Waltham, Massachusetts - "At Night We Staid At Walth Ham"

Waltham, Massachusetts, was one of the last towns on the 1777 route of march of the Convention Army from Saratoga to Cambridge, and the barracks in Charlestown on Prospect Hill and Winter Hill.  There wasn't a lot written about their passing through.  Several who must have done so didn't mention the town by name at all.  The one detail that I have found to date reflects poorly on the prisoners, that source claiming: “Petty pilfering at the places they stopped and annoyances of one kind or another marked their march, as might be expected.  As an instance, the widow Eunice Dench advertises that a silver porringer and spoon were taken from her inn at Waltham, Mass…” [1]

The British column and its guards were the first to reach Waltham.  They did so on November 5th.  Some simply passed through.  Massachusetts Militia Lieutenant Israel Bartlett noted in his diary: "Marched to Watertown [from Sudbury], 5 miles from Cambridge.” [2]  Brigadier-General William Whipple, who along with Brigadier-General John Glover and others was escorting the captured British Lieutenant-General John Burgoyne to Cambridge separately from his men, did the same, writing in his journal: "... after dinner [in Weston] set out for Watertown where arrived before night". [3]

Others stopped, such as Private David How who noted: This Day we march’d [from Sudbury] Through Westton.  at Night we Staid at Walth Ham.”, and British Lieutenant Francis (Lord) Napier of the 31st Regiment of Foot who recorded that he traveled fifteen miles from Marlborough to Waltham. [4]

Both How and Napier left Waltham the following day, and completed their three week journey from Saratoga to Cambridge and Prospect Hill on November 6th.  How would close out his account of the march with the comment: “Its ben Very Rainney all Day.”.  Napier would note that he marched from Waltham to: "... Barracks on Prospect Hill. 7 M[iles] 148 miles from St. Coick". [5] 

The German column and its guards must have marched through Waltham on November 7th, but none mention doing so.  Waltham, which was part of Watertown until it was incorporated as a town in 1738, was and still is located on what was the Post Road between Weston and Watertown. [6]  The author of the journal of the Von Specht Regiment noted that he spent the night of November 6th in Weston, and marched through Watertown and Cambridge to Winter Hill on November 7th. [7]  Brunswick Grenadier Johann Bense didn't specify where he stayed on November 6th.  On November 7th he simply wrote that he marched "through Watertown onto Winter Hill." [8]  

The diary of Joshua Pillsbury, one of their guards, doesn't mention Waltham either.  As published, it reads for November 6th: “Thursday Sudbury 08 Weston Framingham Watertown Cambridge Winterhill Charlestown 15 ...”.  More likely this entry should read: “Thursday Sudbury  Weston 08...", then “Friday” November 7th, not “Framingham” (nine miles to the southwest of Weston, opposite the direction of march), followed by Waltham one would expect, and then: "... Watertown Cambridge Winterhill Charlestown 15 [miles] Here We Left the prisoners took our Discharge and marched for our Respective homes” [9]

A map drawn in 1775 by two British officers, part of which is pictured above, suggests that the town's meeting house was set back from the road the Convention Army likely marched through on.  Could this have contributed to the lack of mention of Waltham?  Perhaps, but other features, such as the town's burial ground, now the Grove Hill Cemetery, were located on the main road that ran east-west through town, Route 20 or Main Street today.  

Unfortunately, the various histories of the town don't mention the passing of the Convention Army either.  The closest we have is a reference to some from the town's militia guarding the Convention Army, one author noting: "Eight went in November, 1777, to guard the troops of the Convention at Watertown, and remained until the following April." [10]  It's not entirely clear who they were guarding in Watertown.  The Convention Army would march through that town as well, to the delight of some, but they were not welcome by most.  In any event, some would pass through Waltham a second time, in November of 1778, on their way to Virginia and several more years of captivity. [11] 

Next Week: Watertown, Massachusetts - "The Day On Which They Were To Pass Through" 

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 

                                Burgoyne in Albany                    Annotated Bibliography 

[1] Alexander J. Wall, "The Story of Convention Army 1777-1783", The New York Historical Society Quarterly Bulletin, Vol. XI, No. 3, October 1927, 74.  A footnote attributes Dench's claim to the Boston Gazette, November 24 , 1777.

[2] Bartlett, "Journal", 402.

[3] Whipple, "Journal", Annotated Transcription, 9.

[4] How, Diary of David How, 50.  Napier, "Lord Francis Napier's Journal of the Burgoyne Campaign", 329.

[5] How, Diary of David How,  51.  Napier, "Lord Francis Napier's Journal of the Burgoyne Campaign", 330.

[6] D. Hamilton Hurd, History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts (Philadelphia, PA: J.W. Lewis & Co., 1890), 1:700-701.

[7] Specht Journal, 109.

[8] Bense, 80.

[9] Pillsbury, 788.

[10] Charles A. Nelson, Watertown Past and Present (Cambridge, MA: John Ford & Son, Printer, 1879), 104.

[11] Du Roi, Journal of Du Roi the Elder, 130.