A Visit to Saratoga National Historical Park

 

The Visitor Center for Saratoga National Historic Park

Last month we wandered over to New York state to visit Fort Ticonderoga and the Saratoga National Historic Park.  I had ancestors fight in both locations in the French and Indian and Revolutionary Wars.  In preparation of the trip I had already researched these ancestors, and I had placed queries with the historians at both parks.  See below for how to contact the historican at Saratoga.

During the American Revolution, in 1777, the British forces tried to separate New England from the southern colonies with a series of attacks in the Champlain and Hudson River Valleys. British, Canadian and German armies met up with the American forces at Saratoga.  There were two important battles here and a three day seige.  Finally British General John Burgoyne was forced to surrender.  It was a pivotal moment in the Revolutionary War, and it was the first ever surrender of the British Army.  The Battles of Saratoga changed the world forever. 

You can begin your visit at the Visitor Center, where I met up with the historian who I had communicated with earlier about my ancestors.  One fought on the American side, and the other was a Hessian soldier (a doctor and surgeon)  the British side. He recommended we take the park map, which led to a ten mile driving audio tour you can follow with an app.  We also watched an orientation film at the Visitor Center, and toured the museum.  

The email I received from the Saratoga National Historical Park Ranger and Military Historian:  "Your ancestor was the Compagnie Feldscher - Company Surgeon - of Captain Julius von Poellnitz's company of the Braunschweig Infantry Regiment von Riedesel. As you say, he served in Burgoyne army in the Northern Campaign of 1777. Given the regiment he served in, he probably cared for the wounded in the aftermath of the Battle of Hubbardton (fought July 7, 1777) and the Battle of Freeman's Farm (fought September 19, 1777)."  Of course, sitting with him and watching him mark up my park map with all the places where my Hessian soldier was quartered, was injured, and where he served in the British hospital and prisoner of war camp was a highlight of the trip.  If your ancestors or relatives were at Saratoga, it is well worth the trip! 

The audio tour can take up to three or four or more hours, especially if you get out at every stop, walk the trails, take photos, and read all the signage and monuments.  There are ten stops on the audio tour inside the National Park. The tour leaves the park and ends a few miles north at Schuylerville, where the surrender site and the Saratoga Monument are located near Victory Woods.  The park is dog friendly, there are picnic sites and restrooms along the way, and also horse and bike trails. There is also a Wilkinson National Recreation Trail through parts of the battlefields and other natural areas. 

A display about the Hessian soldiers who fought at the Battles of Saratoga

Each stop on the audio tour had a three dimensional map and information

The Neilson House, headquarters for Benedict Arnold and Enoch Poor's brigade

A monument to the unknown soldiers at Saratoga Battlefield

A monument to Tadeusz Kosciuszko, Polish officer and military architect at Saratoga 

The famous "Boot Monument" 

Benedict Arnold is not named on this monument at all

Erected 1887 by

JOHN WATTS de PEYSTER

Bev: Maj. Gen: SNY

2nd V. Pres't Saratoga Mon't Ass't'n

In memory of 

the "most brilliant soldier" of the 

Continental Army

who was desperately wounded

on this spot by the sally port of

BURGOYNES GREAT (WESTERN) REDOUBT

7th October 1777

winning for his countrymen

the decisive battle of the American Revolution

and for himself the rank of

Major General

A view of the Hudson River Valley from Bemis Heights, Saratoga National Historical Park

We enjoyed our stay in Saratoga and also saw the Saratoga Spa State Park and toured the Automobile museum.  We ate dinner at the lovely Old Bryan Inn, built in 1773 and probably hosted some of the characters that made the nearby battles so famous.  There are also the historic Saratoga Springs Racetrack and the nearby mineral springs and spas to visit.  

Inside the Old Bryan Inn

For the truly curious:

The official Saratoga National Historical Park website:   https://www.nps.gov/sara/index.htm  

Queries to the historian at Saratoga NHP:  https://www.nps.gov/sara/contacts.htm    

Johann Daniel Bollman, my Hessian ancestor: 

The Boot Monument (Benedict Arnold) at Wikipedia:   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boot_Monument

The Olde Bryan Inn:  https://www.oldebryaninn.com/   

Saratoga Spa State Park:    https://parks.ny.gov/visit/state-parks/saratoga-spa-state-park   

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To cite/link to this blog post:  Heather Wilkinson Rojo "A Visit to Saratoga National Historic Park", Nutfield Genealogy, posted September 22, 2016, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2026/09/a-visit-to-saratoga-national-historical.html: accessed [access date]). 

My Loyalist Ancestors - Benjamin Thompson AKA Count Rumford

 

The Count Rumford birthplace in Woburn, Massachusetts

This is the second blog post on a Loyalist ancestor I have written this year for the 250th anniversary of the United States.  Benjamin Thompson is my first cousin, six generations removed.  His mother, Ruth Simonds (b. 1730) is the sister of my 5th great grandfather, Caleb Simonds (1720 - 1811).  Benjamin Thompson was born 26 March 1753 in Woburn, Massachusetts in the house of his grandfather, Captain Ebenezer Thompson.  He attended the local schools until he was eleven years old, when he was sent (along with his young friend and neighbor Loammi Baldwin) to Medford to study mathematics, astronomy and science.  

At age 13 he was bound as an apprentice to a Salem merchant, John Appleton.  Thompson went home to Woburn soon after because Appleton lost his business when the relations between the colonies and England became strained. Then he taught school in Wilmington in 1768 and 1769.  Later in 1769 he again studied science (anatomy and physiology) under Dr. John Hay, a doctor in Woburn. In 1770 he studied at Harvard with his friend Loammi Baldwin.  In 1772 he began to teach school in Rumford (now Concord, New Hampshire). 

By 1772 he married Sarah Walker, the widow of Benjamin Rolfe, and daughter of Rev. Timothy Walker of Rumford. She was a very wealthy woman, age 33, and Benjamin Thompson was only 19 years old. He joined the New Hampshire regiment, and had to chose sides to be an American or a Loyalist.  When he was denied a commission to be an officer in the Continental army he joined the British. Benjamin and Sarah had one daughter, Sarah, born 18 October 1774. 

When the British evacuated Boston on 17 March 1776 he fled to England and left his wife in New Hampshire. He was elected to the Royal Society of Science in 1779, returned to America as an officer in 1781 - 1782, and was knighted in 1784.  Then he left England for Germany, where he served the Prince of Bavaria for 18 years, where he was made a count of the Holy Roman Empire. He chose to be named Count Rumford, after the town in New Hampshire.

In 1803 he settled in France where he remarried to the widow of the French chemist Lavoisier.  His new wife was Anne Marie Pierette Paulze. While in France he invented a calorimeter, a photomete, and a drip coffee maker.  His studies of heat lead him to be the first to understand that heat was a form of motion.

He endowed the Rumford Medals at the Royal Society, and the Rumford Medals at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Rumfor chair of science at Harvard College (now Harvard University). He, along with Sir Joseph Banks, founded the Royal Institution of Great Britain.  He also made some practical inventions such as central heating, the smokeless chimney, the kitchen oven, the first pressure cooker, and other. His name lives on for the invention of the Rumford Fireplace, which reflected more heat back into the room than previous versions of fireplaces. 

As Count Rumford in Europe, he had several love affairs, including a woman Victoire Lafevre (his housekeeper) who bore him a son,  and the Countess Baumgarten with whom he had another daughter named Sophia, born in 1798.  Count Rumford also had an affair with her sister, the Countess Nogarola.  

Benjamin Thompson, AKA Count Rumford, died 21 August 1814 in Auteil, France and is buried there. His epitaph reads "Benjamin Thompson, Conte De Rumford. The celebrated physicist and enlightened philanthropist, whose discoveries on light and heat made his name illustrious and whose work to help the poor will always be dear to the friends of humanity."

President Franklin D. Roosevelt said that Sir Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford, was "one of the three greatest minds America has produced" (the others were Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson).  

By Thomas Gainsborough - Corel Photo CD, MASTERS I, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9516763

For the truly curious:

Previous blog posts on Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford:

"Two Cousins", 17 May 2012:  https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2012/05/two-cousins.html   

"The Count Rumford House", 14 May 2012:   https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2012/05/count-rumford-house.html   

"Colonel Loammi Baldwin", 24 October 2013:   https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2013/10/colonel-loammi-baldwin.html  

Memoir of Sir Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford, with notices of his daughter, (with an edition of Rumford's complete works) by George E. Ellis, published by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Boston, 1875. 

Sir Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford and the Royal Instituation, by the Royal Society, 1999. 

White Knight, Red Heat: The many lives of Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford, by John and Mary Gribbin, 20023

Benjamin Thompson at Wikipedia:   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Thompson 

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To cite/link to this blog post: Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "My Loyalist Ancestors - Benjamin Thompson AKA Count Rumford", Nutfield Genealogy, posted September 15, 2026, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2026/09/my-loyalist-ancestors-benjamin-thompson.html: accessed [access date]). 

A Visit to Fort Ticonderoga

 

Last month we drove over to Fort Ticonderoga, taking the ferry from Vermont.  I had contacted the museum archives about an ancestor who had served there during the French and Indian War, and I received a prompt reply only a few hours later.  We decided to go see this fort, which had seen action in both the French and Indian War and the Revolutionary War, as well as several other conflicts.  

Fort Ticonderoga was built by the French between 1755 and 1757.  It looks very similar to fortifications seen in Quebec City and Louisburg, Nova Scotia.  It was an important military location for conflicts between England and France, and later between England the the American colonies. It is located between Lake Champlain and Lake George, on a trade route in the Hudson Valley.  During the Revolutionary War it was a strategic location in the British attempt to cut off New England from the southern colonies during their Northern Campaign. 

If you had ancestors who fought here during any conflict, the museum at Fort Ticonderoga has an extensive archive. This year they launched a searchable data base online for researchers. There is also an extensive data base of Ticonderoga material online at the American Ancestors (New England Historic Genealogical Society) website.  See below for more information and links. 

In honor of the 250th anniversary of the Revolutionary War and the birthday of the United States, Fort Ticonderoga is hosting many events for the public.  See their website for more information (the link is listed below).  

The ferry from Larrabee's Point, Vermont to Ticonderoga, New York

For the truly curious:

Fort Ticonderoga:   https://fortticonderoga.org/  

The Fort Ticonderoga Soldiers Project (genealogy):   https://fortticonderoga.org/learn-and-explore/collections/genealogy/   

For inquiries to the archives:   archives@fort-ticonderoga.org   

New England Historic Genealogical Society (American Ancestors) has a searchable data base for men who were engaged in military events at For Ticonderoga.  A membership is required.    https://dbnews.americanancestors.org/2026/06/17/new-database-new-york-fort-ticonderoga/   

A previous 2011 blog post about Fort Ticonderoga:    https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2011/12/fort-ticonderoga.html  

A blog post on the tombstone of Hannah Choate Burnham, buried in Dunbarton, New Hampshire, the widow of my great uncle many generations removed, who was killed at Ticonderoga in 1758.   https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2020/07/hannah-choate-burnham-died-1805.html  

A blog post about a father and son killed at Ticonderoga, buried at Goffstown, New Hampshire:  https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2016/04/tombstone-tuesday-scots-irish-settler.html  

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To cite/link to this blog post:  Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "A Visit to Fort Ticonderoga", Nutfield Genealogy, posted September 8, 2026, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2026/09/a-visit-to-fort-ticonderoga.html: accessed [access date]). 

My Loyalist Ancestors - The Hessian soldier, Dr. Johann Daniel Bollman of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia

An exhibit on the German soldiers

Saratoga National Historical Park visitor center

photographed 16 August 2026

This is the first blog post I've written this year about a Loyalist ancestor, for the 250th anniversary of the United States.  Dr. Johann Daniel Bollman was born at Hammersleben, Magdeburg, about 1751 and came to North America with Baron de Riedesel's Brunswick Regiment in 1776.  Magdeburg is on the Elbe river in Germany, in Saxony-Anhalt.  He was my fourth great grandfather, and would have been about 25 years old in 1776.

In January 1776 King George of England contracted with the Duke of Brunswick to send troops to America. These soldiers left Brunswick in February under the newly promoted Major General Friedrich Adolph Riedesel. Sixteen ships traveled across the North Atlantic in six weeks, reaching Quebec City in June.  The Baron de Riedesel's wife and children followed, and arrived in July. They were part of a British plan under General Burgoyne to cut off New England from the other southern colonies. The first big battle of this campaign was at Bennington, Vermont, in August, and was soon followed by the battles at Saratoga, New York in October. The British forces lost both battles, and surrendered at Saratoga on 17 October 1777.  The defeated army was marched to Cambridge (outside of Boston, Massachusetts), including the de Riedesel family and all the captured prisoners of war - German and English.

Johann Daniel Bollman was the compagnie feldscher (company surgeon) under Captain Julius Poellnitz's company of the Braunschweig Infantry Regiment under Major General Von Riedesel.  This was all under Burgoyne's army in the Northern Campaign of 1777.  He was part of the Battles of Saratoga, including the Battle of Freeman's Farm fought on 19 September 1777. 

Dr. Johann Bollman was taken prisoner at Saratoga when he was wounded. As a prisoner he aided wounded British soldiers, and was part of the field hospital set up along banks of the Hudson River below the battlefields.  He was part of the march to Cambridge, and was included in the prisoner exchange when some British troops were sent to Halifax.  Most of the other prisoners, known as the Convention Army, were marched south to Virginia.  Under the terms of the "Convention of Saratoga" it was agreed by truce that the troops would be sent back to Europe and not fight again in the conflict. It is estimated that about 5,000 to 6,000 soldiers were captured at Saratoga (British, German, Canadian and other loyalists).  In Cambridge about 1,300 escaped. Another 600 men escaped during the march to Charlottesville, Virginia later in 1779. They were held there for about four years. 

We know that Dr. Bollman must have been part of the earlier prisoner exchange to Halifax prior to 1779, since he petitioned for compensation for providing medical services in Nova Scotia for the period of 25 November 1779 to 10 March 1780.  He married, Jane Bremner, the widow of German settler Philip Augustus Knaut, in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia on 14 February 1782.  

The Baron Von Riedesel's wife, Frederika Charlotte, kept a journal of her experiences in America. Her writing includes witnessing the Battle of Freeman's Farm on 19 September 1777 in Saratoga.  She describes the battle, and caring for the wounded in the aftermath.  She witnessed the surrender at Schuylerville on 17 October, and traveled with the defeated army to Boston with her children.  She and her family, including the children, were prisoners for four years as part of the Convention Army.  Her letters and journal were pubished in a book in 1800.  Although she never names Dr. Bollman, he must have worked with the Baroness, and seen the same horrific wounds and sights.  It is a valuable book for understanding the battle and the prisoners of war. 

Later in Nova Scotia, Dr. Bollman became active in politics and served as a member of the House of Assembly representing Lunenburg Township from 1793 to 1809.  He was appointed one of the first Health Officers in Nova Scotia on 14 May 1799.  In the Nova Scotia Archives there is another petition of John Bolman to the House of Assembly requesting reimbursement for vaccinating Mi'kmaq in Mahone Bay for small pox in 1817. 

Dr. Bollman also appeared before the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia in 1793.  He was running for office agains Lewis Morris Wilkins. After Dr. Bollman's election was announced, Wilkins and some followers trashed Dr. Bollman's house and apothecary shop in Lunenburg. They destroyed 150 window panes as well as doors and furniture. In the medicine shop over 100 bottles were destroyed. Bollman's lawyer wrote "His said dwelling house was rendered uninhabitable, his family and himself obliged to fly from the same and his business and trade as a Druggist and Apothecary was totaly prevented, stopeped and put to an end so that the said John Bolman being obliged to ship up his said shop the windows thereof and the Drugs and Medicines as aforesaid and divers other wrongs and outrages then and there committed against the peace of our Lord." According to Dr. Bollman, Wilkins called him "that Hessian Bugger".  (see the book Surgeons, Smallpox and the Poor below) 

Johann Daniel Bollman and his wife, Jane, had eleven children born in Lunenburg:

1. Jane, born 1 Jan 1764, married John Pernette

2. John, born 1785, died 16 May 1811 at the Battle of Albuera in Spain

3. Henry, born 1 August 1787, married to Mary (Unknown)

4. Mary, born 25 Noember 1788, died 9 February 1865 in New Dublin, Nova Scotia (unmarried?)

5. Ann, born 22 December 1790, died 21 March 1872 (unmarried?) 

6. Robert, born 1 April 1793, died 8 August 1817 drowned at sea

7. James Bethel, born 26 May 1795, died before 1833

8. Caroline, born 16 May 1797, married Roger Aitkan

9. Edward Bremner, born 23 October 1799, married Sarah Creighton

10. Bremner Frederick (my 3rd great grandfather), born 25 February 1802, married Sarah Elizabeth Lennox and had three children. I descend from from their daughter, Ann Margaret Bollman (1835 - 1923) who married Professor Caleb Rand Bill of Nictaux, Cornwallis, Nova Scotia and they removed to Salem, Massachusetts (my great, great grandparents). 

11. Charles Morris, born 23 December 1805, married Clara Collins

In the records of the Anglican church in Lunenburg you can find the deaths of Johann Bollman and his wife.  He died on 17 September 1833 and she preceded him on 6 March 1829.  There doesn't seem to be a tombstone for either one of them in the local cemeteries. He served as a doctor in Lunenburg for 54 years. 

For the truly curious:

"Surname Saturday ~ BOLLMAN, my Hessian Ancestor", posted 1 March 2014:    https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2014/03/surname-saturday-bollman-my-hessian.html    

"The Hessian soldier who stayed in the New World", posted 19 November 2009:   https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2009/11/other-mayflowers-part-4.html   

Frederika Charlotte Riedesel,  Letters and Journals relating to the War of the American Revolution, and the Capture of the German Troops at Saratoga, by Mrs. General Riedesel. Translated by  William L. Stone, published at Albany 1867.  Available to read and download at Google Books online. 

The Hessians of Nova Scotia, 1994, compiled by Johannes Helmut Merz.  

The Diary of Adolphus Gaetz, 1965, University of Michigan, see page 111 for references to Dr. Johann Bollman. 

Surgeons, Smallpox, and the Poor: A History of Medicine and Social Conditions in Nova Scotia, 1749-1799,  By Allan Everett Marble, McGill-Queen's University Press, Montreal, pages 160- 161 for references to Dr. Johann Daniel Bollman. 

A Directory of the Members of the Legislative Assembly of Nova Scotia, 1758 - 1958, Public Archives of Nova Scotia, 1958. 

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To cite/link to this blog post:  Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "My Loyalist Ancestors - The Hessian soldier, Dr. Johann Daniel Bollman of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia", Nutfield Genealogy, posted September 1, 2016, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2026/09/my-loyalist-ancestors-hessian-soldier.html: accessed [access date]).