The 1777 March of the Saratoga Convention Army

Sixteen year old Ezra Ross of Ipswich, Massachusetts, likely feared he might die on several occasions before July 2, 1778.  On December 19, 1775, he had enlisted in Colonel Loammi Baldwin's 26th Continental Regiment.  In the year that followed, his regiment would take part in the Siege of Boston, Washington's unsuccessful attempt to defend New York City from a British invasion, and the Battle of Trenton before their enlistments expired on December 31, 1776.  In August of 1777, Ross would either volunteer or be drafted to serve again, one of the two-thousand Massachusetts militiamen called for to reinforce the Northern Army under the command of Major-General Horatio Gates. [1]    Eight months later, and just a few weeks before his seventeenth birthday, he faced certain death. [2]   Ross, along with Sergeant James Buchannon and Private William Brooks of the British 9th Regiment of Foot, and Bathsheba Spooner of Brookfield, Massachusetts , had been convi...

October 21, 1777, was the second full day of marching for the German column of the Convention Army.  Once again, Massachusetts Militiaman Joshua Pillsbury noted just the basics in his account:  "Tusday Greenbush 15 [miles]" .  Brunswicker Grenadier Johann Bense noted a bit, but not much more:  "14 Miles out of New City in the woods" . [1]  Greenbush, New York, just across the Hudson River from Albany, was first occupied by Europeans 150 years earlier.  Dutch settlers began farming in the area in 1628 according to  Greenbush Historical Society .  The Greenbush of 1777 covered a large area, which was broken up in 1855 into North Greenbush, East Greenbush and the City of Rensselaer.  Today, the state of New York operates the  Crailo State Historic Site  to tell the story the occupation of the region by Dutch farmers.    Crailo  is named after the Van Rensselaer estate in the Netherlands, variously spelled Crayloo or Cral...

Lieutenant Israel Bartlett, a Massachusetts Militia officer escorting the British column of the Convention Army, noted that on October 31st he and his comrades  "... marched 1 1/2 mile [from present-day Warren, Massachusetts] and halted in front of the British Army - breakfasted & marched to the furthest part of Brookfield 11 miles from our last quarters.  We were forced to march 4 or 5 miles further than we intended, for want of quarters."  [1] What was Brookfield in 1777 is now four towns: Brookfield, North Brookfield (incorporated in 1812), West Brookfield (incorporated in 1848, but as the site of the first area of European settlement claimant of the title of the "mother town" of the Brookfields ), and East Brookfield (incorporated in 1920, and the  youngest town in Massachusetts ).  The present day borders of these towns span a straight-line distance of about ten miles both west to east and north to south.   The European settlement of the ...

There was and is more to Brookfield, Massachusetts, than t he murder of Joshua Spooner .    That includes the displacement of its Native inhabitants a century earlier by 17th century European settlers, the coming and going of the Convention Army along its  post road and past its milestones , and a story of "what might have been".  My own travel along the route of march of the Convention Army in 1777 has led to further exploration of the town (now four towns), including West Brookfield's  "Asparagus, Flower and Heritage Festival"  in May, and winter festival seen below outside what was tavern in 1777 and recently re-opened as the Hitchcock Tavern, a place for lunch or dinner, and drinks. The first troops of the Convention Army to arrive in Brookfield were from the British column.  Massachusetts Militia Private David How, one of their guards, wrote that on October 31st:  "This Day we marchd to Brookfield Staid at Night."   How and others would ...

The day after the vote to approve the Declaration of Independence, John Adams of Massachusetts wrote home to his wife Abagail: " The Second Day of July 1776 , will be the most memorable Epocha, in the history of America. - I am apt to believe it will be celebrated, by succeeding generations, as the great anniversary Festival."   On July 2, 1778, a crowd of some 5,000  people had gathered in Worcester, Massachusetts, two years to the day after the Continental Congress resolved  "That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States..."  They had not gathered to celebrate American independence, as Adams had predicted.  It was a much darker event that brought them together - a public execution, not one hanging but four, one of the four a woman.  All had been convicted of the murder of Joshua Spooner in Brookfield, Massachusetts, on March 1, 1778. How does a 1778 murder tie into the march of the Convention Army?  F...

What do trolley rides, an asparagus festival, and the Brimfield Flea Market have to do with the march of the Convention Army?  Nothing directly, but each is associated with an event [that occurred in 2023] in towns along the route of the 1777 march of the Convention Army.  Exploring history doesn't mean we can't look beyond primary sources and historical sites to learn a little more about the people and places along the way.     First to consider is the  Brimfield Flea Market .  The "spring show", one of three held each year.  If you have never been to Brimfield, it's an experience worth considering.  It is not a single flea market or antique show, but a collection of overlapping sales in the fields along Route 20 west from the center of town.  Vendors offer a dazzling array of items, ranging from traditional antiques to industrial salvage, fine pieces and some junk, as well as food and beverage.  Some fields are open every day, som...

A goal of this blog is to find, see and share some of what the Convention Army saw on their 1777 march from Saratoga to Cambridge.  Milestones, markers set at one mile intervals along part of their route, are one such example, and a clue to which roads they took - especially where original sections of those roads have been replaced.  They also revealed to me that for years I had overlooked links to the past just miles from my home. The story of post road milestones in New England is traditionally linked to Benjamin Franklin, in his role as Deputy Postmaster General.  According to many accounts, in 1767 he personally placed red sandstone markers at one mile intervals along what is known as the Upper Post Road from Boston through Springfield, to New York City.  Typical is this one pictured, located in Brookfield, Massachusetts, 65 miles west of Boston. The problem with this legend is that in what I've read to date, no primary source is cited to link Franklin or the 176...

Last week I shared that tracking the 1777 journey of Lieutenant-General John Burgoyne from Saratoga to Cambridge was a challenge.  Several primary sources document he stayed in Albany at Major-General Philip Schuyler's home until October 27th, and arrived in Cambridge on November 7th.  Less clear was where he stopped in between, though multiple locations lay claim to the statement "Burgoyne slept here" - some relatively easy to challenge, others not so much so. Travelers during the Revolutionary War going from Albany to Boston (or Boston to Albany) generally followed one of two major routes that correspond to the routes taken by the British and German columns.  A traveler leaving Albany could head south towards Kinderhook, then east through Great Barrington to Springfield, and on to Boston (or Cambridge for our purposes) along the Western Post Road.  Alternatively, a traveler could head east from Albany to Pittsfield or Williamstown, then through the Berkshires to c...

Article IV of the Articles of Convention required "The army under Lieutenant-general Burgoyne, to march to Massachusetts Bay, by the easiest, most expeditious, and convenient route; and be quartered in, near, or as convenient as possible to Boston..." Understanding the routes taken is a study of history and geography.  There is no direct natural route from Saratoga to Boston, but a well established network of roads provided a way across rivers and streams, over mountains, through woods, and past countless farms and villages.  American militia units had taken many of these roads in the summer and early fall of 1777 to join the Northern Army under Major-General Horatio Gates at Saratoga, and would use them to escort Lieutenant-General John Burgoyne's British and German troops to quarters in Cambridge and present-day Somerville (then part of Charlestown) Massachusetts to await their fate.  I'm interested in following their footsteps as closely as possible. Two accounts ...