We went to Saratoga National Historical Park today with great
success. Turns out one of the rangers in the visitor center is not only
the park historian but also the historian for and re-enactor in the British 62nd
Regiment which is the one my 4G-grandfather Abraham Bunbury served with.
Erik, the ranger, had written a mini-biography of Bunbury which I had already attached
to my Ancestry family tree without knowing who the author was. Erik knew
exactly where Bunbury’s command was and explained the diagram of the battle
where his company caught the worst of the American attack. Bunbury was
injured in the battle but survived. Erik also said a new series of
historical paintings is in the process of being done for the park and one of
them is of the scene where Bunbury was injured. There’s a possibility the
picture will be shown online after the series is finished. I certainly
hope so because there’s little chance we’ll ever be back in this area.
Erik is a walking encyclopedia about the Saratoga battles and the people in them so if I come up with questions in the future I’ll know who to call. He
seemed genuinely excited to meet one of Bunbury’s descendants. (I know
Bunbury fought on the wrong side but he was a professional soldier who came
over with General Burgoyne’s army, not the same thing as being a Loyalist.)
One additional interesting thing Erik discussed was about an old
painting of someone who is claimed by Turtle Bunbury, who runs the Bunbury
genealogy website, to be of Cain Bunbury. The painting has been passed
down the generations in Turtle’s family with the story that it’s Cain
Bunbury but Erik researched this man extensively and says there’s no way the
uniform in the picture could have belonged to him. Uniforms are very
specific to certain time periods, generally periods of around 10 years, and the
uniform in the painting, right down to the buttons, is of the period during
which Abraham Bunbury served. Erik is 99% sure the painting is of
Abraham. Turtle does not want to acknowledge this possibility, probably
because he is not a direct descendant of Abraham. It sounded like the
same picture I found online and put on my tree identified as Abraham without
knowing all this background. Although my picture is of a painting in a
locket it’s probably the same one. Miniaturists painted tiny copies of
large paintings so they could be worn as jewelry.
Abraham Bunbury, c. 1780.
Taken on the heights overlooking the Hudson River towards the
east. The British had possession of the land from the river to the bottom
of these heights where they had their hospital and other buildings. The
two Saratoga battles took place a little to the west of here.
Overlooking the site of the first battle of Saratoga (19 Sept
1777) where the British 62nd Regiment including Bunbury’s company
was hit on three sides by the Americans and took very heavy casualties.
It’s hard to tell from the picture but this is a ridge overlooking a farm field
at a lower level. Excellent ground from which to fire on the enemy.
Tomorrow we’re moving just 55 miles north to Ticonderoga, site
of the fort and a lot of early history. It’s quite possible we will again
be without wifi and phone so I’ll post whatever I write when we next get a
connection.
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