The 1777 March of the Saratoga Convention Army

As the commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution continues, a recreation of the Battle of Bunker Hill has been planned for the weekend of June 21 and 22, 2025, (albeit in Gloucester, Massachusetts, twenty-five miles northeast of the actual site, due to the urban nature of Charlestown in the 21st century, its organizers indicate).  As is the case with the Battle of  Lexington  and Concord , there are multiple connection between the events of June 17, 1775, and the Massachusetts militiamen who escorted the Convention Army from Saratoga to Massachusetts in 1777. Perhaps the most dramatic of these connections is one of the men associated with the order  "Don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes."   Historian and author J.L. Bell, creator of the Boston 1775 blog, examined the origin of this quote in detail in a June 17, 2020, article in the Journal of the American Revolution .  Bell traces the Bunker Hill order story back to 180...

How many connections are there between Concord and Lexington, and the 1777 march of the Convention Army?  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.  On the British side just one unit, the 47th Regiment of Foot , took part in both the 1775 raid on Concord, and Lieutenant-General John Burgoyne's 1777 expedition from Canada.   The militia troops who mobilized on April 19th came from towns and villages in Essex County, as well as Middlesex County .  The Reverend Manasseh Cutler of Ipswich, Massachusetts, would note in his diary: "... At sunset [on April 19, 1775] we got almost into Cambridge, and met with our people just after they fired their last gun.  The British fought upon a retreat from Concord to Cambridge, where they had boats to take them on board for Boston.  It is not known how many were killed on either side..." [1]  Fortunately, the Ma...

How many connections are there between Concord and Lexington, and the 1777 march of the Convention Army?  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 appears to be one of them, as evidenced by a deposition he signed on April 25, 1775,  the journal he kept in 1777  documenting his  journey to Saratoga and his return home after the surrender as a guard with the German column of the Convention Army, and a   pay receipt for service during the Saratoga campaign   that is now in the collection of the Lexington Historical Society.  Was Benjamin Lock among the men on Lexington Green who were fired upon by British troops on the morning of April 19th, 1775, as pictured here in an engraving by Ralph Earl and Amos Dolittle? [1]   When Lock submitted his claim for a pension in 1833, he did not mention that he was on Lexingt...

How many connections are there between Concord and Lexington, and the 1777 march of the Convention Army?  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, as evidenced by  the journal he kept in 1777  documenting his  journey to Saratoga, and his return home after the surrender as a guard with the German column of the Convention Army, as well as the pay receipt he signed in Lincoln in 1778 seven months later.    Benjamin Wellington, eighth on the Lexington list , has an interesting story of his own.  A bronze plaque (pictured here) at the corner of Follen Road and Pleasant Street in Lexington, on the lawn of Scared Heart Church, notes his capture with the words:  "Near this spot at early dawn on the 19th of April 1775, Benjamin Wellington, a minute man, was surprised by British scouts and...

How many connections are there between Lexington and Concord, and the 1777 march of the Convention Army?  On the American side, countless Massachusetts militiamen who answered the call on April 19, 1775, did so again in the summer and fall of 1777.  Benjamin Lock of Lexington is said to be one of them.  Several documents confirm he served with the Massachusetts militia late during the Saratoga campaign.  One is the journal he kept in 1777  documenting his  to march to Saratoga and return home after the surrender.   Another is a document in the collection of the Lexington Historical Society , created in Lincoln, Massachusetts in June of 1778.  It reads:  "These may certify whom it may concern that we the subscribers have Rec'd of Sam'l Farrar Jr. our Continental Pay in the thirty Day Service in his company in Col'l Reeds Regiment to Reinforce the Northern army under Gen'l Gates" .  Twenty names follow, the signature of each man (or h...

By 1777 the central Massachusetts town of  Worcester, forty miles west of Boston, had a reputation as friendly to the patriot cause.  Residents had  shut down the courts  in September 1774, in what author Ray Raphael argues was the true start of the American Revolution.  Patriot printer Isaiah Thomas, who fled British controlled Boston in April of 1775 due to the political views expressed in his newspaper the  Massachusetts Spy , subtitled  "Or, American ORACLE Of Liberty" , published an account of the fighting on April 19th at Lexington and Concord in his  first Worcester issue  on May 3rd, 1775.  Worcester residents had served as militiamen and Continental soldiers in the Northern Army that had stopped British Lieutenant-General John Burgoyne and his army - and allegedly one of his messengers.  Like many Massachusetts towns though, it was also home, or   once home, to Loyalists  a s well.   On October 22, 1777,...

Few if any accounts of the Saratoga campaign, Burgoyne's surrender, or the Convention Army mention Massachusetts Militia Private David How.  Fortunately for our purposes, How kept diaries of his service in the American Revolution, including a day by day account of his march from Stillwater, New York to Prospect Hill in Charlestown (now Somerville), Massachusetts in 1777, as a guard with the British column of prisoners. While his entry for each day is a brief sentence or two, he captures important detail on the route taken and challenges faced.   How was called out for service with the militia company of his home town of Methuen at the end of September in response to Burgoyne's invasion, then halted on the banks of the Hudson River.  On October 2nd he prepared himself to march by acquiring a pair of shoes and making cartridges for his musket.  His orders were similar to those issued to thousands of other men across New England, such as soldiers from Woburn, ...