Gen. William Heath, Hero of Bunker Hill and Then in Charge of the Saratoga Convention Army, Writes His Prisoner and Counterpart, the British Commander of the Convention Army, on the Policy of Treatment of British POWs

He also chastises Phillips for the practice of his captured men for trying dressing in disguise to gain recruitment by the French: “the arts and deceptions made use of by your people by dressing themselves in sailor & peasants habit and by the most solemn protestations of having no connections with the army are constantly imposing on our recruiting officers, to their great embarrassment.”

 

An apparently unpublished letter dated the very day he learned that the French would recognize American independence

 

The letter sheds light on recruitment by French soldiers: “They opened a rendezvous [recruitment center] at Watertown. But I immediately broke it up and strictly forbid the Col. enlisting either German or British troops of the Convention or prisoners or deserters.”

The surrender of General Burgoyne to General Gates at Saratoga, N.Y. on October 18, 1777, placed nearly 6,000 British and Hessian prisoners of war in the hands of the Continental Congress. According to the terms of their surrender, written in a document entitled the “Convention of Saratoga,” the prisoners were to be marched to Boston and then shipped back to Great Britain. When they arrived at Boston, a dispute arose between the Americans and Burgoyne, and on the 8th of January 1778, Congress resolved to suspend the terms of the Convention and keep the prisoners in custody. Late that year the decision was made to relocate them to Charlottesville, Virginia, where they could be more closely watched and better supplied. Many of the British and Hessian officers had their wives and children with them, and wagons were provided for their transportation. British General Phillips and the genial Hessian General von Riedesel led the march southward. They reached Charlottesville, 700 miles from Boston, in January 1779, exhausted by a long journey during an inclement season and arriving to find their barracks unfinished and their supplies insufficient.

Maj. Gen. William Phillips was a British Army officer who served in the American Revolution. As part of John Burgoyne’s army, he was captured at Saratoga in 1777. He is depicted in the painting “The Surrender of General Burgoyne”. He then became a prisoner as part of the Saratoga Convention Army until he was exchanged for American General Benjamin Lincoln in 1780. While a prisoner in Virginia, he was one of the British officers who was entertained at the home of Thomas Jefferson. After the exchange he was able to fight once again, and was sent by Gen. Clinton to meet up with Benedict Arnold (who was now on the British side). While on his way to link up with General Cornwallis, he became so ill that Arnold had to lead his men. He died on May 13, 1781, in Petersburg, Virginia, five months before Yorktown.

Maj. Gen. William Heath commanded Massachusetts forces during the last stage of the Battle of Lexington and Concord in April 1775. He was major-general of Massachusetts forces at the Battle of Bunker Hill in June 1775, then received the same rank in the Continental Army. After the British surrender at Saratoga, he was placed in charge of the Convention Army.

Autograph letter signed, Headquarters Boston, April 19, 1778, to British Maj. Gen. William Phillips, while Heath was in charge of the Convention Army and Phillips was a prisoner of war as part of the Convention Army. The letter addresses Phillips’ grievances relating to the Convention Army and also to recruiting. “Your favors of the 17th & 18th came safe to hand, and should have been sooner answered had it been in my power. No one could be more inclined to preserve good humor & good order than I am, and I am fully satisfied with your intentions to promote them also. The appointment of Maj. Brown to act as Town Major was not designed to give umbrage, it was rather a temporary appointment by necessity, Capt. Lyman being called upon to join his corps. No abuses offered to the [British] officers will be countenanced by me, but will ever meet with rebuke & punishment. However in justice to Major Brown I must say that I have ever found him ambitious to do his duty and to deserve the character of a good officer. His former situation and some other circumstances may have rendered him disagreeable to the officers, and I shall give the matter a proper consideration.

“The matter complained of in your last letter I hope was redressed. It was occasioned by the arrival of a Col. Armand and a number of French officers of his corps from the Southward, one of whom I believed opened a rendezvous [recruitment center] at Watertown. But I immediately broke it up and strictly forbid the Col. enlisting either German or British troops of the Convention or prisoners or deserters. But the arts and deceptions made use of by your people by dressing themselves in sailor & peasants habit and by the most solemn protestations of having no connections with the army are constantly imposing on our recruiting officers, to their great embarrassment.”