Burgoyne’s Camp Kettle - “Captured October 17, 1777, In The Battle Of Saratoga[?]”

A number of museums have displayed items said to be associated with British Lieutenant-General John Burgoyne.  They offer visitors a physical connection to the Saratoga campaign, and serve as a reminder of the American victory in October of 1777, which changed the course of the Revolutionary War.  One of these objects is a kettle described as “Burgoyne’s Camp Kettle” which, up until recently, was on display at the Bennington Battle Monument in Bennington, Vermont.

My introduction to Burgoyne’s Camp Kettle came by way of a postcard, as pictured here.  In addition to the painted description on the kettle itself which identified this as “Gen. Burgoyne’s Camp-Kettle”, the back of the postcard indicated that this was “Gen. Burgoyne’s Camp Kettle captured October 17, 1777, in the battle of Saratoga, where Gen. Burgoyne surrendered”.  A caption on the front of the postcard indicated that the picture was taken at the Bennington Battle Monument, a Vermont State Historic Site.

Curiosity, and an already planned trip to another great Vermont State Historic Site, Mount Independence in Orwell, Vermont, prompted me to make plans to visit the Bennington Battle Monument and see what I could learn about Burgoyne's Camp Kettle.

When I reached out to the administrator at the monument, I learned that the kettle was no longer on display, as it had been sent out for conservation.  I was however graciously offered access to the site's research file on the kettle, which contained a number of articles regarding this kettle's history, and camp kettles in general.  

Reenactors and others have done a significant amount of research on camp kettles.  To summarize the topic briefly, it was generally the practice during this period for tentmates to form a "mess" consisting of a half-dozen or so soldiers who would then cook their rations as a group.  Joseph Plumb Martin, a Connecticut soldier in the Continental Army, mentions camp kettles several times in his 1830 narrative of his service.  In 1776 he noted, "We had our cooking utensils (at that time the most useless things in the army,) to carry in our hands. They were made of cast iron and consequently heavy. ... when I took up the kettle, which held nearly a common pail full, I could not carry it; my arms were almost dislocated..."  [1]

The following year, during a march that his regiment made from Pennsylvania into New Jersey, he recalled: "We had always, in the army, to carry our cooking utensils in our hands by turns, and at this time, as we were not overburthened [sic] with provisions, our mess had put ours into our kettle, it not being very heavy, as it was made of plated iron.  Before noon, I had the carriage of the kettle and its contents, and thinking that I had carried it more than my turn, and the troops just then making a momentary halt, I put the kettle down in the road, telling my messmates that if they would not take their turns carrying it I would carry it no further.  They were cross and refused to take it up; I was as contrary as they were, so we all went on and left it.  One of our company in the next platoon, in the rear of us, took it up and brought it on.  We marched about half a mile and made another halt, when I turned round and saw the man who had taken care of our kettle, with one or two others helping themselves to the contents of it...  After the men had quieted their appetites one of them very civilly came and gave me up the kettle, but the provisions were mostly absent without leave." [2]

The Burgoyne Camp Kettle is not the only Revolutionary War camp kettle that has been displayed at a Vermont Historic Site.  There is a kettle in the Visitor Center at Mount Independence which fits the description of Martin's cast iron kettle.  That kettle, pictured here, was excavated from the site which was occupied for military purposes during the Revolutionary War first by American troops beginning in the summer of 1776, and then by British and German troops during the Saratoga campaign, after being taken by Burgoyne in July of 1777.

Although I was not able to actually see the Bennington kettle, it was helpful to find documentation in the file regarding its dimensions.  This information immediately called into question as to how the Bennington kettle could be Burgoyne's - or anyone else's - "camp kettle".  According to the file, the Bennington kettle was thirty-four inches across, capable of holding a "barrel" (rather than a pail) of contents, and weighed about four hundred pounds.  Documentation in the file went on to say "... the provenance of the artifact is incomplete.  There is little record of its whereabouts or ownership until first reference was made to it 'sometime in the 1820's'...". [3]

As a result of learning the kettle's dimensions I dismissed the object, or anything like it, as unlikely having any connection with the Saratoga campaign - prematurely it would turn out.  A few weeks later, while tracking down the full text of an unrelated document, I came across an order issued by Vermont authorities after the Battle of Bennington which read: "State of Vermont, In Council Of Safety, Bennington, 25 Aug[us]t 1777. To Captain John Fassett: Sir, - You are hereby required to Take a potash Kittle for the Hessian Troops to Cook in, give our Rec[eipt]'t for the same & bring the same to the Meeting-House in this place.  By order of Council, Ira Allen, Sec[retar]'y" [4]  

Most likely the potash kettle that was to be sent to Bennington was to be used to cook food for prisoners who were wounded and still in Bennington after the battle fought nearby on August 16, 1777.  A month after the Council of Safety issued its order, British Ensign Thomas Hughes of the 53rd Regiment of Foot, who was captured on September 18, 1777 in Colonel John Brown's raid on Fort Ticonderoga, noted that when he passed through Bennington as a prisoner on September 25, 1777, there was in town "... a Meeting House (fill'd with wounded men)...". [5]

For those who are unfamiliar with the making of potash in the eighteenth century, it involved boiling wood ashes in water over a fire in a large kettle, as pictured here (though in a nineteenth century illustration), to obtain potassium carbonate.  I'd read about the process years ago in a history of Cooperstown, New York, which explained that settlers in frontier communities "... would go into the forest, chop down maple and elm trees, roll them together, and burn them, for the ashes alone...", in order to obtain a product they could more easily transport to sell than lumber. [6]

Is the Bennington Battle Monument's "Burgoyne's Camp Kettle" actually the "Kittle for the Hessian Troops to Cook in"?  It's impossible to say that it's the same one at this time, as the history of the kettle once on display appears to only date back to the 1820's.  However, the Vermont Council of Safety's order from August 25, 1777, suggests a kettle such as the one which was on display for years may have been used to feed wounded prisoners from the Battle of Bennington.  That would seem to be an even more relevant connection to the Bennington Battle Monument as we approach the 250th anniversary of the Battle of Bennington (and the surrender at Saratoga) than the claim that it was “Gen. Burgoyne’s Camp Kettle captured October 17, 1777, in the battle of Saratoga...".

Next Week: Next Week: Commemorating The Convention Army's Journey - “Only A Short March To Worcester” 

Last Week: The German Experience - "We Finally Reached Boston"

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] Joseph Plumb Martin, Narrative Of Some Of The Adventures, Dangers And Sufferings Of A Revolutionary Soldier (Hallowell, ME: Glazier, Masters & Co., 1830), 39.
[2] Martin, Narrative, 60.
[3] Burgoyne Camp Kettle File, Bennington Battle Monument Vermont State Historic Site, reviewed by the author August 31, 2024.

[4] E.P. Walton, ed., Records of the Council of Safety and Governor and Council of the State of Vermont (Montpelier, VT: Steam Press of J.&J.M. Poland, 1873), 1:147.

[5] Hughes, Journal, 12, 16-17.

[6] Alan Taylor, William Cooper's Town (New York, NY: Vintage Books, 1996), 109.