The 1777 March of the Saratoga Convention Army

British accounts of the 1777 march of the Convention Army after the  surrender at Saratoga  are brief, with the exception the letters published by Ensign Thomas Anburey in 1789 under the title "Travels Through The Interior Parts Of America" .  German accounts of the march are rich in detail, and describe not only where they went and when, but what they saw and did along the way.  In addition, a series of drawing available online through  The New York Public Library Digital Collection  by Hessian Captain Friedrich von Germann show us what various German regiments looked like before the Saratoga campaign started, such as this soldier from the Brunswick Regiment von Specht.   German accounts of the 1777 march range from the memoirs and letters of its commander, to the brief diary entries of one of his soldiers, and include one kept by a woman, the wife of Major-General Friedrich Adolph Riedesel , the commander of General Burgoyne's German troops....

When I last wrote about  what the Convention Army looked like , I indicated that I was not aware of any image depicting the 1777 march.  Since then I've come across one, in a 1778 British political cartoon in the Library of Congress entitled  "The Closet" .  It shows, among other things, King George III with several of his advisors, and two panels labeled "Saratogha" [sic].  One of the Saratoga panels, pictured here, shows a column of soldiers marching off into captivity, hands bound, as American troops look on from a distance. Their commander, Lieutenant-General John Burgoyne, leads his men sword in hand , and a copy of his play "Maid of the Oaks" under one arm and book of poems under the other, and remarks of his downcast followers:  "I have led my Rag-o-muffians where they have been Peppered" . While there is nothing that suggests this image was drawn from life, especially since Burgoyne rode to meet Gates at his headquarters before depart...

Thursday, October 17, 2024, is the 247th anniversary of British Lieutenant-General John Burgoyne's surrender at Saratoga, New York.  The final days of his failed campaign are being remembered during "Siege Weekend" on October 12th and 13th at Saratoga National Historical Park , and a variety of other locations listed on the Saratoga 250 Events Page .  A month-long program of events, beginning with the Battle of Freeman's Farm, culminates on the 17th in a community remembrance of the surrender  at 10:00 AM at Fort Hardy Park in Schuylerville, New York, Saratoga National Historical Park rangers at the site where Burgoyne surrendered  about a mile south of Fort Hardy on Route 4, and at 6:00 PM, a "Surrender Day Benefit" in Saratoga Springs .  For those who like to plan ahead, 2025's commemoration of "Victory Season at Saratoga" is already on the Saratoga 250 website. Looking back, one of the earliest images of Burgoyne's surrender appears to...

American Major-General Horatio Gates and British Lieutenant-General John Burgoyne were both criticized for agreeing to the Articles of Convention that led to the surrender at Saratoga on October 17, 1777.  Susan Livingston of Pennsylvania wrote to her sister in Connecticut on November 1, 1777, saying: "The Articles of Capitulation [sic] ... are not relished this way, neither by Whigs, nor Tories, the latter say if Mr. Burgoyne was in a Situation to obtain such Terms he ought to have fought, the Former say if Burgoyne was obliged to surrender at all, Gates might have brought him to what Terms he pleased, so that it looks as if the two Generals wished to avoid fighting." [1] Should they have continued to fight, rather than agreeing to terms both generals would be criticized for accepting?  A significant factor in making that decision was what was happening to their south.  British Lieutenant William Digby would note in his account of the Saratoga campaign that even in it...