Battle of Bennington » HistoryNet - From the World's Largest History Magazine Publisher

‘My men, those are your enemies, the red coats and the Tories. We must conquer them, or tonight, Mollie Stark will be a widow!’ So swore Brigadier General John Stark as he led his men across the shallow Walloomsac River, through a screen of Loyalist volunteers and on up the hill beyond, toward the British and German defenders at its crest. Thus began the Battle of Bennington, where an army of unskilled, ill-armed farmers took on an opposing force of professional European soldiers, using a plan of attack any textbook-taught officer would have hesitated to even contemplate.

The confrontation at Bennington in mid-August 1777 came at a low point in the fortunes of the American colonists’ struggle for independence from Britain. Although they had driven the British from Boston in March 1776, the rebels — or Patriots, depending on whose side one was on — had failed to seize Quebec, and a British invasion force under the overall command of Lt. Gen. Sir William Howe had overrun Long Island and New York City and sent General George Washington’s Continental Army reeling south through New Jersey. Only Washington’s winter victories at Trenton and Princeton had encouraged his troops to persevere in 1777.

Ironically, events in America also were far from encouraging from London’s perspective. There were the heavy casualties at Bunker Hill, the subsequent evacuation of Boston and the repulse of British forces at Charlestown. Then there was the blunting of Canadian Governor-General Sir Guy Carleton’s plan to invade New England at the Battle of Valcour Island and Howe’s inertia in New York. All gave consternation to Lord George Germain, secretary of state for the Colonies. With such key cities as Montreal, Quebec and New York in British hands, how was it that a land of farmers and shopkeepers could still stymie the armies of the empire?

The answer was unclear when, early in 1777, Carleton’s second-in-command, Lt. Gen. John Burgoyne, presented Germain with a plan he had conceived nearly a year before. As it eventually developed, Burgoyne’s ‘Grand Strategy’ would call for Howe to march his army north, up the Hudson River from New York, while Burgoyne marched south from Montreal to meet Howe at Albany, splitting the Thirteen Colonies in half. Such a development’s consquences were not lost on the Americans, especially the New Englanders, who warned the Continental Congress that British control of the river would cut off northern communication with the southern colonies and give the British control of the Indians on New York’s western frontier.

Pursuant to the Grand Strategy, Burgoyne arrived in Canada on May 6, 1777, and began assembling an army of 7,863 British regulars, German mercenaries, Canadians and Indians. In spite of a huge supply train and more than 130 brass cannons of various sizes, the force began moving south on schedule, and by June 30, the British were in sight of Fort Ticonderoga. Although determined to fight, Maj. Gen. Arthur St. Clair, the fort’s commander, was soon apprised of its unwise location when the British managed to haul cannons atop nearby Mount Defiance. This enabled them to bombard the fort at their leisure. Reluctantly, St. Clair ordered it abandoned on the night of July 4.

At first Burgoyne gave chase, leading to the campaign’s first pitched battle (and the only one fought entirely on Vermont soil) at Hubbardton on July 7. Although ultimately driven from the field with 41 dead, 96 wounded and 234 taken prisoner, the American rear guard inflicted 60 dead and 148 wounded on Brig. Gen. Simon Fraser’s Redcoats and Maj. Gen. Friedrich Freiherr von Riedesel’s Brunswick mercenaries. The New Englanders’ success at holding up Fraser for an hour and then evading his and Riedesel’s pincers with 67 percent of their force intact impressed their adversaries — and was a portentous indication that Burgoyne was facing something more disciplined than a rebel mob. Burgoyne pushed on, driving the Americans from Forts Edward and George on July 31, but at last he called a halt to bring up his supply train.

Settling down in comfort at the home of his Loyalist political officer, Colonel Philip Skene, Burgoyne was content to follow Skene’s advice and built a road through the surrounding forest toward Stillwater, the current position of Maj. Gen. Philip Schuyler, commander of the Continental Army’s Northern Department. Burgoyne’s decision proved to be the Americans’ salvation. While felling trees, flooding lowlands and burning crops slowed the British advance almost to a standstill, Schuyler organized skirmishing parties to harry the enemy flanks.

As the situation in upper New York stabilized, the storm caused by St. Clair’s abandonment of Fort Ticonderoga broke at last. New England, in a frenzy of fear over its now defenseless borders and distrustful of the New York general commanding its forces, was instrumental in having Schuyler sacked and replaced by Maj. Gen. Horatio Gates.

While the Americans adjusted to a change in command, the British began to suffer from supply shortages. With the land all around them laid waste and their closest depot at Fort George too far in the rear to do the army any good, Riedesel suggested to Burgoyne a raid toward the Connecticut River valley, where he had heard there were plenty of horses, carriages and cattle to be had. Skene liked the idea and added that there were plenty of Loyalists in the area, too, just waiting for the chance to flock to Burgoyne’s standard. Convinced, Burgoyne — speaking in French, since Riedesel spoke no English — expanded on the German’s original idea, calling for a more extensive raid to sweep eastward toward Manchester, veer south toward Brattleboro and, from there, back west to meet the main body of his army on its way to Albany. Those movements were far more than Riedesel had envisioned and made him nervous; he had seen the fighting at Hubbardton and feared running afoul of Colonel Seth Launer’s Americans that far from the main force. Nevertheless, the optimistic Burgoyne was set on the plan.

Because his regiment was positioned on Burgoyne’s left, Lt. Col. Friedrich Baum, commander of the Brunswick Dragoons, was placed in charge of the expedition. It was not a good choice. Although he was a good officer, Baum’s training in European-style combat and his inability to speak a word of English made him ill-suited for American wilderness warfare. Moreover, his dragoons — still wearing their heavy cavalry uniforms, boots and swords — were hardly prepared to march through the 20 miles of trackless forest and swamp that lay between them and their goal. Even so, with an 800-man force that included an assortment of 374 German dragoons, grenadiers and Jgers, Baum could at least depend on the experience of Captain Alexander Fraser, who commanded about 50 British marksmen; and he would have the less reliable knowledge of more than 300 Queens Loyal Rangers, commanded by the Loyalist Lt. Col. John Peters of Bradford, Vt., as well as a contingent of Canadians and nearly uncontrollable Mohawk Indians. In addition, he brought along two 3-pounder cannons and their crews, servants, the regimental band and some female camp followers. Colonel Skene also accompanied him to recruit Loyalists.

To prepare for his own push down the Hudson, Burgoyne had begun assembling his forces at Fort Miller, about eight miles south of Fort Edward, with Brigadier Simon Fraser’s corps in the lead. Baum’s force was right behind, and on August 11, he was ready to move out when Burgoyne came riding up with a change in plans. It seemed a Tory officer had reported the presence of great amounts of stores, horses and cattle at Bennington, a small village near the Walloomsac River, guarded by only 300 or 400 rebels. That revision compelled Baum to move farther south than originally intended and made Riedesel even more nervous about the whole operation. Nevertheless, Baum had his orders and confidently led his men into the dense New England forest. His dismounted cavalrymen were notoriously slow walkers, and the day’s high temperatures made for even slower progress. Moving east, Baum covered only four miles along the crude road that led to the mouth of the Battenkill River, where he made camp.

While Baum’s regular troops moved with careful deliberation, his Indian allies ranged in all directions, spreading terror and alarm throughout the countryside. Soon word of Baum’s approach reached every town and farm in the area. That, coupled with recent news of the death of Jane McCrea, a young Loyalist woman killed and scalped by the Indians, instilled a fierce determination among the local citizenry to resist the invaders. The new state of Vermont (formerly the New Hampshire Grants, the disputed territory west of the Connecticut River) had hurriedly convened its Committee of Safety some weeks before. The state’s only military unit, Colonel Seth Warner’s Green Mountain Boys, had recently been bloodied at Hubbardton, and a plea was sent to neighboring New Hampshire for more troops.