“Behind Enemy Lines” along Lake Champlain, 25 Sept.

On Friday, 25 September, America’s History, L.L.C., is offering a unique tour titled “Behind Enemy Lines: General Benjamin Lincoln’s Pawlet Expedition and the Battle of Diamond Island.”

The event description explains:

In September 1777 during Lt. Gen. John Burgoyne’s campaign to capture Albany, American militia commanded by Maj. Gen. Benjamin Lincoln staged a daring raid on the British army’s supply line from Fort Ticonderoga to Lake George and Skenesborough. It is one of the most unappreciated operations of the campaign.

Although the Pawlet Expedition had some successes and some failures, in the main, it created major consternation in Burgoyne’s mind, forcing him to roll the dice in a failed attempt to turn the left flank of Maj. Gen. Horatio Gates’s army at Bemis Heights. Burgoyne’s defeat on October 7, 1777 paved the way for an ultimate retreat back to Saratoga (Schuylerville, New York) and the surrender of his army on October 17.

During this tour we will trace the march of Col. John Brown’s force from Pawlet to Ticonderoga Landing and Mount Defiance, Col. Samuel Johnson’s attack on Mount Independence, and Col. Benjamin Woodbridge’s actions at Skenesborough. We will take a boat ride to interpret Brown’s attack by water on the British supply depot on Diamond Island. Weather permitting (for docking purposes), we will land on the island, unlike Col. Brown, to see it from the British perspective.

This tour is limited to 39 participants. The bus will leave the parking lot of Fort Ticonderoga at 8 A.M. and return by about 5 P.M. (Fort Ti’s American Revolution conference starts that evening, with most presentations over the weekend.)

The $195 tour registration cost covers transportation by bus and boat; all admissions and gratuities; lunch, snack, and beverage breaks; a map and materials package; and the expertise of Bruce Venter as guide.

Dr. Venter is the author of The Battle of Hubbardton: The Rear Guard Action that Saved America. He created and co-manages the annual American Revolution conference in Virginia, as well as symposia, tours, and other events for students of American history.

For more information on this tour and to register, see this event page.

“This Retreating, Raged Starved, lousey, thevish, Pockey Army”

Sometime in the past week, Blogger tells me, Boston 1775 surpassed 1,000,000 page views. I believe those include visits by search engines, with no actual eyeballs involved, but it’s the only yardstick I got. I’m grateful to all the folks who’ve peeked in, whether one time or every day.

That news prompted me to look back at the first week of postings, from May 2006. I found poor Lt. Col. Jeduthan Baldwin, working as a military engineer with the disintegrating American army that had come down from Canada into northern New York.

On 16 July Baldwin woke up to find that someone had sneaked into his tent and stolen his chest, including a lot of genteel clothing and surveying tools. The next day he wrote in his journal:

in the Morning a part of my Compass was found break to pieces & soon after the rest of it except the Needle. this Day I wrote to Genl. [John] Sullivan to remind him of the request I had made of a discharge from the Army, desiring him to use his intrest in my behalf while at the Congress, as I am heartily tired of this Retreating, Raged Starved, lousey, thevish, Pockey Army in this unhealthy Country.

But Baldwin stuck around. Which, like the page views, shows the value of just showing up every day.

Back in 2006, Baldwin’s diary was available only in an edition printed by a society in Maine a century before, and reprinted in a small quantity by Arno Press and the New York Times in 1971. I’d happened to find a copy in my local library. Now that edition is readable through Google Books, and the Massachusetts Historical Society is sharing portions of the original. Quite a change.

In July 1776, Baldwin was planning out the Continental fortifications on Mount Independence in Vermont. The engineer’s diary is a major source of Stephen Zeoli’s Mount Independence: The Enduring Legacy of a Unique Historic Place, a little book about that historic site published last year by the Mount Independence Coalition and sold at historic sites and bookstores in the region.

I see there’s a lot of activity coming up around Mount Independence, including an archeology hike tomorrow, living history next weekend, and a memorial ceremony at Hubbardton on 11 September.