The 1777 March of the Saratoga Convention Army

Weston, Massachusetts, was the last stopping point on the road to Cambridge and Charlestown for some of Lieutenant-General John Burgoyne's British and German troops.  The Convention Army arrived there after three weeks on the march, following their  surrender at Saratoga  on October 17, 1777.   Weston (not to be confused with what was the town of " Western " in 1777, and is Warren, Massachusetts, today) was ten miles from the barracks assigned to the troops of the Convention Army on Prospect Hill and Winter Hill in Charlestown.  Weston was a part of Watertown until it was separately incorporated in 1713.  The town's first European settlers arrived in 1642.  In 1765 the town's population was 768 residents.  A decade earlier there were nineteen enslaved persons. [1]  In 1777 it was home to several taverns, including the one pictured below run by Josiah Smith, which is home to the town's Historical Commission and Historical Society, a...

Some British soldiers from the Convention Army, Lieutenant-General John Burgoyne's troops who had surrendered at Saratoga  on October 17, 1777, reached the town on Sudbury, Massachusetts, a bit sooner than they were expected to.  Massachusetts Militia Lieutenant Israel Bartlett noted in his diary:  “[Nov.] 4 Tuesday - Marched from Northborough to Marlborough , 8 miles and halted - we are mustered and obliged to march, occasioned by the Artillery’s advancing beyond the lines set - we marched 5 miles and halted at Sudbury.”   Private David How was also among those who arrived on the 4th. “This Day we march’d Through Marlborough .  At Night we Staid at Sutton [sic].  I have ben on Guard this Night.”   How's entry reminds us that the march was a military operation that tasked tired soldiers to be on duty at all hours; and that historical research using primary sources requires thoughtful analysis, as it was clearly the town of Sudbury where he stopped o...

On November 4, 1777, many of the British troops who had surrendered at Saratoga reached the Middlesex County town of Marlborough, Massachusetts.  Some, including British Lieutenant Francis (Lord) Napier of the 31st Regiment of Foot, stopped for the night.  Others, it was noted by Massachusetts Militia Lieutenant Israel Bartlett and Private David How, continued on to Sudbury. [1] The following day German troops arrived.  The usually loquacious German sources offer little detail on their stay, one writing: "November 5th, we marched through Shrewsbury and Northborough to Marlborough, sixteen miles." ; and another: "We marched through Shrewsbury and through Northborough up to Marlborough, where we received quarters.  We had marched 16 Engl. miles altogether.  The roads were good." [2]    Marlborough resident Alpheus Woods was able to sum up the coming and going with one entry (although he struggled with the spelling of the name of captured Britis...

When most of Lieutenant-General John Burgoyne's British and German troops who surrendered at Saratoga left Northborough, Massachusetts in November of 1777, they left Worcester County as well, and entered Middlesex County.  Middlesex County was one of the four original counties created in Massachusetts in 1643.  Several of its towns which the Convention Army would pass through or stop in on their 1777 march had been incorporated in the seventeenth century, including Charlestown (1630),  Watertown (1630), Cambridge (1636), Sudbury (1639), and Marlborough (1660). [1]   The German troops of the Convention Army marched through Middlesex County again in November of 1778, on their way to Virginia.  One wrote home about the differences between Germany and New England.  In describing their march, inspired perhaps by views like that pictured here of what is now the "Wayside Inn" in Sudbury, he noted:  "The troops marched through the towns of Cambridge, Wa...

This week's celebration of the anniversary of the United States declaring it's independence seems as good a time as any to share a story about the writing of the song "Yankee Doodle", and its connections to the  surrender at Saratoga  on October 17, 1777, and the 1777 march of the Convention Army.   There are a number of claims that the song was played by victorious American musicians when the army of Lieutenant-General John Burgoyne surrendered at Saratoga.  One comes from a footnote in a collection of accounts of visits to the battlefield by William L. Stone which reads: "The piling of the arms was, it is true, done amid profound silence and without any attempt to humiliate the British.  The instant, however that the march southward began, the American bands struck up "Yankee Doodle".  ... This song had been set to music by a facetious English surgeon at Lake George during the French war..." [1]  Stone’s earlier work,  Ballads and Poems Re...

The Convention Army arrived in Western, Massachusetts, from two different directions.  American Brigadier-General John Glover had ordered the captives to march in two separate columns after the surrender at Saratoga ,  "... one Division of the prisoners, Consisting of 2,442 British troops, by Northampton, the other by way of Springfield, Consisting of 2,198 foreign troops..."  . [1 ]   Two weeks later, after the British column reached Brookfield , and the German column left Palmer , a German officer would note: "November 2  We marched through Weston, a rather nice village, 15 Engl. miles to Brookfield.  The Engl. corps crossed us today on our march and from now on had to march on the same road to Boston with us.  As this corps had arrived in Brookfield before us and consequently taken possession of the houses, it was evident that our corps had to bivouac." [2] Massachusetts militia private David How, who crossed the Connecticut River on October 29th ...

The British troops who surrendered at Saratoga were apparently well rested when they left Hadley, Massachusetts , on October 30, 1777.  Many would march through Amherst ,  Belchertown  and Ware before they stopped to spend the night in Western.  "[Oct.] 30 Thursday..."  wrote Massachusetts Militia Lieutenant Israel Bartlett,  "We marched thro’ Belcher[town, from Amherst] and Ware and put up at Weston [Western then, now Warren], about 20 miles from Amherst.”   Private David How didn't specify how far he marched, but noted: “[Oct.] 30  This morning we Set off [from Hadley] march Through Belcher[town] And Ware River. at Night We Staid at Westurn [Western, now Warren].”   British Lieutenant Francis (Lord) Napier of the 31st Regiment of Foot stopped a bit sooner, noting:  "October … 30th. [Marched from Hadley to ] Weir - 17 M[iles]"   [1] British accounts of the march from Saratoga to Cambridge tell us nothing about the town of War...

In September of 1774, as towns across Massachusetts reacted to laws passed by Parliament to punish the colony for its resistance to British rule, the residents of Belchertown, Massachusetts, approved a statement which read:  "We declare that we will take no unreasonable liberties or advantage from the suspension of the course of law,  but we agree to conduct ourselves agreeably to the laws of God, of reason, of humanity; and we hereby engage to use all prudent and justifiable and necessary measures to secure and defend each others persons and families, their lives, rights and properties, against all who shall attempt to hurt, injure, or invade them, and to secure and defend ourselves and our posterity our just and constitutional rights and privileges."  [1]    Seven months later, when fighting began at Lexington and Concord on  April 19, 1775 , the "necessary measures" they pledged to take would for the most part involve sending men and materials out of tow...