USA > Vermont > A history of Vermont : with geological and geographical notes, bibliography, chronology, maps, and illustrations > Part 7
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Meantime the Americans had met with a disastrous defeat at Hubbardton. As soon as the British had dis- covered the retreat of the Americans from Ticonderoga they started after them in eager pursuit. ' St. Clair's plan had been to send the provisions and stores by galleys to Skenesboro, and to march the army thither by land through Hubbardton and Castleton. All might have gone well had not a French officer, on abandoning his house, imprudently set fire to it. The result was
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THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION
doubly disastrous. The light of the flames revealed to the British the operations of the American forces, and the knowledge that they were discovered threw the latter into confusion.
However, the rear guard were brought off in good order about four o'clock of the morning of July 6. The
troops on arriving at Hubbardton halted for a time. Seth Warner was put in command of the rear guard and the stragglers CENERAL JUMA STARK'S CAMPING CROUNO. AUGUST 14-15-L 1777 "THERE ARE THE HEDCOATS. AND THEY ARE OURS. O% THIS NICHT MOLLY STARK SLEEPS A WIDOW.' who kept coming in. St. Clair went on to Castleton. At about seven o'clock the next morning the pur- suing British de- tachments, who had slept on their arms a few miles MONUMENT MARKING STARK'S CAMPING GROUND away that night, attacked the American rear and defeated it after a sharp fight, completely routing the entire force with severe loss. The galleys on the lake were also overtaken by British frigates and gunboats near Skenesboro, now Whitehall. On the approach of the frigates the Americans aban- doned the galleys and succeeded in blowing up three of them. The remaining two fell into the enemy's hands.
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Notwithstanding these successes, the troubles which fell upon Burgoyne were stripping his army of its efficiency. The provisions. taken at Ticonderoga went rapidly during his slow progress.
Transportation was poor; fresh supplies were not abundant. From the latter part of July to the middle of August his army was busy bringing for- ward supplies and bateaux from Lake George. But his utmost diligence was insufficient to meet his needs. It became evident that if he was to carry his campaign through with success he must draw on the supplies of the enemy JOHN STARK 1 to replenish his own stores. The resources in his immediate vicinity were soon exhausted. Reports came to him that at Bennington, guarded only by the militia, lay a large quantity of provisions gathered for the use of the American army. He determined to secure those stores for the British army.
1 This portrait of Major General John Stark was made, on the order of the legislature of New Hampshire, by U. D. Tenney, from an origi- nal sketch by Miss Hannah Crowninshield in ISto, Stark then being eighty-two years of age.
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THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION
To execute this move he placed a select body of Ger- man troops, some Canadians, and about a hundred Indians under the command of Colonel Baum. To facilitate oper- ations further he ordered another detachment to post itself
BENNINGTON
HEIGHTS.
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Bodies of Americans
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Scale of Faces
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PLAN OF THE BATTLE OF BENNINGTON
on the east bank of the Hudson, opposite Saratoga; while still another he sent under Breyman to station itself at Battenkill, within supporting distance of the main body under Baum. Meantime farmers with flintlock and
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powderhorn were flocking to Bennington from all sides. Seth Warner rallied them from the Vermont towns, while New Hampshire responded to the call with a splendid bri- gade under a splendid leader, none other than John Stark.
Since we left this man cutting the road from Number Four to Crown Point he had seen much service. Second to none as a leader of rangers in the last French and Indian war, and having served at Bunker Hill, he was a man whom the farmer militia of New Hampshire might well delight to follow. He joined personal bravery to generalship of the highest order, as his preparations for the encounter at Bennington testify; for a better piece of military work it would be hard to find in the Revolu- tion. Beginning with a scattered militia, with almost no supplies, - think of an army with one pair of bullet molds, with powder half spoiled, and destitute even of camp kettles !- with a range of mountains and a stretch of wilderness to cross by wretched roads, he appeared at Manchester in an almost incredibly short time, with the forces of Massachusetts and New Hampshire organ- ized and well in hand. Companies of Vermont rangers joined him, and accompanied by Warner he moved on toward Bennington.
As to tactics Stark had no choice. With no cavalry, no artillery, no commissariat, no transportation, no provi- sions to keep an army in idleness, he was simply forced to attack. It made no difference that half the troops were without bayonets ; he had men and his men had implicit confidence in him. Already he had shown a celerity and precision of movement with an irregular force in the face of tremendous difficulties. This was a premonition of
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success; and it was about the only one that could be found in the situation as the two armies lay fronting each other on the eve of battle.
The story of the fight itself may be briefly told. When Baum found that he was to be opposed he halted in a
David Robinson
Samuel Fay
Benjamin Harwood 1 Abisha Kingsley
Aaron Robinson Samuel Safford 1
THE LAST SURVIVING VETERANS OF THE BATTLE OF BENNINGTON (From a daguerreotype taken in 1848)
favorable position in Hoosac, New York, near the present state line, sent back to Breyman for reenforcements, and began to intrench. A rain on the 15th of August
1 Benjamin Harwood was the first male child born in Bennington. Captain Samuel Safford was the first man to scale the Tory breastworks at the battle of Bennington.
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prevented immediate attack and gave the British a chance still further to strengthen their trenches. On the morn- ing of the 16th Stark sent two hundred men to attack the rear of the enemy, three hundred to attack the rear of the enemy's right, two hundred to attack the extreme right, while he and Warner led the direct assault. The fighting began about three o'clock in the afternoon; it lasted two hours. Stark said: "It was the hottest I ever saw." The enemy were all killed or taken pris- oners.
BENNINGTON MONUMENT
battle began. Most opportunely, Warner's regiment arrived from Manchester and engaged them. At sun- down the British gave way and were pursued till dark.
Hardly had the prisoners been col- lected and sent back to the Bennington meetinghouse under guard, when Brey- man's reënforcements came up and a second
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THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION
A thousand stand of arms and six hundred prisoners were left in possession of the Americans.
In point of military importance this battle ranks far higher than the dramatic capture of Ticonderoga. It was an actual engagement which tested both generalship and fighting capacity to the utmost. It was a force of farmers fighting a force of regulars. It preserved for the Americans the supplies which were the great object
of the expedition. It protected the territory eastward from military operations and from any further danger of invasion. It depleted Burgoyne's forces. It was the first of a series of disasters which led to his surren- der, the turning point of the war, and the recognition of American independence. Burgoyne's own opinion, expressed shortly after the battle in a letter to Lord George Germaine, was as follows: "The chief subject of regret on our side, after that which any loss of gallant men naturally occasions, is the disappointment of not obtaining live cattle, and the loss of time in bringing forward the magazines."
On the American side it was strictly a people's fight, not directed by the government, not provided for by the government, not fought by a regular force, not com- manded by a regular officer. While the news of the splendid victory was on the way to Congress, that body was publicly censuring the man who won it, and con- demning the course of the New Hampshire Assembly in allowing Stark the separate command which made the victory possible. It is to the credit of Congress that when the result of the battle was known it passed a vote of thanks for Stark's services and promoted him
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to the rank of brigadier general in the regular army. Something over one hundred years later the corner stone was laid of that monument at Bennington which pays a fitting tribute to the scene and deed. In the portico of the State House at Montpelier one may see the two brass cannon which were taken on that day from the Hessians.
SOME RESULTS OF THE WAR
With the surrender of Burgoyne on the 17th of October war in the immediate vicinity of this state ceased, the danger of invasion came to an end, and the yeomen were able to return to their homes. Forts were temporarily occu- pied at Peacham, Corinth, Bethel, and Barnard. A ONE OF THE CANNON TAKEN AT THE BATTLE OF BENNINGTON fort was maintained at Newbury dur- ing the war, and the cutting of the military road from Newbury to Hazen's Notch was accomplished.
The war brought great hardship, uncertainty, and danger to the people of the state. In some sections it pretty effectually broke up the western settlements. At the time of Burgoyne's invasion settlements had been made in nearly every town in what are now Bennington and Rutland counties and in some towns north of the
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latter. The beginning of his invasion produced great excitement, and this increased with every advancing step of the army. As he passed through the lake the settlers along the shore withdrew toward the south, and by the time he was on the Hudson River there were few farms north of the present county of AROUND THIS STORE LIT BURIED KANT PATRIOTS WHO FELL IN THE BATTLE OF BENNINGTON Bennington which were occupied by their owners.
AUGUST 16 1777.
The British had a notion that as soon as RERE ALSO REST BRITISH SOL DIETS MESSIAXS WAS LICE --- FACH WOUERS AFTER THE FAITLE IS CAFTHES TUSY WERE FREE IN THE FAST MESTIC HOUSE DELT IN VEARCOT. their army had occu- pied the country the inhabitants of this state would flock to the royal standard. Burgoyne attempted to hasten this much BEH KNOTEN desired end by issuing a proclamation which breathed out threat- enings and slaughter MEMORIAL MONUMENT against those who clung to the American cause but prom- ised protection to those who should join him or remain quietly at home. But the Green Mountain Boys flocked to other standards than his, and by the time he wrote from his camp near Saratoga to Lord Germaine, Burgoyne himself was fully aware of the temper of the people.
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During the period of Burgoyne's visitation companies of armed men scoured the country searching for recruits and provisions. Indian scouting parties not infrequently put in an unwelcome appearance in the neighborhood of frontier towns. Although they rarely molested the inhabitants, their presence was a menace totally destruc- tive to peace of mind. The British control of Lake Champlain placed the western borders at the mercy of their Indian allies if they chose to reap the harvest.
A few instances will illustrate the prevailing con- ditions. Weybridge was settled in 1775, in almost unbroken forest, by settlers who came up the creek in boats and located on the banks. The little settlement was visited in 1778 by Indians and Tories, the property destroyed, and the people taken as prisoners to Quebec. Occasionally on similar raids the women and children were left behind in a condition worse than captivity; for they had no protection from the wild beasts, no shel- ter save the cellar of some ruined home, and perhaps no food.
The severest blow which fell on any settlement dur- ing the war was the raid on Royalton in 1780. It was originally designed for the purpose of capturing Lieu- tenant Whitcomb at Newbury, who was said to have wantonly shot and robbed a British officer in 1776. The party consisted of about three hundred men, mostly Indians. On their way up the Winooski River -- the old "French road" -they fell in with a party of hunters from Newbury, who told them that the town was anticipating the attack and was in a state of defense. The story saved Newbury but brought disaster to
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Royalton, for thither the party now turned. The place was laid in ashes, a few men were killed and most of the remainder taken prisoners. They were well treated on their way to Canada and were liberated in the following summer.
After this raid alarm was so universal throughout the state that the shouts of a surveying party or the burn- ing of a pile of brush in a back pasture was enough to spread terror through the countryside. At Berkshire, even after Burgoyne's defeat, it was deemed best to remove the women and children to Connecticut to avoid the danger from strolling bands of Indians. Such a trip was actually made, under the escort of a few soldiers, the party going through the wilderness by blazed trees, camping in the woods at night, running constant dangers from wild beasts and Indians, and enduring perils as great as those from which they fled.
When the enemy were in any neighborhood every device was resorted to for the concealment and preser- vation of property. Cattle were driven back to the mountains ; the family barrels of pork and beef were hidden in the earth .. The settlers plundered the houses of suspected Tories as mercilessly as they anticipated that their own might be plundered by the British. To be known as a sympathizer with the crown or an allegiant to the British cause was to be stripped of everything, even to the very clotheslines.
When hostilities ceased in the immediate vicinity the state waxed in wealth and population, even during the remainder of the war. The reasons for this we shall presently learn. Summing up the situation, it may be
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said that Vermont gained more from the Revolution than she lost. Perhaps no state gained more at lower cost. She came out of the war with far more than she carried into it. Between the time of Burgoyne's com- ing and the battle of Bennington her people had formed a state. The New Hampshire Grants ceased to be, and Vermont began. The telling of that story needs a chapter by itself. After reading it you will probably say that Vermont politics at least did not suffer much by reason of the Revolution.
CHAPTER VI
THE GODS OF THE HILLS
WESTMINSTER COURT HOUSE, January 15, 1777.
This convention, whose members are duly chosen by the free voice of their constituents in the several towns, on the New Hampshire Grants, in meeting assembled, in our own names, and in behalf of our constituents, do hereby proclaim and publicly declare, that the dis- trict of territory comprehending and usually known by the name and description of the New Hampshire Grants, of right ought to be and is hereby declared forever hereafter to be considered as a free and inde- pendent jurisdiction or state. - Extract from Vermont's declaration of independence.
HOW VERMONT WAS MADE; THE CONVENTIONS OF THE NEW HAMPSHIRE GRANTS
The above extract may be called Vermont's declaration of independence. This and a revised form prepared for the press are a comprehensive and authoritative expres- sion of what had come to be a matter of fact and was demonstrated so to be in fourteen years of independent statehood which followed. It is in view of this that we may say that Vermont got more out of the Revolution than she put into it. So far as her share in it was concerned it was a valuable investment. It bore lighter upon her than upon any colony ; it swelled her popula- tion ; it gave her military honor ; it developed her states- men; it gave her people a common interest and unified their sentiments; it strengthened her for her contest with
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New York; and it made it possible for her to become in name and deed what she claimed to be, an independent republic.
The incidence of the Revolution, following as it did the already sharply defined contest with New York, gave a magnificent opportunity to the people of the New Hampshire Grants to develop their incipient machinery of self-government into the form of a commonwealth. Local self-government they had possessed from their earliest days of settlement. We have also seen cooper- ative efforts made on the part of several towns to resist the execution of repugnant measures of New York authorities. Conventions of committees were finally held to assume the management of affairs in this espe- cial emergency. But such needs were unusual and irreg- ular for a state, not permanent and not in line with the normal development of civic problems.
There would come a time, if the grants were ever to reach the dignity of statehood, when the demand would be for a civic machinery of permanent and high order. These emergency needs, this emergency government, would pass away when the particular necessity for its creation had passed. The needs of a state are endur- ing, ever growing, and arise from an expanding life within as well as from pressure of forces exerted from without. It was the development of her inner life that wrought in Vermont both the need and the capacity for statehood. The need was constitutional.
To approach the subject in its simplest form let us follow the historical steps in the growth of this consti- tutional need. If you turn back to the section entitled
T
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" Beginnings of Statecraft," you will recall the simple government that existed before the Revolution, and the remark that the war brought a necessity for some body of a higher grade than existed before to represent the grants as a whole. That need developed the conven- tions which we are about to consider.
These conventions were composed of representatives or delegates sent by the different towns. The first one was called by circular letter and was held at Dorset in July, 1775. Its principal work was to choose field officers and others to take charge of the military activi- ties brought on by the war. This was a necessity almost wholly due to the colonial revolutionary movement.
But the second convention revealed something dif- ferent. It also was held at Dorset, in January, 1776. It provided certain measures designed to regulate the internal affairs of the state, such as the suppression of mobs and turbulence and the maintenance of order and peace. Here is something that is not purely a necessity produced by the Revolution ; it is such an internal need as any state must provide for to-day. We have, there- fore, in the work of this convention the beginning of a civil establishment for the grants, a new order of things. It illustrates the relation between the administrative needs of a state and its expanding inner life. It is an example of what gives rise to statecraft.
The work of the third convention, which was held at Dorset in July of the same year, reflects the increasing requirements which are being placed on the grants. There is more business to be done, and business of a constitutional nature. The question of joining in
,
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association with New Hampshire comes up, also the ques- tion of the observance of New York laws within the grants ; while the relation of the grants as a whole to the national government appears in the appointment of agents who are to be sent to Congress. Observe that these dif- ferent items of business are due partly to the war and partly to the civic needs of the state.
In the fourth convention, held at Dorset in Septem- ber, 1776, the same combination of local and national business is repeated. The exigencies of war are made a reason for crowding the demands of the grants for a separate government.
The convention passed a com- pact or covenant to stand by the cause of American liberty, and appointed a board of war with regulations regarding the militia. But it also voted not to accept New York laws and stated the project for forming the New Hampshire Grants into a separate district. State- hood is clearly projected, and the capacity of the grants to administer their internal police is stated in a manner which involves state legislation, for if New York laws are not to be observed the necessity of making laws for themselves becomes apparent.
This was the last convention held at Dorset ; but the fifth convention, held at Westminster in October of the same year, carried on the work by providing for the publi- cation of pamphlets on the subject of forming a separate state and of not uniting with New York. If it had not been for the Revolution, such proceedings would have involved the grants in an immediate crisis with New York. The truth of our proposition that the Revolution made possible the statehood of Vermont is beginning to appear.
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If we now take a survey of the events covered in the five preceding paragraphs, we find that a great deal has happened. Beginning with a group of towns which had no bond of union except sentiment and a similar neces- sity, and with no central or constitutional authority to represent them, we find developed in little more than the space of one year a central body competent to pro- vide for all the needs of a state as fully as any American commonwealth then in existence, with agencies through which it could communicate with the Congress, regulate its internal police, organize and develop the machinery of further government, and secure a satisfactory referen- dum to justify its procedure. The four conventions of the year 1776 show that Vermont was making as rapid strides toward independence as any civic body in America.
At Westminster on the 15th of January, 1777, was held the sixth in this series of conventions and the one that promulgated the declaration of independence for the state. The action of this convention, if read alone, would seem to be of the highest importance; read in the light of the work which the four preceding conven- tions had accomplished, it appears to be only the natural and fitting culmination of what had transpired in the previous year. It was reported that three fourths of the inhabitants of the grants favored the formation of a separate state. The declaration of independence was reported to the convention at an adjourned session two days later, was then adopted, and sent with a petition to Congress.
This step was the culmination of the work of the New Hampshire Grants. It is equally important to
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note that it was also the beginning of the work of the state of Vermont. The burden assumed by this decla- ration meant exactly the same for the state of Vermont as that involved in the federal Declaration of Independ- ence meant for the United States. We are accustomed to think of them as achievements; they are only declara- tions. They are not fulfillments, but only beginnings. We call them declarations of independence ; they are full of self-imposed restrictions, limitations, and obligations.
THE OLD CONSTITUTION HOUSE AT WINDSOR
It is unfortunate that we have no full report of the seventh convention, which was held at Windsor June 4, 1777. The name of the state, which in the first decla- ration had been New Connecticut, was changed to Ver- mont. A committee was appointed to draft a constitution for the new state ; a fast was proclaimed ; and exclusive jurisdiction was assumed by the state of Vermont.
The eighth convention, like the seventh, left no offi- cial record, and there is probably no full account of its
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proceedings. It was held in troublous times. Its work, however, was of prime importance, for it was this eighth convention, held in the old "constitution house " at Windsor, that established the constitution and frame of government for our state. The convention met July 2, 1777, and while in session received news of the advance of Burgoyne. Half the members had come directly from their regiments. The families of the president and other members were in impending danger. Imme-
FREESS STOP
TIN VARE KAMIPACTOET
MORE RECENT VIEW OF THE CONSTITUTION HOUSE
diate adjournment was made impossible by the sudden coming of a July thunder storm of unusual severity. While the convention waited in the darkened hall for the storm to cease, it passed, article by article, the con- stitution of our state.
Not only was the independence of Vermont made possible by the American Revolution, but it was also made imperative by the American Declaration of Independence. A broad view of the whole situation
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