“The Battle of Bennington by any standard had been a minor sideshow, but a sideshow that nevertheless had dramatic strategic consequences.”

By Jim Stempel

DURING THE afternoon of Aug. 16, 1777, the skies finally cleared over the small town of Hoosick, New York after two days of heavy rain.

Eyeing one another across a few hundred yards of open ground, several hundred Hessian troops in the service of Great Britain and a contingent of Rebel New Hampshire militia commanded by General John Stark checked their powder, loaded their muskets and prepared to do battle.

Stark addressed his troops while pointing directly at the enemy across the way.

“They are ours, or this night Molly Stark sleeps a widow!” he reportedly vowed. Within moments of Stark’s declaration, the Americans advanced, initiating one of the more violent and impactful engagements of the Revolutionary War

The origins of the clash at Hoosick (later named the Battle of Bennington for a small Vermont town 10 miles to the west) lie with the British high command’s decision to reevaluate its strategy for crushing the rebellion in America. The war – now entering its third year – was not going well for the Crown; a new approach was needed.

A bold decision was made to sever New England from the other colonies by means of a three-pronged assault. One thrust under General William Howe would move up the Hudson River from New York City. A second would march east from Lake Ontario under the command of General Barry St. Leger. Finally, General John Burgoyne would lead a third column south from Montreal. The three armies would meet on the Hudson somewhere near Albany, effectively cutting New England off from the other warring colonies.

The plan soon collapsed in confusion.

In early August, St. Leger broke with the strategy and sent 1,600 of his Loyalists, Hessians and Canadians to lay siege to Fort Stanwix (today’s Rome, New York). After nearly three weeks, the British general was forced to retire empty handed in the face of the threat of Continental reinforcements marching to relive the fort.

Next, Howe unilaterally chose to move on Philadelphia, the American capital at the time, by shifting his army south by sea to Chesapeake Bay.

Burgoyne – unbeknownst to him – was entirely on his own to carry out the original plan.

His force, made up of 7,000 British regulars, Hessians, and screened by a continent of Native American warriors, initiated his portion of the campaign on June 14 with a movement south down Lake Champlain. The initial objective was Fort Ticonderoga at the junction of Lake Champlain and Lake George. Initially moving by water, Burgoyne’s force was easily able to gain the southern portion of the lake, and on July 6, Ticonderoga fell.

Unfortunately for Burgoyne, aside from the Native American scouts, his expedition was woefully ill-prepared for campaigning in the North American wilderness. As his army continued South, his engineers and sappers were forced to hack a new road through the woods where none existed. It was a laborious process. Short on wagons and horses – while simultaneously trying to muscle 130 pieces of artillery along with an immense train of supplies through the dense woods – his columns crawled forward at a glacial pace toward Fort Edward at the southern end of Lake George.

It was there on Aug. 3 that a courier finally got through to Burgoyne, advising “Gentleman Johnny,” as he was known, of Howe’s change of plan. The British army to the south would not be marching north up the Hudson to link up with his column. Stunned, Burgoyne kept the news from his staff, fearing its effect on morale.

Now alone, deep in the wilderness, his extended supply-line already failing miserably, and with no hope of cooperation or reinforcement from the other planned British forces, Burgoyne accepted a suggestion from General Baron Riedesel, the leader of his Hessian troops. The Baron had noted that the surrounding countryside was home to a number of farms, which suggested stockpiles of horses, food, and other supplies for the army. Burgoyne ordered a Hessian officer named Lt. Colonel Friedrich Baum to march eastward with 800 dismounted Hessian dragoons, Loyalists, and some Native warriors to seize an American supply depot reportedly at Bennington, Vermont, thought to be lightly guarded. Baum departed on Aug. 11.

Unknown to either Burgoyne or Baum, the American force at Bennington was substantial. Colonists in the area between New York and the Vermont Republic (modern Vermont), which was then referred to as the New Hampshire Grants, had been rattled by the fall of Ticonderoga. After appealing to Rebel commanders for help, a militia force of 1,500 was marshalled and placed under the command of John Stark, a general of the New Hampshire militia.

Stark had been a commanding presence at the Battle of Bunker Hill two years earlier and was with Washington during his stunning attacks at Trenton and Princeton in 1776 and early 1777. A tough, no nonsense backwoodsman, as a young man he had been captured by the Abenaki tribe, and hauled-off to their camp in Canada. Made to “run-the-gauntlet,” a punishment in which prisoners would be forced to pass between two long lines of armed warriors who would rain blows down upon the victims, Stark grabbed a weapon from the first Indian he faced and attacked. The captive then took on the entire line with such ferocity that the chief, impressed with Stark’s courage, ordered a halt to the violence and adopted him into the tribe.

Later, during the French and Indian War, Stark and his brother served in the famed Rogers’ Rangers, where he experienced combat and learned the commander’s unique style of backwoods, guerrilla warfare. Taking firm charge of the newly raised New Hampshire militia, Stark immediately crossed over into the Grants, arriving in Bennington in early August.

On Aug. 15, as Baum’s Hessians felt their way east in search of forage and booty, the detachment stumbled headfirst into a small scouting party sent out by Stark. Muskets cracked, but Baum pressed forward, confident of his force’s superiority. Substantially outnumbered, the Americans fell-back, but promptly advised Stark of the enemy’s approach. The American general responded at once, first sending a request for reinforcements, then marching his entire force west to confront Baum. Near the small village of Hoosick, he laid out a defensive line, and waited.

Marching in from the west, Baum’s scouts discovered Stark’s position directly ahead, and the Hessian’s confidence quickly evaporated. Seeing he was outnumbered, Baum sent off a courier to Burgoyne requesting immediate reinforcements, then began work on a defensive line of his own with a small redoubt dominating its center. Then clouds rolled in, the heavens opened, and for the next day-and-a-half, both sides hunkered-down, waiting for the downpours to pass.

As the rains fell, 100 Loyalists marched into Baum’s camp, while Burgoyne sent another 550 Hessians under Henrich von Breyman. Despite hard marching, this latter group would not arrive until the late afternoon of Aug. 16. Stark was also reinforced, welcoming in 350 Green Mountain Boys to increase his force to about 2,000. Mid-afternoon on Aug. 16, the rain stopped, the skies cleared, and the New Hampshire militiamen began loading their muskets.

Using his overwhelming numbers, Stark ordered an unconventional attack. The lessons he learned in Rogers’ Rangers proved invaluable; rather than launching a direct assault, he led his militiamen quietly into the woods where, taking advantage of their hunting skills, they stealthily closed on both Baum’s flanks.

Once the envelopment had been quietly accomplished, Stark gave the order, and his militiamen struck like a thunderclap. An explosion of point-blank musketry sent Baum’s Loyalists reeling, while the Hessians pulled back to a small hill as the Americans closed from all sides. The fighting was loud, unremitting and furious. The dismounted Hessian dragoons, surrounded and grasping the direness of the situation, responded by launching a desperate, ill-fated saber charge.

Hoping to break through Stark’s line to safety, the frantic assault by the cavalrymen failed almost before it had begun. Blasted to pieces by Stark’s crack-shooting backwoodsmen, the ground below the hilltop soon lay blanketed with the dead and dying. In moments, Baum himself lay mortally wounded; what remained of his command was forced to surrender.

It wasn’t over, however. Moments later, as the victorious Americans closed in to search the fallen for booty, Breyman and more Hessians finally arrived, and promptly formed for battle. Storming ahead, they caught Stark’s men by surprise, forcing them back to their original position, where they quickly reformed. Breyman attacked once again, but this effort was met by withering fusillade, which stopped the Hessians in their tracks. Both sides traded musket volleys at close range until the sun finally set, bringing an end to the day’s combat.

Having lost over a quarter of his command, Breyman slipped away into the darkness, leaving the field to Stark and his New Hampshire militiamen. The rising sun confirmed just how deadly the American musketry had been. The Hessians had suffered 207 dead, while another 700 had been captured. The Americans, by comparison, had lost just 16 dead and 40 wounded. It was a stunning American victory.

The Battle of Bennington by any standard had been a minor sideshow, but a sideshow that nevertheless had dramatic strategic consequences. The American victory provided a great boost to American morale in the immediate area, while simultaneously giving Burgoyne cause for concern. To begin with, he had lost a thousand veteran soldiers. Moreover, they had failed completely in their mission to secure horses, transport, and food. Most of his Native American guides and scouts promptly quit the British campaign, greatly limiting his intelligence-gathering and knowledge of the surrounding terrain, of which he was entirely ignorant. These factors would weigh heavily on Burgoyne’s forward movements, and ultimately play a critical role in his defeat at Freeman’s Farm, and subsequent surrender at Saratoga, two months later. That defeat stunned Europe and brought France into the war on the side of the Americans.

For his success at Bennington, John Stark was promoted brigadier general in the Continental Army, and later elevated to command of the Army’s Northern Department. After the war he retired to his farm in Derryfield, New Hampshire (modern Manchester), one of the true Patriot heroes of the war.

Stark’s remarkable victory at Bennington had two lasting effects on the American Revolution. First, was his cunning demonstration of just how successful frontier militia could be when allowed to fight as irregulars. The Hessians, trained in European battlefield techniques, were known to be furious, professional fighters, but in the woods at Bennington, they proved no match against American crack-shot militiamen, fighting tree-to-tree in the stealthy, Indian-style to which they were accustomed.

Secondly, as historian Richard M. Ketchum writes, of all the early Revolutionary engagements, “they demonstrated that the new American nation had a fighting chance to win what it had set out to achieve if people would only stick at it long enough, with the determination it would require.” John Stark proved that American militiamen could beat professional soldiers in a straight-up fight, when led properly. That simple message resonated powerfully across a country still very much in need of evidence that its ambitions did not exceed its abilities to achieve them.

Jim Stempel is a speaker and author of nine books and numerous articles on American history, spirituality, and warfare. His newest book regarding the American Revolution – Valley Forge to Monmouth: Six Transformative Months of the American Revolution – will be released in November and is currently available for pre-order on virtually all online sites. This serves as a follow-up to his critically acclaimed book American Hannibal, an examination American General Daniel Morgan at the Battle of Cowpens. Visit his website JimTemple.com for all his books, reviews, articles, biography and interviews.