John Peter Becker was living in Easton, then in Albany County, when, at just 12 years old, he enlisted in the American Army and served in the Van Rensselaer Regiment of Militia as a teamster on Henry Knox’s Noble Artillery Train. He gave an oral history of the American Revolutionary War more than 50 years after the Revolution. At the time, Becker was just shy of 70. Published at the suggestion of Governor De Witt Clinton, some of this text had “appeared from time to time in the columns of the Albany Daily Advertiser, but at such distant intervals as to lose its hold.” At the time, memoirs of those who fought in the Revolutionary War were encouraged for publication to provide a full record of the event. Most of this account is based in central New York, where General Philip Schuyler was the local congressman. Becker remembers that when news arrived that “blood had been shed at Lexington,” we gathered around Gen. Philip Schuyler for more information. He gave a vivid account of the Knox Artillery Train, with John Peter Becker being a 12-year-old hauler on the expedition. His father was the lead hauler, appointed on the strong recommendation of General Philip Schuyler, the commander of the Northern Department, a long-time resident of Saratoga, and a well-known businessman. After Henry Knox contracted with Captain Palmer of Stillwater, Schuyler interviewed Palmer and dismissed him over the price. John Becker was immediately hired, and he then organized haulers and teams of draft animals. John Peter Becker provides a vivid account of driving a team of draft horses and losing control of the team on the way from Lake George to Glens Falls. He also describes losing one of the guns and how his father retrieved it.

John Peter Becker was called out from November 1775 to January 1776, taking guns to Springfield, MA, until another set of drivers and teams replaced them. His next period of service was from July 1776 to December 1776. He was called out again in July 1777 to carry baggage for the American Army, and he says he was present at the surrender of the British Army in October 1777. John Peter gives a vivid account of the surrender, describing the interaction between John Burgoyne and Horatio Gates during the surrender and review of the troops. His service continued in the fall of 1779 and April 1780; he and his father were drafted in 1781, and he was called out again in 1782 and 1783.

Born in 1757, Wilkinson was married twice. His study of medicine was interrupted by the Revolutionary War. Commissioned a Captain in 1776 (later backdated to 1775), he served as an aide to Generals Nathaniel Greene at Boston and Benedict Arnold during the retreat from Canada. Appointed a brigade-major in 1776, Wilkinson became a deputy adjutant general for General Horatio Gates in 1777 and was present during the Battles of Saratoga, intriguing to create animosity between Gates and Arnold. Worse, he was responsible for the erroneous, widely held belief that Arnold was relieved of command before the second Battle of Saratoga and had nothing to do with that battle plan. Ordered by Gates to deliver his battle report to Congress, Wilkinson tarried and embellished his own role in the victory to the extent that he was brevetted a brigadier general despite being only 20 years old. His intriguing and self-serving ways would continue.

Lady Frederica Charlotte Louise Riedesel, Baroness of Eisenbach (better known as “the Baroness”) accompanied Burgoyne’s army during the Saratoga Campaign of 1777. Her husband, General Friedrich Adolf Riedesel, was commander of the Brunswick (German) troops who made up a considerable portion of Burgoyne’s army.

While it might seem odd that the Baroness would choose to travel with an army through wilderness with three small children, Frederica was no stranger to the hard life of an army follower, as she had traveled with the Prussian army in her childhood. (Disclaimer: while it’s true that for Frederica, army life was strenuous and hard living. But to the wives of soldiers, the Baroness still lived like a baroness, with better food, a lady servant, little labor, etc.)
The Baroness wrote about traveling with the army, caring for the wounded during and after battles, and her other experiences throughout the campaign in her memoir. Her accounts have been published as “Baroness von Riedesel and the American Revolution: Journal and Correspondence of a Tour of Duty, 1776-1783, a celebrated book and an important source for historians of the American Revolution and the 1777 campaign.