A Lexington-Saratoga Connection - "My Return From Camp Home"
How many connections are there between Concord and Lexington, and the 1777 march of the Convention Army? One British unit, the 47th Regiment of Foot , fought both on April 19, 1775, and two years later in 1777 as part of Lieutenant-General John Burgoyne’s army, in a campaign which culminated in the surrender at Saratoga. On the American side, countless Massachusetts militiamen who answered the call on April 19th, 1775, did so again in the summer and fall of 1777. Benjamin Lock of Lexington is said to be one of them. Several primary sources place him with the Convention Army, including two in his own hand. One is the journal he kept in 1777 on his way to Saratoga, and his return home after the surrender, which he submitted with his claim for a pension in 1833. The second is a receipt in the collection of the Lexington Historical Society that he and others from Lexington who served in Captain Samuel Farrar's company with Colonel Jonathan Reed's 6t...