The 1777 March of the Saratoga Convention Army

On November 4, 1777, the Convention Army was only days away from Boston.  A listing of their  overnight stops  makes it clear that British and German troops traveled on separate routes from New York through western Massachusetts and on past the Connecticut River, until they reached Worcester County; and that within each column the troops were spread out over many miles, with elements passing through or stopping in several towns on the same day.   Most of the British column would leave Worcester County on the 4th, after having spent the night in Shrewsbury or Northborough.   "We marched to Northborough..."  wrote Massachusetts Militia Lieutenant Israel Bartlett on the 3rd.  [1]   "[A]t Night We Staid at Northberry [Northborough]"  noted Private David How. [2]  The remainder of the British troops were a day behind, and perhaps to avoid having to share the road and its resources with the German column, some appear to have lef...

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 ...