The 1777 March of the Saratoga Convention Army

Did Brigadier-General James Brickett of the Massachusetts Militia embarrass himself as an officer and a gentleman during the Revolutionary War?  Several sources would have you believe that he did, but I question the accuracy, motivation or intent of each. Brickett, unlike Brigadier-General John Nixon , has a well documented connection to the 1777 march of the Convention Army following Lieutenant-General John Burgoyne's surrender at Saratoga on October 17, 1777.  Brigadier-General John Glover, who was assigned the overall responsibility for getting the prisoners to Boston, confirmed this in a statement he made to Massachusetts officials in 1780, noting:  "That Brigadier General James Brickett, was appointed to the Command of About five Hundred Militia, Detached from General Gates Army, to Guard a Division of the Convention Troops, from Saratoga to Cambridge, in October 1777...." [1] An assessment of Massachusetts officers written before the Saratoga campaign is especiall...

On October 29, 1777, the British Column of the Convention Army faced the last remaining major natural obstacle on their march to Cambridge, Massachusetts.  The day after their surrender at Saratoga they had crossed the Hudson River .  In the tens days that followed they had marched through a corner of Vermont , south to Pittsfield, Massachusetts , and then east to  Northampton,  on the west bank of the Connecticut River. Rivers were a formidable obstacle to travelers in the eighteenth century, especially an army numbering in the thousands which included soldiers (and some of their wives and children) marching on foot, officers on horseback, and horse or ox-drawn wagons loaded with personal belongings, equipment and supplies.  There was no bridge from Northampton to Hadley, or anywhere else along the Connecticut River in 1777.  The first was not completed until 1785, fifty miles upstream, between Walpole, New Hampshire, and Bellows Falls, Vermont. [1] Crossi...

This year will be the 250th Anniversary of an incident in Boston that has become known as the " Boston Tea Party ".  There, on the night of December 16, 1773, a band of protestors boarded three ships carrying tea, unloaded and smashed the chests it was packed in, and threw 92,000 pounds of it into the harbor to protest the tax imposed to raise money for Britain and support the British East India Company.  In response, the British government shut down the port of Boston and passed other measures that would lead to the outbreak of the Revolutionary War on April 19, 1775. Three months later, on March 28, 1774, a lesser known incident referred to by some as the  "Weston Tea Party"  occurred at the inn of Isaac Jones in Weston, Massachusetts.  Jones was considered a Tory by many of his neighbors, as he remained loyal to Britain.  In addition, he allegedly had continued to sell tea despite the strong opposition to doing so across Massachusetts and being warn...

I have used a number primary sources, letters or other documents written by individuals with a direct connection to the march of the Convention Army, to research and write posts for this blog.  One of the first I encountered, years ago, was Travels Through the Interior Parts of America, In A Series Of Letters , written "By An Officer" .  Originally published in London in 1789, it has been reprinted on several occasions and in several languages, including almost two centuries later by the Arno Press, in 1969.  While the title page doesn't name the author, the work is dedicated "To Earl of Harrington, Viscount Petersham and Colonel of the 29th Regiment of Foot"  by Thomas Anburey. [1]  Anburey's account of his time in America covers five years, from 1776 to 1781, and was published in two volumes.  Included are eight prints, one being a map to illustrate the range of his travels from Quebec to Virginia, titled as shown in this excerpt from the online collectio...