Vermont Part 9

BENNINGTON.

When the convention adjourned at Windsor, July 8, 1877, Ticonderoga had fallen; Burgoyne's splendid army was advancing along the western border of Vermont; Warner had made his brave but ineffectual stand at Hubbardton, and was now with the remnant of his regiment at Manchester.

Hither the Council of Safety at once proceeded, and, with Thomas Chittenden as its president, began its important labors. It issued a call to all officers of militia to send on all the men they could possibly raise, as they had learned that a "large Scout of the Enemy are disposed to take a Tour to this Post," and their aim seemed to be the Continental stores at Bennington. On the same day, Ira Allen, as secretary, sent the alarming news to General Schuyler, with an appeal for aid; but Schuyler, as a Continental officer, declined to "notice a fourteenth State unknown to the Confederacy," and could send no men but the militia under Colonel Simmonds, whom he had ordered to join Colonel Warner at Manchester.

Allen also wrote to the New Hamps.h.i.+re Council of Safety for a.s.sistance in making a stand against the enemy in Vermont, which might as well be made there as in New Hamps.h.i.+re; for, "notwithstanding its infancy, the State was as well supplied with provisions for victualling an army as any country on the continent." Meshech Weare, president of that State, replied that New Hamps.h.i.+re had already determined to send a.s.sistance, and one fourth of her militia was to be formed into three battalions, under command of Brigadier-General John Stark, and sent forthwith into Vermont. President Weare requested the Convention of Vermont to send some suitable person to Number Four, to confer with General Stark as to the route and disposition of the troops; and two trusty persons were accordingly sent by Colonel Warner. On the 19th, Stark received his orders to repair to Number Four, and take command of the force there mustering. Influenced by a miserable spirit of jealousy or favoritism, Congress had slighted this veteran of the late war, pa.s.sing over him in the list of promotions. Resenting such injustice, he went home, but was now ready to unsheathe his sword in the service of his State, though he refused to act under Continental officers.

Ira Allen, the secretary and youngest member of the Vermont Council, strongly advocated the raising of a regiment for the defense of the State, while the majority could not see the way clear to raise more than two companies of sixty men each; nor could they, in the unorganized condition of the new State, a third of whose inhabitants were in the confusion of an exodus, see how more than this meagre force could be maintained, and the day was spent in fruitless discussion of the vexed question. At last a member moved that Allen be requested to devise means for paying the bounties and wages of his proposed regiment, and to report at sunrise on the morrow. The astute young secretary was equal to the occasion, and when the Council met next morning, at an hour that finds modern legislators in their first sleep, he was ready with his plan of support. This was, that Commissioners of Sequestration should be appointed, with authority to seize the goods and chattels of all persons who had joined or should join the common enemy; and that all property so seized should be sold at public vendue, and the proceeds be paid to the treasurer of the Council of Safety, for the purpose of paying the bounties and wages of a regiment forthwith to be raised for the defense of the State. "This was the first instance in America of seizing and selling the property of the enemies of American independence," says its originator, in his "History of Vermont."[72] These "turbulent sons of freedom," as Stark afterward termed them, were indeed foremost in many aggressive measures. The Council at once adopted the plan, and appointed a Commissioner of Sequestration. Samuel Herrick was appointed to the command of the regiment, his commission being signed on the 15th of July by Thomas Chittenden, president. The men were enlisted and their bounties paid within fifteen days. The colonels of the state militia were ordered to march half their regiments to Bennington, "without a moment's Loss of Time," and the fugitives, who since the invasion had been removing their families to the southward, were exhorted to return and a.s.sist in the defense of the State.[73]

Stark was collecting his men at Charlestown, and sending them forward to Warner at Manchester as rapidly as they could be supplied with kettles, rum, and bullets. There was great lack of all three of these essentials of a campaign, especially of the last, for there was but one pair of bullet-moulds in the town, and there were frequent and urgent calls for lead. When the lead was forthcoming, the one pair of moulds was kept hot and busy. But at last, on the 7th of August, Stark was at the mountain-walled hamlet of Manchester with 1,400 New Hamps.h.i.+re men and Green Mountain Boys, ready to follow wherever the brave old ranger should lead.

Schuyler was anxious to concentrate all the available troops in front of Burgoyne, to prevent his advance upon Albany, and urged Stark to join him with his mountaineers; but, considering the terms on which he had engaged, Stark felt under no obligations to put himself under the orders of a Continental officer, and had, moreover, opinions of his own as to the most effective method of r.e.t.a.r.ding Burgoyne's advance, which he thought might best be done by falling upon his rear when an opportunity offered. Therefore he declined to comply with Schuyler's demands, though he a.s.sured him he would lay aside all personal resentment when it seemed opposed to the public good, and would join him when it was deemed a positive necessity. Schuyler's Dutch name, honored as it was by his own good deeds and those of his ancestors, had a smack of New York patroonism that was unpleasant to New England men, especially those of the Grants, and he was no favorite with any of them. They were jubilant when he was superseded in command of the Northern Department by the incompetent Gates, who accomplished nothing himself, but managed to repose serenely on the laurels that others had gathered. Schuyler complained to Congress of Stark's refusal, and that body censured him and the New Hamps.h.i.+re government under which he was acting.

General Lincoln was at Manchester, whither he had come on August 2d, to take command of the eastern militia. The force of the enemy, which for some time had remained at Castleton, menacing Manchester and all the country to the eastward, had marched to join Burgoyne on the Hudson; and Stark moved forward to Bennington with the purpose, now, of joining Schuyler. He was accompanied by Colonel Warner, who left his regiment at Manchester under command of Lieutenant-Colonel Safford.

At the earnest request of the Council, already at Bennington, who apprehended an attack on that place, Stark encamped his brigade there and awaited the movements of the enemy. The Council was established at Captain Fay's[74] famous "Catamount Tavern," and during these fateful days sat in the low-browed room above whose wide fireplace was carved the words "Council Chamber." Here these faithful guardians of the young commonwealth consulted with Stark and Warner, and sent forth orders to colonels of militia and appeals to the valiant men of Berks.h.i.+re.

Provisions were becoming scant in the army of Burgoyne, and he determined to seize for his use the stores which the Americans had collected at Bennington. To accomplish this, he dispatched Colonel Baum, a German officer of tried valor, with 300 dismounted dragoons who had won reputation on European fields, and whom it was a part of the plan of operations to provide with horses. There were also a body of marksmen under Captain Frazer, Colonel Peters's corps of Tories, some Canadian volunteers, and 100 Indians,--in all amounting to nearly 800 men, with two light field-pieces. Colonel Skene accompanied the German colonel, by request of Burgoyne, to give him the benefit of his knowledge of the country, and to use his influence in drawing the supposedly numerous Loyalists to the support of the British. Lieutenant-Colonel Breyman was ready to support Baum, if occasion required, with a veteran force of Brunswickers, 620 strong, with two more field-pieces.

On the 13th of August Baum set forth with his "mixed mult.i.tude," and on the same day reached Cambridge, sixteen miles from Bennington, and next day arrived at Sancoick, on a branch of the Walloomsac River.

Here a party of Americans was posted in a mill, which they abandoned on his approach. The Brunswickers had had a sharp taste of the quality of Yankee valor at Hubbardton, yet Baum held his present adversaries in supreme contempt, and expected no serious opposition from them. He wrote to Burgoyne, on the head of a barrel in the mill, that prisoners taken agreed there were fifteen to eighteen hundred men at Bennington, "but are supposed to leave on our approach."

Being first apprised of the appearance of a party of Indians at Cambridge, General Stark sent Lieutenant-Colonel Gregg with 200 men to oppose them, but he was presently informed that a more formidable force was closely following the Indians and tending towards Bennington, and he sent at once to Manchester for Colonel Warner's regiment and all the militia of the adjacent country to come to his support.

Early on the morning of the 14th he set forward with his brigade, accompanied by Colonels Warner, Williams, Herrick, and Brush, and after marching about five miles met Gregg retreating from Sancoick, closely pursued by the enemy. Stark formed his troops in line of battle, but Baum, perceiving the strength of the Americans, halted his force in a commanding position on a hill, and Stark fell back a mile to a farm, where he encamped.

Baum's position was on the west side of the Walloomsac, a branch of the Hoosic, nearly everywhere fordable. Most of his Germans were posted on a wooded hill north of the road, which here crossed the river. For the defense of the bridge, a breastwork was thrown up and one of the field-pieces placed in it, and two smaller breastworks on opposite sides of the road were manned by Frazer's marksmen. The Canadians were posted in some log-huts standing on both sides of the stream, the Tories under Pfister on a hill east of the stream and south of the wood, while near their position was the other field-piece manned by German grenadiers. A hill hid the hostile encampments from each other, though they were scarcely two miles apart.

That night rain began falling, increasing to such a steady downpour as often marks the capricious weather of dogdays. Some of the Berks.h.i.+re militia had come up under Colonel Simonds, and among them was Parson Allen of Pittsfield, who complained to Stark that the Berks.h.i.+re people had often been called out to no purpose, and would not turn out again if not allowed to fight now. Stark asked if he would have them fall to, while it was dark as pitch and raining buckets. "Not just at this moment," the parson admitted. "Then," said the old warrior, "as soon as the Lord sends us suns.h.i.+ne, if I do not give you fighting enough, I'll never ask you to come out again." All the next day the rain continued to pour down from the leaden sky. Baum employed the time in strengthening his position, keeping his men busy with axe and spade, piling higher and extending his works, in the drenching downfall. At the same time, Stark with his officers and the Council of Safety was planning an attack.

Next morning broke in splendor. Innumerable raindrops glittered on forest, gra.s.s-land, fields of corn, and ripening wheat; clouds of rising vapor were glorified in the level sunbeams that turned the turbid reaches of the swollen Walloomsac to a belt of gold. So quiet and peaceful was the scene that it seemed to Glich, a German officer who described it, as if there could be no enemy there to oppose them.

But the mountaineers were already astir. Three hundred under Nichols were making a wide circuit to the north of Baum's position, to attack his rear on the left; while Herrick with his rangers and Brush's militia made a similar movement to the rear of his right, and Hobart and Stickney with 300 of Stark's brigade were marching in the same direction. While these movements were in progress, Baum was diverted by a threatened attack in front.

At three in the afternoon Nichols had gained his desired position and began firing, quickly followed by Herrick, Stickney, and Hobart, while Stark a.s.sailed the Tory breastwork and the bridge with a portion of his brigade, the Berks.h.i.+re and the Vermont militia. "Those redcoats are ours to-day, or Molly Stark's a widow!" he called to his mountaineers, and, following him, they dashed through the turbulent stream in pursuit of the scattering Tories and Canadians. The despised Yankee farmers, un-uniformed for the most part, wearing no badge but a cornhusk or a green twig in the hatband, fighting in their s.h.i.+rtsleeves,--for the sun poured down its scalding rays with intense fervor,--closed in on all sides and showered their well-aimed volleys upon the Brunswick veterans, who fought with intrepid but unavailing bravery.

The Indians fled in affright, stealing away in single file, thankful to get off with their own scalps and without plunder, for "the woods were full of Yankees," they said. Parson Allen, mounting a stump, exhorted the enemy to lay down their arms, but received only the spiteful response of musketry. Clambering down from his perch, he exchanged his Bible for a gun, and his gunpowder proved more effective than his exhortations.

The fire was furious, and every musket and rifle shot, every thunderous roar of the rapidly served cannon, was repeated in mult.i.tudinous echoes by the hills. For two hours the roar of the conflict was, said Stark, "like a continuous clap of thunder." He had been in the storm of fire that swept down Abercrombie's a.s.saulting columns at Ticonderoga, had fought at Bunker Hill, Trenton, and Princeton, yet he declared that this fight was the hottest he had ever seen. Warner, who was in the thickest of it with him, well knew every foot of the ground they were fighting over, and the value of his aid and advice was generously acknowledged by Stark. The cannoneers were shot down and the guns taken; an ammunition wagon exploded and the a.s.sailing Yankees swarmed over the breastworks, charging with bayonetless guns upon the valiant Brunswickers, many of whom were killed, many taken prisoners, while a few escaped.

The victory of the Americans was complete, and when the prisoners had been sent to Bennington town under a sufficient guard, the militia dispersed over the blood-stained field in quest of spoil.

But they were soon brought together again by the alarm that another British force was coming up, and was only two miles away. The rattle of their drums and the screech of their fifes could be heard shaking and piercing the sultry air. It was Breyman's force of German veterans.

Early in the fight, Baum had sent an express to hasten Breyman's advance, which had been delayed by the violent rainstorm of the preceding day, and the consequent wretched condition of the roads, now continuous wallows of mire; but they were close at hand, and the scattered militiamen were ill-prepared to oppose them. Fortunately, the remnant of Warner's regiment, from Manchester, just then came up, led by Lieutenant-Colonel Safford. There were only 140 of them, but they were a host in steadfast valor, and they took a position in front, forming a rallying point for the militia which now came hurrying in. The Americans fell back slowly before Breyman, who advanced up the road, firing his field-pieces with more noise than effect, till a body of militia of sufficient strength to make a stand was collected. Then the Germans were attacked in front and flank, the deadliest fire raining upon them from a wooded hill on their left. The engagement was hotly maintained till after sunset, when, having lost many men and his artillery horses, Breyman abandoned his cannon and beat a precipitate retreat. Stark pushed the pursuit till it was impossible to aim a gun or distinguish friend from foe in the gathering gloom, and then withdrew his men. In his official report he said, "With one hour more of daylight, we should have captured the whole body." As it was, Breyman escaped with less than 100 men.

The present fruits of the double victory were four bra.s.s field-pieces, 1,000 stand of arms, four ammunition wagons, 250 sabres, and more than 650 prisoners. Among these were Baum and Pfister, both of whom received mortal wounds and died a few days later, and 207 were left dead on the field.

The American loss was 30 killed and 40 wounded. Its more important results were the inspiriting effect upon the whole country, and the depressing influence of the defeat upon the enemy. Was.h.i.+ngton considered it decisive of the fate of Burgoyne, who four days later wrote a gloomy account to the British minister of his situation resulting from this disaster. He had lost faith in the Tories, and said, "The great bulk of the country is undoubtedly with the Congress....

Their measures are executed with a secrecy and dispatch that are not to be equaled. Wherever the King's forces point, militia to the amount of three or four thousand a.s.semble in twenty-four hours. They bring with them their subsistence; the alarm over, they return to their farms. The Hamps.h.i.+re Grants in particular, a country unpeopled and almost unknown in the last war, now abounds in the most active and most rebellious race of the continent, and hangs like a gathering storm on my left."

Congress hastened to revoke its censure of the insubordinate New Hamps.h.i.+re colonel, and made him a brigadier of the army. In Stark's report of the battle to Gates he says: "Too much honor cannot be given to the brave officers and soldiers for gallant behavior; they fought through the midst of fire and smoke, mounted two breastworks that were well fortified and supported with cannon. I cannot particularize any officer, as they all behaved with the greatest spirit and bravery.

Colonel Warner's superior skill in the action was of extraordinary service to me." He gave the "Honorable Council the honor of exerting themselves in the most spirited manner in that most critical time," and he presented that body "a Hessian gun with bayonet, a Bra.s.s Berriled Drum, a Grenadier's Cap, and a Hessian Broad Sword," to be kept in the Council Chamber as a "Memorial in Commemoration of the Glorious action fought at Walloomsaik, August 16, 1777, in which case the exertions of said Council was found to be Exceedingly Serviceable."[75] Two of the cannon taken from the Hessians stand in the vestibule of the capitol at Montpelier.

FOOTNOTES:

[72] November 27, 1777, four months after the Vermont Council of Safety had adopted this measure, Congress recommended the same course to all the States.--_Journals of Congress_, vol. iii. p. 423.

[73] _Hartford Courant_, August 17, 1777.

[74] This same Landlord Fay had five sons in Bennington battle, one of whom was killed.

[75] Williams's _History of Vermont_; Hiland Hall's _History of Vermont_; Ira Allen's _History of Vermont_; _Account of Battle of Bennington_, by Glich; _Ibid._, by Breyman; _Official Reports, Historical Soc. Coll._ vol. i.; _Centennial Exercises_, 1877.

CHAPTER XIII.

SUBSEQUENT OPERATIONS OF VERMONT TROOPS.

General Lincoln determined to make a demonstration in Burgoyne's rear, and moved forward from Manchester to Pawlet. On the 13th of September he dispatched Colonel Brown[76] with Herrick's regiment and some militia to cross the lake, and take the outposts of Ticonderoga and the works on Lake George. Colonel Warner was ordered to move toward Mount Independence with a detachment of Ma.s.sachusetts militia, and Colonel Woodbridge, with another detachment, was sent against Skenesborough and Fort Anne. Captain Ebenezer Allen, with a party of rangers, was to take Mount Defiance, and then rejoin Brown and Herrick to attack Ticonderoga together with Warner.

Brown crossed the lake in the night, and pushed over the mountain to the foot of Lake George, arriving there the day before the contemplated attack. Here he captured an armed sloop, 200 longboats, and several gunboats, with 293 soldiers and 100 American prisoners taken at Hubbardton. These were provided with arms just captured, and they took their place in the ranks of their compatriots. As the Americans moved forward in the darkness of the following evening, they were guided by three hoots of an owl, repeated at intervals from various points. This was the preconcerted signal of the sentinels, who so well simulated the mournful notes of the bird of night that the British sentries only wondered why so many were abroad, and the noiselessly moving troops sometimes thought the owls had conspired to lead them astray. Brown gained possession of Mount Hope and a block-house near the old French lines.

Captain Allen and his men scaled the steeps of Mount Defiance till a cliff was reached which they could not climb. Allen ordered one of his men to stoop, and, stepping on his back, got to the top, where only eight men could stand without being discovered by the enemy. His men swarmed after him "like a stream of hornets to the charge," he wrote, and all the garrison fled but one man, who attempted to discharge a cannon at the storming party. "Kill the gunner, d.a.m.n him!" shouted Allen, and the man fled, match in hand, with his comrades down the mountain road, and all were captured by Major Wait, posted at the foot to intercept them. Allen, who had never fired a cannon, now tried his hand and eye at this unaccustomed warfare, with good effect. He trained a piece of ordnance on a distant barrack and killed a man, then drove a s.h.i.+p from its moorings in the lake, and proclaimed himself commander of Mount Defiance.

Colonel Warner reached the neighborhood of Mount Independence early next morning.[77] Joining his force with Brown's, they demanded the surrender of Ticonderoga, but the commander, General Powel, declared his determination to defend it to the last. The Americans opened fire upon the fort, and for four days ineffectually hammered the walls with cannon-shot. It is not easy to understand why the position they had gained on Mount Defiance did not prove as advantageous to them as it had been to the British. They withdrew to the foot of Lake George, and then, embarking on the captured gunboats, attacked Diamond Island, where a quant.i.ty of stores was guarded by two companies of British regulars and several gunboats. The Americans were repulsed with some loss. They retreated to the east sh.o.r.e, where they burned their boats, and then crossed the mountains to Lake Champlain, and presently rejoined Lincoln at Pawlet.

Until the regular organization of the government of the State in the following March, the Council of Safety, in whom rested all the authority of the State, attended faithfully to the varied necessities that arose during those troubled times. It was diligent in forwarding to the generals of the army all information, received through scouts and spies, of the condition and movements of the enemy, and always, by word and deed, was ready to aid the common cause by every means in its power.

When General Gates urged reinforcements, his letter was dispatched by expresses to all parts of the State where men could be raised, and in response the recruits flocked in to swell the force which was encircling the doomed army of Burgoyne. September 24, President Chittenden wrote Gates: "Several companies have pa.s.sed this place this Morning on their March to your a.s.sistance," and desired to be informed of any wants the council might relieve.

The British army was at Saratoga, ill-supplied with provisions, and unable to advance or retreat. Without hope of relief, on the 13th of October Burgoyne made overtures to General Gates which resulted on the 17th in the surrender of his entire army, reduced since its departure from Canada to less than 6,500 men, including more than 500 sick and wounded.

When the news reached Ticonderoga, the troops stationed there at once prepared to retreat to Canada. The barracks and houses there and at Mount Independence were burned. All the boats not needed for the embarkation of the troops were sunk with their cargoes, and the cannon spiked or broken. It was gloomy autumnal weather when, in a few open boats, the garrison slunk back through the "Gate of the Country." The present plight of the poor remnant of Burgoyne's splendid army was a sorry contrast to the proud advance of the gallant host that had pa.s.sed these portals in the brightness of summer. No beat of drum nor strain of martial music now marked their pa.s.sage, but in silent haste they pursued their way, in constant fear of attack whenever they approached the sh.o.r.es, that now were as sombre in their scant and faded leaf.a.ge as the dreary November sky that overhung them.

The doughty and aggressive Captain Ebenezer Allen hara.s.sed their rear whenever opportunity was given for striking a blow. With a little force of fifty men of Herrick's Rangers, he took forty-nine prisoners, more than a hundred horses, twelve yokes of oxen, three boats, and a considerable quant.i.ty of stores.

Among the chattels taken by him were a slave woman, Dinah Mattis, and her child. Faithful to his convictions of the injustice of slavery, he set them free, having first obtained the consent of his Green Mountain Boys, among whom all captured property was to be divided.

Herrick's regiment was dismissed with the thanks of the council for "good services to this and the United States," and warm acknowledgment of its services from General Gates. Warner and his Continental regiment were on the Hudson with Gates's army, and Vermont was again without an armed force.

Ticonderoga, during the abortive planning of a Canadian invasion, was occupied for a time by a small garrison under Colonel Udney Hay.

Otherwise the dismantled fortress remained for months in the desolation of ruin and desertion.

No longer menaced by the presence of the enemy, the inhabitants of Vermont, who had fled on Burgoyne's approach, returned to their homes, and made a late harvest of such crops as had not been destroyed, gathering, in almost winter weather, the scant remnants of their corn and hay.