BENNINGTON.
When the convention adjourned at Windsor, July 8, 1877, Ticonderoga had
fallen; Burgoyne's splendid army was advancing along the western border
of Vermont; Warner had made his brave but ineffectual stand at
Hubbardton, and was now with the remnant of his regiment at Manchester.
Hither the Council of Safety at once proceeded, and, with Thomas
Chittenden as its president, began its important labors. It issued a
call to all officers of militia to send on all the men they could
possibly raise, as they had learned that a "large Scout of the Enemy are
disposed to take a Tour to this Post," and their aim seemed to be the
Continental stores at Bennington. On the same day, Ira Allen, as
secretary, sent the alarming news to General Schuyler, with an appeal
for aid; but Schuyler, as a Continental officer, declined to "notice a
fourteenth State unknown to the Confederacy," and could send no men but
the militia under Colonel Simmonds, whom he had ordered to join Colonel
Warner at Manchester.
Allen also wrote to the New Hampshire Council of Safety for assistance
in making a stand against the enemy in Vermont, which might as well be
made there as in New Hampshire; for, "notwithstanding its infancy, the
State was as well supplied with provisions for victualling an army as
any country on the continent." Meshech Weare, president of that State,
replied that New Hampshire had already determined to send assistance,
and one fourth of her militia was to be formed into three battalions,
under command of Brigadier-General John Stark, and sent forthwith into
Vermont. President Weare requested the Convention of Vermont to send
some suitable person to Number Four, to confer with General Stark as to
the route and disposition of the troops; and two trusty persons were
accordingly sent by Colonel Warner. On the 19th, Stark received his
orders to repair to Number Four, and take command of the force there
mustering. Influenced by a miserable spirit of jealousy or favoritism,
Congress had slighted this veteran of the late war, passing over him in
the list of promotions. Resenting such injustice, he went home, but was
now ready to unsheathe his sword in the service of his State, though he
refused to act under Continental officers.
Ira Allen, the secretary and youngest member of the Vermont Council,
strongly advocated the raising of a regiment for the defense of the
State, while the majority could not see the way clear to raise more than
two companies of sixty men each; nor could they, in the unorganized
condition of the new State, a third of whose inhabitants were in the
confusion of an exodus, see how more than this meagre force could be
maintained, and the day was spent in fruitless discussion of the vexed
question. At last a member moved that Allen be requested to devise means
for paying the bounties and wages of his proposed regiment, and to
report at sunrise on the morrow. The astute young secretary was equal to
the occasion, and when the Council met next morning, at an hour that
finds modern legislators in their first sleep, he was ready with his
plan of support. This was, that Commissioners of Sequestration should be
appointed, with authority to seize the goods and chattels of all persons
who had joined or should join the common enemy; and that all property so
seized should be sold at public vendue, and the proceeds be paid to the
treasurer of the Council of Safety, for the purpose of paying the
bounties and wages of a regiment forthwith to be raised for the defense
of the State. "This was the first instance in America of seizing and
selling the property of the enemies of American independence," says its
originator, in his "History of Vermont."[72] These "turbulent sons of
freedom," as Stark afterward termed them, were indeed foremost in many
aggressive measures. The Council at once adopted the plan, and appointed
a Commissioner of Sequestration. Samuel Herrick was appointed to the
command of the regiment, his commission being signed on the 15th of
July by Thomas Chittenden, president. The men were enlisted and their
bounties paid within fifteen days. The colonels of the state militia
were ordered to march half their regiments to Bennington, "without a
moment's Loss of Time," and the fugitives, who since the invasion had
been removing their families to the southward, were exhorted to return
and assist in the defense of the State.[73]
Stark was collecting his men at Charlestown, and sending them forward to
Warner at Manchester as rapidly as they could be supplied with kettles,
rum, and bullets. There was great lack of all three of these essentials
of a campaign, especially of the last, for there was but one pair of
bullet-moulds in the town, and there were frequent and urgent calls for
lead. When the lead was forthcoming, the one pair of moulds was kept hot
and busy. But at last, on the 7th of August, Stark was at the
mountain-walled hamlet of Manchester with 1,400 New Hampshire men and
Green Mountain Boys, ready to follow wherever the brave old ranger
should lead.
Schuyler was anxious to concentrate all the available troops in front of
Burgoyne, to prevent his advance upon Albany, and urged Stark to join
him with his mountaineers; but, considering the terms on which he had
engaged, Stark felt under no obligations to put himself under the orders
of a Continental officer, and had, moreover, opinions of his own as to
the most effective method of retarding Burgoyne's advance, which he
thought might best be done by falling upon his rear when an opportunity
offered. Therefore he declined to comply with Schuyler's demands, though
he assured him he would lay aside all personal resentment when it seemed
opposed to the public good, and would join him when it was deemed a
positive necessity. Schuyler's Dutch name, honored as it was by his own
good deeds and those of his ancestors, had a smack of New York
patroonism that was unpleasant to New England men, especially those of
the Grants, and he was no favorite with any of them. They were jubilant
when he was superseded in command of the Northern Department by the
incompetent Gates, who accomplished nothing himself, but managed to
repose serenely on the laurels that others had gathered. Schuyler
complained to Congress of Stark's refusal, and that body censured him
and the New Hampshire government under which he was acting.
General Lincoln was at Manchester, whither he had come on August 2d, to
take command of the eastern militia. The force of the enemy, which for
some time had remained at Castleton, menacing Manchester and all the
country to the eastward, had marched to join Burgoyne on the Hudson; and
Stark moved forward to Bennington with the purpose, now, of joining
Schuyler. He was accompanied by Colonel Warner, who left his regiment at
Manchester under command of Lieutenant-Colonel Safford.
At the earnest request of the Council, already at Bennington, who
apprehended an attack on that place, Stark encamped his brigade there
and awaited the movements of the enemy. The Council was established at
Captain Fay's[74] famous "Catamount Tavern," and during these fateful
days sat in the low-browed room above whose wide fireplace was carved
the words "Council Chamber." Here these faithful guardians of the young
commonwealth consulted with Stark and Warner, and sent forth orders to
colonels of militia and appeals to the valiant men of Berkshire.
Provisions were becoming scant in the army of Burgoyne, and he
determined to seize for his use the stores which the Americans had
collected at Bennington. To accomplish this, he dispatched Colonel Baum,
a German officer of tried valor, with 300 dismounted dragoons who had
won reputation on European fields, and whom it was a part of the plan of
operations to provide with horses. There were also a body of marksmen
under Captain Frazer, Colonel Peters's corps of Tories, some Canadian
volunteers, and 100 Indians,--in all amounting to nearly 800 men, with
two light field-pieces. Colonel Skene accompanied the German colonel, by
request of Burgoyne, to give him the benefit of his knowledge of the
country, and to use his influence in drawing the supposedly numerous
Loyalists to the support of the British. Lieutenant-Colonel Breyman was
ready to support Baum, if occasion required, with a veteran force of
Brunswickers, 620 strong, with two more field-pieces.
On the 13th of August Baum set forth with his "mixed multitude," and on
the same day reached Cambridge, sixteen miles from Bennington, and next
day arrived at Sancoick, on a branch of the Walloomsac River.
Here a party of Americans was posted in a mill, which they abandoned on
his approach. The Brunswickers had had a sharp taste of the quality of
Yankee valor at Hubbardton, yet Baum held his present adversaries in
supreme contempt, and expected no serious opposition from them. He wrote
to Burgoyne, on the head of a barrel in the mill, that prisoners taken
agreed there were fifteen to eighteen hundred men at Bennington, "but
are supposed to leave on our approach."
Being first apprised of the appearance of a party of Indians at
Cambridge, General Stark sent Lieutenant-Colonel Gregg with 200 men to
oppose them, but he was presently informed that a more formidable force
was closely following the Indians and tending towards Bennington, and he
sent at once to Manchester for Colonel Warner's regiment and all the
militia of the adjacent country to come to his support.
Early on the morning of the 14th he set forward with his brigade,
accompanied by Colonels Warner, Williams, Herrick, and Brush, and after
marching about five miles met Gregg retreating from Sancoick, closely
pursued by the enemy. Stark formed his troops in line of battle, but
Baum, perceiving the strength of the Americans, halted his force in a
commanding position on a hill, and Stark fell back a mile to a farm,
where he encamped.
Baum's position was on the west side of the Walloomsac, a branch of the
Hoosic, nearly everywhere fordable. Most of his Germans were posted on a
wooded hill north of the road, which here crossed the river. For the
defense of the bridge, a breastwork was thrown up and one of the
field-pieces placed in it, and two smaller breastworks on opposite sides
of the road were manned by Frazer's marksmen. The Canadians were posted
in some log-huts standing on both sides of the stream, the Tories under
Pfister on a hill east of the stream and south of the wood, while near
their position was the other field-piece manned by German grenadiers. A
hill hid the hostile encampments from each other, though they were
scarcely two miles apart.
That night rain began falling, increasing to such a steady downpour as
often marks the capricious weather of dogdays. Some of the Berkshire
militia had come up under Colonel Simonds, and among them was Parson
Allen of Pittsfield, who complained to Stark that the Berkshire people
had often been called out to no purpose, and would not turn out again if
not allowed to fight now. Stark asked if he would have them fall to,
while it was dark as pitch and raining buckets. "Not just at this
moment," the parson admitted. "Then," said the old warrior, "as soon as
the Lord sends us sunshine, if I do not give you fighting enough, I'll
never ask you to come out again." All the next day the rain continued to
pour down from the leaden sky. Baum employed the time in strengthening
his position, keeping his men busy with axe and spade, piling higher and
extending his works, in the drenching downfall. At the same time, Stark
with his officers and the Council of Safety was planning an attack.
Next morning broke in splendor. Innumerable raindrops glittered on
forest, grass-land, fields of corn, and ripening wheat; clouds of rising
vapor were glorified in the level sunbeams that turned the turbid
reaches of the swollen Walloomsac to a belt of gold. So quiet and
peaceful was the scene that it seemed to Glich, a German officer who
described it, as if there could be no enemy there to oppose them.
But the mountaineers were already astir. Three hundred under Nichols
were making a wide circuit to the north of Baum's position, to attack
his rear on the left; while Herrick with his rangers and Brush's militia
made a similar movement to the rear of his right, and Hobart and
Stickney with 300 of Stark's brigade were marching in the same
direction. While these movements were in progress, Baum was diverted by
a threatened attack in front.
At three in the afternoon Nichols had gained his desired position and
began firing, quickly followed by Herrick, Stickney, and Hobart, while
Stark assailed the Tory breastwork and the bridge with a portion of his
brigade, the Berkshire and the Vermont militia. "Those redcoats are ours
to-day, or Molly Stark's a widow!" he called to his mountaineers, and,
following him, they dashed through the turbulent stream in pursuit of
the scattering Tories and Canadians. The despised Yankee farmers,
un-uniformed for the most part, wearing no badge but a cornhusk or a
green twig in the hatband, fighting in their shirtsleeves,--for the sun
poured down its scalding rays with intense fervor,--closed in on all
sides and showered their well-aimed volleys upon the Brunswick veterans,
who fought with intrepid but unavailing bravery.
The Indians fled in affright, stealing away in single file, thankful to
get off with their own scalps and without plunder, for "the woods were
full of Yankees," they said. Parson Allen, mounting a stump, exhorted
the enemy to lay down their arms, but received only the spiteful
response of musketry. Clambering down from his perch, he exchanged his
Bible for a gun, and his gunpowder proved more effective than his
exhortations.
The fire was furious, and every musket and rifle shot, every thunderous
roar of the rapidly served cannon, was repeated in multitudinous echoes
by the hills. For two hours the roar of the conflict was, said Stark,
"like a continuous clap of thunder." He had been in the storm of fire
that swept down Abercrombie's assaulting columns at Ticonderoga, had
fought at Bunker Hill, Trenton, and Princeton, yet he declared that this
fight was the hottest he had ever seen. Warner, who was in the thickest
of it with him, well knew every foot of the ground they were fighting
over, and the value of his aid and advice was generously acknowledged by
Stark. The cannoneers were shot down and the guns taken; an ammunition
wagon exploded and the assailing Yankees swarmed over the breastworks,
charging with bayonetless guns upon the valiant Brunswickers, many of
whom were killed, many taken prisoners, while a few escaped.
The victory of the Americans was complete, and when the prisoners had
been sent to Bennington town under a sufficient guard, the militia
dispersed over the blood-stained field in quest of spoil.
But they were soon brought together again by the alarm that another
British force was coming up, and was only two miles away. The rattle of
their drums and the screech of their fifes could be heard shaking and
piercing the sultry air. It was Breyman's force of German veterans.
Early in the fight, Baum had sent an express to hasten Breyman's
advance, which had been delayed by the violent rainstorm of the
preceding day, and the consequent wretched condition of the roads, now
continuous wallows of mire; but they were close at hand, and the
scattered militiamen were ill-prepared to oppose them. Fortunately, the
remnant of Warner's regiment, from Manchester, just then came up, led
by Lieutenant-Colonel Safford. There were only 140 of them, but they
were a host in steadfast valor, and they took a position in front,
forming a rallying point for the militia which now came hurrying in. The
Americans fell back slowly before Breyman, who advanced up the road,
firing his field-pieces with more noise than effect, till a body of
militia of sufficient strength to make a stand was collected. Then the
Germans were attacked in front and flank, the deadliest fire raining
upon them from a wooded hill on their left. The engagement was hotly
maintained till after sunset, when, having lost many men and his
artillery horses, Breyman abandoned his cannon and beat a precipitate
retreat. Stark pushed the pursuit till it was impossible to aim a gun or
distinguish friend from foe in the gathering gloom, and then withdrew
his men. In his official report he said, "With one hour more of
daylight, we should have captured the whole body." As it was, Breyman
escaped with less than 100 men.
The present fruits of the double victory were four brass field-pieces,
1,000 stand of arms, four ammunition wagons, 250 sabres, and more than
650 prisoners. Among these were Baum and Pfister, both of whom received
mortal wounds and died a few days later, and 207 were left dead on the
field.
The American loss was 30 killed and 40 wounded. Its more important
results were the inspiriting effect upon the whole country, and the
depressing influence of the defeat upon the enemy. Washington
considered it decisive of the fate of Burgoyne, who four days later
wrote a gloomy account to the British minister of his situation
resulting from this disaster. He had lost faith in the Tories, and said,
"The great bulk of the country is undoubtedly with the Congress....
Their measures are executed with a secrecy and dispatch that are not to
be equaled. Wherever the King's forces point, militia to the amount of
three or four thousand assemble in twenty-four hours. They bring with
them their subsistence; the alarm over, they return to their farms. The
Hampshire Grants in particular, a country unpeopled and almost unknown
in the last war, now abounds in the most active and most rebellious race
of the continent, and hangs like a gathering storm on my left."
Congress hastened to revoke its censure of the insubordinate New
Hampshire colonel, and made him a brigadier of the army. In Stark's
report of the battle to Gates he says: "Too much honor cannot be given
to the brave officers and soldiers for gallant behavior; they fought
through the midst of fire and smoke, mounted two breastworks that were
well fortified and supported with cannon. I cannot particularize any
officer, as they all behaved with the greatest spirit and bravery.
Colonel Warner's superior skill in the action was of extraordinary
service to me." He gave the "Honorable Council the honor of exerting
themselves in the most spirited manner in that most critical time," and
he presented that body "a Hessian gun with bayonet, a Brass Berriled
Drum, a Grenadier's Cap, and a Hessian Broad Sword," to be kept in the
Council Chamber as a "Memorial in Commemoration of the Glorious action
fought at Walloomsaik, August 16, 1777, in which case the exertions of
said Council was found to be Exceedingly Serviceable."[75] Two of the
cannon taken from the Hessians stand in the vestibule of the capitol at
Montpelier.
FOOTNOTES:
[72] November 27, 1777, four months after the Vermont Council of Safety
had adopted this measure, Congress recommended the same course to all
the States.--_Journals of Congress_, vol. iii. p. 423.
[73] _Hartford Courant_, August 17, 1777.
[74] This same Landlord Fay had five sons in Bennington battle, one of
whom was killed.
[75] Williams's _History of Vermont_; Hiland Hall's _History of
Vermont_; Ira Allen's _History of Vermont_; _Account of Battle of
Bennington_, by Glich; _Ibid._, by Breyman; _Official Reports,
Historical Soc. Coll._ vol. i.; _Centennial Exercises_, 1877.