Walking the Berkshires

Escorting the Convention Army Through Connecticut in 1778 (Part III)

On November 5^th, 1778, Washington assigned Lt. Col. Theodoric Bland of the 1^st Continental Dragoons the task of escorting the Convention Troops to Virginia.

“Congress having determined to remove the Troops of the Convention from the neighbourhood of Boston to Charlotteville in Albemarle County Virginia, an Officer of Rank and prudence will be necessary to regulate and conduct their march. I must desire you to undertake this duty. The first division of the troops was to have marched off yesterday, and will be followed by four others, at proper intervals. I would wish you to lose no time in coming up here, as the sooner you set out to meet them, the better. (WGW Vol. 13, November 5, 1778 “Letter to Lt. Col. Bland”)

On November 8^th, Lt. Colonel Bland received detailed orders from Washington;

 “Sir: You are hereby appointed to superintend the removal of the convention troops from the State of Massachusetts to Charlottesville in Virginia. You will therefore proceed immediately on the shortest route to Enfield, or to where the first division of the troops may have arrived, and announce yourself to the Officer commanding. You will then dispatch Major Jamison, who is directed to assist you in the execution of this duty, to the rear of the troops, to see that the necessary provisions and arrangements are made for the intermediate and successive divisions.

    A proper escort of Militia from the State of Massachusetts is to attend the troops to Enfield, at which place they will be relieved by the militia of Connecticut, previous notice being given to have them in readiness. You will take care not to dismiss the old guard till relieved by the new. The Militia of Connecticut are to proceed as far as the North River where they will either be relieved by a guard of Continental troops, or New York militia.

    During the march you will have respect to the quarter Masters who are appointed to attend the troops and see that their haulting(sic)  places are convenient for cover and accommodation. You will also have regard to the Commissaries, so that good provisions be distributed and at the proper times.

    You will accommodate the stages of march to the state of the weather, the condition of the troops, and the nature of the country through which they travel.

    You will attend to the complaints which may arise and obviate them as far as possible.

    The annexed route will bring the Troops as far on in their march as Fish Kills. You will then be furnished with a new route for your direction thro' the states of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and to their place of destination in Virginia.

    As soon as you meet the first division of the troops it will be necessary for you to give me notice, that I may form a judgement (sic) of the time at which they may arrive at the North river. (WGW Vol. 13, November 8, 1778 “Letter to Lt. Col. Bland”)”

The Du Roi Journal of the march of the German 2^nd division notes on November 17^th, 1778, as they were passing between Palmer and Wilberham, Massachusetts, that they met an American major of dragoons on the road.  This was Major John Jameson of the 1^st Continental Dragoons, whom Washington recommended to Lt. Col. Bland as “able to give you very great assistance in conducting the march of the troops (WGS Vol 13: November 5, 1778, “Letter to Lt. Col. Bland).” It is very likely that Lt. Colonel Bland marched with the vanguard, while Major Jameson escorted the rear divisions.  Sedgwick’s History of Sharon states that Jameson met up with the Convention Army in Sharon “with a regiment of Continental troops.” (Sedgwick: 1897, pg. 75).

There apparently was some sensitivity expressed in Connecticut,  possibly by Governor Trumbull, concerning the need to call out the militia as escorts.  Accordingly, on November 17^th Washington ordered Brigadier General Enoch Poor to march with his brigade from near Hartford to Enfield, CT and escort the Convention Army through the State to the Hudson River;

“You are to march immediately upon the receipt hereof with your Brigade to Enfield at which place I imagine the first division of the Convention troops will be arrived by the time you get there. It is intended that your Brigade shall guard them from thence to Fishkill… you will be pleased to send your Baggage and Artillery thro' New Milford and Fredericksbg. to Fishkill. (WGW Vol. 13: November 17, 1778, “Letter to General Poor”).”

As was often the case during the Revolution, events preceded more rapidly than Washington’s orders could follow.   Bland wrote to Washington on November 13^th, 1778 after arriving in Enfield, Connecticut:

“Being detaind by almost two days heavy Rain I did not arrive at this Place before to day, where I found the [British] Convention troops just arrived Under the Command of Brigadier Hamilton, the escort from MA being commanded by Col. Gearish.  They are marched in 6 divisions about 700 in each division (PGW Vol .18. pg 131.)”

Washington therefore countermanded his orders to General Poor on November 18^th, 1778:

“I received a Letter from Colo. Bland, advising me that the Van of the Convention Troops were at Enfield on the 13th. and would reach Sharon to night; also that proper arrangements had been made and Militia escorts assembled for conducting them to the North river. As matters are so circumstanced and the Troops much more forward in their advance than I expected, I think it best to countermand my instructions to you of yesterday; and that they should come on under the care of Colo. Bland and the Militia provided for the purpose (WGW Vol. 13: November 18, 1778, “Letter to General Poor”).”

Poor had already marched, however.  The Du Roi Journal records that the German 2^nd division of the Convention Army was met at Enfield at the border between Connecticut and Massachusetts by Connecticut Militia, and that by November 20^th they reached Simsbury, where “Brigadier Poor had arrived here with the Brigade before us and took command of the escort.  Therefore the militia left us (Journal of Du Roi The Elder:  1911, Pg. 134).”

The British divisions, which passed through Enfield on November 13^th, had reached Sharon by the time Poor’s Brigade met up with the German divisions at Simsbury.  They would have had militia escorts for their entire passage across Connecticut.  In all, it took two weeks for the full six divisions to make the march through the State.

Poor’s Brigade consisted of the 2^nd Canadian Regiment (Congress’s Own) under Col. Moses Hazen; the 1^st New Hampshire Regiment under Col. Joseph Cilley; the 2^nd New Hampshire Regiment under Lt. Col. George Reid; and the 3^rd New Hampshire Regiment under Col. Alexander Scammell.  According to documentation compiled by Jim Hayden of the recreated 1st NH Regt., the New Hampshire regiments had just been issued new uniforms on November 16^th, 1778, including “1105 French made brown coats faced in red with slash style cuffs; white waistcoats and breeches, brown overalls and lead colored stockings (Hayden, 2010).” The 2^nd Canadian regiment at this time was likewise uniformed in brown French “Lottery Coats” faced with red.  Originally organized on the French model as a regiment with two battalions and four majors, by the summer of 1778 the 2^nd Canadian returned 522 men with 33 officers (Everest: 1977, pg. 61).  The New Hampshire Regiments in Poor’s Brigade likely contained half this number.

Lieutenant Thomas Blake of the 1^st New Hampshire Regiment in Poor’s Brigade recorded in his Journal;

“Nov. 20…General Poor’s brigade marched to Simsbury, where we took charge of the German troops, that were captured with General Burgoyne, they being on their way to Virginia.

        Nov. 21…Marched to New Hartford 12 miles.

Nov. 22…Marched to Norfolk 15 miles, but the travelling was so bad that we were obliged to lay still 2 days for our baggage to come up (Kidder: 1868, pg. 46).”

As Poor’s Brigade escorted the Convention Troops from Simsbury to Norfolk, encampments along this route may have artifacts associated with Poor’s Continental Troops. 

In the entry for November 20^th, The Du Roi  Journal notes that while in Simsbury,

“Brigadier Poor was very polite and issued strict orders that none of his officers might go to our quarters, that we might be undisturbed…Instead of an escort of 100 men, a whole regiment turned out.  Its commander was rather strict at first, but soon as he was how orderly our men behaved, he left them alone (Journal of Du Roi the Elder: 1911, pg. 134).”

It is possible that Poor distributed his Brigade to cover the three German divisions, if the 1^st of these had not proceeded too far up the road by the time Poor reached Simsbury.  It is also possible that he only escorted the German 2nd Division, and indeed the militia were responsible for the rest of Burgoyne's convention troops for most of the route.

The Du Roi Journal includes an evocative description of the difficult road travelled between New Hartford and Norfolk that also indicates that contrary to Washington’s wishes, Poor’s Brigade brought their artillery with them on the march.

“It was certainly hard work to take a Brigade of four regiments with six cannon and a lot of baggage 14 miles through the woods, down a very steep mountain, then up again another one still higher and steeper, and so on (Du Roi Journal: 1911, pg 135).”

This can only describe Poor’s Brigade, as the German divisions did not have that many regiments and carried no cannon.  It is possible that encampment sites in Simsbury, New Hartford and Norfolk may include relics associated with Poor’s artillery.

The Journal of Du Roi the Elder records that while in Norfolk “Brigadier Poor received orders to go into their winter quarters in Middleborough [Redding, CT] and militia took the place of the escort(Du Roi Journal: 1911,pg. 135)” . 

The Journal of Lieutenant Thomas Blake of the 1^st New Hampshire Regiment in Poor’s Brigade records the route of march taken from Norfolk to their winter quarters in Redding (Kidder: 1868, pg. 46).  Blake records that Poor’s Brigade left Norfolk on November 25^th and marched three miles past South Canaan on that day.  The following day they marched 15 miles to Kent, and then to New Milford another 15 miles on November 27^th.  Significantly, Blake’s entry for November 27^th suggests that they continued to escort at least some Germans as far as New Milford;

 “Marched to New Milford [from Kent] 15 miles, where a party of militia received the German troops(Kidder: 1868, pg. 46).”

If Blake is correct, then this must refer to some of the over 50 German deserters who were reported missing during the march through Connecticut, as contemporary itineraries exist for all three German Divisions of Convention Troops.   This possibility of a different route of march to New York for at least some of the German Convention troops will require further investigation to confirm or discount. 

The militia bore the brunt of the responsibility for escorting the Convention Troops through Connecticut.  The Records of Connecticut Men in Military and Naval Service During the War of the Revolution, published by the Connecticut Historical Society, makes mention of nine enlisted men who comprised a detachment of the Third Troop of the 4^th Regiment of Light Horse in the Connecticut Militia who served between 12 and 14 days as an escort to the Convention troops (CHS: 1889, pg. 546.)  This suggests that many of them were with the Convention Army from the time the 1^st division entered the State in Enfield to the date the final division exited in Sharon.

A petition of Lieutenant Colonel Noah Phelps of Simsbury before the Connecticut General Assembly in May, 1779 attested “that he had the oversight and care of the troops under the convention of Saratoga on their march through this state, and of the guards who escorted them (Hoadley: 1895, pg. 333).” Lt. Col. Phelps served in the 18^th Regiment of Connecticut Militia.  Congress later directed funds to Connecticut to settle the bills and accounts of a number of militia officers “for services &c. of militia guarding the Convention Troops through said State in 1778, when they marched through Massachusetts to Virginia (CHS: 1901, pg. 188).”  These were:

Captain Moses Forb(e)s (appointed in 1777 to command the 6^th company in the 19^th militia Regiment, which included Bolton, East Windsor, Enfield, and Hartford E. of the river)

Captain Ebenezer Fitch Bissell of Windsor

Captain Lemuel Roberts of Simsbury

Captain Chester Wells of Wethersfield

Captain Warham Gibbs

Captain Isaac Pomeroy of Suffield

Captain William Burrell

Captain Azariah Griswold of Sharon

 Ensign John Reynolds (appointed in 1777 to command the 3^rd company in the 19^th militia

 Regiment, which included Bolton, East Windsor, Enfield, and Hartford E. of the river )

Captain Hezekiah Parsons of Enfield

Colonel Noah Phelps of Simsbury

Captain Ozias Pettibone of Simsbury

Lieutenant Colonel Seth Smith of New Hartford

Captain Noah Kellogg of New Hartford

Captain Jonathan Wells of Glastonbury

Most of these officers were from militia companies that may have been called out at the beginning of the Convention Army’s transit of the State.  It is not clear which, if any of them were involved in escorting either the German or the British divisions from Norfolk to Sharon.   A commemorative plaque erected in 1998 on Sand Rd. in Canaan states that “In the Canaan Area, the Connecticut Militia under the command of Col. Charles Burrell of Canaan Guarded the Prisoners on their way South.”

Those militia who did accompany the vanguard of the Convention Army to Sharon on November 18th, 1778 were initially unwilling to escort them beyond the boundaries of the State.  This prompted Lt. Col. Bland to write to Washington on November  13^th for an additional escort of Continental troops to convey them to Fishkill on the Hudson River in New York(PGW Vol .18. pg 131.).  Washington promptly issued the following General Order;

Head Quarters, Fredericksburg [near Paterson, New York], Saturday, November 21, 1778.

“Five hundred men from the Pennsylvania line properly officered to march tomorrow morning to Sharon to escort the Convention troops to Hudson's River (WGW Vol. 13, November 21, 1778 General Orders).”

Washington replied to Bland that same day;

“Dear Sir: Yours of last evening reached me at day Break this morning. The Continental troops will march from hence in an hour and will have orders to proceed untill they meet the troops of the Convention. I have directed one hundred Men to advance quickly before the rest. You will therefore put the first division in motion as soon as possible after this reaches you, they may march the distance between Sharon and the place where they will meet the Continental troops even without an escort, tho' I hope some of the Militia will from Colo. Meade's letter, be prevailed upon to come as far as Mabbits (WGW Vol. 13, November 21, 1778, “Letter to Lt. Col. Bland).”

These fresh escorts were troops of Brigadier General Anthony Wayne’s Division.   Wayne sent his own letter announcing that help was on the way;

“Dear Bland,  I find that the Connecticut militia are but a militia; I send you soldiers.  Permit me to recommend Major Fishbourn to your notice: he attends as [a volunteer] aid to the detachment, which I flatter myself will not disgrace the American troops.  Lieut. Col. [Samuel ]Hay, who commands the detachment, is an Irishman and soldier.” (Bland Papers: 1840, Letter LXVII, pg. 108)

The Du Roi Journal notes on November 26^th that the German 2^nd division arrived in Sharon where its militia escort left and was replaced by Continental troops ( Du Roi Journal: 1911, pg. 136).

Citations:

Bland, T, Jr. (1840);  The Bland Papers, Being a Selection from the Manuscripts of Colonel Theodorick Bland, Jr. of Prince George County, Virginia, Vol. I, Charles Campbell, ed., E & JC Ruffin:  Petersburg, Virginia.

Connecticut Historical Society (1889); The Record of Connecticut men in the Military and Naval Service During the War of the Revolution 1775-1783, Henry P. Johnston, Ed., CHS: Hartford, Connecticut

______1901); Collections of the Connecticut Historical Society, Vol. 8, CHS: Hartford, Connecticut.

Du Roi, A. W. (1911); “Journal of Du Roi The Elder, Lieutenant and Adjutant, in the Service of the Duke of Brunswick 1776-1778”, translated by Charlotte S. J. Epping, Americana Germanica #15, University of Pennsylvania.

Everest, A.S. (1977): Moses Hazen and the Canadian Refugees in the American Revolution., Syracuse University Press.

Harrison, RH (1829); “November 21^st, 1778 Letter to General Anthony Wayne”, in The Register of Pennsylvania, Devoted to the Preservation of Facts and Documents and Every other Kind of Useful Information Respecting the State of Pennsylvania, Vol III, Pg. 402, Samuel Hazard, ed, WF Geddes: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Hoadley, C.J. (1895); The Public Records of the State of Connecticut from May, 1778 to April, 1780, Inclusive, Case, Lockwood & Brainard: Hartford, Connecticut.

Kidder, F (1868); “Lieutenant Thomas Blake’s Journal” in The History of the First New Hampshire Regiment in the War of the Revolution , pgs 25-56, Joel Munsell’s Sons,  Albany, New York.

Sedgwick, C. F. (1877) ; General History of the Town of Sharon, Connecticut from its First Settlement, 2^nd Edition, C. Walsh: Amenia, New York.

Washington, G.(2008); The Papers of George Washington; 1 November, 1778 – 14 January 1779, Vol 18; University Press of Virginia

_______     The writings of George Washington from the original manuscript sources: Volume 13 , Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia Library

This Week's Piece in the Lakeville Journal

Here is a link to my Nature's Notebook column in today's Lakeville Journal, readable with free registration.  Fair use excerpt:

"Perhaps one of these frosty nights I will stamp the snow down and build a small fire. I will feed the small flames with bits of dry stuff and shield them from the wind. I will put my three-legged pot to boil and roast sausages on a skillet, and feel the heat of the fire on my face and the frozen night air at my back. The woodsmoke will mingle with the Milky Way and the owls will call from the pines as they prepare to mate. It will be a little touch of the wild in my own backyard, a reminder of the give and take of fire and ice."

 

Balrog and Bear: Pumpkin Carving at GreenmanTim's

Hallowe'en at our house is not something you just throw together.  My 10-year-old wanted my childhood Teddy Bear "Jingle" carved on a pumpkin, while my 2nd grader who has just seen The Lord of the Rings wanted a Balrog.  You can probably figure out the genders of each.

Here are the results. 

 

 

 

 

 

Seeds in a Dry Pod

The husks of butterfly weed have split and spilled their soft insides.  They cling to their pods in feathery clusters, newly fledged and waiting on the wind.  They drift in the high grass, through asters and bee balm, a seed rain in a dry season. 

And I am like those seeds in a dry pod, waiting for release, or rebirth.

There is an almost centrifugal pull on my spirit as the seasons shift, riding out at the end of my tether with the equinoctial sun.  Everything is in motion - coming and becoming - like the children who pass my house on their way to school, or the butterflies that pause by the cardinal flowers in my backyard.

I may lie out in the hammock beneath the maple tree, but if I look up into the canopy I will see the veins of the worn out leaves and know that the sweet corn days of summer are drawing to a close.  I become impatient, and ready to get on with it.

Autumn in New England is our great consolation for all that ice and mud and our foreshortened Spring.  Those early leaves turning now are the first notes of the dance, the approach of distant thunder out of sight behind the mountains.  I can feel the tension in my bones, sinews taught and expectant. I can feel the thrum of my quickened heartbeat, standing still.

I want to rise up on broad wings and wheel out over the valley with the kettling hawks.  And I want another week of garden basil before the first and final frost, and the warm taste of the sun to linger in the last of my tomatoes.  It is hard to let go, and harder still to resist what comes to us all, in time.

                                        Edgar Lee Masters: 86. Petit, the Poet

SEEDS in a dry pod, tick, tick, tick,
Tick, tick, tick, like mites in a quarrel—
Faint iambics that the full breeze wakens—
But the pine tree makes a symphony thereof.
Triolets, villanelles, rondels, rondeaus,
Ballades by the score with the same old thought:
The snows and the roses of yesterday are vanished;
And what is love but a rose that fades?
Life all around me here in the village:
Tragedy, comedy, valor and truth,
Courage, constancy, heroism, failure—
All in the loom, and oh what patterns!
Woodlands, meadows, streams and rivers—
Blind to all of it all my life long.
Triolets, villanelles, rondels, rondeaus,
Seeds in a dry pod, tick, tick, tick,
Tick, tick, tick, what little iambics,
While Homer and Whitman roared in the pines?

The Self Inflicted Wound

A dear friend wrote to me recently about the anguish she felt over the oil that continues to inundate the heart of the sea.  She is a brilliant poet, and one who looks squarely at the horrors of the body and soul, but she also is a person of action and feels helpless in the face of this heartsickness.  She is a writer, as am I, so this is what I wrote in reply.

"Sometimes it takes a self inflicted wound to halt the bleeding.  I think of those "relief wells" inching their way through the seabed, and it almost feels like using a lancet to release bad humors in those days when western medicine and modern science knew little of each other.  Black bile, yellow bile, phlegm and blood.  The body out of balance. 

We are shockingly primitive in our modern response to what our greedy delving has released.  It is like Tolkein's Balrog of Moria that awoke when the dwarves went too deep after their mithril.  It took Gandalf's death and rebirth to quench its flame.  It will require something like that of us as well.

Tolkien the lover of Trees also understood the sadness of the elves who outlived all else that they loved, who knew the ancient oaks from acorns and saw whole forests heedlessly destroyed to satisfy the consumptive now.  The Scouring of the Shire is for me the most important part of the Lord of the Rings.

The more we look unflinchingly at the horror of this house of grimy cards, the more we insist never again, the better chance we have that some positive lessons can be learned.  As for the wounded sea, the irreplaceable losses and the long term scars, sometimes the best we can do is bear witness, to tell their stories, to feel and to weep and to give tongue to grief.  The real healing happens over spans of time beyond human years, although it is amazing what resilience is possible from decade to decade. 

Consider the dramatic change in status of so many birds, including Brown pelicans, threatened with extinction by DDT and now recovering in its absence.  The harp seals that now haul out on the beach at Windrock when before the Marine Mammal Protection Act they were heedlessly slaughtered.  The quality of the air we breathe and the water we drink which when you were growing up was fouled and disregarded. 

We cannot sit by and say in a thousand years the earth will cleanse itself of the outrages we inflict on it.  There is a small comfort in knowing that geologic time is measured in millions while we encompass decades, but we only learn through telling and bearing witness, and a poet with your heart and depth of love for the ocean is the right person at the right time to give expression and meaning to this self inflicted wound."

The Founders May Not Have Shared Our Values

Alert reader and Facebook friend Bill Trond has discovered the following disclaimer printed on the third page of a scurrilous collection of historical documents being sold to the masses by none other than that behemoth, Amazon.com:

"This book is a product of its time and does not reflect the same values as it would if it were written today.  Parents might wish to discuss with their children how views on race, gender, sexuality, ethnicity and interpersonal relations since this book was written before allowing them to read this classic work."

Damn straight.  Imagine if my children were to be exposed to the actual words contained in  the United States Constitution, The Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation!  Before I knew it, they would start believing all that other hogwash about life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, that there is such a thing as 3/5 of a person, and that a charge of treason requires at least two witnesses to prove (notwithstanding that it helped their ancestor Jonathan Dayton beat the rap).

Man, I hope they have this same disclaimer on the Starr Report.

Through the Berkshires With Henry Knox

Mr. Henry Knox, Esquire, still technically a civilian with his commission not yet in hand, undertook a military expedition in the winter of 1775-1776 that is remembered as one of the epic stories of our nation’s founding.   Knox made an overland journey of more than 300 miles from the shores of Lake Champlain through the Berkshires to Boston to deliver nearly sixty cannon and other essential military supplies to Washington’s army.  These guns are widely credited with forcing the British to evacuate the city and provided a tremendous boost to patriot morale.

The expedition was a remarkable logistical feat, requiring Knox and his teamsters to cross imperfectly frozen rivers and traverse the rugged terrain of western Massachusetts along the way.  They dragged their sleds over tracks that had never seen such a caravan before and would never again see the like.  In passing through the Berkshires, Knox recorded that it was “almost a miracle that people with heavy loads should be able to get up and down such hills as are here.”  It also demanded that he be a good manager of men as well as war materiel, for most of those who moved the guns were hired teamsters and not subject to military discipline.  The success of the expedition is testimony to Knox's considerable organizational skills and unflagging spirit.

Washington’s correspondence shows that he had made previous requests for New York to forward military stores from such places as Ticonderoga and Crown Point before sending Knox to see that it was done.  Washington even asked one of his aides, Colonel Joseph Reed, to look into the matter on his way to Philadelphia but had received no further information.   Where others had failed to act, Knox delivered.    

Washington instructed Knox to first seek the needed supplies in New York, and then proceed to Albany and points north to gather all that was required:

“[Y]ou must go to Major General Schuyler, and get the Remainder from Ticonderoga, Crown Point, or St John's. If it should be necessary, from Quebec; if in our Hands. The Want of them is so great, that no Trouble or Expense must be spared to obtain them. “

It is fortunate that Knox was able to find sufficient ordinance at the southern end of Lake Champlain, without having to chase after the invading army in Canada in deep winter for more artillery.  As for expenses, it took three years for Congress to reimburse Knox for his personal outlay on the expedition.

Ever the optimist, Knox wrote to General George Washington from the shores of Lake George regarding the prospects for transporting cannon and other essential military supplies from Ticonderoga to Boston:

“The route will be from here to Kinderhook, from thence to Great Barrington, and down to Springfield.  I have sent for the sleds and teams to come here, and expect to move them to Saratoga on Wednesday or Thursday next, trusting that between this and then we shall have a fine fall of snow, which will enable us to proceed farther, and make the carriage easy.  If that shall be the case, I hope in sixteen or seventeen days time to present your Excellency a noble train of artillery.”

It ultimately took twice as long as he anticipated, for the way was hard and the snows were erratic, but by January 25^th the guns had reached Framingham, Massachusetts and were soon with Washington in Cambridge and Roxbury.

In 1927 during the Revolution’s Sesquicentennial ,  the State of New York and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts placed a large number granite markers with metal plaques along Knox’s probable route, which is suggested in part by the letter quoted above.  Now considered one of the earliest Heritage Trails created in the United States, one can still follow the markers from Ticonderoga to Boston.  There are seven of these commemorative stones  located by roadsides in the Berkshires between Alford and Westfield.  The monument on the New York / Massachusetts line is shared by both, with a state plaque on either side. 

In 2008, an effort was launched to conserve these plaques and restore the bronze to its original luster.  The marker at the state boundary on Rte 71 has now been treated, but this is not the first attention it has received since the trail was established.  Along with several other markers on the New York side and another one in Massachusetts, it was moved to its present location in 1975 to reflect new ideas about the route of the Knox expedition after it turned east out of the Hudson Valley toward the Berkshires.  Whatever this evidence was must have been fairly convincing, because within a very short period of time both New York and Massachusetts had agreed to move the monuments to reflect an alternate route to Massachusetts.

Unlike other notable expeditions of the Revolution, such as Benedict Arnold’s trek through the wilds of Maine to Quebec , or the Sullivan / Clinton campaign against the Iroquois, we have very few written accounts by actual participants.  Aside from Henry Knox’s few letters to his wife and to Washington and his incomplete diary, the only other journal known from the expedition is a reminiscence written in the 1830s by one John Becker, who had accompanied his father as a twelve-year-old teamster as far as Springfield.  This accounts for some of the difficulty in establishing the precise route of the guns.

Neither Becker nor Knox had much to say about the Berkshire portion of their journey, but both accounts mention Claverack, New York, as a place where they tarried.   Claverack was then part of the “Lower Manor” of the Renssaeler family and was not incorporated as a town until after the Revolution.  The new route of the Knox Trail does not extend as far south as Claverack Center, but cuts diagonally below Kinderhook toward modern Rte 71 and the Green River Valley where it then  slices through the Taconic Range between New York and Massachusetts.  The old route had the guns passing into the Berkshires along Rte 23 in South Egremont, and the New York plaques still record this route in their original design.  In addition to moving the marker at the state line up to Rte 71, the next monument was shifted to the village of North Egremont, where it has since been physically incorporated into that community’s 9/11 memorial. 

According to Knox’s diary, the divisions of his train passed into Massachusetts on January 10^th, 1776 and by nightfall had “Climb’d mountains from which we might have seen all the Kingdoms of the Earth.”  This description, if accurate for this stage of the journey, sounds more like the tortuous pass between modern Hillsdale, NY and South Egremont , where the monuments were originally located, than the alternate route that passes through the Green River Valley that slopes through Egremont Plain to Great Barrington. 

Be that as it may, there is no controversy considering the next stage of the journey, which follows modern Rte 23 from Great Barrington to Monterrey (then considered a part of Tyringham).  The draft teams and cannon at this point passed for a dozen miles through a thick pine forest called Greenwoods.  Knox biographer North Callahan describes this part of the journey as among the most difficult of the entire trek, featuring  “an ominous confusion of mountains, precipices, chasms and deep valleys, which were interspersed with rivers, lakes and dank swamps.” 

The trek continued through the Town of Loudon (now East Otis) and on to Blandford, which Knox says he reached on the 11^th of January. Here he found his lead division reluctant to proceed further, citing the lack of snow up ahead where they would have to descend the “tremendous Glasgow or Westfield mountain”.  It required several hours of cajoling, and subsequently engaging the services of one Solomon Brown of Blandford along with two additional teams of oxen, to move the cannon eleven more miles through Russell to Westfield.

Successfully descending the east flank of the Berkshires into Westfield on January 13^th certainly lifted their spirits.  Here, for the first time since leaving Albany, there is evidence that the apparition of so many men and beasts and their caravan of cannon made a memorable impression n the local inhabitants.  Teamster Becker recalled;

“Our armament here was a great curiosity.  We found that very few, even among the oldest  inhabitants, had ever seen a cannon…We were great gainers by this curiosity, for while they were employed in remarking upon our guns, we were, with equal pleasure, discussing the qualities of their cider and whiskey.”

At the urging of the populous, Knox allowed one of the great mortars to be fired several times for their amusement.     Knox was a great lover of fireworks, and it would have been hard for him to resist the temptation to crown their revels with a celebratory salute even at the expense of his precious gunpowder.

By the time the expedition reached Springfield, the New York teamsters were ready to depart, and so Massachusetts men conveyed the supplies the remaining distance to Cambridge.  Whether the siege guns really forced the British to give up Boston or provided them with a ready excuse to do so is open to conjecture, but there is no doubt that the fact of their arrival gave a boost to patriot arms that they would not enjoy again until the following Christmas, when Washington and Knox crossed the Delaware to surprise the Hessians at Trenton.

 

(This article was to have appeared in the winter 2009-2010 issue of MA Quarterly but the free magazine appears not to have been published so I reproduce it here in full.)

Recommended Revolutionary War Reading List

As I now read several new histories covering the War of American Independence each month, and am working through a 'favorites list" at Amazon that approaches 150 titles, I know I would value a list that pointed me toward the best in this genre.  Since any such list will be subjective, let me begin by declaring my criteria.  I wish to recognize works of Revolutionary War history that combine excellent scholarship, lively prose and fresh perspectives.  Particularly in this historical period, there are ample opportunities to be the only full length treatment of a particular subject and still fall short of being definitive.  Here is what stands out for me thus far.

• Spring, Mathew H (2008) With Zeal and Bayonets Only; The British Army on Campaign in North America, 1775-1783; Campaigns and Commanders series, University of Oklahoma Press.   This is that rare work of scholarship that makes the transition from PhD dissertation to popular publication and loses nothing in translation.  Far from being stiff ranked automatons unable to contend with patriot potshots, the British made dramatic tactical adjustments to contend with terrain and irregular warfare in America.  Fighting in open order, modifying uniforms to suit conditions in the field, using elite light infantry and grenadier units as shock troops and overwhelming American riflemen with rapid advances and the bayonet are just some of these innovations.  While the German mercenaries who served with the British are not the subject of this work, it does suggest that they made fewer changes either in their marching step or uniform (aside from replacing breeches and stockings with gaitered overalls).

• Burrows, Edwin G. (2008) Forgotten Patriots; The Untold Story of American Prisoners During the Revolutionary War; New York: Basic Press.   Aside from the notorious prison hulk Jersey, which contrary to popular assertion was dedicated almost exclusively to nautical prisoners, little else is remembered in America today about the ghastly neglect and loss of life suffered by American prisoners of war during the Revolution.  Burrows makes a strong case that historical estimates of prisoner deaths are dramatically short of the mark.  "The impact on local communities was crushing.  Of the thirty-six men from Litchfield, Connecticut who helped defend Fort Washington, four were killed and thirty-two taken prisoner.  Twenty died in the prisons of New York, another six on the way home.  Only six returned to Litchfield - six of the original thirty-six."  The Sugar House and Provost Prison in New York deserve to be as infamous in American memory as Andersonville and Elmira were during the Civil War; the fact that they are not is one of the fascinating topics explored by Burrows in this groundbreaking work.

• Rose, Alexander (2006) Washington's Spies; The Story of America's First Spy Ring; New York: Bantam/Dell.  In the opening chapters, Rose drops a bombshell that casts the Nathan Hale story in an entirely new light.  He restores his captor, the celebrated and subsequently disgraced Robert Rogers of Rogers Rangers fame, to his proper place in the narrative.  Rose also offers evidence for the Revolutionary equivalent of Mrs O'Leary's cow as the origin of the great New York Fire soon after British occupation.  I enjoyed this book for these nuggets of history alone, but its treatment of the Culper Ring that provided Washington with intelligence from within British New York is fine scholarship and storytelling combined.

• Patton, Robert H. (2008)  Patriot Pirates; The Privateer War for Freedom and Fortune in the American Revolution; New York: Random House.  The grandson of the WWII commander spins a great yarn and comes down decisively on the side of the privateers as contributing at least as much, if not more, to winning American independence than Washington's army.  For him, privateering offers a unique lens on the social and economic underpinnings of the American colonies and those who fought for independence for pecuniary as well as patriotic reasons.  "It is often overlooked that in the years leading up to 1775 rising anger over Britain's restrictive trade policies coincided with an economic surge in the colonies.  Americans were the most prosperous people in the world, and also the lowest taxed.  In fiscal terms rebellion was inspired by ambition rather than hardship, by a desire not for financial freedom but for more financial freedom.  This push for opportunity spurred people's envy of success, their scorn of failure, and their increasingly dubious view of their compatriots' integrity."

• Babits, Lawrence E. and Joshua B Howard (2009) Long, Obstinate and Bloody; The Battle of Guilford Courthouse; Chapel Hill, UNC Press.  Babits and Howard do a masterful job of teasing out troop movements and casualties from hundreds of veteran pension records, treating participant accounts as artifacts.  As such, they have created what will long stand as the definitive account of this confusing but highly significant battle, placing it solidly within the context of the southern campaigns of 1780-1781 and presented in a highly readable and well documented form. 

• Fischer, David Hackett (1994)  Paul Revere's Ride; Oxford; Oxford University Press.  This is an older work by a superb historian that has stood the test of time.  Fischer is as much interested in events as their causes, in contingencies shaped by individual choice and larger social contexts.  As for the midnight rider, he becomes a far more intriguing character than the hero of Longfellow's well known poem, both before and well after the Lexington Alarm.  As with all Fischer's books, the appendices are a trove of fascinating data and tables that add significantly to an already throughout historical treatment.

• Fischer, David Hackett (2004) Washington's Crossing; Oxford, Oxford University Press.  Fischer deservedly won the Pulitzer Prize for this one.  This is a tour de force that takes an event well enshrined in American myth and restores it as outstanding history. Fischer treats the entire campaign of 1776 with great skill, with comprehensive examination of the content and character of the American, British and Hessian forces.  Again, he is interested in choice and contingency.  "The meeting of these armies was more than a clash of weapons and tactics.  It became a conflict of ideas and institutions in which people made different choices - and chose differently."

There are several works that take on the American War of Independence as experienced by the the British and their allies.  I found the best of these to be Stanley Weintraub's (2005) Iron Tears; America's Battle for Freedom, Britain's Quagmire: 1775-1783;  New York; Free Press.    John Ferling's (2007) Almost a Miracle; The American Victory in the War of Independence; Oxford: Oxford University Press is an excellent one volume history of the war.  I enjoyed Mark Urban's (2007)  Fusiliers; The Saga of a British Redcoat Regiment in the American Revolution; New York: Walker, which is notable as one of the very few such regimental histories, contemporary or modern, from this period.

I am still hoping for a first rate history of the battle of Monmouth Courthouse (perhaps Babits and Howard will oblige).  I'd like to see the Hessian regiments in American given the same treatment as Spring's analysis of the character and tactics of the British army.  Sadly, I would also like to find that my monthly reading list contained a high percentage of history writing that meets the high standard of the works noted above, but there is much mediocrity and awkward prose even in the most promising of subjects.  I welcome your recommendations.

"Ebenezer Olmsted, late, failing collector of state taxes.”

The 1912 Genealogy of the Olmsted Family in America has a lengthy entry for my ancestor Ebenezer Olmsted (1748-1801).  It includes many details about his service in the Revolutionary War, along with a transcription of a pension declaration made by his widow in 1838.  I have been interested in Lt. Olmsted not only for his war record - three campaigns, three promotions, wounded at Germantown - but also because despite these accomplishments he remains something of an enigma. 

For a former Continental officer and the son of one of the most respected men in town and a Continental Officer, he sure drops out of the spotlight in the conventional histories of Ridgefield, Connecticut where he lived all his life.   I have searched the Olde Town "Titicus" cemetery in vain for his grave, and I have yet to find a record in Town of a veteran's marker for him.  True, it appears he sired my direct ancestor with the minister's daughter a year before they were legally married, but that was more common than you might think in the late 18th century.  

It turns out there was another skeleton in his closet, though, and it was a big one.

A terrific online timeline for the Town of Ridgefield maintained by Jack Sanders Books and based largely on public records, notes that on December 21, 1780, the Town Meeting appointed Lt. Ebenezer Olmsted constable "“to collect the state tax for the year ensuing."  The following March he was among five leading citizens, including his old regimental commander Col. Philip Burr Bradley and his kinsman Captain David Olmsted, chosen to serve on a committee “to procure soldiers to compleat (sic) the town’s quota for filling up the Continental Army and this state’s service.”  These were marks of public trust and approbation, but it appears that in at least the former case they were sadly misplaced.  My ancestor, while very good at collecting taxes, was much worse at forwarding them along to Hartford, and appears to have robbed the town blind.

April 10, 1786 – The Town Meeting agrees to “accept the resignation of Lt. Ebenezer Olmsted of his office of collector of ye state taxes on ye list of 1780, on conditions of his accounting with and paying to the Select Men the full that he has collected and received on the rates made on said list, and deliver up said rate bills and warrants to the Select Men.” The same meeting appoints Capt. Nathan Dauchy to “be ye collector of ye rates missing on the list of 1780 that are not collected, which Lt. Olmsted has resigned.”

Aug. 18, 1786 – The Town Meeting appoints Col. Philip Burr Bradley and three other prominent residents “a committee to assist the Select Men in a settlement of the taxes which appears by Ebenezer Olmsted, ye late collector’s rate bills, to be due on ye bills he lately resigned to the select man, which we made on ye list of ye year AD 1780.”

Sept. 30, 1786 – The Town meeting votes that “Ebenezer Olmsted, late collector of ye state taxes for ye town of Ridgefield, holden under arrest at the suit of the town of said Ridgefield, shall be liberated and discharged from said suit, upon condition for the said Olmsted shall fully vest the fee simple right” to a list of his property holdings in town. The property includes his 13-acre homestead on Main Street, about 25 acres scattered around town, eight tons of hay, his right to some cows, and “2,258 Continental Dollars.” He is ordered to deliver all to the town treasurer and told to post a 1,000 pound bond to guarantee payment of the owed taxes.

Dec. 4, 1786 – A committee that includes such notables as Col. Philip Burr Bradley, Capt. David Olmsted and lt. Joshua King, is ordered by the Annual Town Meeting to “to make sale of the real and moveable estate that the town hath obtained of Ebenezer Olmsted, late, failing collector of state taxes.”

Ebenezer Olmsted had by this time a fair number of children to support and his landholdings -however ill-gotten-  were relatively modest.  Whatever else he may have done with the embezzled funds, the proceeds of the sale of all his property did not cover the taxes that were due to the State.  

March 12, 1787 – The town holds a sale of the property of Ebenezer Olmsted, who had pocketed the state tax collections he had made in 1780. The house fetches only 129 pounds – Olmsted had paid 300 pounds for it in 1782. The sale and confiscations are not enough to cover what is owed to the state, however, and the issue drags on.

There were problems with taxes collected after 1780 by another tax collector as well.  In December, 1790, Ridgefield was still dealing with the issue, requiring tax collectors to post performance bonds and authorizing the Selectmen to "hire a collector to collect the arrears due on the rate bills … as cheap as they can."  In 1792 the Town Meeting voted “that ye Select Men be instructed and authorized in ye behalf of ye town to borrow such sums as shall be necessary to settle ye demands the state treasurer has against this town.”

All this time, Ebenezer Olmsted appears to have remained Ridgefield, though I do not know how he supported his family.  He received a very small allowance in 1792 relating to lost claims as a veteran to lands in Connecticut's Western Reserve.   His eldest children lit out for the sea, or for Canada, or the circus as soon as opportunity presented itself, and not one of his brood remained in Ridgefield as adults.  Still, in 1800, the year before his death, the Congregational Church records that Ebenezer Olmsted still was assigned to the 4th pew.  After all, he did make an honest woman the former minister's daughter, though he seems to have been less than honest himself.

Name that DWF

Personal ads tend to bore me to extremes.  That is because they are written by amateurs who are too close to the subject - themselves - and don't have their "A" game on.  It's like Tom Leher says; "the reason most folk songs are so atrocious is because they were written 'by the people."   

Long before texting replaced drunk driving as the recreation of choice for the younger crowd, lonely hearts were decoding DWM LF SSBBW NSA and following trails of these stale crumbs through the witch's forest.  I've seen more passion expressed by a blender (or rather, in the lyrics to Blender Blues).   At any rate, I've got better things to do with my opposable thumbs than go rooting around for plums in that old pie. 

What these people need is a good ghost writer.

Imagine Hemingway's personal ad:  "Enjoys auto-racing, bull fighting and mountain climbing.  Always does sober what he says he'll do drunk.  He is not dead and that is all."  That ought to draw them like flies to honey.

Recognize this one?  "Virtuous mom, separated, perfectionist, enjoys weaving. Will be your queen if you can bend my bow and come home more than once in a decade"

Or these:  "Officer and gentleman, tall, equestrian, with expense account.  Enjoys Madeira and Fabian tactics.  Never lies, looks good in blue.  Looking for dancing partners and possible feu de joie."

"Daddy's girl, exotic, frolicsome, protective.  Looking for bearded white adventurer to save from harm. Nothing will come between us."

"Have a red letter day with me. Likes walks in the woods and shooting stars.  Seeking Calvinist Clergyman to let down my hair with."

"Henpecked husband, enjoys ninepins, keggers and rambles in the mountains with my dog.  Looking for a sheltered place to catch 40 winks.  Can sleep through anything."

"Divorced, Beheaded, Died, Divorced, Beheaded, Survived.  Looking for good man who will treat us better than queens for possible Ménage à sept.  Monarchs who cast us off discourteously need not apply."

These folks really know how to sell it.  Beats DWF NSFW OMG ROFL LOL any day.