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Hoosick Falls, NY
By the end of July 1777, British General John
Burgoyne's invasion of New York State from Canada had progressed 140 miles southward to
Fort Edward. If he could capture Albany and join with other British forces advancing from
New York City and the Mohawk Valley, Burgoyne believed that the state would again be under
British control and the rebellious colonies would thus be divided.
Burgoyne realized, however, that his supply lines from Canada were growing longer and more insecure. His German mercenaries, mostly Brunswickers although the Americans tended to call all such mercenaries "Hessians," had no horses for their cavalry and his army was short of beef, wagons, and draft animals. With little regard for the rebel's military skills, he proposed that Lieutenant Colonel Friedrich Baum lead an expedition to forage into Vermont and New Hampshire. When word came that the American storehouses at Bennington, Vermont were poorly defended, Burgoyne ordered Baum to capture them instead. Half of Baum's troops consisted of Brunswickers; the remainder of Canadians, British sharpshooters, Tories, and Indians.
Burgoyne's information about Bennington was not correct. The
Vermont Council of Safety, apprehensive of Burgoyne's approaching forces, had appealed for
help and New Hampshire had responded by sending 1500 troops under Brigadier General John
Stark. As a result, Stark's men and a smaller force of Vermont militia under Colonel Seth
Warner were near Bennington at the time when Baum's expedition was preparing to attack it.
Baum's expedition began its forty-mile trek to Bennington on August 11, but the unmounted cavalrymen in their cumbersome uniforms, plus Baum's strict observance of European military formalities, slowed the march. "One prodigious forest, bottomed in swamps and morasses, covered the whole face of the country," one of the officers later wrote.
The raiders met and drove off a small American scouting party on August 14 at Sancoicks Mills, and, after sending a request for reinforcements back to Burgoyne, Baum advanced his force four miles to a hill overlooking the Walloomsac River. Only five miles from Bennington, Baum's men entrenched on and around this hill, awaiting further American resistance.
After a day of rain, Stark decided on August 16 to send two columns of his troops against Baum's flanks and rear while the remainder assaulted the front. At 3:00 P.M. the attack began. Many Indians, Canadians, and Tories fled or surrendered after the first musket volleys, but the unmounted cavalrymen held their positions, even to fighting off the attackers with their sabres. Baum himself died in the battle, which Stark would later describe as "one continuous clap of thunder," lasting two hours before the hill was overrun.
Stark's men had barely cheered their victory when news arrived that reinforcements under Lieutenant Colonel Heinrich von Breymann were approaching from the west. Fortunately, Seth Warner's Vermont militia arrived in time to meet this advance. The Vermonters pushed back the Brunswickers and pursued them until sundown. "But had daylight lasted one hour longer," Stark reported later, "we should have taken the whole body of them."
Burgoyne and Baum had underestimated the strength of their enemy. Baum and over two hundred of his men were dead, and most of the remainder were taken prisoners. By contrast, about forty Americans were killed or wounded in the battle. Burgoyne had failed to obtain his needed supplies. His army was thus weaker against the Continental forces at Saratoga and after two unsuccessful battles, the British General surrendered on October 17, 1777.
Visit the Bennington Battle Monument.
Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation - Saratoga-Capital District Region
