John Koster is the author of Hermann Ehrhardt and Operation Snow. Battle of Bennington - Background . The Americans have a surprising win as the British have a huge advantage position (are taken by surprise). Afterward, Mellon and a dozen other militiamen were sent to ambush any local latecomers trying to join the Tories. Especially after Burgoyne's Indian screen left him, small groups of local Patriots began to emerge to harass the fringes of British positions. When the Abenakis got Stark and Eastman back to their village in Quebec, they forced the two “Yengeese” to run the gauntlet between two lines of club-wielding warriors, each while holding a ceremonial pole adorned with the skin and feathers of a loon. General John Stark, who led the patriot troops at the Battle, requested a supply of rum from the New Hampshire legislature, noting that “There is no such article in them parts where we are a-goin.” It turned out that there was rum in them parts, but Stark complained at Manchester that it cost 20 shillings a quart. The New Hampshiremen then covered their fellow Americans’ retreat.
On August 11 Burgoyne sent out Lt. Col. Friedrich Baum, a Brunswicker who spoke no English, at the head a foraging party to collect cattle, horses, carts and wagons for the army. The dragoons in their heavy boots clumped along for three days, giving the Americans plenty of time to concentrate their militia and send for reinforcements. What is 724 rounded to the nearest hundred? Or not. This ambitious plan was predicated on the belief that General William Howe would also aid in Burgoyne’s northern invasion from Canada and Barry St. Leger would come from the west. All Rights Reserved. This year, Bennington’s traditional downtown Fire Department parade had to be cancelled due to the pandemic, so a group of local citizens (I was one) stepped into the breach, with the Fire Department’s blessing and assistance, to mount a different kind of commemoration. So did General Stark. Where did Langdon’s money come from? What did daedalus mean when he told his son no fancy steering by star or constellation?
“Our men fired each on his own hook, aiming whenever they saw a flash. Rattlesnake Mountain and Sugar Loaf Hill) that commanded the fort. A reward that Stark likely valued the highest was a message of thanks from John Hancock, president of the Continental Congress, which included a commission as "brigadier in the army of the United States". Would you also like to receive our weekly Real Estate newsletter? Following the fight at Oriskany, Burgoyne let himself be talked into a march against a Patriot supply depot at Bennington in the New Hampshire Grants (present-day Vermont). Langdon financed trading voyages to the West Indies (the Caribbean) and England. Eastman held his pole aloft and endured the beating, falling exhausted at the far end. Plagued by Americans who had felled trees across the road to slow the baggage train and artillery, his mixed force never actually reached Bennington. And the New Hampshire treasury was bare. Moreover, the men were to get their first month’s pay (four dollars) of their two-month enlistments in advance. Breymann began a hasty retreat; he had lost one quarter of his force and all of his artillery pieces.
We pushed on all night, each making the best progress he could.”. “Soon the Germans ran,” Mellon recalled. He later reported that “two hogsheads and a barrel” of rum (around 150 gallons) sustained his troops at the Battle, which they “much needed.” One officer remarked that Stark broached one of those hogsheads after the first engagement, but that his men “tarried not to taste it, but rushed on the enemy with an ardor perhaps unparalleled” when the British reinforcements arrived: duty before rum. This left Baum and his Brunswick dragoons trapped alone on the high ground. Setting out with a small force of 1,500 men for Bennington, Stark learned that Burgoyne had dispatched Baum with 500 men to seize the stores collected at that place. After the battle ended, while Stark's militiamen were busy disarming the prisoners and looting their supplies, Breymann arrived with his reinforcements. British spirits were further dampened by the slow progress made by Burgoyne’s main army, sometimes as little as one mile a day. He was sent by Burgoyne to raid Bennington in the disputed New Hampshire Grants area for horses, draft animals, provisions, and other supplies. The outnumbered Germans occupied high ground and put up a spirited fight against overwhelming odds. A map drawn from a soldier’s memory of the field years after the 1777 Battle of Bennington. Michael Douglas, actor, producer; his numerous awards include two Academy Awards (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Wall Street), four Golden Globes and the Cecil B. DeMille Award. More than 80% of New Hampshire’s exports went to the West Indies. Heather Locklear, actress (Dynasty, Melrose Place, Spin City TV series). Taking Poor’s promotion over his own head as a studied insult, Stark resigned his commission, effective March 22, 1777, though he stood ready to defend his native New Hampshire. To his shock, the ravine emerged within spitting distance of the Tories, one of whom got off a quick shot, hitting Stafford in the foot and dropping him to the ground. When were the battles of Brandywine/Germantown? He’s the author of A Guide to the Battle of Bennington and the Bennington Monument and a contributor to the Berkshire Edge Magazine.