The 1777 March of the Saratoga Convention Army

In my first post on this blog , I reserved the right to stray now and then from the 1777 line of march of the Convention Army.  I didn't expect that it would take me to pop music star Taylor Swift .  It has though, by way of a report that she was purchasing a house in Kinderhook, New York, that hosted British Lieutenant-General John Burgoyne after his surrender at Saratoga, while on his way to confinement in Cambridge, Massachusetts. First off, the story is said to be false.  An August 15, 2023,  article in the Albany Times Union clarified that it was only a rumor that Swift was buying a house in Kinderhook, where a historical marker out front indicates  Burgoyne stayed on October 22, 1777 . According to the Times Union article, a local middle-school principle posted on his Facebook page that:  “It appears that Taylor Swift may become our neighbor. If the rumor is true, she has recently purchased the historic Burgoyne House across from the old Martin ...

Bennington Battle Day, August 16th, is a state holiday in Vermont.  It commemorates the victory of American militia forces over a mostly German detachment from British Lieutenant-General John Burgoyne's army sent to Bennington, Vermont, to seize badly needed supplies.  The Vermont Division of Historic Preservation maintains the 306 foot tall Bennington Battle Monument , erected in 1891, to commemorate the victory.   Despite these strong Vermont connections, the battle was fought in New York .   American forces fought under the command of New Hampshire Brigadier-General John Stark, memorialized today in prints, paintings,  and sculpture, including in the Crypt of United States Capitol under the Rotunda, as pictured on the website of the Architect of the Capitol .  Much of the battlefield is a New York state park, near the Walloomsac River just outside the town of Hoosick .  The site is not far from the route the British element of the Convent...

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...

The lead elements of the British column of the Convention Army left Worcester, Massachusetts, on November 3rd, 1777.  "We marched to Northborough..." noted Massachusetts Militia Lieutenant Israel Bartlett, without so much as a mention of the town of Shrewsbury, which lay between the two stops.    "This morning we all Draw'd Provisions [in Worcester] to Last to Boston And Set off.  marched Through Susbarry.  At Night We Staid at Northberry" wrote Private David How, noting, but erring on the spelling of both Shrewsbury, and its neighbor Northborough to the east .  Others halted in Shrewsbury overnight, and continued on the following day, Lord Napier noting the town as "Shrewsberry" . [1] German troops passed through a day later.  "Wednesday [November 5th] Shrewsbury and Northboro to Marlborough 23 [miles]" wrote Joshua Pillsbury.  Perhaps the fatigue of two weeks on the road had set in for the diarists of the march.  Even the usually lo...

The lead element of the re-united Convention Army marched through Leicester, Massachusetts, on November 2, 1777.  Massachusetts Militia Lieutenant Israel Bartlett, a guard with the British column, noted in his journal for that day:  "... marched thro' Leicester and halted at Worcester, 14 miles from our last quarters."  [1]  More British prisoners passed through on November 3rd.  The journal of an officer of the 47th Regiment of Foot notes they made a seventeen mile march from Brookfield to Worcester that day which would have taken them through Leicester, but makes no mention of that. [2] The Germans, who marched behind the British and stayed in town the night of November 3rd, were more descriptive:  "Our march went via Spencer to Leicester today [November 3] and came 14 Engl. miles.  The houses were close to each other and in part very beautiful; most of them were two stories high!"  [3]  As had been the case since Palmer, the road they took...

On November 1, 1777, the the Convention Army was in or nearing Brookfield, Massachusetts, and a common route to Cambridge.  At its front were some of the British troops, escorted by soldiers from the Massachusetts Militia, including Lieutenant Israel Bartlett who claimed that after a short march they stopped for the night in Spencer:  "Nov. 1 Saturday - We marched 1 1/2 miles to Spencer & halted all the rest of the day to draw provisions; the commissary being absent, could not draw."   The following day, he and those under his charge "... drew one day's provision and marched thro' Leicester and halted at Worcester, 14 miles from our last quarters."   [1] Most of the Convention Army marched through Spencer without staying overnight.  Massachusetts Militia Private David How, who also guarded the British column, noted that on November 2nd:  "This morning we set off [from Brookfield] march'd through Spenser & Lester and at Night we staid at Wors...

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 ...