Saratoga National Historical Park
The Convention Army: Surrender Did Not Mean Everyone Went Home
Listen at the stop, then read the transcript and follow the sources behind the story.
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Transcript
Surrender did not mean everyone went home.
Under the negotiated Convention, Burgoyne's captured troops were supposed to march to Massachusetts and eventually leave North America on the condition that they would not fight again.
That clean outcome never happened as expected.
The surrendered soldiers became known as the Convention Army.
They marched to the Boston area under guard.
Political disputes and mistrust over the terms followed.
Many remained prisoners for years and were eventually moved elsewhere.
That aftermath matters because historical narratives love curtain drops.
Surrender.
Applause.
End scene.
But thousands of soldiers and followers still had to be fed, housed, guarded and transported.
Victory created a huge logistical obligation for the Americans.
This is a fitting final stop.
Saratoga changed the war.
History did not pause to admire its significance.
Everyone immediately had to deal with what victory actually produced.
The prisoners' experience also complicates the word “British.”
Many captured troops were German soldiers serving with the Crown, and their later experiences in North America varied.
Some deserted or remained after the war.
Others eventually returned to Europe.
The Convention Army became a moving population problem crossing American communities far from Saratoga.
The battlefield result therefore produced consequences in Massachusetts, Virginia and elsewhere.
A surrender site can be geographically small while its aftermath spreads across half a continent.