The 1777 March of the Saratoga Convention Army

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,...

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...

The surrender at Saratoga was bound to attract attention.  Countless paintings and engravings picture defeated British Lieutenant-General John Burgoyne offering his sword to American Major-General Horatio Gates.  I've yet to find a contemporary drawing, painting or print depicting scenes from the three week march of the Convention Army.  The closest I've come is this print in the Library of Congress , which shows curious onlookers, including what appears to be a person of color, watching as American guards escort Germans captured at Trenton to Philadelphia in 1776.  Fortunately, a number of memoirs, diaries and letters describe the Convention Army as it passed, from the beginning of its march at Saratoga to its arrival outside of Boston.   Among the many American witnesses present at the start was Colonel Jeduthan Baldwin, who recorded in his diary that on October 17th, "About 11 o clock the enemy laid down there arms & Marched out thro our Army th...

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, ...

I intended this blog post to focus on Cambridge as the final stop of the march of the Convention Army.  Two things changed that.  The first was learning that while Burgoyne and his senior officers were primarily quartered in Cambridge, his troops were held in Continental Army barracks on Prospect Hill, the site today marked by the magnificent stone tower shown below, and Winter Hill.  The second was visiting Somerville, which in 1777 was still part of Charlestown and is where both hills are located. The 1777 march of the Convention Army began in earnest on October 18th, with many thinking their destination was Boston.  German Grenadier Johann Bense noted in his diary for that day  "... we set out for Boston..." [1]  A letter dated October 22nd from Greenbush, New York, published in the Massachusetts Spy in Worcester, noted that after grounding their arms, Burgoyne's troops "... marched down to Stillwater, and crossed Hudson's river the 18th in order to ma...

February 22, 2023, marks the 291st anniversary of the birth of George Washington, pictured here in a  Library of Congress  print published in Germany in 1777 or 1778.  For more than two centuries Washington's birth has been widely noted, and was a federally recognized holiday from 1885 to 1971.  For the last five decades an all encompassing "Presidents' Day" has supplanted not only a holiday observance on the date of Washington's birth, but the February 12th celebration of the birthday of another truly great American President, Abraham Lincoln. In the fall of 1777 Washington hands were full as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army.  While Major-General Horatio Gates defended the upper Hudson River Valley, Washington was responding to British General Sir William Howe's expedition moving not north to support Burgoyne, but south by ship into the Chesapeake Bay and then north by land to Philadelphia.  On September 11th British forces maneuvered to fla...

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...