Peters Corps' Escape From Saratoga - "I Would Not Go Without Orders"

What might be called "Burgoyne's Army" is different from what has become know as the "Convention Army".  When British Lieutenant-General John Burgoyne left Canada in June of 1777 bound for Albany, New York, his army of over ten-thousand included Native warriors, Canadians, and “Provincials" (also known as Loyalists or Tories), in addition to thousands of British and German soldiers.  Four months later, roughly half that number would march out of their final camp at Saratoga, New York, when they were forced to surrender to American Major-General Horatio Gates on October 17, 1777. 

Burgoyne's British and German troops who left Saratoga were bound for the port of Boston under the second of the Articles of Convention, with the expectation that they would sail to England.  It was this group that would become what is now known as the Convention Army.  Others, "All Canadians, and persons belonging to the Canadian establishment, consisting of sailors, batteaumen, artificers, drivers, independent companies, and many other followers of the army, who come under no particular description…”, were allowed to go to Canada. [1]

Not all of Burgoyne's army waited for the terms of the Convention to take effect.  Early in the campaign, on July 1st at Ticonderoga, Burgoyne’s Native warriors had numbered about 400.  By the time of the surrender, Burgoyne would write, there had been a “Total defection of the Indians”. [2]  British Lieutenant William Digby noted that on October 12th: "In the evening, many of our Canadian drivers of wagons, carts and other like services, found means to escape from us." [3]  

Another group which left the camp early was the Queen's Royal Rangers, also known as Peters Corps, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel John Peters of Moretown, Vermont.  A plaque in Saratoga National Historical Park's "Victory Woods" tells part of their story, but not the whole account of their escape as told by their commander in 1786, including that the did so with written permission from Burgoyne. [4]

Peters' 1786 "Narrative" illustrates the challenges and choices which faced everyone living in what were Britain's thirteen rebellious colonies in North America at the start of the Revolution.  Peters' narrative suggests that before the Revolution he was a successful man who settled in Piermont, New Hampshire, in 1763, where he had a farm, saw mill and grist mill, and was appointed Captain-Commandant of the militia and Deputy-Surveyor of the King's Woods.  In 1770 he moved to what is now Vermont, but at that time he recalled: "Being now in the Province of New York, I was appointed to be Colonel of the Militia, Justice of the Peace, Judge of Probates, Registrar of the county, Clerk of Court and Judge of the Court of Common Pleas." 

Interesting, in light where he would find himself in 1777, is that he was appointed to attend the first Continental Congress in Philadelphia in 1774.  His experience there led him to conclude that as to his fellow delegates: "... nothing short of independence would satisfy them...".  His refusal to take an oath of secrecy with regard to the proceeding led his neighbors in Vermont to threaten to execute him "as an enemy of Congress".

It was clear what side Peters was on in May of 1777, as he was ordered by Sir Guy Carleton to raise a regiment of men loyal to the crown to serve with the British army, which he led as its Lieutenant-Colonel.  In June he was ordered to join Burgoyne's army with what men he had, under the name of the "Queen's Royal Rangers".  When mustered on June 23rd, he had 262 men, though he claimed to have raised 643, but: "my men were killed off not so fast as I enlisted them but prevented them from being mustered as regularly as should have been."

Peters said of his service that he was "in every [action?] which happened between army under Gen. Burgoyne and the rebels that campaign, except at Hublenston [Hubbardton]...", including the Battle of Bennington, where he commanded the Provincials and lost over half of the 291 men with him.  Peters and his men went to Saratoga on September 27th.  Two and a half weeks later, knowing the end was near, "On the 14th of October, in the morning, when it was expected the capitulation was nearly concluded, as I was in great anxiety and distress of mind, knowing how impossible it was that any capitulation could provide for my security, I met Gen. Phillipps, who asked me why I remained there, as I had told him before that no articles would protect me. I answered that whatever might be the event I would not go without orders in writing for that no one should be able to say that I had deserted them in the hour of distress."

Peters received written permission from Burgoyne to leave with as many of his officers and men he thought would be in danger, and set out with thirty-four others on the night of October 14th.  After leaving camp they marched in single file through the woods in the dark.  Two or three miles out they were challenged, and when asked for the password he replied: “Col. Peters with 1800 men, and they might fire as soon as they pleased."  Surprised, the Americans backed off, but pursued them the next day with about one-hundred men, forcing Peters and his men to continue marching southwest until it was safe to head north.  

“On the 16th…” Peters continued, “... at the beginning of the night, we found ourselves on the western bank of the Hudson river. The moon was just risen and close under us on the same side, at the mouth of a brook, was a man in a canoe, going to fish. We called to him, and by the fear of our firearms obliged him to come to us; but as three only could go at once in the canoe, and one was obliged always to come back to fetch two more, and as we were obliged to paddle for fear of being heard, in case any scouts of the rebels were at hand, it was midnight before we all got over.”   

Fortunately for Peters and his men, the man they met and his father were Loyalists also.  Received as friends, Peters' party was offered “some bear's flesh, some dried moose and some Indian corn”, and perhaps more importantly, informed that while there were American forces on the two paths they were expected to take, the son was willing to “lead us directly over the mountain so as to avoid these two parties, and go between them.”  

Lieutenant-Colonel John Peters and the men of the Queen's Royal Rangers, and the choices they were forced to make, are remembered today not only in Peters' narrative, and the plaque commemorating their departure from Saratoga, but by reenactors such as those pictured above, who keep the story of Peters Corps alive.

Next Week: The Fall Of Fort Montgomery - "Give The Substance Of This Account To Genl. Gates"

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 

   General Whipple's Journal         Burgoyne in Albany                    Annotated Bibliography 

 

[1] Article IX, "Articles of Convention", accessed online September 8, 2024 at: https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/burgoyne_gates.asp

[2] Burgoyne, A State of the Expedition From Canada, Narrative, 12; Appx., lxxxxv.

[3] Digby, The British Invasion From The North... With The Journal of Lieut. William Digby of the 53rd, or Shropshire Regiment of Foot, 304.

[4] John Peters, "Narrative", 1786, accessed online September 8, 2024 at: https://loyalist.lib.unb.ca/sites/default/files/Transcribed-Narrative-John-Peters-1786.pdf