I noted that there is a stone marker in New Salem known as "Hessian Rock" which claims to mark the passing of German troops through the town.  There, a low lying boulder at the intersection of Hessian Lane and Elm Street, across from the Swift River Valley Historical Society, is engraved: "Oct 25th 1777  1000 Hessians who surrendered at Saratoga Passed Here".  

I wasn't aware of anything then which supported this claim when I first wrote about that marker, especially as all of the accounts by German prisoners and their guards indicate they stopped in Great Barrington on the night of October 25th, some fifty miles away.  Abraham Fitts diary doesn't change my conclusion.  He may have passed through New Salem, but the Convention Army wasn't with him.

Bartlett left Amherst on October 30th and marched through Belchertown, which he would call "Belcher". [9]  Bartlett made no further mention of Belchertown, but something was about to happen there - part of what we will look at next week.

[1] Edward Wilton Carpenter, The History of the Town of Amherst, Massachusetts (Amherst, MA: Press of Carpenter & Morehouse, 1896), vii and 136.  While there were a number of prisoners taken by both sides during the Saratoga campaign, I'm not aware of any that were taken while they were attending a dance.

[2] Bartlett, 402.

[3] Isaac W. Hammond, ed., Rolls Of The Soldiers In The Revolutionary War (Concord, NH: Parson B. Cogswell,  1886), 3:938.  Fitts may have dined at the home of Joseph Eastman, who had settled in Amherst between 1739 and 1745, "on the west highway toward the north part", though he doesn't appear to have kept an inn.  (Carpenter and Morehouse, History of the Town of Amherst, Mass. (Amherst, MA: Press of Carpenter and Morehouse, 1896), 19.)

[4] Hammond, Rolls Of The Soldiers In The Revolutionary War, 3:392.

[5] Hammond, Rolls Of The Soldiers In The Revolutionary War, 3:937.

[6] Hammond, Rolls Of The Soldiers In The Revolutionary War, 3:937.

[7] Hammond, Rolls Of The Soldiers In The Revolutionary War, 3:938.

[8] Hammond, Rolls Of The Soldiers In The Revolutionary War, 3:938.  

[9] Bartlett, 402.

Next Week: Two Weeks On The Road - "Marched Through Belcher"

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

 Annotated Bibliography