USA > Vermont > Bennington County > Bennington > Memorials of a century. Embracing a record of individuals and events, chiefly in the early history of Bennington, Vt., and its First church > Part 14
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29
The tory prisoners were marched into the village bound two by two. The women took down their bedsteads to get ropes to string them on. They were a care, and probably a vexation, to the Council of Safety for a long time. Capt. Samuel Robinson was chief overseer of them. There are many entries concerning them in the records of the Council of Safety ; one to Capt. Robinson to detach ten of them, under proper officers, to tread and beat down the roads (drifted with snow in January) from this place through the Green Mountains to Col. William Williams' dwelling-house in Draper, alias Wilmington ; and back again "in the same manner to this place, with all convenient speed." By an entry, September 4, 1777, it appears the prisoners were in Capt. Dewey's barn, or some of them. They were ordered to be removed to the school-house; "if there is sufficient room for them in the meeting-house " (probably with what are already there) " they are to be removed to the meeting- house in lieu of the school-house," - always with a proper
1 Vermont Hist. Mag.
2 Butler's Address.
3 Vermont Hist. Mag.
1
I
3
187
GENERAL RESULTS OF THE VICTORY.
guard over them. Some were put on the limits of their own farms ; some were banished the town under penalty of death if they should return.1 Some, it is said, were sent to the mines at Simsbury .? The number of tories taken prisoners has been stated as one hundred and fifty- seven.3
In after years the military reputation of Bennington rose high. The Rev. Mr. Avery says of the town, in his Narra- tive, 1783 : -
" In regard to military prowess Bennington is thought to be sec- ond to none on the continent."
The general results were of the highest possible impor- tance. This is true of their bearing upon the infant State of Vermont.
Gen. Schuyler was a haughty, aristocratic New Yorker ; owing his place to social position, not to military talent, and despising New England ; refusing to answer an official letter of Ira Allen, Secretary of our State government, without addressing him as a private man.4 Gen. Stark was ordered to report to Gen. Schuyler, and refused to do so, and was censured for it in Congress, where New York was all powerful, and Vermont unrecognized.5 But some days before this vote of censure upon Gen. Stark, he had fought and won the battle of Bennington. The tidings had not reached Congress, because the post at that time re- quired five days to get from Bennington to Philadelphia. So soon as the glad news did arrive, Stark's refusal to re- port to Gen. Schuyler was forgotten ; and a vote of thanks adopted, at length, and Stark was appointed a brigadier- general in the army of the United States.6
1 Vermont State Papers, 2 Butler. 3 Lossing. 4,5 Bancroft. 6 Congress, on Oct. 4, 1777, resolved, "That the thanks of Congress be pre- sented to Gen. Stark, of the New Hampshire militia, and the officers and troops under his command, for their brave and successful attack upon, and signal victory
e
ar at
of
B.
1, S e € e 1 1 L t
d et 3
he
188
MEMORIALS OF A CENTURY.
Stark was, in spirit and action, and by association, a representative New Hampshire Grants man. He rose in estimation at Philadelphia, and the petition of the New Hampshire Grants to be recognized as an independent State obtained a more respectful hearing.1
The inhabitants of the Grants were reassured in their purpose ; and, outside the limits of their territory, men reasoned that if the Green Mountain Boys could make of themselves a barrier of defence for the country, they had a right to self-existence as a commonwealth.
By this victory on the Walloomsac hope returned to the American people. The gift of trophies of the battle to Massachusetts was, and still is, suspended in the Senate Chamber at Boston, over the entrance, and opposite the Speaker's chair, and a copy of the letter of thanks is fas- tened to the wall just beneath the trophies, and is as fol- lows : -
0
" COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS, " BOSTON, Dec. 5, 1777.
"SIR: - The General Assembly of this State, take the earliest opportunity to acknowledge the receipt of your acceptable present, the token of victory gained at the memorable battle of Benning- ton. The events of that day strongly marked the bravery of the men, who, unskilled in war, forced from their entrenchments a chosen number of veteran troops of boasted Britons, as well as the address and valor of the general who directed their move- ments and led them on to conquest. This signal exploit opened . the way to a rapid succession of advantages, most important to America.
" These trophies shall be safely deposited in the archives of the State, and there remind posterity of the irresistible power of
over, the enemy in their lines at Bennington; and that Brigadier Stark be ap- pointed a brigadier-general in the Army of the United States."-Journal of Congress, iii., 327. Yeas and nays required and taken; but one dissenting voice, - M. Chase, of Maryland.
1 Thompson's Vermont.
B 0
3
P e
189
OTHER TESTIMONY.
the God of armies and the honors due to the memory of the brave.
"Still attended with like successes, may you long enjoy the reward of your grateful country.
" JEREMIAH POWELL, " President of the Council.
" Brigadier General JOHN STARK."
"The great stroke struck by Gen. Stark near Benning- ton," says Gen. Washington, in a letter to Putnam.1 "The capital blow given the enemy by Gen. Stark," says Gen. Lincoln.2 Bancroft pronounces this "victory one of the most brilliant and eventful of the war." 3 Baroness Reid- sell, then in the British camp, wrote : "This unfortunate event paralyzed, at once, our operations." Clinton wrote : " Since the affair at Bennington, not an Indian has been heard of ; the scalping has ceased. I do not apprehend, in- deed, any great danger from the future operations of Mr. Burgoyne." The Indians, in particular, were so disheart- ened, that nearly all of them immediately left the British service, and about two hundred and fifty of them came over and joined the American army. The Canadians and tories also deserted in large numbers.4
The terror of Burgoyne, and his confidence in himself, alike departed. In his instructions to Baum, before the battle, he wrote : --
" Mount your dragoons ; send me thirteen hundred horses ; seize Bennington; cross the mountains to Rockingham and Brattlebor- ough; try the affections of the country; take hostages; meet me, a fortnight hence, in Albany." 5
1 Irving's Washington, iii., p. 170.
2 Bennington, August 13. To Gen. Schuyler. 3 ix., 386.
4 Thompson's Vermont.
" At Bennington Stark gave the wound
Which, like a gangrene, spread around."
-From a poem by the Rev. Wheeler Case.
6 See, also, Evidence on the American War, given before the House of Com- mons, London, 1780, p. 77.
. e & S 1
0 e e
ir en of a
a in W
1
190
MEMORIALS OF A CENTURY.
Four days after the battle, he wrote to England thus : -
"The Hampshire Grants, in particular, - a country unpeopled and almost unknown in the last war, - now abounds in the most active and rebellious race on the continent, and hangs, like a gath- ering storm, on my left." 1
"The ideas entertained of the Americans, by Gen. Bur- goyne, now experienced a total revolution, and he declared that it would be impossible for Britain to succeed in her views, and that he should, on his return to England, recom- mend the recognition of their independence." 2
In what remained to be done, and in putting the finish- ing stroke upon Burgoyne's campaign, at Stillwater, on the 7th of the following October, the Green Mountain Boys bore their full share.
1
XI. COMPARATIVE STRENGTH OF FORCES. - Authorities differ as to the numbers, particularly of Baum's expedi- tion and the reinforcement. As we are obliged to depend upon those who were beaten in the engagements, it is reasonable to assume that the numbers given will be too low rather than too high. Burgoyne, in his order of August 26, giving explanations for the unfortunate result of the battle, does not mention the great superiority of the enemy in numbers.3
Burgoyne felt that very much depended upon the success of the expedition. In addition to what has been stated, in the fore part of this article, of his threefold object, and of his carefulness in fitting out the expedition, it may be
1 Burgoyne's more private letter to Germain.
2 Introduction to Burgoyne's Orderly Book. "Their measures are executed with a secrecy and dispatch that are not to be equalled." - Burgoyne's more pri- vate letter to Germain. " Your funds of men are inexhaustible, like the hydra's head: when cut off, seven more sprang up in its stead."- Gen. Burgoyne to Gates, at dinner, after his surrender, at Gen. Schuyler's. Orderly Book.
3 Orderly Book, p. 82.
t
1 1
j I
0.
191
NUMBER OF BAUM'S FORCE.
added, that he gave to Baum and to Col. Skene very care- fully prepared instructions ; and when news came of the dis- aster, he set out, with the forty-seventh regiment, to cover the retreat of the beaten detachments. It is not to be pre- sumed that he would trifle with the occasion by sending, for an expedition of such importance in his estimation, an inferior force. He had high hopes, it is true, of the disaf- fection and number of the tories on the Grants ; but this would not, in his mind, it is presumed, justify any careless- ness. The best troops he had were selected for the expe- dition.
Col. Baum wrote to Gen. Burgoyne, from Sancoik on August 14 :-
" By five prisoners, taken here, they agree that from fifteen to eighteen hundred are at Bennington. . I will proceed so far to-day, as to fall on the enemy early to-morrow."
Had his own numbers been very inferior in the compari- son, it is scarcely possible he could have sent back such word. Bancroft, who had access to German materials for this portion of history, which other authors on this sub- ject had not enjoyed,1 says : "More than four hundred Brunswickers, Hanau artillerists, with two cannon, the select corps of British marksmen, a party of French Cana- dians, a more numerous party of provincial royalists, and a horde of about one hundred and fifty Indians." (This enu- meration leaves out the fifty chasseurs added after Baum had first started.) At the first engagement, certainly, not all the Hessians were killed or taken. Glick speaks of cutting his way through with thirty, a portion of whom escaped. The Hessians, after being routed on the hill, ran to escape; and, doubtless, some few of them succeeded. The Indians made good their retreat from the first affair, .
1 See Bancroft's Preface to the ninth volume of his Hist. United States.
0
n of e
d i-
Les li- nd is 00
lt he
sh- he
red her
- led ost ith-
192
MEMORIALS OF A CENTURY.
as did Capt. Fraser, with part of his company, and many of the provincials and Canadians.1 And yet, notwithstand- ing numbers did escape, the prisoners, in addition to the number of killed of the enemy, in this action, was very large. Aaron Hubbell made the following statement: " Was in the first battle. We left the battle-field as one of the guard placed over something more than six hundred prisoners captured in the first engagement." 2
With regard to Breyman's force, Stark, in his dispatch to Gen. Gates, calls it " a large reinforcement." Thacher, in his military journal, makes it to number one thousand regulars. Butler, without giving his authority, adopts the same number. This corps de reserve was ordered to march after a true statement was sent back, by Baum, of the number of the Americans. In a general enumeration of the spoils of victory, more than one author says one thou- sand stand of arms, besides the dragoon swords. Bur- goyne's Orderly Book puts the killed, wounded, and pris- oners of the enemy at twelve hundred and twenty. On the whole, the writer of this article would judge the num-
· ber of the enemy, including tories and Indians, not to have been much if at all inferior to the number of our men, the aggregate of both engagements being considered.
XII. ESTIMATE OF GENERAL BURGOYNE. - Burgoyne's prestige, after his defeat at Bennington and subsequent surrender at Stillwater (17th of October), was gone, of course, and the pompous style of his manifestoes, while on the flood-tide of success, naturally caused him, afterward, to be more reproached than were some of the other British generals. But it is unfair, notwithstanding his failure, to withhold from him the credit of an able and skilful mili-
1 Burgoyne's letter to Lord George Germain.
2 MS. in possession of Gov. Hall.
193
OUR MEN NOT TRAINED SOLDIERS.
tary officer. He returned to England, of course, under a heavy cloud. But, in 1781, a committee being appointed to inquire into the conduct of the war, so far as it was shared in by Sir William Howe, Burgoyne obtained a chance to be heard; and henceforth the stigma upon his name appears to have been removed. He rose again into favor and influence. Before this committee, " every officer that was examined gave the strongest testimony to his bravery and superior talents. It did not appear that a single fault had been found with any of his plans or move- ments by the most enlightened judges who were on service with him; but it did clearly appear that he enjoyed the entire confidence of the army ; and that, in situations of the most trying nature, in the face of disaster, of danger, and of death, he was looked up to, by his troops, with the utmost affection and the most undoubted reliance ; that they were, at all times, ready to suffer, to fight, and to perish with him." 1
These remarks are made as what justice to Gen. Bur- goyne requires, and because to unreasonably disparage the foe is to detract from the just merit of our success in his defeat.
XIII. OUR MEN NOT TRAINED SOLDIERS. - In order to appreciate the valor of the Americans, in the Bennington battle, their general want of military experience and train- ng at that time must be considered. When Stark ordered he cannon taken from Baum to the scene of action, upon he arrival of Breyman, the men whom he directed to load and fire knew not how to do it ; the general dismounted, and aught them, by loading one of the pieces himself.2 A glimpse at the destitution of Stark's New Hampshire re-
1 Burgoyne's State of the Expedition.
2 Thacher.
· 17
to ili-
194
MEMORIALS OF A CENTURY.
cruits is given us in a letter from his head-quarters at the fort in Number Four, on the Connecticut River, July 30 : -
"We are detained by the want of bullet-moulds, as there is but one pair in town; and the few balls sent on by the Council go but a little way."
He also wrote, at the same time : -
" If some rum could be forwarded, it would oblige us very much ; for there is none of that article in those parts where we are going."
Many other things were wanting to Stark's little army ; he mentions kettles and cooking utensils ; none of these wants could be supplied from New Hampshire. Out of eleven barrels of powder at Number Four, nine had been condemned. The four cannon there had been dismounted, and apparatus for putting on carriages could not be pro- cured.1
After the battle, in all Stark's brigade there was but one case of amputating instruments ; there were no tents, and few pails and canteens.2 Doctor Henry Clark relates that a resident of Bennington, who was a lad at the time of the battle, told him of the vivid impression made upon his mind by seeing the men hurrying past where he stood (he stood upon the corner since occupied by Mr. Patchin's store). with scythes and axes, as well as muskets and fowling- pieces, to meet the enemy.
Some remarks of Mr. Everett, in his life of Stark, may be appropriately adduced on this point : -
" Too much praise cannot be bestowed on the conduct of those who gained the battle of Bennington, officers and men. It is, per. haps, the most conspicuous example of the performance by militia of all that is expected of regular veteran troops. The fortitude and resolution with which the lines at Bunker Hill were main-
1 Butler. 2 Sparks' Biography.
t
p
195
INCIDENTS.
tained by recent recruits against the assault of a powerful army of experienced soldiers have always been regarded with admira- tion. But at Bennington the hardy yeomanry of New Hampshire, Vermont, and Massachusetts, many of them fresh from the plough, and unused to the camp, 'advanced,' as Gen. Stark expresses it, ' through fire and smoke, and mounted breastworks that were well fortified with cannon.'"
XIV. INCIDENTS. - Some facts and incidents may fur- ther illustrate the spirit of our men, and the character of the conflict ; anecdotes of uncertain authenticity, but with verisimilitude in them.
On the rainy night previous to the battle the men were under orders to remain in the encampment. David Robin- son, afterward Gen. David, being one of the volunteers, could not overcome the conviction that he might be true to his duty, and also improve the opportunity of the postpone- ment of the attack until next day, to go home, and see how it fared with the dear ones there. He had a young wife, and two young children, and an aged mother there. On his way he overtook his captain, who appeared to have reasoned as he did on the subject of domestic duty, and who lived on the road to the encampment. The young vol- unteer intended to pass the captain unrecognized, pulling his slouch hat over his face; but he failed in this. The captain recognized him, and called out, "David, were you not under orders to stay in camp all night?" David re- plied, "I suppose a soldier's orders are to follow his cap- tain."
When, on this occasion, he had reached home, he had not been there long before a neighbor came in, and said the tories and Indians were coming up the hill, from the valley east, and were in his cornfield. With his characteristic promptness and courage, that never knew fear, he pro- ceeded to reconnoitre. Upon his hands and knees, it being
-
196
MEMORIALS OF A CENTURY.
pitch-dark, that he might get objects between himself and the sky, the better to discern what there might be, he soon. ascertained that what had occasioned his neighbor's alarm were the fire-flies of that August night, and some oxen that had broken into his corn. As he was returning, he stum- bled upon his old mother, who had started from the house, and already proceeded some distance, to be more sure of flight in case of an overwhelming attack from the enemy. She had with her a pillow-case full of valuable papers, and said to her son, "I thought I would try to save at least these, as they might be of more importance to you, some time, than other things." He said to her, "Go back, mother, to the house ; and, if we must die, let us all die together." 1
Capt. Samuel Robinson, mentioned in the foregoing par- agraph, was, no doubt, back to his post betimes. The fol- lowing anecdote will illustrate how he was not wanting to his duty. The roll of the large company he commanded at that time will be given at the conclusion of this article. In the battle, he was loading and firing like the rest; but a ball on one side of his head, singing just past his ear, made him dodge away from it. Soon came another on the oppo- site side, and the head jerked again, nervously, at the whis- tle. Mortified to think his neck was so limber, he turned around to his men, and said, " Boys, keep your eye on me ; and, if I dodge again, put a ball through me sideways." 2
Has the kind reader patience for two or three more Ben- nington battle anecdotes? Eleazer Edgerton, in the midst of the second engagement, was firing away from behind a tree, when suddenly he espied a very young man looking round anxiously for a standing-place alike secure. "Here, boy," shouted he, " take my tree ; you fight behind, and I'll fight before. The rascals daren't shoot me ; they know me."
1 Related to the writer by Miss Caldwell.
2 Mr. Robinson's Address.
197
ANECDOTES OF THE BATTLE.
And in an instant he had planted his giant frame back to the trunk of the tree ; and there he stood firing until the Hessians did know him, and fear him, and fled beyond the reach of his bullets.1 Leonard Robinson, whose aim was quick and deadly, declared that every time he shot he saw a man fall. "But," said he, " I prayed the Lord to have mercy on his soul ; and then I took care of his body." 2
What queer notions they had of some things in those days may be illustrated by an incident or two.
" Old Uncle Silas Robinson was somewhat peculiar in his way of telling a story ; but his sharp voice used to give great effect to the account of his participation. 'I had heard,' said he, 'that these Robinsons were all cowards ; and I rather thought, if any of them was, I was the man. But somebody told me that gunpowder was good for cour- age ; so I took about a gill of gin, and thickened it up ; and when I had drank that, I tell you, then I fought.'" 3
Eleazer Hawks, whose reason for not coming early to the battle has been narrated elsewhere in this volume, made the more haste when he did come. He was, therefore, much parched and exhausted with running, and with the labors of the remainder of the battle. A pint of rum was handed him, and he drank it all, supposing it was water; and be- fore the man who followed with water had time to offer him some, he said, "Now give me some rum." The liquor he drank appeared to produce no ill effect.
A hogshead of rum had been procured by General Stark, and with a little more time would have been distributed at the termination of the first action. It was prevented by the so sudden appearing of Breyman.
With respect to the exhausting effect of the fight, in the oral acount of the surviving soldier to Mr. Butler, he says, " My company lay down and slept in a cornfield,
1, 2, 3 Mr. Robinson's Address. 17*
I .
f
1
198
MEMORIALS OF A CENTURY.
near where we had fought, each man having a hill of corn for a pillow. When I awaked next morning, I was so beaten out, that I could not get up till I had rolled about a good while." 1
Of the interest of the ministry and the pulpit in the cause of patriotism, with respect to the Rev. Mr. Dewey, and the Rev. Mr. Avery, mention is made elsewhere. The zeal of the Rev. Mr. Allen in the battle has become famous, partly from its naïveté. In accounts of the battle, he is called "Parson Allen " or " the fighting parson." He is believed to have been the Rev. Mr. Allen, pastor of Pittsfield, Mass. He came with the Berkshire detachment of militia, Col. Simmons. The story is thus told in Ever- ett's Life of Stark. "Among the reinforcements from Berk- shire County,2 came a clergyman with a portion of his flock, resolved to make bare the arm of flesh against the enemies of the country. Before daylight on the morning of the 16th he addressed the commander as follows : -
"' We the people of Berkshire have frequently been called upon to fight, but have never been led against the enemy. We have now resolved, if you will not let us fight, never to turn out again.'
" General Stark asked him if he wished to march then, when it was dark and rainy.
"'No,' was the answer. "Then,' continued Stark, ' if the Lord shall once more give us sunshine, and I do not give you fighting enough, I will never ask you to come out again.'
"The weather cleared up in the course of the day, and
1 Mr. Butler's Address.
2 The Rev. Mr. Noble, in his Williamstown Centennial Address, gives credit to the volunteers from that town in these words: " Every man in this town, except a cripple on crutches, shouldered his gun and rushed to the field of con- flict."
.
199
OUR DEAD.
the men of Berkshire followed their spiritual guide into action." 1
In other parts of this volume mention is made of prayer- meetings held at the time of the battle, for the success of our army, by those who could not aid with weapons of war. In Mr. Butler's Address is narrated a prayer meeting for the same object, held also at Williamstown, whither many from the north had repaired for safety, women and children, aged and infirm, in the event of the battle issu- ing adversely.
" In my boyhood, my grandmother often related to me, how, on that day, she, with many other women of Williamstown, and their minister, resorted to their meeting-house, and there continued in prayer for their kinsmen, who were in the field of blood, till late at night, when a courier came announcing glad tidings."
The cannon peals were heard booming over the hills at Williamstown during the anxious hours.2
The joy of the people of Bennington at the great victory was not unmingled with sadness. Four of its most re- spected citizens had fallen on the field of battle. They were John Fay (son of Stephen), Henry Walbridge (brother of Ebenezer), Daniel Warner (cousin of the colonel),3 and Nathan Clark (son of Nathan, and brother of Isaac). They were all in the prime of life, and all heads of families, leav- ing widows and children to mourn their sudden bereave- ment. The grief for their loss was not confined to their immediate relatives, but was general, deep, and sincere.4
1 See also American Revolution from Newspapers and Original Documents by F. Moore.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.