Maps - “Sitting In Their Closets, With A Map Before Them”

This post, according to the automated count on my "Blogger" dashboard, is the one-hundredth that I've made since I began documenting the 1777 march of the Convention Army in January of 2023.  It's been well worth the effort to find and explore the people, places and events of the march, across sixty or so communities in three states (or what was two states and a republic in 1777), and to track the path they followed as accurately as possible.  

Doing so has had its challenges, and perhaps at times mirrored the frustration of British Ensign Thomas Anburey noted with regard to the Saratoga campaign that: "... this expedition appears to have been planned by those, who, sitting in their closets, with a map before them, ridiculously expect the movements of an army to keep pace with their rapid ideas..." [1] 

Anburey, or whoever drew the map which was included in his account of his travels, has not only frustrated but definitely confused at least a few historians himself.  As noted in a prior post, with regard to a section of that map shown here, the route of march of the British column from Saratoga to Cambridge highlighted in red on Anburey's map doesn't match where he said he went, or the towns listed in the journals and diaries which document the march of the British column. 

Anburey's written account of the 1777 march indicates that following the surrender, and once they were across the Hudson River, he and his British colleagues traveled southeast into Vermont, then on to Williamstown, Massachusetts and Pittsfield, before heading east and eventually crossing the Connecticut River into Hadley.   However, the highlighted route on his map runs instead east from Saratoga to Bennington, Vermont, and then Northfield, Massachusetts, and continues on south along the Connecticut River to Deerfield and Hatfield, before it crosses the Connecticut River from there into Hadley.  

At least one author has mistakenly accepted the route depicted on Anburey's map as the route, or one of the routes, the British column took.  Charles Ramsdell Lingley, who set out to document the treatment of the Convention Army over a century ago, claimed among other things that after the surrender they marched: "... over the Green Mountains from Saratoga to the Connecticut valley, down the valley through the historic towns of Northfield, Deerfield and Hatfield, then east across the river through Hadley, Amherst and Worcester to Cambridge.".  Lingley went on to explain in a footnote: "The best account of the experiences of these prisoners from the British soldier's point of view is contained in a series of breezy letter by Thomas Anburey...  The first volume contains a map showing the travels of the convention troops.  The paragraph in the text [quoted in part above] is based on the map and on vol. ii, pp. 54-58.". [2]  Unfortunately he was mistaken.

Another map with an issue, shown in relevant part here, was updated and published in France in 1779 by Brion de Tour to show the location of Lieutenant-General John Burgoyne's final camp prior to the surrender at Saratoga on October 17, 1777.  While de Tour's map shows the location of a number of locations relevant to the Saratoga campaign such as Bennington, Albany and the Hudson River, it incorrectly places Burgoyne and his army northwest of Saratoga Lake at the time of the surrender, rather than on the west bank of the Hudson River above what was at the time the ruins of Fort Hardy.  

In addition to the errors found from time to time in eighteenth century maps, most fail to show much in terms of detail with regard to the roads across the region.  As a result, tracking the route of march of the Convention Army requires piecing together details of the march from various accounts, noting what still exists today, and using slightly later but more detailed town maps made of most Massachusetts towns around 1795 (such as this one for Leicester, Massachusetts), which can be found using the advanced search feature on "Digital Commonwealth", an approach that still requires a careful comparison with the roads as they exist today.   

Researching and documenting the 1777 march of the Convention Army takes time.  My approach to doing so needs to change a bit, from weekly posts to what in the medical community is referred to as "PRN", a term meaning "as needed" (from the abbreviation of the Latin phrase "pro re nata").  Regardless, I look forward to continuing to explore and share the 1777 march, and from time to time making a connection between a Convention Army person, place or event, and the 250th commemoration of the Revolutionary War

Next Time: Books - “My Intention Is To Give A Succinct Account Of Some Of My Adventures” 

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

 

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] Anburey, Travels Through the Interior Parts of America, 2:5-6.
[2] Charles Ramsdell Lingley, "The Treatment of Burgoyne's Troops Under the Saratoga Convention", Advance Sheets From Political Science Quarterly, Vol. XXII, No. 3, 1907, 415-416.